walls ruddy gilded, the pearls of the sea:
Yea all things were dead there save pillar and wall,
But _they_ lived and _they_ said us the song of the hall;
The dear hall left to perish by men of the land,
For the Goth-folk to cherish with gold gaining hand.'

"See ye how the Lay tells that the hall was bolder than the men, who fled
from it, and left all for our fellowship to deal with in the days gone
by?"

Said the Wolfing man:

"And as it was once, so shall it be again. Maybe we shall go far on this
journey, and see at least one of the garths of the Southlands, even those
which they call cities. For I have heard it said that they have more
cities than one only, and that so great are their kindreds, that each
liveth in a garth full of mighty houses, with a wall of stone and lime
around it; and that in every one of these garths lieth wealth untold
heaped up. And wherefore should not all this fall to the Markmen and
their valiancy?"

Said the Elking:

"As to their many cities and the wealth of them, that is sooth; but as to
each city being the habitation of each kindred, it is otherwise: for
rather it may be said of them that they have forgotten kindred, and have
none, nor do they heed whom they wed, and great is the confusion amongst
them. And mighty men among them ordain where they shall dwell, and what
shall be their meat, and how long they shall labour after they are weary,
and in all wise what manner of life shall be amongst them; and though
they be called free men who suffer this, yet may no house or kindred
gainsay this rule and order. In sooth they are a people mighty, but
unhappy."

Said Wolfkettle:

"And hast thou learned all this from the ancient story lays, O Hiarandi?
For some of them I know, though not all, and therein have I noted nothing
of all this. Is there some new minstrel arisen in thine House of a
memory excelling all those that have gone before? If that be so, I bid
him to the Roof of the Wolfings as soon as may be; for we lack new
tales."

"Nay," said Hiarandi, "This that I tell thee is not a tale of past days,
but a tale of to-day. For there came to us a man from out of the wild-
wood, and prayed us peace, and we gave it him; and he told us that he was
of a House of the Gael, and that his House had been in a great battle
against these Welshmen, whom he calleth the Romans; and that he was taken
in the battle, and sold as a thrall in one of their garths; and howbeit,