--The wielder of Skofnung the wonder,
And the wearer of sheen from the deep."

"It was better thus," said Steingerd: but he sang:--

(59)
"We have slept 'neath one roof-tree--slept softly,
O sweet one, O queen of the mead-horn,
O glory of sea-dazzle gleaming,
These grim hours,--these five nights, I count them.
And here in the kettle-prow cabined
While the crow's day drags on in the darkness,
How loathly me seems to be lying,
How lonely,--so near and so far!"

"That," said she, "is all over and done with; name it no more." But he
sang:--

(60)
"The hot stone shall float,--ay, the hearth-stone
Like a husk of the corn on the water,
--Ah, woe for the wight that she loves not!--
And the world,--ah, she loathes me!--shall perish,
And the fells that are famed for their hugeness
Shall fail and be drowned in the ocean,
Or ever so gracious a goddess
Shall grow into beauty like Steingerd."

Then Steingerd cried out that she would not have him make songs upon
her: but he went on:--

(61)
"I have known it and noted it clearly,
O neckleted fair one, in visions,
--Is it doom for my hopes,--is it daring
To dream?--O so oft have I seen it!--
Even this,--that the boughs of thy beauty,
O braceleted fair one, shall twine them
Round the hill where the hawk loves to settle,
The hand of thy lover, at last."

"That," said she, "never shall be, if I can help it. Thou didst let me
go, once for all; and there is no more hope for thee."

So then they slept the night long; and in the morning, when Cormac was
making ready to be gone, he found Steingerd, and took the ring off his
finger to give her.

"Fiend take thee and thy gold together!" she cried. And this is what he
answered:--

(62)
"To a dame in her broideries dainty
This drift of the furnace I tendered;
O day of ill luck, for a lover
So lured, and so heartlessly cheated!
Too blithe in the pride of her beauty--
The bliss that I crave she denies me;
So rich that no boon can I render,
--And my ring she would hurl to the fiends!"

So Cormac rode forth, being somewhat angry with Steingerd, but still
more so with the Tinker. He rode home to Mel, and stayed there all the
winter, taking lodgings for his chapmen near the ship.