House of the Wolfings: The William Morris Book that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkiena *s The Lord of the Rings Read Online Free PDF

elders on the dais,
and round about stood the kindred intermingled with the thralls,
and no man spake, for they were awaiting sure and certain tidings:
and when all were come in who had a mind to, there was so great a
silence in the hall, that the song of the nightingales on the
wood-edge sounded clear and loud therein, and even the chink of the
bats about the upper windows could be heard. Then amidst the hush
of men-folk, and the sounds of the life of the earth came another
sound that made all turn their eyes toward the door; and this was
the pad-pad of one running on the trodden and summer-dried ground
anigh the hall: it stopped for a moment at the Man’s-door, and the
door opened, and the throng parted, making way for the man that
entered and came hastily up to the midst of the table that stood on
the dais athwart the hall, and stood there panting, holding forth
in his outstretched hand something which not all could see in the
dimness of the hall-twilight, but which all knew nevertheless. The
man was young, lithe and slender, and had no raiment but linen
breeches round his middle, and skin shoes on his feet. As he stood
there gathering his breath for speech, Thiodolf stood up, and
poured mead into a drinking horn and held it out towards the
new-comer, and spake, but in rhyme and measure:

    Welcome, thou evening-farer, and holy be
thine head,
    Since thou hast sought unto us in the heart
of the Wolfings’ stead;
    Drink now of the horn of the mighty, and
call a health if thou wilt
    O’er the eddies of the mead-horn to the
washing out of guilt.
    For thou com’st to the peace of the
Wolfings, and our very guest thou art,
    And meseems as I behold thee, that I look on
a child of the Hart.

    But the man put the horn from him with a
hasty hand, and none said another word to him until he had gotten
his breath again; and then he said:

    All hail ye Wood-Wolfs’ children! nought may
I drink the wine,
    For the mouth and the maw that I carry this
eve are nought of mine;
    And my feet are the feet of the people,
since the word went forth that tide,
    ‘O Elf here of the Hartings, no longer shalt
thou bide
    In any house of the Markmen than to speak
the word and wend,
    Till all men know the tidings and thine
errand hath an end.’
    Behold, O Wolves, the token and say if it be
true!
    I bear the shaft of battle that is four-wise
cloven through,
    And its each end dipped in the blood-stream,
both the iron and the horn,
    And its midmost scathed with the fire; and
the word that I have borne
    Along with this war-token is, ‘Wolfings of
the Mark
    Whenso ye see the war-shaft, by the daylight
or the dark,
    Busk ye to battle faring, and leave all work
undone
    Save the gathering for the handplay at the
rising of the sun.
    Three days hence is the hosting, and thither
bear along
    Your wains and your kine for the slaughter
lest the journey should be long.
    For great is the Folk, saith the tidings,
that against the Markmen come;
    In a far off land is their dwelling, whenso
they sit at home,
    And Welsh is their tongue, and we wot not of
the word that is in their mouth,
    As they march a many together from the
cities of the South.’

    Therewith he held up yet for a minute the
token of the war-arrow ragged and burnt and bloody; and turning
about with it in his hand went his ways through the open door, none
hindering; and when he was gone, it was as if the token were still
in the air there against the heads of the living men, and the heads
of the woven warriors, so intently had all gazed at it; and none
doubted the tidings or the token. Then said Thiodolf:

    Forth will we Wolfing children, and cast a
sound abroad:
    The mouth of the sea-beast’s weapon shall
speak the battle-word;
    And ye warriors hearken and hasten, and
dight the weed of war,
    And then to acre and meadow wend ye adown no
more,
    For this work shall be for the women to
drive our neat from the mead,
    And to yoke the wains, and to load them as
the men of war have need.

    Out then they