House of the Wolfings: The William Morris Book that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkiena *s The Lord of the Rings (12 page)

He paused and turned about to look on the
mighty assembly, and his ears drank in the long murmur that
followed his speaking, and when it had died out he spake again, but
in rhyme:

Lo thus much of my tidings! But this too it
behoveth to tell,

That these masterful men of the cities of
the Markmen know full well:

And they wot of the well-grassed meadows,
and the acres of the Mark,

And our life amidst of the wild-wood like a
candle in the dark;

And they know of our young men’s valour and
our women’s loveliness,

And our tree would they spoil with
destruction if its fruit they may never possess.

For their lust is without a limit, and
nought may satiate

Their ravening maw; and their hunger if ye
check it turneth to hate,

And the blood-fever burns in their bosoms,
and torment and anguish and woe

O’er the wide field ploughed by the
sword-blade for the coming years they sow;

And ruth is a thing forgotten and all hopes
they trample down;

And whatso thing is steadfast, whatso of
good renown,

Whatso is fair and lovely, whatso is ancient
sooth

In the bloody marl shall they mingle as they
laugh for lack of ruth.

Lo the curse of the world cometh hither; for
the men that we took in the land

Said thus, that their host is gathering with
many an ordered band

To fall on the wild-wood passes and flood
the lovely Mark,

As the river over the meadows upriseth in
the dark.

Look to it, O ye kindred! availeth now no
word

But the voice of the clashing of iron, and
the sword-blade on the sword.

Therewith he made an end, and deeper and
longer was the murmur of the host of freemen, amidst which Bork gat
him down from the Speech-Hill, his weapons clattering about him,
and mingled with the men of his kindred.

Then came forth a man of the kin of the
Shieldings of the Upper-mark, and clomb the mound; and he spake in
rhyme from beginning to end; for he was a minstrel of renown:

Lo I am a man of the Shieldings and Geirmund
is my name;

A half-moon back from the wild-wood out into
the hills I came,

And I went alone in my war-gear; for we have
affinity

With the Hundings of the Fell-folk, and with
them I fain would be;

For I loved a maid of their kindred. Now
their dwelling was not far

From the outermost bounds of the Fell-folk,
and bold in the battle they are,

And have met a many people, and held their
own abode.

Gay then was the heart within me, as over
the hills I rode

And thought of the mirth of to-morrow and
the sweet-mouthed Hunding maid

And their old men wise and merry and their
young men unafraid,

And the hall-glee of the Hundings and the
healths o’er the guesting cup.

But as I rode the valley, I saw a smoke go
up

O’er the crest of the last of the
grass-hills ’twixt me and the Hunding roof,

And that smoke was black and heavy: so a
while I bided aloof,

And drew my girths the tighter, and looked
to the arms I bore

And handled my spear for the casting; for my
heart misgave me sore,

For nought was that pillar of smoke like the
guest-fain cooking-fire.

I lingered in thought for a minute, then
turned me to ride up higher,

And as a man most wary up over the bent I
rode,

And nigh hid peered o’er the hill-crest
adown on the Hunding abode;

And forsooth ‘twas the fire wavering all
o’er the roof of old,

And all in the garth and about it lay the
bodies of the bold;

And bound to a rope amidmost were the women
fair and young,

And youths and little children, like the
fish on a withy strung

As they lie on the grass for the angler
before the beginning of night.

Then the rush of the wrath within me for a
while nigh blinded my sight;

Yet about the cowering war-thralls, short
dark-faced men I saw,

Men clad in iron armour, this way and that
way draw,

As warriors after the battle are ever wont
to do.

Then I knew them for the foemen and their
deeds to be I knew,

And I gathered the reins together to ride
down the hill amain,

To die with a good stroke stricken and slay
ere I was slain.

When lo, on the bent before me rose the head
of a brown-faced man,

Well helmed and iron-shielded, who some
Welsh speech began

And a short sword brandished against me;
then my sight cleared and I saw

Five others armed in likewise up hill and
toward me draw,

And I shook the spear and sped it and
clattering on his shield

He fell and rolled o’er smitten toward the
garth and the Fell-folk’s field.

But my heart changed with his falling and
the speeding of my stroke,

And I turned my horse; for within me the
love of life awoke,

And I spurred, nor heeded the hill-side, but
o’er rough and smooth I rode

Till I heard no chase behind me; then I drew
rein and abode.

And down in a dell was I gotten with a
thorn-brake in its throat,

And heard but the plover’s whistle and the
blackbird’s broken note

’Mid the thorns; when lo! from a thorn-twig
away the blackbird swept,

And out from the brake and towards me a
naked man there crept,

And straight I rode up towards him, and knew
his face for one

I had seen in the hall of the Hundings ere
its happy days were done.

I asked him his tale, but he bade me
forthright to bear him away;

So I took him up behind me, and we rode till
late in the day,

Toward the cover of the wild-wood, and as
swiftly as we might.

But when yet aloof was the thicket and it
now was moonless night,

We stayed perforce for a little, and he told
me all the tale:

How the aliens came against them, and they
fought without avail

Till the Roof o’er their heads was burning
and they burst forth on the foe,

And were hewn down there together; nor yet
was the slaughter slow.

But some they saved for thralldom, yea, e’en
of the fighting men,

Or to quell them with pains; so they
stripped them; and this man espying just then

Some chance, I mind not whatwise, from the
garth fled out and away.

Now many a thing noteworthy of these aliens
did he say,

But this I bid you hearken, lest I wear the
time for nought,

That still upon the Markmen and the Mark
they set their thought;

For they questioned this man and others
through a go-between in words

Of us, and our lands and our chattels, and
the number of our swords;

Of the way and the wild-wood passes and the
winter and his ways.

Now look to see them shortly; for worn are
fifteen days

Since in the garth of the Hundings I saw
them dight for war,

And a hardy folk and ready and a swift-foot
host they are.

Therewith Geirmund went down clattering from
the Hill and stood with his company. But a man came forth from the
other side of the ring, and clomb the Hill: he was a red-haired
man, rather big, clad in a skin coat, and bearing a bow in his hand
and a quiver of arrows at his back, and a little axe hung by his
side. He said:

“I dwell in the House of the Hrossings of
the Mid-mark, and I am now made a man of the kindred: howbeit I was
not born into it; for I am the son of a fair and mighty woman of a
folk of the Kymry, who was taken in war while she went big with me;
I am called Fox the Red.

“These Romans have I seen, and have not
died: so hearken! for my tale shall be short for what there is in
it.

“I am, as many know, a hunter of Mirkwood,
and I know all its ways and the passes through the thicket somewhat
better than most.

“A moon ago I fared afoot from Mid-mark
through Upper-mark into the thicket of the south, and through it
into the heath country; and I went over a neck and came in the
early dawn into a little dale when somewhat of mist still hung over
it. At the dale’s end I saw a man lying asleep on the grass under a
quicken tree, and his shield and sword hanging over his head to a
bough thereof, and his horse feeding hoppled higher up the
dale.

“I crept up softly to him with a shaft
nocked on the string, but when I drew near I saw him to be of the
sons of the Goths. So I doubted nothing, but laid down my bow, and
stood upright, and went to him and roused him, and he leapt up, and
was wroth.

“I said to him, ‘Wilt thou be wroth with a
brother of the kindred meeting him in unpeopled parts?’

“But he reached out for his weapons; but ere
he could handle them I ran in on him so that he gat not his sword,
and had scant time to smite at me with a knife which he drew from
his waist.

“I gave way before him for he was a very big
man, and he rushed past me, and I dealt him a blow on the side of
the head with my little axe which is called the War-babe, and gave
him a great wound: and he fell on the grass, and as it happened
that was his bane.

“I was sorry that I had slain him, since he
was a man of the Goths: albeit otherwise he had slain me, for he
was very wroth and dazed with slumber.

“He died not for a while; and he bade me
fetch him water; and there was a well hard by on the other side of
the tree; so I fetched it him in a great shell that I carry, and he
drank. I would have sung the blood-staunching song over him, for I
know it well. But he said, ‘It availeth nought: I have enough: what
man art thou?’

“I said, ‘I am a fosterling of the
Hrossings, and my mother was taken in war: my name is Fox.’

“Said he; ‘O Fox, I have my due at thy
hands, for I am a Markman of the Elkings, but a guest of the
Burgundians beyond the Great River; and the Romans are their
masters and they do their bidding: even so did I who was but their
guest: and I a Markman to fight against the Markmen, and all for
fear and for gold! And thou an alien-born hast slain their traitor
and their dastard! This is my due. Give me to drink again.’

“So did I; and he said; ‘Wilt thou do an
errand for me to thine own house?’ ‘Yea,’ said I.

“Said he, ‘I am a messenger to the garth of
the Romans, that I may tell the road to the Mark, and lead them
through the thicket; and other guides are coming after me: but not
yet for three days or four. So till they come there will be no man
in the Roman garth to know thee that thou art not even I myself. If
thou art doughty, strip me when I am dead and do my raiment on
thee, and take this ring from my neck, for that is my token, and
when they ask thee for a word say, ‘no limit;’ for that is the
token-word. Go south-east over the dales keeping Broadshield-fell
square with thy right hand, and let thy wisdom, O Fox, lead thee to
the Garth of the Romans, and so back to thy kindred with all
tidings thou hast gathered—for indeed they come—a many of them.
Give me to drink.’

“So he drank again, and said, ‘The bearer of
this token is called Hrosstyr of the River Goths. He hath that name
among dastards. Thou shalt lay a turf upon my head. Let my death
pay for my life.’

“Therewith he fell back and died. So I did
as he bade me and took his gear, worth six kine, and did it on me;
I laid turf upon him in that dale, and hid my bow and my gear in a
blackthorn brake hard by, and then took his horse and rode
away.

“Day and night I rode till I came to the
garth of the Romans; there I gave myself up to their watchers, and
they brought me to their Duke, a grim man and hard. He said in a
terrible voice, ‘Thy name?’ I said, ‘Hrosstyr of the River Goths.’
He said, ‘What limit?’ I answered, ‘No limit.’ ‘The token!’ said
he, and held out his hand. I gave him the ring. ‘Thou art the man,’
said he.

“I thought in my heart, ‘thou liest, lord,’
and my heart danced for joy.

“Then he fell to asking me questions a many,
and I answered every one glibly enough, and told him what I would,
but no word of truth save for his hurt, and my soul laughed within
me at my lies; thought I, the others, the traitors, shall come, and
they shall tell him the truth, and he will not trow it, or at the
worst he will doubt them. But me he doubted nothing, else had he
called in the tormentors to have the truth of me by pains; as I
well saw afterwards, when they questioned with torments a man and a
woman of the hill-folk whom they had brought in captive.

“I went from him and went all about that
garth espying everything, fearing nothing; albeit there were divers
woful captives of the Goths, who cursed me for a dastard, when they
saw by my attire that I was of their blood.

“I abode there three days, and learned all
that I might of the garth and the host of them, and the fourth day
in the morning I went out as if to hunt, and none hindered me, for
they doubted me not.

“So I came my ways home to the Upper-mark,
and was guested with the Geirings. Will ye that I tell you somewhat
of the ways of these Romans of the garth? The time presses, and my
tale runneth longer than I would. What will ye?”

Then there arose a murmur, “Tell all, tell
all.” “Nay,” said the Fox, “All I may not tell; so much did I
behold there during the three days’ stay; but this much it behoveth
you to know: that these men have no other thought save to win the
Mark and waste it, and slay the fighting men and the old carles,
and enthrall such as they will, that is, all that be fair and
young, and they long sorely for our women either to have or to
sell.

“As for their garth, it is strongly walled
about with a dyke newly dug; on the top thereof are they building a
wall made of clay, and burned like pots into ashlar stones hard and
red, and these are laid in lime.