hath been in times past; he loves the Kindred, and deems it ill if he
may not fare afield with them; for the thought of dying in the straw is
hateful to him."

"Yea," said another, "and moreover he hath seen sons whom he loved slain
in battle; and when he seeth a warrior in his prime he becometh dear to
him, and he feareth for him."

"Yet," said a third, "Asmund is foreseeing; and may be, Thiodolf, thou
wilt wot of the drift of these words, and tell us thereof."

But Thiodolf spake nought of the matter, though in his heart he pondered
it.

So the guests were led to table, and the feast began, within the hall and
without it, and wide about the plain; and the Dayling maidens went in
bands trimly decked out throughout all the host and served the warriors
with meat and drink, and sang the overword to their lays, and smote the
harp, and drew the bow over the fiddle till it laughed and wailed and
chuckled, and were blithe and merry with all, and great was the glee on
the eve of battle. And if Thiodolf's heart were overcast, his face
showed it not, but he passed from hall to wain-burg and from wain-burg to
hall again blithe and joyous with all men. And thereby he raised the
hearts of men, and they deemed it good that they had gotten such a War-
duke, meet to uphold all hearts of men both at the feast and in the fray.

CHAPTER X--THAT CARLINE COMETH TO THE ROOF OF THE WOLFINGS

Now it was three days after this that the women were gathering to the
Women's-Chamber of the Roof of the Wolfings a little before the afternoon
changes into evening. The hearts of most were somewhat heavy, for the
doubt wherewith they had watched the departure of the fighting-men still
hung about them; nor had they any tidings from the host (nor was it like
that they should have). And as they were somewhat down-hearted, so it
seemed by the aspect of all things that afternoon. It was not yet the
evening, as is aforesaid, but the day was worn and worsened, and all
things looked weary. The sky was a little clouded, but not much; yet was
it murky down in the south-east, and there was a threat of storm in it,
and in the air close round each man's head, and in the very waving of the
leafy boughs. There was by this time little doing in field and fold (for
the kine were milked), and the women were coming up from the acres and
the meadow and over the open ground anigh the Roof; there was the grass
worn and dusty, and the women that trod it, t