outshining, athwart the clouds
appears,' so she excelled all other women.

It has been said that one can hear the sighing of the north wind and
the roar of the North Sea in _Gudrun_, but this is scarcely more than
a pretty phrase. The 'dark tempestuous' sea, 'wild unfathomable'
waves, the shore 'wet from the blood of the slain,' are indeed
mentioned, but that is all.

Wat of Sturmland says to the young warriors: 'The air is still and
the moon shines clear ... when the red star yonder in the south dips
his head in the brine, I shall blow on my great horn that all the
hosts shall hear'; but it is hope of morning, not delight in the
starry sky, that he is expressing.

Indications of place too are of the briefest, just 'It was a broad
neck of land, called the Wuelpensand,' or, 'In a few hours they saw
the shores where they would land, a little harbour lay in sight
enfolded by low hills clothed with dark fir trees.'

The first trace of sympathy with Nature occurs in the account of the
effect of Horand's song.

Like Orpheus, he charms the little birds and other creatures: 'He
sang with such a splendid voice, that the little birds ceased their
song.'

'And as he began to sing again, all the birds in the copse round
ceased their sweet songs.'

'The very cattle left their green pastures to hearken, the little
gold beetles stopped running among the grass, the fishes ceased to
shoot about in the brooks. He sang long hours, and it seemed but a
brief moment. The very church bells sounded sweet no longer; the folk
left the choir songs of the priests and ran to hear him. All who
heard his voice were heart-sick after the singer, so grand and sweet
was the strain.'

Indications of time are rarely found more short and concise than
here:

When night ended and day began.
On the 12th day they quitted the country.
In Maytime. On a cool morning.

This is a little richer:

It was the time when leaves spring up delightfully and birds of
all sorts sing their best in the woods.

Much more definite and distinct is:

It was about that time of the year when departing winter sheds
his last terrors upon the earth; a sharp breeze was blowing and
the sea was covered with broken up ice; but there were gleams of
sunshine upon the hills, and the little birds began to tune their
throats tremulously, that they might be ready to sing their lay
when the March weather was past.

Gudrun trembled wi