tains; and below them are hills green with grass and dark with woods,
and thence stretch soft green meadows down to the sea-strand, which is
fair and smooth, and yellow."

"Sawest thou the skerry?" said the Sea-eagle.

"Yea, I saw it," said Hallblithe, "and it rises sheer from out the sea
about a mile from the yellow strand; but its rocks are black, like the
rocks of the Isle of Ransom."

"Son," said the elder, "give me thine hands and raise me up a little." So
Hallblithe took him and raised him up, so that he sat leaning against the
pillows; and he looked not on Hallblithe, but on the bows of the ship,
which now pitched but a little up and down, for the sea was laid quiet
now. Then he cried in his shrill, piping voice: "It is the Land! It is
the Land!"

But after a little while he turned to Hallblithe and spake: "Short is the
tale to tell: thou hast wished me youth, and thy wish hath thriven; for
to-day, ere the sun goes down, thou shalt see me as I was in the days
when I reaped the harvest of the sea with sharp sword and hardy heart.
For this is the land of the Undying King, who is our lord and our gift-
giver; and to some he giveth the gift of youth renewed, and life that
shall abide here the Gloom of the Gods. But none of us all may come to
the Glittering Plain and the King Undying without turning the back for
the last time on the Isle of Ransom: nor may any men of the Isle come
hither save those who are of the House of the Sea-eagle, and few of
those, save the chieftains of the House, such as are they who sat by thee
on the high-seat that even. Of these once in a while is chosen one of
us, who is old and spent and past battle, and is borne to this land and
the gift of the Undying. Forsooth some of us have no will to take the
gift, for they say they are liefer to go to where they shall meet more of
our kindred than dwell on the Glittering Plain and the Acre of the
Undying; but as for me I was ever an overbearing and masterful man, and
meseemeth it is well that I meet as few of our kindred as may be: for
they are a strifeful race."

Hereat Hallblithe marvelled exceedingly, and he said: "And what am I in
all this story? Why am I come hither with thy furtherance?"

Said the Sea-eagle: "We had a charge from the Undying King concerning
thee, that we should bring thee hither alive and well, if so be thou
camest to the Isle of Ransom. For what cause we had the charge, I know
not, nor do I greatly heed."

Sa