The House of the Wolfings. William Morris

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      “Nay damsel, long would I hearken to thy voice this summer day.

      But how didst thou leave the wild-wood, what people brought thee away?”

      “I awoke on a time in the even, and voices I heard as I woke;

      And there was I in the wild-wood by the bole of the ancient oak,

      And a ring of men was around me, and glad was I indeed

      As I looked upon their faces and the fashion of their weed.

      For I gazed on the red and the scarlet and the beaten silver and gold,

      And blithe were their noble faces and kindly to behold,

      And nought had I seen of such-like since that hour of the other day

      When that warrior came to the oak glade with the little child to play.

      And forth now he came, with the face that my hands had fondled before,

      And a battle shield wrought fairly upon his arm he bore,

      And thereon the wood-wolf’s image in ruddy gold was done.

      Then I stretched out my little arms towards the glorious shining one

      And he took me up and set me on his shoulder for a while

      And turned about to his fellows with a blithe and joyous smile;

      And they shouted aloud about me and drew forth gleaming swords

      And clashed them on their bucklers; but nought I knew of the words

      Of their shouting and rejoicing. So thereafter was I laid

      And borne forth on the warrior’s warshield, and our way through the wood we made

      ’Midst the mirth and great contentment of those fair-clad shielded men.

      “But no tale of the wolf and the wild-wood abides with me since then,

      And the next thing I remember is a huge and dusky hall,

      A world for my little body from ancient wall to wall;

      A world of many doings, and nought for me to do,

      A world of many noises, and known to me were few.

      “Time wore, and I spoke with the Wolfings and knew the speech of the kin,

      And was strange ’neath the roof no longer, as a lonely waif therein;

      And I wrought as a child with my playmates and every hour looked on

      Unto the next hour’s joyance till the happy day was done.

      And going and coming amidst us was a woman tall and thin

      With hair like the hoary barley and silver streaks therein.

      And kind and sad of visage, as now I remember me,

      And she sat and told us stories when we were aweary with glee,

      And many of us she fondled, but me the most of all.

      And once from my sleep she waked me and bore me down the hall,

      In the hush of the very midnight, and I was feared thereat.

      But she brought me unto the dais, and there the warrior sat,

      Who took me up and kissed me, as erst within the wood;

      And meseems in his arms I slumbered: but I wakened again and stood

      Alone with the kindly woman, and gone was the goodly man,

      And athwart the hush of the Folk-hall the moon shone bright and wan,

      And the woman dealt with a lamp hung up by a chain aloft,

      And she trimmed it and fed it with oil, while she chanted sweet and soft

      A song whose words I knew not: then she ran it up again,

      And up in the darkness above us died the length of its wavering chain.”

      “Next I mind me of the hazels behind the People’s Roof,

      And the children running thither and the magpie flitting aloof,

      And my hand in the hand of the Hall-Sun, as after the others we went,

      And she soberly hearkening my prattle and the words of my intent.

      And now would I call her ‘Mother,’ and indeed I loved her well.

      “So I waxed; and now of my memories the tale were long to tell;

      But as the days passed over, and I fared to field and wood,

      Alone or with my playmates, still the days were fair and good.

      But the sad and kindly Hall-Sun for my fosterer now I knew,

      And the great and glorious warrior that my heart clung sorely to

      Was but my foster-father; and I knew that I had no kin

      In the ancient House of the Wolfings, though love was warm therein.”