2245and heapéd hoard of heavy gold
that warden of rings. Few words he spake:—[1]
“Now hold thou, earth, since heroes may not,
what earls have owned! Lo, erst from thee
brave men brought it! But battle-death seized
2250and cruel killing my clansmen all,
robbed them of life and a liegeman’s joys.
None have I left to lift the sword,
or to cleanse the carven cup of price,
beaker bright. My brave are gone.
2255And the helmet hard, all haughty with gold,
shall part from its plating. Polishers sleep
who could brighten and burnish the battle-mask;
and those weeds of war that were wont to brave
over bicker of shields the bite of steel
2260rust with their bearer. The ringéd mail
fares not far with famous chieftain,
at side of hero! No harp’s delight,
no glee-wood’s gladness! No good hawk[2] now
flies through the hall! Nor horses fleet
2265stamp in the burgstead! Battle and death
the flower of my race have reft away.”
Mournful of mood, thus he moaned his woe,
alone, for them all, and unblithe wept
by day and by night, till death’s fell wave
- ↑ Müllenhoff remarked on the resemblance of this elegiac passage to the poems of the Exeter Ms.,—The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer. But in point of fact it is the favorite “deep note” of English poetry at large, which always takes strength of word and emotion from the thought of death.
- ↑ When the father sees his “Pearl,” in the poem of that name, he is afraid and bides as still “as hawk in hall.”
