House of the Wolfings: The William Morris Book that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkiena *s The Lord of the Rings Read Free Page B

even of some hurried day
    And see the ancient glimmer burn
    Across the waste that hath no way;
    Then with that faint light in its eyes
    A while I bid it linger near
    And nurse in wavering memories
    The bitter-sweet of days that were.

Contents
    1. The Dwellings of Mid-mark
    2. The Flitting of the War-Arrow
    3. Thiodolf Talketh with the Wood-Sun
    4. The House Fareth to the War
    5. Concerning the Hall-Sun
    6. They Talk on the Way to the
Folk-Thing
    7. They Gather to the Folk-Mote
    8. The Folk-mote of the Markmen
    9. The Ancient Man of the Daylings
    10. That Carline Cometh to the Roof of the
Wolfings
    11. The Hall-Sun Speaketh
    12. Tidings of the Battle in Mirkwood
    13. The Hall-Sun Saith Another Word
    14. The Hall-Sun Is Careful Concerning the
Passes of the Wood
    15. They Hear Tell of the Battle on the
Ridge
    16. How the Dwarf-Wrought Hauberk Was
Brought Away from the Hall of the Daylings
    17. The Wood-Sun Speaketh with Thiodolf
    18. Tidings Brought to the Wain-Burg
    19. Those Messengers Come to Thiodolf
    20. Otter and his Folk Come into
Mid-mark
    21. They Bicker about the Ford
    22. Otter Falls on Against his Will
    23. Thiodolf Meeteth the Romans in the
Wolfing Meadow
    24. The Goths Are Overthrown by the
Romans
    25. The Host of the Markmen Cometh into the
Wild-wood
    26. Thiodolf Talketh with the Wood-sun
    27. They Wend to the Morning Battle
    28. Of the Storm of Dawning
    29. Of Thiodolf’s Storm
    30. Thiodolf Is Borne Out of the Hall and
Otter Is Laid Beside Him
    31. Old Asmund Speaketh Over the War-dukes:
The Dead Are Laid in Mound

Chapter 1
    The Dwellings of Mid-mark

    The tale tells that in times long past there
was a dwelling of men beside a great wood. Before it lay a plain,
not very great, but which was, as it were, an isle in the sea of
woodland, since even when you stood on the flat ground, you could
see trees everywhere in the offing, though as for hills, you could
scarce say that there were any; only swellings-up of the earth here
and there, like the upheavings of the water that one sees at whiles
going on amidst the eddies of a swift but deep stream.
    On either side, to right and left the
tree-girdle reached out toward the blue distance, thick close and
unsundered, save where it and the plain which it begirdled was
cleft amidmost by a river about as wide as the Thames at Sheene
when the flood-tide is at its highest, but so swift and full of
eddies, that it gave token of mountains not so far distant, though
they were hidden. On each side moreover of the stream of this river
was a wide space of stones, great and little, and in most places
above this stony waste were banks of a few feet high, showing where
the yearly winter flood was most commonly stayed.
    You must know that this great clearing in
the woodland was not a matter of haphazard; though the river had
driven a road whereby men might fare on each side of its hurrying
stream. It was men who had made that Isle in the woodland.
    For many generations the folk that now dwelt
there had learned the craft of iron-founding, so that they had no
lack of wares of iron and steel, whether they were tools of
handicraft or weapons for hunting and for war. It was the men of
the Folk, who coming adown by the river-side had made that
clearing. The tale tells not whence they came, but belike from the
dales of the distant mountains, and from dales and mountains and
plains further aloof and yet further.
    Anyhow they came adown the river; on its
waters on rafts, by its shores in wains or bestriding their horses
or their kine, or afoot, till they had a mind to abide; and there
as it fell they stayed their travel, and spread from each side of
the river, and fought with the wood and its wild things, that they
might make to themselves a dwelling-place on the face of the
earth.
    So they cut down the trees, and burned their
stumps that the grass might grow sweet for their kine and sheep and
horses; and they diked the river where need was all through the
plain, and far up into the wild-wood