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When the Romans saw the new host come forth from the wood, they might well think that they would have work enough to do that day; but when they saw the Hall-Sun take her stand on the Speech-Hill with the men-at-arms about her, and the Lamp before her, then dread of the Gods fell upon them, and they knew that the doom had gone forth against them.
But she knew that her life was waning, and lying in her bed She taught me the lore of the Hall-Sun, and every word to be said At the trimming in the midnight and the feeding in the morn, And she laid her hands upon me ere unto the howe she was borne With the kindred gathered about us; and they wotted her weird and her will, And hailed me for the Hall-Sun when at last she lay there still.
As she named them so they came, and they went up on to the dais and stood altogether; and a terrible band of warriors they looked had the fight been to begin over again, and they to meet death once more. And again spake the Hall-Sun: "Steinulf and Grani, deft are your hands!
"So then we did as the Hall-Sun bade us, and ordained a chain of watchers far up into the waste; and these were to sound a point of war upon their horns each to each till the sound thereof should come to us who lay with our horses hoppled ready beside us in the fair plain of the Mark outside the thicket.
Thou shalt die one day. So hearken, to help me at my need." His face grew troubled and he said: "What is this word that I am no chief of the Wolfings?" "Nay," she said, "but better than they. Look thou on the face of our daughter the Hall-Sun, thy daughter and mine: favoureth she at all of me?" He laughed: "Yea, whereas she is fair, but not otherwise.
When the warriors and the others had gone down to the mead, the Hall-Sun was left standing on the Hill of Speech, and she stood there till she saw the host in due array going on its ways dark and bright and beautiful; then she made as if to turn aback to the Great Roof; but all at once it seemed to her as if something held her back, as if her will to move had departed from her, and that she could not put one foot before the other.
Then he spake presently: "I am Gisli of the Shieldings: Otter sendeth me to the Hall-Sun; but on the way I was to tell tidings to the Houses west of the Water: so have I done.
But he went up on to the dais and held up his head proudly, and looked forth on to the hall-crowd with eyes that gleamed fiercely from his stained and blackened face. Again the Hall-Sun said: "Art thou also alive, O Egil the messenger? Swift are thy feet, but not to flee from the foe: Come up and stand with us!"
"Yea, I have heard the story, but scarce therein might I trow That thou with all thy beauty wert born 'neath the oaken bough, And hast crawled a naked baby o'er the rain-drenched autumn-grass; Wilt thou tell the wandering woman what wise it cometh to pass That thou art the Mid-mark's Hall-Sun, and the sign of the Wolfings' gain?
Therewith he handled a knife that hung about his neck, and went on to say: "But indeed, I do much marvel that no word came into the mouth of the Hall-Sun yestereven or this morning, but such as any woman of the kindred might say."
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