the courts of heaven and power over wind and snow; for what better,
said the dwarfs, could demi-gods do than nose in the earth for roots
and cover their faces with mire, and run with the cheerful goats and
be even as they?

Now in their idleness caused by their discontent, the seed of the gods
and the maidens grew more discontented still, and only spake of or
cared for heavenly things; until the contempt of the dwarfs, who heard
of all these doings, was bridled no longer and it must needs be war.
They burned spice, dipped in blood and dried, before the chief of
their witches, sharpening their axes, and made war on the demi-gods.

They passed by night over the Oolnar Mountains, each dwarf with his
good axe, the old flint war-axe of his fathers, a night when no moon
shone, and they went unshod, and swiftly, to come on the demi-gods in
the darkness beyond the dells of Ulk, lying fat and idle and
contemptible.

And before it was light they found the heathery lands, and the
demi-gods lying lazy all over the side of a hill. The dwarfs stole
towards them warily in the darkness.

Now the art that the gods love most is the art of war: and when the
seed of the gods and those nimble maidens awoke and found it was war
it was almost as much to them as the godlike pursuits of heaven,
enjoyed in the marble courts; or power over wind and snow. They all
drew out at once their swords of tempered bronze, cast down to them
centuries since on stormy nights when their fathers, drew them and
faced the dwarfs, and casting their idleness from them, fell on them,
sword to axe. And the dwarfs fought hard that night, and bruised the