Nor shrunk before their glory, nor stayed her love amazed:
I behold thee as Sigmund beholdeth,--and I was the home of thine
heart--
Woe's me for the day when thou wert not, and the hour when we shall
part!"

Then she held him a little season on her weary and happy breast
And she told him of Sigmund and Volsung and the best sprung forth
from the best:
She spake to the new-born baby as one who might understand,
And told him of Sigmund's battle, and the dead by the sea-flood's
strand,
And of all the wars passed over, and the light with darkness blent.

So she spake, and the sun rose higher, and her speech at last was
spent,
And she gave him back to the women to bear forth to the people's kings,
That they too may rejoice in her glory and her day of happy things.

But there sat the Helper of Men with King Elf and his Earls in the
hall,
And they spake of the deeds that had been, and told of the times to
befall,
And they hearkened and heard sweet voices and the sound of harps
draw nigh,
Till their hearts were exceeding merry and they knew not wherefore
or why:
Then, lo, in the hall white raiment, as thither the damsels came,
And amid the hands of the foremost was the woven gold aflame.