gathering gloom of the evening. But no word came from his
lips, and his eyes were dim and dazed; and he seemed as one
lost in thoughts of days long past and gone.

Siegfried raised the blade high over his head; and the
gleaming edge flashed hither and thither, like the
lightning's play when Thor rides over the storm-clouds. Then
suddenly it fell upon the master's anvil, and the great
block of iron was cleft in two; but the bright blade was no
whit dulled by the stroke, and the line of light which
marked the edge was brighter than before.

Then to the flowing brook they went; and a great pack of
wool, the fleeces of ten sheep, was brought, and thrown upon
the swirling water. As the stream bore the bundle downwards,
Mimer held the sword in its way. And the whole was divided
as easily and as clean as the woollen ball or the slender
woollen thread had been cleft before.

"Now, indeed," cried Mimer, "I no longer fear to meet that
upstart, Amilias. If his war-coat can withstand the stroke
of such a sword as Balmung, then I shall not be ashamed to
be his underling. But, if this good blade is what it seems
to be, it will not fail me; and I, Mimer the Old, shall
still be called the wisest and greatest of smiths."

And he sent word at once to Amilias, in Burgundy-land, to
meet him on a day, and settle forever the question as to
which of the two should be the master, and which the
underling. And heralds proclaimed it in every town and