"Say nothing of your business to-night," said he; "for the
hour is already late, and you are weary. Better lie down,
and rest until the morrow; and then we will talk of the
matter which has brought you hither."

And Siegfried was shown to a couch of the fragrant leaves of
the myrtle and hemlock, overspread with soft white linen,
such as is made in the far-off Emerald Isle; and he was
lulled to sleep by sweet strains of music from Regin's
harp,--music which told of the days when the gods were young
on the earth. And as he slept he dreamed. He dreamed that he
stood upon the crag of a high mountain, and that the eagles
flew screaming around him, and the everlasting snows lay at
his feet, and the world in all its beauty was stretched out
like a map below him; and he longed to go forth to partake
of its abundance, and to make for himself a name among men.
Then came the Norns, who spin the thread, and weave the
woof, of every man's life; and they held in their hands the
web of his own destiny. And Urd, the Past, sat on the tops
of the eastern mountains, where the sun begins to rise at
dawn; while Verdanda, the Present, stood in the western sea,
where sky and water meet. And they stretched the web between
them, and its ends were hidden in the far-away mists. Then
with all their might the two Norns span the purple and
golden threads, and wove the fatal woof. But as it began to
grow in beauty and in strength, and to shadow the earth with
its gladness and its glory, Skuld, the pitiless Norn of the
Future, seized it with rude fingers, and tore it into
shreds, and cast it down at the feet of Hela, the white
queen of the dead.[EN#6] And the eagles shrieked, and the