pretend to that mystery of the future, which is dim and clouded even
to me? Canst thou tell when and where the daughter of the Norse kings
shall sleep on the breast of her lord?"

A sound that partook of laughter, but was so unearthly in its
malignant glee that it seemed not to come from a human lip, answered
the Vala; and as the laugh died the witch rose, and said:

"Go and question thy dead, O Morthwyrtha! Thou deemest thyself wiser
than we are; we wretched hags, whom the ceorl seeks when his herd has
the murrain, or the girl when her false love forsakes her; we, who
have no dwelling known to man; but are found at need in the wold or
the cave, or the side of dull slimy streams where the murderess-mother
hath drowned her babe. Askest thou, O Hilda, the rich and the
learned, askest thou counsel and lore from the daughter of Faul?"

"No," answered the Vala, haughtily, "not to such as thou do the great
Nornas unfold the future. What knowest thou of the runes of old,
whispered by the trunkless skull to the mighty Odin? runes that
control the elements, and conjure up the Shining Shadows of the grave.
Not with thee will the stars confer; and thy dreams are foul with
revelries obscene, not solemn and haunted with the bodements of things
to come! Only I marvelled, while I beheld thee on the Saxon's grave,
what joy such as thou can find in that life above life, which draws
upward the soul of the true Vala."

"The joy," replied the Witch, "the joy which comes from wisdom and
power, higher than you ever won with your spells from the rune or the
star. Wrath gives the venom to the slaver of the clog, and death to
the curse of the Witch. When wilt thou be as wise as the hag thou