'Were there men before us in this Dale? sayest thou. Yea, but not
very many, and they feeble in battle, weak of heart, though strong of
body. These, when they saw the Sons of the Wolf with weapons in
their hands, felt themselves puny before us, and their hearts failed
them; and they came to us with gifts, and offered to share the Dale
between them and us, for they said there was enough for both folks.
So we took their offer and became their friends; and some of our
Houses wedded wives of the strangers, and gave them their women to
wife. Therein they did amiss; for the blended Folk as the
generations passed became softer than our blood, and many were
untrusty and greedy and tyrannous, and the days of the whoredom fell
upon us, and when we deemed ourselves the mightiest then were we the
nearest to our fall. But the House whereof I am would never wed with
these Westlanders, and other Houses there were who had affinity with
us who chiefly wedded with us of the Wolf, and their fathers had come
with ours into that fruitful Dale; and these were called the Red
Hand, and the Silver Arm, and the Golden Bushel, and the Ragged
Sword.
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