Hateful are the folk there,
and full of malice, but soft withal and dastardly. Let us go down
thither and make ourselves strong amongst them, and sell our valour
for their wealth till we come to rule them, and they make us their
kings, and we establish the Folk of the Wolf amongst the aliens; then
will we come back hither and bring away that which we have left."
'So he spake, and the more part of the warriors yea said his rede,
and they went with him to the Westland, and amongst these was my
brother Folk-might (for that is his name in the kindred). And I
sorrowed at his departure, for he had borne me thither out of the
flames and the clash of swords and the press of battle, and to me had
he ever been kind and loving, albeit he hath had the Words of hard
and froward used on him full oft.
'So in this Vale abode we that were left, and the seasons passed;
some of the elders died, and some of the children also; but more
children were born, for amongst us were men and women to whom it was
lawful to wed with each other. Even with this scanty remnant was
left some of the life of the kindred of old days; and after we had
been here but a little while, the young men, yea and the old also,
and even some of the women, would steal through passes that we, and
we only, knew of, and would fall upon the Aliens in Silver-dale as
occasion served, and lift their goods both live and dead; and this
became both a craft and a pastime amongst us.
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