Friend, when we are
wedded, and thou art a great chieftain, as thou wilt be, I shall ask
of thee the boon to suffer me to abide here at whiles that I may
remember the days when I was little and the love of the kindred waxed
in me.'
'This is but a little thing to ask,' said Face-of-god; 'I would thou
hadst asked me more.'
'Fear not,' she said, 'I shall ask thee for much and many things; and
some of them belike thou shalt deny me.'
He shook his head; but she smiled in his face and said:
'Yea, so it is, friend; but hearken. The seasons passed, and six
years wore, and I was grown a tall slim maiden, fleet of foot and
able to endure toil enough, though I never bore weapons, nor have
done. So on a fair even of midsummer when we were together, the most
of us, round about this Hall and the Doom-ring, we saw a tall man in
bright war-gear come forth into the Dale by the path that thou
camest, and then another and another till there were two score and
seven men-at-arms standing on the grass below the scree yonder; by
that time had we gotten some weapons in our hands, and we stood
together to meet the new-comers, but they drew no sword and notched
no shaft, but came towards us laughing and joyous, and lo! it was my
brother Folk-might and his men, those that were left of them, come
back to us from the Westland.
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