Mine own turn will I serve. Thou
sayest WHEREFORE? I tell thee this stripling beguileth to her
torment the fairest woman that is in the world--such an one as is
meet to be the mother of chieftains, and to stand by warriors in
their day of peril. I have seen her; and thus have I seen her."
Then said I: "Greatly forsooth shalt thou pleasure her by slaying
him!" And he answered: "I shall pleasure myself. And one day she
shall thank me, when she taketh my hand in hers and we go together to
the Bride-bed." Therewith came over me a clear foresight of the
hours to come, and I said to him: "Yea, Folk-might, cast the spear
and draw the sword; but him thou shalt not slay: and thou shalt one
day see him standing with us before the shafts of the Dusky Men." So
I spake; but he looked fiercely at me, and departed and shunned me
all that day, and by good hap I was hard at hand when thou drewest
nigh our abode. Nay, Gold-mane, what would'st thou with thy sword?
Why art thou so red and wrathful? Would'st thou fight with my
brother because he loveth thy friend, thine old playmate, thy
kinswoman, and thinketh pity of her sorrow?'
He said, with knit brow and gleaming eyes: 'Would the man take her
away from me perforce?'
'My friend,' she said, 'thou art not yet so wise as not to be a fool
at whiles.
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