Dost thou not call
it all to mind and make merry over it, now that thou art become a
great chieftain and a wise warrior, and I am yet what I always was, a
young maiden of the kindred; save that now I abide no longer for my
love?'
Her face was exceeding bright and rippled with joyous smiles, and he
looked at her and deemed that her heart was overflowing with
happiness, and he wondered at her indeed that she was so glad of him,
and he said:
'Yea, indeed, oft do I see that morning in the woodland hall and thee
and me therein, as one looketh on a picture; yea verily, and I laugh,
yet is it for very bliss; neither do I mock at all. Did I not deem
thee a God then? and am I not most happy now when I can call it thus
to mind? And as to thee, thou wert wise then, and yet art thou wise
now. Yea, I thought thee a God; and if we are changed, is it not
rather that thou hast lifted me up to thee, and not come down to me?'
Yet therewithal he knit his brows somewhat and said:
'Yet thou hast not to tell me that all thy love for thy Folk, and thy
yearning hope for its recoverance, was but a painted show. Else why
shouldst thou love me the better now that I am become a chieftain,
and therefore am more meet to understand thy hope and thy sorrow?
Did I not behold thee as we stood before the Wolf of the Hall of
Shadowy Vale, how the tears stood in thine eyes as thou beheldest
him, and thine hand in mine quivered and clung to me, and thou wert
all changed in a moment of time? Was all this then but a seeming and
a beguilement?'
'O young man,' she said, 'hast thou not said it, that we stood there
close together, and my hand in thine and desire growing up in me?
Dost thou not know how this also quickeneth the story of our Folk,
and our goodwill towards the living, and remembrance of the dead?
Shall they have lived and desired, and we deny desire and life? Or
tell me: what was it made thee so chieftain-like in the Hall
yesterday, so that thou wert the master of all our wills, for as
self-willed as some of us were? Was it not that I, whom thou deemest
lovely, was thereby watching thee and rejoicing in thee? Did not the
sweetness of thy love quicken thee? Yet because of that was thy
warrior's wisdom and thy foresight an empty show? Heedest thou
nought the Folk of the Dale? Wouldest thou sunder from the children
of the Fathers, and dwell amongst strangers?'
He kissed her and smiled on her and said: 'Did I not say of thee
that thou wert wiser than the daughters of men? See how wise thou
hast made me!'
She spake again: 'Nay, nay, there was no feigning in my love for my
people.
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