But soon their troubled front
sank back into ordered ranks, their bright blades stood upright in
their hands before them, and folk looked on their company, and deemed
it the very Terror of battle and Render of the ranks of war. Right
well were they armed; for though many of their weapons were ancient
and somewhat worn, yet were they the work of good smiths of old days;
and moreover, if any of them lacked good war-gear of his own, that
had the Alderman and his sons made good to them.
But before the hedge of steel stood the two tall men who held in
their hands the war-tokens of the Battle-shaft and the War-spear, and
betwixt them stood one who was indeed the tallest man of the whole
assembly, who held the great staff of the hidden banner. And now he
reached up his hand, and plucked at the yarn that bound it, which of
set purpose was but feeble, and tore it off, and then shook the staff
aloft with both hands, and shouted, and lo! the Banner of the Wolf
with the Sun-burst behind him, glittering-bright, new-woven by the
women of the kindred, ran out in the fresh wind, and flapped and
rippled before His warriors there assembled.
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