CHAPTER XXXIX. OF THE GREAT FOLK-MOTE: MEN TAKE REDE OF THE WAR-
FARING, THE FELLOWSHIP, AND THE WAR-LEADER. FOLK-MIGHT TELLETH
WHENCE HIS PEOPLE CAME. THE FOLK-MOTE SUNDERED
Now a great silence fell upon the throng, and they stood as men
abiding some new matter. Unto them arose the Alderman, and said:
'Men of the Dale, and ye Shepherds and Woodlanders; it is well known
to you that we have foemen in the wood and beyond it; and now have we
gotten sure tidings, that they will not abide at home or in the wood,
but are minded to fall upon us at home. Now therefore I will not ask
you whether ye will have peace or war; for with these foemen ye may
have peace no otherwise save by war. But if ye think with me, three
things have ye to determine: first, whether ye will abide your foes
in your own houses, or will go meet them at theirs; next, whether ye
will take to you as fellows in arms a valiant folk of the children of
the Gods, who are foemen to our foemen; and lastly, what man ye will
have to be your War-leader. Now, I bid all those here assembled, to
speak hereof, any man of them that will, either what they may have
conceived in their own minds, or what their kindred may have put into
their mouths to speak.
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