She sat quietly on a fragment of the black rock, clad as she had been
all day, in her glittering kirtle, but without hauberk or helm, a
wreath of wind-flowers about her head, her feet crossed over each
other, her hands laid palm uppermost in her lap. She moved not as he
drew nigh, but said in a gentle voice when he was close to her:
'Chief of the Wolf, great warrior, thou wouldest speak with me; and
good it is that friends should talk together on the eve of battle,
when they may never meet alive again.'
He said: 'My talk shall not be long; for thou and I both must sleep
to-night, since there is work to hand to-morrow. Now since, as thou
sayest, O fairest of women, we may never meet again alive, I ask thee
now at this hour, when we both live and are near to one another, to
suffer me to speak to thee of my love of thee and desire for thee.
Surely thou, who art the sweetest of all things the Gods and the
kindreds have made, wilt not gainsay me this?'
She said very sweetly, yet smiling: 'Brother of my father's sons,
how can I gainsay thee thy speech? Nay, hast thou not said it? What
more canst thou add to it that will have fresh meaning to mine ears?'
He said: 'Thou sayest sooth: might I then but kiss thine hand?'
She said, no longer smiling: 'Yea surely, even so may all men do who
can be called my friends--and thou art much my friend.
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