The vale was well
grassed, and oak-trees and ash and holly and hazel grew here and
there about it; and at last the Host had before it a wood which
filled the vale from side to side, not much tangled with undergrowth,
and quite clear of it nigh to the stream-side. Thereinto the vanward
entered, but went no long way ere the leaders called a halt and bade
pitch the banners, for that there should they abide the daylight.
Thus it had been determined at the Council of the Hall of the Wolf;
for Folk-might had said: 'With an Host as great as ours, and mostly
of men come into a land of which they know nought at all, an
onslaught by night is perilous: yea, and our foes should be over-
much scattered, and we should have to wander about seeking them. Let
us rather abide in the wood of Wood-dale till the morning, and then
display our banners on the hill-side above Silver-dale, so that they
may gather together to fall upon us: in no case shall they keep us
out of the Dale.'
There then they stayed, and as each company came up to the wood, they
were marshalled into their due places, so that they might set the
battle in array on the edge of Silver-dale,
CHAPTER XLIII.
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