Introductory Note
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Bellows, Henry Adams
10. Full soon then his bed | came Hogni to seek,
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
The clear-souled one dreamed, | and her dream she kept not,
To the warrior the wise one | spake when she wakened:
11. “Thou wouldst go hence, Hogni, | but heed my counsel,— [504]
Known to few are the runes,— | and put off thy faring;
I have read now the runes | that thy sister wrote,
And this time the bright one | did not bid thee to come.
12. “Full much do I wonder, | nor well can I see,
Why the woman wise | so wildly hath written;
But to me it seems | that the meaning beneath
Is that both shall be slain | if soon ye shall go.
But one rune she missed, | or else others have marred it.”
Hogni spake:
13. “All women are fearful; | not so do I feel,
Ill I seek not to find | till I soon must avenge it;
The king now will give us | the glow-ruddy gold;
I never shall fear, | though of dangers I know.”
Kostbera spake:
14. “In danger ye fare, | if forth ye go thither, [505]
No welcoming friendly | this time shall ye find;
For I dreamed now, Hogni, | and nought will I hide,
Full evil thy faring, | if rightly I fear.
15. “Thy bed-covering saw I | in the flames burning,
And the fire burst high | through the walls of my home.”
Hogni spake:
“Yon garment of linen | lies little of worth,
It will soon be burned, | so thou sawest the bed-cover.”
Kostbera spake:
16. “A bear saw I enter, | the pillars he broke,
And he brandished his claws | so that craven we were;
With his mouth seized he many, | and nought was our might,
And loud was the tumult, | not little it was.”
[506]
Hogni spake:
17. “Now a storm is brewing, | and wild it grows swiftly,
A dream of an ice-bear | means a gale from the east.”
Kostbera spake:
18. “An eagle I saw flying | from the end through the house,
Our fate must be bad, | for with blood he sprinkled us;