[The House of the Wolfings by William Morris]@TWC D-Link book
The House of the Wolfings

CHAPTER XXVI--THIODOLF TALKETH WITH THE WOOD-SUN
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Nay, as for thee, I was not sundered from thee, but thou wert a part of me; whereas for the others, yea, even for our daughter, thine and mine, they were but images and shows of men, and I longed to depart from them, and to see thy body and to feel thine heart beating.

And by then so evil was I grown that my very shame had fallen from me, and my will to die: nay, I longed to live, thou and I, and death seemed hateful to me, and the deeds before death vain and foolish.
"Where then was my glory and my happy life, and the hope of the days fresh born every day, though never dying?
Where then was life, and Thiodolf that once had lived?
"But now all is changed once more; I loved thee never so well as now, and great is my grief that we must sunder, and the pain of farewell wrings my heart.

Yet since I am once more Thiodolf the Mighty, in my heart there is room for joy also.

Look at me, O Wood-Sun, look at me, O beloved! tell me, am I not fair with the fairness of the warrior and the helper of the folk?
Is not my voice kind, do not my lips smile, and mine eyes shine?
See how steady is mine hand, the friend of the folk! For mine eyes are cleared again, and I can see the kindreds as they are, and their desire of life and scorn of death, and this is what they have made me myself.

Now therefore shall they and I together earn the merry days to come, the winter hunting and the spring sowing, the summer haysel, the ingathering of harvest, the happy rest of midwinter, and Yuletide with the memory of the Fathers, wedded to the hope of the days to be.


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