Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/214

198 My laud of her moved through many lands whenever in song I was urged to say where under heaven I’d heard of the best gold-decked queen her gifts dividing. Then I and Scilling with sounding voice before our lord uplifted song: loud to the harp the lay rang out, and many men of mood sublime spake with words,—who well could judge,— that they never had known a nobler song. Thence I ranged o’er the realm of Goths, ever seeking the sturdiest clansmen.— Such was Eormanric’s suite of earls: