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 304 MORRIS

So he sang, and beheld not Gudrun, save as long

ago he saw

His sister, the little maiden of the face without a flaw : But wearily Hogni beheld her, and no change in

her face there was, And long thereon gazed Hogni, and set his brows

as the brass, Though the hands of the King were weary, and

weak his knees were grown, . And he felt as a man unholpen in a waste land

wending alone.

THE SONS OF GIUKI

Now the noon was long passed over when again the

rumour arose, And through the doors cast open flowed in the river

of foes : They flooded the hall of the murder, and surged

round that rampart of dead; No war-duke ran before them, no lord to the onset

led, But the thralls shot spears at adventure, and shot

out shafts from afar, Till the misty hall was blinded with the bitter drift

of war: Few and faint were the Niblung children, and their

wounds were waxen acold, And they saw the Hell-gates open as they stood in

their grimly hold : Yet thrice stormed out King Hogni, thrice stormed

out Gunnar the King,

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