Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/140

102 And pay her homage, and entreat with prayers,

Telling her all that grief they have in heaven

For Balder, whom she holds by right below;

If haply he may melt her heart with words,

And make her yield, and give him Balder back."

She spoke; but Hoder answered her and said,—

"Mother, a dreadful way is this thou show'st;

No journey for a sightless god to go!"

And straight the mother of the gods replied,—

"Therefore thyself thou shalt not go, my son.

But he whom first thou meetest when thou com'st

To Asgard, and declar'st this hidden way,

Shall go; and I will be his guide unseen."

She spoke, and on her face let fall her veil,

And bowed her head, and sate with folded hands.

But at the central hearth those women old,

Who while the mother spake had ceased their toil,

Began again to heap the sacred fire.

And Hoder turned, and left his mother's house,

Fensaler, whose lit windows look to sea;

And came again down to the roaring waves,

And back along the beach to Asgard went,

Pondering on that which Frea said should be.

But night came down, and darkened Asgard streets.

Then from their loathèd feast the gods arose,

And lighted torches, and took up the corpse

Of Balder from the floor of Odin's hall,

And laid it on a bier, and bare him home

Through the fast-darkening streets to his own house

Breidablik, on whose columns Balder graved

The enchantments that recall the dead to life.

For wise he was, and many curious arts,

Postures of runes, and healing herbs he knew;

Unhappy! but that art he did not know,