Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/146

108 To the hall Gladheim, which is built of gold;

Where are in circle ranged twelve golden chairs,

And in the midst one higher, Odin's throne.

There all the gods in silence sate them down;

And thus the Father of the ages spake:—

"Go quickly, gods, bring wood to the seashore,

With all which it beseems the dead to have,

And make a funeral-pile on Balder's ship;

On the twelfth day the gods shall burn his corpse.

But, Hermod, thou take Sleipner, and ride down

To Hela's kingdom, to ask Balder back."

So said he; and the gods arose, and took

Axes and ropes, and at their head came Thor,

Shouldering his hammer, which the giants know.

Forth wended they, and drave their steeds before.

And up the dewy mountain tracks they fared

To the dark forests, in the early dawn;

And up and down, and side and slant they roamed.

And from the glens all day an echo came

Of crashing falls; for with his hammer Thor

Smote 'mid the rocks the lichen-bearded pines,

And burst their roots, while to their tops the gods

Made fast the woven ropes, and haled them down,

And lopped their boughs, and clove them on the sward,

And bound the logs behind their steeds to draw,

And drave them homeward; and the snorting steeds

Went straining through the crackling brushwood down,

And by the darkling forest-paths the gods

Followed, and on their shoulders carried boughs.

And they came out upon the plain, and passed

Asgard, and led their horses to the beach,

And loosed them of their loads on the seashore,

And ranged the wood in stacks by Balder's ship;

And every god went home to his own house.