Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/157

Rh Her long ago the wandering Oder took

To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;

Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.

Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth

They call her, Freya is her name in heaven;

She in her hands took Balder's head, and spake,—

"Balder, my brother, thou art gone a road

Unknown and long, and haply on that way

My long-lost wandering Oder thou hast met,

For in the paths of heaven he is not found.

Oh! if it be so, tell him what thou wast

To his neglected wife, and what he is,

And wring his heart with shame, to hear thy word!

For he, my husband, left me here to pine,

Not long a wife, when his unquiet heart

First drove him from me into distant lands;

Since then I vainly seek him through the world,

And weep from shore to shore my golden tears,

But neither god nor mortal heeds my pain.

Thou only, Balder, wast forever kind,

To take my hand, and wipe my tears, and say,—

Weep not, O Freya, weep no golden tears!

One day the wandering Oder will return,

Or thou wilt find him in thy faithful search,

On some great road, or resting in an inn,

Or at a ford, or sleeping by a tree.

So Balder said; but Oder, well I know,

My truant Oder I shall see no more

To the world's end; and Balder now is gone,

And I am left uncomforted in heaven."

She spake, and all the goddesses bewailed.

Last from among the heroes one came near,

No god, but of the hero-troop the chief,—

Regner, who swept the northern sea with fleets,