University of Virginia Library

So it fell on a morn of springtide, as Sigmund sat on the sward

25

By that ancient house of the Dwarf-kind and fashioned a golden sword,
By the side of the hidden river he saw a damsel stand,
And a manchild of ten summers was holding by her hand.
And she cried:
“O Forest-dweller! harm not the child nor me,
For I bear a word of Signy's, and thus she saith to thee:
‘I send thee a man to foster; if his heart be good at need
Then may he help thy workday; but hearken my words and heed;
If thou deem that his heart shall avail not, thy work is over great
That thou weary thy heart with such-like: let him wend the ways of his fate.’”