University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Collected Works of William Morris

With Introductions by his Daughter May Morris

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII, IV, V, VI. 
collapse sectionVII. 
expand section 
collapse section 
  
collapse section 
expand section 
collapse section 
expand sectionXIV. 
expand sectionXVI. 
expand sectionXVII. 
expand sectionXVIII. 
expand sectionXIX. 
expand sectionXXI. 
expand sectionXXII. 
expand sectionXXIV. 
expand sectionXXVII. 
expand sectionXXVIII. 
expand sectionXXXI. 
expand sectionXXXVII. 
expand sectionXL. 
expand sectionXLVII. 
expand sectionXLVIII. 
expand sectionLII. 
expand sectionLIV. 
expand sectionLVII. 
expand sectionLIX. 
expand sectionLXI. 
expand sectionLXII. 
collapse sectionLXIII. 
  
  
expand sectionLXVI. 
expand sectionLXXIV. 
expand sectionLXXVII. 
expand sectionLXXXII. 
expand sectionLXXXVI. 
expand sectionXC. 
  
expand section 
expand sectionVIII. 
expand sectionXIV. 
expand sectionXVII. 
expand sectionXIX. 
expand sectionXX. 
expand sectionXXVII. 
expand sectionXXVIII. 
expand sectionXXIX. 
expand sectionXXX. 
expand sectionXXXI. 
expand sectionXXXIII. 
expand sectionXLIII. 
expand section 
expand sectionIX. 
expand sectionX. 
expand sectionXII. 
expand sectionXIV. 
expand sectionXV. 
expand sectionXVI. 
expand sectionXVII. 
expand sectionXXI. 
expand sectionXXIV. 

Now nothing might men hearken in the house of Atli's weal,
Save the feet slow tramping onward, and the rattling of the steel,
And the song of the glorious Gunnar, that rang as clearly now
As the speckled storm-cock singeth from the scant-leaved hawthorn-bough
When the sun is dusking over and the March snow pelts the land.
There stood the mighty Gunnar with sword and shield in hand,
There stood the shieldless Hogni with set unangry eyes,
And watched the wall of war-shields o'er the dead men's rampart rise,
And the white blades flickering nigher, and the quavering points of war.
Then the heavy air of the feast-hall was rent with a fearful roar,
And the turmoil came and the tangle, as the wall together ran:
But aloft yet towered the Niblungs, and man toppled over man,
And leapt and struggled to tear them; as whiles amidst the sea
The doomed ship strives its utmost with mid-ocean's mastery,
And the tall masts whip the cordage, while the welter whirls and leaps,
And they rise and reel and waver, and sink amid the deeps:
So before the little-hearted in King Atli's murder-hall
Did the glorious sons of Giuki 'neath the shielded onrush fall:
Sore wounded, bound and helpless, but living yet, they lie
Till the afternoon and the even in the first of night shall die.