Part 6 (1/2)

Yet they say that Sigmund begat thee and he looked to fas.h.i.+on a man.

Fear nought; he lieth quiet in his mound by the sea-waves wan.”

So shone the eyes of Sigurd, that the s.h.i.+eld against him hung Cast back their light as the sunbeams; but his voice to the roof-tree rung: ”Tell me, thou Master of Masters, what deed is the deed I shall do?

Nor mock thou the son of Sigmund lest the day of his birth thou rue.”

Then answered the Master of Sleight: ”The deed is the righting of wrong, And the quelling a bale and a sorrow that the world hath endured o'erlong, And the winning a treasure untold, that shall make thee more than the kings; Thereof is the Helm of Aweing, the wonder of earthly things, And thereof is its very fellow, the War-Coat all of gold, That has not its like in the heavens, nor has earth of its fellow told.”

Then answered Sigurd the Volsung: ”How long hereof hast thou known?

And what unto thee is this treasure, that thou seemest to give as thine own?”

”Alas!” quoth the smithying master, ”it is mine, yet none of mine, Since my heart herein avails not, and my hand is frail and fine-- It is long since I first came hither to seek a man for my need; For I saw by a glimmering light that hence would spring the deed, And many a deed of the world: but the generations pa.s.sed, And the first of the days was as near to the end that I sought as the last; Till I looked on thine eyes in the cradle: and now I deem through thee, That the end of my days of waiting, and the end of my woes shall be.”

Then Sigurd awhile was silent; but at last he answered and said: ”Thou shalt have thy will and the treasure, and shalt take the curse on thine head If a curse the gold enwrappeth: but the deed will I surely do, For today the dreams of my childhood hath bloomed in my heart anew: And I long to look on the world and the glory of the earth And to deal in the dealings of men, and garner the harvest of worth.

But tell me, thou Master of Masters, where lieth this measureless wealth; Is it guarded by swords of the earl-folk, or kept by cunning and stealth?

Is it over the main sea's darkness, or beyond the mountain wall?

Or e'en in these peaceful acres anigh to the hands of all?”

Then Regin answered sweetly: ”Hereof must a tale be told: Bide sitting, thou son of Sigmund, on the heap of unwrought gold, And hearken of wondrous matters, and of things unheard, unsaid, And deeds of my beholding ere the first of Kings was made.

”And first ye shall know of a sooth, that I never was born of the race Which the masters of G.o.d-home have made to cover the fair earth's face; But I come of the Dwarfs departed; and fair was the earth whileome Ere the short-lived thralls of the G.o.ds amidst its dales were come.

”It was Reidmar the Ancient begat me; and now was he waxen old, And a covetous man and a king; and he bade, and I built him a hall, And a golden glorious house; and thereto his sons did he call, And he bade them be evil and wise, that his will through them might be wrought.

Then he gave unto Fafnir my brother the soul that feareth nought, And the brow of the hardened iron, and the hand that may never fail, And the greedy heart of a king, and the ear that hears no wail.

”But next unto Otter my brother he gave the snare and the net, And the longing to wend through the wild-wood, and wade the highways wet: And the foot that never resteth, while aught be left alive That hath cunning to match man's cunning or might with his might to strive.

”And to me, the least and the youngest, what gift for the slaying of ease?

Save the grief that remembers the past, and the fear that the future sees; And the hammer and fas.h.i.+oning-iron, and the living coal of fire; And the craft that createth a semblance, and fails of the heart's desire; And the toil that each dawning quickens and the task that is never done; And the heart that longeth ever, nor will look to the deed that is won.

”Thus gave my father the gifts that might never be taken again; Far worse were we now than the G.o.ds, and but little better than men.

But yet of our ancient might one thing had we left us still: We had craft to change our semblance, and could s.h.i.+ft us at our will Into bodies of the beast-kind, or fowl, or fishes cold;

”So dwelt we, brethren and father; and Fafnir my brother fared As the scourge and compeller of all things, and left no wrong undared; But for me, I toiled and I toiled; and fair grew my father's house; But writhen and foul were the hands that had made it glorious;

”And myself a little fragment amidst it all I saw, Grim, cold-hearted, and unmighty as the tempest-driven straw.

--Let be.--For Otter my brother saw seldom field or fold, And he oftenest used that custom, whereof e'en now I told, And would s.h.i.+ft his shape with the wood-beasts and the things of land and sea; And he knew what joy their hearts had, and what they longed to be, And their dim-eyed understanding, and his wood-craft waxed so great, That he seemed the king of the creatures and their very mortal fate.

”Now as the years won over three folk of the heavenly halls Grew aweary of sleepless sloth, and the day that nought befalls; And they fain would look on the earth, and their latest handiwork, And turn the fine gold over, lest a flaw therein should lurk.

And the three were the heart-wise Odin, the Father of the Slain, And Loki, the World's Begrudger, who maketh all labour vain, And Hoenir, the Utter-Blameless, who wrought the hope of man, And his heart and inmost yearnings, when first the work began;--”

The three wandered over the earth till they came to a mighty river, haunted for long by Otter, by reason of its great wealth of fish.

There he lay on the bank, and as he watched the fish in the water his shape was changed to that of a true otter, and he began to devour a golden trout. Two of the G.o.ds would have pa.s.sed without stay, but in the otter Loki saw an enemy, and straightway killed him, rejoicing over his dead body.