But hark, ere the sun’s uprising, when folk see colours again,
    Is the trample of steeds in the fore-court, and the noise of steel and
      of men
    And Atli wakeneth and riseth, and is clad in purple and pall,
    And he goeth forth from the chamber and meeteth his earls in the hall
    A king full great and mighty, if a great king ever hath been;
    And over his head on the high-seat still sitteth Gudrun the Queen.

    Then he said:  “Whence come ye, children? whence come ye, Lords of the
      East? 
    Shall today be for evil and mourning or a day of joyance and feast?”

    They said:  “Today shall be wailing for the foes of the Eastland kin;
    But for them that love King Atli shall the day of feasts begin: 
    For we come from the land deserted, and the heath without a way,
    And now are the earth’s folk telling of the Niblungs passed away.”

    Then King Atli turned unto Gudrun, and the new sun shone through the
      door,
    The long beams fell from the mountains and lighted Atli’s floor: 
    Then he cried:  “Lo, the day-light, Gudrun! and the Cloudy Folk is gone;
    There is glory now in the Eastland, and thy lord is king alone.”

    But Gudrun rose from the high-seat, and her eyes on the King she
      turned;
    And he stood rejoicing before her, and his crown in the sunlight
      burned,
    With the golden gear was he swaddled, and he held the red-gold rod
    That the Kings of the East had carried since first they came from God: 
    Down she came, and men kept silence, and the earls beheld her face,
    As her raiment rustled about her in the morning-joyous place: 
    So she stood amidst of the sun-beams, by King Atli’s board she stood,
    And men looked and wondered at her, would she speak them ill or good: 
    She wept not, and she sighed not, nor smiled in the stranger land,
    But she stood before King Atli, and the cup was in her hand.

    Then she spake:  “Take, King, and drink it! for earth’s mightiest men
      prevail,
    And to thee is the praise and the glory, and the ending of the tale: 
    There are men to the dead land faring, but the dark o’er their heads
      is deep,
    They cry not, they return not, and no more renown they reap;
    But we do our will without them, nor fear their speech or frown;
    And glad shall be our uprising, and light our lying-down.”

    She said:  “A maid of maidens my mother reared me erst;
    By the side of the glorious Gunnar my early days were nursed;
    By the side of the heart-wise Hogni I went from field to flower,
    Joy rose with the sun’s uprising, nor sank in the twilight hour;
    Kings looked and laughed upon us as we played with the golden toy: 
    And oft our hands were meeting as we mingled joy with joy.”

    More she spake:  “O King command me! for women’s knees are weak,
    And their feet are little steadfast, and their hands for comfort seek: 
    On the earth the blossom falleth when the branch is dried with day,
    And the vine to the elm-bough clingeth when men smite the roots away.”