he is young beside me and beside Otter of the Laxings.  And now if ye must needs have an older man to stand beside him, (and that is not ill) take ye Otter; for old though his body be, the thought within him is keen and supple like the best of Welsh-wrought blades, and it liveth in the days that now are:  whereas for me, meseemeth, my thoughts are in the days bygone.  Yet look to it, that I shall not fail to lead as the sword of the valiant leadeth, or the shaft shot by the cunning archer.  Choose ye Otter; I have spoken over long.”

Then spoke Agni the Dayling, and laughed withal:  “One man of the Folk hath spoken for Otter and against Heriulf—­now let others speak if they will!”

So the cry came forth, “Otter let it be, we will have Otter!”

“Speaketh any against Otter?” said Agni.  But there was no voice raised against him.

Then Agni said:  “Come forth, Otter of the Laxings, and hold the ring with Thiodolf.”

Then Otter went up on to the hill and stood by Thiodolf, and they held the ring together; and then each thrust his hand and arm through the ring and clasped hands together, and stood thus awhile, and all the Folk shouted together.

Then spake Agni:  “Now shall we hew the horses and give the gifts to the Gods.”

Therewith he and the two War-dukes came down from the hill; and stood before the altar; and the nine warriors of the Daylings stood forth with axes to hew the horses and with copper bowls wherein to catch the blood of them, and each hewed down his horse to the Gods, but the two War-dukes slew the tenth and fairest:  and the blood was caught in the bowls, and Agni took a sprinkler and went round about the ring of men, and cast the blood of the Gods’-gifts over the Folk, as was the custom of those days.

Then they cut up the carcases and burned on the altar the share of the Gods, and Agni and the War-dukes tasted thereof, and the rest they bore off to the Daylings’ abode for the feast to be holden that night.

Then Otter and Thiodolf spake apart together for awhile, and presently went up again on to the Speech-Hill, and Thiodolf said: 

   “O kindreds of the Markmen; to-morrow with the day
   We shall wend up Mirkwood-water to bar our foes the way;
   And there shall we make our wain-burg on the edges of the wood,
   Where in the days past over at last the aliens stood,
   The Slaughter Tofts ye call it.  There tidings shall we get
   If the curse of the world is awakened, and the serpent crawleth yet
   Amidst the Mirkwood thicket; and when the sooth we know,
   Then bearing battle with us through the thicket shall we go,
   The ancient Wood-wolf’s children, and the People of the Shield,
   And the Spear-kin and the Horse-kin, while the others keep the field
   About the warded wain-burg; for not many need we there
   Where amidst of the thickets’ tangle and the woodland net they fare,
   And the hearts of the aliens falter and they curse the fight ne’er
   done,
   And wonder who is fighting and which way is the sun.”