304 MORRIS
So he sang, and beheld not Gudrun, save as long
ago he saw
His sister, the little maiden of the face without a flaw : But wearily Hogni beheld her, and no change in
her face there was, And long thereon gazed Hogni, and set his brows
as the brass, Though the hands of the King were weary, and
weak his knees were grown, . And he felt as a man unholpen in a waste land
wending alone.
THE SONS OF GIUKI
Now the noon was long passed over when again the
rumour arose, And through the doors cast open flowed in the river
of foes : They flooded the hall of the murder, and surged
round that rampart of dead; No war-duke ran before them, no lord to the onset
led, But the thralls shot spears at adventure, and shot
out shafts from afar, Till the misty hall was blinded with the bitter drift
of war: Few and faint were the Niblung children, and their
wounds were waxen acold, And they saw the Hell-gates open as they stood in
their grimly hold : Yet thrice stormed out King Hogni, thrice stormed
out Gunnar the King,
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