SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETHY
With me, for thus ordains the common rite. y$
But it shall not be so; but mild, but swift,
But painless shall a stroke from Frea come,
To cut thy thread of life, and free thy soul,
And they shall burn thy corpse with mine, not thee.
And well I know that by no stroke of death, 305
Tardy or swift, would'st thou be loath to die,
So it restored thee, Nanna, to my side,
Whom thou so well hast loved; but I can smooth
Thy way, and this, at least, my prayers avail. .
Yes, and I fain would altogether ward 310
Death from thy head, and with the Gods in Heaven
Prolong thy life, though not by thee desired—
But right bars this, not only thy desire.
Yet dreary, Nanna, is the life they lead
In that dim world, in Hela's mouldering realm; 315
And doleful are the ghosts, the troops of dead,
Whom Hela with austere control presides.
For of the race of Gods is no- one there,
Save me alone, and Hela, solemn queen;
And all the nobler souls of mortal men 320
On battle-field have met their death, and now
Feast in Valhalla, in my father's hall;
Only the inglorious sort are there below,
The old, the cowards, and the weak are there—
Men spent by sickness, or obscure decay. 325
But even there, O Nanna, we might find
Some solace in each other's look and speech,
Wandering together through that gloomy world,
And talking of the life we led in Heaven, "
While we yet lived, among the other Gods." 330
He spake, and straight his lineaments began
t To fade; and Nanna in her sleep stretched out
Her arms towards him with a cry—but he
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