SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
Through many streets the poor beast runs in vain,
And follows this man after that, for hours;
And, late at evening, spent and panting, falls
Before a stranger's threshold, not his home, 665
With flanks a-tremble, and his slender tongue
Hangs quivering out between his dust-smear'd jaws.
And piteously he eyes the passers by;
But home his master comes to his own farm,
Far in the country* wondering where he is— 670
So Hermod comes to-day unfollow'd home."
And straight his neighbour, moved with wrath,
replied : —
"Deceiver ! fair in form, but false in heart!
Enemy, mocker, whom, though Godb, we hate— »
Peace, lest our father Odin hear thee gibe! 675
Would I might see him snatch thee in his hand.
And bind thy carcase, like a bale, with cords,
And hurl thee in a lake* to sink or swim!
If clear from plotting Balder's death, to swim;
But deep, if thou devisedst it, to drown, 680
And perish, against fate, before thy day."
So they two soft to one another spake.
But Odin lookM toward the land, and saw
His messenger; and he stood forth, and cried.
And Hermod came, and leapt from Sleipner down,
And in his father's hand put Sleipner's rein,
And greeted Odin and the Gods, and said:—
"Odin, my father, and ye, Gods of Heaven!
Lo, home, having perform'd your will, I come.
Into the joyless kingdom have I been, 690
Below, and look'd upon the shadowy tribes
Of ghosts, and communed with their solemn queen;
And to your prayer she sends you this reply :
Show her through all the world the signs of grief!
275 W*