The House of the Wolfings

forth from the Howe for their helping. But none have dared to break open that Howe and behold what is therein.

But that swelling of the meadow where the Goths had their overthrow at the hands of the Romans, and Thiodolf fell to earth unwounded, got a name also, and was called the Swooning Knowe; and it kept that name long after men had forgotten wherefore it was so called.

Now when all this was done, and the warriors of the kindreds were departed each to his own stead, the Wolfings gathered in wheat-harvest, and set themselves to make good all that the Romans had undone; and they cleansed and mended their Great Roof and made it fairer than before, and took from it all signs of the burning, save that they left the charring and marks of the flames on one tie-beam, the second from the dais, for a token of the past tidings. Also when Harvest was over the Wolfings, the Beamings, the Galtings, and the Elkings, set to work with the Bearings to rebuild their Great Roof and the other dwellings and booths which the Romans had burned; and right fair was that house.

But the Wolfings throve in field and fold, and they begat children who grew up to be mighty men and deft of hand, and the House grew more glorious year by year.

The tale tells not that the Romans ever fell on the Mark again; for about this time they began to stay the spreading of their dominion, or even to draw in its boundaries somewhat.

And this is all that the Tale has to tell concerning the House of the Wolfings and the Kindreds of the Mark.

Endnotes

1. Welsh with these men means “foreign,” and is used for all people of Europe who are not of Gothic or Teutonic blood. ↩

2. I.e. foreigners: see note 1. ↩

Colophon

The House of the Wolfings
was published in 1888 by
William Morris.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
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and is based on a transcription produced in 2001 by
David Price
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The cover page is adapted from
March of the Goths,
a painting completed in 1881 by
Arnold Böcklin.
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