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Balder Dead - Matthew Arnold · Classic Fantasy Book Collection

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  Speaker 1: Balder dead by Matthew Arnold Part one ascending. So on
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  Speaker 1: the floor lay Balder dead, and round lay thickly strewn
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  Speaker 1: towards axes, darts and spears, which all the gods in
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  Speaker 1: sport had idly thrown at Balder, whom no weapon pierced
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  Speaker 1: or clove, but in his breast stood fixed the fatal
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  Speaker 1: bough of mistletoe, which locked the accuser gave to Hoder,
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  Speaker 1: and unwitting Hoder through against that alone.
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  Speaker 2: Had Balder's life no charm.
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  Speaker 1: And all the gods and all the heroes came and
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  Speaker 1: stood round border on the bloody floor, weeping and wailing,
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  Speaker 1: and vou Halla rain up to its golden roof with
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  Speaker 1: sobs and cries. And on the tables stood the untasted meats,
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  Speaker 1: and in the horns and gold rimmed skulls the wine,
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  Speaker 1: and now would night have fallen found them yet wailing.
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  Speaker 1: But otherwise was Odin's will. And thus the father of
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  Speaker 1: the ages spake enough of tears, ye gods, enough of
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  Speaker 1: whale not to lament him. Was Thouhallah made. If any
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  Speaker 1: here might weep for Balder's death, I most might weep
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  Speaker 1: his father, such a son I lose today so bride,
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  Speaker 1: so love to God. But he has met that doom
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  Speaker 1: which long ago the naughnies, when his mother bare him
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  Speaker 1: spun and fate set seal, And that so his end
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  Speaker 1: must be. Border has met his death, and ye survive
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  Speaker 1: weep him an hour. But what can grief availe fee yourselves?
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  Speaker 1: Ye gods shall meet your doom? Will ye who hear
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  Speaker 1: me and inhabit heaven? And I too, odin to the
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  Speaker 1: Lord of all, but ours we shall not meet when
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  Speaker 1: that day comes, with women's tears and weak complaining cries,
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  Speaker 1: Why should we meet another's portion? So rather it fits you,
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  Speaker 1: having wept your hour with cold, dry eyes, and hearts
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  Speaker 1: composed and stern, to live as erst your daily life
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  Speaker 1: in heaven. By me shall vengeance on the murderer, aloke,
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  Speaker 1: the foe, the accuser, whom, though gods we hate, be
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  Speaker 1: strictly cared for in the appointed day. Meanwhile, tomorrow, when
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  Speaker 1: the morning dawns, bring wood to the seashore to Balder's ship,
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  Speaker 1: And on the deck build higher funeral pie, and on
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  Speaker 1: the top lay Balder's corpse, and put fire to the wood,
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  Speaker 1: and send him out to sea to burn. That is
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  Speaker 1: what the dead desire, So spake the King of Gods,
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  Speaker 1: and straightway rose and mounted his horse slip near whom
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  Speaker 1: he rode, And from the Hall of Heaven he rode
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  Speaker 1: away to Lyd's kalf and sat upon his throne the
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  Speaker 1: mount from whence his eyes obeyed the world, and far
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  Speaker 1: from heaven he turned his shining orbs to look on
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  Speaker 1: midguard and the earth and men. And on the conjuring
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  Speaker 1: lapse he met his gaze whom antlered reindeer pull over
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  Speaker 1: the snow, and on the things the gentlest of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: fair men who live in holes under the ground. Or
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  Speaker 1: did he look once more to Ida's plain, nor toward
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  Speaker 1: Valhalla and the sorrowing gods. For well he knew the
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  Speaker 1: gods would heed his word and cease to mourn and
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  Speaker 1: think of Balder's pie. But then Valhalla all the gods
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  Speaker 1: went back from a round border. All the heroes went
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  Speaker 1: and left his body stretched upon the floor, and on
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  Speaker 1: their golden chairs. They sate again beside the tables in
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  Speaker 1: the Hall of Heaven. Before each the cooks who served
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  Speaker 1: them placed near messes of the boar Serimna's flesh, and
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  Speaker 1: the valkyries crowned their horns with mead. So they with
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  Speaker 1: pent up hearts and tears, eyes wailing no more, and
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  Speaker 1: silence ate and drank, while twilight fell and sacred night
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  Speaker 1: came on. But the blind Hoder left the feasting gods
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  Speaker 1: in Odin's hall and went through Asgard's streets, and passed
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  Speaker 1: the haven where the gods have moored their ships, and
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  Speaker 1: through the gate beyond the wall. Though sightless, his own
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  Speaker 1: mind led the god down to the margin of the
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  Speaker 1: roaring sea. He came and sadly went along the sand
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  Speaker 1: between the waves, and black overhanging cliffs were in and
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  Speaker 1: out the screaming sea fowl fly, until he came to
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  Speaker 1: where a gully brakes through the cliff wall, and a
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  Speaker 1: fresh stream runs down from the high moors behind and
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  Speaker 1: meets the sea. Therein the glen Fensila stands the house
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  Speaker 1: of freer Old, mother of the gods, and shows its
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  Speaker 1: lighted windows to the main. There he went up and
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  Speaker 1: passed the open doors, and in the hall he found
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  Speaker 1: those women hold the prophetesses, who by righty turn on
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  Speaker 1: Frea's hearth, feed high the sacred fire, but night and day,
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  Speaker 1: and by the inner wall, upon her golden chair, the
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  Speaker 1: mother sate with folded hands, revolving things to come to her.
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  Speaker 1: Drew Hoder near and spake, and said, Mother, a child
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  Speaker 1: of Bail, thou bearest in me. For first thou bearest
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  Speaker 1: me with blinded eyes, sightless and helpless, wandering weak in heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And after that of ignorant, witless mind, thou bearest me
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  Speaker 1: and unforeseeing soul, that I alone must take the branch
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  Speaker 1: from lok thou foe the accuser, whom, though gods we hate,
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  Speaker 1: and cast it at the dear loved Balder's breast, at
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  Speaker 1: whom the gods ensport their weapons through against that alone
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  Speaker 1: had Balder's life no charm. Now therefore, what to attempt
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  Speaker 1: or with a fly for who will bear my hateful
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  Speaker 1: sight in heaven? Can I, o, mother, bring them Balder back?
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  Speaker 1: Or for thou know'st the fates and things allowed, Can I,
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  Speaker 1: with Heller's power a compact strike and make exchange and
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  Speaker 1: give my life for his? He spoke The Mother of
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  Speaker 1: the gods, replied Hoder, ill fated child of Bail, my son,
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  Speaker 1: sightless in soul. And I what words are these that
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  Speaker 1: one long portioned with his doom of death, shad change
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  Speaker 1: his lot and fill another's life, and Hella yield to
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  Speaker 1: this and let him go on balder death hath laid
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  Speaker 1: her hand, not thee nor doth she count this life
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  Speaker 1: a price for that for many gods in heaven, not
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  Speaker 1: thou alone would freely die to purchase Balder back and
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  Speaker 1: wend themselves to Hella's gloomy realm. For not so gladsome
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  Speaker 1: is that life in heaven which gods and heroes lead
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  Speaker 1: and feast and fray, waiting the darkness of the final times,
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  Speaker 1: that one should grudge its loss for Balder's sake. Balder
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  Speaker 1: their joy so bright, so loved a god. But fate
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  Speaker 1: withstands and laws forbid this way. Yet in my secret mind,
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  Speaker 1: one way I know, or do I judge if it
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  Speaker 1: shall win or fail. But much must still be tried,
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  Speaker 1: which shall but fail. And the blind Hoder answered her
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  Speaker 1: and said, what way is this, o mother, that thou
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  Speaker 1: show'st Is it a matter which a god might try
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  Speaker 1: and straight? The mother of the god's replied, there is
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  Speaker 1: a way which leads to Hella's realm, untrodden, lonely, far
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  Speaker 1: from light and heaven. Who goes that way must take
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  Speaker 1: no other horse to ride, but slip no Odin's horse alone,
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  Speaker 1: Or must he choose that common path of God's which
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  Speaker 1: every day they come and go in Heaven over the
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  Speaker 1: bridge Beufrost, whereas Hemdel's watch past Midguard Fortress, down to
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  Speaker 1: Earth and men. But he must tread a dark, untraveled
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  Speaker 1: road which branches from the north of Heaven, and ride
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  Speaker 1: nine days, nine knights toward the northern ice, through valleys
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  Speaker 1: deep and gulfed with roaring streams. And he will reach
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  Speaker 1: on the tenth Mourner Bridge, which spans with golden arches
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  Speaker 1: Guile's stream, not Bufrost, but that bridge a damsel keeps,
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  Speaker 1: who tells the passing troops have dead their way to
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  Speaker 1: the low shore of ghosts in Heller's realm. She will
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  Speaker 1: bid him northward, steer his course. Then he will journey
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  Speaker 1: through no lighted land, nor see the sun arise, nor
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  Speaker 1: see it set. But he must ever watch the northern bear, who,
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  Speaker 1: from her frozen height, with jealous eye, confronts the dog
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  Speaker 1: and hunter in the south, and is alone not dipped
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  Speaker 1: in Ocean's stream, and straight he will come down to
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  Speaker 1: Ocean's strand, ocean whose watery ring and fold the world,
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  Speaker 1: and on whose marge the ancient giants dwell. But he
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  Speaker 1: will reach its unknown northern shore, far far beyond the
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  Speaker 1: utmost giant's home, at the chinked fields of ice, the
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  Speaker 1: waste of snow. And he must fare across the dismal
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  Speaker 1: ice northward until he meets a stretching wall barring his way,
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  Speaker 1: and in the wall a great But then he must dismount,
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  Speaker 1: and on the ice tighten the girths of slipna Oven's horse,
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  Speaker 1: and make him leap the grate and come within.
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  Speaker 2: And he will see.
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  Speaker 1: Stretch round him Healer's realm, the plains of Niffleham, where
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  Speaker 1: dwell the dead, and hear the roaring of the streams
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  Speaker 1: of Hell, and he will see the feeble, shadowy tribes
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  Speaker 1: and Balder sitting crowned, and Hell is throne. Then must
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  Speaker 1: he not regard the waleful ghosts, who all will flit
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  Speaker 1: like eddying leaves around. But he must straight acost their
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  Speaker 1: solemn queen and pay her homage, and entreat with prayers,
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  Speaker 1: telling her all that grief they have in heaven for Balder,
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  Speaker 1: whom she holds by right below. If haply he may
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  Speaker 1: melt her heart with words and make her yield and
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  Speaker 1: give him balder back. She spoke, But Hoder answered her
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  Speaker 1: and said, Mother, a dreadful way is this? Thou ShoWest
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  Speaker 1: no journey for a sightless god to go and straight?
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  Speaker 1: The Mother of the gods replied, therefore thyself, thou shalt
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  Speaker 1: not go, my son, but he whom first thou meetest,
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  Speaker 1: when thou comest to Asgard and declarest, this hidden way
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  Speaker 1: shall go, and I will be his guide Unseen. She
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  Speaker 1: spoken on her face, let fall her veil, and bowed
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  Speaker 1: her head, and sate with folded hands. But up the
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  Speaker 1: central hearth those women old, who while the Mother spake,
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  Speaker 1: had ceased their toil, began again to heap the sacred fire.
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  Speaker 1: And hod A turned and left his mother's house van Sailor,
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  Speaker 1: whose lit windows looked to see, and came again down
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  Speaker 1: to the roaring waves, and back along the beach to Asgard,
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  Speaker 1: went pondering on that which Frea said should be. But
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  Speaker 1: night came down and dark at Asgard streets. Then from
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  Speaker 1: their loathed feast, the gods arose and lighted torches, and
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  Speaker 1: took up the corpse of Border from the floor of
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  Speaker 1: Odin's hall and laid it on a bar and bare
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  Speaker 1: him home through the fast darkening street, each to his
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  Speaker 1: own house, bred oblick on his columns. Balder graved with
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  Speaker 1: enchantments that recall the dead to life. For wise he was,
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  Speaker 1: and many curious arts, postures of roots and healing herbs
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  Speaker 1: he knew, unhappy, but that art he did not know.
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  Speaker 1: To keep his own life safe and see the sun
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  Speaker 1: there to his hall, the gods brought Balder home, and
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  Speaker 1: each bespake him as he laid him down, that ourselves
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  Speaker 1: or border, we were born home to our halls with
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  Speaker 1: torchlight by our kin, so thou mightstive and still delight
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  Speaker 1: the gods. They spake, and each went home to his
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  Speaker 1: own house. But there was one, the first of all
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  Speaker 1: the gods. For speed and hermod was his name in heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Most fleet he was. But now he went, the last,
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  Speaker 1: heavy and heart for border, to his house, which he
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  Speaker 1: in Asgard built him there to dwell against the harbor
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  Speaker 1: by the city wall. Him the blind Hoder met as
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  Speaker 1: he came up from the sea. City would and knew
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  Speaker 1: his step. Nor yet could hermold see his brother's face,
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  Speaker 1: for it grew dark. But Hoder touched his arm and
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  Speaker 1: as a spray of honeysuckle flowers brushes across a tired
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  Speaker 1: travel face who shuffles through the deep dew moistened dust
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  Speaker 1: on a may evening in the darkened lanes, and starts
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  Speaker 1: him that he thinks a ghost went by. So Hoder
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  Speaker 1: brushed by Hermod's side and said, take sleep, no, Hermod,
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  Speaker 1: and set forthwith dawn to Healer's kingdom to ask balder back,
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  Speaker 1: and they shall be thy guides who have the power.
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  Speaker 1: He spake, and brushed off by and disappeared. And Hermod
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  Speaker 1: gazed into the knight and said, who is it? Utters
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  Speaker 1: through the dark his hest so quickly, and will wait
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  Speaker 1: for no reply. The voice was like the unhappy Hoder's voice,
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  Speaker 1: howbeit I will see and do his hest, for there
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  Speaker 1: rang note divine in that command. So speaking, the fleet
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  Speaker 1: footed Hermod came home and laid down to sleep in
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  Speaker 1: his own house, and all the gods lay down in
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  Speaker 1: their own homes. And Hoder too came home, distraught with grief,
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  Speaker 1: loathing to meet adorn the other gods. And he went
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  Speaker 1: in and shut the door, and fixed his sword upright,
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  Speaker 1: and fell on it and died from the hill of
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  Speaker 1: vidskialf Odin rose the throne from which his eyes surveyed
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  Speaker 1: the world and mounted Sleepner, and in darkness rode to Asgard,
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  Speaker 1: and the stars came out in heaven high over Asgard
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  Speaker 1: to light home the king. But fiercely Odin galloped, moved
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  Speaker 1: in heart and swift to Asgard.
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  Speaker 2: To the gate he came, and terribly the.
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  Speaker 1: Hoofs of Sleipner rang along the flinty floor of Asgard streets,
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  Speaker 1: and the gods trembled on their golden beds, hearing the
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  Speaker 1: wrathful father coming home for dread. For like a whirlwind,
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  Speaker 1: Odin came and to Valhalla's gate he rode and left Sleepner,
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  Speaker 1: and Sleepna went to his own stall, and in Valhalla
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  Speaker 1: Odin laid him down. But in Bredeblick, Nana, Balder's wife,
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  Speaker 1: came with the goddesses who wrought her will, and stood
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  Speaker 1: by Balder, lying on his bier, and at his head
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  Speaker 1: and feet she stationed scorks, who in their lives were
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  Speaker 1: famous for their song. His old corpse intoned a plaintive strain,
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  Speaker 1: a dirge, and Nana and her train replied, and far
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  Speaker 1: into the night they wailed their dirge. But when their
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  Speaker 1: souls were satisfied with while, they went and laid them down,
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  Speaker 1: and Una went to an upper chamber and lay down,
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  Speaker 1: and Frea sealed her lids with sleep. And twas when
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: night is bordering hard on dawn, when air is chilliest,
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  Speaker 1: and the stars sunk low and bald, as spirit through
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  Speaker 1: the gloom drew near in garb, in form in feature,
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  Speaker 1: as he was alive, and still the rays were round
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  Speaker 1: his head, which were his glorious mark in heaven. He
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  Speaker 1: stood over against the curtain of the bed and gazed
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  Speaker 1: on Nana as she slept, and spake, Poor Lamb, thou sleepest,
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  Speaker 1: and forget'st thy woe. Tears stand upon the lashes of
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  Speaker 1: thine eyes. Tears wet the pillow by thy cheek. But thou,
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  Speaker 1: like a young child, hast cried thyself to sleep.
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  Speaker 2: Sleep on. I watched THEE and.
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  Speaker 1: Am here to aid alive. I kept not far from THEE,
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  Speaker 1: dear soul. Neither do I neglect THEE now though dead.
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  Speaker 1: For with to morrow's dawn the gods prepare to gather
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  Speaker 1: wood and build a funeral pile upon my ship, and
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  Speaker 1: burn my corpse with fire. That sad sole honor of
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  Speaker 1: the dead, and THEE they think to burn, and all
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  Speaker 1: my choicest wealth with me, for thus ordains the common right.
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  Speaker 1: But it shall not be so but mild, but swift
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  Speaker 1: but painless. Shall a stroke from free come to cut
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  Speaker 1: thy thread of life and free thy soul, and they
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  Speaker 1: shall burn thy corpse with mine not THEE. And will
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  Speaker 1: I know that by no stroke of death tardi or
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  Speaker 1: swift wouldst thou be loath to die. So it restored
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  Speaker 1: thee Nana to my side, whom thou so well hast loved,
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  Speaker 1: that I can smear thy way. And this at least
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  Speaker 1: my prayers availe yes, and I fain would altogether ward
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  Speaker 1: death from thy head, and with the gods in Heaven,
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  Speaker 1: prolong thy life, though not by thee desired, but right
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  Speaker 1: bars this not only thy desire, yet dreary Nanna is
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  Speaker 1: the life they lead in that dim world. In Hella's
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  Speaker 1: moldering realm, and doleful are the ghosts. The troops are dead,
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  Speaker 1: whom Hella with austere control presides from the race of God's.
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  Speaker 1: Is no one there save me alone, and Hella, solemn Queen,
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  Speaker 1: and all the nobler souls of mortal men on battlefield
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  Speaker 1: have met their death and now feast in thou halla.
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  Speaker 1: In my Father's hall, only the inglorious sort there below,
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  Speaker 1: the old, the cowards, and the weaker. There men spent
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  Speaker 1: by sickness or obscure decay. But even there o, Nana,
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  Speaker 1: we might find some soul lace in each other's look
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  Speaker 1: and speech, wandering together through that gloomy world, and talking
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  Speaker 1: of the life we led in Heaven, while we yet
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  Speaker 1: lived among the other gods. He spake and straight his
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: lineaments began to fade, and Nana, in her sleep, stretched
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  Speaker 1: out her arms towards him, with a cry that he
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  Speaker 1: mournfully shook his head and disappeared. And as the woodman
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  Speaker 1: sees a little smoke hang in the air afield and disappears,
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  Speaker 1: a balder faded in the night away, and Nana on
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  Speaker 1: her back sank back. But then Freer, the Mother of
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  Speaker 1: the gods, with stroke, painless and swift, set free her
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  Speaker 1: airy soul, which took on Balder's track the way below,
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  Speaker 1: And instantly the sacred morn appeared. End of Part one,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Part two, Journey to the Dead. For from the east
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: up the ascent of heaven day drove his courser with
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  Speaker 1: the shining mane, and in Valhalla, from his gable perch,
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  Speaker 1: the golden crested cock began to crow hereafter, in the
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  Speaker 1: blackest dead of night, with shrill and dismal cries. That
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  Speaker 1: bird shall crow, warning the gods that fe draw nigh
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  Speaker 1: to heaven. But now he crew at dawn a cheerful
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  Speaker 1: note to wake the gods and heroes to their tasks.
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  Speaker 1: And all the gods and all the heroes woke, and
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  Speaker 1: from their beds the heroes rose and donned their arms,
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  Speaker 1: and led their horses from the stall and mounted them,
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  Speaker 1: and in Valhalla's court were ranged, And then the daily
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  Speaker 1: fray began. And all day long they there are hacked
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  Speaker 1: and hun mid dust and groans, and limbs lopped off
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  Speaker 1: and blood. But all at night returned to Odin's hall,
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  Speaker 1: woundless and fresh. Such lot as theirs in heaven. And
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  Speaker 1: the Valkyries on their steeds, went forth toward Earth and
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  Speaker 1: fights of men, and at their side scolded the youngest
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  Speaker 1: of the Nawnies rode and over beafrost, whereas Hemdor's watch,
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  Speaker 1: past Midguard fortress, down to earth. They came there through
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  Speaker 1: some battlefield where men fall fast, their horses fetlock deep
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  Speaker 1: in blood. They ride and picked the bravest warriors out
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  Speaker 1: for death, whom they bring back with them at night
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  Speaker 1: to heaven, to glad the gods and feast in Odin's hall.
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  Speaker 1: But the gods went not now as otherwhile into the
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  Speaker 1: till out where the heroes fought to feast their eyes
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  Speaker 1: with looking on the fray. Nor did they to their
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: judgment place repaired by the ash igdrasil in Ida's plain,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: where they hold counsel and give laws for men. But
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  Speaker 1: they went Odin first, the rest behind to the hall
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: glad Haam, which spelt of gold, where arn circle ranged
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: twelfth golden chairs, and in the midst one higher Odin's throne.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: There all the gods, in silence sate them down, And
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: thus the father of the ages spake. Go quickly, gods,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: bring wood to the seashore, with all which it beseems
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the dead to have, and make a funeral pile on
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: boulders ship. On the twelfth day, the gods shall burn
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: his corpse, but hermot take thou slippner, and ride down
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to Hella's kingdom to ask balder back. So said he,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and the gods arose and took axes and ropes, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: at their head came Thor shouldering his hammer, which the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: giants know fourth whend did they and drave their steeds
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: before and up the dewy mountain tracks. They fared to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the dark forests in the early dawn, and up and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: down and sighed and slammed they roamed, and from the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: glens all day. An echo came of crashing falls with
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: his mmathaw smote mid the rocks the lichen bearded pines
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and burst their roots, while to their tops. The gods
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: made fast the woven ropes and haled them down, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: locked their boughs, and clothed them on the sward, and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: bound the logs behind their steeds to.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Draw and drave them homeward.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: And the snorting steeds when straining through the crackling brushwood
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: down and by the darkling forest paths, the gods followed,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and on their shoulders carried boughs, And they came out
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: upon the plane and passed as guard, and led their
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: horses to the beach, and loosed them of their loads
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: on the sea shore, and ranged the wood in stacks
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: by Balder's ship, And every god went home to his
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: own house. When the gods were to the forest, gone
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: her mod led slightner from Valhalla for saddled him. Before
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that slitner brooked no meaner hand than Odin's on his mane,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: on his broad back, no lesser ride a boar, yet dosal.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Now he stood at Hermod's side, arching his neck, and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: glad to be bestrode. Knowing the god, they went to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: seek how deer, but Hermod mounted him and sadly fared
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: in silence up the dark, untraveled road which branches from
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the north of Heaven, and went all day, and daylight waned,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and night came on, and all that night he rode
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and journeyed so nine days, nine nights toward the northern ice,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: through valleys deep engulfed by roaring streams. And on the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: tenth morn he beheld the bridge which spans with golden
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: archers Guile's Stream, and on the bridge a damsel watching armed.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: In the straight passage at the farther end, where the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: road issues between walling rocks, scant space that warder left
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: for passers by. But as when cow herds in October
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: drive their kine across a snowy mountain pass to win
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a pasture on the southern side, and on the ridge
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: a wagon jerks the way wedged in the snow. Then
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: painfully the hinds, with goad and shouting, urged their cattle past,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: plunging through deep untrodden banks of snow, to right and left.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: The warm stream fills the air. So on the bridge
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the dams or blocked the way and questioned hermod as
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: he came, and said, who art thou on thy black
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and fiery horse, under whose hoofs the bridge o'er gal's
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: stream rumbles and shakes, tell me thy race and home.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: But yes to morn.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Five troops of dead passed by, bound on their way
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: below to Hella's realm. Nor shook the bridge so much
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: as thou alone, and thou hast flesh and color on
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: thy cheeks, like men who live and draw the vital air.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Nor look'st thou pal and wand like men deceased souls
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: bound below. My daily passes here, and the fleet foot
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: at Hermod answered her, Oh damsel, hermod Am, I called
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the son of Odin, and my hiroft house is built
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: far hence in asgard in the city of Gods, and
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: sleipner Odin's horses. As I ride and I come sent
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: this road on Balder's track. Say then, if he hath
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: crossed thy bridge, or no he spake the water of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the bridge, replied o Hermod, Rarely do the feet of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: gods or of the horses of the gods resound upon
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: thy bridge. And when they cross, I know Balder hath
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: gone this way and taken the road below there to
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the north toward Heller's realm. From here the cold white
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: mist can be discerned nor lit with sun, but through
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the darksome air by the dim vapor blotted's light of stars,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: which hangs over the ice where lie the road. For
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: in that ice I lost these northern streams, freezing and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: riching in their onward flow, which from the fountain of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Valgelma run that spring that bubbles up by Hella's throne.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: There are the joyless seats, the haunt of ghosts. Heller'sbal swarms,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and there was bald abound right on pass free. But
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: he by this is there. She spake and stepped aside,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and left him room, and her Mood greeted her and
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: galloped by across the bridge. Then she took post again,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: but northward. Hermod rode the way below, and o'er a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: darksome tract which knows no sun, and by the blotted
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: light of stars he fared, and he came down to
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: ocean's northern strand, at the drear ice beyond the Giant's home.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Thence on he journeyed o'er the fields of ice, still north,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: until he met a stretching wall barring his way, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: in the wall a grate. Then he dismounted andrew tight
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the girths on the smooth ice of sleepner Odin's horse
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and made him leap the grate and came with him,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and he beheld spread round him Heeler's realm, the plains
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of nifflhim where dwell the dead, and heard the thunder
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of the streets of hell. For near the wall the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: river of Roaring flows outmost the others. Near the center
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: run the storm. The abyss, the howling, and the paane
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: is flow by Heller's throne and near their spring. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: from the dark flocked up the shadowy tribes. And as
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the swallows crowd the bulrush beds of some clear river
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: issuing from a lake on autumn days before they crossed
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the sea, and to which bulrush crest, a swallow hangs
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: swinging another's skimmed the river streams, and there quick twittering
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: fills the banks and shores. So around hermod swarmed the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: twittering ghosts, women and infants, and young men who died
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: too soon for fame with white ungraven shields, and old
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: men known to glory. But their star betrayed them, and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of wasting age they died, not wounds. Yet dying they
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: their armor wore, and now have chief regarden. Heller's realm
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: behind flocked wrangling up a piteous crew, greeted of none
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: disfeatured and forlorn cowards who were in sloughs, and turred alive.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And round them still the wattled hurdles hung, wherewith they
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: stamped them down and trod them deep, to hide their
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: shameful memory from men. But all he passed unhaled, and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: reached the throne of HeLa, and soar near it balder crowned,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and Hella sat thereon with countenance stern, and thus bespake
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: him first, the solemn queen unhappy, How hast thou endured
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: to leave the light and journey to the cheerless land,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: were idly flit about the feeble shades. How didst thou
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: cross the bridge over gale's stream, being alive, and come
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: to ocean's shore, Or how overleap the grate that bars
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the wall? She spake, But down off slipner hermod sprang
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and fell before her feet and clasped her knees, and spake,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and mild entreated her and said, oh, Hella, wherefore should
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the gods declare their errands to each other? All the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: ways they go the errand, and the way is known.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Thou know'st, Thou know'st what grief we have in heaven?
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: For Balder, whom thou hold'st by right below, Restore him
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: for what part fulfills he Here shall he shed cheer
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: over the cheerless seats, and touch the apathetic ghosts with joy?
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Not for such end o, Queen, thou holdst them, For
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: heaven was balderborn, the city of gods and heroes, where
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: they live in light and joy. Thither restore him, for
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: his place is there. He spoke, and Grave replied the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: solemn queen hermod. For he thou art thou son of Heaven,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: a strange, unlikely errand shure as thine do the God
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: send to me to make them blessed? Small bliss my
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: race hath of the gods obtained three mighty children to
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: my father. Lok did Angerbode the giant has spring forth
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Fenris the wolf, the serpent huge, and me of these
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the serpent in the sea, Ye caste who sins in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: your despite hath waxed domain, and now with gleaming ring
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: unfolds the world. Me on this jeerless nether world ye
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: through and gave me nine unlighted realms to rule. While
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: on his island in the lake are far made fast
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to the board. Craig, by wile not strength, subdued with
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: limber chains, lives. Fenris, bound block still subsists in heaven
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: our father, Wise, your mate, though loathed and feasts in
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Odin's hall. But him too foes await and netted snares,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and in a cave a bed of news little rocks,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and over his visage serpents dropping gaul. Yet he shall
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: one day rise and burst his bonds, and with himself
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: set us his offspring free. When he guides must bells
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: children to their born till then, in peril or in pain,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: we live, wrought by the gods, and ask the gods
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: our aid. Albeit we abide our day till then we
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: do not, as some feebler haters do, seek to afflict
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: our foes with petty pangs, helpless to better.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Us or ruin them.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Come, then, if Balder was so dear beloved, and this
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: is true, and such a loss as heavens here, how
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: to heaven, may Bolder be restored? Show me through all
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the world the signs of grief fails, but one thing
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: to grieve Here Balder stops. Let all that lives and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: moves upon the earth weep him, and all that is
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: without life weep. Let God's men brutes beweep him, plants
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and stones. So shall I know the lost was dear indeed,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and bend my heart and give him back to heaven.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: She spake, and hermod answered her and said, Hella, such
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: as thou sayest the terms shall be, But come, declare
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: me this truly tell, May I ere I depart bit
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Bolder hail? Or is it here withheld to greet the dead?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: He spake, and straightway, Hella answered him, her mood, great border,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: if thou wilt and hold converse his speech remains, though
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: he be dead, And straight to border. Her mood turned
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: and spake, and even in the abode of death, her balder,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: hail thou, hearest of hearing, like his speech is thine
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the terms of thy releasement, hence to heaven. Fear nothing
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: but that all shall be fulfilled. For not unmindful of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: thee are the gods who see the light and blessed
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: in asgard dwell even here they seek thee out in
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Heller's realm. And sure of all the happiest far art thou,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: whoever have been known earth or heaven, alive thoust of
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: God's the most beloved, And now thou sittest, crowned by
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Hella's side here, and hast honor among all the dead.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: He spake, and border uttered him reply, but feebly as
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: a voice far off. He said her mod the nimble
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: gild me not my death, better deliver, sirf a captured
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: man who scatters rushes in a master's hall, than be
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a crowned king here and ruled the dead. And now
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I count not of these terms as safe to be fulfilled,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: nor my return as sure, though I beloved, and many
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: mourn my death, for double mind it ever was the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: seed of lok, and double other gifts they give. Howbeit,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: report thy message and therewith to odin to my father,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: take this ring memorial of me, whether saved or no,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and tell the heaven born gods how thou hast seen
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: me sitting here below by Hella's side. Crowned, having honor
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: among all the dead, he spake and raised his hand
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and gave the ring, and with inscrutable regard, the Queen
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of Hell beheld them, and the ghosts stood dumb. Hermod
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: took the ring, and yet once more kneeled and did
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: homage to the solemn Queen, and mounted sleipner and set
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: forth to ride back through the astonished tribes of dead
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to Heaven. To the wall he came, and found the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: grate lifted and issued on the fields of ice, and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: over the ice he fared to ocean strand, and up
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: from thence a wet and misty road to the armed
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Damsel's Bridge and Guile's Stream. Was was that way to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: go than to return for him, for others all return
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: his barred. Nine days he took to go too, to return,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And on the twelfth morn saw the light of heaven,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and as traveler in the early dawn to the steep
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: edge of some great valley comes through which a river
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: flows and seas beneath. Clouds of white rolling vapors filled
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the vale. But over them, on the further slope descries
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: vineyards and crops and pastures bright with sun. So Hermod,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: over the fog between, saw heaven and slightness, snorted, for
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: he smelt the air of heaven, and mightily as winged
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: he flew. When Hermod saw the towers of Asgard rise,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and he drew near, and heard no living voice in Asgard,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and the golden halls were done. Then Hermod knew what
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: labor held the gods, And through the empty streets he
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: rode and passed under the gatehouse to the sands, and
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: found the gods on the sea shore by Balder's ship.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: End of Part two, Part three.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: The Funeral.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: The gods held talk together, grouped in knots round Balder's corpse,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: which they had thither borne, And Hermod came down towards
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: them from the gate, and Lock, the father of the Serpent,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: first beheld him come, and to his neighbours spake, see
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: here is Hermod, who comes single back from hell. And
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: shall I tell thee how he seems like as a
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: farmer who hath lost his dog some morn at market
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in the crowded town, through many streets, the pool beast
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: runs in vain and follows this man after that for
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: hours and late at evenings, spent in panting, falls before
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: a stranger's thoushold not his home, with flanks a tremble,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: and his slender tongue hangs quivering out between his dust
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: smeared jaws, and piteously he eyes the farmers by. But
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: home His master comes to his own farm far in
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the country, wondering where he is. So hermod comes to
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: day unfollowed home and straight. His neighbor, moved with wrath, replied,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: deceive a fair in form, but false in heart, enemy mocker, whom,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: though gods we hate, peace. Lest our father Odin hear
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: thy gibe, would I might see him snatch thee in
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: his hand and bind thy carcass like a bar with cords,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and hurl thee in a lake to sink or swim,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: if clear from plotting Boarder's death, to swim, but deep,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: if thou devisest did to drown and perish against fate
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: before thy day, So they too soft to one another's spake.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: That Odin looked toward the land and saw his messenger,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and he stood forth and cried, and her mod came
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: and left from slipner down, and in his father's hand
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: put Slightnes's reign and greeted Odin and the gods, and said, Odin,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: my father, and ye gods of Heaven, low home. Having
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: performed your will, I come into the joyless kingdom. Have
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I been below and looked upon the shadowy tribes of
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: ghosts and commune with their solemn queen. And to your prayer,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: she sends you this reply. Show her through all the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: world the signs of grief. There's but one thing to grieve.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: There balder stops. Let God's men brutes beweep him, plants
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and stone, so shall she know your loss was dear indeed,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and bent her heart and give you balder back. He spoke,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and all the gods to Odin looked, and straight to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the father of the ages, said, ye, gods, these terms
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: may keep another day. But now put on your arms
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and mount your steeds, and in procession all come near
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and weep balder, for that is what the dead desire.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: We Ye enough have wept, Then build a pile of
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the heaped wood and burn his corpse with fire out
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: of our sight, that we may turn from grief and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: lead as erst our daily life in heaven. He spoke,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and the gods armed, and Odin donned his dazzling corselet
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and his helm of gold, and led the way on Sleipner.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And the rest followed in tears, their father and their king,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and thrice in arms around the dead.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: They rode weeping.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: The sands were wetted, and their arms with their thick
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: falling tears. So good a friend they mourned that day,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: so bright, so loved a god. And Odin came and
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: laid his kingly hands on Balder's breast, and thus begun
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the whale farewell or bolder bright and loved my son
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: in that great day, the twilight of the gods, when
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Mussbell's children shall beleague heaven, then we shall miss thy
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: counsel and thy arm. Thou camest near the next o
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: warrior thor shouldering thy hammer in thy chariot drawn swaying
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the long haired goats with silver rain, and over Balder's corpse.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: These words did say, brother, Thou.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Dwellest in the darksome land, and talkest with the feeble
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: tribes of ghosts now. And I know not how they
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: prize thee there. But here I know thou wilt be
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: missed and warned, For haughty spirits and high wraths are
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: rife among the gods and heroes here in heaven, as
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: among those whose joy and work is war. And daily
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: strifes arise and angry words. But from thy lips, o
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Balder night or day, heard no one ever an injurious
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: word to God or hero. But thou keptest back the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: others laboring to compose their brawls. Be Ye, then, kindest
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Balder too was kind, for we lose him who smoothed
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: looks strife. In heaven he spake, and all the gods
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: are scenting wild and Frayer next came nigh, with golden tears,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the loveliest god as she in heaven by all most
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: honored after Freyer Odin's wife. How long ago the wandering
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Odour took to mate, but left her to rome distant lands.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Since then she seeks him and weeps tears of gold.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Names hath she many vanadas on earth?
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: They call it.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Frayer is her name in heaven. She in her hands
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: took Balder's head and spake Border, my brother, Thou art
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: gone a roade unknown and long and haply on that way,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: my long lost wandering Odor, thou hast met. For in
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the paths of heaven he is not found. Oh, if
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: it be, so, tell him what thou wast to his
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: neglected wife, and what he is, and wring his heart
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: with shame to hear thy word. For he my husband
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: left me here to pine, not long a wife, when
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: his unquiet heart first drove him from the interdistant lands.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Since then I vainly seek him through the world, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: weep from short ashore my golden tears. But neither God
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: nor mortal heeds my pain. Thou only Balder wast for
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: ever kind to take my hand and wipe my tears,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: and say, weep not no freyer, weep no golden tears.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: One day the wandering Odour will return, or thou wilt
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: find him in thy faithful search, on some great road,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: or resting in an inn, or at a ford, or
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: sleeping by a tree. So Balder said, But Odour, will
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I know, my truant Odoor, I shall see no more
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: to the world's end. And Bolder now is gone, and
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I am left uncomforted in heaven, she spoke, and all
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: the goddess is bewailed. Last, from among the heroes, one
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: came near no god, but of the hero trip the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: chief Regna, who swept the northern sea with fleets and
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: ruled over Denmark and the healthy isles living. But Ellac
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: captured him and slew a king whose fame then filled
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the vast of heaven. Now time obscures it and men's
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: later deeds. He last approached the corpse and spake and said, border,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: there yet are many schools in heaven still left, And
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: that chief schooled thy brother Rage, whom we may bid
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: to sing, though thou art gone, And all these gladly
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: while we drink, we hear after the feast is done
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: in Odin's hall. But they harp ever on one string,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and wake remembrance in our soul of wars alone, such
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: as on earth we valiantly have waged, and blood and
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: ringing blows and violent death. But when thou sangest border,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: thou didst strike another note, And like a bird in spring,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: thy voice of joyants minded us and youth, and wife
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and children, and our ancient home. Yes, and I too remembered.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Then no more my dungeon, where the serpents stained me dead,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: nor Ella's victory on the English coast. But I heard
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: thora laugh in Gothland Isle, and saw my shepherdess Aslauga,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: tend her flock along the white Norwegian beach. Tears started
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: to mine eyes with yearning joy. Therefore, with grateful heart
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I mourn thee dead. So Redna spake, and all the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: heroes groaned. But now the sun had passed the high
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: of Heaven. Soon had all that day been spent in whale.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: But then the father of the ages said, you, gods,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: their will may be too much of whale. Bring now
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the gathered wood to Boulders ship. Keep on the deck
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the logs, and build the pile. But when the gods
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: and heroes heard, they brought the wood to boulder Ship
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and built a pile full the deck's breadth and lofty.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Then the corpse of Bolder on the highest top they laid,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: with Nana on his right and on his left Hoder,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: his brother, whom his own hand slew. And they set
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: jars of wine and oil to lean against the bodies,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and stuck torches near splinters of pine wood soaked with
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: turpentine and brought his arms in gold and all his stuff,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: and slewed the dogs, who at his table fed, and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: his horse boulders horse in most he loved, and placed
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: them on the pile, and Odin threw a last choice
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: gift thereon his golden ring.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: The mast.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: They fixed and hoisted up the sails. Then they put
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: fire to the wooden Thrce at his stout, shoulder hard
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: against the stern to push the ship through the thick sand.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Sparks flew from the deep trench. Sheep plowed so strong
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a god furrowed it, and the water gurgled him. And
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the ship floated on the waves and rocked. But in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the hills of strong east wind arose and came down
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: moaning to the sea. First squalls ran black over the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: sea's face. Then steady rushed the breeze and filled the sails,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and blew the fire and wreathed in smoke. The ship
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: stood out to sea. Soon with a roaring rose the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: mighty fire, and the pile crackled, and between the logs,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: sharp quivering tongues of flame shot out and leapt, curling
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and darting higher, until they licked the summit of the pile.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: The dead the mast and ate the shriveling sails. But
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: still the ship drove on a blaze above her hull
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: with fire, and the gods stood upon the beach and gazed.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: And while they gazed, the sun went lurid down into
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the smoke wrapped sea, and night came on. Then the
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: wind fell with night, and there was calm. But through
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: the dark they watched the burning ship still carried over
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the distant waters on farther and farther, like an eye
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of fire, And long in the far dark blazed board
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: as pile, but fainter. As the stars rose high, it flared,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the bodies were consumed. Ash choked the pile, and as
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: in a decaying to fire, a charred log of falling
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: makes a shower of sparks. So with the shriff sparks,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the pile fell in, reddening the sea around, and all
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: was dark. The gods went by starlight up the shore
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to Asgard and sate down in Odin's hall at table,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and the funeral feast began all night. They ate the
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: boar serimnus flesh, and from their horns with silma rimmed,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: drank mead silent, and waited for the sacred warn and
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: mourning over all the world was spread. Then from their
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: loathed feast, the gods arose and took their horses and
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: set forth to ride over the bridge bear frost, whereas
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Hemdel's watch to the ash Igdrasil and Ida's plain for
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: came on foot the rest on horseback road. They found
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Mimer sitting by his fountain Wisdom, which beneath the ash
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: tree springs, and saw the nawnies watering the roots of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: that world shadowing tree with honeyjew There came the gods
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and sate them down on stones. And thus the father
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of the ages said, ye gods, the terms ye know
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: which hermod brought, except them, all reject them, both hard
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: grounds except them, and they bind us unfulfilled, to leave
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: forever border in the grave and unrecovered prisoner shade with shades.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: But how ye say, should the fulfillment fail? Smooth sound
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the terms and lighted to be fulfilled, For dear beloved
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: was border while he lived in heaven and earth, And
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: who would grudge in tears? But from the traitorous seed
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of lok they come these terms. And I suspect some
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: hidden fraud, ye think, ye gods is there no other way. Speak,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: were not this away the way for gods? If I
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: if Odin clad in radiant arms, mounted on sleepner, with
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: the warrior Thor drawn in his car beside me and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: my sons, all the strong brood of Heaven to swell
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: my train, should make eruption into Heller's realm, and set
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the fields of gloom ablaze with light, and bring in
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: triumph border back to heaven. He spake, and his fierce
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: sons applauded loud. But freer mother of the gods arose,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: daughter and wife of Odin. Thus she said, Odin, thou whirlwind,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: What a threat is this? Thou threatenest what transcends thy
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: might even thine? For of all ours the mightiest far
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: art thou lord over men on earth and gods in heaven.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Yet even from Thee thyself hath been withheld one thing
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: to undo what thou thyself hast ruled. For all which
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: hath been fixed was fixed by Thee in the beginning
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: ere the gods were born, before the heavens were builded,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Thou didst slay the giant emere in the abys brought
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: forth Thou and thy brethren fierce the sons of boar,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: and cast his trunk to choke the abysmal void. But
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: of his flesh and members, thou didst build the earth
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: and ocean, and above them heaven. And from the flaming
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: world where must pile rains, Thou senst and fetchestest fire
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and madest lights, sun, moon, and stars, which thou hast
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: hung in heaven, dividing clear the paths of night and day.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: And as guard thou didst build, and midguard fought in me.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Thou matest and of us the gods were born last.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Walking by the sea, thou foundest spars of wood and
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: framest men, until the earth or on the sea the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: field of pirates sail, and all the race of emre
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: thou didstrown, save one bilgelmer. He on shipboard fled thy deluge,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and from him the giant sprang. But all that brood
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: thou hast removed far off and set by ocean's utmost
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: march to dwell. But hella into Niffilum. Thou thrust and
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: gavest her nine unlighted worlds to rule a queen an empire.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Over all the dead that empire wilt Thou now invade
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: light up her darkness from her grasp a subject tear
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: try it, But I, for one, will not applaud, nor
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: do I merit odin that thou shouldest slight me and
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: my words, though thou be first in heaven, For I
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: too am a godess, s born of thee thine eldest
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and of Nei. The gods are sprung, and all that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: is to come I know, but lock in mine own
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: breast and have to none revealed. Come then, since Hella
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: holds by right her prey, but offers terms for his
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: release to Heaven, except the chance thou canst no more obtain,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: send through the world. Thy messengers entreat all living and
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: unliving things to weep for balder. If thou haply, thou
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: mayst melt Hella and win the loved one back to heaven.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: She spake and on her face let fall her veil,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and bowed her head and sate with folded hands. Nor
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: did the all ruling odor and slight her word straightway
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: his spake and thus addressed the gods, go quickly forth
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: through all the world and pray or living and unliving
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: things to weep balder haply, he may thus be won.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: When the gods heard, they straight arose and took their
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: horses and rode forth through all the world north south
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: east west. They struck and roam the world, and treating
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: all things to weep, bald as death, and all that lived,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and all without life wept as in winter when the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: frost breaks up at winter's end, before the spring begins,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: and a warm west wind blows and thaw sets in.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: After an hour, a dripping sound is heard in all
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the forests, and the soft strewn snow under the trees
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: is dibbled, thick with holes, and from the boughs the
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: snow loads shuffle down, and in fields sloping to the south,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: dark plots of grass peep out, admit surrounding snow and widen.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: The peasant's heart is glad. So through the world was
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: heard a dripping noise of all things weeping to bring
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: balder back. And there fell joy upon the gods to hear.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: But Hermod rode with Niord, whom he took to show
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: him spits and beaches of the sea far off, where
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: someone warned by file to weep, Nured, the god of storms,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: whom fishes know not born in heaven, he was in
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: van Heim reared with men, but lives a hostage with
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: the gods. He knows each frith, and every rocky creek,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: fringed with dark pines and sands where seafowl scream. They
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: two scored every coast, and all things wept, And they
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: rode home together through the wood of Jarnvid, which to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: east of Midguard lies bordering the giants, where the trees
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: are iron. They're in the wood before a cave they came,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: where sat in the cave's mouth a skinny hag, toothless
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: and old. She gibes the passers by thock, as she called,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: but now lock wore her shape. She greeted them the
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: first and laughed and said, ye, Gods, good lack. Is
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: it so dull in heaven that ye come pleasuring too?
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Thox's iron wood lovers have changed, Yeah, fastidiest sprites. Look
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: as in some boy's yard. A sweet breathed cow whose
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: major is stuffed full of good fresh hay, snuffs at
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: it daintly and stoops her head to chew the straw
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: her litter at her feet. So ye grow squeamish gods
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and sniff at heaven. She spake hermod answered her and
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: said thock the vibes. We come, we come for tears.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Balder is dead, and Hella holds her prey, but will
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: restore if all things get him tears begrudge, not died
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: to all.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Was Balder deer.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Then with a louder laugh, the hag replied, is Balder dad,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And do ye come for tears? Though with dry eyes
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: will weep over Balder's pire? Weep him all other things
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: if they will, I weep him. Not let Hella keep
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: her prey. She spake to the cavern's depth. She fled mocking,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: and hermod knew their toil was vain. And as seafaring
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: men who long have wrought in the great deep for gain,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: at last come home, and towards evening see the headlands
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: rise of their dear country, and complain, descry a fire
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: of withered furs which boys have flt upon the cliffs,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: or smoke of burning weeds out of a tilled field
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: in land. Then the wind catches them and drives out
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: again to sea, and they go long days tossing up
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and down over the gray sea riches. And the glimpse
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: of port they had makes better a far their toil.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: So the God's cross was better for their joy and
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: sad at heart to nield Hermod's spake. It is the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: accuser Locke, who flouts us all right back and tell
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: in Heaven this heavy news I must again below to
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Heller's realm. He spoke, and n Ord set forth back
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: to heaven. But northward Hermod rode the way below the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: way he knew, and traversed Giles's stream, and down to ocean,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: groped and crossed the ice, and came beneath the wall,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: and found the grate still lifted. There was his return
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: for noon, and once more Hermod saw around him spread
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the joyless plains, and heard the streams of hell. But
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: as he entered on the extremest bound of Nifflheim, he
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: saw one ghost come near, hovering and stopping oft as
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: if afraid, Hoder, the unhappy, whom his own hand slew.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: And Hermod looked and knew his brother's ghost, and caught
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: him by his name, and sternly said, Hoder, ill fated,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: blind in heart and eyes, Why tarreest thou to plunge
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: thee in the gulf of the deep inner gloom that
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: flittest here in twilight on the lonely verge of hell,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: far from the other ghosts and Heller's throne. Doubtless thou
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: fearest to meet Balder's voice, thy brother, whom through folly
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: thou didst slay. He spoke, but Hoder answered him and said, Hermod,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: the nimble, dost thou still pursue the unhappy with the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: approach even in the grave. This I died and fled
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: beneath the gloom, not daily to endure abhorring gods, and
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: with a hateful presence come to heaven. And canst thou
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: not even here pass pitting by no less than border
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: have I lost the light of heaven and communion with
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: my kin. I too had once a wife and once
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: a child, and substance in a golden house in heaven.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: But all I left of my own act and fled below.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: And dost thou hate me even here? Order upbraids me not,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: nor hates it all though he has cause, have any cause.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: But he when that with downcast books, I hear the
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: cane stretched forth his hand, and with benignant voice, welcome,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: he said, if there be welcome here, brother and fellow
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: sport of lok with me, and not to offend thee.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Hermod and or to force my hated converse on thee
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: came I up from the deep gloom, where I will
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: now return. But earnestly I longed to have near, not
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: too far off, when that thou camest by, to feel
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the presence of a brother God, and hear the passage
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: of a horse of heaven for the last time. For
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: here thou comest no more. He spake and turned to
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: go to the inner bloom. But Hermod stayed him with
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: mild words, and said, thou doest well to chide me
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Hoder blind. Truly, thou sayest the planning guilty mind was Luke's.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: The unwitting hand alone was thine. But gods are like
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the sons of men in this, when they have woe,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: they blame the nearest cause. Howbeit, stay and be appeased,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and tell sits border still in pomp by Hella's side,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: or as he mingled with the unnumbered dead, and the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: blind Herder answered him and spake his place of state
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: remains by Hella's side, but empty for his wife, for
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Nana came lately below and joined him, and the pair
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: frequent the still recesses of the realm of Hella, and
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: hold converse undisturbed, but though too doubtless will have breathed
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: the balm which floats before a visitant from heaven, and
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: have drawn upward to this verge of hell. He spake,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and as he ceased, a puff of wind rolled heavily.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: The leaden missed aside round where they stood, and they
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: beheld two forms make toward them over the stretching cloudy plain,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and hermod straight perceived them who they were, Border and Nanna,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: and to border said border too.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Truly.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Thou foresawest to snare, block triumph still, and Hella keeps
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: her prey.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: No more to asgard.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Shalt thou come, nor lodge in thy own house bread oblick,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: nor enjoy the love will bear toward thee, nor train
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: up foreset thy son to be beloved like thee. Here
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: must thou lie and wait an endless age. Therefore, for
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the last time, O Balder, Hail, He spoke, and Balder
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: answered him and said, hail and farewell, for here thou
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: comest no more yet more, not for me hermod when
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: thou sittest in heaven, Nor let the other gods lament
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: as wholly to be pitied, quite forlorn, for Nana hath
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: rejoined me, who were old in heaven, was seldom parted
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: from my side. And still the acceptance follows me, which
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: crowned my former life, and cheers me.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Even here.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: The iron frown of Hello is relaxed when I draw nigh,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: and the one tribes of dead love me and gladly
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: bring for my award their ineffectual feuds and feeble hates
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: shadows of hates. But they distressed them still, and the
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: fleet footed hermod made reply. Thou hast then all the
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: solace death allows, esteem and function, and so far as well.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Yet here thou liest border underground, rusting forever, and the
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: years roll on, the generations pass, the ages grow and
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: bring us nearer to the final day, when from the
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: south shall march the fiery Band and cross the bridge
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: of Heaven with Lok for guide, and Fenris at his
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: heel with broken chain. While from the east the giant
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Rhym steers his ship, and the great Serpent makes to land,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and all are marshaled in one flaming square against the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: gods upon the plains of Heaven. I mourn thee that
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: thou canst not helpest them. He spoke, but Borda answered him,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: and said, mourn not for me, mourn hermd for the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: gods born, for the men on earth, the gods in heaven,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: who live, and with their eyes shall see that day.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: The day will come when fall shall Asgard's towers, and
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Odin and his sons the seed of heaven. But what
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: were I to save them in that hour? If strength
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: my to save them could not Odin save my father
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and his pride, the warrior thor Vidar, the silent, the
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: impetuous tear. I what were I when these cannot avail? Yet, doubtless,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: when the day of battle comes, and the two hosts
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: are marshaled, and in heaven the golden crested cock shall
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: sound alarm, and his black brother bird from hence reply
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: and buckless clash, and spears begin to pour. Longing will
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: stir within my breast, though vain, but not to me
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: so grievous as I know to other gods. It were
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: is my enforced absence from fields where I could nothing aid.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: For I am long since weary of your storm of carnage.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: And find hermod in your life something too much of
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: war and broils, which make life one perpetual fight, a
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: bath of blood. Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrow
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: we hail. Mine ears are stunned with blows, and sick
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: for calm and active. Therefore let me lie in gloom,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: unarmed and glorious. I attend the course of ages, and
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: my late return to light in times less alien to
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: a spirit mild in new recovered seats. The happier day
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: you spake, and the fleet hermod thus replied, brother, what
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: seats are these? What happier day? Tell me that I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: may ponder it?
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: When gone?
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: And the ray crowned boulder answered him. Far to the south,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: beyond the blue, there spreads another heaven, the boundless. No
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: one yet hath reached it. There hereafter shall rise the
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: second Asgard, with another name. Thither when over this present
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: earth and heavens the tempests of the latter days hath swept,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and they from sight have disappeared and sunk, shall a
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: small remnant of the God's repair, Hoder and I shall
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: join them from the grave. There reassembling, we shall see
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: emerge from the bright ocean at our feet, in earth
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: more fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits self
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: springing and a seed of man preserved. Who then shall
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: live in peace, is now in war, that we in
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: heaven shall find again with joy the ruined palaces of
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: odin seats familiar halls where we have supped of old,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: re enter them with wonder, never fill our eyes with gazing,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: and rebuild with tears. And we shall tread once more
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the well known plain of Ida, and among the grass
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: shall find the golden dice, wherewith we played of yore,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: And that will bring to mind the former life and
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: past time of the gods, the wise discourse of odin
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: the delights of other days. O hermod, pray that thou
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: mayst join us then, Such for the future is my hope.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile I rest the thrall of Hella, and endure death.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: And the gloom which round me even now thickens, and
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: to its inner goldrie calls farewell. The longest speech is
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: not allowed. He spoke and waved farewell, and gave his
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: hand to Nana, and she gave their brother Blind her
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: hand in turn for guidance. And three departed over the
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: cloudy plain, and soon faded from sight into the interior bloom.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: But Hermud stood beside his drooping horse mute, gazing after
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: them in tears. And fain fain had he followed their
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: receding steps, though they to death were bound, and he
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: to heaven. Then but a power he could not break withheld,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and as a stork which idle boys have trapped and
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: tied him in a yard. At autumn, seas flocks of
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: his kind pass flying over his head to warm the
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: lands and coasts that keep the sun. He strains to
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: join their flight, and from his shed follows them with
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: a long complaining cry. So her Maud gazed and yearned
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: to join his king. At last he sighed and set
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: forth back to heaven. End of Part three, End of
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Bolder Dead by Matthew Arnold