Then is silence over the plain; in the noon shine the torches pale
As the best of the Niblung Earl-folk bear fire to the builded bale:
Then a wind in the west ariseth, and the white flames leap on high,
And with one voice crieth the people a great and mighty cry,
And men cast up hands to the Heavens, and pray without a word,
As they that have seen God's visage, and the voice of the Father have heard.
They are gone--the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient Earth:
It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their birth.
* * * * *
Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of the Waters he drew;
How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the Bright,
And dwelt upon Earth for a season and shone in all men's sight.
Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away.
THE END
GLOSSARY
ABBREVIATIONS:--n., noun; n., verb; cf., compare; e.g., for
example; p.t., past tense; p.p. past participle.
_Abasement_, casting down, defeat.
_Acre-biders_, peaceful workers in the fields as distinguished from
warriors who left their homes to go to war.
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