Search -
Wagner's Nibelungen Ring Done Into English Verse by Reginald Rankin
Wagner's Nibelungen Ring Done Into English Verse by Reginald Rankin Author:Richard Wagner Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE VALKYRIE Now Siegmund was a mighty man of war In olden days—a man of iron hands So swift and tireless that there went a tale Abroad among the peo... more »ple that no man Could call him son; and half-forgotten talk Was whispered of the wanderings of the gods, And of their human shapes and earthly loves. And once it happened that the battle-swarms Surged to the treeless plain beside the woods To make their slaughtering; and Siegmund led One little band against the vaster host Of envious foes that came to get his life. For all chiefs hated him because his face Was beautiful, and loved of womenfolk. And his the strongest arm to hurl a stone, Or draw a bow-string at a marriage-feast When wine had made men jealous in their strength; And his the trustiest liegemen in the land, And best-tilled fields for many a mile around. So from the breaking of the rosy dawn Until the slanting light at evening-tide. The fight went on along the flat grey plain Treeless and shadowless. And when night fell Siegmund fled lonely through the moaning pines To seek a rest from blood and battle toil, Where he might sleep his sleep and weep awhile. For Siegmund's comrades in the fight were dead, And their brave spirits gone beneath the earth. And when the night looked darkly down the sky, And up the path the darkness mocked the clouds, Above the swaying blackness of the firs The wanderer saw a red light quivering In the bright lattice of a dwelling-place. So he went stumbling to his promised rest, Nor stopped to knock upon the outer door Or hail the goodman in the cattle-fold, But raised the latch and saw the firelight glow, Crept to the ingle-nook and laid him down, And sank, as tired children sink, to sleep Upon the rough reed-matting of the floor. Now, as th...« less