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THE HOUSE OF THE WOLFINGS
THE HOUSE OF THE WOLFINGS WILLIAM MORRIS Whiles in the early Winter eve
We pass amid the gathering night
Some homestead that we had to leave
Years past; and see its candles bright
Shine in the room beside the door
Where we were merry years agone
But now must never enter more
As still the dark road drives us on.
E'en so the world of men may turn
At even of some hurried day
And see the ancient glimmer burn
Across the waste that hath no way;
Then with that faint light in its eyes
A while I bid it linger near
And nurse in wavering memories
The bitter-sweet of days that were.
CHAPTER I--THE DWELLINGS OF MID-MARK
The tale tells that in times long past there was a dwelling of men
beside a great wood. Before it lay a plain not very great but
which was as it were an isle in the sea of woodland since even
when you stood on the flat ground you could see trees everywhere in
the offing though as for hills you could scarce say that there were
any; only swellings-up of the earth here and there like the
upheavings of the water that one sees at whiles going on amidst the
eddies of a swift but deep stream.
On either side to right and left the tree-girdle reached out toward
the blue distance thick close and unsundered save where it and the
plain which it begirdled was cleft amidmost by a river about as wide
as the Thames at Sheene when the flood-tide is at its highest but so
swift and full of eddies that it gave token of mountains not so far
distant though they were hidden. On each side moreover of the
stream of this river was a wide space of stones great and little
and in most places above this stony waste were banks of a few feet
high showing where the yearly winter flood was most commonly stayed.
You must know that this great clearing in the woodland was not a
matter of haphazard; though the river had driven a road whereby men
might fare on each side of its hurrying stream. It was men who had
made that Isle in the woodland.
For many generations the folk that now dwelt there had learned the
craft of iron-founding so that they had no lack of wares of iron and
steel whether they were tools of handicraft or weapons for hunting
and for war. It was the men of the Folk who coming adown by the
river-side had made that clearing. The tale tells not whence they
came but belike from the dales of the distant mountains and from
dales and mountains and plains further aloof and yet further.
Anyhow they came adown the river; on its waters on rafts by its
shores in wains or bestriding their horses or their kine or afoot
till they had a mind to abide; and there as it fell they stayed their
travel and spread from each side of the river and fought with the
wood and its wild things that they might make to themselves a
dwelling-place on the face of the earth.
So they cut down the trees and burned their stumps that the grass
might grow sweet for their kine and sheep and horses; and they diked
the river where need was all through the plain and far up into the
wild-wood to bridle the winter floods: and they made them boats to
ferry them over and to float down stream and track up-stream: they
fished the river's eddies also with net and with line; and drew drift
from out of it of far-travelled wood and other matters; and the
gravel of its shallows they washed for gold; and it became their
friend and they loved it and gave it a name and called it the
Dusky and the Glassy and the Mirkwood-water; for the names of it
changed with the generations of man.
There then in the clearing of the wood that for many years grew
greater yearly they drave their beasts to pasture in the new-made
meadows where year by year the grass grew sweeter as the sun shone
on it and the standing waters went from it; and now in the year
whereof the tale telleth it was a fair and smiling plain and no folk
might have a better meadow.
But long before that had they learned the craft of tillage and taken
heed to the acres and begun to grow wheat and rye thereon round about
their roofs; the spade came into their hands and they bethought them
of the plough-share and the tillage spread and grew and there was
no lack of bread.
In such wise that Folk had made an island amidst of the Mirkwood and
established a home there and upheld it with manifold toil too long
to tell of. And from the beginning this clearing in the wood they
called the Mid-mark: for you shall know that men might journey up
and down the Mirkwood-water and half a day's ride up or down they
would come on another clearing or island in the woods and these were
the Upper-mark and the Nether-mark: and all these three were
inhabited by men of one folk and one kindred which was called the
Mark-men though of many branches was that stem of folk who bore
divers signs in battle and at the council whereby they might be
known.
Now in the Mid-mark itself were many Houses of men; for by that word
had they called for generations those who dwelt together under one
token of kinship. The river ran from South to North and both on the
East side and on the West were there Houses of the Folk and their
habitations were shouldered up nigh unto the wood so that ever
betwixt them and the river was there a space of tillage and pasture.
Tells the tale of one such House whose habitations were on the west
side of the water on a gentle slope of land so that no flood higher
than common might reach them. It was straight down to the river
mostly that the land fell off and on its downward-reaching slopes
was the tillage "the Acres" as the men of that time always called
tilled land; and beyond that was the meadow going fair and smooth
though with here and there a rising in it down to the lips of the
stony waste of the winter river.
Now the name of this House was the Wolfings and they bore a Wolf on
their banners and their warriors were marked on the breast with the
image of the Wolf that they might be known for what they were if
they fell in battle and were stripped.
The house that is to say the Roof of the Wolfings of the Mid-mark
stood on the topmost of the slope aforesaid with its back to the
wild-wood and its face to the acres and the water. But you must know
that in those days the men of one branch of kindred dwelt under one
roof together and had therein their place and dignity; nor were
there many degrees amongst them as hath befallen afterwards but all
they of one blood were brethren and of equal dignity. Howbeit they
had servants or thralls men taken in battle men of alien blood
though true it is that from time to time were some of such men taken
into the House and hailed as brethren of the blood.
Also (to make an end at once of these matters of kinship and
affinity) the men of one House might not wed the women of their own
House: to the Wolfing men all Wolfing women were as sisters: they
must needs wed with the Hartings or the Elkings or the Bearings or
other such Houses of the Mark as were not so close akin to the blood
of the Wolf; and this was a law that none dreamed of breaking. Thus
then dwelt this Folk and such was their Custom.
As to the Roof of the Wolfings it was a great hall and goodly after
the fashion of their folk and their day; not built of stone and lime
but framed of the goodliest trees of the wild-wood squared with the
adze and betwixt the framing filled with clay wattled with reeds.
Long was that house and at one end anigh the gable was the Man's-
door not so high that a man might stand on the threshold and his
helmcrest clear the lintel; for such was the custom that a tall man
must bow himself as he came into the hall; which custom maybe was a
memory of the days of onslaught when the foemen were mostly wont to
beset the hall; whereas in the days whereof the tale tells they drew
out into the fields and fought unfenced; unless at whiles when the
odds were over great and then they drew their wains about them and
were fenced by the wain-burg. At least it was from no niggardry that
the door was made thus low as might be seen by the fair and manifold
carving of knots and dragons that was wrought above the lintel of the
door for some three foot's space. But a like door was there anigh
the other gable-end whereby the women entered and it was called the
Woman's-door.
Near to the house on all sides except toward the wood were there many
bowers and cots round about the penfolds and the byres: and these
were booths for the stowage of wares and for crafts and smithying
that were unhandy to do in the house; and withal they were the
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