A marvel exceeding great: and Aiglê silence brake, {1430}
And with gentle words in their longing ears she answered and spake:
‘Of a surety for blessing to you and deliverance out of your toil,
Hitherward came but now one ruthless and shameless, to spoil
Our guardian serpent of life; and the Goddesses’ apples of gold
He plucked, and he bare them away, and he left us sorrowful-souled.
For there came yestreen a man most fell in wanton despite,
Grim-shapen, whose eyes ’neath his scowling brows flashed terrible light,
A pitiless man: in a monster lion’s fell untanned,
Raw hide, was he clad, with a stubborn olive-wood staff in his hand,