“O I have taken your silver and gold,
And I have eaten of your bread,
And I’ll not budge from you to-day,
Although my life-blood I should shed.”
So they their backs together placed,
Master and man, in the forest green;
And in the early morning tide
They of the foemen slew fifteen.
Then they their backs together placed,
Where thick and high the bushes were;
They twain alone full thirty slew,
Acquiring honour ever fair.
It was the young Danneved,
To his side his trusty faulchion tied;
And now they both so joyously
Home to his mother’s castle ride.
It was the young Danneved,
Came riding to the Castellaye;
It was then his mother dear
Came out to meet him, blythe and gay.
“Be welcome, little Danneved,
Be welcome to this house of mine;
What doth it please thee now to drink?
O, say, shall it be mead or wine?”
“O, I will ne’er break bread with you,
Or drink a drop of mead or wine,
’Till thou hast given the young Swayne Trost
Fair Ellen, only sister mine.”
“And do thou hear, my dearest son,
Hear what I now declare to thee;
As God shall help me in my need,
Brothers of Ellen both ye be.”
“Now do thou hear, my mother dear,
Thou’st not to me the truth declar’d;
Where didst thou bear the young Swayne Trost,
That of his birth I never heard?”
“O he was but a little child,
When him from out the land I sent;
And, hearing it said that he was dead,
To none I did my loss lament.”