O white, white Sun, what things of wonder
Hast thou beheld from thy wall of the sky!
All the Roofs of the Rich and the grief thereunder,
As the fear of the Earl-folk flitteth by!

Thou hast seen the Flame steal forth from the Forest
To slay the slumber of the lands,
As the Dusky Lord whom thou abhorrest
Clomb up to thy Burg unbuilt with hands.

Thou lookest down from thy door the golden,
Nor batest thy wide-shining mirth,
As the ramparts fall, and the roof-trees olden
Lie smouldering low on the burning earth.

When flitteth the half-dark night of summer
From the face of the murder great and grim,
’Tis thou thyself and no new-comer
Shines golden-bright on the deed undim.

Art thou our friend, O Day-dawn’s Lover?
Full oft thine hand hath sent aslant
Bright beams athwart the Wood-bear’s cover,
Where the feeble folk and the nameless haunt.

Thou hast seen us quail, thou hast seen us cower,
Thou hast seen us crouch in the Green Abode,
While for us wert thou slaying slow hour by hour,
And smoothing down the war-rough road.

Yea, the rocks of the Waste were thy Dawns upheaving,
To let the days of the years go through;
And thy Noons the tangled brake were cleaving
The slow-foot seasons’ deed to do.

Then gaze adown on this gift of our giving,
For the Wolf comes wending frith and ford,
And the Folk fares forth from the dead to the living,
For the love of the Lief by the light of the Sword.

Then ceased the song, and the whole band of the Woodlanders came pouring tumultuously into the space allotted them, like the waters pouring over a river-dam, their white swords waving aloft in the morning sunlight; and wild and strange cries rose up from amidst them, with sobbing and weeping of joy. But soon their troubled front sank back into ordered ranks, their bright blades stood upright in their hands before them, and folk looked on their company, and deemed it the very Terror of battle and Render of the ranks of war. Right well were they armed; for though many of their weapons were ancient and somewhat worn, yet were they the work of good smiths of old days; and moreover, if any of them lacked good war-gear of his own, that had the Alderman and his sons made good to them.

But before the hedge of steel stood the two tall men who held in their hands the war-tokens of the Battle-shaft and the War-spear, and betwixt them stood one who was indeed the tallest man of the whole assembly, who held the great staff of the hidden banner. And now he reached up his hand, and plucked at the yarn that bound it, which of set purpose was but feeble, and tore it off, and then shook the staff aloft with both hands, and shouted, and lo! the Banner of the Wolf with the Sun-burst behind him, glittering-bright, new-woven by the women of the kindred, ran out in the fresh wind, and flapped and rippled before His warriors there assembled.