House of the Wolfings: The William Morris Book that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkiena *s The Lord of the Rings by Michael W. Perry Page A

the Hall-Sun’s flame
    Which unto the Wild-wood clearing with the
kin of the Wolfings came
    And shall wend with their departure to the
limits of the earth;
    Nor again shall the torch be lighted till in
sorrow or in mirth,
    Overthrown or overthrowing, ye come aback
once more,
    And bid me bear the candle before the Wolf
of War.

    As she spake the word she turned the candle
downward, and thrust it against the grass and quenched it indeed;
but the whole throng of warriors turned about, for the bulls of the
banner-wain lowered their heads in the yokes and began to draw,
lowing mightily; and the wain creaked and moved on, and all the
men-at-arms followed after, and down they went through the lanes of
the corn, and a many women and children and old men went down into
the mead with them.
    In their hearts they all wondered what the
Hall-Sun’s words might signify; for she had told them nought about
the battles to be, saving that some should come back to the
Mid-mark; whereas aforetime somewhat would she foretell to them
concerning the fortune of the fight, and now had she said to them
nothing but what their own hearts told them. Nevertheless they bore
their crests high as they followed the Wolf down into the meadow,
where all was now ready for departure. There they arrayed
themselves and went down to the lip of Mirkwood-water; and such was
their array that the banner went first, save that a band of fully
armed men went before it; and behind it and about were the others
as well arrayed as they. Then went the wains that bore their
munition, with armed carles of the thrall-folk about them, who were
ever the guard of the wains, and should never leave them night or
day; and lastly went the great band of the warriors and the rest of
the thralls with them.
    As to their war-gear, all the freemen had
helms of some kind, but not all of iron or steel; for some bore
helms fashioned of horse-hide and bull-hide covered over with the
similitude of a Wolf’s muzzle; nor were these ill-defence against a
sword-stroke. Shields they all had, and all these had the image of
the Wolf marked on them, but for many their thralls bore them on
the journey. As to their body-armour some carried long byrnies of
ring-mail, some coats of leather covered with splinters of horn
laid like the shingles of a roof, and some skin-coats only: whereof
indeed there were some of which tales went that they were better
than the smith’s hammer-work, because they had had spells sung over
them to keep out steel or iron.
    But for their weapons, they bore spears with
shafts not very long, some eight feet of our measure; and axes
heavy and long-shafted; and bills with great and broad heads; and
some few, but not many of the kindred were bowmen, and every
freeman was girt with a sword; but of the swords some were long and
two-edged, some short and heavy, cutting on one edge, and these
were of the kind which they and our forefathers long after called
‘sax.’ Thus were the freemen arrayed.
    But for the thralls, there were many bows
among them, especially among those who were of blood alien from the
Goths; the others bore short spears, and feathered broad arrows,
and clubs bound with iron, and knives and axes, but not every man
of them had a sword. Few iron helms they had and no ringed byrnies,
but most had a buckler at their backs with no sign or symbol on
it.
    Thus then set forth the fighting men of the
House of the Wolf toward the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark where
the hosting was to be, and by then they were moving up along the
side of Mirkwood-water it was somewhat past high-noon.
    But the stay-at-home people who had come
down with them to the meadow lingered long in that place; and much
foreboding there was among them of evil to come; and of the old
folk, some remembered tales of the past days of the Markmen, and
how they had come from the ends of the earth, and the mountains
where none dwell now but the Gods of their kindreds; and many of
these tales told of their woes and