The courtmen whom I had loved came,
and they ranged themselves across the deck, and I watched them, and
felt no wonder that they should be here. Surely my longings had
called them, and they came. So I and they all bided still for a
little while; and then the courtmen raised their weapons toward me
as in salute, and drifted from the deck into the white mists over
the water, and were gone. Then those two mighty brethren of mine
smiled on me, with a still smile, and so they, too, were gone, and
only my father was left; and he, too, rose up, and stood before me
where the brothers had been, and it seemed to me that he spoke to
me.
"Now are you the last of our line, the line which goes back to
Odin, my son; and on you it lies that no dishonour shall fall on
that line, which has never yet been stained. And we trust you. So
be strong, for there are deeds to be done yet in the days that lie
before you."
Then he set his hand on my shoulder, and passed to join those
others, and how I do not know. I was alone.
Then a longing to be with them again came over me, and I rose and
stretched my hands to the place where I had seen them, but there
was nothing--until I turned a little, looking for them; and then I
knew that there was one who would speak to me yet.
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