“Say thou right

if see thou canst,

and tell it truthfully ere tumult come:

When, if ever,

Wand-Bearer,

shall my love my lay embrace?”

“Have patience, warrior

wild and smitten,

for love lives by its own lilt.

The time will come,

and come it will,

when to thee she will yield her yearning.”

“Say thou right

and say it quick,

ere tumult trip me into tempest:

seeress, might

her heart melt

and take my tribute tonight?”

“Bear-Shirt bold,

forbear, be wise,

thy lady love to look for.

Patience hold,

perseverance claim –

for on the morrow will thy maiden mourn you.”

“Nay, Seer-Dame,

say it is not so –

surely victory, Völva, invitest!

My foe dispatched,

my fair one wooed,

on the morrow must we be married!”

“Noble Wolf-Coat,

know this true:

never lived there love more lively

than that eternal

which throbs, as yet unseen,

in the beauty breast of thy beloved.

“For young is she

and trusts thee shielded

from fiend and fearsome foe.

But when art vanquished,

by Valhall embraced,

for thee will her love ever last.”

“Then let it be so,

blessed Light-Bearer,

and hie me hence to battle,

where, pierced through,

my pain shall end,

happy in the knowledge of her heart.”

And so slept he

in peace, soundly,

confident of clash and contest

where, though he fall,

yet would he thankful be

for the eternal, the everlasting, the enduring.

And when later, life spent,

his beloved too gave o’er,

elegant to the embrace of the eternal,

Their Frigga-love,

in Freya’s heart too,

was in truth from towers trumpeted.

So say it right

if see thou canst,

and tell it truthfully ere tumult come:

look beyond thy pleasure,

beloved friend,

to the eternal brideship which beckons from beyond.