{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/dun/fotd/fotd30.htm","path":"neu/dun/fotd/fotd30.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/fotd/fotd30.htm","text":"Fifty-one Tales, by Lord Dunsany, [1915]\nTHE RETURN OF SONG\n\"The swans are singing again,\" said to one another the gods. And looking downwards, for my dreams had taken me to some fair and far Valhalla, I saw below me an iridescent bubble not greatly larger than a star shine beautifully but faintly, and up and up from it looking larger and larger came a flock of white, innumerable swans, singing and singing and singing, till it seemed as though even the gods were wild ships swimming in music.\n\"What is it?\" I said to one that was humble among the gods.\n\"Only a world has ended,\" he said to me, \"and the swans are coming back to the gods returning the gift of song.\"\n\"A whole world dead!\" I said.\n\"Dead,\" said he that was humble among the gods. \"The worlds are not for ever; only song is immortal.\"\n\"Look! Look!\" he said. \"There will be a new one soon.\"\nAnd I looked and saw the larks, going down from the gods.","title":"Fifty-one Tales: The Return of Song","type":"page"}