{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/morris/ep2/ep221.htm","path":"neu/morris/ep2/ep221.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/morris/ep2/ep221.htm","text":"The Earthly Paradise, (September-November), by William Morris, [1870]\nRefna hears Women talking.\nSO the days wore with nothing new to tell,\n Till spring-tide once more on the country fell,\n Then on a night as Kiartan to his bed\n Would go, still Refna sat with bowed-down head\n And stirred not, nor a while would speak, when he\n Spake to her in kind words and lovingly;\n At last she lifted up a face, wherein\n Somewhat did trouble upon sorrow win,\n And said: p. 473\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Indeed of all thy grief I knew,\n But deemed if still thou saw\u2019st me kind and true,\n Not asking too much, yet not failing aught\n To show that not far off need love be sought,\n If thou shouldst need love\u2014if thou sawest all this,\n Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss\n Thy whole love was, by giving unto me\n As unto one who loved thee silently,\n Now and again the broken crumbs thereof:\n Alas! I, having then no part in love,\n Knew not how nought, nought can allay the soul\n Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole!\n Kinder than e\u2019er I durst have hoped thou art,\n Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart\n Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou\n Art fain to dream that I am happy now,\n And for that seeming ever do I strive;\n Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive\n To love thee; and I bless it\u2014but at whiles\u2014\"\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So far she spake till her weak quivering smiles\n Faded before the bitterness of love.\n Her face changed, and her passion \u2019gan to move\n Within her breast until the sobs came fast,\n And down upon her hands her face she cast,\n And by the pain of tears her heart did gain\n A little respite; nor might she refrain\n From weeping yet, when Kiartan's arms she felt\n About her, and for long her fair lips dwelt p. 474\n With hungry longing on his lips, and he\n Spake to her:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"O poor lover, long may we\n Live upon earth, till lover and beloved\n Each is to each, by one desire moved;\n And whereas thou dost say to me, Forgive,\n Forgive me rather! A short while to live\n Once seemed the longest life of man to me,\n Wherein my love of the old years to see;\n But could I die now, and be born again\n To give my whole heart up to ease thy pain,\n A short while would I choose to live indeed.\n But is it not so, sweet, that thou hast need\n To tell me of a thing late seen or heard?\n Surely by some hap thy dear heart is stirred\n From out its wonted quiet; ease thine heart\n And \u2019twixt us twain thy fear and grief depart!\"\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She looked up: \"Yea, kind love, I thought to tell\n Of no great thing that yesterday befell.\n Why should I vex thee with it? Yet thy fame,\n If I must say the word, in question came\n Therein. Yet prithee, mark it not too much!\"\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He smiled and said: \"Nay, be the tidings such\n As mean my death, speak out and hide not aught!\"\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She sat a little while, as though she thought\n How best to speak, then said: \"The day being good, p. 475\n About noon yesterday in peaceful mood\n I wandered by the brook-side, and at last\n Behind a great grey stone myself I cast,\n And slept, as fate would have it; when I woke\n At first I did but note the murmuring brook,\n But as my hearing and my sight did clear\n The sound of women's voices did I hear,\n And in the stream two maidens did I see,\n Our housefolk, and belike they saw not me,\n Since I lay low adown, and up the stream\n Their faces turned; I from a half-sweet dream,\n I know not what, awaked, no sooner heard\n Their first word, than sick-hearted and afeard\n I grew, the cold and evil world to feel\n So hard it seemed, love, my life to deal:\n Bitterly clear I saw; as if alone\n And dead, I saw the world; by a grey stone\n Within the shallows, washing linen gear\n They stood; their voices sounded sharp and clear;\n Half smiles of pleasure and of goodlihead,\n Shone on their faces, as their rough work sped;\n O God, how bright the world was!\"\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A flush came\n Across her face; as stricken by some shame\n She stammered, when she went on: \"Thus their speech,\n Broken amid their work mine ear did reach\n As I woke up to care, for the one said,\n 'Yea, certes, now has Kiartan good end made\n Of all his troubles, things go well enow.' p. 476\n 'Over well,' said the other, 'didst thou know?'\n 'Know what?' the first one said, 'What knowst thou then?'\n 'Nay, nought except the certain talk of men.'\n 'Well, hear I not men too, what wilt thou say?'\n She said, 'Men talk that this is latter May,\n And Kiartan sitteth still and nought is done\n For the two thefts of Bathstead to atone.'\n 'Fool!' saith the first one, 'shall all fall to strife\n For what in no wise maketh worse their life?'\n 'Well, well, and what will Refna say thereto?\n Things had been otherwise a while ago;\n Scarce Kiartan's brother had stripped Gudrun's head\n Of what she loved, and yet \u2019scaped lying dead\n By this time. Ospak, sure, is safe enow.'\n 'Ah!' said the other, 'great things sayest thou!'\n 'True words I speak, when this I say to thee,\n That glad would Gudrun and our Kiartan be\n If Bodli Thorleikson and Refna lay\n Dead on the earth upon the selfsame day;\n And this from all men's daily talk I draw;\n Old friends are last to sever, saith the saw.'\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"This was the last word that I heard, O love,\n For from the place softly I \u2019gan to move\n Ere they might see me, and my feet, well taught\n To know the homeward way, my body brought\n Unto my bower; yet scarce I saw the way,\n Rather some place beneath the sod, where lay p. 477\n A few white bones, unnamed, unheeded, while\n Hard by within this bower \u2019twixt word and smile\n Was breast strained unto breast of twain I knew\u2014\n \u2014And needs must part awhile, that I might rue\n My life, my death, my bitter useless birth.\n O Kiartan, over-weary seemed the earth\n Yesterday and to-day; too hard to bear\n Within thine home to be, and see thee. near,\n And think that but for very kindness thou\n Must wish me dead\u2014thou didst not note me, how\n My face was worn with woe throughout that tide,\n Though most men looked on me\u2014for thou must bide\n A weary waiting, and thy woe untold\n Must make thy face at whiles seem hard and cold.\n \u2014Ah me! forgive me that I talk of this!\n Think how my heart ached!\"\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For now kiss on kiss\n Did Kiartan shower upon her quivering face,\n Yet, even as their arms did interlace,\n Despite his love and pity, of past years\n He needs must think, of wasted sighs and tears\n And hopes all fallen to nought, and vows undone,\n And many a pleasure from his life seemed gone;\n And sorely his heart smote him for her faith\n So pure and changeless; her love strong as death,\n As kind as God, that nought should satisfy\n Till all the shows of earth had passed her by.","title":"The Earthly Paradise (September-November): The Lovers of Gudrun: Refna hears Women talking","type":"page"}