The three, the two ancients and the King, went through the pass despite the fierce wind and the rolling rocks, and climbed up a set of natural stairs to a yet higher pass, until they were so high and the cliff so sheer there was no way over them except for birds.
Then they came to Motestead, the holiest place of the Folk of the Door, and climbed the snow-covered mound. There the two ancients turned about and for the first time the King could see their great age in their faces, and yet they were exceedingly fair and looked upon him with love. The carle said, "We have brought thee to the Holy Place that we might say a word to you..."
The elder revealed that he was the very sire of the race of the Folk of the Door and his mate their mother. He set a weird upon the King's child, Host-lord, that unless he married who he willed he would be childless, and warned that the boy would be in great danger from the time he was fifteen until he was twenty-two.
The King listened, then asked how his son might avoid the danger.
Yet again the carle sang, telling of the Fair Fountain and the Dale of the Tower:
"...Merry the hearts in the Mountain
Dales shepherd-men keep..."
The King had heard of these things but did not know where they might be. He asked if the carle meant his son should seek them out, build a tower, and dwell there while he was in danger.
The carle sang:
"...Thy stem of of all others
Were planted to grow
Beside the Fair Fountain,
How fain were those men
Of the God of the Mountain
So come back again."
Once more the King had a question, but the carle cried out, "Look, look! Who is the shining one who cometh up the path?" The King turn, drawing his sword, but there was no one there and the ancient pair were gone. So he went home as quickly as he might, for it was near dawn and cold, but he was glad indeed to have seen the God and Father of his Folk.
Here ends Morris' version of the great tale we have already considered part of in the Andrew Lang version. Next time I will discuss how heavily Morris and this legend of the North influenced Tolkien when he wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
(to be continued)