~ Historical & Classical Poetry ~
Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead
Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
‘She must weep or she will die.’
Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.
Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee—
Like summer tempest came her tears—
‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1809-1892)
Image: Franz Staffen, in: "Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen",
published by Ludwig
Schroeter, 1922
Notes: The theme is taken from the two Lays of Gudrun; the
child in the poem is Tennyson´s addition.