Two things of beauty I name, three things that bring great joy: smoke from an altar, the flash of iron, the company of the mead horn.
Three fools for the feast: a trickster, a juggler, a mead-mouthed warrior.
Three famines at a feast: an empty plate, a dry cask, a man with no story to tell.
(as much a warning against empty tales as silence).
A feast of feasts, great joy in my telling: Orlanth your Host, Minlister your barrel man, and Roitina dancing free!
('With a Hey! With a Ho! With a Nonny Nonny Le!...")
Three joys in the tasting: Colymar wine, Lismelder beer, and the sweet river water where freedom dwells.
(a subtle allusion to the banned freedom ballad 'Cold Wind Over Sartar',
with its mournful chorus, 'only our rivers run free').
Three smiles that bring no joy: the smile of a raider, the smile of an uroxi in his cups, the smile of an alynx ready to leap.
Three wealths of the fortunate; a wealth of kin, a wealth of cattle, a wealth of gods.
Three wealths of the well-armed: the wealth of neighbours, the wealth of enemies, the wealth of monsters.
Three wealths of the Bull: beer, boasting, and pain without ceasure. (Uroxi)
Three wealths of the Sword: honour, blood, and loneliness. (Humakti).
Three wealths of the Storm Tribe: Generosity, Courage, and Change. Three wealths of the Earth Tribe: Wisdom, Plenty, and Power. Three wealths of the joined tribes: Generosity in Wisdom, Courage in Plenty, Power in Change.
Three taboos for a chief: a feast hall lacking ale, a weaponthane lacking torcs, a fyrd lacking a champion.
Three harsh things at the hearth: burnt stew, a scolding hearthmistress, a sullen steadmaid*.
(*a steadmaiden is a minor air daimon responsible for clearing smoke - a
sullen steadmaid means a smoky hearth!)
nysalor_at_... John Hughes
His eyes like furnace doors ajar.
When he had got its weight
and let his industry console his grief a bit,
'I'll fight'
he said. Simple as that. 'I'll fight.'
And so Troy fell.
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