midday
Whose art thou ? Yea , even if that had been but a dream that I have dreamed , yet would that this fair woman were my sister ! ' So came they to the Yew-wood , and the brethren fell to work , and the Bride with them , for she was deft with the axe and strong withal . But at midday they rested on the green slope without the Yew-wood ; and they ate bread and flesh and onions and apples , and drank red wine of the Dale . And while they were resting after their meat , the Bride sang to them , and her song was a lay of time past ; and here ye have somewhat of it : ’T is over the hill and over the dale Men ride from the city fast and far , If they may have a soothfast tale , True tidings of the host of war . And first they hap on men-at-arms , All clad in steel from head to foot : Now tell true tale of the new-come harms , And the gathered hosts of the mountain-root . Fair sirs , from murder-carles we flee , Whose fashion is as the mountain-trolls ' ; No man can tell how many they be , And the voice of their host as the thunder rolls .