She was not raised in garden of peace, where  sunbeams play in blooming trees. She was told  to be born in battle and brought up among   dismal and death. Skilled in the craft of killing   and fight, the girl learned to bear weapons and  a sword did she yield. No worse than her peers   she held up her shield and grew into a maiden,   a fair one and strong. And there among warriors   all grim-faced and tall she eventually found her   life and her love. And in an ancient old forest of  green they used to meet in their ardour and lust.   They embraced each other and only the trees   heard their sighs full of pleasure shared under   the veil of the moon...    Yet they had to part soon as the battlefield   called and brought them apart for many a  league and for months she was sundered from  his godly voice and this is the song that she sang :    Ho! To the battle I went  And killed many a mightier men  (and even a troll!)  And my sorrow withdrew  As I drowned my woes  In the deaths of my enemies  And the blood of my foes    Victories healed her and gave her the strength to rival the severance and the grief of long nights...  Once roaming along an old brook in the wood, she heard voices and sound of a battle not far -  so unsheathing her sword the maid hastened for help and could not believe her emerald eyes when  she percieved Him lying in the rushes alone with crimson red cloud of blood spreading around,  all pierced with sharp arrows and hewn into parts. To the ancient green forest had he evidently   returned to seek shades of their happiness long left behind, but ambushed by enemies and  grievously wounded he was as she leant over him and wept...The shield-maid mourned long  beside his deep grave, dug by her own hands in a shadowy meadow in the ancient forest of  menacing old. And this is her last lamenting chant :    Now to my final battle I must go  All I ever had is now buried and lost  And he whom I cherished has taken my strength  Away to the halls where life never ends   There now I shall follow and meet him again  And among the undying flowers and trees   We'll walk hand in hand in the gardens of death