When I was young drying dishes as my father washed, he used to recite VIctorian heroic poetry. Sometimes it was Macauley's Lay of Horatius, but sometimes it was Morris's Sigurd.. I can still hear him doing the appearance of Odin at Sigmund's last battle ""a mighty man there came, One-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shone like flame; Gleaming-grey was his kirtle, and his hood was cloudy blue; And he bore a mighty twi-bill, as he waded the fight-sheaves through." What I recalled especially was the "one-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shown like flame." But reading the whole passage, I wonder if the grey cloak and blue hood suggested Gandalf's grey cloak and blue hat in the opening of The Hobbit.I was inspired to finally buy this after over 40 years of wanting to, by reading the discussion of it in Abercrombie's The Epic --he says the first bookaboutf Sigmund is as good as modern English epic could be, though the later parts have too much talk. ( )