"What is this?" he said. "There are moon-letters here, beside the plain runes which say 'five feet high the door and three may walk abreast.' "
---
"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole."
"Durin, Durin!" said Thorin. "He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and my first ancestor: I am his heir."
"Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond.
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But this will not help us much, I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."
---
"Last leaf of the year."
--
"The last leaf of autumn."
--
"The asteroid has been named Attila, after the war leader of the Huns, who devastated Europe just before the fall of the Roman Empire."
--
And so now, when their hearts are-brought anigh to each other, great cheer they made: then came Grimhild to Gudrun, and spake.
"All hail to thee, daughter! I give thee gold and all kinds of good things to take to thee after thy father, dear bought rings and bed-gear of the maids of the Huns, the most courteous and well dight of all women; and thus is thy husband atoned for: and thereafter shalt thou be given to Atli, the mighty king, and be mistress of all his might. Cast not all thy friends aside for one man's sake, but do according to our bidding."
Gudrun answers, "Never will I wed Atli the King; unseemly it is for us to get offspring betwixt us."
Grimhild says, "Nourish not thy wrath; it shall be to thee as if Sigurd and Sigmund were alive when thou hast borne sons."
Gudrun says, "I cannot take my heart from thoughts of him, for he was the first of all men."
--
"Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropical skies."