A white reindeer had appeared on Sunfell, and the hunter who followed it had not been seen again.

By day, too, there was a brooding of hawks on the tide's edge, which was strange at that season.

Worst portent of all, the floods of August were followed by high north-east winds that swept the clouds before them, so that all day the sky was a scurrying sea of vapour, and at night the moon showed wild grey shapes moving ever to the west.

The dullest could not mistake their meaning; these were the dark horses, and their riders, the Helmed Maidens, mustering for the battle to which Hightown was faring.
As Biorn stared one night at the thronged heavens, he found Leif by his elbow.

In front of the dark company of the sky a white cloud was scudding, tinged with the pale moon.