Shieldwall-tenoke -

Later, songs would try to wrap Tenoke in the golden cloth of legend—tales of a single warrior who cleaved the line of raiders, or of a castle wall that never yielded. The truth knew another, grimmer beauty: Tenoke was not a person or a place but a pledge. It was the line of shields and hands that did not allow the valley to be unmade. It was the way a child smeared flour on a stranger’s palm and both understood why.