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VI. THE WRAITH OF ODIN.

THE guests were loud, the ale was strong,
King Olaf feasted late and long;
The hoary Scalds together sang;
O'erhead the smoky rafters rang.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang,

The door swung wide, with creak and din;
A blast of cold night-air came in,
And on the threshold shivering stood
A one-eyed guest, with cloak and hood.
Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.
The King exclaimed, "O graybeard pale!
Come warm thee with this cup of ale."
The foaming draught the old man quaffed,
The noisy guests looked on and laughed,
Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.
Then spake the King: "Be not afraid;
Sit here by me." The guest obeyed,
And, seated at the table, told
Tales of the sea, and Sagas old.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.
And ever, when the tale was o'er,
The King demanded yet one more;
Till Sigurd the Bishop smiling said,
"'Tis late, O King, and time for bed."

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang. The King retired; the stranger-guest Followed and entered with the rest; The lights were out, the pages gone, But still the garrulous guest went on.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

As one who from a volume reads,
He spake of heroes and their deeds,
Of lands and cities he had seen,
And stormy gulfs that tossed between.
Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.
Then from his lips in music rolled
The Hamaval of Odin old,

With sounds mysterious as the roar
Of billows on a distant shore.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

"Do we not learn from runes and rhymes
Made by the gods in elder times,
And do not still the great Scalds teach
That silence better is than speech ?"

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.
Smiling at this, the King replied.
"Thy lore is by thy tongue belied.
For never was I so enthralled
Either by Saga-man or Scald."

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

The Bishop said, "Late hours we keep! Night wanes, O King! 'tis time for sleep!' Then slept the King, and then he woke, The guest was gone, the morning broke.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

They found the doors securely barred,
They found the watch-dog in the yard,
There was no footprint in the grass,
And none had seen the stranger pass.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang
King Olaf crossed himself and said:
"I know that Odin the Great is dead;
Sure is the triumph of our Faith,
The one-eyed stranger was his wraith."
Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

VII.-IRON-BEARD.

OLAF the King, one summer morn, Blew a blast on his bugle-horn, Sending his signal through the land of Drontheim.

And to the Hus-Ting held at Mere Gathered the farmers far and near, With their war weapons ready to confront him.

Ploughing under the morning star, Old Iron-Beard in Yriar Heard the summons, chuckling with a low laugh.

He wiped the sweat-drops from his brow, Unharnessed his horses from the plough, And clattering came on horseback to King Olaf. He was the churliest of the churls; Little he cared for king or earis; Bitter as home-brewed ale were his foaming passions.

Hodden-gray was the garb he wore,

And by the Hammer of Thor he swore: He hated the narrow town, and all its fashions. But he loved the freedom of his farm, His ale at night, by the fireside warm, Gudrun his daughter, with her flaxen tresses.

He loved his horses and his herds, The smell of the earth, and the song of birds, His well-filled barns, his brook with its water

cresses.

Huge and cumbersome was his frame;

His beard, from which he took his name, Frosty and fierce. like that of Hymer the Giant.

So at the Hus-Ting he appeared,
The farmer of Yriar, Iron-Beard,
On horseback, with an attitude defiant.

And to King Olaf he cried aloud,
Out of the middle of the crowd,

That tossed about him like a stormy ocean:

"Such sacrifices shalt thou bring,
To Odin and to Thor, O King,

As other kings have done in their devotion!"

King Olaf answered: "I command
This land to be a Christian land;

Here is my Bishop who the folk baptizes!

"But if you ask me to restore Your sacrifices stained with gore, Then will I offer human sacrifices!

"Not slaves and peasants shall they be,
But men of note and high degree,

Such men as Orm of Lyra and Kar of Gryting!"

Then to their Temple strode he in.
And loud behind him heard the din

Of his men-at-arms and the peasants fiercely fighting.

There in the Temple, carved in wood,
The image of great Ódin stood,

And other gods, with Thor supreme among them.

King Olaf smote them with the blade
Of his huge war-axe, gold-inlaid,

And downward shattered to the pavement flung them.

At the same moment rose without,
From the contending crowd, a shout,

A mingled sound of triumph and of wailing.

And there upon the trampled plain
The farmer Iron-Beard lay slain,

Midway between the assailed and the assailing.

King Olaf from the doorway spoke : "Choose ye between two things, my folk, To be baptized or given up to slaughter!"

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Like the drifting snow she sweeps
To the couch where Olaf sleeps;
Suddenly he wakes and stirs,

His eyes meet hers.

"What is that," King Olaf said,
"Gleams so bright above thy head?
Wherefore standest thou so white
In pale moonlight?"

""Tis the bodkin that I wear
When at night I bind my hair;
It woke me falling on the floor;
'Tis nothing more.

"Forests have ears, and fields have eyes, Often treachery lurking lies Underneath the fairest hair!

Gudrun beware!"

Ere the earliest peep of morn
Blew King Olaf's bugle-horn;
And forever sundered ride
Bridegroom and bride!

IX.-THANGBRAND THE PRIEST.
SHORT of stature, large of limb,
Burly face and russet beard,
All the women stared at him,
When in Iceland he apeared.
"Look!" they said,
With nodding head,

"There goes Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest." All the prayers he knew by rote,

He could preach like Chrysostome,
From the Fathers he could quote,
He had even been at Rome.
A learned clerk,
A man of mark,

Was this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
He was quarrelsome and loud,
And impatient of control,
Boisterous in the market-crowd,
Boisterous at the wassail-bowl,
Everywhere

Would drink and sweer, Swaggering Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.

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Satires scrawled

On poor Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
Something worse they did than that;
And what vexed him most of all
Was a figure in shovel hat,

Drawn in charcoal on the wall;
With words that go
Sprawling below,

"This is Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest."

Hardly knowing what he did,

Then he smote them might and main, Thorvald Veile and Veterlid

Lay there in the alehouse slain.

"To-day we are gold, To-morrow mould!" Muttered Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest

Much in fear of axe and rope,

Back to Norway sailed he then, "O King Olaf! little hope

Is there of these Iceland men!"
Meekly said,

With bending head,

Pious Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.

X.-RAUD THE STRONG.

"ALL the old gods are dead,
All the wild warlocks fled;

But the White Christ lives and reigns,
And throughout my wide domains
His Gospel shall be spread!"

On the Evangelists
Thus swore King Olaf.

But still in dreams of the night
Beheld he the crimson light,
And heard the voice that defied
Him who was crucified,
And challenged him to the fight.
To Sigurd the Bishop
King Olaf confessed it.

And Sigurd the Bishop said,
"The old gods are not dead,
For the great Thor still reigns,
And among the Jarls and Thanes

The old witchcraft still is spread."
Thus to King Olaf

Said Sigurd the Bishop.

"Far north in the Salten Fiord,

By rapine, fire, and sword,

Lives the Viking, Raud the Strong;
All the Godoe Isles belong

To him and his heathen horde."
Thus went on speaking
Sigurd the Bishop.

"A warlock, a wizard was he,
And lord of the wind and the sea;
And whichever way he sails,
He has ever favouring gales,
By his craft in sorcery.'

Here the sign of the cross made
Devoutly King Olaf.

"With rites that we both abhur,
He worships Odin and Thor;
So it cannot yet be said,
That all the old gods are dead,
And the warlocks are no more,"
Flushing with anger

Said Sigurd the Bishop.

Then King Olaf cried aloud:

"I will talk with this mighty Raud,
And along the Salten Fiord
Preach the Gospel with my sword,
Or be brought back in my shroud!"
So northward from Drontheim
Sail King Olaf!"

XI.--BISHOP SIGURD AT SALTEN FIORD.

LOUD the angry wind was wailing
As King Olaf's ships dame sailing
Northward out of Drontheim haven

To the mouth of Salten Fiord.
Though the flying sea-spray drenches
Fore and aft the rowers' benches,
Not a single heart is craven

Of the champions there on board.
All without the Fiord was quiet,
But within it storm and riot,
Such as on his Viking cruises

Raud the Strong was wont to ride.
And the sea through all its tide-ways,
Swept the reeling vessels sideways,
As the leaves are swept through sluices,
When the flood-gates open wide.
"'Tis the warlock! 'tis the demon
Raud!" cried Sigurd to the seamen ;
"But the Lord is not affrighted

By the witchcraft of his foes."
To the ship's bow he ascended,
By his choristers attended,
Round him were the tapers lighted,
And the sacred incense rose.
On the bow stood Bishop Sigurd,
In his robes, as one transfigured,
And the Crucifix he planted

High amid the rain and mist.
Then with holy water sprinkled
All the ship; the mass-bells tinkled:
Loud the monks around him chanted,
Loud he read the Evangelist.

As into the Fiord they darted,
Off each side the water parted,
Down a path like silver molten

Steadily rowed King Olaf's ships;
Steadily burned all night the tapers,
And the White Christ through the vapours
Gleamed across the Fiord of Salten,
As through John's Apocalypse,-
Till at last they reached Raud's dwelling
On the little isle of Gelling

Not a guard was at the doorway,

Nor a glimmer of light was seen.
But at anchor, carved and gilded,
Lay the dragon-ship he builded;
"Twas the grandest ship in Norway,

With its crest and scales of green.
Up the stairway, softly creeping,
To the loft where Raud was sleeping,
With their fists they burst asunder

Bolt and bar that held the door.

Drunken with sleep and ale they found him, Dragged him from his bed and bound him While he stared with stupid wonder,

At the look and garb they wore. Then King Olaf said: "O Sea-King! Little time have we for speaking, Choose between the good and evil;

Be baptized, or thou shalt die!"
But in scorn the heathen scoffer
Answered: "I disdain thine offer;
Neither fear I God nor Devil;

Thee and thy Gospel I defy!"
Then between his jaws distended,
When his frantic struggles ended,
Through King Olaf's horn and adder,
Touched by fire, they forced to glide.
Sharp his tooth was as an arrow,
As he gnawed through bone and marrow;
But without a groan or shudder,

Raud the Strong blaspheming died.
Then baptized they all that region,
Swarthy Lap and fair Norwegian,
Far as swims the salmon, leaping,

Up the streams of Salten Fiord.
In their temples Thor and Odin
Lay in dust and ashes trodden,
As King Olaf, onward sweeping,

Preached the Gospel with his sword.
Then he took the carved and gilded
Dragon-ship that Raud had builded,
And the tiller single-handed,

Grasping, steered into the main.
Southward sailed the sea-gulls o'er him,
Southward sailed the ship that bore him,
Till at Drontheim haven landed

Olaf and his crew again.

XII.-KING OLAF'S CHRISTMAS.
AT Drontheim, Olaf the King
Heard the bells of Yule-tide ring,
As he sat in his banquet-hall,
Drinking his nut-brown ale,
With his bearded Berserks hale
And tall.

Three days his Yule-tide feasts
He held with Bishops and Priests,

And his horn filled up to the brim;
But the ale was never too strong,
Nor the Saga-man's tale too long,
For him.

O'er his drinking-horn the sign
He made of the Cross divine,

As he drank and muttered his prayers: But the Berserks evermore

Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor

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And this shall be thy reward.* And he loosened the belt at his waist, And in front of the singer placed His sword.

"Quern-biter of Hakon the Good, Wherewith at a stroke he hewed

The millstone through and through, And Foot-breadth of Thoralf the Strong, Were neither so broad nor so long,

Nor so true."

Then the Sca'd took his harp and sang,
And loud through the music rang
The sound of that shining word;
And the harp-strings a clangour made,
As if they were struck with the blade
Of a sword.

And the Berserks round about
Broke forth into a shout

That made the rafters ring;
They smote with their fists on the board,
And shouted, "Long live the Sword,
And the King!"

But the King said, "O my son,

I miss the bright word in one

Of thy measures and thy rhymes."
And Halfred the Scald replied,
"In another 'twas multiplied"
Three times."

Then King Olaf raised the hilt
Of iron, cross-shaped and gilt,

And said, "Do not refuse;
Count well the gain and the loss,
.Thor's hammer or Christ's cross:
Choose!"

And Halfred the Scald said, "This
In the name of the Lord I kiss,
Who on it was crucified!"
And a shout went round the board,
"In the name of Christ the Lord,
Who died!"

Then over the waste of snows
The noonday sun uprose,

Through the driving mists revealed.
Like the lifting of the Host,
By incense-clouds almost
Concealed.

On the shining wall a vast

And shadowy cross was cast

From the hilt of the lifted sword,

And in foaming cups of ale

The Berserks drank "Was-hacl

To the Lord!"

XIII. THE BUILDING OF THE LONG SERPENT.

THOBBERG SKAFTING, master-builder,
In his ship-yard by the sea,

Whistled, saying, "Twould bewilder
Any man but Thorberg Skafting,
Any man but me!"

Near him lay the Dragon stranded,
Built of old by Raud the Strong,
And King Olaf had commanded
He should build another Dragon,
Twice as large and long.

Therefore whistled Thorberg Skafting,
As he sat with half-closed eyes,
And his head turned sideways, drafting
That new vessel for King Olaf

Twice the Dragon's size.

Round him busily hewed and hammered
Mallet huge and heavy axe;
Workmen laughed and sang and clamoured.
Whirred the wheels, that into rigging
Spun the shining flax!

All this tumult heard the master,

It was music to his ear,
Fancy whispered all the faster,
"Men shall hear of Thorberg Skafting
For a hundred year!"

Workmen sweating at the forges

Fashioned iron bolt and bar,
Like a warlock's midnight orgies
Smoked and bubbled the black cauldron
With the boiling tar.

Did the warlocks mingle in it,

Thorberg Skafting, any curse?
Could you not be gone a minute
But some mischief must be doing,
Turning bad to worse?"

'Twas an ill wind that came wafting,
From his homestead words of woe,
To his farm went Thorberg Skafting,
Oft repeating to his workinen,

Build ye thus and so.

After long delays returning

Came the master back by night; To his ship-yard longing, yearning, Hurried he, and did not leave it

Till the morning's light.

"Come and see my ship, my darling!"
On the morrow said the King:
"Finished now from keel to carling;
Never yet was seen in Norway

Such a wondrous thing!"
In the ship-yard, idly talking,

At the ship the workmen stared; Some one all their labour baulking, Down her side had cut deep gashes,

Not a plank was spared! "Death be to the evil-doer!"

With an oath King Olaf spoke;
"But rewards to his pursuer!"
And with wrath his face grew redder
Than his scarlet cloak.

Straight the master-builder, smiling,
Answered thus the angry King:
"Cease blaspheming and reviling,
Olaf, it was Thorberg Skafting

Who has done this thing!'

Then he chipped and smoothed the planking, Till the King delighted, swore,

With much lauding and much thanking, "Handsomer is now my Dragon

Than she was before!

Seventy ells and four extended

On the grass the vessel's keel, High above it, gilt and splended, Rose the figure-head ferocious

With its crest of steel.

Then they launched her from the tressels,
In the ship-yard by the sea:

She was the grandest of all vessels,
Never ship was built in Norway

Half so fine as she;

The Long Serpent was she christened,
'Mid the roar of cheer on cheer!

They who to the Saga listened
Heard the name of Thorberg Skafting
For a hundred year!

XIV. THE CREW OF THE LONG SERPENT.

SAFE at anchor at Drontheim bay
King Olaf's fleet assembled lay,

And, striped with white and blue,
Downward fluttered sail and banner,
As alights the screaming lanner;
Lustily, cheered, in their wild mammer,
The Long Serpent's crew.

Her forecastle man was Ulf the Red;
Like a wolf was his shaggy head,

His teeth as large and white;
His beard, of gray and russet blended,
Round as a swallow's nest descended;
As standard-bearer he defended
Olaf's flag in the fight.

Near him Kolbiorn had his place,
Like the King in garb and face,
So gallant and so hale:
Every cabin-boy and varlet
Wondered at his cloak of scarlet;
Like a river, frozen and star-lit,
Gleamed his coat of mail.

By the bulkhead, tall and dark,
Stood Thrand Rame of Thelemark,
A figure gaunt and grand;
On his hairy arm imprinted
Was an anchor, azure-tinted:
Like Thor's hammer, huge and dinted
Was his brawny hand.
Einar Tamberskelver, bare
To the winds his golden hair,
By the mainmast stood;
Graceful was his form, and slender,
And his eyes were deep and tender
As a woman's, in the splendour
Of her maidenhood.

In the fore-bold Biorn and Bork
Watched the sailors at their work;
Heavens! how they swore!
Thirty men they each commanded,
Iron-sinewed, horny-handed,
Shoulders broad, and chests expanded,
Tugging at the oar.

These, and many more like these,
With King Olaf sailed the seas,

Till the waters vast

Filled them with a vague devotion,
With the freedom and the motion,
With the roll and roar of ocean
And the sounding blast.

When they landed from the fleet,

How they roared through Drontheim's street, Boisterous as the gale!

How they laughed and stamped and pounded,

Till the tavern roof resounded,

And the host looked on astounded

As they drank the ale!

Never saw the wild North Sea

Such a gallant company

Sail its billows blue!

Never, while they cruised and quarrelled,
Old King Gorm, or Blue-Tooth Harald,
Owned a ship so well apparelled,
Boasted such a crew!

XV. A LITTLE BIRD IN THE AIR.

A LITTLE bird in the air

Is singing of Thyri the fair,
The sister of Svend the Dane:
And the song of the garrulous bird
In the streets of the town is heard,
And repeated again and again,
Hoist up your sails of silk,
And flee away from each other.

To King Burislaf, it is said,
Was the beautiful Thyri wed,

And a sorrowful bride went she;

And after a week and a day,
She has fled away and away.
From this town by the stormy sea.
Hoist up your sails of silk.

And flee away from each other.

They say, that through heat and through cold, Through weald, they say, and through wold,

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