Felix Dahn

“ I have sworn by the infernal gods, as I crossed thy threshold, that here, in Iceland, I will win thy love, or die."
Then Halfred arose from his couch, and spoke--
"Wisdom and madness mingled hast thou spoken. There speaks from thee more than Sudha. There speaks a soul stricken of the gods.
Horror and compassion seize upon me. I will demand thy freedom from King Hartstein. Then journey homewards to Halagoland.
There mayest thou find happiness in the arms of some valiant hero.
But here, let Dame Harthild's rights and hearth be sacred unto thee. Disturb not her happiness." ”

“ And when thou dreamingly sweepest the strings of thy harp, thou gazest
Not in Dame Harthild's cold hard face, but upwards towards the stars.
Halfred, not in the clouds dwelleth that for which thou yearnest.
Not from the stars shall it float down upon thee; upon the earth it wanders,
It is a woman, who with love's charm, with woman's magic, can subdue the Singing Swan--
Woe to thee if thou never findest her--
What though thou win all fame with sword and harp--the best is still denied thee. ”

“ Come, Halfred, Sigskald, arouse thyself! This silence and brooding is evil. Dwelling-house and Mead hall the fire has burnt--the axe will build them up. Harps, there are many still upon the earth, and the Singing Swan spreads out her hardly singed pinions. Come, Halfred, drink! Here I have brought thee from the Greek spoils of the Singing Swan a cup of Chios wine, which thou ever lovedst. Drink, speak, and live!"
Halfred stood up with a sigh, took the cup from Hartvik's hand, and poured the wine slowly upon the grave; the earth drank it greedily in. ”

“ We will compel thee."
"Ye compel me!" cried Halfred, also now in a louder voice. "Murder and revolt on board the Singing Swan! What saith the Viking code? Like a dog shall he hang by the neck at the mast head who secretly stirs up disobedience to the ship's lord."
"To the ship's lord, yes, when madness crazes him not," shouted Eigil again.
"Darest thou to speak of rights, Halfred Hamundson?
"Only because madness and magic excuse thee, have we not long since asserted our rights against thee: thou, who every word and bond of right hast broken. We demand our rights. ”

“ Halfred was silent. Fearfully swelled his temple veins; but he thought of Thora. "She sleeps," he whispered. "Say softly what ye have to say. I listen."
"Halfred, our dear blood brother," continued Hartvik softly. "Thou liest spell bound in the toils of a woman who--I will verily not revile her, for I love her more ardently than my own heart's blood--whatever she may be, a mortal woman undoubtedly is not. ”

“ And the flame marks on the Swan's wings were effaced, and mast and spars must always be wreathed with flowers, for Thora loved flowers.
But the young wife had eyes for Halfred alone. She spoke but few words; but with sweet smiles she often whispered--
"Yes, verily, thou art the Son of Heaven. Mortal men, such as I have often seen in my father's hall, could never be at once so strong and so gentle. Thou art like the sea a furious irresistible God, and withal a lovely dreaming child." ”

“ Canst thou here sound the praise,
In Halfred's mead hall?"
Then said Vandrad--
"For all that thou knowest,
Thou far roaming Viking,
Hast thou never heard Harthild's
Descent and renown
Proclaimed on the harp?
From Upsala's ancient
Deep rooted stem
The maiden is sprung.
Hartstein the Haggard,
Men call her father,
The powerful monarch
Of far spreading fame.
His daughter close guarded
He haughtily holds;
All wooers rejecting,
Who cannot excel him
In throwing the hammer.
And no less the maiden
All men avoideth,
Man-like her own mood. ”

“ Halfred saw him falling downwards, straight upon himself, and opened wide his strong arms to receive the light burden. But lo!--a miracle. In the rapid fall the buckle broke which fastened over the breast Thoril's white linen garment; wide outspreading, down over the shoulders, fell the garment; at the same moment fell the net which confined the golden hair--a rich flood of waving tresses spread themselves over the shining neck and swelling breast.
"A woman art thou? a maiden?" shouted Halfred exultingly. "Thanks to ye, O stars. Yes; this is Love's fullness." ”

“ The boat in which Halfred stood he recognised as the smaller boat of the Singing Swan. Evidently his sailing comrades had dragged the half-burned maniac from the burning ship, and saved him.
They had abandoned him to the Gods whom he had blasphemed, and in whom they believed, to be saved by them, or perish. But no more fellowship would they have with a man stricken by the heaviest of curses--madness.
For mad Halfred was, from the hour when he sprang into the flames, and the mast struck him, until shortly before his death. ”

“ And Halfred landed upon the small rocky island; he found a fitting bay, and drew his boat high up upon the white sand of the shore.
And then there came floating to him on the air something which was strange and yet well known to him. Only under the golden stars of Greece and Rome had he ever heretofore enjoyed the intoxication of such fragrance.
There is, that is to say, a flower of the delicate hue of a maiden's cheek, "Rosa" the Latins call it, and its fragrance is as the kiss of pure maiden lips. ”

“ Halfred dreaded that he might terrify the gentle harper if he stepped suddenly out of the thicket before him.
Therefore he called to him first, from a distance, in a soft voice, slowly drawing nearer.
"Hail, gentle boy! If thou art mortal, may the Gods be gracious to thee. If thou art thyself a God, or as I surmise one of the light elves, then be not ungracious to me, a mortal man." ”

“ He thrust the blood stained hammer into his belt, and kneeled beside Thora, pillowing on his breast her face, which had become whiter than ever before.
"It was too much to bear and to hear at once. The frightful hailstones of this curse have struck the white rose too heavily."
Then she opened her eyes, and murmured, "Not for me, only for thee, have the horrors of this curse overwhelmed me."
"She lives! she lives! Praise to you, ye gracious Gods," exulted Halfred, "It could not be that she should die for the crimes of others. ”

“ Then broke loose a fighting and devastation in the hall so gigantic, say the heathen people, that the like shall never be seen again until the twilight of the gods, when all demons and giants, goblins and elves, gnomes, menkind, and pigmies, shall slay each other, and heaven, earth and hell shall perish in flames.
Harthild in her burning clothes, was carried out by her shrieking women. One only was missing. Sudha sprang through flames and arms to where Halfred lay on his blood-brethren's knees.
"Dead," she cried; "Slain by Sudha. Then share we death, if not life." ”

“ Rather the question which had driven my dear father even to madness, if there be a God, or Gods? And how it could be that such fearful things should come to pass as are here set down in this history, from the vow upon the Bragi cup, on to this great horror, that the son had slain his own father. These questionings seized upon me, and would not let me rest, any more than my dear father.
And as my dear father of yore looked up to the stars, and implored the heathen Gods for enlightenment, so also did I look up to the stars for illumination, praying to Christ and the saints. ”

“ And over the whole of Iceland, and the islands all around, there was much talk about the Singing Swan, which "Oski"1 himself--that is the god of the heathen people--had sent to Halfred Hamundson. "He is the son of Oski; nothing shall miscarry with him, be it man's hate, or woman's love, in sword thrusts, or in harp playing; great treasure and rich Skald rewards shall he win, and his gentle hand can take and spend, but keep nothing." ”

“ Hear me, ye good all ruling Gods, and ye glittering all seeing stars of heaven; and of men-kind upon earth, Hartvik and Eigil, my blood brethren!
Here I renounce, on account of the awful calamity which I have drawn down upon wife and child, and many hundred friends and strangers, I renounce for ever happiness and joy, song, wine, and the love of women. ”

“ And she drew Halfred's dagger from his belt, and plunged it in her own breast.
"Slain Halfred! by my babbling tongue. Sudha slain!" cried Vandrad the Skald. "I will avenge thee, Halfred."
And he tore a casting spear from the trophies hanging on the flame-wreathed wooden pillars, and hurled it whistling at the temples of King Hartstein, so that he fell dead.
Wildly shouted the people of Tiunderland, and their near kindred from West Gothaland, for vengeance for Harthild and King Hartstein. ”

“ But many many years must he have wandered in madness.
He told me, moreover, that he saw only before his eyes how Thora fell from the mast; and how the flames seized her head and hair. And that he could only think one single thought. "There are no Gods. Were there Gods I must have slain them.
"So must I slay all human beings who believe in Gods; for blotted out from the earth shall be the name and remembrance of the Gods." ”

“ I thank thee that thou hast released me from madness, and an evil life.
"I can, to requite thee, as all my heritage, leave thee only this hammer. Guard it faithfully.
"Whether there be Gods--I know not. Methinks that men can never search it out. But I tell thee, my son, whether Gods live or not, hammer throwing, and harp playing, and sunshine, and the kiss of woman, these are the rewards of life.
"Mayest thou win a wife who is but a faint reflection of Thora. ”

“ Silently, with folded arms, Halfred sat upon the upper deck, his eyes rigidly fixed upon the flower mound.
Swift as an arrow flew the burning ship before the wind. The fire had rapidly consumed the dried wood grass, and Thora's form and face were fully visible. Then Halfred saw how the scorching flames seized upon Thora's long floating golden hair. "That was the last thing," he said to me, "that I saw for a long time."
In unutterable anguish he sprang up, and rushed all along the burning ship, straight through the flames, to Thora, He sprang upon the flower mound to embrace the body. ”

“ There above, on the cliff, I see falling the glittering spray of a silver rill--amidst alders, amidst wild roses it springs. There above, it is cool and shady. Easily shall we find a grotto in the rock. I long for that fresh spring water. And there above, to the left, nod dark sweet berries--they quench the thirst, and young boys love them. Let us climb up. I will gladly aid thee."
And slowly they climbed the steep face of the cliff. Thoril now aided, now followed by Halfred. ”

“ She must be healed, as surely as the Gods live. Had Thora perished for mine, for other men's guilt; with this hammer must I have slain all the Gods."
And tenderly and softly, as a mother a sick child, the mighty man raised his young wife in both arms, and bore her, treading softly, down the steps.
But once more before she left the deck, Thora opened her eyes. She saw Halfred stained all over with blood. She recognised, by their armour and clothing, the bodies of Hartvik and Eigil, with frightfully shattered heads. She saw the whole deck strewn with dead. ”

“ The Singing Swan hath paired thee with the vulture's brood. Thou chosest the hard flint stone, near to it lay glowing at thy feet the rose, exhaling fragrance towards thee."
Then Halfred sprang upon his horse, and cried to the veiled one--
"Nobler hold I it in a woman to be too cold, than too ardent." ”

“ And also the many splendid fruit trees which the Roman heroes had brought with them from the south and the east, were in full bloom.
And from every shrub and tree resounded the sweet tones of the grey brown singing bird, which the Latins call "Luscinia," the Greeks "Philomela," but we, the "Nightingale."
And Halfred strode upwards and inland, by the side of a clear rapid stream, which flowed over white pebbles, through light green copsewood. On the height he came to a transparent copse of alders, young beeches, and slender white birches. ”

“ And forthwith King Hartstein assembled all his courtiers, and the women of the castle, and the guests, in the hall, for the riddle solving.
And Harthild arose from the arm chair at his right hand, and her face grew crimson as she looked at Halfred, which--as they declare--had never before happened to her at the challenging of her riddle.
She paused for a space, looked downwards, then again upon Halfred, and now with searching and defiant eyes. And she began--
"What is held in Valhalla?
What is hidden in Hell?
What hammers in hammer?
And heads the strong helm? ”

“ Preventing him, however, the shepherd swung his sling; whirring flew the sharp stone; it was a sharp hard three-edged flint stone--I had carefully reserved it for some great peril--and alas! alas--woe is me, only too truly did it strike. Without a sound Halfred fell, where he stood, on his back under the ash tree, himself like to a suddenly felled tree.
With a few bounds the shepherd reached the prostrate form, cautiously holding his spear before him, lest the enemy should suddenly spring up again. For it might be that he only artfully feigned to be wounded. ”