“ There shine upon the second shield
A hammer and pincers bright;
Them carries Vidrik Verlandson,
Ne’er gives he quarter in fight.
There shines upon the third good shield
A falcon, blazing with gold;
And that by Helled Hogan is borne;
No knight, than he, more bold.
There shines upon the fourth good shield
An eagle, and that is red;
Is borne by none but Olger, the Dane;
He strikes his foemen dead.
There shines upon the fifth good shield
A couchant hawk, on a wall;
That’s borne by Master Hildebrand;
He tries, with heroes, a fall. ”

“ Come with us to our halls of princely mirth,
“There thou shalt learn from us the Runic lay;
But dip thee, first, in yonder crystal wave,
Which binds thee to the Elfin race for aye:
“Though painted flowers on earth’s breast abound,
Yet we have far more lovely ones below;
Like grass the chrysolites there strew the ground.”
“O come,” the other syren did exclaim,
“For rubies there more red than roses grow—
The sapphir’s blue the violet puts to shame.”
I rais’d my eyes to heaven’s starry dome,
And gripp’d my faulchion with convulsive might,
Resolv’d no witchcraft should my mind o’ercome. ”

“ Oluf and his spiteful elves,
Of that wise dame, in true love need,
Who of the clear stream formed the steed—
How youthful Svend, in sorrow sharp,
The inspired strings rent from his harp;
And Sivard, in his cloak of felt,
Danced with the green oak at his belt—
Or sing the Sorceress of the wood,
The amorous Merman of the flood—
Or elves that, o’er the unfathomed stream,
Sport thick as motes in morning beam—
Or bid me sail from Iceland Isle,
With Rosmer and fair Ellenlyle,
What time the blood-crow’s flight was south,
Bearing a man’s leg in its mouth. ”

“ To form for a dead man a shirt or a sheet.
The heroes return’d from the well-foughten field,
And bore home Sir Frovin’s corse, laid on a shield;
Sad sight for the maid! but she still was alert,
And sew’d round the body the funeral shirt:
And when she had come to the very last stitch,
Her feelings, so long suppress’d, rose to a pitch,
The cold clammy sweat from her features outbroke;
Death struck her, and meekly she bow’d to the stroke.
She rests with her lover now deep in the grave,
And o’er them the beeches their mossy boughs wave ”

“ The gay little birds of the forest began to warble, forthwith, in the valley.
“Now, listen thou fair-headed swain, and if thou wilt stand up and dance for a minute,
We’ll teach thee to open the sorcerer’s book, and to read all the Runic that’s in it.
“The bear and the wolf thou shalt trammel, unto the thick stem of the oak, at thy pleasure;
Before thee the dragon shall fly from his nest, and shall leave thee sole lord of his treasure.” ”

“ Thou art, I find, my very good friend;
I knew thee not, youth, before.
“If Queen Ellina thy mother is,
Then Skimming thou hast rewon;
Thou art, indeed, my very good friend;
Thou art my sister’s son.
“Take both the shield ropes, take them straight,
And bind me to yon oak tree;
Then hie thee back to King Diderik,
And say thou hast conquer’d me.”
In came Humble, the youthful knight,
Was clad in a kirtle, green;
“O! I have got my courser again,
And have bound the warrior keen.” ”

“ Without God’s leave, no fly to earth can fall.”
It thunders—and from midnight’s mirky cloud,
Comes peal on peal reverberating loud:
The froth-clad breakers cast, with sullen roar,
A Scottish bark upon the whiten’d shore.
Straight to the royal palace hasten then
A lovely maid and thirty sea-worn men.
Minona, Scotland’s princess, Scotland’s boast,
The storm has driven to the Danish coast.
Oft, while the train hew timber in the groves,
Minona, arm in arm, with Harrald roves.
Warm from his lip the words of passion flow;
Pure in her eyes the flames of passion glow. ”

“ Thou never shalt perish in any fray;
Success shall be in thy courser tall;
Success in thyself, which is best of all.
Look out, look out, Svend Vonved.
“Success in thy hand, success in thy foot,
In struggle with man, in battle with brute;
The holy God and Saint Drotten [11] dear
Shall guide and watch thee through thy career.
Look out, look out, Svend Vonved.
“They both shall take thee beneath their care,
Then surely thou never shalt evily fare:
See yonder sword of steel so white,
No helm nor shield shall resist its bite.” ”

“ Down to thy bosom heroes fell
And gasp’d amid the stormy swell;
While, from the shore, a piercing yell
Rang through the sky!
“God aids me,” cried our Tordenskiold;
“Proud foes, ye are but vainly bold;
Strike, strike, to me, or fly!”
Thou Danish path to fame and might,
Dark-rolling wave,
Receive a friend who holds as light
The perils of the stormy fight;
Who braves, like thee, the tempest’s might ”

“ Sir Fridleif approach’d her with sword and with spear:
“Ah, pity me, Helga, and fly me not now,
I live, only live, on the smile of thy brow:
“In thy father’s whole garden is found not a rose,
Which bright as thyself, and as beautiful grows.”
“Sir Fridleif, thy words are but meant to deceive,
Yet tell me what brings thee so late here at eve.”
“I cannot find rest, and I cannot find ease,
Though sweet sing the linnets among the wild trees;
“If thou wilt but promise, one day to be mine,
No more shall I sorrow, no more shall I pine.” ”

“ He grew and grew, till upon Danish ground
No youth to match the stripling could be found;
He was at once so graceful and so strong—
His look was fire, and his speech was song.
When yet a child, he tam’d the battle steed,
And only thought of war and daring deed ”

“ A lovely witch who haunts the dark,
And fills with love my mind.
When ghosts, at midnight, leave their graves,
And rous’d is every phantom thing;
When mermaids rise and sweetly sing
In concert with the waves;
When Palnatoka, [29] on his steed,
Pursues the elves across the mead,
Or gallops, gallops o’er the sea,
The witch within the elder’s bark,
The lovely witch who haunts the dark,
Comes out, comes out to me.
Of leaves the fairies make our bed;
The knight, who moulders ’neath the elm, [30]
Starts up with spear and rusted helm,—
By him the grace is said ”

“ And Northward our phalanx bends swiftly its course.
Now dim underneath us, through distance we view
The green grassy earth, and the ocean’s deep blue;
There tempests and frequent disasters arise,
Whilst free and untroubled we wend through the skies.
Lo, high among mountains a meadow lies spread,
And there we alight, and get ready our bed;
There hatch we our eggs, and beneath the chill pole
We wait while the summer months over us roll.
No hunter, desirous to make us his prey,
Invades our lone valley by night or by day ”

“ Thou droop’st in dreary silence now,
With shiver’d frame, and broken string,
While here, unhelp’d, beneath the bough
I sit, and feebly strive to sing.
The moon no more illumes the ground;
In night and vapour dies my lay;
For with thy sweet and melting sound
Fled, all at once, her silver ray:
O soon, O soon, shall this sad heart,
Which beats so low, and bleeds so free,
O’ercome by its fell load of smart,
Be broke, O ruin’d harp, like thee! ”

“ Or must we, stripling, proffer something more?
“Taught by us, thou shalt bind the rugged bear,—
Seize on the mighty dragon’s heap of gold,—
And slay the cockatrice while in her lair!
“But from thy breast the blood we will suck out,
Unless thou follow us beneath the mould!
Decide, decide, nor longer pause in doubt!”
Cold sweat I shed, and as, with trembling hand,
I strove to whirl my beaming faulchion round,
It sank, enthrall’d by magic’s potent band.
Each witch drew nigh, with dagger high uprear’d ”

“ She’ll hang thee up; yes, she will hang thee with scorn,
And burn me to ashes, at breaking of morn.”
“Ha! laugh at her threat’nings, so empty and wild;
She neither shall hang me, nor burn thee, my child:
Collect what is precious, in jewels and garb,
And I’ll to the stable and saddle my barb.”
He gave her the cloak, that he us’d at his need,
And he lifted her up, on the broad-bosom’d steed.
The forest is gain’d, and the city is past,
When her eyes to the heaven she wistfully cast.
“What ails thee, dear maid? we had better now stay,
For thou art fatigu’d by the length of the way.” ”

“ And spread their vast ruin wide over the ground,
The rocks fly before thee—thou seizest the rocks,
And whirl’st them like pebbles contemptuously round.
The sun-beams have cloth’d thee in glorious dyes,
They streak with the tints of the heavenly bow
Those hovering columns of vapour that rise
Forth from the bubbling cauldron below.
But why art thou seeking the ocean’s dark brine?
If grandeur makes happiness, sure it is found,
When forth from the depths of the rock-girdled mine
Thou boundest, and all gives response to thy sound. ”

“ If my peace be dear to thee:
Never, then, from this time forward,
Shed a single tear for me.
“Turn thy lovely eyes to heaven,
Where the stars are beaming pale;
Thou canst tell me, then, for certain,
If the night begins to fail.”
When she turn’d her eyes to heaven,
All with stars besprinkled o’er,
In the earth the dead man glided,
And she never saw him more.
Homeward went the sweet Eliza;
Oh, her heart was chill and cold:—
Wo is me! the Monday after,
Dead she lay beneath the mould!
SAINT OLUF.
FROM THE OLD DANISH.
St. Oluf was a mighty king,
Who rul’d the Northern land ”

“ Asunder went Humble’s saddle-ring,
And a furlong his good shield flew.
“Methinks thou art a fair young swain,
And well thy horse canst ride;
Dismount thee, straight, and gird up thy steed;
I am willing for thee to bide.” ”

“ Let each young warrior from such places fly:
Disease and death beneath the flowers lurk;
And elves would suck the warm blood from his eye.
THE HEDDYBEE-SPECTRE.
FROM THE OLD DANISH.
I clomb in haste my dappled steed,
And gallop’d far o’er mount and mead;
And when the day drew nigh its close,
I laid me down to take repose.
I laid me down to take repose,
And slumbers sweet fell o’er my brows:
And then, methought, as there I slept,
From out the ground the dead man leapt.
Said he, “If thou art valiant, Knight,
My murder soon will see the light ”

“ And lifted it up in the sky.
“Now hear, now hear, thou warrior youth,
Thou canst wheel thy courser about;
But in every feat of manly strength
I could beat thee out and out.”
Then answer’d Vidrik Verlandson,
(He fear’d for himself some ill)
“’T is not the custom of any wise man
His strength on a stone to spill.”
“Therein, therein is much more gold
Than fifteen kings can show;
Hear me, Vidrik Verlandson,
Thou therein first shalt go.”
Then answer’d Vidrik Verlandson,
(For his cunning intent he saw)
“Thou shalt lead the way into thine own house,
For that is warrior-law.” ”

“ Who at Dyst [21] is willing to ride,
Let him, I pray, without pause or delay,
Meet me by the wild wood’s side.
“The man among you, ye Danish court men,
Who at Dyst has won most meeds;
Him I am ready to fight, this day,
For both of our noble steeds.”
The heroes cast the die on the board;
The die it roll’d so wide:
“Since, young Sir Humble, it stops by thee,
’Gainst Sivard thou must ride.”
Sir Humble struck his hand on the board;
No longer he lists to play:
I tell you, forsooth, that the rosy hue
From his cheek fast faded away.
“Now, hear me, Vidrik Verlandson;
Thou art so free a man ”

“ And through the wide door, to Sir Erik went in.
“Here sitt’st thou, Sir Erik, in scarlet array’d;
I’ve wedded thy daughter, the beautiful maid.”
“And who art thou, Rider? what feat hast thou done?
No nidering coward shall e’er be my son.”
“O far have I wander’d, renown’d is my name,
The heroes I conquer’d wherever I came:
“Han Elland, ’t is true, long disputed the ground,
But yet he receiv’d from my hand his death-wound.” ”

“ While unmov’d sat the gallant and fair young swain, whom they, in their wantonness, courted.
“And wilt thou not grant us our civil request, proud stripling, and wilt thou deny it?
By hell’s ruddy blazes, our gold-handled knife shall lay thee for ever in quiet.” ”

“ Thou steel-clad warrior, full of youth and grace.”
“No;” sang the other, in delightful tone,
“But thou shalt gaze on prodigies which ne’er
To man’s unhallow’d eye have yet been shown.”
The brook which lately brawl’d among the trees
Stood still, the murmur of that song to hear;
No green leaf stirr’d, and fetter’d seem’d the breeze.
The thrush, upstarting in the distant dell,
Shook its brown wing, with golden streaks array’d,
And ap’d the witch-notes, as they rose and fell.
Bright gleam’d the lake’s broad sheet of liquid blue,
Where, with the rabid pike, the troutling play’d ”

“ Sir Fridleif unbuckled his helmet and drank;
Sweat sprung from his forehead—his features grew blank.
“I never have drain’d, since the day I was born,
A bitterer draught, from a costlier horn:
“My course is completed, my life is summ’d up,
For treason I smell in the dregs of the cup.”
Sir Erik then said, while he stamp’d on the ground,
“Young knight, ’t is thy fortune to die like a hound.
“My best belov’d friend thou didst boast to have slain,
And I have aveng’d him by giving thee bane:
“Not Helga, but Hela, [1] shall now be thy bride;
Dark blue are her cheeks, and she looks stony-eyed.” ”

“ Had all around in sight:
“Why hold those heroes their lives so cheap,
That it lists them here to fight?
“Now, hear me, Sivard Snaresvend;
Far hast thou rov’d, and wide,
Those warriors’ weapons thou shalt prove,
To their tent thou must straightway ride.”
It was Sivard Snaresvend,
To the broad tent speeded he then:
“I greet ye fair, in my master’s name,
All, all, ye Dane king’s men.
“Now, be not wroth that here I come;
I come as a warrior, free:
The battle together we soon will prove ”