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(From The Saga of King Olaf).

XVII

KING SVEND OF THE FORKED BEARD

Loudly the sailors cheered

Svend of the Forkèd Beard,

As with his fleet he steered

Southward to Vendland;

Where with their courses hauled5

All were together called,

Under the Isle of Svald

Near to the mainland.

After Queen Gunhild’s death,

So the old Saga saith,10

Plighted King Svend his faith

To Sigrid the Haughty;

And to avenge his bride,

Soothing her wounded pride,

Over the waters wide15

King Olaf sought he.

Still on her scornful face,

Blushing with deep disgrace,

Bore she the crimson trace

Of Olaf’s gauntlet;20

Like a malignant star,

Blazing in heaven afar,

Red shone the angry scar

Under her frontlet.

Oft to King Svend she spake,25

‘For thine own honour’s sake

Shalt thou swift vengeance take

On the vile coward!’

Until the King at last,

Gusty and overcast,30

Like a tempestuous blast

Threatened and lowered.

Soon as the Spring appeared,

Svend of the Forkèd Beard

High his red standard reared,35

Eager for battle;

While every warlike Dane,

Seizing his arms again,

Left all unsown the grain,

Unhoused the cattle.40

Likewise the Swedish King

Summoned in haste a Thing,

Weapons and men to bring

In aid of Denmark;

Eric the Norseman, too,45

As the war-tidings flew,

Sailed with a chosen crew

From Lapland and Finmark.

So upon Easter day

Sailed the three kings away,50

Out of the sheltered bay,

In the bright season;

With them Earl Sigvald came,

Eager for spoil and fame;

Pity that such a name55

Stooped to such treason!

Safe under Svald at last,

Now were their anchors cast,

Safe from the sea and blast,

Plotted the three kings;60

While, with a base intent,

Southward Earl Sigvald went,

On a foul errand bent,

Unto the Sea-kings.

Thence to hold on his course,65

Unto King Olaf’s force,

Lying within the hoarse

Mouths of Stet-haven;

Him to ensnare and bring

Unto the Danish king,70

Who his dead corse would fling

Forth to the raven!

XVIII

KING OLAF AND EARL SIGVALD

On the gray sea-sands

King Olaf stands,

Northward and seaward75

He points with his hands.

With eddy and whirl

The sea-tides curl,

Washing the sandals

Of Sigvald the Earl.80

The mariners shout,

The ships swing about,

The yards are all hoisted,

The sails flutter out.

The war-horns are played,85

The anchors are weighed,

Like moths in the distance

The sails flit and fade.

The sea is like lead,

The harbour lies dead,90

As a corse on the sea-shore,

Whose spirit has fled!

On that fatal day,

The histories say,

Seventy vessels95

Sailed out of the bay.

But soon scattered wide

O’er the billows they ride,

While Sigvald and Olaf

Sail side by side.100

Cried the Earl: ‘Follow me!

I your pilot will be,

For I know all the channels

Where flows the deep sea!’

So into the strait105

Where his foes lie in wait,

Gallant King Olaf

Sails to his fate!

Then the sea-fog veils

The ships and their sails;110

Queen Sigrid the Haughty,

Thy vengeance prevails!

XIX

KING OLAF’S WAR-HORNS

‘Strike the sails!’ King Olaf said;

‘Never shall men of mine take flight;

Never away from battle I fled,115

Never away from my foes!

Let God dispose

Of my life in the fight!’

‘Sound the horns!’ said Olaf the King;

And suddenly through the drifting brume120

The blare of the horns began to ring,

Like the terrible trumpet shock

Of Regnarock,

On the Day of Doom!

Louder and louder the war-horns sang125

Over the level floor of the flood;

All the sails came down with a clang,

And there in the mist overhead

The sun hung red

As a drop of blood.130

Drifting down on the Danish fleet

Three together the ships were lashed,

So that neither should turn and retreat;

In the midst, but in front of the rest

The burnished crest135

Of the Serpent flashed.

King Olaf stood on the quarter-deck,

With bow of ash and arrows of oak,

His gilded shield was without a fleck,

His helmet inlaid with gold,140

And in many a fold

Hung his crimson cloak.

On the forecastle Ulf the Red

Watched the lashing of the ships;

‘If the Serpent lie so far ahead,145

We shall have hard work of it here,’

Said he with a sneer

On his bearded lips.

King Olaf laid an arrow on string,

‘Have I a coward on board?’ said he.150

‘Shoot it another way, O King!’

Sullenly answered Ulf,

The old sea-wolf;

‘You have need of me!’

In front came Svend, the King of the Danes,155

Sweeping down with his fifty rowers;

To the right, the Swedish king with his thanes;

And on board of the Iron Beard

Earl Eric steered

To the left with his oars.160

‘These soft Danes and Swedes’, said the King,

‘At home with their wives had better stay,

Than come within reach of my Serpent’s sting:

But where Eric the Norseman leads

Heroic deeds165

Will be done to-day!’

Then as together the vessels crashed,

Eric severed the cables of hide,

With which King Olaf’s ships were lashed,

And left them to drive and drift170

With the currents swift

Of the outward tide.

Louder the war-horns growl and snarl

Sharper the dragons bite and sting!

Eric the son of Hakon Jarl175

A death-drink salt as the sea

Pledges to thee,

Olaf the King!

XX

EINAR TAMBERSKELVER

It was Einar Tamberskelver

Stood beside the mast;180

From his yew-bow, tipped with silver,

Flew the arrows fast;

Aimed at Eric unavailing,

As he sat concealed,

Half behind the quarter-railing,185

Half behind his shield.

First an arrow struck the tiller,

Just above his head;

‘Sing, O Eyvind Skaldaspiller,’

Then Earl Eric said.190

‘Sing the song of Hakon dying,

Sing his funeral wail!’

And another arrow flying

Grazed his coat of mail.

Turning to a Lapland yeoman,195

As the arrow passed,

Said Earl Eric, ‘Shoot that bowman

Standing by the mast.’

Sooner than the word was spoken

Flew the yeoman’s shaft;200

Einar’s bow in twain was broken,

Einar only laughed.

‘What was that?’ said Olaf, standing

On the quarter-deck.

‘Something heard I like the stranding205

Of a shattered wreck.’

Einar then, the arrow taking

From the loosened string,

Answered, ‘That was Norway breaking

From thy hand, O King!’210

‘Thou art but a poor diviner,’

Straightway Olaf said;

‘Take my bow, and swifter, Einar,

Let thy shafts be sped.’

Of his bows the fairest choosing,215

Reached he from above;

Einar saw the blood-drops oozing

Through his iron glove.

But the bow was thin and narrow;

At the first assay,220

O’er its head he drew the arrow,

Flung the bow away;

Said, with hot and angry temper

Flushing in his cheek,

‘Olaf! for so great a Kämper225

Are thy bows too weak!’

Then, with smile of joy defiant

On his beardless lip,

Scaled he, light and self-reliant,

Eric’s dragon-ship.230

Loose his golden locks were flowing,

Bright his armour gleamed;

Like Saint Michael overthrowing

Lucifer he seemed.

XXI

KING OLAF’S DEATH-DRINK

All day has the battle raged,235

All day have the ships engaged,

But not yet is assuaged

The vengeance of Eric the Earl.

The decks with blood are red,

The arrows of death are sped,240

The ships are filled with the dead,

And the spears the champions hurl.

They drift as wrecks on the tide,

The grappling irons are plied,

The boarders climb up the side,245

The shouts are feeble and few.

Ah! never shall Norway again

See her sailors come back o’er the main;

They all lie wounded or slain,

Or asleep in the billows blue!250

On the deck stands Olaf the King,

Around him whistle and sing

The spears that the foemen fling,

And the stones they hurl with their hands.

In the midst of the stones and the spears,255

Kolbiorn, the marshal, appears,

His shield in the air he uprears,

By the side of King Olaf he stands.

Over the slippery wreck

Of the Long Serpent’s deck260

Sweeps Eric with hardly a check,

His lips with anger are pale;

He hews with his axe at the mast,

Till it falls, with the sails overcast,

Like a snow-covered pine in the vast265

Dim forests of Orkadale.

Seeking King Olaf then,

He rushes aft with his men,

As a hunter into the den

Of the bear, when he stands at bay.270

‘Remember Jarl Hakon!’ he cries;

When lo! on his wondering eyes,

Two kingly figures arise,

Two Olafs in warlike array!

Then Kolbiorn speaks in the ear275

Of King Olaf a word of cheer,

In a whisper that none may hear,

With a smile on his tremulous lip;

Two shields raised high in the air,

Two flashes of golden hair,280

Two scarlet meteors’ glare,

And both have leaped from the ship.

Earl Eric’s men in the boats

Seize Kolbiorn’s shield as it floats,

And cry, from their hairy throats,285

‘See! it is Olaf the King!’

While far on the opposite side

Floats another shield on the tide,

Like a jewel set in the wide

Sea-current’s eddying ring.290

There is told a wonderful tale,

How the King stripped off his mail,

Like leaves of the brown sea-kale,

As he swam beneath the main;

But the young grew old and gray,295

And never, by night or by day,

In his kingdom of Norroway

Was King Olaf seen, again!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-82.