THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA 
 
 1--RO..I THE SWEDISH OF 
 
 ESAIAS TEGNER 
 Bishop of IVexiij 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM LEWERY BLACKLEY, M.A. 
 First American Edition 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 BAYARD TAYLOR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 L E Y P O L D T & H O L T 
 
 1867
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
 
 LEYPOLDT & HOLT, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 
 f >r the Southern District of New York. 
 
 JOHN F. THOW li CO., 
 
 riilXTKIUi. STKKEUTYfKRS, f ELKUTRvT\TER!<, 
 50 ORBENE STREET, W.T.
 
 PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 
 
 .THIS volume is the second of a uniform series of 
 foreign poems lately inaugurated by the publication 
 of " King Rent's Daughter " from the Danish of 
 Henrik Hertz. It is our intention speedily to add 
 Lessing's " Nathan the Wise," with the splendid in- 
 troductory essay of Fischer, translated, and edited by 
 the Rev. O. B. Frothingham. 
 
 If we are not disappointed in our hopes of the 
 public appreciation of these, we will add others of 
 equal interest. Among those we have in contempla- 
 tion are Goethe's " Hermann and Dorothea ; " Mo- 
 liere's " Tartuffe ; " Calderon's " Life is a Dream ; " 
 Tasso's " Aminta," translated by Leigh Hunt ; " The 
 Wooing of the King's Daughter," from the Norwe- 
 gian of Muench ; " Boris Godounoff," from the Rus- 
 sian of Pouschkine ; " Nala and Damajanti," trans- 
 lated from the Sanscrit by Milman ; and a translation 
 of Bodenstedt's version of the Turkish songs of 
 Mirza-Schaffy. 
 
 1756020
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frithiof-Saga, and its Author, v 
 
 The English Translations of the Frithiof-Saga, . xxi 
 Abstract of the Ancient Frithiof-Saga, . . . xxvi 
 
 I. Frithiof and Ingeborg I 
 
 II. King Bele and Thorsten Vikingsson, . . 8 
 
 III. Frithiof's Inheritance, .... 16 
 
 IV. Frithiof's Wooing 31 
 
 V. King Ring, 37 
 
 VI. Frithiof Plays Chess, 42 
 
 VII. Frithiof's Joy, 45 
 
 VIII. The Parting, 54 
 
 IX. Ingeborg's Lamentation, .... 74 
 
 X. Frithiof at Sea, 77 
 
 XI. Frithiof with Angantyr, .... 87 
 
 XII. Frithiof's Return, 99 
 
 XIII. Balder's Bale-Fire, 108 
 
 XIV. Frithiof Goeth into Banishment, . . .113
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 XV. Vikingabalk, 124 
 
 XVI. Frithiof and Bjorn 129 
 
 XVII. Frithiof Cometh to King Ring, . . 133 
 
 XVIII. The Ride over the Ice, . . . .142 
 
 XIX. Frithiof's Temptation, .... 144 
 
 XX. The Death of King Ring, . . . .154 
 
 XXI. Ring's Drapa, 158 
 
 XXII. The King's Election, . . . ... 162 
 
 XXIII. Frithiof beside his Father's Grave, . 167 
 
 XXIV. Reconciliation, 173 
 
 Notes to the American Edition, . . . . 189 
 Glossary, : 191
 
 FRITH lOF'S SAGA, 
 
 AND irs AUTHOR. 
 
 No poetical worlc of modern times stands forth so 
 prominently and peculiarly a representative of the liter- 
 ature of a race and language, as the " Frithiof 's Saga " 
 of Esaias Tegner. Swedish poetry, of comparatively 
 recent growth, attained in this work, for the first time, 
 a development in consonance with the character of the 
 Swedish people, and with those qualities of the Swedish 
 tongue which distinguish it from other cognate lan- 
 guages. Purely Scandinavian in its spirit, its scenery, 
 its legendary element, and only indebted to antique cul- 
 ture for a part of its rhythmical form, it combines the 
 freshness and freedom of the early Saga with very high 
 artistic finish and proportion. It appeals at once to the 
 national pride, and the simple human sentiment of the 
 farmer or herdsman, and to the taste of the scholar. 
 Immediately upon the appearance of the poem, its claim 
 to be placed at the head of the imaginative literature of 
 Sweden was recognized. No one attempted to contro- 
 
 (v)
 
 vi FJUTBIOF8 SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 vert the decision, whicli has only been strengthened dur- 
 ing the forty-three years that have since intervened. 
 
 In asserting that Swedish poetry is of recent growth, 
 I refer neither to the old Eddaic literature, nor to those 
 authors of the seventeenth century whose reputation still 
 survives in their native land. Few, indeed, outside of 
 Sweden, have ever read or even heard of the hexameters 
 of Stjernhjelm, or the pious epic of Archbishop Spegel. 
 With Dalin commenced the new era, which nearly cor- 
 responds in time to that of England and Germany, and 
 of which Bellmann, Franzen, Wallin and Leopold 
 names which first carried Swedish poetry to other lands 
 were the most prominent representatives. When Bell- 
 mann died, Tegner was a boy of thirteen : to Leopold, 
 whom he knew, he dedicated his poem of " Axel," and 
 Geijer and Ling belonged to his own generation. He 
 is thus the central figure of the period a calm, earnest, 
 beautiful life, in which the fire and enthusiasm of the 
 poet, the sedate strength of the scholar, the tender and 
 solemn humanity of the preacher, and the social and 
 domestic affections of the honest Scandinavian nature, 
 are blended in equal and harmonious measure. Al- 
 though other of the modern Swedish poets may occa- 
 sionally surpass Tegnur in depth of reflection, or origin- 
 ality of form, in no one has the poetic faculty attained 
 such a free and plastic grace of expression, while retain- 
 ing that antique symmetry which always suggests repose. 
 
 The secret of this excellence is to be found in the 
 history of his life. Like Linnasus and Thorwaldsen, he 
 sprang directly from the people from the simple, sturdy, 
 vigorous level of the Scandinavian race. His grand- 
 father was a " bonde gud " of the Thorsten Vikingssou 
 stamp : he fought under Charles XII, and after the battle
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR, vii 
 
 of Friedrickshall, carried his sword and Bible home to his 
 little farm. His wife's name was Ingeborg : whether or 
 not she was beautiful, is not stated. She bore fourteen 
 children to her Frithiof, of whom seven or eight sons 
 inherited plow and sword, and the youngest of all, the 
 Bible. He became a preacher, took a poor country con- 
 gregation, married the daughter of another preacher, and 
 begat, as his fifth son, Esaias Tegner, the poet, who was 
 born in the parsonage of Kyrkerud, on the 1 3th of No- 
 vember, 1782. 
 
 When the future poet grew to be an active, impetu- 
 ous, golden-haired boy of ten, and his oldest brothers, 
 Lars and Elof, were about to enter the University, the 
 father died, leaving only the merest pittance for the 
 family. While the poor widow sorrowed in her cottage 
 behind the birchen avenue of Ingrirud, young Esaias 
 roamed over the country, digging for relics in the old 
 Scandinavian barrows. This youthful vagabondage, 
 however, was not to last long. A friend of his father, 
 the Assessor, Jacob Branting, living near Carlstad, in 
 the province of Wermeland, kindly offered a home to 
 the boy. As the latter wrote a good hand, and was a 
 rapid and correct reckoner, he was installed as a sort of 
 clerk to his patron, whom he accompanied on his official 
 journeys through the province. One who has seen the 
 lovely pastoral scenery of Wermeland: its green, secluded 
 valleys, threaded by the clear, cold streams which sweep 
 down from the distant Dovrefjeld : its superb birch-trees, 
 with their g'ant white boles, and drooping willowy boughs : 
 its iron forges and foundries, dark forests of fir, rocks of 
 granite and porphyry, glens of primeval wildness, and 
 hills with sea-like glimpses of the Wetter Lake whoever 
 has seen these, will easily understand how they must have
 
 viii FRITIIIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 stimulated the boy's fancy, and assisted in the develop- 
 ment of his poetic nature. Wandering through Werme- 
 land as a passing stranger, I caught pictures which will 
 never fade from my memory. Even more than on the 
 Sognefjord of Norway, the locality of the original Saga 
 of Frithiof, I recognized the scenery of the poem. 
 
 When the boy first began to rhyme, no one knew. 
 He lisped in numbers, and all the occurrences of his life 
 in Wermeland turned themselves into poetry. He be- 
 came a great devourer of books, often tasking the patience 
 of his kind patron by his complete abstraction and for- 
 getfulness of his duties when he once began to read. 
 He not only turned history and tradition into rhyme, 
 but composed an epic in Alexandrines, on a heroic 
 theme. This habit of mind gave to his poetry, in later 
 years, its remarkable flexibility and grace. 
 
 Branting, while sincerely attached to the boy, (whom 
 he had intended to educate for his own position,) soon 
 perceived that the latter's gifts qualified him for a more 
 important sphere of life. He wrote at once to Capt. 
 Lowenhjelm, in whose house Lars Tegner was tutor, 
 begging that the younger brother might be taken into 
 the family and allowed to study with the Captain's chil- 
 dren. His request was granted, and the result showed 
 the wisdom of Branting's course. Esaias learned Latin 
 with wonderful rapidity, attacked Greek with a zeal re- 
 markable in a boy of fourteen, and secretly acquired some 
 knowledge of English from a volume of Ossian. When 
 Lars, a few months afterwards, was offered a more profit- 
 able place as teacher, he made it a condition that his 
 brother should be allowed to accompany him. 
 
 In 1797, therefore, the brothers took up their abode 
 in the house of the rich iron-master, Myhrmann, in the
 
 FR1THIOF>8 SAO A, AND ITS AUTHOR. ix 
 
 mountains, near Filipstad. Lars was tutor, and Esaias 
 studied in company with the eight sons of the family. 
 There was a fine library, especially rich in the classics. 
 Esaias was at once attracted by a folio volume, bound 
 in parchment an edition of Homer, printed at Basle, in 
 1561. With a limited knowledge of the Greek grammar, 
 he undertook to read the old poet, constructing a system 
 of interpretation as he advanced. It is stated that in seven 
 months, so unwearied was his industry, he read the Iliad 
 thrice, the Odyssey twice, and Horace, Virgil, and Ovid. 
 At the same time, he was endeavoring to acquire Ger- 
 man, English and French, not by means of the ordinary 
 drudgery, but by boldly commencing with the reading of 
 the best authors. His progress was so remarkable, that 
 when Lars gave up his tutorship, he was competent, at 
 the age of sixteen, to take it in his stead. 
 
 A year later he entered the University of Lund, 
 Myhrmann having generously agreed to share with 
 Branting the expense of his education. He repaid their 
 generosity by a devotion to his studies which would 
 have wrecked a frame unsupplied with the vigorous 
 farmer-blood of Sweden. He wrote a Latin essay on 
 Anacreon, received a prize from a literary society in 
 Gottenburg for an Elegy on his brother Lars, and in 
 1802, was primus of the graduates. During the summer 
 of this year, he was betrothed, with the consent of her 
 parents, to Anna Myhrmann, the youngest daughter of 
 his second patron. The lives of few men exhibit such 
 evidences of trust and help on the one side, and grateful, 
 ambitious duty on the other. 
 
 Having been appointed teacher and assistant-librarian 
 at Lund posts which, if slenderly paid, at least secured 
 him against want he had more leisure for his literary 
 I*
 
 x FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 tasks. He was silent, however, for some years. A poem 
 which he sent to the Swedish Academy failed to receive 
 the prize, and this circumstance seems to have either dis- 
 gusted or depressed him. In other respects, his life was 
 fortunate. In 1806 his success as a teacher enabled him 
 to marry, and in 1810 he received the rank and salary 
 of professor. Shy and reticent as a student, he became 
 self-possessed, brilliant in conversation, genial as a host, 
 and unreservedly tender as a husband and father. The 
 impulse which was to make him the national poet, soon 
 returned with the happy development of his fortunes. 
 The poem of " Svea," sent to the Academy in 1811, 
 not only received the highest prize, but was read and 
 recited all over the land. He was received in Stockholm 
 with great enthusiasm, and while there, published several 
 lyrics which still further increased his popularity. The 
 King appointed him clergyman of two parishes in the 
 neighborhood of Lund, and to this new vocation, although 
 he appears not to have originally desired it, he consci- 
 entiously devoted a great portion of his time, visiting his 
 parishioners and assisting them with counsel or active 
 kindness. 
 
 For many years, Tegner's life was uninterruptedly 
 calm and fortunate. In the possession of an ample in- 
 come, burdened only with congenial duties, happy in 
 his domestic and social relations, and with full leisure 
 for the enjoyment of his literary tastes, the years, as they 
 went by, gave instead of taking away. Each of his 
 poems was caught up gratefully and echoed throughout 
 the nation, on its appearance. In 1814 he published 
 " Nore," written after the conclusion of the Treaty of 
 Kiel: in 1820, "The Children of the Lord's Supper," 
 (of which Mr. Longfellow has made an admirable trans-
 
 FRITHIOFS SAO A, AND ITS AUTHOR. xi 
 
 lation,) and in the following year, the lyrical romance 
 of " Axel." * About the same time, the last nine chap- 
 ters of Frithiof s Saga were published, in advance of the 
 complete poem, in a literary periodical called " Iduna" 
 and the reception accorded to them determined the im- 
 mediate publication of the entire work. 
 
 The incentive which led Tegner to seek for the ma- 
 terial of his chief poetical essay in the Saga-literature of 
 the North, was undoubtedly given by the Danish poet, 
 Oehlenschliiger, whose " Hakon Jarl " appeared as early 
 as 1807. To the latter is due the credit of being the 
 pioneer in a path leading as the authors and scholars 
 of that time considered into a rough, stormy wilderness, 
 peopled with savage and repulsive forms. The European 
 struggle between the Classic and Romantic, assumed an 
 individual character in Denmark and Sweden. In spite 
 of Oehlenschlager's success, the prevalent opinion was 
 that the Gothic element was too stubborn, violent and 
 barbarous to be subdued to the service of Poetry. 
 Tegner's tastes as a scholar might have inclined him to 
 the Classic view, had they not been balanced by his 
 intense national feeling, his early fondness for Northern 
 tradition, and his passionate love for the skies and land- 
 scapes of his home. The publication of Oehlenschlager's 
 " Helge," (I believe in the year 1820,) awoke in him the 
 desire to achieve a permanent triumph in what was still 
 considered a doubtful field. His patriotism prompted 
 and upheld his genius. 
 
 The old Icelandic Saga of Fridthiofe Fraekna (Frithiof 
 the Bold), furnished him with a theme most congenial to 
 
 * This poem has been very correctly and beautifully 
 translated into English by Mrs. George P. Marsh.
 
 xii FRITHIOF 1 S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 his heroic nature. Love, combat, sorrow, storm on the 
 blue billows, trysts in the green grove, exile and longing 
 for the fatherland, guilt and expiation, triumph and crown- 
 ing peace, were here all offered to his hand. The prin- 
 cipal liberties which he has taken with the original story, 
 are in making King Ring die by the " spear-death," 
 the runes of Odin, self-carved upon his breast instead 
 of the " straw-death," and in the rebuilding of Balder's 
 temple by Frithiof, with the reconciliation-scene which 
 follows. Both these changes, however, are in harmony 
 with the spirit of the Sagas. In the first instance Ring 
 heroically completes the recompense he offers to Frithiof ; 
 and if, in the second instance, as some critics aver, he has 
 given the poem too modern and sentimental a conclusion, 
 we must not forget that the God against whom Frithiof 
 was guilty of sacrilege was Balder the 'white, loving, 
 Christ-like deity of the Scandinavian Mythology. 
 
 Tegner, himself, says in a letter to Professor Ste- 
 phens : " It was never my meaning though such seems 
 to have been the opinion of many simply to versify the 
 Saga. The most transient comparison ought to have 
 shown, not only that the whole denouement is different in 
 the Poem and the Saga, but also that several of the Can- 
 tos have a very remote ground in the legend. * * * 
 My object was to present a poetical picture of the old 
 Northern heroic age. It was not Frithiof, as an individ- 
 ual, whom I meant to paint : it was the epoch of which 
 he was chosen as the representative. It is true that I 
 preserved, in this respect, the shell and outline of the tra- 
 dition, but, at the same time, I thought myself entitled to 
 add or to take away, just as was most convenient for my 
 plan." 
 
 Tegnr was certainly right in adding to Frithiof, for
 
 FRITHWF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR, xiii 
 
 instance, a characteristic which does not appear in the 
 Saga, yet which is an integral part of the Scandinavian 
 nature that grave, semi-melancholy quality which sets 
 the songs of the land to the minor key, which softens, 
 but never clouds, the blue eyes of its people, which even 
 seems to breathe upon you from the shade of its forests 
 and the dark, forbidding loneliness of its mountain-glens. 
 If, in some respects, Frithiof is slightly modernized, at 
 least he is of pure Norse blood. Whatever has been 
 added to the poem has been taken from kindred sources. 
 Thus the Viking-Code, in Canto XV, is to be found in 
 the Voluspii, and a part of Canto II in the Havamal. 
 In this respect, the work is consistent throughout. The 
 author must have resisted a strong temptation, when, 
 after bearing the outlawed Viking to the islands of the 
 Grecian Archipelago, he shows the reader, in but a sin- 
 gle line, the temples reflected in the tideless wave, and 
 then turns his face again to the North. 
 
 In regard to the metrical treatment of the poem, 
 Tegner says : " The most suitable method seemed to 
 me, to resolve the epic form into free lyric ballads. I 
 had the example of Oehlenschliiger, in his * Helge,' be- 
 fore me, and have since found that it has been followed 
 by others. It carries with it the advantage of enabling 
 me to change the metre in accordance with the contents 
 of every separate song. Thus, for instance, I doubt 
 whether ' Ingeborg's Lament' (Canto IX) could be 
 given in any language in hexameters, or iambic penta- 
 meters, whether rhymed or not. I am well aware that 
 many regard this as opposed to the epic unity, which is, 
 however, so nearly allied to monotony ; but I regard such 
 unity as more than sufficiently compensated by the freer 
 room and fresher changes gained by its abandonment.
 
 xiv FRFTHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 Just this liberty, however, to be properly employed, re- 
 quires so much the more thought, understanding, and 
 taste ; for with every separate piece one must endeavor to 
 find the exactly suitable form a thing not always ready 
 to one's hand in the language. It is for this reason that 
 I have attempted (with greater or less success) to imitate 
 several metres, especially from the poets of antiquity. 
 Thus the pentameter iambic, hyper-catalectic in the 
 third foot (Canto II) the six-footed iambic (XIV) 
 the Aristophanic anapests (XV) the trochaic tetra- 
 meter (XVI) and the tragic senarius (XXIV) were 
 scarcely, if at all, heard of in Swedish, previous to my 
 attempts." 
 
 Perhaps it would have been better for Tegner if he 
 had followed " Helge " more closely varying the metre, 
 as the changes of the theme suggested, without insisting 
 on discovering a separate measure for every canto. 
 Nothing can be more admirable than some of his adapta- 
 tions, but in other instances the reader feels that some- 
 thing has been sacrificed to the form. Where he has in- 
 troduced antique metres, as he mentions above, he has 
 been guided by a correct judgment. The lithe limbs of 
 the Swedish language seem to move very naturally and 
 gracefully through these alien dances. But in Cantos III 
 and IV one feels the difficulty of reading a narrative 
 poem by such broken and irregular steps. It was a 
 happy thought to introduce the alliterative Saga measure 
 in " Ring's Drapa." Here the lines move with a solemn 
 and stately freedom which it is quite impossible to repro- 
 duce in a translation. The iambic hexameter of the 
 concluding canto is not, as Mr. Blackley asserts in his 
 preface, an " uncouth metre." In the German language 
 it is frequently and successfully employed, and there is
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR, xv 
 
 no reason why it should not be introduced into English 
 poetry. 
 
 I am unable to ascertain the precise time when the 
 first complete edition of " FrithioPs Saga" was pub- 
 lished. The second edition, which I possess, bears the 
 imprint of 1825, and Stephens asserts that the first was 
 published the same year. Bishop Franz6n, however, in 
 his Life of the poet, says that the popularity which the 
 poem acquired was one of the causes which led to Teg- 
 nt'r's appointment as Bishop of Wexio, in the year 1824. 
 In the same year he was made Knight Commander of 
 the North Star. Thus evenly and securely had his life 
 advanced, from step to step of success, and at this height 
 rested. Although but forty-two years of age, his pro- 
 ductive activity as a poet ceased. Probably the graver 
 duties of his new station, which he fulfilled not only with 
 dignity but with conspicuous success, led him away from 
 the seductions of Song. " Axel " was written during 
 the idle convalescence which followed a severe illness ; 
 " Frithiof 's Saga " was the suggestion of a fortunate 
 spirit of emulation ; and, although he planned a new 
 metrical romance, " Gerda," some fragments of which 
 were published, he gave little to the world, from this 
 time, except an occasional lyric. 
 
 It is also possible that the change from Lund, with its 
 scholastic atmosphere, fresh, joyous student-life and ge- 
 nial, stimulating society, to the dead quiet and solitude 
 of Wexio, operated depressingly upon his powers. He 
 could not carry with him the plain room, where his dog 
 Atis, who never neglected one of his lectures on Greek 
 literature, lay at the threshold and warned off all in- 
 truders when there were signs of poetry in his master ; 
 nor could the latter take with him the track worn in the
 
 xvi FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 floor, where, hour after hour, he slowly paced out his 
 melodious lines. Perhaps, like Campbell, he grew afraid 
 of the shadow which his sudden and undisputed fame 
 cast before him, doubting whether he could surpass his 
 previous productions, and fearing to undo their effect. 
 
 The last triumph of his life was in another field than 
 literature. A national Convention of the Clergy was 
 held at Wexio in the year 1836. Bishop Tegner pre- 
 sided, and produced, no less by his earnest, noble pres- 
 ence, than by his eloquence, the profoundest impression 
 upon the assembly. In character and influence, at least, 
 he became the acknowledged head of the Swedish 
 Church. In his place in the Legislative Assembly cf the 
 kingdom he seems to have been less successful. The 
 heated political discussions in which he was forced to 
 take part troubled his cheerful, serene natural mood, and 
 made him bitter and petulant. 
 
 Before this time, symptoms of physical disorder had 
 manifested themselves. In 1833 he was forced to make 
 a journey to the mineral springs of Bohemia, from which 
 he returned without the expected improvement in his 
 health. His bodily condition operated on his mind, and 
 filled him with gloomy forebodings. " God preserve me 
 my reason ! " he wrote at this time ; " there is a streak of 
 insanity in my family. In my case it has manifested 
 itself in poetry, which is a milder form of the disease ; 
 but who knows whether I shall always be exempt from a 
 severer attack ? " Unfortunately, his fears were soon to 
 be justified. An incautious use of the "douche" bath 
 brought on symptoms of apoplexy, after which it was 
 noticed that his mind occasionally wandered. He pro- 
 jected extensive travels, the publication of numerous 
 works, and indulged in other plans of similar character.
 
 FRITHIOF'S SA OA, AND ITS A UTHOR. xvii 
 
 It was about this time, I believe, that Mr. Longfellow 
 received a letter from him, announcing that a complete 
 edition of his works was shortly to appear, in one hun- 
 dred volumes ! He complained that a wheel of fire 
 seemed to be constantly turning within his brain. 
 
 Finally, in 1838 or 1839, he was sent, by the advice 
 of physicians, to the Asylum for the Insane, at Schles- 
 wig. Here he soon recovered, returned home, and re- 
 sumed the labors of his diocese, which he performed 
 until the year 1845. He was then forced to apply for a 
 release : a quiet, phlegmatic condition had supplanted his 
 former nervous excitement, and he gradually grew weak- 
 er, both in intellect and in body. Some instinct of his 
 approaching end led him to visit his children and grand- 
 children at Lund, and afterwards, kneeling beside his 
 faithful wife in the church at Kjellstorp, to receive the 
 Sacrament from the hands of his son. Then he returned 
 home, to hide from the world the slow decay of his 
 faculties. In September, 1846, an attack of paralysis 
 completely prostrated his remaining physical force. He 
 was thenceforth confined to his bed, and utterly helpless, 
 yet his voice regained its former strength and his clouded 
 mind became clear and sound again. As the autumn 
 sun shone into his chamber, he exclaimed : " I lift my 
 hands to the mountains and the dwelling of God ! " 
 
 At midnight on the 2d of November, while the 
 northern sky glowed with splendid auroral fires, his life 
 gradually ceased, and so gently that the widow kneeling 
 at his bedside could not detect the moment of death. 
 The moonlight, falling upon his face, revealed the peace- 
 ful beauty which a pure and happy spirit leaves upon its 
 forsaken clay. 
 
 We cannot claim for Tegner the place which belongs
 
 xviii FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 to a great creative intellect. His genius was essentially 
 lyrical, and it is due to the fortunate circumstances of his 
 life that he stands forth so prominently as a representa- 
 tive poet. Probably no other Swedish poet has so devel- 
 oped and enriched the language 5 none other has so com- 
 bined the opposite qualities of freedom and artistic finish. 
 His lines and couplets cling to the memory like those of 
 Byron. There are passages, like the parting of Frithiof 
 and Ingeborg, and Frithiof 's Return, which almost every 
 educated Swede knows by heart. I have rarely quoted a 
 line of the poem, while in Sweden, without finding some 
 one to continue the quotation. The author seems to 
 have been unconscious of the undefinable melodious 
 beauty which his poems possess. He was surprised at 
 their great popularity, and on one occasion said : " I had 
 no idea that my poetry would become so available" 
 
 The source of his popularity will be found, I think, 
 in three qualities which his poems exhibit : their exquisite 
 melody, their brilliant antithetic passages, and the perfect 
 purity and clearness of their language. " The Swede," 
 says Tegn6r himself, " like the Frenchman, prefers in 
 poetry the light, the clear, and the transparent. The 
 profound, indeed, he demands and values also, but it 
 must be a depth that is pellucid. He desires to see the 
 golden sands at the bottom of the wave. Whatever is 
 dark and turbid, so that it does not present him with any 
 distinct image, that he cannot endure." Again, in his 
 " Epilogue," spoken at Lund in 1820, he says : 
 
 " What thou not clearly speak'st, that know'st thou not 
 Twin-born upon the lips are thought and word : 
 Obscurely spoken is obscurely thought." 
 
 In his collection of epigrams entitled " The Languages,"
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS AUTHOR, xix 
 
 although he shows an imperfect knowledge of English 
 by calling it " the speech of stammerers," he thus cele- 
 brates the resonant strength of the Swedish tongue : 
 
 " Language of honor and conquest, how manly thy accents, 
 
 and noble ! 
 
 Ring'st like the smitten steel, and mov'st like the march 
 of the planets." 
 
 In his hands the praise is hardly exaggerated. It 
 would be difficult to find more perfect examples, both of 
 melody and of imitative harmony, in any modern tongue, 
 than his poems offer. In the wail of the winds and the 
 broken dash of the billows in " Ingeborg's Lament," the 
 shifting hurry and movement of Ellida's struggle with 
 the storm, and the bright, joyous pulsations of spring 
 which beat in the opening of ' Frithiof 's Temptation," 
 we have an admirable marriage of the thought and the 
 rhythm. Tegndr's gifts, therefore, though not of the 
 highest, were of a very high and rare quality. They 
 illustrate the finest characteristics of his language and 
 race, and cannot perish while either exists. 
 
 Tegn6r was a man of medium size, slender in his 
 youth, but firm and compact of frame later in life. He 
 had a graceful and symmetrical head, curling blonde 
 hair, fresh complexion, and clear, beautiful brown eyes. 
 His nose was straight and strong, the chin small but well 
 rounded, and a peculiar half-smile played about the cor- 
 ners of his lips. It was a frank, honest, kindly face, 
 sometimes abstracted or overcast with the Northern sad- 
 ness, but oftener lighted up by the cheerfulness of a 
 nature which rejoiced in its appointed work and attracted 
 to itself the best fortune of life. He was witty and bril- 
 liant in society, and many of his remarks and repartees
 
 xx FRITHIOF'S SAGA, AND ITS A UTHOR. 
 
 are still in circulation in Sweden. Few poets, in any 
 land, have found the world so kindly disposed towards 
 them, or have left behind them a more serene and pleas- 
 ant memory. 
 
 B. T. 
 October, 1866.
 
 THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 FRITH lOF'S SAGA. 
 
 THE translation of a poem, the charm of which de- 
 pends equally upon its form and subject, must reproduce 
 the form as nearly as possible. Whether this may be 
 best accomplished by a rigid adherence to the rhythms of 
 the original, or by such variations as the language of the 
 translation suggests, is a question which the translator 
 must solve by his own skill, knowledge, and taste. 
 Frithiof 's Saga offers many difficulties in this respect, and 
 of all the English translations which have been published, 
 none will satisfy the Swedish reader. 
 
 Mr. Longfellow has given us some parts of the poem 
 so admirably in his article on Tegn6r,* that it is to be 
 regretted he did not undertake a complete translation. 
 A poet can only be properly translated by a poet, and 
 none of the English versions which have appeared fulfil 
 this condition. Although the Swedish language resem- 
 
 * North American Review, No. CXVI. July, 1837. 
 
 (xxi)
 
 xxii THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 
 
 bles the English in the simplicity of its structure and in 
 its splendid lyrical qualities, it is richer in feminine 
 rhymes, and abounds with terse idiomatic forms which 
 cannot easily be transferred. Here the Germans, being 
 more nearly related, have succeeded better. The trans- 
 lations of Amalie von Imhof, Mohnicke, and, more 
 recently, Lobedanz, are all tolerably successful reproduc- 
 tions of the original, which, through them, has become 
 completely naturalized in Germany. 
 
 The first English translation of Frithiof 's Saga was 
 published by the Rev. William Strong, in 1833. This 
 was followed, two years afterwards, by an anonymous 
 attempt, the work of three or four hands. I have not 
 seen the latter, but the oblivion into which it has passed 
 is not indicative of success. In 1838, Mr. R. G. La- 
 tham, since distinguished by his ethnological works, pub- 
 lished a translation, or rather paraphrase, in London. 
 Even were its execution faultless, the liberties which he 
 has taken with the original would preclude its being 
 adopted as a fair representation of the latter. He not 
 only changes the heroine's name from Ingeborg to Inge- 
 bore, but pays so little attention to the Swedish metres 
 that they can only be found in seven out of the twenty- 
 four cantos. He changes hexameter into heroic verse, 
 dactylic into iambic, blank verse into rhyme, with no 
 rule save his own whim. 
 
 Here and there Mr. Latham has some very spirited 
 lines, and the whole of " Frithiof at Sea " is faithfully 
 and successfully given. In the " Parting," however, he 
 omits a portion, on the plea that it is " in no degree suit- 
 ed to the English poem " ! Moreover, his volume is 
 marred by so many faults of rhyme and metre points 
 wherein Tegner is always perfect that it cannot be read
 
 OF FRITHIOF'S SAGA. xxiii 
 
 with satisfaction even by one unacquainted with the 
 original. 
 
 The translation of Prof. George Stephens (London 
 and Stockholm, 1839), who was a personal friend of the 
 poet, is a very conscientious and laborious work. The 
 measure has been retained, except in the first, second, 
 and last cantos, and the translator's thorough knowledge 
 of Swedish has enabled him carefully to express the au- 
 thor's meaning. But the free, plastic movement of the 
 original is wholly wanting ; the English verse is hope- 
 lessly stiff and unmusical. Tegn6r's liquid- flowing 
 
 " Liksom en hjelm sin rundel hvalfver" 
 can scarcely be recognized in 
 
 " As Heaven's soft breeze its arched round bends." 
 
 This single specimen will sufficiently show that some- 
 thing more is requisite than reproduction of an author's 
 meaning and adherence to his measures, in order to trans- 
 fer the true spirit and character of a poem into another 
 language. 
 
 The translation of the Rev. William L. Blackley 
 (Dublin, 1857) preserves all the original metres, except 
 that masculine are generally substituted for feminine 
 rhymes, and the law of alliteration in Canto XXI 
 ("Ring's Drapa") is disregarded. Mr. Blackley, while 
 condemning the iambic hexameter of the concluding 
 Canto, nevertheless does not venture to change it, like 
 Messrs. Latham and Stephens. Moreover, his verses are 
 much more fluent than those of either of the latter gen- 
 tlemen, his chief short-coming being that he too fre- 
 quently gives us rather tame and commonplace English
 
 ixiv THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 
 
 lines for the poetic fire and sparkle of the Swedish origi- 
 nals. Thus, in Canto XII, the beautiful lines : 
 
 " Och glddtigt skjuter hans svarta svan 
 Sin silfverfara fa solblank ban" 
 
 become, in his translation, 
 
 " And gayly his sable swan doth make 
 On her glassy course a silvery wake." 
 
 A closer adherence to the original text would give us 
 more of the music as thus, at a venture : 
 
 " And the joyous speed of his black swan gave 
 A silver wake to the sun-bright wave." 
 
 So, in the " Inheritance," the terse Homeric picturesque- 
 ness of " Springare t^va ganger tolf, bangstyriga,fjettrade 
 <vindar" (steeds twice twelve, impatient, fettered winds,) 
 is rather weakly given in the line : 
 
 " Twice twelve spirited steeds, like terrible winds in con- 
 finement." 
 
 This Canto is very well rendered by Mr. Stephens, while 
 in Mr. Latham's translation it is hardly to be recognized. 
 As Frithiof 's Saga consists, in reality, of twenty-four 
 ballads, it might be possible to combine selections from 
 the different translators, and thus obtain a composite ver- 
 sion, in some respects superior to any single attempt. On 
 examining the translations, however, with special refer- 
 ence to this plan, I found the two former so deficient in 
 poetic quality, that their occasional vigor would have 
 scarcely compensated for the break in the smoother flow 
 of Mr. Blackley's translation. The latter, as a whole, is
 
 OF FRITHIOF'S SAGA. xxv 
 
 greatly the superior, and I prefer, therefore, to present it 
 intact, adding only the few notes which have been sug- 
 gested by a close comparison with the original. 
 
 The notes, explanatory of the old Scandinavian cus- 
 toms and mythological names, follow the poem. 
 
 B. T.
 
 ABSTRACT 
 
 ANCIENT FRITHIOF-SAGA. 
 
 IN Sognefylke, near the holy grove of Balder, dwelt 
 King Bele ; two sons had he, Helge and Halfdan, and 
 moreover a daughter, Ingeborg the Fair. When he 
 came to die, Bele warned his sons to keep up friendship 
 with the mighty Frithiof, a son of his friend Thorsten, 
 who was the son of Viking. But the young kings 
 refused scornfully Frithiof's wooing for their sister's 
 hand, and so he vowed revenge, and that he never 
 would come to their assistance. 
 
 Soon after, it came to pass that, when King Hring 
 made war against them, they sent to ask aid from 
 Frithiof: he was playing chess, and let himself not be 
 one whit disturbed by their messenger. 
 
 Hring conquered, and made the brothers promise 
 Ingeborg's hand to him. 
 
 Meanwhile Frithiof had gone to see Ingeborg in 
 Balder's temple (which was a forbidden deed), and there 
 
 (xxvi)
 
 THE ANCIENT FRITHIOF-SAGA. xxvii 
 
 he exchanged rings with her ; for to him the love of 
 Ingeborg was far weightier matter than the favor of 
 Balder. 
 
 To punish him for this contempt of the shrine of 
 Balder, the kings laid upon Frithiof the task of going to 
 the Faroes, and demanding a tribute. So Frithiof, with 
 his foster-brother, set sail in the ship Ellida, the best in 
 all the North ; a ship which all said could understand 
 the voice of men. All in the midst of the storm Frith- 
 iof spoke of his Ingeborg. At last, when the good ship 
 was near sinking, he hewed Ingeborg's ring in pieces, 
 that his men might not want gold when they went down 
 to Rana's dwelling (she was goddess of the Sea). After- 
 wards, when they had overcome a pair of storm-sprites, 
 which rode on whales against them, the storm sank 
 down, and they approached the Faroes, where Yarl An- 
 gantyr let him take the tribute for friendship's sake, and 
 so he departed. 
 
 When he came back, he heard that the kings had 
 burned his dwelling, and that they were just then at the 
 midsummer feast in the grove of Balder. Thither he 
 went, and found few folk within ; but Helge's queen sat 
 there, warming the image of the god, anointing it, and 
 rubbing it with cloths. 
 
 Frithiof flung the purse with the money in Helge's 
 face, so that his very teeth fell out ; and then he was 
 going away, when he beheld the ring he had given to 
 Ingeborg on the arm of Helge's queen. He dragged it 
 from her with such might that she fell upon the ground, 
 Balder's image was thrown into the fire, and the whole 
 temple set in flame. King Helge sought to pursue 
 Frithiof, but his ships had been made useless. Frithiof, 
 just to show his strength, drew such a stroke with Elli-
 
 xxviii THE ANCIENT FRITHIOF-SA GA. 
 
 da's oars (which were twelve ells long), that they both 
 brake asunder. 
 
 Now Frithiof remained an outcast ; so he took to the 
 ocean, and he slew the fierce sea-kings, but let the mer- 
 chants fare in peace. And so, when he had gained great 
 glory and wealth, he hied him back again to the North, 
 and went, disguised as a salt-burner, to the palace of 
 King Hring. Hring knew him, and, pitying his sad 
 tale, commanded that he should be set in the most hon- 
 orable seat. Queen Ingeborg spake but little with him. 
 Once, when Hring and Ingeborg were driving over the 
 ice, it broke beneath them ; Frithiof came with speed 
 and dragged them up again, with sleigh and horse and 
 all. Another day Frithiof and the king went out to- 
 gether into a wood, and the king laid him down to 
 sleep j then Frithiof drew his sword, and threw it away. 
 Then the king told him how that he had known from 
 the first evening who he was. Then Frithiof wished to 
 go away ; but Hring gave up Ingeborg to him, and 
 made him, under the title of Earl, the guardian of his 
 heir. Soon after Hring died ; then Frithiof married his 
 bride, and remained king. Helge and Halfdan made 
 war against him ; but Frithiof slew Helge, and Halfdan 
 had to pay scot to him as his lord.
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA, 
 
 (xxix)
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA 
 
 FRITHIOF AND INGEBORG. 
 
 IN Hilcling's home together grew 
 Two plants beneath his fostering true ; 
 Two fairer never graced the North, 
 In youth's green spring-time budding forth. 
 
 Strong as the oak, and towering high, 
 Straight as a tall lance towards the sky, 
 Its struggling, wind-tost summit blown, 
 Like helmet-plumes, so grew the one. 
 
 The other, like the fragile rose, 
 When Winter, parting, melts the snows, 
 And Spring's sweet breath bids flowers arise, 
 Still in the bud unconscious lies. 
 
 (0
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 When o'er the earth the storms speed hoarse, 
 The oak is seen to brave their force ; 
 When in the sky the spring-sun glows 
 Open the red lips of the rose : 
 
 So grew they glad in childhood free, 
 And Frithiof was the sapling tree ; 
 And the sweet valley-rose was there 
 In Ingeborg, the young and fair. 
 
 Saw'st thou the twain by light of day, 
 In Freya's halls thou'dst seem to stray, 
 Where wanders many a happy pair, 
 With rosy wings and golden hair. 
 
 But saw'st thou them in moonlit glade, 
 Dancing beneath the forest shade, 
 Thou'dst think in airy dance t' have seen 
 The fairy king and fairy queen. 
 
 How light his heart, how glad his thought, 
 When the first Rmjes to him were taught ! 
 So proud no king on earth was then, 
 Since he could teach them her again. 
 
 O'er the blue deep he loved to guide 
 His boat, with Ingborg by his side ; 
 While she, as sailed they to and fro, 
 Clapped gleefully her hands of snow.
 
 FR1THIOF AND INQEBORG. 
 
 To gain for her, no wild bird's nest 
 Too high for him was ever placed ; 
 Nor even could the eagle strong 
 Protect from him her eggs or young. 
 
 No stream, however fierce its flow, 
 He feared to carry Ingborg through ; 
 Sweetly, when 'neath loud falls they passed, 
 Her little white arms held him fast. 
 
 The first fair flower that spring-time bred, 
 The first wild berry, sweet and red, 
 The first ripe ear of golden corn, 
 Faithful and glad f to her were borne. 
 
 But all too soon sweet childhood flew, 
 And Frithiof to manhood grew ; 
 While to the maid matured, his eye 
 Beamed full of love's intensity. 
 
 Young Frithiof often in the field 
 Pursued the chase, 'gainst danger steel'd ; 
 Proud, without either sword or spear, 
 Unarmed, to slay the grisly bear. 
 
 He wrestled with him, breast to breast, 
 Nor scatheless of his prize possessed,. 
 He carried home the shaggy spoil, 
 While Ingborg's smiles repaid his toil.
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 For woman loves a manly deed, 
 And beauty's praise is valor's meed ; 
 The one is suited for the other, 
 As head and helmet matched together. 
 
 Then, as the winter evenings sped, 
 Beside the hearth he sat, and read 
 Some lay of Odin's halls of light 
 Of gods and goddesses so bright. 
 
 Then thought he : " Freya's golden hair, 
 Like a ripe corn-field, waves in air ; 
 But Ingborg's tresses seem to hold 
 Lily and rose in net of gold. 
 
 " Iduna's bosom, full and fair, 
 Beats beneath silk, rich, green, and rare ; 
 But here, 'neath dearer silken folds, 
 Its place a fairy bosom holds. 
 
 " And, like the deep, clear, azure sky, 
 Beams lovely Frigga's soft blue eye ; 
 But I know eyes whose gentle ray 
 Eclipses spring-time's brightest day. 
 
 " And shines fair Gerda's cheek alone 
 Like sparkling snow 'neath northern sun ? 
 I know of cheeks, whose ruddy glow 
 A double dawn appears to show.
 
 FR1TI1IOF AND INGEBORG. 
 
 " A loving heart I know of, too, 
 Like gentle Nanna's, fond and true ; 
 Full worthily, O Balder, we 
 Praise still, in song, her love for thee ! 
 
 " Gladly in death would I be laid, 
 Lamented by a loving maid, 
 As faithful and as true as she, 
 Welcome were Hela's home to me." 
 
 King Bele's child of daring deeds j(-% 
 Sate singing, while with busy threads 
 She wove a tapestry of war, 
 With groves, and fields, and waves afar. 
 
 Upon the snowy woollen field 
 Grew glories of a golden shield ; 
 Blood-red appeared the lances thrown, 
 With silver all the breastplates shone. 
 
 Still, as she wove it, more and more 
 The hero Frithiof 's likeness bore ; 
 When from the frame she raised her head, 
 She blushed with shame, but still was glad. 
 
 And Frithiof cut, on birch-tree's stem, 
 An I, an F, where'er he came ; 
 And merrily the letters, too, 
 Like their young hearts, together grew.
 
 FRITHIOF 'S SAGA. 
 
 When riseth up the morning fair, 
 The king of earth, with golden hair, 
 And busy life begins to move, 
 Each on the other thinks with love. 
 
 When night with darkness fills the air, 
 Mother of earth, with raven hair, 
 And silent stars are all that move, 
 Each on the other dreams with love. 
 
 " O Earth, thou deck'st thyself each year 
 With flowers in thy leaf-green hair ; 
 Give me the sweetest, that may shine 
 In richest wreath for Frithiof mine ! " 
 
 " O Sea, thy gloomy halls possess 
 Bright pearls in thousands numberless ; 
 Give me the fairest and most clear, 
 To weave a chain for Ingborg dear." 
 
 " O Peak of Odin's royal throne, 
 Eye of the world, thou golden Sun, 
 Did thy bright disc belong to me, 
 A shield for Frithiof it should be ! " 
 
 " O Lamp in Odin's halls of bliss, 
 Pale Moon, with gentle ray of peace, 
 Thy fairest beams, if thou wert mine, 
 To deck my Ingeborg should shine ! "
 
 FRITHIOF AND INGEBORG. 
 
 But Hilding said : " My foster-child, 
 Check this young fondness, vain and wild ; 
 Unequal lots forbid the Nome, 
 And royally is Ingborg born. 
 
 " From Odin, in his starry home, 
 Her ancestors descended come ; 
 Thou art but Thorsten's son ; forbear, 
 Since but the great should greatness share." 
 
 " My sires lie," Frithiof proudly said, 
 
 "In the dark valley of the dead ; 
 But the falling wood-king left to me, 
 With his shaggy hide, his ancestry. 
 
 " The free-born man, ne'er yieldeth he ; 
 The world belongeth to the free.. 
 What chance hath lost, may chance repair, 
 And Hope a royal crown may wear. 
 
 " Full nobly born descendeth power 
 From the great Thrudvang-d welling Thor : 
 He heeds not birth, but valor true, 
 And mightily the sword can sue. 
 
 " For my young bride I'll combat now, 
 Though thundering Thor should be my foe. 
 Bloom glad, bloom true, my lily fair ; 
 He who would part us ill shall fare ! "
 
 II. 
 
 KING BELE AND THORSTEN VIKINGSSON. 
 
 KING BELE in hfe palace stood, en his sword 
 he leaned, 
 
 And by him Thorsten Vikingsson, his old, tried friend ; 
 The comrade who for eighty years his wars did share, 
 Scarred as a monument was he, and white his hair. 
 
 So stand two aged temples, midst mountains high, 
 Both with age tottering, to ruin nigh ; 
 Yet words of wisdom still on the walls we see, 
 And on the roof pictures of antiquity. 
 
 " My day is setting fast," King Bele said ; 
 
 " Tasteless the mead ; I feel the helmet's weight ; 
 Dim are my glazing eyes to mortal state, 
 But Valhall' dawns more near ; I feel my fate. 
 
 " So my two sons, with thine, I've called to me ; 
 Together they're united, as have been we ; 
 (8)
 
 KINO BELE AND VIKING880N. 9 
 
 Once more to warn the young birds am I fain, 
 Ere from a dead man's tongue all words be vain." 
 
 Then to the hall they entered in, as he had willed : 
 The elder, Helge, whose dark brow with gloom was 
 
 filled ; 
 
 His days in temples spent he, with spaemen hoary, 
 And now from sacrificing came, his hands still gory. 
 
 Then came the younger, Halfdan, with flaxen hair ; 
 His countenance was noble, but soft and fair ; 
 As if in sport, a heavy falchion bearing, 
 Like a young maid a warrior's armor wearing. 
 
 And last, in azure mantle, came Frithiof tall, 
 By a full head in stature outmeasuring them all ; 
 He stood between the brothers as glorious day 
 Stands between rosy dawning and twilight gray. 
 
 " My children," quoth the king, " my day doth 
 
 wane ; 
 
 Rule in fraternal peace, in union reign ; 
 For union, like the ring upon the spear, 
 Makes strong what, wanting it, were worthless gear. 
 
 " Let Vigour be your country's sentinel, 
 And blooming Peace within securely dwell ; 
 To shelter,, not to harm, your weapons wield, 
 And let your subjects' bulwark be your shield.
 
 io FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " An unwise ruler devastates his land ; 
 All monarchs' might in people's strength must 
 
 stand ; 
 
 Soon the green splendor of the tree is fled, 
 If from the naked rock its roots be fed. 
 
 " Four pillars to uphold it, Heaven doth own ; 
 Kingdoms are based on one on Law alone. 
 Danger is near where might can sway the 
 
 Ting; 
 Right guards the land, and glorifies the king. 
 
 " Helge ! in Disarsal the gods do dwell ; 
 But not, like snails, within a narrow shell ; 
 Far as the day can shine, or echo sound, 
 Far as the thought can flee, the gods are found. 
 
 " Oft err the entrails of the offered hawk ; 
 False, though deep-cut, is many a Runenbalk ; 
 But in the open heart and honest eye 
 Odin hath written Runes that ne'er can lie. 
 
 " Helge ! be not severe be firm alone ; 
 By bending most the truest sword is known ; 
 Mercy adorns a king, as flowers a shield ; 
 More than all winter can one spring-day yield. 
 
 " A friendless man, however mighty he, 
 Fadeth deserted, like a bark-stripped tree ;
 
 KINO BELE AND VIKINGSSON. u 
 
 With roots refreshed, though fierce the storm-winds 
 
 strive, 
 By friendship's stream thou may'st securely thrive. 
 
 " Boast not thy father's fame 'tis his alone ; 
 A bow thou canst not bend is scarce thine own. 
 What can a buried glory be to thee ? 
 By its own force the river gains the sea. 
 
 " Gladness, O Halfdan, doth the wise adorn ; 
 But folly, most of all in kings, brings scorn ! 
 Mix hops with honey, when thou mead wilt brew ; 
 Make thy sports sterner, and thy weapon too. 
 
 " None is too learned, however wise he be. 
 That many knowledge lack, too well know we ; 
 Despised the witless sitteth at the feast ; 
 The learned hath the ear of every guest. 
 
 " To trusty comrade, or to friend in war, 
 Be thy way near, although his home be far ; 
 Yet let thy foeman's house, where'er it lie, 
 Be ever distant, though thou pass it by. 
 
 " Thy confidence to many shun to give ; 
 Full barns we lock ; the empty, open leave ; 
 Choose one in whom to trust more seek not thou ; 
 The world, O Halfdan, knows what three men 
 know ! "
 
 12 FRITHIOF^B SAGA. 
 
 After the king rose Thorsten. Thus spake he : 
 " Odin alone to seek ill fitteth thee ; 
 We've shared each hap, O king, our whole lives 
 
 through, 
 And death, I trust, we'll share together too. 
 
 " Full many a warning Time hath whispered me, 
 Son Frithiof, which I gladly give to thee ; 
 As on the tombstones high perch Odin's birds, 
 So on the lips of age hang wisdom's words. 
 
 " Honor the gods ; for every good and harm 
 Cometh from above, like sunshine and like storm ; 
 Deep into hearts they see, and many mourn 
 A lifelong sorrow for one short hour's scorn. 
 
 " Honor the king ! Let one man rule with might ; 
 Day hath but one eye, many hath the night. 
 Let not the better grudge against the best ; 
 The sword must have a hilt to hold it fast 
 
 " High strength is Heaven's gift ; yet little prize 
 It brings its owner, if he be not wise ; 
 A bear with twelve men's strength can one man 
 
 kill: 
 As shield 'gainst sword, set law against thy will 
 
 " The proud are feared by few, hated by all ; 
 And insolence, O Frithiof, brings a fall.
 
 KING BELE AND VIKINQSSON. 13 
 
 Men, mighty once, I've seen on crutches borne, 
 And fortune changeth like storm-blasted corn. 
 
 " Praise not the day before the night arrive ; 
 Mead till 'tis drunk, or counsel till it thrive ; 
 Youth trusteth soon to many an idle word ; 
 Need proves a friend, as battle proves a sword. 
 
 " Trust not to one night's ice, to spring-day snow, 
 To serpent's slumber, or to maiden's vow ; 
 For heart of woman turneth like a wheel, 
 And 'neath the snowy breast doth falsehood dwell." 
 
 " Thyself must perish, all thou hast must fade ; 
 One thing alone on earth is deathless made 
 That is, the dead man's glory ; therefore thou 
 Will what is right, and what is noble, do. 
 
 So warned the graybeards in the royal hall, 
 
 As later warned the Skald in Havamal ; 
 
 From mouth to mouth went words of wisdom 
 round, 
 
 Which, whispered still, through Northland's hills re- 
 sound. 
 
 Then both full many a hearty memory named 
 Of their true friendship, in the Northland famed ; 
 How, faithful unto death, in joy or need, 
 Like two clasp'd hands, together they had stayed.
 
 14 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Sons ! back to back our stand we ever made ; 
 So ever to each Nome a shield displayed ; 
 And now, we aged, to Valhalla haste ; 
 Oh ! with our sons may their sires' spirits rest ! " 
 
 Much spake the king of Frithiof 's valor good, 
 His hero-might excelling royal blood ; 
 And Thorsten much of future fame to crown 
 The Asa sons, who should the Northland own. 
 
 " And if ye hold together, ye mighty three, 
 Your conqueror the Northland ne'er shall see ; 
 For might, by lofty station firmly held, 
 Is like the steel rim round a golden shield. 
 
 " And my dear daughter tender rose-bud ! greet 
 In tranquil silence bred, as most is meet ; 
 Defend her ; let the storm-wind ne'er have power 
 To plant upon his crest my late-born flower. 
 
 " Helge ! on thee I lay a father's care ; 
 Guard, like a daughter dear, my Ingborg fair ; 
 Force breaks a noble soul, but mildness leads 
 Both man and maid to good and noble deeds. 
 
 " Now, children, lay us in two lofty graves 
 Down by the sea-shore, near the deep blue waves : 
 Their sounds shall to our souls be music sweet, 
 Singing our dirge as on the strand they beat
 
 KING BELE AND VIKINGSSON. 15 
 
 " When round the hills the pale moonlight is 
 
 thrown, 
 
 And midnight dews fall on the Bauta-stone, 
 We'll sit, O Thorsten, in our rounded graves, 
 And speak together o'er the gentle waves. 
 
 " And now, ye sons beloved, fare ye well ; 
 We go to Allfather, in peace to dwell, 
 As weary rivers long to reach the sea. 
 With you may Frey and Thor and Odin be ! "
 
 III. 
 
 FRITHIOPS INHERITANCE. 
 
 NOW in their graves had been 'set King Bele 
 and Thorsten the aged, 
 Where they themselves had desired ; uprose on each 
 
 side of the deep bay 
 Mounds high arched, like breasts that the valley of 
 
 death separated. 
 Helge and Halfdan together, by old traditional 
 
 usage, 
 Ruled in the house of their sire ; but Frithiof shared 
 
 his with no one, 
 And as an only son possessed the dwelling at 
 
 Fraumas. 
 Three leagues forth was his rule, on three sides round 
 
 him extended, 
 Valley and mountain and wood ; and the sea was the 
 
 fourth of his mearings. 
 Birch forest crowned the tops of the hills, and where 
 
 they descended 
 (16)
 
 FRITHIOF'S INHERITANCE. 17 
 
 Waved fields of rye as tall as a man, and golden- 
 eared barley. 
 
 Many a fair, smooth lake held a mirror of light to the 
 mountains, 
 
 Picturing forth the forests, where elks with towering 
 antlers 
 
 Stalked with the gait of kings, and drank from rivu- 
 lets countless. 
 
 And in the valleys around, far pastured abroad o'er 
 the meadows, 
 
 Herds with glittering hides, and udders that yearned 
 for the milking. 
 
 Mingled with these, moved slowly about in flocks 
 without number, 
 
 Sheep with fleeces of snow, as float in the beautiful 
 heavens 
 
 Thick, white, feathery clouds at the gentle breathing 
 of spring-time. 
 
 Twice twelve spirited steeds, like terrible winds in 
 confinement, 
 
 Pawed in the stalls impatient, and champ'd the growth 
 of the meadows ; 
 
 Red silk shone in their manes, and their hoofs were 
 flashing with steel shoes. 
 
 But a house for itself was the banquet hall, fashioned 
 in fir- wood ;
 
 i8 FRITIIIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Not five hundred, though told ten dozen to every 
 
 hundred, 
 Filled that chamber so vast, when they gathered for 
 
 Yule-tide carousing. 
 Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the 
 
 table of oak wood, 
 Brighter than steel, and polished ; the pillars twain 
 
 of the high seat 
 Stood on each side thereof; two gods deep carved 
 
 out of elm wood : 
 (Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun 
 
 on his forehead). 
 Lately betwixt them sat on his bear-skin (this was as 
 
 coal black, 
 Scarlet red were the jaws, and the paws with silver 
 
 beshodden) ? 
 Thorsten still with his friends, Hospitality sitting with 
 
 Gladness. 
 
 Oft, while sped the moon through the sky, the gray- 
 beard related 
 Wonders of far-lying lands, and of many a Vikinga 
 
 voyage 
 Wide on the eastern sea, o'er the western waves, and 
 
 on Gandvik. 
 The glance of the listeners silent hung on the lips of 
 
 the speaker 
 Hung as a bee from a rose ; the Skald alone thought 
 
 upon Brage,
 
 FRITIIIOF'S INHERITANCE. 19 
 
 How, with his silver beard and tongue rune-written, 
 
 he sitteth 
 Under the leafy grove, and relateth wonders by 
 
 Mimer's 
 
 Ever-murmuring stream ; himself a living rela- 
 tion. 
 Now in the midst of the rush-strewn hall continual 
 
 flaming 
 Rose the fire from the mortared hearth ; through the 
 
 open chimney, 
 Heavenly, friend-like stars looked into the banqueting 
 
 chamber. 
 Round on the wall from hooks of steel were hanging 
 
 in order 
 Breast-plates and helmets together, while here and 
 
 there from between them 
 Flashed a sword, like a meteor seen in the dark nights 
 
 of winter. 
 But more than helmet or sword the shields shone 
 
 bright in the chamber, 
 Clear as the orb of the sun, or the silvery disc of the 
 
 pale moon. 
 Then, when a maiden went round the board and filled 
 
 up the mead-horns, 
 Downwards she cast her eyes, and blushed, and her 
 
 form in the round shields 
 Blushed like the maiden herself ; this gladdened each 
 
 banqueting comrade.
 
 20 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 Rich was the house : where'er the eye could turn, 
 there did meet it 
 
 Cellars and chests well rilled, and granaries heaped 
 with provisions. 
 
 Many a treasure, too, it contained, the booty of war- 
 fare : 
 
 Golden, with deep-carved Runes, and silver won- 
 drously fashioned. 
 
 Three things there were prized above all the rest of 
 the riches : 
 
 First of the three was the mighty sword, an heir-loom 
 ancestral, 
 
 Angurvadel, so was it named, and brother of Light- 
 ning ; 
 
 Far in the east it was forged, as ancient legends re- 
 lated, 
 
 Tempered by toil of dv/arfs : Bjorn Blastand the first 
 who had borne it. 
 
 But Bjorn paid as a forfeit at once both his life and 
 his weapon, 
 
 Southward in Groninga-sund, when he fought with 
 the powerful VifelL 
 
 Vifell was father to Viking. There dwelt then, feeble 
 and aged, 
 
 At Ullaroker, a king with an only beautiful daugh- 
 ter. 
 
 Lo ! there came from the depths of the woods a giant 
 tremendous,
 
 FRITHIOF'S INHERITANCE. 21 
 
 Greater in height than stature of man, and hairy and 
 
 cruel, 
 Demanding a champion to fight, or else both daughter 
 
 and kingdom. 
 No man stood forth to strive, nor could find a hard 
 
 enough weapon 
 His skull of iron to wound, and therefore they named 
 
 him the lernhos. 
 
 Viking alone, who had just filled fifteen winters, with- 
 stood him, 
 Fighting with trust in his arm and Angurvadel, with 
 
 one stroke 
 Cleft he the terrible foe to the waist, and rescued the 
 
 fair one. 
 Viking left it to Thorsten, his son, and from Thorsten 
 
 descended 
 Came it to Frithiof at last. When he drew it, the 
 
 hall was illumined 
 As by a lightning-flash, or the dazzling gleam of the 
 
 north-lights. 
 Golden thereof was the hilt ; with verses the blade 
 
 of it written, 
 Wonderful, strange to the north, but known at the 
 
 threshold of sunshine, 
 Where their fathers had dwelt ere the Asen led them 
 
 up northwards. 
 Dull was the sheen of the Runes as long as was 
 
 peace in the nation,
 
 22 FRITHIOFS SAGA. 
 
 But when Hildur began her sport, then glittered they 
 
 blood-red 
 Red as the crest of a cock when he fighteth. Lost 
 
 was the foeman 
 Who ever met that flaming sword in the midst of the 
 
 battle. 
 Far was that sword renowned, and of swords the first 
 
 in the Northland. 
 Next in worth to the sword was an arm-ring, far and 
 
 wide famous, 
 Forged by the Vulcan of Northern story, the halting 
 
 Valunder ; 
 Three marks was it in weight, of gold unmingled 
 
 y-fashioned ; 
 On it the heavens were wrought, and the towers of 
 
 the twelve immortals 
 (Figuring changing months, the Sun's dwellings called 
 
 by the minstrels) : 
 Alf heim there might be seen, Frey's tower, and the 
 
 sun in new vigor, 
 As he beginneth to climb the heights of the heaven 
 
 at Yule-tide. 
 Soquaback, too, was there ; in its hall sat Odin by 
 
 Saga, 
 Quaffing the wine from a golden shell, that shell is 
 
 the ocean, 
 Colored with gold from the glow of the morn ; and 
 
 Saga is spring-time
 
 FRITHIOF'S INHERITANCE. 23 
 
 Writ upon grassy fields with flowers instead of with 
 
 letters. 
 Balder appeared there too, as the sun of midsummer, 
 
 glorious, 
 Shedding abundance around, and shining, the image 
 
 ' of goodness. 
 Beaming with light is Goodness, but all that is Evil 
 
 is gloomy. 
 Weary the sun groweth, mounting so high, and so 
 
 groweth Goodness 
 
 Faint on the dizzy height ; so, sighing, sink they to- 
 gether 
 Down to the realms of Hela, the land of shadows and 
 
 darkness. 
 Glitner was pictured thereon, the palace of peace, 
 
 where Forsete, 
 Holding the scales in his hand impartial, ruleth the 
 
 autumn. 
 Many such forms, whereby the progress of light was 
 
 betokened, 
 High in the vault of the sky and deep in the spirit of 
 
 mortals, 
 Stood, wrought by master-hand on the ring ; and a 
 
 cluster of rubies 
 Crowned the circlet fair as the sun doth the arch of 
 
 the heaven. 
 Heirloom old in the race was the ring ; its origin 
 
 ancient
 
 24 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 (Though by the mother's side) reached up to mighty 
 Valunder. 
 
 Once had the gem been stolen away by plundering 
 Sote; 
 
 Widely he cruised through the sea of the North, but 
 suddenly vanished. 
 
 Rumor at last was borne how on Britain's coast he 
 had buried 
 
 Himself, with treasure and ships, in a builded sepul- 
 chre lofty : 
 
 Still there found he no rest, and his grave forever was 
 haunting. 
 
 Thorsten the rumor heard ; with King Bele he 
 mounted his dragon, 
 
 Cleft through the foaming waves, and steered his 
 course unto Britain. 
 
 Wide as a temple-dome, or a lordly palace, deep- 
 bedded 
 
 Down in the dark green grass and turf, lay the sepul- 
 chre rounded ; 
 
 Light gleamed out therefrom ; through a chink in the 
 ponderous portal 
 
 Glanced the comrades in ; pitch-black within stood 
 the vessel 
 
 Of Sote, with helm and anchor and mast ; and high 
 by the tiller 
 
 Sat there a terrible form ; he was clad in a fiery 
 mantle ;
 
 FRITHIOF'S INHERITANCE. 25 
 
 Moodily glaring sat he, and scrubbed his blood- 
 spotted weapon 
 Vainly ; the stains remained, and all the wealth he 
 
 had stolen 
 Round in the grave was heaped ; the ring on his 
 
 arm he was wearing. 
 " Come," whispered Bele, " let's enter and fight with 
 
 this terrible being, 
 Two men against a fiery fiend." Half angry swore 
 
 Thorsten 
 " One against one our fathers fought, and alone will I 
 
 combat." 
 
 Long contended the twain for the right of the peril- 
 ous conflict, 
 Which should essay it first ; till Bele, taking his 
 
 helmet, 
 Shuffled for each within it a lot, and soon by the 
 
 starlight 
 Thorsten discovered his own ; so he smote on the 
 
 door with his steel lance. 
 Open flew bolt and bar ; he descended. When any 
 
 one asked him 
 What he had seen in the gloomy pit, he was silent, 
 
 and shuddered. 
 Bele first heard a song, like the spell of witchcraft it 
 
 sounded ; 
 Then rose a loud-clashing noise, like the crossing 
 
 of weapons it sounded ;
 
 26 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Lastly, a terrible cry, which was hushed ; then out 
 
 darted Thorsten, 
 Ghastly, bewildered, disturbed ; with awful Death 
 
 he had battled ; 
 Bearing, moreover, the ring. " 'Twas dear-bought," 
 
 oft he repeated ; 
 " Since in my life, save the time that I won it, I ne'er 
 
 was affrighted." 
 Far was that jewel renowned, and of jewels the first 
 
 in the Northland. 
 Ship Ellida, the last of the three, of its kind was a 
 
 jewel : 
 Viking (so say they), as homeward he hied him back 
 
 once from battle, 
 Coasting the shore, espied a man on a frail spar of 
 
 drift-wood 
 Carelessly tossing about ; he seemed with the waves 
 
 to be sporting. 
 
 Tall, and of powerful form was the man ; his coun- 
 tenance noble, 
 Joyous, but changing, like to the ocean playing in 
 
 sunshine. 
 Blue was his mantle, belted with gold, with coral 
 
 adorne'd ; 
 Sea-green his hair, yet hoary his beard as the foam 
 
 of the ocean. 
 Hitherward Viking steered his snake to shelter the 
 
 outcast,
 
 FRITHIOF'S INHERITANCE. 27 
 
 Took him perishing home to his house, and exer- 
 cised kindness : 
 Yet when the host to a chamber would lead him, the 
 
 guest laughed, exclaiming 
 " Good are the winds, and my vessel, thou seest, is 
 
 not to be scorne'd ; 
 Fivescore leagues (at least, so I hope), shall I 
 
 traverse ere morning. 
 Thanks for thy bidding well 'twas intended ; would 
 
 that some kindness 
 I, jn my turn, could offer, but my wealth lies in the 
 
 ocean ; 
 Haply to-morrow from me thou may'st find some 
 
 gift by the sea-side." 
 Next day Viking stood by the sea, and lo ! as an 
 
 osprey 
 Flieth, quarry-pursuing, a ship sailed into the 
 
 haven ; 
 
 No man upon it appeared ; no pilot could be dis- 
 covered ; 
 Yet it steered its winding way through breakers and 
 
 quicksands, 
 Like as if spirit-possessed ; and when it entered the 
 
 haven, 
 Reefed were the sails by themselves, untouched by 
 
 hand of a mortal ; 
 Down sank the anchor itself, and clung with its 
 
 fluke to the bottom.
 
 28 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Dumb stood Viking, and gazed ; then sang the glad, 
 
 heaving billows : 
 " Aegir, protected, forgetteth no debt, and hath sent 
 
 thee this dragon." 
 Kingly, indeed, was the gift ; the bended planking 
 
 of oak-wood, 
 Not, as in others, joined, was by one growth banded 
 
 together ; 
 
 Far spread her lengthy keel ; her crest, like a ser- 
 pent of ocean, 
 High in the bows she reared ; her jaws were flaming 
 
 with red gold. 
 Sprinkled with yellow on blue was her beam ; 
 
 astern, at the rudder, 
 Flapped she around her powerful tail, that glittered 
 
 with silver ; 
 Black were her pinions, bordered with red, and 
 
 when they were bended, 
 
 Vied she in speed with the loud-roaring blast, out- 
 stripping the eagle. 
 Saw ye her filled with warriors armed, your eyes 
 
 would have fancied 
 Then to have seen a fortress at sea, or the tower of 
 
 a great king, 
 Far was that ship renowned, and of ships the first 
 
 in the Northland.
 
 FRITHIOF'B INHERITANCE. 29 
 
 These things, and many more, from his sire did 
 
 Frithiof inherit ; 
 Scarce in the Northern land was there found an 
 
 heritage richer, 
 Save with the son of a king ; for the wealth of kings 
 
 is the greatest. 
 He was no son of a king, yet king-like, in sooth, was 
 
 his spirit ; 
 Friendly, noble, and mild, with each day growing in 
 
 glory. 
 Comrades twelve were around him, gray-haired, 
 
 princes in warfare, 
 Thorsten's steel-breasted knights, with many a scar 
 
 on their foreheads. 
 Lowest of these on the warriors' bench sate also a 
 
 stripling, 
 Like to a rose in a withering bower ; Bjorn was his 
 
 title ; 
 Gay as a child, but brave as a man, and wise as an 
 
 old man ; 
 Frithiof 's comrade from childhood ; blood they had 
 
 mingled together 
 
 (Fosterkin by Northern use), and sworn to continue 
 Sorrow and joy to share, and avenge the death of 
 
 each other. 
 
 Now, 'midst the crowd of comrades and guests who 
 had come to the grave-feast,
 
 30 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Frithiof, a sorrowing host, his eyes with tears o'er- 
 
 flowing. 
 Drank (as our ancestors used) his father's memory, 
 
 hearing 
 Songs of Skalds resound to his praise, a thundering 
 
 Drapa, 
 Mounted his father's seat, now his, and silently sat 
 
 him 
 Down betwixt Odin and Frey ; that is Thor's place 
 
 up in Valhalla.
 
 IV. 
 FRITHIOF'S WOOING. 
 
 LOUD soundeth the song in Frithiof 's hall ; 
 The Skalds sing the fame of his ancestors all ; 
 No joy do they bring 
 To Frithiof, who heeds not the tales they sing. 
 
 Again hath the earth donned her raiment of green, 
 
 And vessels swim over the billows again ; 
 
 To the shadowy grove 
 
 Hieth Frithiof, by moonlight, to dream of his love. 
 
 Till lately he joined in the joys of his home, 
 For Halfdan the merry he'd bidden to come, 
 And dark Helge, the king, 
 And with them fair Ingborg persuaded to bring. 
 
 He sat by her side, and her white hand he pressed, 
 And the pressure returned made him happy and blest ; 
 And he hung in a trance 
 Of unspeakable love on her favoring glance. 
 
 (3D
 
 32 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 And often they spake of each happier day, 
 
 When the morning dew on their young lives lay, 
 
 Of childhood's hours, 
 
 To noble minds a garden of flowers. 
 
 They spake of each valley and forest dark, 
 
 Of their names deep-carved in the birchen-bark, 
 
 Of each ancient grave, 
 
 Where the oaks grew tall in the dust of the brave. 
 
 " In the court of the king no such gladness hath smiled, 
 For Helge is sullen, and Halfdan wild, 
 And my brothers hear 
 Nought but flattering song or covetous prayer. 
 
 " I have no one " (and here she blushed red as the rose) 
 " To whom I may speak of my sorrow and woes ; 
 
 The court of the king 
 
 Far less joy than the valley of Hilding can bring. 
 
 " The doves which together we long ago rear'd, 
 By the hawks' fierce attacks are all scatter'd and scar'd; 
 One pair alone 
 Remains, of that last pair take thou one. 
 
 " For, doubtless, the bird to his mate will return ; 
 They even for love and for fondness can yearn ; 
 'Ncath its wing bind for me 
 One loving word which unnoticed may be."
 
 FRITH WF'S WOOING. 33 
 
 So whispering sate they the livelong day, 
 
 And were whispering still when the sun passed away, 
 
 As the evening breeze 
 
 Whispers in spring through the linden trees. 
 
 But now she is gone, and his joyous mood 
 Is fled with her presence ; the youthful blood 
 Mounts to his cheek : 
 He sighs and grieves, silent, unwilling to speak. 
 
 And sadly he wrote of his grief by the dove, 
 Which joyously sped on his message of love ; 
 But ah ! to their woe, 
 From his mate could no more be persuaded to go. 
 
 But Bjorn this mourning could not bear ; 
 
 He cried : " What makes our young eagle here 
 
 So sad and moody ? 
 
 Hath his breast been struck are his pinions bloody ? 
 
 " What will'st thou ? For here we can fear no need 
 Of noble food, or of nut-brown mead ; 
 And the Skalds' long train 
 Cease not the joyous, tuneful strain. 
 
 " His pawing coursers impatient neigh ; 
 His falcon wildly screams for prey. 
 In the clouds alone 
 Will Frithiof chase, by sorrowing o'erthrown.
 
 34 FRITHIOF 'S SAGA. 
 
 " Ellida hath no rest upon the wave, 
 Early and late at anchor doth she chafe. 
 Ellida, be thou still ; 
 For strife and warfare is not Frithiof 's will." 
 
 At last sets Frithiof his dragon free ; 
 
 The sails swell high, the waves cleaves she ; 
 
 And speedily brings 
 
 Him over the sea to the court of the kings. 
 
 That day were they sitting on Bele's grave, 
 And judgment before all the people they gave ; 
 Loud Frithiof cried 
 Round hill and vale his voice echoed wide : 
 
 " Fair Ingborg, ye monarchs, I love as my life ; 
 And your sister I ask of you now for my wife ; 
 This union, too, 
 Was ever King Bele's purpose true. 
 
 "In Hilding's home brought up we were, 
 As young trees grow together fair ; 
 And our fates above 
 Hath Freya woven in gold threads of love. 
 
 " No king, no Yarl was my sire, I own ; 
 But long shall his name in song live on. 
 The fame of our race 
 Is witnessed in many a burial-place.
 
 FRITHIOF'8 WOOING. 35 
 
 " 'Twere easy for me to win kingdom and land, 
 But that better I cherish my native strand ; 
 Where with love I'll watch o'er 
 The court of the king and the hut of the poor. 
 
 " We stand on the grave of great Bele ; he hears 
 Below us my word, which adjures you with prayers ; 
 For this boon from you 
 With Frithiof your buried sire doth sue." 
 
 Then rose King Helge, and cried with scorn : 
 " Our sister was ne'er for a vassal born ; 
 A king's son alone 
 Shall Valhalla's beautiful daughter own. 
 
 " Go ! style thyself first in the North in thy pride ; 
 Win maids with thy word, and win men with thy might : 
 But given to thee, 
 Our sister, of Odin's blood, never shall be. 
 
 " Let the care of the realm be no trouble to thee ; 
 I can guard it myself, but my serf thou may'st be ; 
 A place there is still 
 In our household thou mayest be happy to fill." 
 
 " Thy serf," exclaimed Frithiof, " I never shall be ! 
 I'm a man for myself, as my father was, free, 
 From thy silver sheath fly, 
 Angurvadel, to fright his security."
 
 3 6 FRFTHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Bright flash'd the blue steel 'gainst the sun-lighted 
 
 sky, 
 And the Runes blazed blood-red as he waved it on 
 
 high: 
 
 " Angurvadel," quoth he, 
 " Thou, at least, art of ancient nobility. 
 
 "If the peace of the grave did not pacify me, 
 Dark king, my good blade would have brought it to 
 
 thee; 
 
 Now hear this last word : 
 Come never again within reach of my sword ! " 
 
 So spake he, and cleft with a terrible stroke 
 The gold shield of Helge, which hung on an oak, 
 In twain at a blow, 
 And its crash on the grave was reechoed below. 
 
 " Well stricken, good sword ! now lie quiet, and think 
 Upon mightier deeds ; but at present let sink 
 Thy Runes' bright glow ; 
 O'er the blue waves we must homeward go."
 
 V. 
 
 KING RING. 
 
 AND King Ring from the board his gold seat 
 thrust forth ; 
 Skalds and warriors rise 
 To list to their monarch's word of worth, 
 Famed in the North ; 
 Good was he as Balder, and as Mimer wise. 
 
 Peaceful his land, like groves where gods are found ; 
 
 Never arose 
 
 The din of arms within its sheltered bound ; 
 And all around 
 
 The grass grew green, and sweetly bloom'd the rose. 
 
 Justice sate merciful, but undismayed, 
 
 Upon the judging-stone ; 
 And peace each year abundant tribute paid ; 
 While widely spread 
 
 In sunshine bright the golden corn-fields shone. 
 
 (37)
 
 38 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 O'er ocean the black-breasted dragons hied 
 
 On snowy pinions ; 
 
 Thither from many a distant land they plied, 
 And from far and wide 
 
 Brought riches more to his rich dominions. 
 
 With peace dwelt freedom safely there, 
 
 And though the king 
 All, as the father of the land, held dear, 
 Still, without fear, 
 
 Each spoke his mind upon the open Ting. 
 
 He'd ruled the Northmen, in peace and right, 
 
 Full thirty years ; 
 
 None left his presence unsatisfied ; 
 And every night 
 
 Sped to Odin his name in his people's prayers. 
 
 So King Ring from the board his gold seat thrust forth, 
 
 And all rose glad 
 
 To hear the monarch's word of worth, 
 Famed in the North, 
 
 But, deeply sighing, thus he spake and said : 
 
 "In Folkvang sitteth my gentle queen, 
 
 On purple throned ; 
 
 But here on her grave the grass grows green, 
 And flowers are seen 
 
 To bloom by the brook that flows around.
 
 KING RING. 39 
 
 " Ne'er find I a queen so lovely and leal 
 
 My crown to share. 
 She's fled to Valhalla in joy to dwell ; 
 But the common weal 
 
 Makes me seek for my children a mother's care. 
 
 " With the summer winds often we used to see 
 
 King Bele here : 
 
 A lily-sweet daughter he left, and she 
 My choice shall be, 
 
 With the morning dawn on her cheeks so fair. 
 
 " She is young, and young maidens love, I know, 
 
 To pluck flowers of spring. 
 My bloom is past, and chill winter's snow 
 Full long ago 
 
 Hath whitened the hoary locks of your king. 
 
 " Yet an honest man still her choice may be, 
 
 Though white his hair ; 
 And if to my motherless children she 
 A mother will be, 
 
 Then autumn with spring-time his throne may 
 share. 
 
 " Take gold from my coffers, take bridal array, 
 
 From each oaken chest ; 
 
 And follow, ye bards, with your harps on the way, 
 For meetly may 
 
 He seek Brage's aid who a-wooing doth haste."
 
 40 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Forth with shouting and glee his men 
 
 With gifts and with gold ; 
 
 And the Skalds they followed, a winding throng, 
 With harp and with song, 
 
 And the home of King Bele's sons soon they 
 behold. 
 
 Two days they feasted, they feasted three ; 
 
 When the fourth was come, 
 To hear what Helge's answer might be 
 Entreated they, 
 
 That back again they might hie them home. 
 
 To the grove for sacrifice brought he in haste 
 
 Both falcon and steed ; 
 
 Then sought each Vala, and sought each priest, 
 What fate were best 
 
 For his sister, the beautiful Ingborg, decreed. 
 
 But the omens were evil, though anxiously tried 
 
 Each Vala and priest ; 
 And Helge, by evil signs terrified, 
 " Nay ! " sturdily cried, 
 
 " For men must yield to the gods' behest" 
 
 But merry King Halfdan laughingly cried : 
 
 " Oh, wasted feast ! 
 
 Had King Graybeard himself chosen hither to ride, 
 Full gladly I'd 
 
 Have helped him myself to climb up on his beast."
 
 KING RING. 41 
 
 The messengers hied them home angrily ; 
 
 To their master's ear 
 The tale they told, and loud swore he 
 " Right speedily 
 
 King Graybeard this stain from his honor shall 
 clear." 
 
 He smote on his war-shield, which hung at rest 
 
 On a linden tree ; 
 
 And his dragons sped over the sea in haste, 
 With blood-red crest ; 
 
 And the helmet plumes waved merrily. 
 
 And to Helge the rumors of war came near. 
 
 In dread quoth he : 
 
 " King Ring is mighty we've cause to fear ; 
 So in Balder's care, 
 
 In the temple, 'twere better my sister should be." 
 
 There sate the loving one mournfully 
 
 In the peaceful shade ; 
 
 She wrought in silk, and in gold wrought she ; 
 Unceasingly 
 
 Her tears fell, like dew on the lily shed.
 
 VI. 
 FRITHIOF PLAYS CHESS. 
 
 FRITH I OF sat with Bjorn the true 
 At the chess-board, fair to view ; 
 Squares of silver decked the frame, 
 
 Interchanged with squares of gold. 
 Hilding entering, thus he greeted : 
 " On the upper bench be seated ; 
 
 Drain the horn until my game 
 I finish, foster-father bold. 
 
 Quoth Hilding : " Hither come I speeding, 
 For King Bele's sons entreating ; 
 Danger daily sounds more near, 
 
 And the people's hope art thou." 
 " Bjorn," quoth Frithiof, " now beware ; 
 111 thy king doth seem to fare ; 
 
 And pawn may free him from his fear, 
 
 So scruple not to let it go." 
 (42)
 
 FRITHIOF PLAYS CHESS. 43 
 
 " Court not, Frithiof, kings' displeasure, 
 Though with Ring they ill may measure ; 
 Yet eagles' young, have wings of power, 
 And their force thy strength outvies." 
 " If, Bjorn, thou wilt my tower beset, 
 Thus easily thy wile I meet ; 
 
 No longer canst thou gain my tower, 
 Which back to place of safety hies." 
 
 " Ingeborg, in Balder's keeping, 
 Passeth all her days in weeping ; 
 
 Thine aid in strife may she not claim, 
 
 Fearful maiden, azure-eyed." 
 " What wouldst thou, Bjorn ? Assail my queen, 
 Which dear from childhood's days hath been 
 The noblest piece in all the game ? 
 Her I'll defend, whate'er betide." 
 
 " What ! Frithiof, wilt thou not reply ? 
 And shall thy foster-father hie 
 
 Unheeded from thy hearth away, 
 
 Because thy game is long to end ? " 
 Then stood Frithiof up, and laid 
 Hilding's hand in his, and said : 
 " Already hast thou heard me say 
 
 What answers to their prayers I send.
 
 44 FRITHIOF'8 SAGA. 
 
 " Go, let the sons of Bele learn 
 That, since my suit they dared to spurn, 
 No bond between us shall be tied ; 
 
 Their serf I never shall become." 
 " Well ! follow on thy proper path ; 
 111 fits it me to chide thy wrath : 
 
 All to some good may Odin guide," 
 Hilding said, and hied him home.
 
 VII. 
 FRITHIOF'S JOY. 
 
 r I CHOUGH Bale's sons may widely sound, 
 
 JL From vale to vale, the battle-cry, 
 I go not forth ; my battle-ground, 
 
 My world, in Balder's grove doth lie. 
 From thence no backward glance I'll cast 
 
 On kingly spite or earthly care ; 
 But joys of the immortals taste 
 
 United with my Ingborg fair. 
 
 " As long as glowing sunshine hovers 
 
 O'er flowers fair in purple light, 
 Like rosy-tinted veil that covers 
 
 The bosom of my Ingborg bright, 
 So long I wander by the strand, 
 
 By longing ceaselessly devoured, 
 And, sighing, trace upon the sand 
 Her name belove'd, with my sword. 
 
 (45)
 
 46 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " How slowly pass the hours away ! 
 
 Why, son of Belling, lingerest thou ? 
 Hast thou not marked each isle and bay, 
 
 Each hill and grove, full oft ere now ? 
 Doth no belov'd one westward dwell 
 
 Who for thy coming long doth grieve, 
 And flieth to thy breast to tell 
 
 Her love at dawn, her love at eve ? 
 
 " But, weary with thy course, at last 
 
 Thou sinkest downwards from the height ; 
 Her rosy carpet eve doth haste 
 
 To spread for all the gods' delight ; 
 Of love waves whisper as they flee ; 
 
 Winds whisper love in breathing light ; 
 Mother of gods ! I welcome thee, 
 
 In bridal pearls arrayed, O Night ! 
 
 " Each silent star glides through the sky, 
 
 Like lover to his mistress true : 
 Over the waves, Ellida, fly ; 
 
 Speed, speed us on, ye billows blue ! 
 To home of loving gods we steer, 
 
 Where yonder lies the holy grove ; 
 And Balder's temple standeth near, 
 
 Where dwells the goddess of my love.
 
 FRITHIOF'S JOY. 47 
 
 How happy spring I to the strand ! 
 
 Beloved Earth, I press thee glad ! 
 And you, ye little flowers, that stand 
 
 My path to gem with white and red. 
 Thou Moon, with silvery light that beamest 
 
 Round mound, and grove, and temple tall, 
 How fair thou sittest there, and dreamest, 
 
 Like Saga in a bridal hall. 
 
 " Who taught thee, flowery brook, to tell 
 
 In murmur sweet, my love exprest ? 
 Who gave thee, Northland's nightingale, 
 
 Those wailings, stolen from my breast ? 
 The fairies paint in sunset hues 
 
 My Ingeborg on cloud-banks gray ; 
 A rival beauty Freya views, 
 
 And, jealous, breathes the form away. 
 
 " Yet may her image now depart, 
 
 Since, fair as Hope, here cometh she ; 
 Still, as in childhood, true of heart, 
 
 She bringeth love's reward to me. 
 Come, darling, to my fond caressing, 
 
 Cling to this heart, where thou art dear ; 
 My soul's delight, my being's blessing, 
 
 Come to my arms, and linger there.
 
 48 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " As slender as the lily slight, 
 
 As blooming as the opened rose ; 
 Thou art as pure as Balder bright, 
 
 Yet warm of heart, as Freya glows. 
 Kiss me, my Ingborg ; let my love 
 
 In joy bring kindred joy to thee ; 
 For earth beneath and heaven above 
 
 Both vanish when thou kissest me. 
 
 " Fear not no danger cometh near ; 
 
 There standeth Bjorn with trusty blade, 
 And men enough, if need there were, 
 
 To shield us 'gainst the world arrayed. 
 And I, oh ! could I but contend 
 
 For thee, as now embracing me, 
 Glad to Valhalla should I wend, 
 
 And thou shouldst my Valkyria be. 
 
 " Of Balder's wrath what whisperest thou ? 
 
 He, tender god, ne'er loveth ill 
 Those fond ones who, with plighted vow, 
 
 In loving, his decrees fulfil. 
 He who true faith in heart doth bear, 
 
 And beaming sunshine on his brow, 
 Was e'er his love to Nanna dear 
 
 More pure, more warm, than ours is now ?
 
 FRITIUOF'S JOY. 49 
 
 " There stands his image ; he is near ; 
 
 How softly gazing from above ! 
 And I will offer to him here 
 
 A heart that glows with faithful love. 
 Kneel down with me ; there cannot be 
 
 For Balder fairer sacrifice 
 Than faithful hearts, which lovingly 
 
 Unite in truth as firm as his. 
 
 " To heaven, more than earth, my love 
 
 Belongs ; despise it, spurn it not ; 
 For it was born in heaven above, 
 
 And longeth homeward to be brought. 
 Oh, would we were already sped ! 
 
 Oh, would we could together die ! 
 That I triumphantly might lead 
 
 My pallid Ingborg to the sky. 
 
 " Then, when to strife the warriors went, 
 
 Through silver portals as they ride, 
 I'd gaze on thee, a trusty friend, 
 And sit rejoicing by thy side. 
 When Valhall's maidens passed around 
 
 The mead horns, crowned with foam of gold, 
 To thee alone my pledge should sound, 
 Thy name alone with love be told. 
 3
 
 50 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " On some fair sea-surrounded isle 
 
 I'd build for thee a bower of love, 
 And there the time away we'd while, 
 
 Midst golden fruits in shadowy grove. 
 And when, with clear and lovely ray, 
 
 Valhalla's sun illumed the plain, 
 Back to the gods we'd take our way, 
 
 But long to reach our isle again. 
 
 " And I'd adorn with starlight glance 
 
 The golden tresses of thy head, 
 And high in Vingolf 's hall should dance 
 
 My pallid lily rosy red. 
 Then from the dance my love I'd bring 
 
 To bowers of peace, in fondness true, 
 And Brage, silver-bearded, sing 
 
 Thy nuptial song, forever new. 
 
 " How sings the throstle in the grove ! 
 
 Its song is from Valhalla's strand ; 
 How sweetly shines the moon above ! 
 
 It shineth from the spirits' land. 
 Both song and shining join to tell 
 
 Of worlds of love unmarred by care : 
 Would in such worlds that I might dwell 
 
 With thee with thee, my Ingborg fair !
 
 FRITHIOF'S JOY. 51 
 
 " Nay, weep not weep not ; life still streams 
 
 Within my veins : oh ! weep no more. 
 But mortals' love and mortals' dreams 
 
 Are ever upward prone to soar. 
 Ah ! stretch but hitherward thine arms, 
 
 Bend but thy loving eyes on me, 
 And see ! how soon thy fondness charms 
 
 Thy dreamer back from heaven to thee." 
 
 " Hist ! 'tis tne lark ? " " Nay, 'tis a dove, 
 
 That cooeth fondness in the shade ; 
 The lark is slumbering 'neath the grove, 
 
 In sheltered nest beside its mate. 
 Oh ! happy they, for daylight brings 
 
 To them no cause for dread or fear ; 
 Their lives are free as are the wings 
 
 That skyward waft the gladsome pair. 
 
 " See ! morning dawns." " Nay, 'tis the glow 
 
 Of watchful beacons eastward shed ; 
 Our love we still may whisper low, 
 * Nor yet the happy night is sped. 
 Belate thee, golden star of day ! 
 
 O morning, slumber, slumber still ! 
 For Frithiof may'st thou sleep away 
 Till Ragnarok, if such thy will.
 
 52 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " But ah ! in vain the loving hope ; 
 
 Already morning's breezes blow, 
 Already eastern roses ope, 
 
 As bright as Ingborg's cheek can glow, 
 The band of wingdd songsters twitters, 
 
 All joyous in the bright'ning sky ; 
 And earth awakes, and ocean glitters, 
 
 Away must gloom and lovers fly. 
 
 " Now mounts the sun in majesty : 
 
 Forgive, O golden god, my prayer ; 
 I feel thy near divinity : 
 
 How noble art thou, and how fair ! 
 Oh ! that I so my path could tread, 
 
 Like thee, in majesty and might ; 
 And, proud and glad, my life be clad, 
 
 Like thine, in victory and light. 
 
 " Now here, before thine eyes, I set 
 
 The fairest maiden in the North ; 
 Watch over her, O Balder great ! 
 
 Thine image she on grassy earth. 
 Her soul is spotless as thy ray ; 
 
 Her eye is as thy heaven blue ; 
 And thy bright gold, that decks the day, 
 
 Glows in her lovely tresses too.
 
 FRITHIOF'8 JOY. 53 
 
 " Farewell, my Ingeborg ! and now 
 
 Another night we must await. 
 Farewell ! one kiss upon thy brow, 
 
 And one upon thy lips so sweet. 
 Now sleep and dream of me, and, waking, 
 
 Still on our love in fond thought dwell ; 
 Count of the hours, as I do, taking ; 
 
 Loving, as I do. Fare thee well !
 
 VIII. 
 THE PARTING. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 A LREADY comes the day, but brings not Frithiof, 
 ./Y. Though yesterday the open Ting was held 
 At Bele's grave : well chosen was the place 
 Where Bele's daughter's fate should be decreed'. 
 How many fond entreaties did it cost, 
 How many bitter tears, by Freya told, 
 To melt the ice of hate round Frithiof 's heart, 
 And win the promise from his haughty lips, 
 Once more to offer a forgiving hand ? 
 Ah ! man is stern, and for his own vain pride, 
 Miscalled his honor, he hath little care 
 Ay, less than care how easily he may 
 Torture and wound a fondly loving heart. 
 And hapless woman, clinging to his breast, 
 Is like the growth of moss, which on the cliff, 
 Blooming in pallor, difficultly keeps 
 Its hold unmarked upon the sturdy rock, 
 Drawing its nurture from the dews of night. 
 (54)
 
 THE PARTING. 55 
 
 And yesterday my fate hath been decreed ! 
 And over it the evening sun hath set : 
 Yet Frithiof cometh net. The pallid stars 
 Wane one by one, and vanish and depart, 
 And with each gleam, that slowly fades away, 
 Some hope within me sinketh to the grave. 
 Yet, wherefore should I hope ? Valhalla's powers 
 Owe me no favor, by myself estranged : 
 The mighty Balder, in whose shrine I dwell, 
 I have offended : for no mortal's love 
 Is pure enough for such a god's beholding ; 
 And earthly joys should never dare to come 
 Wherever they, the holy and sublime 
 Rule*s of heaven, have their dwelling made. 
 And yet, what crime is mine ? The gentle god 
 Could ne'er be angry at a maiden's love. 
 Is it not pure, as Urda's silver wave 
 And innocent, as Gefion's morning dream ? 
 The lofty Sun hath never turned away 
 Its eye of brightness from a lovirig pair ; 
 And starry Night, the widow of the Day, 
 Amidst her mourning hears their vows with joy. 
 Can what is holy 'neath the vaulted sky 
 Become a crime beneath a temple's dome ? 
 I love my Frithiof, and have ever loved ; 
 Far as my furthest recollections go, 
 Growth of my growth, that love hath ever been : 
 When it began I never knew ; can tell
 
 56 FRITHIOF'B SAGA. 
 
 No hour of life that hath not been of love. 
 
 And as the fruit is formed around the core, 
 
 And, clinging there, in Nature's time becomes, 
 
 Beneath the sunbeams, like a ball of geld, 
 
 So have I too grown up, and ripening glad 
 
 Around this kernel, all my being is 
 
 Only the outward shell that holds my love. 
 
 Forgive me, Balder ! See, a faithful heart 
 
 Into thy halls I brought with such alone 
 
 Will I depart ; and speed, with such alone, 
 
 Over bright Bifrost's bridge ; with such alone 
 
 Stand, faithful still, before Valhalla's gods. 
 
 There shall my love, a child of heaven, like them, 
 
 Mirror itself in shining shields, and fly 
 
 On dove-like pinion through the endless space 
 
 Of azure heaven to Allfader's breast, 
 
 From whence it came. Oh ! wherefore darkenest 
 
 thou, 
 
 In the gray dawn, thy gentle brow with frowns ? 
 The blood of mighty Odin fills my veins 
 As well as thine : but oh ! not e'en to thee, 
 Great kinsman, can I sacrifice my love, 
 Worth more to me than all this boundless heaven. 
 Yet can I offer all my joy of life, 
 And cast it from me, even as a queen 
 Can cast away her royal robe, and still 
 Remain the queen she was. Well ! 'tis decreed 
 Valhalla's great ones shall not need to blush
 
 THE PARTING. 57 
 
 For their descendant. I will meet my fate 
 
 As heroes meet with theirs. Here cometh Frithiof ; 
 
 How wild how pale ! All, all is lost is lost ! 
 
 With him approacheth, too, my angry Norne. 
 
 Be strong my heart ! Oh ! welcome, though how 
 
 late ! 
 
 Our fate is sealed ; too easily I read 
 It on thy brow. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Stand there also there 
 
 No blood-red Runes, bespeaking scorn and shame, 
 Insult and ban ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 . Oh ! Frithiof, calm thyself. 
 Tell me thy tale : the worst my fears foretold 
 Full long ago. For all am I prepared. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 I reached the Ting, where stand our fathers' tombs, 
 And round its grassy sides, shield crowning shield, 
 And sword in hand, the Northland's sons arrayed, 
 One ring within another gathered, stood 
 Up to the summit ; on the judging-stone, 
 Like a dark thunder-cloud, King Helge sate, 
 The pallid sacrificer, with forbidding looks ; 
 And by him, thoughtless, leaning on his sword, 
 A fair, well-fashioned youth, King Halfdan sate. 
 3*
 
 58 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 Then stood I forth, and cried : " War cometh near ; 
 The foemen's shields upon our borders clash. 
 King Helge, peril threateneth thy realm. 
 Give me thy sister, and I bring to thee 
 This arm to combat, which may service do, 
 And let our former quarrel be forgot. 
 With Ingborg's kindred love I not to strive. 
 Bethink thee, monarch, and together save 
 Thy golden crown, thy sister's happiness. 
 Here is my hand ; by Thor divine, no more 
 Than this last time I offer it for peace." 
 A shout filled all the Ting, a thousand swords 
 Clashed loud approval on a thousand shields. 
 Far fled the sounds into the lofty skies, 
 Which drank the shouts of freemen for the right : 
 " Oh ! give him Ingeborg, the gentle lily ; 
 No fairer ever in our valleys bloomed : 
 His is the bravest sword in all the land. 
 Oh ! give him Ingeborg." Our foster-father, 
 The aged Hilding, with the silvery beard, 
 Stood forth, and spake, in words of wisdom deep, 
 Short, pithy pleas, which rang like strokes of 
 
 swords. 
 
 And Halfdan, rising from the royal seat, 
 Himself besought, with many a word and sign. 
 All was in vain, and bootless every prayer 
 So beaming sunshine, on the barren rock, 
 No fruit enticeth from its stony heart ;
 
 THE PARTING. 59 
 
 And Helge's dark, unchanging visage spake 
 To all entreaties still a ghastly Nay. 
 
 " A yeoman's son," said he, at length, in scorn, 
 
 " Might wed with Ingborg ; but to Valhall's daughter 
 Becometh ill a sacrilegious mate. 
 Hast thou not, Frithiof, broken Balder's peace ? 
 Hast thou not seen my sister in his shrine, 
 When Day had hid itself before the crime ? 
 Answer me, Yea, or Nay ! " Loud rose a cry 
 Amidst the crowd of men : " Say Nay say only 
 
 Nay, 
 
 Thou Thorsten's mighty son, almost a king ; 
 Thy word we trust, and we for thee will sue ; 
 Only say Nay, and Ingeborg is thine." 
 
 " My joy of life hangs on a single word," 
 I said ; " yet fear not therefore thou, O King ! 
 I would not lie for all Valhalla's bliss, 
 Then scarce for earthly joy : I saw thy sister, 
 And spake with her at night-time in the temple ; 
 Yet thus I never broke the peace of Balder." Here 
 I had to cease. A scream of horrid fear 
 Spread through the Ting ; those who beside me stood 
 Fell off as from a plague-besmitten man. 
 Where'er I looked, their superstitious fear 
 Had hushed each tongue, and every face was pale, 
 Which just before had flushed with joyous hope. 
 There conquered Helge : then, in ghastly tones, 
 
 Hollow and deep (like those of Vala dread,
 
 60 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 In Vegtamsquida, when to Odin singing 
 
 Of Hela's triumph, and the Asen's fall), 
 
 Thus spake he gloomy : " Banishment or death 
 
 I might denounce by our ancestral laws 
 
 Against thy sin ; but I will show me mild 
 
 As Balder is, whose holiness thou'st slighted. 
 
 In western ocean doth a cluster lie 
 
 Of islands, where Jarl Angantyr bears sway : 
 
 A stated yearly tribute paid the Jarl 
 
 While Bele lived, but never since his death. 
 
 Cross thou the sea, and fetch that tribute back, 
 
 So may thy service for thy sin atone." 
 
 Then in mean scorn he added : " Hard of hand, 
 
 They say, he is ; and, like the dragon Fafner, 
 
 He watcheth o'er his gold ; but who can stand 
 
 Against our second Sigurd, Fafner's bane ? 
 
 This shall a worthier adventure prove 
 
 Than maidens to beguile in Balder's grove. 
 
 Next summer let us see thee homeward wend 
 
 With all thy glory, and thy treasure too : 
 
 Else shalt thou be a knave in Northmen's eyes ; 
 
 And all thy lifetime peaceless in the land." 
 
 Such was his speech ; and so the Ting dispersed. 
 
 IXGEBORG. 
 
 And now thy purpose ? 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Have I aught to choose ?
 
 THE PARTING. 61 
 
 Hangeth my honor not on his demand ? 
 
 And I must free it ay, if Angantyr 
 
 His wretched gold in Nastrand's waves should hide. 
 
 This day shall I depart. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 And leavest me ? 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Nay, nay, I leave thee not ; thou, too, shalt come. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Impossible ! 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 O Ingborg, hear me first. 
 Thy crafty brother seemeth to forget 
 That Angantyr hath been my father's friend, 
 As well as Bele's ; and he yet may give 
 With good will what I ask : should he refuse, 
 I have a sharp-tongued, mighty advocate 
 My cause to plead ; it hangeth by my side. 
 The gold he loves to Helge I will send, 
 Freeing forever, thus, myself and thee 
 From service to this crowned hypocrite. 
 But we ourselves, my Ingborg fair, will spread 
 Ellida's sails ; and over seas unknown 
 She'll bear us bounding to a happier land, 
 And find sweet shelter for our banished love.
 
 62 FRITUIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 What care have I for Northland for a race 
 
 Who, when their priests but speak, in fear grow pale, 
 
 And rude would tear the flow'r-crowned cup of life 
 
 From out the sanctuary of my heart ? 
 
 By Freya, nay, they never shall succeed ! 
 
 None but a slave will to his mother-soil 
 
 Be chained unwilling ; I will wander free, 
 
 Free as the mountain winds. A little clay 
 
 Gathered from Bele's and my father's graves 
 
 Finds place upon our bark ; and that is all 
 
 That we of Fatherland can ever need. 
 
 O my beloved, warmer sunshine glows 
 
 Than our pale light above the snowy hills ; 
 
 And we can find a fairer heaven than here, 
 
 Where gentle stars with god-like beam glance clown, 
 
 And in the happy, balmy summer night 
 
 Watch in the laurel-groves each loving pair. 
 
 Full far my father, Thorsten, Viking's son, 
 
 Wandered in warfare ; and full oft he told 
 
 By blazing hearth, through the long winter nights, 
 
 Of southern ocean, with its islands fair : 
 
 Green groves reflected in the shining waves. 
 
 In days of old ruled there a mighty race ; 
 
 And gods tremendous in their marble shrines : 
 
 But now forsaken stand they. Grass grows o'er 
 
 The mounds deserted ; and wild flowers hide 
 
 Inscriptions which the old world's wisdom show. 
 
 Ruins of tapering pillows there grow green,
 
 THE PARTING. 63 
 
 Covered with leaves of clinging southern weeds, 
 And all around the lovely earth brings forth 
 Harvests unsown of all that men can need. 
 And golden fruits on shadowy branches glow : 
 There grapes in heavy clusters on the vine 
 Hang purple-red, and ripe as thy sweet lips : 
 There, Ingeborg, we'll found beyond the waves 
 Another Northland, fairer far than here ; 
 And with our faithful love rejoice once more 
 Deserted shrines and temples, and delight 
 With mortal fondness the forgotten gods. 
 Then if some mariner with flapping sail 
 (For there no storms engage) drift past our isle 
 By rosy sunset, and with joyous gaze 
 Look from the ruddy ocean to the strand, 
 Then on the temple's threshold shall he see 
 Thee, a new Freya (her, methinks, they name 
 In their tongue Aphrodite) shall behold 
 Thy golden locks light floating in the breeze ; 
 Thine eyes more radiant than the southern sky. 
 And growing round thee, coming by degrees, 
 A temple-dwelling little Alfen-race 
 With flushing cheeks, as if the South had set 
 All its fair roses in the northern snows. 
 Ah ! Ingeborg, how fair, how near doth stand 
 Each earthly joy to two fond, loving hearts ! 
 If boldly grasped whene'er its time be come, 
 It follows willingly, and builds for them
 
 64 FRFFHIOF>8 SAGA. 
 
 A Vingolf even here on earth below. 
 
 Come, hasten ! even now each word we speak 
 
 Stealeth away an instant from our joy. 
 
 All is prepared, and, eager for her flight, 
 
 Ellida flaps her darkling eagle-wings, 
 
 And the fresh-breathing north wind calls us forth 
 
 For ever from this superstitious shore. 
 
 How ? Lingerest thou ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Alas ! I cannot follow thee. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Not follow me ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Ah ! Frithiof, thou art happy ! 
 Following no man, thou canst forward go, 
 Like thy swift vessel ; at the rudder, stands 
 Thy will alone ; and so thou steerest forth, 
 With steady hand, above the angry waves. 
 Alas ! how different my lot must be ! 
 My destiny in other hands must lie, 
 Which yield not up their prey, although it bleed. 
 Self-sacrifice, and grief, and pining is 
 The freedom of the daughter of a king.
 
 THE PARTING. 65 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Art thou not free, whene'er thou wilt ? sitteth thy sire 
 Not in his grave ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Ah ! Helge is my father, 
 Or standeth in his place ; without his will 
 I cannot wed : and Bele's daughter steals 
 No happiness, however near it lie. 
 For what were woman, thus self-willed, to break 
 Those bonds wherewith the wise Allfader linketh 
 Ever the weaker being to the strong ? 
 In the pale water-lily is her type, 
 Sinking or rising on the changing waves ; 
 Above it speeds the sailor's keel away, 
 And recks not how it wound the tender stem : 
 Such is its destiny ; and yet, as long 
 As clings the root tenacious in the sand, 
 It sprouteth ever forth ; its pallid hues 
 It borroweth from sister-stars above, 
 Itself a star upon the azure deep : 
 But, by the roots uptorn, it drifts away, 
 A faded leaf upon the desert wave. 
 Last night and oh ! a wretched night it was 
 Anxious as watch'd I, and thou earnest not, 
 Thoughts all-terrific, offspring of the night, 
 The raven-locked, passed constantly before 
 My waking eyes, which burned, but could not weep,
 
 66 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Balder himself, the bloodless god, did seem 
 
 To bend upon me glances filled with rage. 
 
 And so, last night, I have revolved my fate, 
 
 And thus determined : I will linger here, 
 
 Submissive victim to my brother's will. 
 
 Yet it is well that then I had not heard 
 
 Thy hope-breathed dreams of cloud-imagined isles, 
 
 Where ever glows the heavenly sunset's light 
 
 O'er flow'ry lands of tranquil peace and love. 
 
 How few can tell how weak we are ; the dreams 
 
 Of childhood, long-forgotten, rise anew 
 
 And whisper in my ear with gentle tones 
 
 As well remembered as a sister's voice, 
 
 As sweet and tender as a lover's tones. 
 
 But now I will not hearken, will not heed 
 
 Those sweet, persuading, once beloved words ! 
 
 Can I, the Northland's child, there southwards dwell ? 
 
 I am too pale for southern roses' bloom : 
 
 Too colorless my thought for Southland's glow. 
 
 It would be melted 'neath its burning sun ; 
 
 And longingly my weary eye would strain 
 
 Towards the bright north-star, which unchanging 
 
 keeps 
 
 Its heavenly watch above our fathers' graves. 
 My noble Frithiof shall not fly away 
 From the dear fatherland he should defend, 
 Nor ever cast his wide-spread fame aside 
 For such a trifle as a maiden's love.
 
 THE PARTING. 67 
 
 A life in which the sun spins year by year, 
 Each day unvarying from the day before, 
 A sameness beautiful, but everlasting, 
 May suit for maidens ; but for manly souls 
 Like thine a tranquil life is wearisome. 
 Thou thrivest best when storms tumultuous ride 
 Their foaming battle-steeds across the seas, 
 And on a swaying plank, for life or death 
 Battiest with peril for the meed of fame. 
 The lovely desert thou hast painted were 
 A grave untimely for thine unborn deeds ; 
 Together with thy shield, thy free-born soul 
 V/ould gather rust. Oh ! that shall never be : 
 Ne'er will I steal away my Frithiof 's name 
 From Skalden songs, and never will I quench 
 My hero's glory in its rosy dawn. 
 Be wise, my Frithiof ; let us yield before 
 The mighty Nornes, and, so submitting, save 
 At least our honor from the wreck of fate ; 
 Our joy of life we can no longer save. 
 So we must separate. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 But wherefore so 
 Because a sleepless night thy mind disturbs ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Because thy safety and my worth demand.
 
 68 FRITWOP'8 SAGA. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 A woman's worth in manly love is found. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 He loves not long who doth not honor too. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Inconstant stubbornness no honor wins. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 A noble stubbornness is love of right 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 But yesterday it strove not with our love. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Nor doth to-day, but with our flight the more. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 It is necessity that calls us. Come ! 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Needful alone is what is right and noble. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 High mounts the sun, the time is fleeting by. 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 Ah me ! it is gone by gone by for ever.
 
 THE PARTING. 69 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Bethink thee well, is this thy last resolve ? 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 I have bethought me well, and so resolve. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Farewell, then, Helge's sister fare thee well ! 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 O Frithiof, Frithiof, is it thus we sever ? 
 And hast thou, then, no kindly glance for me, 
 Thy childhood's friend ; hast thou no hand to offer 
 To her unhappy, whom thou once didst love ? 
 Think'st thou I stand on roses here, and cast 
 Away with senseless smile my lifetime's joy, 
 Uprooting from my heart without a pang, 
 The hope belov'd which with my growth hath grown ? 
 Hast thou not been the day-dream of my heart ? 
 All that I ever knew of joy was Frithiof ; 
 And all that life hath generous or brave 
 Forever in my mind thy image took. 
 Oh ! shadow not that image to me ; meet 
 With harshness not the poor weak girl, who offers 
 All that on earth's wide circuit she holds dear, 
 All that can dearest be in Valhall's halls. 
 Frithiof, this sacrifice is hard enough, 
 A word of comfort it might well deserve.
 
 70 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 I know thou lovest me ; I knew it well, 
 Already when our days began to bloom, 
 And surely shall thy Ingborg's love pursue 
 Thee many a year, where'er thou mayest wend. 
 But din of arms at length will dull thy grief, 
 Which, floating far upon the stormy waves, 
 Will find no place beside thee on the bench, 
 When, glad with victory, thou drain'st the horn. 
 Yet now and then, when in the peace of night 
 Thou musterest memories of the bygone days, 
 Amongst them may flit by an image pale 
 Well known to thee, and bringing greeting fond 
 Of thy dear home, and it shall bear the form 
 Of the pale maid who dwells in Balder's grove. 
 Thou wilt not drive it from thee, though its glance 
 May troubled seem ; ah ! whisper but a word, 
 One word of friendship to it, and the winds 
 Of night on faithful wings will waft it me ; 
 One comfort left, the only one I own : 
 For I have nothing to disperse my grief ; 
 All that surroundeth me recalleth it : 
 These lofty temple halls but speak of thee ; 
 Even Balder's image in the still moonlight, 
 Threatening no longer, seems thy form to take. 
 Seaward I look, there swam thy keel, and clave 
 Its way to me awaiting on the strand. 
 Landward I look, there standeth many a stem 
 With Ingborg's name deep carved upon the bark :
 
 THE PARTING. 71 
 
 The trees stretch out, and so the name grows faint, 
 
 Tis but a token, as they say, of death. 
 
 I ask of daylight, when it saw thee last ? 
 
 Of night I ask, but she remaineth still. 
 
 Even the sea, which beareth thee, returneth 
 
 My questions only with a sigh to shore. 
 
 Greetings I'll send thee in the sunset red, 
 
 Quenching its fires afar amongst thy waves. 
 
 Each cloud-ship that sails through the sky shall bear 
 
 A freight of sorrow from the lonely one. 
 
 So in the maiden's chamber will I sit, 
 
 A dark-clad widow, mourning for her joy ; 
 
 Embroidering broken lilies in the frame, 
 
 Till Spring a newly-woven carpet spread, 
 
 Covered with sweeter lilies, o'er my grave ; 
 
 Or, taking up my harp, my endless woe 
 
 Breathe forth in deepest tones of misery, 
 
 Or burst in tears, as now. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Thou conquerest, child of Bele ; weep no more ; 
 Forgive my anger : ah ! 'twas nought but grief, 
 Which for a moment borrowed anger's garb, 
 A garb which I can never carry long. 
 Oh ! Ingeborg, thou art my Norna good ; 
 The noble best nobility can teach ; 
 The wisdom of necessity can have 
 Never a better advocate than thee,
 
 72 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Oh ! lovely Vala, with the rosy lips. 
 Yes, I will yield before necessity, 
 Will part from thee, but never part from hope. 
 Hope I'll bear with me o'er the western waves, 
 I'll bear it with me to the gates of death. 
 With the first spring-day will I hie me home ; 
 Me shall King Helge soon, I trust, behold, 
 My vow accomplished, and my task fulfilled, 
 The crime forgiven of which I stand accused. 
 Then shall I ask thee nay, shall claim thy hand 
 Upon the open Ting, 'midst naked swords, 
 From Helge not, but from the Northland race, 
 That is thy sponsor true, thou child of Icings. 
 I have a word for him who shall refuse. 
 Till then, farewell be true, remember me ; 
 And take, in memory of our childhood's love, 
 My arm-ring here, Valunder's beauteous work, 
 With heavenly wonders graven on the gold ; 
 Still worthier wonder is a faithful heart. 
 How well it clingeth to thy dazzling arm 
 A glow-worm glittering on a lily-stem. 
 Farewell, my bride, my darling fare thee well ! 
 Bide a few moons, and all our grief is changed. 
 
 (He goes.) 
 
 INGEBORG. 
 
 How proud, how valiant, and how strong in hope ! 
 The point he setteth of his trusty sword
 
 THE PARTING. 73 
 
 At Norna's breast, and crieth, " Thou must yield ! " 
 
 Alas ! my poor Frithiof, Norna never yields ; 
 
 She goes her way, and laughs at Angurvadel. 
 
 How little knowest thou my sullen brother ! 
 
 Thine open, valiant soul can never fathom 
 
 The gloomy depths of his ; nor tell the hate 
 
 That burneth fiercely in his envious breast. 
 
 His sister's hand to thee he'll never give. 
 
 Far sooner will he risk his crown, his life, 
 
 And offer me to hoary Odin, or 
 
 To agd Ring, with whom he now contends. 
 
 Where'er I look, I see no hope for me ; 
 
 Yet am I glad, it liveth in thine heart. 
 
 So I will keep my sorrow for myself, 
 
 And, oh ! may all the good gods follow thee ! 
 
 Thine arm-ring here shall help me well to tell 
 
 The dreary months off, in consuming care ; 
 
 Two, four, and six, then mayest thou return. 
 
 But never find again thine Ingeborg. 
 
 4
 
 IX. 
 INGEBORG'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 " A UTUMN is here ; 
 
 JL~\. High-heaving Ocean its waves doth rear ; 
 And still, here, far from my home, 
 Gladly I'd roam. 
 
 " Long did I view 
 
 His sail in the west, on its course as it flew ; 
 Oh ! happy, my Frithiof to follow 
 Over the billow. 
 
 " Ye blue billows rough, 
 Swell not so high ; ye speed swiftly enough. 
 Shine brightly, ye stars, to display 
 To my Frithiof his way. 
 
 " He will be home 
 
 With Spring ; but his dear one will come 
 No more to his love-breathing call 
 In valley or hall. 
 (74)
 
 INGEBOR&S LAMENTATION, 75 
 
 " Ghastly, and cold 
 To the voice of his love, she shall lie in the 
 
 mould ; 
 
 Or, offered for her brother's need, 
 Lamenting, bleed. 
 
 " Thou, his falcon, art left ; 
 Mine shalt thou be, and I'll treasure the gift ; 
 But by me, thou wing'd hunter of heaven, 
 Thy food shall be given. 
 
 " Thy place thou shalt claim, 
 Displayed on his wrist on the 'broidering frame ; 
 Thy wings of silver folding, 
 Thy talons golden. 
 
 " Freya, in need, 
 Took falcon's wings once, through creation to 
 
 speed, 
 
 And her Oedur belove'd sought forth 
 In south and in north. 
 
 " E'en couldest thou share 
 Thy pinions with me, scarce my weight could they 
 
 bear : 
 
 'Tis death, and death only, that brings 
 Celestial wings.
 
 76 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Sky-hunter brave, 
 
 Perch on my shoulder, and gaze o'er the wave. 
 Alas ! how long may we gaze 
 While Frithiof delays. 
 
 " When I am dead, 
 
 He will return ; to my message give heed 
 Welcome and comfort, over and over, 
 My sorrowing lover."
 
 X. 
 
 FRITHIOF AT SEA. 
 
 NOW, King Helge stood 
 In fviry on the strand, 
 And in embittered mood 
 Adjured the Storm-fiend's band. 
 
 Gloomy is the heaven growing, 
 
 Through desert skies the thunders roar, 
 In the deep the billows brewing 
 
 Cream with foam the surface o'er. 
 Lightnings cleave the storm-cloud, seeming 
 
 Blood-red gashes in its side ; 
 And all the sea-birds, wildly screaming, 
 
 Fly the terrors of the tide. 
 
 " Storm is coming, comrades ; 
 Its angry wings I hear 
 Flapping in the distance, 
 But fearless we may be. 
 
 (77)
 
 78 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Sit tranquil in the grove, 
 And fondly think on me, 
 Lovely in thy sorrow, 
 Beauteous Ingeborg." 
 
 Now two storm-fiends came 
 Against Ellida's side ; 
 
 One was wind-cold Ham, 
 One was snowy Heyd. 
 
 Loose set they the tempest's pinions, 
 
 Down diving in ocean deep, 
 Billows, from unseen dominions, 
 
 To the god's abode they sweep. 
 All the powers of frightful death, 
 
 Astride upon the rapid wave, 
 Rise from the foaming depths beneath, 
 
 The bottomless, unfathomed grave. 
 
 *' Fairer was our journey 
 Beneath the shining moon, 
 Over the mirrory ocean, 
 To Balder's sacred grove. 
 Warmer far than here 
 Was Ingborg's loving heart ; 
 Whiter than the sea-foam 
 Heaved her gentle breast."
 
 FRITHIOF AT SEA. 79 
 
 Now Solundar-oe 
 
 Ariseth from the foam ; 
 Calmer the sea doth grow 
 
 As near the port they come. 
 
 But for safety valiant Viking 
 
 Will not readily delay ; 
 At the helm he stands, delighting 
 
 In the tempest's stormy play. 
 Now the sheets more close belaying, 
 
 Swifter through the surge he cleaves ; 
 Westward, further westward flying 
 
 Lightly o'er the rapid waves. 
 
 " Yet longer do I find it sweet 
 
 To battle with the breeze, 
 Thunderstorm and Northman meet, 
 
 Exulting on the seas. 
 For shame might Ingborg blush, 
 If her osprey flew, 
 Frightened by a storm-stroke, 
 Heavy-winged to land." 
 
 Now ocean fierce battles ; 
 
 The wave-troughs deeper grow, 
 The whistling cordage rattles, 
 
 The planks creak loud below.
 
 8o FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 But though higher waves appearing 
 
 Seem like mountains to engage, 
 Brave Ellida, never fearing, 
 
 Mocks the angry ocean's rage. 
 Like a meteor, flashing brightness, 
 
 Darts she forth, with dauntless breast, 
 Bounding, with a roebuck's lightness, 
 
 Over trough and over crest. 
 
 " Sweeter were the kisses 
 Of Ingborg, in the grove, 
 Than here to taste in tempest 
 High-sprinkled, briny foam. 
 Better the royal daughter 
 Of Bele to embrace, 
 Than here, in anxious labor, 
 The tiller fast to hold." 
 
 Whirling cold and fast, 
 Snow-wreaths fill the sail ; 
 
 Over deck and mast 
 Patters heavy hail. 
 
 The very stem they see no more, 
 So thick is darkness spread ; 
 
 As gloom and horror hover o'er 
 The chamber of the dead.
 
 FRITHIOF AT SEA. 81 
 
 Still to sink the sailor dashes 
 
 Implacable each angry wave ; 
 Gray, as if bestrewn with ashes, 
 
 Yawns the endless, awful grave. 
 
 " For us, in bed of ocean, 
 Azure pillows Ran prepares ; 
 On thy pillow, Ingeborg, 
 Thou thinkest upon me. 
 Higher ply, my comrades, 
 Ellida's sturdy oars ; 
 Good ship, heaven-fashioned, 
 Bear us on an hour." 
 
 O'er the side apace 
 
 Now a sea hath leapt : 
 In an instant's space 
 
 Clear the deck is swept. 
 
 From his arm now Frithiof hastens 
 
 To draw his ring, three marks in weight ; 
 Like the morning sun it glistens, 
 
 The golden gift of Bele great. 
 With his sword in pieces cutting 
 
 The famous work of pigmies' art, 
 Shares he quickly, none forgetting, 
 
 Unto every man a part. 
 4*
 
 82 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Gold is good possession 
 When one goes a-wooing ; 
 Let none go empty-handed 
 Down to azure Ran. 
 Icy are her kisses, 
 Fickle her embraces ; 
 But we'll charm the sea-bride 
 With our ruddy gold." 
 
 Fiercer than at first, 
 Again the storm attacks, 
 
 And the sails are burst, 
 And the rudder cracks. 
 
 O'er the ship half buried tearing, 
 
 Now the waves an entrance gain ; 
 At the pumps the crew, despairing, 
 
 Fail to drive them forth again. 
 Frithiof now no longer doubteth 
 
 That he Death hath got on board, 
 Still above the storm he shouteth, 
 
 Dauntless, with commanding word. 
 
 " Bjorn, come to the rudder ; 
 Hold it tight as bear's hug ; 
 ValhalPs power sendeth 
 No such storm as this.
 
 FRITHIOFAT SEA. 83 
 
 Now at work is magic : 
 Coward Helge singeth 
 Spells above the ocean : 
 I will mount to see." 
 
 Like as martins fly, 
 Sped he up the mast, 
 
 And thence, seated high, 
 A glance around he cast. 
 
 A whale before Ellida gliding, 
 
 Like a loose island, seeth he, 
 And two base ocean demons riding, 
 
 Upon his back, the stormy sea. 
 Heyd, in snow-garb shining brightly, 
 
 In semblance of an icy bear ; 
 Ham, his loud wings flapping widely, 
 
 Like a storm-bird high in air. 
 
 " Now, Ellida, let us see 
 If in truth thou bearest 
 Valor in thine iron-fastened 
 
 Breast of bended oak. 
 
 p 
 
 Hearken to my calling, 
 If thou be heaven's daughter : 
 Up ! and with thy keel of copper 
 Sting this magic whale."
 
 84 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 Now heed Ellida giveth 
 Unto her lord's behest : 
 
 With a bound she cleaveth 
 Deep the monster's breast. 
 
 Forth a stream of blood hath bounded, 
 
 Spouting upwards to the sky, 
 Diving down, the brute, deep-wounded, 
 
 Sinketh, bellowing, to die. 
 Together now two darts are cast, 
 
 Flung by Frithiof 's arm so fierce ; 
 Through the ice-bear one hath passed, 
 
 One the storm-bird's breast doth pierce. 
 
 " Well stricken, brave Ellida ! 
 Not soon again, I wager, 
 Shall Helge's magic vessel 
 Rise on the gory wave. 
 Heyd and Ham no longer 
 Now bewitch the ocean ; 
 Full bitter is the biting 
 Of the purple steel." 
 
 At once the storm-wind, leaving 
 The ocean calm and clear, 
 
 Still wafteth on its heaving 
 The ship to islands near.
 
 FRITHIOF AT SEA. 85 
 
 And, all at once, the sun appearing, 
 
 Like a monarch in his hall, 
 New life and new delights seems bearing 
 
 To ship and wave, to hill and vale ; 
 His silent radiance crowneth high 
 
 The lofty cliff, the forest's bound : 
 And all rejoicingly descry 
 
 The grassy shores of Efjesund. 
 
 " Pale Ingeborg's entreaties 
 Have risen to Valhalla, 
 Her knees my lily bended 
 Before the golden shrine. 
 The tears in her eyes so lovely, 
 The sighs of her swan-like bosom, 
 Have touched the hearts of immortals : 
 Now let us give them thanks." 
 
 But Ellida's prow 
 
 Hath stricken with such force, 
 That s'ow she crawleth now, 
 
 A-weary of her course. 
 
 Weary, too, with dangerous sailing 
 Now are Frithiof 's comrades bold, 
 
 E'en the swords they lean on, failing 
 Feeble forms erect to hold.
 
 86 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 On sturdy shoulders Bjorn doth ferry 
 
 Four from Ellida to the land ; 
 But mighty Frithiof eight doth carry 
 
 Down to the fire upon the strand. 
 
 " Blush not, pale companions, 
 Waves are sturdy Vikings, 
 And bitter 'tis to battle 
 With the ocean maids. 
 See, the mead-horn cometh, 
 On feet of gold it circleth ; 
 Our limbs benumbed we'll warm again 
 With skoal for Ingeborg."
 
 XI. 
 
 FRITHIOF WITH ANGANTYR. 
 
 NOW also ye the tale shall hear 
 How, with his vassals all, 
 Drank joyfully Yarl Angantyr, 
 
 In the fir-wood fashioned hall. 
 In mirth and gladness sitting, he 
 
 The blue waves looked upon, 
 As down the sun sank in the sea, 
 Like to a golden swan. 
 
 In the deep bow of the window wide 
 
 Old Halvar, keeping ward, 
 With one eye viewed the spreading tide, 
 
 With one his mead did guard. 
 A habit strange the old man had 
 
 He'd ever empty the cup, 
 And into the hall, with gesture sad, 
 
 For more would hold it up. 
 
 (87)
 
 88 FRITHIOF' S SAGA. 
 
 But now he cries, as the empty horn 
 
 Into the hall he throws, 
 " A ship upon the sea is borne, 
 
 Full heavily she goes ; 
 Now seemeth she to tarry, 
 
 Now reacheth she the land ; 
 Two mighty giants carry 
 
 The pale crew to the land." 
 
 O'er ocean's wide dominions 
 
 The Yarl now looketh he ; 
 " Those are Ellida's pinions 
 
 That, too, must Frithiof be : 
 By such a proud appearing 
 
 Must Thorsten's son be known ; 
 In all the North, such bearing 
 
 Belongs to him alone." 
 
 Forth from the board, in furious mood, 
 
 Doth Viking Atle rise, 
 Black-bearded Berserk, craving blood, 
 
 Rage flashing from his eyes : 
 " Now, now," he cries, " my hand shall show 
 
 If Frithiof, as they say, 
 A spell o'er steel itself can throw, 
 
 And ne'er for quarter pray."
 
 FRITHIOF WITH ANGANTYR. 89 
 
 With him sprung up twelve comrades there, 
 
 Twelve comrades from the board ; 
 They wield the club, they cleave the air 
 
 With fiercely-brandished sword. 
 They rush down to the level strand, 
 
 Where rests the ship at length, 
 And Frithiof sitteth on the sand, 
 
 Bespeaking might and strength. 
 
 " With ease my sword should fell thee now," 
 
 Doth boastful Atle cry, 
 " But that the choice I still allow 
 
 To combat, or to fly. 
 Yet if thou'lt sue for peace from me 
 
 (Though cruel name I bear), 
 Then, as a friend, I'll go with thee 
 To noble Angantyr." 
 
 " My journey's toil hath left me weak," 
 
 Quoth Frithiof, fury-stirred ; 
 " Yet, ere a craven peace I seek, 
 I'll prove thy mighty sword." 
 Flashes the steel with lightnings, flung 
 
 From nervous, sunburnt hand ; 
 Each Rune on Angurvadel's tongue 
 In burning flame doth stand.
 
 90 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 The clashing weapons, showering, strike 
 
 A hail of death-strokes round ; 
 The shattered shields of both alike 
 
 Fall shivering to the ground. 
 Their comrades brave stand firm and fast, 
 
 And none his place forsakes ; 
 Keen Angurvadel bites at last, 
 
 The blade of Atle breaks. 
 
 " 'Gainst swordless man," bold Frithiof cried, 
 " My sword I never use ; 
 But let us try another fight, 
 
 If other fight thou choose." 
 Like floods, in autumn meeting, 
 
 Each rusheth on his foe ; 
 Breastplate on breastplate beating, 
 
 As they wrestle for the throw. 
 
 They wrestle, like an angry pair 
 
 Of bears upon the snow ; 
 Like eagles, struggling high in air, 
 
 Above the ocean's flow. 
 Have tottered from their ancient place 
 
 Full many a massive rock, 
 And many an oak, of sturdy race, 
 
 At far a slighter shock.
 
 FR1TUIOF WITH ANGANTYR. 91 
 
 From heavy brows the sweat drops down, 
 
 Their breath comes cold and hard ; 
 They scatter far each shrub and stone 
 
 Around them on the sward. 
 To see the end, in fear delays 
 
 Each troop upon the strand ; 
 Wide was that fight, in ancient days, 
 
 Renown'd throughout the land. 
 
 But Frithiof felled his foe at last, 
 
 And bore him to the earth, 
 And knelt upon his heaving breast, 
 
 And spoke in tones of wrath : 
 " Oh ! had I but my broadsword true, 
 
 Black-bearded Berserk, I 
 Should drive its point triumphant through 
 
 Your entrails as you lie." 
 
 " Be that but little cause for care," 
 
 Was Atle's firm reply ; 
 " Go, fetch thy mighty weapon there, 
 
 And no escape I'll try ; 
 We both must pass from earth away, 
 
 Valhalla's joys to see ; 
 And if I wander there to-day, 
 To-morrow may fetch thee."
 
 92 FRFTHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Now, noble Frithiof, widely praised, 
 
 The strife to finish thought, 
 Keen Angurvadel high he raised, 
 
 But Atle trembled not. 
 This touched his mighty victor's soul, 
 
 And laid his anger low ; 
 He checked the stroke, with glad control, 
 
 And raised his fallen foe. 
 
 Then loud the agdd Halvar cried, 
 
 His white staff raising forth : 
 " Through this your strife ye have supplied 
 
 But little cause for mirth. 
 Long since the silver dishes high 
 
 Send forth their steaming breath, 
 And fish and flesh grow cold, whilst I 
 
 Am thirsting unto death." 
 
 Now reconciled, the warriors bold 
 
 Pass through the open door, 
 And much did Frithiof there behold 
 
 He ne'er had seen before. 
 No rough-hewn planks here cover 
 
 The naked walls so wide ; 
 But leather, gilded over, 
 
 With flowers and berries bright
 
 FRITHIOF WITH ANOANTYR. 93 
 
 Not on the centre pavement glowed 
 
 The fire, with merry glare, 
 But close by every wall there stood 
 
 A stove of marble fair. 
 No smoke within the chamber stay'd ; 
 
 The walls no dampness bore ; 
 Frames filled with glass the windows had, 
 
 And a lock was on the door. 
 
 All filled with light, the branches fair 
 
 Spread out their silver boughs ; 
 No more the crackling pine-torch glare 
 
 Illumined the carouse. 
 Cooked whole, a stag, with larded breast, 
 
 Adorned the table round ; 
 Its horns leaf-decked, its gilt hoof raised, 
 
 As if about to bound. 
 
 There stood a damsel, lily-fair, 
 
 To each rough comrade nigh ; 
 As beameth forth a glittering star 
 
 Throughout a stormy sky. 
 Their tresses brown luxuriant flowed ; 
 
 Bright shone their eyes of blue ; 
 Their little lips like roses glowed, 
 
 Grown ripe in summer's dew.
 
 94 FRITfflOF'S SAGA. 
 
 High sate upon his silver throne 
 
 The Yarl, in splendor bold ; 
 Bright as the sun his helmet shone, 
 
 His breastplate blazed with gold ; 
 With stars embroider'd, bright did gleam 
 
 His mantle, rich and fine ; 
 And every purple-glowing seam 
 
 Did spotless ermine line. 
 
 Forth from the board three paces 
 
 He goes to meet his guest ; 
 He takes his hand, and places 
 
 Him at his side to rest : 
 " Since here full many a creaming horn 
 
 With Thorsten emptied we, 
 His son, whose fame so far is borne, 
 
 Shall not sit far from me." 
 
 The great Angantyr fills the cup 
 
 With wine of Sicily ; 
 Like flashing flame it sparkles up 
 
 All foaming, like the sea. 
 " Right welcome be thou to my hall 
 
 In ancient friendship's name ; 
 The mighty Thorsten's skoal we all 
 
 Shall drink with loud acclaim."
 
 FRITHIOF WITH ANOANTYR. 95 
 
 A hoary bard, from Morven's heights, 
 
 Accords the tuneful lyre, 
 And loud, in glowing tones, recites 
 
 A hero-song of fire ; 
 But in the old Norrana tongue, 
 
 The speech of ancient days, 
 The hero Thorsten's fame was sung, 
 
 And all the song did praise. 
 
 Then much to hear the Yarl did crave, 
 
 Of his kindred in the North ; 
 And prudent Frithiof clearly gave 
 
 The wisest answers forth. 
 And everything he truly tells, 
 
 Gives each his proper fame, 
 Like Saga, goddess bright, who dwells 
 
 In the shrine of holy Time. 
 
 And now doth Frithiof rehearse 
 
 His voyage, lately done ; 
 How magic's power, and Helge's curse, 
 
 By him had been o'erthrown. 
 The vassals shout in joyous strain, 
 
 Loud laughs bold Angantyr, 
 And Frithiof greater glory gains 
 
 As higher rose the cheer.
 
 96 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 But when of Ingborg, dear and fair, 
 
 The tale doth reach their ears, 
 So noble in her grief and care, 
 
 So lovely in her tears, 
 Deep sighs escape from laboring breast, 
 
 On fair cheeks blushes stand, 
 By every maiden fond is pressed 
 
 Her faithful lover's hand. 
 
 And now, his mission to complete, 
 
 Doth Frithiof bold prepare ; 
 Angantyr stirred not from his seat, 
 
 But gave him hearing fair. 
 Then answered : " I no homage do ; 
 
 I and my race are free ; 
 King Bele's skoal we drink, 'tis true, 
 
 But he never governed me. 
 
 His heirs, indeed, I never knew ; 
 
 If tribute they demand, 
 Then let them sue as men should do, 
 
 Insisting sword in hand. 
 Then on the shore my sword shall shine ; 
 
 But Thorsten held I dear." 
 And with his hand he gives a sign 
 
 To his daughter sitting near.
 
 FRITHIOF WITH ANOANTYR. 97 
 
 Up sprung the lovely Flower-charm 
 
 Forth from her gilded chair ; 
 How slender was her little form, 
 
 How round her bust so fair ! 
 In dimple deep was throned the sprite 
 
 Astril, in roguish glee, 
 As sits the butterfly so bright 
 
 In the rose delightingly. 
 
 To the women's chambers hasting, 
 
 She soon, with purse of green, 
 Returned, on which were rivers 
 
 Through woods, embroidered seen. 
 And there displayed, the calm moonlight 
 
 Seemed ocean to behold ; 
 The clasp was made of rubies bright ; 
 
 The tassels were" of gold. 
 
 The maiden laid the purse so fair 
 
 In her great father's hands ; 
 Up to the brim he filled it there 
 
 With gold from foreign lands : 
 " This gift of welcome take, O guest, 
 
 To do as thou may'st will ; 
 But for the winter stay and rest 
 
 With us in friendship still.
 
 98 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Though valor never should be scorned, 
 
 Yet now the storm rules wide ; 
 By now again to life returned, 
 
 I'll wager Ham and Heyd. 
 Ellida may not always leap 
 
 So luckily again ; 
 And whales are plenty in the deep, 
 
 Though one she may have slain." 
 
 And so in merry mood they stay'd 
 
 Till morning's sun did rise ; 
 The oft-drained golden goblets made 
 
 Them glad, but not unwise. 
 With skoal to Angantyr, at last, 
 
 The horn they loudly drain ; 
 So, safely housed, till winter passed, 
 
 Did Frithiof remain.
 
 XII. 
 
 FRITHIOFS RETURN. 
 
 SPRING breathes again in ether blue, 
 In green the earth is clad anew ; 
 Then Frithiof thanketh his host : again 
 He mounteth up on the heaving main ; 
 And gayly his sable swan doth make 
 On her glassy course a silvery wake. 
 For the western winds, with the voice of Spring, 
 Like nightingales in his bright sails sing ; 
 And the blue-veiled daughters of CEgir speed 
 His flight as they dance o'er the glittering mead. 
 Oh ! it is sweet when from distant strand 
 The sails swell back to that native land, 
 Where the smoke from one's own loved hearth ap- 
 pears, 
 
 And thoughts awaken of childhood's years, 
 Where play-grounds are mirrored in tranquil waves, 
 Where forefathers lie in their grassy graves ; 
 And the faithful maiden, longingly 
 Standing on lofty rocks, watcheth the sea. 
 
 (99)
 
 zoo FRITHIOF' S SAGA. 
 
 Six days he sailed, and the seventh shows 
 A dark-brown stripe, which larger grows, 
 And 'gainst the edge of heaven doth stand, 
 With cliffs, with isles, and at last with land. 
 His home, from ocean risen, is seen, 
 Its forests wide arrayed in green ; 
 He hears the foaming surge's shocks 
 Break on the marble-breasted rocks ; 
 He greets the bay and the heights above, 
 And sails close under the holy grove, 
 Where the past summer, so many a night, 
 He had sat with his Ingborg in fond delight. 
 " Appeareth she not, and can she not guess 
 How near o'er the dark-blue waves I press ? 
 Or doth she, from Balder's temple gone, 
 Now dwelling at Helge's court alone, 
 Sorrow by harp, or by golden woof ? " 
 
 Lo ! his falcon now from the temple roof 
 
 Arising, as often before he hath done, 
 
 To Frithiof 's shoulder hath suddenly flown, 
 
 Eagerly flapping with snowy wing, 
 
 The bird from his shoulder can nobody bring. 
 
 With gilded claw he scratcheth in haste, 
 
 He giveth no peace, he giveth no rest ; 
 
 To Frithiof 's ear he bendeth his beak, 
 
 As if some message he sought to speak,
 
 FRITHIOF'8 RETURN. 101 
 
 Perchance from Ingborg, the bride so dear, 
 But the tale he telleth can no man hear. 
 
 The last point now doth Ellida pass, 
 
 Bounding, as deer bound over the grass, 
 
 The well-known waters her keel doth plough, 
 
 Glad standeth Frithiof in the prow. 
 
 He rubbeth his eyes, and with trembling hand 
 
 He shadcth his brow, he scanneth the strand ; 
 
 But long though he rub them, and far though he see, 
 
 Framnas no more discovereth he. 
 
 Nought but the naked chimney there 
 
 Standeth, like warriors' bones laid bare ; 
 
 Where his court-yard had been is desert land, 
 
 And ashes whirl round the lonely strand. 
 
 In fury down from his ship he hasteth ; 
 
 A glance on his ruined dwelling casteth, 
 
 His father's dwelling his childhood's home. 
 
 Now Bran, the wiry-haired, doth come, 
 
 His dog, who often, as true as bold, 
 
 For him the wild bears helped to hold ; 
 
 Full high he leapeth with many a spring, 
 
 In joy his master welcoming. 
 
 The milk-white steed, with the golden mane, 
 
 With stag-swift hoofs, and with lengthy rein,
 
 102 FRITHIOF' S SAGA. 
 
 Which Frithiof so often hath ridden around, 
 
 Speeds through the valley with eager bound, 
 
 And, neighing gladly, archeth his neck, 
 
 And bread from his master's hand doth seek. 
 
 But Frithiof, poorer than the pair, 
 
 Hath nought with the faithful brutes to share. 
 
 Houseless and sad, on his father's ground, 
 
 Now Frithiof standeth, gazing round ; 
 
 Until of Hilding he is 'ware, 
 
 His foster-sire, with silvery hair : 
 " At what I see I scarce can wonder ; 
 
 When the eagle flieth, the nest they plunder. 
 
 Is this the way that a king should guard ? 
 
 Well holdeth Helge his royal word ; 
 
 For heavenly dread, and human hate, 
 
 And plundering flames, are his Eriksgate : 
 
 Yet this brings rather rage than care ; 
 
 But tell me, where is Ingborg? where ?" 
 " The tale I'll tell thee," the old man said ; 
 " Though I fear thou'lt find it but little glad : 
 
 Scarce wast thou gone when Ring drew near ; 
 
 Five shields to one his warriors were. 
 
 In Disar's vale by the brook they fought ; 
 
 With blood-red foam were its waters fraught. 
 
 King Halfdan, unchanging, laughed and played, 
 
 Yet wielded, like a man, his blade ; 
 
 Before the youth I held my shield, 
 
 And was proud of his well-fought maiden field.
 
 FRITHIOF'S RETURN. 103 
 
 Yet soon gave way our weakened host ; 
 King Helge fled, and then all was lost. 
 The Asen-born, as they swiftly fled, 
 Passing, in flames thy dwelling set. 
 No choice to the vanquished, Ring would leave : 
 Their sister they to him should give ; 
 Nought should appease him save her hand : 
 Refused, he'd seize both their crown and land. 
 Backwards and forwards the messengers hied ; 
 And now King Ring hath led home his bride." 
 
 " O woman ! woman ! " Frithiof said, 
 " The earliest thought that Loke had 
 
 Was to frame a lie, and he sent it forth 
 
 In woman's form to man on earth. 
 
 With false blue eye, and with faithless tear, 
 
 Deceiving ever, yet ever dear ; 
 
 With rosy cheeks, and with bosom fair, 
 
 Thy faith like spring-ice, thy truth like air, 
 
 Thine heart but echoing with deceit, 
 
 And treachery set in thy lips so sweet. 
 
 O Ingborg, darling of my heart, 
 
 How dear thou hast been, and how dear thou art ! 
 
 Far as I back my thoughts can guide, 
 
 I've known no joy but by thy side ; 
 
 In every act and in every thought, 
 
 Thou wast the highest prize I sought.
 
 104 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 As trees from earth together grown, 
 
 If Thor with lightning smite the one, 
 
 The other fades ; if one grows green, 
 
 The other shares its leafy sheen : 
 
 So joy and care we've shared and known : 
 
 I never felt myself alone. 
 
 Now I am lonely ; thou lofty Var, 
 
 Who, with thy golden tablets, far 
 
 Dost watch each mortal vow t' enrol, 
 
 Cease thy vain labor burn thy scroll ; 
 
 But lies to chronicle they serve, 
 
 And better fate doth gold deserve. 
 
 Of Balder's Nanna, truth is told, 
 
 No truth can heart of mortal hold ; 
 
 Man's breast is rilled with falsehood through, 
 
 Since Ingborg's voice could prove untrue ; 
 
 That voice, like wind caressing flowers, 
 
 Or strain from Brage's harp that showers, 
 
 The joyous harp no more I'll hear, 
 
 I'll think no more of my faithless fair. 
 
 Where storm- winds sport I'll make my pillow ; 
 
 Blood shalt thou quaff, thou ocean-billow ! 
 
 Where'er a sword grave-seeds can sow, 
 
 O'er hill or dale, my joy shall grow ; 
 
 And meet I a crown'd king anywhere, 
 
 I'll laugh to see how his life I'll spare. 
 
 But should I find, where shields clash loud, 
 
 Some love-sick youth amongst the crowd,
 
 FRITIIIOF'8 RETURN. 105 
 
 Who joy in maiden's vows can take, 
 I'll hew him down for mercy's sake ; 
 And spare him the grief one day to be 
 Forsaken, disgraced, and betray'd like me." 
 
 " How fiercely boileth youthful blood ! " 
 The aged Hilding said : " 'Twere good 
 That snows of eld should cool its heat. 
 Much wrongest thou the noble maid : 
 My foster-daughter cease to chide, 
 But blame what none can turn aside, 
 The rage of the Nornes, whose weapons smite 
 The sons of earth from the stormy height. 
 True ! Ingborg's sorrowing few men heard. 
 Like silent Vidar, she spake no word : 
 But she grieved and pined, as in southern shade 
 The love-lorn turtle-dove mourns its mate. 
 With me alone her grief she would share, 
 To me her measureless woe declare. 
 As with stricken breast the sea-mew divcth 
 To deepest ocean, and only striveth 
 To hide her wound from the sight of day, 
 And deep-laid, bleedeth her life away : 
 So in silence deep sank her sorrow down ; 
 To me only the grief that she bore is known. 
 
 " ' For Bele's kingdom,' full oft she said, 
 ' A sacrifice must I be made ; 
 S*
 
 io6 FRITHIOF'S HAG A. 
 
 And garlands of snowdrops and evergreen 
 Shall deck the land's peace-offering. 
 Oh ! I could die, but 'twere fate too mild ; 
 By nought will Balder be reconciled 
 Save a living death of lingering pain, 
 With a beating heart, and a throbbing brain. 
 But to none of my sorrow, I charge thee, speak ; 
 My fate may be hard, yet no pity I seek ; 
 King Bele's daughter her doom will bear 
 Yet greet from his Ingborg my Frithiof dear.' 
 
 " On the morn of the bridal (ah ! sad-fated day, 
 From my runestaff, oh ! would I could score it 
 
 av,-ay), 
 
 To the temple passed the slow-pacing train 
 Of white-cladden maidens, and sword-bearing men. 
 By the sorrowing Skald the troop was led ; 
 The bride sate pale on a coal-black steed, 
 Pale as the spirit that sitteth upon 
 The thunder-rack dark, when the storm rageth on. 
 From the saddle I lifted the fair lily down ; 
 To the temple-threshold I led her on ; 
 By the altar standing, she uttered there 
 Her vow to Lofn, and her voice was clear ; 
 And she prayed to Balder fervently, 
 And all wept tears, but no tear wept she. 
 Of thy ring which she wore then was Helge 'ware, 
 And he tore it with force from her arm so fair ;
 
 FRITIHOF'S RETURN. 107 
 
 And the image of Balder he decked with the gold. 
 My fury no longer could I withhold ; 
 My trusty sword from my side I drew forth, 
 And King Helge's life was then little worth. 
 But Ingeborg whispered me, ' Let things be ; 
 Such pang might a brother have spared to me ; 
 But much must be borne era life's sorrows be past ; 
 Between us Allfader will judge at the last.' " 
 
 Ouoth Frithiof: "Allfader judgeth, 'tis true, 
 
 But a share of judgment I'll utter too : 
 
 Is not to-night Baldcr's midsummer feast ? 
 
 I'll find in the temple that crown-wearing priest, 
 
 That fire-raising king, who his sister could sell, 
 
 And my share of judgment shall please me well."
 
 XIII. 
 BALDER'S BALE-FIRE. 
 
 MIDNIGHT sun on the mountains lay 
 Blood-red to the sight ; 
 The air was filled with vapor gray 
 Neither of day nor of night. 
 
 And Balder's pile, of the glowing sun 
 
 A symbol true, blazed forth ; 
 But soon its splendor sinketh down 
 
 When Hoder rules the earth. 
 
 And round about the priests stood there, 
 
 All busied with the brands, 
 Pale-faced seers, with hoary hair, 
 
 And flint-stone knives in horny hands. 
 
 Serving by the altar, crown'd, 
 
 King Helge standeth near. 
 At midnight, hark ! through the grove around 
 
 The clash of arms they hear. 
 (108)
 
 HAIDER'S BALE-FIRE. 109 
 
 " Bjorn, the portals guard, and so 
 
 We'll captive take them all ; 
 In or out let no man go 
 Sooner cleave his skull." 
 
 Pale the king grew ; all too well 
 
 He knew the voice for doubting : 
 In stalked Frithiof, furious, fell, 
 
 Like autumn tempest shouting : 
 
 " Here's the tribute ; at thy desire 
 
 I've fetched it o'er the sea ; 
 Take it ! and battle by Balder's fire 
 For life and death with me. 
 
 " Shields on our backs, arms bare and free, 
 
 Lest tame our strife be reckoned ; 
 Be the first stroke, as a king, to thee ; 
 Remember, I have the second. 
 
 " Glance not, craven, at the door ; 
 In cover I've trapped the fox ; 
 Think upon Framnas think, still more, 
 On Ingborg's golden locks." 
 
 So valiant Frithiof spake with scorn, 
 
 And carelessly did fling 
 The purse, from off his girdle torn, 
 
 At the forehead of the king.
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 Blood from out his lips there oozed, 
 
 Gloom took his sight away ; 
 By his altar, stunned and bruis'd, 
 
 The god-descended lay. 
 
 " Thine own red gold canst thou not bear, 
 
 Basest of Northmen, now ? 
 Then, shame for Angurvadel 'twere 
 To fell such dross as thou. 
 
 " Avaunt, ye priests, with your altar knives 
 
 Pale moonshine princes curst, 
 Or little I'll reck to take your lives 
 To quench my good swcrd's thirst 
 
 " O ! Balder bright, forgive the harm ; 
 
 Thine angry glances spare ; 
 Yon ring of gold upon thine arm 
 Is nought but stolen ware. 
 
 " Never for thee, be it boldly said, 
 
 'Twas forged by the great Valunder : 
 'Twas torn by a thief from a mourning maid 
 Away with his graceless plunder ! " 
 
 Boldly dragged he, but arm and ring 
 Seemed to be grown the same, 
 
 Till, coming loose, the force doth fling 
 The god into the flame.
 
 BA LDER 'S JJA LE-F1RK 
 
 Hark ! it crackles the golden blaze 
 
 Reacheth the roof-tree fast ; 
 Bjorn, pale as death, at the portal stays, 
 
 Frithiof stands aghast. 
 
 Let all men out cast wide the door ! 
 
 Thy watch no longer heed ! 
 The temple flames ! Pour water pour 
 
 The ocean-tide with speed ! " 
 
 Down from the temple to the strand 
 
 They knit a chain of hands ; 
 The billows flow on from hand to hand, 
 
 And hiss upon the brands. 
 
 Like the god of rain doth Frithiof stand 
 
 High over beams and water, 
 And calmly gives each loud command 
 
 Midst flaming death's disorder. 
 
 In vain ! the flames gain the upper hand, 
 In smoke-wreaths rolled and swelled : 
 
 The gold drops into the glowing sand, 
 The plates of silver melt. 
 
 Now all is lost ! From the half-burnt hall 
 His flight a red cock wingeth, 
 
 And he percheth high on the gable tall, 
 And there wing-flapping clingeth.
 
 112 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 The morning wind from the north hath hied, 
 Far through the heavens blowing ; 
 
 Balder's grove is summer-dried, 
 The flame is greedy and growing. 
 
 Fiercely it speedeth from tree to tree, 
 
 A wide possession claiming. 
 Ha ! what a fierce, wild sight to see 
 
 Great Balder's mighty flaming ! 
 
 Down in each cleft root it crackleth still, 
 High in each summit gloweth ; 
 
 'Gainst Muspel's ruddy sons, what skill 
 Of man a barrier knoweth ? 
 
 A sea of flame fills Balder's ground, 
 Strandless its billows stream ; 
 
 The sun mounts up, but fiord and sound 
 Mirror forth nought but flame. 
 
 In ashes lies the temple's pride, 
 
 The grove to ashes burneth, 
 And, wretched, Frithiof turns aside 
 
 Through morning hours he mourneth.
 
 XIV. 
 FRITHIOF GOETH INTO BANISHMENT. 
 
 ON deck, by light 
 Of summer night 
 Sat Frithiof grieving ; 
 Like ocean heaving, 
 His bosom sad 
 With awe and dread ; 
 Thick smoke still climbing 
 From the temple's flaming. 
 
 " To ValhalP fly 
 Through lofty sky, 
 Ye smoke-wreaths, seeking 
 Balder, bespeaking 
 His rage, just meed 
 To me decreed ; 
 Dread tidings giving 
 To echoing heaven 
 
 ("3)
 
 114 FRITHIOF' I S SAGA. 
 
 Of the temple bound 
 Razed to the ground ; 
 Of the image famed, 
 Which, falling, flamed, 
 And, charred away, 
 Like fire-wood lay. 
 Of the grove telling 
 (Religion's dwelling, 
 Where never sword 
 In strife was heard) 
 In ruins buried 
 By flames unwearied. 
 All that hath been, 
 All thou hast seen, 
 No jot forgetting. 
 Speed thou relating, 
 Envoy of cloud, 
 To the cloudy god. 
 
 " Mild Helge's glory 
 Shall live in story, 
 Not with his hand 
 Forth from the land 
 Me doth he banish ; 
 I yield, I vanish 
 O'er realms more wide 
 Of the azure tide.
 
 FRITHIOF'S BANISHMENT. 115 
 
 Thou must not tarry, 
 Far must thou hurry, 
 Ellida forth 
 To the ends of earth ; 
 Fed in thy roaming 
 By ocean's foaming, 
 My dragon good, 
 A drop of blood 
 Can harm thee never ; 
 Speed thou on ever. 
 Where tempests roam 
 Thou art my home ; 
 The Asen-brother 
 Consumed the other. 
 Far must I wend 
 From fatherland ; 
 Be thou my North, 
 My foster-earth ; 
 Be thou my pride, 
 Thou dark-robed bride ; 
 False was my other 
 Bride to her lover. 
 
 " Free-flowing sea ! 
 No trouble to thee 
 Is monarch's grieving, 
 Or king's deceiving.
 
 ii6 FRITfflOF'S SAGA. 
 
 He only can be 
 King over thee 
 Who never feareth, 
 Though lofty reareth 
 Thy foaming breast, 
 Its billows tost. 
 Thine azure furrows 
 Are tilled by heroes ; 
 Through them, like plough, 
 The keel doth go. 
 'Neath oak's wide shadow 
 Blood dews the meadow. 
 Sown is death's seed 
 From bright steel shed. 
 Who ocean reapeth, 
 Thence glory keepeth, 
 Gold cometh too ; 
 To me be true, 
 Thou stormy billow ; 
 And I will follow. 
 
 " My father's grave 
 Stands still and safe ; 
 Calm waters mirror 
 His grass-green pillow. 
 Blue shall mine be 
 In the foaming sea ;
 
 FRITHIOF'S BANISHMENT. 117 
 
 Sturdily floating, 
 Midst tempests shouting, 
 Till I sink to sleep 
 In the boundless deep. 
 My life art thou, ocean 
 My home, my possession ; 
 And shalt be my grave, 
 Free-flowing wave." 
 
 So spake he madly, 
 . As piloting sadly 
 His vessel, he bore 
 Forth from the shore ; 
 And coasted slowly 
 The headlands holy, 
 Which still stand forth, 
 Guarding the North 
 But vengeance waketh : 
 With ten ships seeketh 
 King Helge wight 
 To check his flight. 
 Then shouted they all, 
 " Now Helge will fall : 
 He offereth strife, 
 Nor careth for life 
 Here 'neath the moon. 
 This ValhalPs son
 
 u8 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Doth long to rise 
 To native skies ; 
 And, kin to the gods, 
 Seeketh Odin's abode." 
 
 Scarce was this said, 
 When Helge's fleet, 
 By unseen power, 
 Sank lower and lower ; 
 Still sinking on, 
 Till settled down 
 Midst Rana's dead. 
 Swimming, in dread, 
 Doth Helge reach 
 Alone the beach. 
 
 Bjorn, loud laughed he, 
 And quoth merrily : 
 " Thou of Odin's blood, 
 My craft was good ; 
 When none was nigh, 
 Thy ships bored I 
 Last night with speed, 
 A worthy deed ! 
 May Rana keep 
 Them in the deep,
 
 FRITHIOF'S BANISHMENT. 119 
 
 As is her wont ; 
 
 I but lament 
 
 That from the wave 
 
 Thou shouldst be safe." 
 
 On rocky shore, 
 His peril o'er, 
 King Helge stood 
 In wrathful mood ; 
 His bow, ere long, 
 Of steel, he strung, 
 And scarcely knew 
 How far he drew, 
 Till with a twang 
 In twain it sprang. 
 
 But Frithiof stayed 
 His lance, and said : 
 "Thy death-bird here 
 Enchained I bear ; 
 O coward king, 
 If I freed its wing, 
 Low shouldst thou lie 
 For thy villainy. 
 Yet ease thy fears ; 
 My lance ne'er cares
 
 120 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 For cowards' blood ; 
 
 She's far too good 
 
 For such base uses ; 
 
 And rather chooses 
 
 Her sign to grave 
 
 On tombs of the brave, 
 
 Than on pillars of shame, 
 
 Where is branded thy name. 
 
 Thy fame on sea 
 
 Is lost to thee ; 
 
 And e'en on earth 
 
 'Tis little worth. 
 
 Rust snapped thy bow, 
 
 Not strength, I trow ; 
 
 At nobler game 
 
 Than thee I aim, 
 
 'Twere shame to me 
 
 To slaughter thee." 
 
 Then bent he o'er 
 The sturdy oak, 
 Once pine-tree tall 
 In Gudbrancl's vale. 
 He grasped its fellow, 
 And o'er the billow 
 
 He rode with speed ; 
 
 
 
 Like bending reed,
 
 FRITHIOF'B BANISHMENT. 121 
 
 Or broadsword's tongue, 
 The stout oars sprung. 
 
 Up rose the sun, 
 
 On the cliffs he shone ; 
 
 And the breeze, speeding 
 
 From shore, seemed bidding 
 
 Each wave to dance 
 
 In morning's glance. 
 
 O'er the billow's crest 
 
 Ellida pressed 
 
 Merrily and glad ; 
 
 But Frithiof said : 
 
 " Crest of creation, 
 
 Thou noble North, 
 I have no place on 
 
 Thy well-loved earth ; 
 From thee forever 
 
 My sail must swell ; 
 Thou nurse of valor, 
 
 Farewell ! farewell ! 
 
 " Farewell, thou brightest 
 Valhalla-throne ; 
 
 Thou gloom that lightest, 
 
 
 
 Midsummer sun ! 
 6
 
 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Thou sky, unclouded, 
 Where heroes dwell, 
 
 Where bright stars wander, 
 Farewell ! farewell ! 
 
 " Ye mighty cliffs, 
 
 Famed evermore, 
 Rune-written temples 
 
 Of terrible Thor : 
 Each azure sea 
 
 That I've known so well, 
 Each isle and bay, 
 
 Farewell ! farewell ! 
 
 " Farewell, ye graves 
 
 By the ocean's foam, 
 Where the linden-tree waves 
 
 Down its snowy bloom, 
 (But Saga judgeth, 
 
 And judgeth well 
 What earth concealeth,) 
 
 Farewell ! farewell ! 
 
 " Farewell, each grove, 
 
 And each grassy nook, 
 Where I loved to lie 
 By the rippling brook.
 
 FRITHIOF'B BANISHMENT. 123 
 
 Friends of my youth, 
 
 I loved you well ; 
 But we part forever 
 
 Farewell ! farewell ! 
 
 " With fondness spurned, 
 
 With honor stained, 
 With dwelling burned. 
 
 And banishment : 
 From land I part 
 
 O'er ocean's swell 
 Ah ! joy of heart, 
 
 Farewell ! farewell ! "
 
 XV. 
 VIKINGABALK. 
 
 NOW wide swept he round on the wilderness deep ; 
 he sped far, like the prey-seeking hawk, 
 For his comrades on board he wrote counsel and law ; 
 wilt thou hear now his Vikingabalk ? 
 
 " Make no tent upon deck, sleep not under a roof, 
 
 within doors a foe may surprise : 
 On his shield Viking sleepeth, his sword in his 
 hand, and maketh his tent of the skies. 
 
 " Short shaft hath the hammer of conquering Thor ; 
 
 a sword but an ell long hath Frey ; 
 'Tis enough, for thy sword can be never too short, 
 hast thou heart to thy foe to come nigh. 
 
 " When the storms rage with might, hoist the sail to 
 its height, then are merry the storm-ridden 
 waves ; 
 (124)
 
 VIKINGABALK. 125 
 
 Speed along ! speed along ! and sink sooner than 
 strike, for they who would strike are but 
 slaves ! 
 
 " Shelter woman on land ; keep her far from your 
 bark she'd deceive, ay, though Freya she 
 were : 
 
 For her dimple so deep is a pitfall untrue, and a 
 net is her wide-waving hair. 
 
 " Wine is Valfader's drink, and carouse is allowed, if 
 
 thou drainest uninjured the can ; 
 If thou fallest on land, thou may'st -rise ; but fall 
 here, and thou sinkest to sleep-giving Ran. 
 
 " When a merchant sails by, spare his ship ; by the 
 
 weak let a tribute for safety be told ; 
 Thou art king on thy waves, he a slave to his gain, 
 and thy steel is as good as his gold. 
 
 " By the die and the lot all your prizes divide ; how 
 
 they fall, to complain never care ; 
 Your sea-king himself casteth never a lot, keepeth 
 only his fame as his share. 
 
 " Comes a Vikinga-ship, and we board it and fight, 
 when tho strife waxeth hot 'neath each shield,
 
 126 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 If thou yield but a pace, thou art parted from us ; 
 'tis our law, and so do as thou wilt. 
 
 " Hast thou conquered ? Give grace he's no longer 
 a foe, who defenceless for mercy doth pray ; 
 
 iO 
 
 _Eafe Prayer is Valhalla's child ; A yield to its voice ; 
 he is worthless who then sayeth Nay. 
 
 " Scars are gain to a Viking ; a man they adorn, if 
 
 on brow or on bosom they stand ; 
 Let them bleed on unbound until evening be come ; 
 if not, thou must part from our band." 
 
 So wrote he his law, and his fame day by day to 
 
 far-lying borders was brought ; 
 His like never sped o'er the blue heaving sea, and 
 
 his comrades full lustily fought. 
 
 But himself by the tiller sat, gloomy of mien, and 
 
 gazed into ocean, and thought : 
 
 " Deep art thou ; in thy depths, perhaps, peace may 
 be found, but above I discover it not. 
 
 " If the White One still rage, let him draw forth his 
 
 blade ; I'll fall gladly, if so 'tis designed ; 
 But he sitteth in heaven, and sendeth down thoughts 
 that darken forever my mind."
 
 V1KINGABALK. 127 
 
 Still, when battle drew near, like an eagle refreshed 
 rose his spirit in valorous flight, 
 
 And clear grew his brow, and high raised he his 
 voice, and stood forth like the Thunderer 
 bright. 
 
 So from conquest to conquest he sped, and from 
 care, in the ocean he sought for release, 
 
 And islands and cliffs passed he southward, and 
 so came he into the waters of Greece. 
 
 As his glance on the groves rising up from the sea, 
 and the temples, now desolate, fell, 
 
 What he felt Freya knew, and the bard, too, must 
 know ; and ye, lovers, ye know it full well. 
 
 " Here should we have dwelt ; here the isle, here the 
 grove, here the temple my sire shadowed 
 forth ; 
 
 It was hither I prayed my beloved to come ; but 
 the cruel one stayed in the North. 
 
 " Doth contentment not dwell in yon valley of bliss, 
 
 and peace round those pillars so strong ? 
 Like the whispers of love sounds the murmuring 
 brook, like a bride-hymn the nightingale's
 
 ia8 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Where is Ingeborg now ? Hath she e'er thought 
 of me, with her age'd spouse withered and 
 gray? 
 
 I ne'er can forget ; but to see her once more, my 
 whole life I'd give gladly away. 
 
 " Three years have sped by since my home I beheld, 
 
 great Saga's majestical hall ; 
 
 Stand forth still 'gainst the heaven her bright cliffs 
 on high ? groweth green still my ancestors' 
 vale ? 
 
 " On the mound, where my father is laid, did I plant 
 
 a linden-tree bloometh it now ? 
 Who hath tended it since ? Give it nurture, O 
 Earth, and thy dew on it, Sky, sprinkle 
 thou. 
 
 " Yet why lie I longer on billows afar, for slaughter 
 
 and plundering prize ? 
 
 I have honor enough, and the red-flaming gold, 
 the worthless, my soul doth despise. 
 
 " The flag on my mast streameth back to the North ; 
 
 to the North, to my fatherland dear ; 
 I'll follow the course of the heavenly winds ; back 
 again to my Northland I'll steer."
 
 XVI. 
 FRITHIOF AND BJORN. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 BJORN, I am weary of wave and of sea ; 
 Boisterous comrades the billows have proved ; 
 Far in the North the proud headlands beloved 
 Back, with resistless might, beckon to me. 
 They are happy from home who have never departed, 
 Ne'er banished afar' from their ancestors' graves ! 
 Too long, alas ! all too long broken-hearted, 
 I've wandered around on the wide-heaving waves. 
 
 BJORN. 
 
 Good is the ocean, in vain dost thou chide ; 
 Freedom and gladness thrive best on the seas ; 
 Little they reck of effeminate ease 
 Loving afar on the billows to ride. 
 When I grow old, upon land I will house, 
 And cling in my turn to it, close as the grass ; 
 But now in hot battle and joyous carouse, 
 
 On ocean, my swift years untroubled shall pass. 
 6* (129)
 
 130 FRITHIOF' S SAGA. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Yet now by the ice we are driven to land, 
 Clasping our keel lie the chilly waves dead ; 
 Nor care I to wait till long winter be sped, 
 Imprisoned by rocks on the desolate strand. 
 Once more in the Northland my Yule-tide I'll hold, 
 And guest to King Ring and my lost bride will be ; 
 Gaze fondly again on those bright locks of gold, 
 And hear once again that voice dearest to me. 
 
 BJORN. 
 
 Good is thy purpose. By Ring shall be seen 
 How vengeance of Viking like lightning can gleam : 
 At midnight the court of the monarch shall flame : 
 We'll slaughter the Graybeard, we'll bear off the 
 
 Queen. 
 
 Or wilt thou treat him in Vikinga-wisc, 
 Hold'st thou him worthy of Holm-gang with thee ? 
 Then challenge him forth to contend on the ice ; 
 Whatever thou wiliest, I ready shall be. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Speak not of slaughter, nor think upon war ; 
 In peace to the court of the monarch I'll wend. 
 Faultless is he, nor did Ingborg offend, 
 But the vengeance of angry gods I have to bear. 
 Now leave of my dear one my heart longs to take, 
 Since slight hope for me upon earth can remain ;
 
 FRITHIOF AND JJJORN. 131 
 
 A farewell eternal ! when green buds awake 
 
 At the breathing of spring, thou shalt see me again. 
 
 BJORN. 
 
 Ah ! Frithiof, thy folly seems strange to my mind : 
 What ! sorrow and sigh for a false woman's love ! 
 In sooth, upon earth there are women enough ! 
 For the one thou hast lost thou a thousand may'st find. 
 If thou wilt, e'en a lading of that kind of ware 
 Shall swiftly from Southland so glowing be brought, 
 As ruddy as rosebuds, like lambs tame and fair ; 
 We'll divide them as brothers, or share them by lot. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 Bjo'rn, glad and honest as Frey is thy thought : 
 Thou art prudent in counsel, and fearless in war ; 
 Well hast thou learnt to know Odin and Thor, 
 But Freya, the heavenly, knowest thou not. 
 Shun to think scorn of the holy Queen's power ; 
 Beware, lest the rage of the goddess thou wake ; 
 To gods and to men, soon or late, comes the hour 
 When her mouldering spark into fierce flame must 
 break. 
 
 BJORN. 
 Yet go not alone. They may take thee in thrall. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 Alone go I not ; my sword followeth me.
 
 132 FJilTfflOF'S SAGA, 
 
 BJORN. 
 
 Remember how Hagbart was hung on a tree. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 He, who lets any take him, deserveth to fall. 
 
 BJORN. 
 
 Oh ! brother, fall'st thou, I'll avenge thee full well : 
 Over Frithiof 's bones the blood-eagle I'il tear. 
 
 FRITHIOF. 
 
 It needeth not, Bjorn. For my foeman shall ne'er 
 Hear a cock crow again when I perish. Farewell !
 
 XVII. 
 FRITHIOF COMETH TO KING RING. 
 
 KING RING high-throned at banquet sat, mead- 
 quaffing at Yule-tide ; 
 The fair and gentle-visaged queen sat silent by his 
 
 side ; 
 Like Spring by Autumn seated, they seemed together 
 
 there : 
 
 In her was seen the Spring-time green, in him the 
 Autumn drear. 
 
 And lo ! into the hall there came an unknown gray- 
 beard in, 
 
 From head to foot enveloped in a wild bear's shaggy 
 skin ; 
 
 With weak and weary gait upon his' heavy staff he 
 leant, 
 
 Still all the rest surpassing in stature as he went. 
 
 (133)
 
 i 3 4 FBITHIOF'8 SAGA. 
 
 He sat him on the lowly bench that stood besic 
 the door, 
 
 That is the poor man's place to-day, as 'twas in 
 days of yore ; 
 
 To mock with sneer and scornful laugh the under- 
 lings began, 
 
 And pointed with the finger at the rude, uncouth, 
 old man. 
 
 Forth flashed the ready fury from the stranger's 
 
 eyes ; in haste, 
 With a single hand he snatcheth up a courtier by 
 
 the waist, 
 And thoughtfully upon his head he turned the 
 
 frightened youth, 
 Then all the others held their peace as we'd have 
 
 done, in sooth. 
 
 What means, below, this uproar who dares our 
 
 peace to break ? 
 Come up to me, thou graybeard, and answer when 
 
 I speak : 
 What is thy name ? what wilt thou ? and where 
 
 thy fatherland ? " 
 So spake the angry monarch ; calm did the old man 
 
 stand.
 
 FRITIIIOF COMETH TO KING RING. 135 
 
 " Full much thou askest me, O king, yet answer will 
 
 I give : 
 Trouble thyself not for my name, its master still 
 
 doth live ; 
 The land of sorrow is my home ; my birthright, 
 
 misery ; 
 Last night I lodged with hungry wolves ; thence 
 
 come, to-day, to thee. 
 
 "In days gone by full glad I rode on ocean-dragon 
 
 free, 
 And mighty were the wings she had, and merrily 
 
 sped she ; 
 But now she lieth frozen up and lame upon the 
 
 sand, 
 While I myself, grown old and weak, burn salt 
 
 upon the strand. 
 
 " I came to see thy wisdom, by fame so widely 
 borne ; 
 
 Those yonder mocked me scornfully, and I'm too 
 old for scorn ; 
 
 I seized upon a grinning fool, and turned him up- 
 side down, 
 
 Yet all unharmed he rose again ; so, king, no 
 longer frown."
 
 136 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 "Not ill-beseeming," quoth the king, "thy bold 
 words are to thee, 
 
 And age should all men honor ; come, sit thee 
 down by me ; 
 
 Let's see thee frank and freely ; let thy thick cover- 
 ing fall : 
 
 Disguise disturbs enjoyment, and I wish joy to 
 all." 
 
 Then straightway from his head the guest let fall 
 the rugged hide, 
 
 And in the old man's place they all a noble youth 
 espied ; 
 
 Down from his lofty forehead, o'er his broad shoul- 
 ders' might, 
 
 Fell down, like waves of molten gold, his locks in 
 splendor bright 
 
 In azure velvet mantle stood he, gorgeously ar- 
 rayed, 
 
 With silver belt, a hand in width, and beasts there- 
 on displayed, 
 
 Fiercely their prey pursuing around the hero's 
 waist, 
 
 By some laborious master in high-wrought beauty 
 chased.
 
 FRITHIOF COMETH TO KING RING. 137 
 
 Around his mighty arm he wore a golden bracelet 
 
 wide, 
 Like a flash of bridled lightning hung his war-sword 
 
 at his side ; 
 A royal, fearless glance around the hall and guests 
 
 he bore, 
 And stood, like Balder beauteous, brave and proud 
 
 as mighty Thor. 
 
 Swift to the gentle queen's pale cheeks the crimson 
 color sped ; 
 
 So, 'neath the glow of northern lights, wide plains 
 of snow blush red ; 
 
 And, as twin water-lilies, by sudden storm op- 
 pressed, 
 
 Flutter above the billows, so heaved her gentle 
 breast. 
 
 The horn was blown for silence, come was the 
 
 votive hour ; 
 To Frey's high feast devoted they carry in the 
 
 boar ; 
 Its shoulders decked with flowers, its mouth an 
 
 apple held, 
 And, with knees beneath it bended, the silver dish 
 
 it filled.
 
 I 3 3 yitITUIOF'8 SAGA. 
 
 Then slowly agdd Ring raised up his venerable 
 
 head, 
 He touched the forehead of the boar, and vowing, 
 
 thus he said : 
 " Great Frithiof I will vanquish, whom none can 
 
 stand before, 
 So help me, Frey and Odin, and so help me, mighty 
 
 Thor ! " 
 
 With haughty mien the stranger rose up quickly 
 from his seat, 
 
 His countenance all glowing with heroic anger's 
 heat; 
 
 He struck his sword upon the board, the hall re- 
 echoing rang, 
 
 And up from every oaken seat each startled com- 
 rade sprang. 
 
 Now hear thou, too, O king ! " he cried, " my vow, 
 
 thus uttered loud, 
 That Frithiof is akin to me, a worthy friend and 
 
 good; 
 And Frithiof I will shelter against all the world 
 
 arrayed, 
 So help me first my favoring Nome, and then my 
 
 trusty blade ! "
 
 FEITHIOF COMETH TO KING RING. 139 
 
 " Thou speakest boldly," smiled the king, " nor only 
 
 once to-day ; 
 But frank and free each word shall be where I, as 
 
 king, bear sway. 
 Fill, consort mine, the horn with wine, and fill it 
 
 of the best ; 
 This stranger, let us hope, will bide the winter as 
 
 our euest." 
 
 Then took the queen the horn that on the board 
 before her stood, 
 
 (Which Ure's forehead once adorned, a treasure 
 rich and good,) 
 
 On feet of shining silver, with many a gold ring 
 bound, 
 
 Rune-written, and with deeds of ancient days be- 
 decked around. 
 
 And as she offered him the horn, all trembling, with 
 
 averted head, 
 The goblet shook, some drops ran o'er, and dyed 
 
 her fingers rosy red ; 
 And as upon the lily leaves the sunset glories seem 
 
 to stand, 
 So glowed the drops of purple wine upon the fair 
 
 ore's " v hand.
 
 I 4 o FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 With joy from her the stranger took the horn, and 
 raised it high ; 
 
 Two men (such men as live to-day) could scarce 
 have drunk it dry ; 
 
 But the mighty guest, deep-quaffing in honor of the 
 queen, 
 
 Drained the full goblet at a draught, no drop re- 
 mained within. 
 
 Then the bard who sat at the board of royal Ring 
 
 his harp drew forth, 
 And a beautiful sorrowful song did sing of true love 
 
 in the North, 
 Of Hagbart and fair Signe : and at the mournful 
 
 tale, 
 The hard heart melted in each breast beclad in 
 
 shining mail. 
 
 He sang of the halls of Valhalla, the Einherier's 
 
 praise sang he, 
 Of valiant forebears' mighty deeds on continent 
 
 and sea ; 
 Then every hand its sword-hilt clutched, and bright 
 
 flashed every eye, 
 And round and round the oft-filled horn sped ever 
 
 busily.
 
 FRITHIOF COMETH TO KING RING. 141 
 
 Deep drank they, high carousing, at the palace of 
 
 the king, 
 And reveller good each proved himself at Yule-tide 
 
 banqueting ; 
 Then staggered forth to slumber, unmoved by woe 
 
 or care, 
 But Ring, the agdd monarch, stayed with Ingeborg 
 
 the fair.
 
 XVIII. 
 THE RIDE OVER THE ICE. 
 
 TT7" ING RING to a banquet with Ingeborg hies ; 
 X^. The ice on the bay like a mirror lies. 
 
 " Sledge not over the ice," the stranger cried ; 
 " 'Twill break, and too deep is the frozen tide." 
 
 Quoth Ring : " Not so easily kings are drowned ; 
 Whoever's afraid, by the shore may go round." 
 
 How frowneth the stranger in angry heat ! 
 He bindeth his steel shoes in haste to his feet. 
 
 How starteth the stallion forth with might, 
 Fierily snorting in fierce delight ! 
 
 " Stride out," Ring crieth, " my charger good ! 
 Let's see that thou art of Sleipner's blood." 
 
 They speed as storms over ocean speed : 
 The queen's prayers little King Ring doth heed. 
 (142)
 
 THE RIDE OVER THE ICE, 143 
 
 Their steel-shod comrade standeth not still, 
 He flieth past them as swift as he will. 
 
 Many a Rune on the ice cutteth he ; 
 Fair Ingborg's name discovereth she. 
 
 So on their glittering course they go, 
 But Ran, the traitress, lurketh below. 
 
 A hole in her silver roof she hath reft, 
 Down sinketh the sleigh in the yawning cleft. 
 
 How pale groweth Ingeborg's cheek with fear ! 
 The guest, like a whirlwind, cometh near : 
 
 His skate he hath fixed on the icy field ; 
 
 The steed by the mane he hath seized and held ; 
 
 With a single tug he setteth amain 
 Both steed and sleigh on the ice again. 
 
 " Praise to that stroke," quoth Ring, " is due ; 
 Not Frithiof, the mighty, could better do." 
 
 Now turn they back to the court again ; 
 Till spring the stranger doth there remain.
 
 XIX. 
 FRITHIOF'S TEMPTATION. 
 
 SPRING-TIME cometh ; wild birds twitter, woods 
 grow leafy, sunshine beams, 
 Dancing, singing, down to ocean speed the liberated 
 
 streams ; 
 Out from its bud the glowing rose peeps forth like 
 
 blush on Freya's cheek ; 
 
 And joy of life, and mirth, and hope, within the 
 breast of man awake. 
 
 The agd monarch wills the chase, and with him hies 
 
 the gentle queen ; 
 And swarming round in proud array is all the court 
 
 assembled seen : 
 Bows are twanging, quivers rattle, eager horse-hoofs 
 
 paw the clay ; 
 And, with hooded eyes, the falcons scream impatient 
 
 for their prey. 
 (i44)
 
 FRITHIOF'8 TEMPTATION. 145 
 
 Lo ! the chase's empress cometh ! Hapless Frithiof, 
 
 glance away ! 
 Like a star on spring cloud sitteth she upon her 
 
 courser gray, 
 Half like Freya, half like Rota, lovelier than the 
 
 heavenly pair ; 
 From her slender hat of purple azure plumes float 
 
 high in air. 
 
 Gaze not on her eyes so beauteous, on her golden 
 
 locks so bright, 
 Gaze not on her form so slender, on her bosom full 
 
 and white ; 
 Shun to watch the rose and lily on her soft cheek 
 
 varying ; 
 Hark not to the voice belovdd, breathing like the 
 
 sighs of spring. 
 
 Now the hunter's troop is ready. Hallo ! over hill 
 
 and dale 
 Horns reecho ; eager falcons climb aloft to Odin's 
 
 hall: 
 All the forest beasts affrighted seek their distant lairs 
 
 in fear ; 
 But with lance outstretched before her, their Valkyria 
 
 follows near. 
 7
 
 I 4 6 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Ring the age*d cannot follow as the chase speeds 
 
 swiftly on, 
 Sorrowful and silent by him rideth Frithiof 
 
 alone, 
 Gloomy, mournful recollections all his soul with 
 
 anguish tear, 
 And, wherever he can turn him, hears he echoes 
 
 of despair. 
 
 " Wherefore fled I from the ocean, to mine own de- 
 struction blind ? 
 
 Sorrow thrives not on the billow, far 'tis blown by 
 heaven's wind. 
 
 If Viking broodeth, danger comes, and bids him to 
 the sprightly dance, 
 
 And his gloomy bodings vanish, blinded by his 
 weapon's glance. 
 
 " Far otherwise 'tis here : for grief unspeakable has 
 
 thrown 
 Her dark wings round my forehead ; like a dreamer 
 
 pass I on : 
 Never can I Balder's grove, or Ingborg's loving 
 
 oath forget, 
 Sworn to me. SHE never broke it ; gods, in fury, 
 
 cancelled it.
 
 FRITHIOF^S TEMPTATION. 147 
 
 " They, the race of man detesting, jealous view a 
 
 fondness blest ; 
 My rose-bud sweet they snatched away, and planted 
 
 it in Winter's breast : 
 By its bloom can Winter profit ? Little knoweth he 
 
 its price ; 
 While his frosty breathing covers bud, and leaf, and 
 
 stem with ice." 
 
 While thus he sorrowed, they their way into a 
 lonely dell had made, 
 
 Dark and hill-surrounded, overspread with birch 
 and alder shade. 
 
 Ring, dismounting, quoth : " How cool and pleas- 
 ant doth the grove appear ! 
 
 Weary am I ; let us rest, and for an hour I'll slum- 
 ber here." 
 
 " Here thou may'st not sleep, O king, for such a 
 
 slumber bringeth pain ; 
 Up ! The ground is hard and cold full soon I'll 
 
 lead thee home again." 
 " Like other gods," the old man said, " sleep cometh 
 
 when we hope it least, 
 
 And surely to his host my guest will scarce be- 
 grudge a little rest ? "
 
 148 FRITHIOF 'S SAGA. 
 
 Then Frithiof took his mantle off, and spread it out 
 
 beneath the trees, 
 And trustfully the old king laid his head upon the 
 
 young man's knees, 
 Slept soundly, as upon his shield a warrior after 
 
 war's alarms, 
 And softly as an infant sleeps within its mother's 
 
 loving arms. 
 
 As he slumbers, hark ! there sings a coal-black bird 
 
 from off a bough : 
 " Haste thee, Frithiof, slay the Graybeard end thy 
 
 sorrows at a blow ! 
 Take the queen she's thine, since once to thee 
 
 betrothal's kiss she gave : 
 Here no mortal eye beholds thee ; deep and silent 
 
 is the grave." 
 
 Frithiof listens, hark ! now sings a snow-white 
 
 bird from off a bough : 
 
 " Though no mortal eye behold thee, Odin's eye can 
 see thee now : 
 
 Coward ! wouldst thou murder sleep ? Shall help- 
 less age by thee be slain ? 
 
 Such deed, whate'er to thee it bring, can never 
 peace or honor gain."
 
 FRITIIIOF^ TEMPTATION. 149 
 
 So the birds sang, both in turn, but Frithiof took 
 
 his battle-blade, 
 Shuddering . he flung it from him, far into the 
 
 gloomy shade ; 
 The black bird back to Nastrand flies ; but, borne 
 
 along on shining wings, 
 With song as sweet as tuneful harp, the white one 
 
 up to sunshine springs. 
 
 Straight the old king, waking, quoth : " Much rest 
 did my short sleep afford ; 
 
 'Tis sweet to slumber in the shade, protected by a 
 brave man's sword : 
 
 But where, O stranger, is thy blade the lightning's 
 brother, whither sped ? 
 
 And who hath separated you, so little wont to sepa- 
 rate ? " 
 
 " It matters little," Frithiof said, " for swords are 
 
 plenty in the North ; 
 Sharp-tongue'd is the blade, O king ; no word of 
 
 peace it speaketh forth : 
 Within the steel doth evil dwell, a spirit dark from 
 
 Niffelhem ; 
 Against him sleep no safety hath ; gray hairs are 
 
 but a snare to him."
 
 ISO FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Dissembled was my slumber, youth, to prove thee," 
 
 age*d Ring replied ; 
 " The wise should never trust himself to man or 
 
 sword of man untried. 
 Thou art Frithiof; when my hall thou entered'st I 
 
 knew thee well : 
 
 Old Ring hath long been ware of what his guest 
 sought to conceal. 
 
 " Wherefore, thus disguised and nameless, 'neath my 
 roof-tree didst thou glide ? 
 
 Wherefore ? Was it from the old man's arms to 
 steal away his bride ? 
 
 Honor, Frithiof, never sitteth nameless at the ban- 
 quet gay ; 
 
 Frank and open is its visage, and its shield is 
 bright as day. 
 
 " The dread alike of gods and men, to me a Frithiof 
 
 far was famed ; 
 Shields he cleft ; by him insulted, sacred shrines in 
 
 ruin flamed ; 
 Soon with fierce array he'll come, I ever thought, to 
 
 vex my land, 
 And he came, in beggar's raiment, and a staff was 
 
 in his hand.
 
 FRITHIOF'S TEMPTATION. 151 
 
 " Yet, wherefore turn away thy gaze ? I, too, have 
 felt youth's angry strife ; 
 
 It is the time of Berserk-rage in each man's ever- 
 struggling life : 
 
 In clash of arms its course must pass, until ap- 
 peased its fierce mood be : 
 
 Thy fault in pity I forget, since I have proved and 
 pardoned thee. 
 
 " Thou seest I am age"d grown, and to the grave must 
 
 soon decline ; 
 Then take to thee my realm, and take the queen, 
 
 for she is thine. 
 Meanwhile, remain, my son, and dwell within my 
 
 palace as before ; 
 Guard me, thou swordless warrior ; our ancient 
 
 strife is o'er." 
 
 " Never," gloomy Frithiof answered, " came I as a 
 
 thief to thee ; 
 And had I willed to take thy queen, could any man 
 
 have hindered me ? 
 I only longed my bride to see but once alas ! but 
 
 once again, 
 And, woe is me ! the half-quenched flame rekindled 
 
 I to fiercer pain.
 
 152 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 "Too long within thy halls I've stayed, and now no 
 further linger I ; 
 
 Full heavily upon my head the rage of angry gods 
 doth lie ; 
 
 For Balder, with the radiant locks, who all man- 
 kind besides doth see 
 
 With love, detesteth me alone, and me alone reject- 
 eth he. 
 
 " 'Tis true, I caused his shrine to flame, and Varg-i- 
 Veum call they me ; 
 
 To hear my name the children scream, and glad- 
 ness from the feast doth flee ; 
 
 Its offspring lost, my Fatherland with indignation 
 forth doth cast, 
 
 And I am peaceless in my home, and peaceless in 
 my mourning breast. 
 
 " No more, no more for peace in vain I'll seek upon 
 the grassy earth ; 
 
 Beneath my footsteps burns the soil, no shade to 
 me the trees give forth ; 
 
 My Ingeborg is lost to me, alas ! by age'd Ring 
 she's owned ; 
 
 Life's sun for me is set, and wide is sorrow's dark- 
 ness spread around.
 
 FRITHIOF'8 TEMPTATION. 153 
 
 " And, therefore, to my waves again. Away, away ; 
 my dragon good, 
 
 Thy sable breast plunge merrily once more into the 
 briny flood ; 
 
 Spread to the clouds thy pinions bright, the hissing 
 ocean proudly tear, 
 
 And fly as far as stars can lead, as swift as con- 
 quered waves can bear. 
 
 " Let me hear the storm tremendous, let me hear 
 fierce thunder's voice ; 
 
 When tumultuous din surrounds me, calmly can 
 my breast rejoice. 
 
 In clang of shields and hail of arrows be my furious 
 sea-fights passed, 
 
 Till glad I fall, and rise, forgiven, to the gods ap- 
 peased at last." 
 
 .7*
 
 XX. 
 THE DEATH OF KING RING. 
 
 WITH golden mane gleaming, 
 Skinfaxe more nobly 
 
 Draweth the sun from the waves than before ; 
 Morning's bright beaming 
 
 Illumineth doubly 
 The hall of the monarch ; then opens the door. 
 
 Gloomy and grieving 
 
 Frithiof seeketh 
 
 The king ; pale he sitteth ; fair Ingeborg's breast 
 Like ocean is heaving ; 
 
 The stranger he speaketh 
 Words of departure, in trembling expressed : 
 
 " The blue billows chafe 
 
 My swift-winge'd steed, 
 
 My sea-courser longeth to bound from the strand ; 
 He doth pine for the wave, 
 
 So forth I must speed, 
 
 Forth from dear friends, and away from the land. 
 (i54)
 
 THE DBA TH OF KING RINQ. 155 
 
 " This ring take thine own again, 
 
 Ingborg ; there liveth 
 Holy remembrance within it for thee ; 
 Give it to none again ; 
 
 Frithiof forgiveth, 
 But now never more on earth seest thou me. 
 
 I 
 " Smoke ne'er shall I see 
 
 Ever rising again 
 
 Forth from the North. Man is only a slave 
 To what Nornas decree ; 
 The wave-tossing main 
 Henceforth is my fatherland, shall be my grave. 
 
 " Thy bride to the strand, 
 O Ring, shun to take, 
 
 Above all, when the starlight illumines the sky ; 
 For, perchance, on the sand, 
 
 By ocean cast back, 
 The course of the wandering Viking may lie." 
 
 Then quoth the king : 
 " 'Tis bitter to hear 
 
 A man thus lament, like a sorrowing maid ; 
 Full long doth Fate sing 
 
 Her dirge in my ear ; 
 What matters it ? All that is mortal must fade.
 
 156 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 " Norna's decreeing, 
 However it fall, 
 
 Strive we, or grieve we, we cannot withstand. 
 To thee leave I my queen, 
 And my power, and all, 
 So thou guard for my young heir his ancestors' land. 
 
 " To many friends spake I 
 
 Full oft in the hall, 
 
 And golden peace ever loved truly and well ; 
 Yet often, too, brake 1 
 Shields in the vale, 
 Shields on the wave, and I never grew pale. 
 
 " Now will I carve amain 
 
 Geirsodd, and, bleeding, 
 
 No straw-death, ill-seeming a king, I'll receive ; 
 Nor is the parting pain 
 
 Worth monarch's heeding ; 
 It scarce can be harder to die than to live." 
 
 So carveth he sprightly 
 
 Letters for Odin, 
 
 I nto bosom and arm the deep death-runes are press'd ; 
 Shining forth brightly, 
 
 Thick blood-drops flowed on, 
 Trickling through silver hairs over his breast.
 
 THE DEATH OF KING RING. 157 
 
 " Reach forth the horn ; 
 
 Loud skoal shall arise 
 Skoal to thy glory, thou beautiful North ! 
 Plentiful corn, 
 
 And counsellors wise, 
 And labor in peace for thee sought I on earth. 
 
 " Vainly and wildly 
 
 In conquest I sought her, 
 Sought I for peace, who still further did flee ; 
 Now stands she mildly, 
 
 The grave's gentle daughter, 
 At the feet of the gods she is waiting for me. 
 
 " Hail, ye deities bright ! 
 
 Ye Valhalla sons ! 
 
 Earth fadeth away ; to the heavenly feast 
 Glad trumpets invite 
 
 Me, and blessedness crowns, 
 As fair, as with gold helm, your hastening guest." 
 
 So spake he, pressing 
 
 The hand of his spouse, 
 Greeting his sorrowing friend and his son ; 
 
 And then, his eyes closing, 
 
 Ring's spirit arose, 
 And sped on a sigh up to Allfather's throne.
 
 XXI. 
 RING'S DRAPA. 
 
 IN the grave sitteth 
 Ring, greatest of monarchs ; 
 Beside him his battle-sword, 
 Shield on his arm ; 
 His charger, the noble, 
 Neighing beneath him, 
 With gilded hoof paweth 
 The wall of his grave. 
 
 Richly now rideth 
 
 Ring over Bifrost ; 
 
 Arched is the bridge 
 
 Which to meet him descends ; 
 
 Wide spring the portals 
 
 Of noble Valhalla, 
 
 Gods grasping, rejoicing, 
 
 The chief by the hand. 
 
 (158)
 
 RING'S DRAPA. 159 
 
 Thor is not present, 
 Far off he warreth ; 
 Valfader beckons, 
 The beaker is brought ; 
 The crown of the monarch 
 With corn-ears Frey decketh ; 
 And flowers among them 
 Doth Frigga entwine. 
 
 Bragd, the aged, 
 Sweepeth the harp-strings, 
 Sweeter than ever 
 The tones of his song. 
 Vanadis, listening, 
 O'er the board leaneth ; 
 Glowing, her snowy 
 Bosom doth heave. 
 
 " High sing the clashing 
 Of sword upon helmet, 
 Murmuring billows, 
 Heaving in blood : 
 And might, the good gift 
 Of the happy immortals, 
 Which, keenly as Berserk, 
 Biteth the shield.
 
 i6c FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Therefore, by us was 
 Ring well-beloved : 
 His shield ever guarding 
 Regions of peace. 
 Whence the loveliest image 
 Of might unoffending, 
 Before us, like incense, 
 Forever arose. 
 
 " Words of deep wisdom 
 Valfader speaketh, 
 Sitting by Saga, 
 Soquaback's maid. 
 So the words sounded 
 Of Ring ever clearly, 
 As Mimer's bright billows,- 
 Deep, too, as they. 
 
 " Peaceful Forsete, 
 Feud-reconciling, 
 Ruleth by Urda's 
 Aye-heaving wave. 
 So on the Ting-stone 
 Sat the wise monarch, 
 Appeasing the rage of 
 Avengers of blood.
 
 RING'S DRAPA. 161 
 
 " Ne'er was he niggardly : 
 Round him he scattered 
 (From Dragon's bed gathered) 
 The daylight of dwarfs. 
 Gifts sped forth gladly 
 From hand ever open ; 
 And comfort for grief 
 From his lips ever fell. 
 
 " Welcome, thou wise one, 
 Heir of Valhalla ! 
 Long in the Northland 
 Liveth thy fame. 
 Bragd, with greeting, 
 Draineth the mead-horn 
 To thee, the Nome's herald 
 Of peace from the North ! "
 
 XXII. 
 THE KING'S ELECTION. 
 
 TO the Ting ! the Ting ! Budkafle goes 
 From home to home : 
 King Ring is dead. A king to choose 
 The Northmen come. 
 
 From idle wall is ta'en the brand 
 
 Of purple steel : 
 Each warrior, with practised hand, 
 
 Its edge doth feel. 
 
 The little sons behold with joy 
 
 Its glitter bright : 
 Two raise it up, for either boy 
 
 Too heavy weight. 
 
 The daughter scrubs the helmet clean, 
 Bright must it glare ; 
 
 6* (l62\
 
 THE KING'S ELECTION. 163 
 
 Then blushes red, for she has seen 
 Her image there. 
 
 He taketh, last of all, his shield, 
 
 A sun in blood. 
 Hail to thee, freeborn warrior, mailed, 
 
 Thou yeoman good ! 
 
 From thy free breast alone can grow 
 
 A nation's pride ; 
 In war, thy country's rampart thou ; 
 
 In peace, its guide. 
 
 Assembled round, with warlike cry, 
 
 In proof arrayed, 
 Their weapons clash ; the heaven high 
 
 Their tent is made. 
 
 And Frithiof stands tjpon the judging-stone, 
 
 And with him there 
 A little child, the late king's only son, 
 With golden hair. 
 
 Sri/fli-u^ 
 There passed a murmur, through the people far : 
 
 " Too young is he 
 
 To judge our wrongs, and of our hosts in war 
 The chief to be."
 
 164 FlUTHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Up on his shield set Frithiof bold 
 
 The child, and cried : 
 
 " Here, Northmen, stands your king ! Behold 
 The Northland's pride ! 
 
 " See how, with Odin's likeness filled, 
 
 And fair as he ; 
 
 He standeth bold, on slippery shield, 
 As fish in sea. 
 
 " With sword and steel will I defend 
 
 His realm's renown, 
 
 And round the child's young brow will bend 
 The father's crown. 
 
 " Forsete, son of Balder bright, 
 
 Record my vow, 
 
 And lay me, ere its bond I slight, 
 In darkness low." 
 
 Shield-throne'd sat, with fearless eye, 
 
 Ring's royal son, 
 As eagles' young, from eyrie high, 
 
 Gaze on the sun. 
 
 But Time's course, to the child's young blood, 
 Seemed far too slow ;
 
 THE KING'S ELECTION. 165 
 
 With royal bound, in courage proud, 
 He sprung below. 
 
 Loud rose the shout through all the Ting : 
 
 " We Northmen yield ; 
 
 Rule us, as ruled thy father Ring, 
 
 Son of the Shield ! 
 
 " Be Frithiof regent of thy house 
 
 Till grown art thou : 
 Yarl Frithiof, Ingborg as thy spouse, 
 We give thee now." 
 
 " A king's election," Frithiof cried, 
 
 "Is held to-day, 
 But not a bridal : I my bride 
 Choose my own way. 
 
 " To Balder's grove now I must speed, 
 
 For earnest speech 
 
 Prepared, my Nornes, full long delayed, 
 Are waiting each. 
 
 " Tidings to those shield-maids by me 
 
 There must be told, 
 Where they, around Time's lofty tree, 
 Their dwelling hold.
 
 1 66 FRITHIOFS SAGA. 
 
 11 Still Balder, golden-haired, doth frow. 
 
 In anger sore ; 
 
 He took my bride, and he alone 
 Can her restore." 
 
 Then with a kiss saluted he 
 The new king's brow, 
 
 And slowly o'er the heath they see 
 Him silent go.
 
 XXIII. 
 .iTHIOF BESIDE HIS FATHER'S GRAVE. 
 
 u 1 ''AIR shines the sun, and from its rays of glory, 
 J_ From bough to bough the gentle glitter leaps ; 
 From heaven darts the glance of Odin hoary, 
 In dew-drops bright, as over ocean's deeps ; 
 Like blood on mighty Balder's altar gory, 
 
 In purple all the mountain-tops it steeps. 
 But soon the earth shall disappear in night, 
 Soon, 'neath the wave, sink down the shield of light. 
 
 " Yet first must I behold each spot so dear, 
 
 Through which, a joyous child, so oft I sped ; 
 Round the same spring the self-same flowers appear, 
 
 In the same wood the self-same birds are bred. 
 Still dash the waves upon the cliffs severe ; 
 
 Oh ! happy had I never o'er them fled, 
 The same false tale of glory ever telling 
 That lured me, restless, from my happy dwelling. 
 
 (167)
 
 1 68 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 " I know thee well, O stream ; thy ripples bounded 
 
 Full often as my swimming form they bore ; 
 Valley, I know thee, where, with shade surrounded, 
 
 A lasting love, unknown to earth, we swore ; 
 Ye birch-trees bright, whose bark so oft I wounded 
 With deep-graved runes, ye stand forth as before, 
 Bearing on silvery stems the forest crown : 
 All is unchanged, except myself alone. 
 
 " Is all unchanged ? Oh ! where is Framnas' hall ? 
 
 Where Balder's temple on the sacred strand ? 
 All the dear beauty of my native vale, 
 
 Marred by the sword, disfigured by the brand, 
 Of rage of men and wrath of gods, sad tale 
 
 To wanderers tells the devastated land. 
 Ah ! pious wanderer, hither shun to rove, 
 Where beasts have made their dens in Balder's grove. 
 
 " Ay, a betrayer stalks through life untiring, 
 
 The gloomy Nidhogg from the gloomy waste ; 
 He shuns the Asa-light, the proud aspiring, 
 
 Written on flashing sword and dauntless crest. 
 He maketh us to yield to his desiring, 
 
 Dark fiend, he revels in rage unrepressed, 
 And when a temple flames, delightingly 
 Clappeth his coal-black hands in furious glee.
 
 FRITHIOF AT HIS FATHER'S ORA VE. 169 
 
 " Hath no atonement place in Valhall's hall ? 
 
 Can nought, bright Balder, soothe thine angry mood? 
 Men can be pacified whose comrades fall : 
 The lofty gods we reconcile with blood ; 
 And thou art called the mildest of them all : 
 
 Speak, and I offer gladly all my good. 
 Thy temple's burning Frithiof never willed ; 
 Take this disgrace from his once stainless shield. 
 
 " Remove the weighty burden of my woes, 
 
 Drive from my soul the ghosts of gloomy thoughts ; 
 Let life-long grief and sorrow interpose 
 
 To wipe away the guilt a moment wrought. 
 I should not quail, though Thor were of my foes, 
 
 And ghastly Hela fearless should be sought ; 
 But thee, great spirit, shining bright and clear, 
 Thee, and the vengeance sent by thee, I fear. 
 
 " Here rests my father if a hero sleeps ; 
 
 Thither whence none returneth he is gone ; 
 Mead-quaffing in the starry tent, he keeps 
 Glad revel, joyous in his armor's tone ; 
 Guest of the gods ! glance downwards thro' the deep, 
 Thine offspring calls thee, Thorsten, Viking's son ; 
 With spe '.Is of deep enchantment come not I ; 
 How shall I Balder please ? is all my cry.
 
 170 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 " Giveth the grave no answer ? For a sword, 
 
 Angantyr, long-departed, spake not he ? 
 Tirfing was good, yet little worth such word ; 
 
 I ask for more no sword contenteth me ; 
 Battle can weapons plentiful afford. 
 
 Bring thou, O father, peace from heaven with thee ? 
 Be thou the pleader of my sorrowing prayer ; 
 No noble heart can Balder's anger bear. 
 
 " No sound, my father ? Hark ! the ocean sings, 
 
 In its sweet voice oh ! speak a word to me ; 
 
 The storm-wind flies, hang thee upon its wings, 
 
 And whisper to me as its swift gusts flee ; 
 The western sky hangs full of golden rings, 
 
 Let one of thy dear counsel herald be. 
 What ! For thy son's despair no sign, no breath ? 
 How poor, my father, is the sleep of death ! " 
 
 The day sank down, with evening breezes singing 
 
 To man their lullaby so soft and mild ; 
 The sunset, rosy-cheeked, its glories flinging 
 
 In purple radiance, girt the heavenly shield ; 
 Round azure heights and verdant valleys clinging, 
 
 Valhalla's semblance all the circle filled : 
 When sudden o'er the western billows came 
 A lovely vision, weft of gold and flame.
 
 FRITHIOF A T HIS FA TUER 'S OR A VE. 171 
 
 O'er Balder's bounds the gentle Hagring hovers, 
 
 (For so we call it, though in Valhall' bright 
 More sweetly named,) and floating downwards, covers 
 
 Green hill and dale in coronet of light, 
 Spreading around, as far as eye discovers, 
 
 Unfancied splendor, wondrous to the sight ; 
 And as at length it down to earth descends, 
 A temple, on the temple's site, it stands. 
 
 Vision of Breidablick ! Towards heaven rearing 
 Their height, the walls with silver seem to vie ; 
 The mighty pillars of dark steel appearing ; 
 
 A single jewel forms the altar high ; 
 Forth hangs the dome, as if by spirits bearing, 
 
 Starry and beauteous, like the winter sky, 
 And there, in azure garb and golden-crowned, 
 The gods of Valhall' seem to sit enthroned. 
 
 Within the portal stands each noble Nome, 
 
 Together bearing Fate's Rune-written shield ; 
 Three roses gathered in a single urn, 
 
 Solemn, but wondrous beautiful and mild. 
 Urd towards the ruined shrine doth silent turn, 
 
 Skuld to the vision of the new revealed ; 
 And scarce is wond'ring Frithiof conscious grown, 
 From glad amaze, ere all again is flown.
 
 i;2 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 " Oh ! I have comprehended, maidens fair ! 
 
 My father, thou hast shown a sign of good : 
 The ruined temple I again shall rear, 
 
 Superb upon the rock where once it stood. 
 Oh ! happy thus, no longer to despair, 
 
 Of peaceful deeds atoning insult rude. 
 Again in hope the outcast wretch may live, 
 Since Balder bright doth pardon and forgive. 
 
 " I hail you, stars, as gently ye arise ! 
 
 Your silent course again with joy I see. 
 Hail, northern lights, around the arching skies ! 
 A temple's flames full oft ye've seemed to me ; 
 Grow green, dear grave, again ; again arise 
 
 Forth from the waves, thou wondrous melody ! 
 Here, slumbering on my shield, I'll dream in peace, 
 Of man forgiven, and immortal's grace."
 
 XXIV. 
 RECONCILIATION. 
 
 COMPLETED now was Balder's temple. Round 
 about 
 
 Stood not, as once, a willow-pale ; of iron wrought, 
 With golden knob on every rail, was set the fence 
 Of Balder's grove, and like a steel-clad armament, 
 With halberts bright and golden helmets, stood it 
 
 forth, 
 
 And sentinelled the sanctuary now renewed. 
 Of mighty stones enormous was its circuit built, 
 With wondrous art together joined, a giant work, 
 For endless ages raised, like Upsal's lofty shrine, 
 Where in an earthly form the North Valhalla sees. 
 Proud stood it on the lofty cliff, and mirrored forth 
 Its towering summit in the ocean's shining wave ; 
 And far around it, like a splendid belt of bloom, 
 Spread Balder's valley fair, with all its rustling groves, 
 With all its songs of joyous birds, a home of peace : 
 High stood its copper-bolted portals, and within 
 Two pillars tall upon their mighty shoulder-blades 
 
 (173)
 
 174 FRITJTIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Upheld the lofty dome, which hung forth beautiful 
 Above the temple, like a giant shield of gold. 
 Farther within, great Balder's altar stood, outhewn 
 From one huge block of Northern marble, and around 
 A sculptured serpent cast its coils, deep-graved with 
 
 Runes 
 
 In wisest words from Vala and from Havamal. 
 But in the wall above a space was found adorned 
 With stars of gold upon a ground of blue ; and there 
 The god of Goodness' silver image was, as fair 
 As silver moonshine throned upon the azure sky, 
 So seemed the temple. Now in pairs there en- 
 tered in 
 
 Twelve temple-maidens fair, in silver raiment clad, 
 With roses blooming on their cheeks, and roses, too, 
 Within their guileless hearts : before the image dread 
 They danced around the altar newly consecrate, 
 As spring-time's breezes dance above the rivulets, 
 As forest elves dance lightly o'er the tall-grown grass, 
 While still the morning dew lies glittering around. 
 And 'midst their dancing sang they, too, an holy song, 
 Of Balder, the all-pious ; how beloved was he 
 Of all creation : how by Hoder's dart he fell ; 
 How earth, and sea, and sky lamented ; such a 
 
 song 
 
 It seemed as ne'er from out a mortal bosom sprung, 
 But like a tone from Breidablick, the Bright One's 
 hall ;
 
 RECONCILIATION. 175 
 
 Like dream of loved one which a lovely maiden 
 
 dreams, 
 When in the peace of silent night deep pipes the 
 
 quail, 
 And moonlight beameth o'er the birch-woods of the 
 
 North. 
 
 Delighted Frithiof, leaning on his sword, beheld 
 The dance ; and many a scene of childhood's glad- 
 ness sped 
 
 Before his sense, a merry race and innocent. 
 With eyes of heavenly blue, and lovely heads, adorned 
 With curling locks of floating gold, they nodded forth 
 A loving greeting to the comrade of their youth. 
 Then like a bloody shadow sank his Viking's life, 
 With all its battles fierce, its past adventures wild, 
 Down into darkness, and unto himself he seemed 
 To stand, a flower-decked Bauta-stone, upon its grave. 
 And ever as the song swelled high, his spirit rose 
 From lowly vales of earth on high to Valaskjalf ; 
 And earthly rage and earthly hate were melted down, 
 As Winter's icy mail from breast of Earth dissolves, 
 When shines the sun of spring ; a flood of gentle 
 
 peace, 
 
 Of glad delight, his noble bosom overflowed. 
 It seemed as if the heart of Nature he could feel 
 To throb with his ; as if with gladness he could clasp 
 The whole Heimskringla in his loving arms, and 
 make
 
 176 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 In sight of heaven a holy truce with earth. 
 Then entered Balder's sacrificing priest the shrine, 
 Not young and fair as Balder, but a towering form, 
 With heavenly mildness in his noble countenance, 
 And downward to his belt his beard of silver flowed. 
 Then new-felt reverence filled Frithiof's haughty 
 
 soul ; 
 
 And lowly bent the eagle-wings upon his helm 
 Before the sage, who thus in words of friendship 
 
 spake : 
 
 " Son Frithiof, welcome hither : I have watched for 
 
 thee: 
 For youthful vigor wanders glad round earth and 
 
 sea, 
 
 Like Berserk pale, who biteth furiously the shield, 
 But wearily and thoughtful wanders home at last. 
 Full oft enough to Jotunheim sped mighty Thor ; 
 Yet spite of magic belt, and spite of gloves of steel, 
 Utgarda-Loke sitteth ever on his throne ; 
 To no might Evil, mighty in itself, will yield. 
 And profitless is piety unmatched with power, 
 'Tis like the sunbeam playing over ^gir's breast, 
 A changing glow that sinks and swells with every 
 
 wave 
 
 Without a settled depth, unstable, insecure. 
 But power wanting piety devours itself,
 
 RECON CILIA TION. 1 77 
 
 Like buried battle-blade ; it is life's wild carouse, 
 Where o'er the beaker's brim oblivious Haeger 
 
 soars, 
 And when the drinker wakes, he blushes for his 
 
 deed. 
 
 All vigor is of earth, from corpse of Ymer sprung ; 
 Forth from its veins the stormy waste of waters 
 
 flows, 
 
 And all its sinews are of brazen metal forged. 
 But void, and desolate, and fruitless, it must lie, 
 Till Piety, like heavenly sunlight, shines thereon. 
 Then grass grows green, and spreads a carpet 
 
 flower-weft ; 
 Then lift the trees their crowns, then gleams the 
 
 golden fruit, 
 And man and beast draw life from mother Nature's 
 
 breast ; 
 
 So is it, too, with Asker's offspring. Odin hath 
 Two weights within the balance of each mortal life, 
 Each counterpoising each when fairly stands the 
 
 scale, 
 And they are named, the Love of Heaven, the 
 
 Might of Earth. 
 Full strong is Thor, O youth, when close he clasps 
 
 around 
 
 His mighty loins the magic belt, and strikes amain ; 
 And wise is Odin, when on Urda's silver wave 
 He gazeth down, and round about his ravens fly,
 
 178 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 And bring him tidings up from earth to lofty heaven ; 
 Yet pale grew both, and half was quenched the gleam 
 
 that decked 
 
 Their royal crowns, when Balder, pious Balder, fell ; 
 The clasping link was he in Valhall's wreath of gods. 
 Then yellow grew the splendor of the tree of Time ; 
 And Nidhogg gnawed upon its root ; then loose were 
 
 set 
 The powers of age'd Night ; the Midgard serpent 
 
 raised 
 
 To heaven its coils envenomed, and Fenris howled ; 
 From Muspelheim the sword of Surtur lightened 
 
 forth. 
 Since then, where'er the eye can turn, the battle 
 
 fierce 
 
 Throughout creation rageth on ; in Valhall crows 
 The cock gold-crested, and the red one crows to 
 
 war, 
 On earth and deep beneath the earth. Yet erst was 
 
 peace, 
 
 Not only in the hall of gods, but here on earth : 
 In breast of men, as well as breast of lofty gods. 
 For whatsoever happens here hath happened, too, 
 More wondrously above ; and so the life of men 
 Is but an image slight of Valhall ; heaven's light 
 Reflected down on Saga's rune-engraven shield ; 
 And every heart of man its Balder hath. Thou'st 
 
 known a time
 
 RECONCILIATION. 179 
 
 When peace within thy bosom dwelt, and gladsome 
 
 sped 
 Thy life, in heavenly calm, like dream of sweet-voiced 
 
 bird, 
 
 When winds of summer night rock gently to and fro 
 His greenwood nest, and bend the heads of slumber- 
 ing flowers, 
 
 Then Balder still was dwelling in thy stainless soul, 
 Thou Asen-born, thou wandering type of Valhall 
 
 pure ! 
 
 For children still doth Balder live, anu Hela yields 
 Her booty back as oft as child of man is born. 
 But in each heart of man, with Balder, groweth up 
 His brother, Hoder, blind, the child of Night ; for 111, 
 Like young of bears, is sightless born, and dark- 
 ness is 
 
 His covering, while Balder clothes himself in light. 
 But ever-busy Loke tempts unceasingly, 
 Misleads the blind one's murderous hand, and guides 
 
 the spear 
 
 Against the heart of Balder, Valhall's best beloved. 
 Then Hate awakeneth ; for prey Might springeth up ; 
 Like hungry wolf, o'er hill and dale, the greedy sword 
 Doth prowl, and dragons swim upon the bloody 
 
 waves ; 
 
 And shadow-like, of power bereft, doth Piety 
 By Pallid Hela sit, as dead, amongst the dead ; 
 And low in ashes Balder's holy temple lies ;
 
 i8o FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 And thus the life of gods above foreshadoweth 
 The life of men below, and both together are 
 Allfather's silent thoughts, which never know a 
 
 change. 
 What hath been, what shall be, doth Vala's deep 
 
 song tell, 
 
 A song at once the lullaby, the dirge of Time. 
 Therewith in unison, Heimskringla's tale is told, 
 And thence may each man hear his own heart's his- 
 tory ; 
 
 And Vala asks of thee : ' Canst understand thine 
 own ?' 
 
 "Atonement seekest thou. Oh ! know'st thou 
 
 what it is ? 
 Gaze in mine eyes oh ! Frithiof, gaze, and turn 
 
 not pale ; 
 Atonement bears on earth no other name than 
 
 Death ; 
 
 All time is but a measure of eternity ; 
 All life, an emanation from Allfather's throne ; 
 Atonement, thither purified to hie thee home. 
 The lofty gods themselves are fallen. Ragnarok 
 Is their atoning day appointed ; day of blood 
 On Vigrid's hundred leagues of plain ; there must 
 
 they fall, 
 But never unavenged ; since Evil then must die
 
 RECONCILIATION. 181 
 
 Eternally, and fallen Good arise on high, 
 From flames of earth to loftier being purified. 
 'Tis true, the rayless wreaths of pale-grown stars 
 Shall fall from heaven above, and Earth in ocean 
 
 sink ; 
 
 But, joyously, another new-born Earth shall raise, 
 From ocean forth, its fairer, flow'r-adorne'd head ; 
 And wandering stars renewed, with sweet, benignant 
 
 beam, 
 
 Above the new creation take their silent course. 
 Once more shall Balder, then, upon the grassy hills, 
 Rule god's regenerate and purified mankind. 
 The Rune-writ golden tablets, lost so long ago 
 In early dawn of time, shall then again be found 
 On Ida's plains, by Valhall's reconciled race. 
 Thus, death is but an ordeal for fallen good, 
 And its atonement, birth into a better life ; 
 So, purified, it flieth thither, whence it came, 
 Rejoicing guileless, as a child on parent's knees. ' 
 Alas ! that all that noblest is must lie beyond 
 The grave the grassy gate of heaven ; and all that 
 
 dwells 
 
 Beneath the stars be base, by evil maculate. 
 
 Yet some atonement still may here on earth be 
 
 found, 
 
 A partial, gentle prelude to the perfect one ; 
 Like hand of minstrel straying o'er his harp, before, 
 With skilful fingers, he awake the voice of song ;
 
 182 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 By gentle proof he tries the tuned accord, and then 
 His bold hand striketh mightily the golden strings, 
 From out the grave invoking memories of yore, 
 And Valhall's brightness flasheth from his trancdd 
 
 eyes. 
 So earth the shadow seems of heaven above ; and 
 
 like 
 
 The entrance court to Balder's temple in the skies ; 
 And sacrifice to gods is made ; by purple rein 
 The steed is led in golden trappings to their shrines. 
 Therein a figure, deep of meaning, lies ; for blood 
 Must be the morning-dawn of all atonement-days. 
 But neither type nor figure can themselves atone ; 
 Thy deeds of evil done can none make good for 
 
 thee. 
 
 Atonement for the dead is in Allfather's breast ; 
 Atonement for the living in each living heart. 
 One sacrifice I know, in heaven above more dear 
 Than smoke of slaughtered oxen : 'tis to offer up 
 Thine own heart's angry rage, thine own revenge. 
 Canst thou not blunt the edge of passion, and for- 
 give ? 
 Then, Frithiof, nought hast thou to do in Balder's 
 
 house : 
 And vain must be the temple which thou here hast 
 
 reared. 
 With stones thou canst not please the god ; with 
 
 peace alone,
 
 RECONCILIATION. 183 
 
 On earth below, and heaven above, forgiveness 
 
 dwells. 
 
 Be reconciled to thy foe and to thyself, 
 And so shalt thou be reconciled to Balder bright. 
 'Tis said a Balder southward dwelt, the Virgin's 
 
 son ; 
 
 Allfather sent him forth to make the purport known 
 Of writings dark till now upon the shield of Fate. 
 His rallying-cry was Peace, and Love his shining 
 
 sword, 
 
 And Innocence sat, dove-like, on his silver helm. 
 He lived the holy life he taught ; forgiving, died ; 
 And, far away, 'neath spreading palms, his grave is 
 
 made. 
 They say, his teaching spreadeth on from vale to 
 
 vale, 
 And melteth hardened hearts, and layeth hand in 
 
 hand, 
 
 Erecting strifeless empires on the peaceful earth. 
 I know not well the lore he taught, and yet, me- 
 
 thinks, 
 At times, in better hours, its thoughts have come to 
 
 me ; 
 At times such thoughts fill all men's hearts as well as 
 
 mine. 
 The day will come, I know, when he shall gently 
 
 wave 
 His snowy, dove-like pinions o'er the northern hills.
 
 i84 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 But, ere that day, the North shall pass from us 
 
 away, 
 
 And oak-trees murmur over our forgotten graves. 
 Oh ! generations blessed, privileged to quaff 
 The beaming cup of new-born light, I bid ye hail. 
 Rejoice ! rejoice ! when it shall drive each cloud 
 
 away, 
 
 That hung its misty veil before the sun of life ; 
 Yet shun to scorn our race, which, ever constant, 
 
 sought 
 
 With unaverted gaze its heavenly beams to view : 
 Allfather, though but one, hath many messengers. 
 
 " Thou hatest Bele's sons. And wherefore hatest 
 
 thou? 
 
 Because with thee, a yeoman's son, they did not will 
 To match their sister, who is sprung from Seming's 
 
 blood, 
 
 The son of Odin, and because their pedigree 
 Ascendeth up to Valhall's throne ; and they are 
 
 
 
 proud. 
 
 But thou wilt answer : ' Birth is chance, and not de- 
 sert.' 
 
 No man, believe me, youth, of his deserts is proud ; 
 'Tis but his better fortune ; and the best of all 
 Is, after all, a gift of Heaven. Art thou not proud 
 Of all thy valiant deeds, of all thy matchless might ?
 
 REC ON CILIA TION. 1 85 
 
 And was that might conferred by thee ? Did Thor 
 
 not knit 
 
 The sinews of thine arm as firm as branching oak ? 
 Is thine high heart no gift of God's, that boundeth 
 
 glad 
 
 Within that citadel, thine arching breast ? And is 
 That lightning not of heaven that flasheth in thine 
 
 eyes ? 
 
 The lofty Nornes already by thy cradle sang 
 Of glorious life to come ; therein thy merit is 
 No greater than a king's son's for his royal birth. 
 Condemn not others' pride, lest thine, too, be con- 
 demned. 
 For now is Helge fallen." " How ! " cried Frithiof 
 
 loud, 
 " King Helge fallen ! Where, and when ? " " Thou 
 
 knowest well 
 That while thy temple thou wast building, he was 
 
 gone 
 
 To war in Finnish highlands. On a lonely cliff 
 An ancient shrine he found, of Jumala the seat, 
 For many a year gone by closed up and desolate ; 
 But still an agdd, wondrous image of the god 
 Above the gate remained, and nodded to its fall ; 
 But no man dared to venture near, for it was said 
 Amongst the Finns, from sire to son, whoever first 
 Within that temple trod should Jumala behold. 
 This Helge heard, and blindly scaled, in bitter rage,
 
 186 FRITHIOF' S SAGA. 
 
 The lonely steps that led to the detested god, 
 Desiring to destroy the shrine. He reached the top ; 
 The key was rusted, fast within the portal locked. 
 He laid his hands upon the post ; in rage he shook 
 The rotten portals ; all at once, with frightful crash, 
 The idol's image fell, and crushed beneath its weight 
 The heaven-born Helge. Thus he Jumala beheld. 
 A messenger this night hath brought the tidings 
 
 home ; 
 
 Alone now sitteth Halfdan on King Bele's throne. 
 Give him thine hand ; to heaven thine anger sacri- 
 fice ; 
 
 This off 'ring Balder doth demand, and I, his priest, 
 As proof that now thou mockest not the peaceful 
 
 god. 
 
 If thou refuse, in vain this temple hast thou reared, 
 And vainly have I spoken." 
 
 Halfdan entered now 
 Across the copper threshold, and, with doubtful 
 
 glance, 
 He stood aloof from Frithiof feared, and held his 
 
 peace. 
 Then Frithiof snatched the breastplate-hater from 
 
 his side, 
 
 Against the altar set his golden-orbe'd shield, 
 And all unarmed, advancing, stood before his foe. 
 " In such a strife as this," he spake in kindly voice,
 
 RECONCILIATION. 187 
 
 " He noblest is who offers first a friendly hand." 
 King Halfdan blushed, and off his glove of steel he 
 
 drew : 
 
 Those hands so long apart were joined again 
 In vig'rous clasp, as firm as rock's deep base. 
 The graybeard then the heavy ban revoked that lay 
 Upon the Varg-i-Veum, excommunicate. 
 And sudden, while the words he spake, came Ing- 
 
 borg in, 
 
 In bridal garb, in ermine mantle, maidens fair 
 Behind her following, as heavenly stars the Moon. 
 With tears within her beauteous eyes she fell upon 
 Her brother Halfdan's breast : but, deeply moved, 
 
 he laid 
 
 His sister, well beloved, on Frithiof 's faithful heart. 
 And Ingborg, over Balder's altar, gave her hand 
 To him, her childhood's friend, her heart's delight
 
 NOTES TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 PAGE i. " FRITHIOF AND INGEBORG." In this Canto, 
 the last couplet of each stanza, in the original, has invaria- 
 bly feminine rhymes* 
 
 Page 3, line 16. A more literal translation of this 
 stanza seems preferable : 
 
 But childhood's days full fleetly glide : 
 There stands a stripling in his pride, 
 With haughty eye that hopeth, pleadeth, 
 There stands a maid whose bosom buddeth ! 
 
 Page 19, line 6. " Hans sjelf en lefvande saga" him- 
 self a living tradition. 
 
 Page 31. " FRITHIOF'S WOOING." Here, again, in the 
 original, the rhymes of the last couplet are feminine. 
 
 Page 45." FRITHIOF'S JOY." " Frithiof 's Bliss " is a 
 more correct translation. 
 
 Page 124. " VIKINGABALK." The Viking-Code. 
 
 (189)
 
 igo FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 Page 158. " RING'S DRAPA." The effect of the Saga- 
 measure depends on its alliteration. This necessary feature 
 Mr. Blackley has neglected in his translation. As a speci- 
 men of its character, I give the first stanza : 
 
 Sits in the sepulchre, 
 Son of the heroes, 
 Battle-blade by him. 
 Buckler on arm : 
 Neigheth his stallion 
 Standing within it, 
 Stamping with gold-hoof 
 The gate of the grave.
 
 ALPHABETICAL GLOSSARY AND NOTES 
 
 EXPLANATORY OF NAMES AND TERMS OCCURRING 
 IN THE FRITHIOF-SAGA.* 
 
 AEGIR. The ocean-god. Daughters of Aegir, the waves. 
 
 AESIR. The twelve highest gods, namely, Odin, Thor, 
 Njord, Frey, Tyr, Heimdall, Bragi, Vidar, Vali, Ullur, 
 Haenur, and Forsete, with their progeny. 
 
 ALFADER (All-Father). The highest title of Odin. 
 
 ANGURVADEL (Flood of anguish). The name of Frithiof 's 
 sword. 
 
 ASEN. The gods. Asa-sons, or Asen-sons ; a name gen- 
 erally given to Scandinavian kings, who were supposed 
 to trace descent from the gods themselves. 
 
 ASKER, or ASK. The first man. 
 
 ASGARD. The city of the gods. 
 
 ASTRILD. The god of Love. 
 
 * The Translator is indebted for the extracts from the 
 "Prose Edda" in this Glossary, to Mr. I. A. Blackiveirs 
 translation of that production, contained in his new edition 
 of Mallet's "Northern Antiquities" 1847; an d has also 
 profited largely by remarks in other parts of his work, which 
 he takes the present opportunity of acknowledging. 
 
 (190
 
 192 FRITHIOF'S SAO A. 
 
 BALDER. The god of Light, typified by the Sun. The 
 following account of him is taken from the " Prose 
 Edda," c. 22 : " The second son of Odin is Balder, and 
 it may be truly said of him that he is the best, and that 
 all the race of man are loud in his praise. So fair and 
 dazzling is he in form and features, that rays of light 
 seem to issue from him. Balder is the wisest, the 
 mildest, the most eloquent of all the Aesir ; yet, such 
 is his nature, that the judgment he has pronounced 
 cannot be altered. He dwells in the heavenly mansion 
 called Breidablik, into which nothing unclean can 
 enter." Balder, or Day, was, at the instigation of 
 Loki, god of Mischief, slain by the blind god, Hodur, 
 or Darkness. 
 
 BALE-FIRE. A beacon-fire. That referred to in the text, 
 No. XIII, was the fire kindled on Midsummer's Eve, 
 in honor of Balder, the god of Light, whose symbol, 
 the Sun, at that period seemed to reach its highest 
 power. It may be remarked, in passing, that ignorance 
 of the history and meaning of the word Bale, or Bal, 
 has very far diverted its original sense in our use of its 
 compound, baleful, which, properly signifying fiery, full 
 of light, or flame, is used in English in the sense of 
 malignant. The heathen custom of lighting bale-fires 
 or bonfires on Midsummer's Eve is still continued in 
 parts of Northern Germany, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 though the practice is generally supposed to be intend- 
 ed in honor of the coming festival of St. John the Bap- 
 tist, which falls on Midsummer Day. 
 
 BAUTA-STONE. A memorial raised over fallen warriors, 
 and formed generally of a block of unhewn stone, pro- 
 jecting several feet out of the ground. The Bauta- 
 stone differed from the Rune'-stone in being unin- 
 scribed, the memorial Rune-stone bearing, 011 the 
 contrary, an inscription in the form of a serpent, sur-
 
 GLOSSARY AND NOTES. 193 
 
 mounted by the sign of a hammer, the emblem of 
 Thor, god of War. 
 
 BERSERKIR. A class of mythical heroes imbued with an 
 implacable frenzy for war. Hence a proverbial expres- 
 sion for any warrior of unusually ferocious disposition. 
 
 BIFROST. The rainbow. It may be interesting to remark 
 the coincidence between the Eddaic account of the 
 rainbow, and Sir David Brewster's theory of three 
 primitive colors. The following is from the " Prose 
 Edda," chap. XIII : " ' I must now ask,' said Gangler, 
 ' which is the path leading from earth to heaven ? ' 
 ' That is a senseless question,' replied Har, with a 
 smile of derision : ' hast thou not been told that the 
 gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, and called it 
 Bifrost ? Thou must surely have seen it ; but, per- 
 haps, thou callest it the rainbow. It is of three hues, 
 and is constructed with more art than any other 
 work,' " &c. 
 
 BJORN. Lit., a bear. The name of Frithiof's comrade. 
 Hence the play on -words, page 82 : 
 
 " Bjorn, come to the rudder ; 
 Hold it tight as bear's hug" 
 
 BLCETAND. Angl., blue-toothed. 
 
 BLOOD- EAGLE (to tear the). A custom of putting to death 
 an enemy under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. 
 The ceremony consisted in carving on the back of the 
 prostrate foe the figure of an eagle, and so separating 
 the ribs from the back-bone. In the text, Bjorn prom- 
 ises to perform such vengeance on Frithiof's slayer, 
 should his chief fall. 
 
 BRACE. The god of Poetry and Song. 
 
 BREIDABLIK. Broad-gleaming, latifulgenL Balder's pal- 
 ace in the heavens. . 
 
 BUDKAFLE. The bidding-staff. A wand about a foot in
 
 194 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 length, inscribed with certain characters of authority ; 
 and which, sent from house to house with great dis- 
 patch, formed a summons for the assembly of the 
 whole nation to deliberate on public matters of mo- 
 ment. This custom bears a strong analogy to the 
 sending round of the fiery cross in the Scotch High- 
 lands on the like occasions. The practice in Scandina- 
 via, as well as in Scotland, is minutely described by 
 Sir Walter Scott, in the Notes to the " Lady of the 
 Lake," Canto III, stanza i. 
 
 DAYLIGHT OF DWARFS. From the idea that the Earth was 
 supported by four dwarfs, North, South, East, and 
 West (see page 10, line 6), came the belief in the exist- 
 ence of a subterranean race of dwarfs, who were sup- 
 posed to be lighted by the veins of gold in the bowels 
 of the earth. 
 
 DELLING. Twilight, dawn. Son of Delling Dagr, Day. 
 See " Prose Edda," a 10 : " Nott (Night) espoused 
 Delling, of the Aesir race, and their son was Day, a 
 child light and beauteous like his father. Then All 
 father took Night, and Day, her son, and gave them 
 two horses and two cars, and set them up in the heav- 
 ens, that they might drive successively round the 
 world Night rides first on her horse, called Hrimfaxi 
 (Rimy, or frosty-maned), who every morning, as he 
 ends his course, bedews the earth with the foam which 
 falls from his bit The horse made use of by Day is 
 named Skinfaxi (shining-maned), from whose mane 
 light is shed over the earth and the heavens." 
 
 DISARSAL. The hall of goddesses. 
 
 DRAGON'S BED. The dragon Fafner, guardian of the Ni- 
 belungen treasure, was fabled to lie upon it Hence, 
 gold was said to be gathered from the dragon's bed. 
 
 DRAPA. A triumphal song in honor of departed heroes,
 
 OL08UARY AND NOTES, 195 
 
 sung, for the most part, at the " grave-feast," which all 
 heirs, on succeeding to their fathers, were bound to 
 hold. When sung by Brage himself, the god of Song 
 (as in No. XXI), it signifies a hymn of welcome rather 
 than a dirge. 
 
 EFJESUND. In the Orkneys, of which Angantyr was Yarl. 
 
 EINIIERIER. Angl., chosen heroes. All who, dying a vio- 
 lent death, were admitted to the joys of Valhalla. 
 
 ERIKSGATE. The solemn progress which the Scandinavian 
 kings were accustomed to make through their whole 
 realm after their coronation. 
 
 FAFNER. The dragon set to watch over the golden treas- 
 ure, but conquered by Sigurd, the Siegfried of the Ni- 
 belungenlied. 
 
 FAFNER'S-BANE. Destroyer of Fafner. A surname given 
 to Sigurd for the exploit referred to above. 
 
 FOLKVANG. The palace of Freya in the heavens, the sup- 
 posed habitation of virtuous and beautiful women after 
 death. 
 
 FORSETE, or FORSETI. The god of Justice. 
 
 FREY. " One of the most celebrated of the gods. He 
 presides over rain and sunshine, and all the fruits of 
 the earth ; and should be invoked in order to obtain 
 good harvests, and also for peace." Prose Edda, c. 24. 
 
 FREYA. The goddess of Love. " The most propitious of 
 the goddesses ; her abode in heaven is called Folk- 
 vang. To whatever field of battle she rides, she 
 asserts her right to one-half of the slain, leaving the 
 rest to Odin." Prose Edda, c. 24. 
 
 FRIGGA. The spouse of Odin, and mother of the Aesir. 
 
 GANDVIK. The White Sea.
 
 196 FRITHIOFS SAGA. 
 
 GEIRSODD. Angl., spear-death. In contradistinction to 
 straw-death, ;'. e. death from disease or age. Suicide, 
 practised by aged warriors to insure their admission to 
 Valhalla, where none dying a natural death were ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 GERDA. The most beautiful of women ; spouse of Frey. 
 
 GLITNIR. The palace of Forsete in the heavens. 
 
 HACKING. The Fata Morgana. A well-known, though 
 rarely witnessed phenomenon, said to be occasionally 
 presented on the Norwegian coast 
 
 HAM and HEYD. Two storm-demons, or weather-sprites. 
 
 HAVAMAL. Angl., the lay of the sublime. An Eddaic 
 poem, containing a number of precepts said to have 
 been given by Odin to mankind. Many of those given 
 by Bele and Thorsten to their sons in the text are actu- 
 ally adopted by Tegner from the Havamal, as may be 
 seen by comparing, for instance, page 12, stanzas 5, 6, 
 with the following extracts from the ancient work : 
 " Praise the fineness of an ended day ; a woman when 
 she is buried ; a sword when you have tried it ; the 
 ice when you have crosssd it ; and liquor after it is 
 drunk." " Trust not the words which a woman utters, 
 for their hearts have been made like the wheel that 
 turns." " Trust not to ice of one day's freezing ; nei- 
 ther to the sleeping serpent," &c. &c. 
 
 HEIMSKRINGLA. The universe. 
 
 HELA, or HEL. Goddess of Death ; ruler of Niffelhem, 
 the abode of all who died of disease or old age. 
 
 HILDUR. The goddess of War. 
 
 HODUR. The god of Darkness. See Balder. . 
 
 HOLMGANG. A single combat. So called from being very 
 frequently decided upon a lonely island (Holm), with- 
 out witnesses, and, of course, ft, routratice. 
 
 IDUNA. The spouse of Bragi, god of Song. She is keeper
 
 GLOSSARY AND NOTES. 197 
 
 of the apples of immortality, by which the youth of the 
 gods is continually renewed. 
 
 IDA'S PLAINS. Orig., Ida-vallen. Lit., the valley of con- 
 fluence. The dwelling of the gods after the destruction 
 of the universe. 
 
 JERNHOS. The iron-headed. 
 
 JUMALA. A deity worshipped by the Finns. The term has 
 
 passed into a name for the Almighty Being, and (as the 
 
 Countess von Imhoff remarks) our Lord is named in 
 
 the Finnish, Jumala Poyke. 
 JOTENHEIM, or JUTENHEIM. The giant's home, or region 
 
 of the giants. 
 
 LOFN (sometimes LOFNA, but less correctly). The presid- 
 ing deity of Matrimony. The term (from which our 
 word love is derived) signifies unchangeable affection. 
 
 LOKI. The god of Evil and Mischief ; descended from the 
 race of the giants. 
 
 MIDGARD SERPENT. The great serpent said to encompass 
 the whole earth. 
 
 MIDNIGHT SUN. This expression (No. XIII, stanza i) 
 may sound strange to many readers, unless they bear 
 in mind that in parts of Sweden and Norway the sun 
 does not sink below the horizon at all at the period 
 (Midsummer) referred to in the text, but remains visi- 
 ble from high ground through the whole night. 
 
 MIMER. The owner of the well of wit and wisdom, at the 
 root of Yggdrassil (the ash-tree, symbolical, according 
 to Finn Magnusen, of universal nature). Mimer, 
 always drinking of his well, was imbued with the high- 
 est wisdom. 
 
 MORVEN. The north of Scotland. 
 
 MUSPEI.-HEIM. The region of Muspel ; the world of flame ;
 
 ig8 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 thus described in the " Prose Edda," c. 4 : " In the 
 south is the world Muspel. It is a world too luminous 
 and glowing to be entered by any not its natives. He 
 who sitteth on its borders to guard it is called Surtur. 
 In his hand he beareth a flaming falchion, and at the 
 end of the world shall issue forth to combat, shall van- 
 quish all the gods, and consume the universe with 
 fire." 
 MUSPEL'S SONS. Flames. 
 
 NANNA. The spouse of Balder, who died with grief at her 
 husband's death. 
 
 NASTRAND. The strand of the dead. 
 
 NIDHOGG. The down-hewer, or down-gnawer. A dragon, 
 said continually to gnaw at the root of the ash, Ygg- 
 drassil. 
 
 NIFFELHEM. The land of shadows. 
 
 NORNES. The Fates, or Destinies, three in number. Their 
 dwelling was beneath the ash Yggdrassil, by the foun- 
 tain of Mimer. See Voluspa, stanza 17: " Thence 
 come the much-knowing maidens, three, from that 
 fountain which is beneath the tree. One is called Urd 
 (the Past) ; another, Verdandi (the Present) ; and the 
 third, Skuld (the Future). They engrave the Runic 
 tablets ; they determine the lives of the sons of men ; 
 they lay down laws ; they settle destinies, &c. 
 
 NORRANA TUNGA. The old Norse language. 
 
 ODIN. The most mighty of all the gods. 
 
 ODIN'S BIRDS. " Two ravens sit on Odin's shoulders, and 
 whisper in his ear the tidings and events they have 
 heard and witnessed. They are called Hugin (Thought) 
 and Munin (Memory). He sends them out at dawn of 
 day to fly over the whole world, and they return at eve, 
 towards meal-time. Hence it is that Odin knows so
 
 GLOSSARY AND NOTES. 199 
 
 many things, ^and is called Hrafnagud (the raven's 
 god)." Prose Edda, c. 38. Hence ravens, generally, 
 are called the birds of Odin. 
 
 OEDUR. The spouse of Freya. He " left his wife, to travel 
 into very remote countries. Since that time Freya 
 continually weeps, and her tears are drops of pure 
 gold. She has a great variety of names ; for, having 
 gone over many countries in search of her husband, 
 each people gave her a different name." Prose Edda, 
 c- 35- 
 
 PILLARS OF SHAME. These were the Niding-posts, or me- 
 morials on which the name of any one guilty of cow- 
 ardice or other disgraceful conduct was inscribed. 
 
 RAGNARok. Lit,, the twilight of the gods. The destruc- 
 tion of the universe, a desolation minutely foreshadowed 
 in the " Prose Edda." This period is referred to in 
 No. XXIV, where the references sufficiently explain 
 themselves. 
 
 RAN, or RANA. The goddess of the sea. 
 
 ROTA. One of the Valkyrien, which see. 
 
 RUNES. The characters of the Scandinavian alphabet, six- 
 teen in number. To these letters many marvellous 
 properties were assigned ; they were used sometimes 
 as charms against misfortune, sometimes against ene- 
 mies, sometimes to secure victory. They were said to 
 have been invented by Odin himself, as well for the 
 common purposes of life as for magic. 
 
 RUNENBALK. A staff, graven with Runes, and supposed 
 to have some magic efficacy. 
 
 SAGA. The goddess of History. 
 SEMING. A son of Odin.
 
 200 FRITHIOF'S SAGA. 
 
 SIGURD. The Siegfried of the Nibelungenlied, conqueror 
 of the dragon Fafner. 
 
 SKALD. The title of the northern bards. 
 
 SKOAL. A toast in honor of any person or thing. 
 
 SKINFAXE. The horse of Day. See Delling. 
 
 SKULD. See Norne. 
 
 SLEIPNER. The steed of Odin, having eight legs, and ex- 
 celling all horses ever possessed by gods or men. 
 
 SOLUNDAR-OE. The Hebrides. 
 
 SOQUABACK. The mansion of Saga in the heavens. 
 
 SURTUR. The god of Fire. See Muspd-heim. 
 
 THOR. The god of War, wielder of thunder. He is rep- 
 resented always afoot, and armed with a short-shafted 
 hammer. 
 
 THRUDVANG. The dwelling of Thor. 
 
 TING. The general assembly of the Northmen, which all 
 capable of bearing arms were bound to attend on occa- 
 sions requiring deliberation or action. The word is 
 still used, Volks-Thing being applied to the Swedish 
 assembly. 
 
 TIRFING. The sword of a warrior named Angantyr, which 
 was buried with its owner. His daughter Hervor, how- 
 ever, desiring to gain the weapon, caused her dead sire 
 to remonstrate against the proceeding. 
 
 UTGARDA-LOKI. See Loki, Thus called from his dwell- 
 ing, Utgard, said to t>e at the utmost limit of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 URDA. See Norne. 
 
 VALA. A spaewife or prophetess. 
 VALASKIALF. Odin's dwelling in heaven. 
 VALHALL, VALHALLA. The paradise of warriors.
 
 GLOSSARY AND NOTES. 201 
 
 VALKYRIA, VALKYRIE. Choosers of the slain. " Prose 
 Edda," c. 36 : " There are, besides, a great many other 
 goddesses, whose duty it is to serve in Valhalla ; to 
 bear in the drink, and take care of the drinking-horns, 
 &c. They are called Valkyrior. Odin sends them to 
 every field of battle, to make choice of those who are 
 to be slain, and to sway the victory," &c. 
 
 VARG-I-VEUM. Outlawed Under the Ban. 
 
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