King Olaf crossed himself and said: VII.-IRON-BEARD. OLAF the King, one summer morn, Sending his signal through the land of Drontheim. And to the Hus-Ting held at Mere With their war weapons ready to confront him. Heard the summons, chuckling with a low laugh. Bitter as home-brewed ale were his foaming passions. And by the Hammer of Thor he swore; He hated the narrow town, and all its fashions. But he loved the freedom of his farm, His ale at night, by the fireside warm, Gudrun his daughter, with her flaxen tresses. He loved his horses and his herds, The smell of the earth, and the song of birds, His well-filled barns, his brook with its water-cresses. Huge and cumbersome was his frame; His beard, from which he took his name, So at the Hus-Ting he appeared, On horseback, with an attitude defiant. And to King Olaf he cried aloud, That tossed about him like a stormy ocean: To Odin and to Thor, O King, As other kings have done in their devotion !" King Olaf answered: "I command This land to be a Christian land; Here is my Bishop who the folk baptizes! "But if you ask me to restore Your sacrifices, stained with gore, Then will I offer human sacrifices! "Not slaves and peasants shall they be, Such men as Orm of Lyra and Kar of Gryting!" Then to their Temple strode he in, Of his men-at-arms and the peasants fiercely fighting. The image of great Odin stood, And other gods, with Thor supreme among them. King Olaf smote them with the blade And downward shattered to the pavement flung them. A mingled sound of triumph and of wailing. And there upon the trampled plain The farmer Iron-Beard lay slain, Midway between the assailed and the assailing. King Olaf from the doorway spoke: And seeing their leader stark and dead, "O King, baptize us with thy holy water!" So all the Drontheim land became And as a blood-atonement, soon And thus in peace ended the Drontheim Hus-Ting! VIII. GUDRUN. ON King Olaf's bridal night Shines the moon with tender light, At the fatal midnight hour, Close against her heaving breast, Is cold and keen. On the cairn are fixed her eyes What a bridal night is this! Like the drifting snow she sweeps "What is that," King Olaf said, ""Tis the bodkin that I wear "Forests have ears, and fields have eyes; Often treachery lurking lies Underneath the fairest hair! Gudrun beware!" Ere the earliest peep of morn IX. THANGBRAND THE PRIEST. SHORT of stature, large of limb, With nodding head, "There goes Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest." All the prayers he knew by rote, A man of mark, Was this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. He was quarrelsome and loud, Would drink and swear, Swaggering Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. In his house this malecontent To convert the heathen there, One summer day Sailed this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. There in Iceland, c'er their books 66 "All this rhyme Is waste of time!" Grumbled Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. To the alehouse, where he sat, That they quarrelled now and then, Began to leer Drunken Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest? All the folk in Alftafiord Boasted of their island grand; Saying in a single word, "Iceland is the finest land That the sun Doth shine upon!" Loud laughed Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. And he answered: "What's the use Every Scald Satires scrawled On poor Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. Something worse they did than that; Drawn in charcoal on the wall; "This is Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest." Hardly knowing what he did, Then he smote them might and main, Thorvald Veile and Veterlid Lay there in the alehouse slain. Muttered Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. Is there of these Iceland men !" With bending head, Pious Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest. X.-RAUD THE STRONG. "ALL the old gods are dead, All the wild warlocks fled; But the White Christ lives and reigns, And throughout my wide domains On the Evangelists Thus swore King Olaf. But still in dreams of the night And challenged him to the fight. And Sigurd the Bishop said, Said Sigurd the Bishop. |