| |
| AT Drontheim, Olaf the King | |
| Heard the bells of Yule-tide ring, | |
| As he sat in his banquet-hall, | |
| Drinking the nut-brown ale, | |
| With his bearded Berserks hale | 5 |
| And tall. | |
| |
| Three days his Yule-tide feasts | |
| He held with Bishops and Priests, | |
| And his horn filled up to the brim; | |
| But the ale was never too strong, | 10 |
| Nor the Saga-man’s tale too long, | |
| For him. | |
| |
| O’er his drinking-horn, the sign | |
| He made of the cross divine, | |
| As he drank, and muttered his prayers; | 15 |
| But the Berserks evermore | |
| Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor | |
| Over theirs. | |
| |
| The gleams of the firelight dance | |
| Upon helmet and hauberk and lance, | 20 |
| And laugh in the eyes of the King; | |
| And he cries to Halfred the Scald, | |
| Gray-bearded, wrinkled, and bald, | |
| “Sing!” | |
| |
| “Sing me a song divine, | 25 |
| With a sword in every line, | |
| And this shall be thy reward.” | |
| And he loosened the belt at his waist, | |
| And in front of the singer placed | |
| His sword. | 30 |
| |
| “Quern-biter of Hakon the Good, | |
| Wherewith at a stroke he hewed | |
| The millstone through and through, | |
| And Foot-breadth of Thoralf the Strong, | |
| Were neither so broad nor so long, | 35 |
| Nor so true.” | |
| |
| Then the Scald took his harp and sang, | |
| And loud through the music rang | |
| The sound of that shining word; | |
| And the harp-strings a clangor made, | 40 |
| As if they were struck with the blade | |
| Of a sword. | |
| |
| And the Berserks round about | |
| Broke forth into a shout | |
| That made the rafters ring: | 45 |
| They smote with their fists on the board, | |
| And shouted, “Long live the Sword, | |
| And the King!” | |
| |
| But the King said, “O my son, | |
| I miss the bright word in one | 50 |
| Of thy measures and thy rhymes.” | |
| And Halfred the Scald replied, | |
| “In another ’t was multiplied | |
| Three times.” | |
| |
| Then King Olaf raised the hilt | 55 |
| Of iron, cross-shaped and gilt, | |
| And said, “Do not refuse; | |
| Count well the gain and the loss, | |
| Thor’s hammer or Christ’s cross: | |
| Choose!” | 60 |
| |
| And Halfred the Scald said, “This | |
| In the name of the Lord I kiss, | |
| Who on it was crucified!” | |
| And a shout went round the board, | |
| “In the name of Christ the Lord, | 65 |
| Who died!” | |
| |
| Then over the waste of snows | |
| The noonday sun uprose, | |
| Through the driving mists revealed, | |
| Like the lifting of the Host, | 70 |
| By incense-clouds almost | |
| Concealed. | |
| |
| On the shining wall a vast | |
| And shadowy cross was cast | |
| From the hilt of the lifted sword, | 75 |
| And in foaming cups of ale | |
| The Berserks drank “Was-hael! | |
| To the Lord!” | |
| |
