| |
| “THORA of Rimol! hide me! hide me! | |
| Danger and shame and death betide me! | |
| For Olaf the King is hunting me down | |
| Through field and forest, through thorp and town!” | |
| Thus cried Jarl Hakon | 5 |
| To Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| “Hakon Jarl! for the love I bear thee | |
| Neither shall shame nor death come near thee! | |
| But the hiding-place wherein thou must lie | |
| Is the cave underneath the swine in the sty.” | 10 |
| Thus to Jarl Hakon | |
| Said Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| So Hakon Jarl and his base thrall Karker | |
| Crouched in the cave, than a dungeon darker, | |
| As Olaf came riding, with men in mail, | 15 |
| Through the forest roads into Orkadale, | |
| Demanding Jarl Hakon | |
| Of Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| “Rich and honored shall be whoever | |
| The head of Hakon Jarl shall dissever!” | 20 |
| Hakon heard him, and Karker the slave, | |
| Through the breathing-holes of the darksome cave. | |
| Alone in her chamber | |
| Wept Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| Said Karker, the crafty, “I will not slay thee! | 25 |
| For all the king’s gold I will never betray thee!” | |
| “Then why dost thou turn so pale, O churl, | |
| And then again black as the earth?” said the Earl. | |
| More pale and more faithful | |
| Was Thora, the fairest of women. | 30 |
| |
| From a dream in the night the thrall started, saying, | |
| “Round my neck a gold ring King Olaf was laying!” | |
| And Hakon answered, “Beware of the king! | |
| He will lay round thy neck a blood-red ring.” | |
| At the ring on her finger | 35 |
| Gazed Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| At daybreak slept Hakon, with sorrows encumbered, | |
| But screamed and drew up his feet as he slumbered; | |
| The thrall in the darkness plunged with his knife, | |
| And the Earl awakened no more in this life. | 40 |
| But wakeful and weeping | |
| Sat Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
| At Nidarholm the priests are all singing, | |
| Two ghastly heads on the gibbet are swinging; | |
| One is Jarl Hakon’s and one is his thrall’s, | 45 |
| And the people are shouting from windows and walls; | |
| While alone in her chamber | |
| Swoons Thora, the fairest of women. | |
| |
