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| ON King Olaf’s bridal night | |
| Shines the moon with tender light, | |
| And across the chamber streams | |
| Its tide of dreams. | |
| |
| At the fatal midnight hour, | 5 |
| When all evil things have power, | |
| In the glimmer of the moon | |
| Stands Gudrun. | |
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| Close against her heaving breast | |
| Something in her hand is pressed; | 10 |
| Like an icicle, its sheen | |
| Is cold and keen. | |
| |
| On the cairn are fixed her eyes | |
| Where her murdered father lies, | |
| And a voice remote and drear | 15 |
| She seems to hear. | |
| |
| What a bridal night is this! | |
| Cold will be the dagger’s kiss; | |
| Laden with the chill of death | |
| Is its breath. | 20 |
| |
| Like the drifting snow she sweeps | |
| To the couch where Olaf sleeps; | |
| Suddenly he wakes and stirs, | |
| His eyes meet hers. | |
| |
| “What is that,” King Olaf said, | 25 |
| “Gleams so bright above my head? | |
| Wherefore standest thou so white | |
| In pale moonlight?” | |
| |
| “’T is the bodkin that I wear | |
| When at night I bind my hair; | 30 |
| It woke me falling on the floor; | |
| ’T is nothing more.” | |
| |
| “Forests have ears, and fields have eyes; | |
| Often treachery lurking lies | |
| Underneath the fairest hair! | 35 |
| Gudrun beware!” | |
| |
| Ere the earliest peep of morn | |
| Blew King Olaf’s bugle-horn; | |
| And forever sundered ride | |
| Bridegroom and bride! | 40 |
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