| |
| “STRIKE the sails!” King Olaf said; | |
| “Never shall men of mine take flight; | |
| Never away from battle I fled, | |
| Never away from my foes! | |
| Let God dispose | 5 |
| Of my life in the fight!” | |
| |
| “Sound the horns!” said Olaf the King; | |
| And suddenly through the drifting brume | |
| The blare of the horns began to ring, | |
| Like the terrible trumpet shock | 10 |
| Of Regnarock, | |
| On the Day of Doom! | |
| |
| Louder and louder the war-horns sang | |
| Over the level floor of the flood; | |
| All the sails came down with a clang, | 15 |
| And there in the midst overhead | |
| The sun hung red | |
| As a drop of blood. | |
| |
| Drifting down on the Danish fleet | |
| Three together the ships were lashed, | 20 |
| So that neither should turn and retreat; | |
| In the midst, but in front of the rest, | |
| The burnished crest | |
| Of the Serpent flashed. | |
| |
| King Olaf stood on the quarter-deck, | 25 |
| With bow of ash and arrows of oak, | |
| His gilded shield was without a fleck, | |
| His helmet inlaid with gold, | |
| And in many a fold | |
| Hung his crimson cloak. | 30 |
| |
| On the forecastle Ulf the Red | |
| Watched the lashing of the ships; | |
| “If the Serpent lie so far ahead, | |
| We shall have hard work of it here,” | |
| Said he with a sneer | 35 |
| On his bearded lips. | |
| |
| King Olaf laid an arrow on string, | |
| “Have I a coward on board?” said he. | |
| “Shoot it another way, O King!” | |
| Sullenly answered Ulf, | 40 |
| The old sea-wolf; | |
| “You have need of me!” | |
| |
| In front came Svend, the King of the Danes, | |
| Sweeping down with his fifty rowers; | |
| To the right, the Swedish king with his thanes; | 45 |
| And on board of the Iron Beard | |
| Earl Eric steered | |
| To the left with his oars. | |
| |
| “These soft Danes and Swedes,” said the King, | |
| “At home with their wives had better stay, | 50 |
| Than come within reach of my Serpent’s sting: | |
| But where Eric the Norseman leads | |
| Heroic deeds | |
| Will be done to-day!” | |
| |
| Then as together the vessels crashed, | 55 |
| Eric severed the cables of hide, | |
| With which King Olaf’s ships were lashed, | |
| And left them to drive and drift | |
| With the currents swift | |
| Of the outward tide. | 60 |
| |
| Louder the war-horns growl and snarl, | |
| Sharper the dragons bite and sting! | |
| Eric the son of Hakon Jarl | |
| A death-drink salt as the sea | |
| Pledges to thee, | 65 |
| Olaf the King! | |
| |
