HROLF KRAKE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 81

HROLF KRAKE.

THIRD SONG. I. Now Bia-rke taught young Hottur what he of

warfare knew; The warrior and the stripling inseparable grew. He taught the boy stone axes to use with strength and craft; The axe-head Time has spared us, but has destroyed the shaft: In burial mounds and barrows are many found to-day, The ancient dead remembrances of heroes passed away. Such axes Biarke, polished, and ground their •edges keen, Hor thought the toil unworthy. In heroes graves are seen Like keen-edged axes lying beside their sharpening stones, And with them urns of ashes that once were hero's bones. He knew to harden copper, until in it one

saw Ho ruddy copper gleaming, but metal gold as straw; Sword-hilts" thereof he fashioned: decay these hilts defy; In barrows they are buried, and there untarnished lie Till later- days reveal them, as new as from the hammer, • Though over them have vanished two thousand years of glamour: _. . Now loosed therefrom " the sword-blade, long ' since consumed by rust, Ides -like a streak of ochre, a brown thin strip 'of dust'

One day the lusty Northman, and Hottur sought ' the' chase ; - ' The burly one seemed thoughtful^ and smileless was his' face. "What matter moves you, father?" the cheerful striplings cried; • "You almost seem a stranger." "A moment at

my side," Made answer Norway's hero : "sit near this

ancient oak, Where ■bubbles the spring's crystal, and flowers .its dews invoke, Whilst I reveal the mystery that presses on my heart. - The King has proved my courage; my skill he knowsi my art ; " - Yet he this day has set me a> most aversive task,- - . ■ Erom which, I must confess, boy, my fear relief would ask." • ' "Thy fear'/" asked Hottur, wondering; "the stout oak, then; is frail." .- "My son, the oak, though sturdy, may break before the gale! But hear m« with attention.. Sicelund by warrior's hands Is freed from beasts rapacious; yet in, the King's woodlands " One lurks; a churlish viking has troubled 'Loire's good, _ , Brought from his ship a he-bear, and loosed him in the wood. ■Each day_ now sees his havoc 'mid cattle and. _j ,'zaii men; -- Daily- he -mauls and" kills them." Hottur was frightened then, - And/ eyes attent, h« started,, thinking. the tiear -- -was-near. , ', , -." Bodvar his, tale continued, not % noting Hottur's fear "•- ■' . And glances to the shadow. ''No more they _' „ mind, the bear Than wasp^upon an apple in Norway; it is there Sport ""'mid" the 'pines to meet him. Now, knowing -this, the King' Deemed I should find it pastime, and so this bear-hunting He gives me for adventure. Yet rather had I stood Ppon the deck in battle, 'mid corpses and in, blood, Opposed to foes a hundred whilst arrows thronged the air, Than* sword-armed fare forth, seeking a single wandering bear."

The Northman's hidden' reason- Hottux could not discern. "My lad," continued Biarke, , "my 'grandsire was a stern Great lord in Opdal's marches; his name was known as Hring; Of his and father's fortunes tells many a curious thing. I was a little child then : father's and mother's end, And their adventures, sounded like fairy tales, to lend Strange wonder-pictures to me. How can a three-year child , _ Distinguish fact from fable? Fatherless in -th© wild, Ragnvald, good peasant, found me; lie kept k me as, his boy; - . ■ ■ < From him those tales', of father I often heard 'with' joy. " ~ - .'.' - To' every upright 'parent^ the children loving turn; — ' ■- ' ' . . ' , How "oft your son has mourned you, unhappy, luckless Bicern!

•Thus J say th« . curious legends : my father early lost '"-- His mother, comely Bagnhild: the King the. bitter cost Of sorrow learned; said ho then, 'No more than this brief life Man lives; next year I take me another friend and wife, In place of her death-stricken. 1 So forth he sent his men, Seeking through many countries a wife to wed again. TJp sprang a furious tempest, drove fast their ship from home; In black fierce weaves swam mermaids, whose bosoms were as foam, And eyes red lightning flaming; these drove the ship to north.In bleak fiord's" ice-strewn waters they 'scaped the tempest's wrath, A fiord in farthest Fininark; ev'n pines can not grow there, Nor hardy fir tree flourish ; so bleak, from year to year, The birch can only struggle as stinted as a weed; ' sh there are in rivers, oe lakes enmarged with reed: he moss itsslf is straggly, burnt brown in biting air, . And close, in stunting rigour, clings to the cliff.

"A prayeT They sent to guardian Aser, awaiting Death's

grim •will. Ilie white snow drifted round them m deep, dark night and still. Thea, through the desolation of cam «nd qm-

vering night, Were they aware of brilliance as of a star; a

light, To which they steered their vessel. What thinkst thuti burst in view? As under .a globed crystal trembled the air,

all blue Above a circling greenness gemmed like a flowet-bai

My grandfather's lost messengers shuddered in their dread, The greenness, blue surrounded, 'mid snow and ice was spread! Snow, as from heaven unclouded, down-glided through the night, Whilst from the coloured crystal fell beams as of sunlight. There sat two lovely women; a golden throne had each; They braided flower garlands beneath a leafy beech, Where coloured birds were twittering upon the branches low.

i "They smiled when they discovered in outer glittering snow, ■ Dim lighted in the darkness by the surroundi ing glow, The frozen, shuddering warriors; they called them from their ship ; The elder said, while lingered a smile upon her lip, 'Ye wonder that in darkness of bitter winter night, In Finmark's desert drearness, Spring blossoms in soft light? j One well must use the wisdom that ohildi hood's day has given, If what the heart most prizes shall not from it be riven. • The ancient King of Finmark, decrepid, and more cold, . More silver-grey than "Winter, when icy bonds I enfold, ' Has coveted my daughter, the slender maiden there, Mcst truthfully named Snow-white, since snow is not so fair Kor shows a- purer whiteness than her soft arms and breast ; Not frozen sbe, but pulsing with warmth of youth the blest. ; To rescue her, my daughter, from his em1 braces cold, From Finmark forth we hastened, here to the bergs' stronghold : t But first from Spring we gathered some ver1 dure and sweet flowers, ! Some even-sun and song-birds to lighten heavy i hours. j 'Mid icy towers eternal, in long nights, cold ■ and slow, , We dwell in arbour nestled, unharmed amid . the snow. Whilst storm in fury yonder backward an<? forward swings, From cliff to cliff loud shrieking on north lights' flaming wings, Whilst billows black are surging like heaving miry blood That forms, from serpent flowing, dark Elivager's flood, — To us it gives amusement; and here we sit, content, Hearing" the finch's twittering with brooklets' murmuring blent. Whilst -gorgeous birds of Summer are gaily fluttering here, Beyond, in flocks of whiteness, the whirlingsnow falls drear. Then cone; strawberries ruddy, soft, juicyripe, and sweet, Are growing here in morn beams and summer r - even's heat: Come hither; see my daughter; her flowing nair is still Soft, flaxen, and luxuriant: — admire the maid ye "will!' "The messengers regarded tha lily-lissom maid; ' Thought they, 'Hring far must wander, nor ever search be stayed, Ere better wife were found him; full far our ship must sail Upon the calm blue ocean, or boisterous, billowy gale, Ere we should find a virgin to bring our good old lord Of half this maiden's beauty: past doubting, 'twould afford Hring pleasure to see Snow-white. The saying is most wise, — Fortune comes unexpected; full often man descries His joy when least he seeks it. 'Tis true enough that Hring Has lost Youth's balmy spring-time; that bodes not anything; Has not the harvest beauty, though past luxuriant youth?' ' Then of their journey's purpose they told the mother truth, And prayed her give her daughter. Quite to her heart and mind j Was this most sudden wooing: as sudden rose j fair yrta.6. i When Snow-white and her niothsr upon the ve"ssel stepped, Th« garden straightway vanished, as dreams when man has slept. The fair winds blew, and quickly from ice were they released, Cam© soon to Opland's marches, and held the marriage feast. "But brief was the rejoicing: to her good husband's woe, To him Snow-white grew colder, icy as frozen ■ - ■-? snow : - .

Slid deemed .the King too aged; no child she '.bore to^Kim. ""But cornely -"was her stepson, young Bioern, strong- and slim; Her bright eyes burned with loving when she upon him gazed. And in her snowy bosom a flame uii3inotkered blazed. She boldly told her longing, and bade him feed desire; He struck her, so the roses upon her cheeks were fire, Recoiling from her overtures, contemptuous in disdain. Snow-white, in burning anger, from hatred more than pain, Turned then to tricks and cunning : she seized a magic glove From silver casket, striking the youth who scorned her love. Dire, gradual transformation; — his golden, gleaming hair Became a bear's black bristles; his hands and fingers there Became sharp claws and cruel; his face, that heretofore Resembled Freier'a, smiling from high Valhalla's door, Was clothed as with a thick cowl, with stumpy ears and small : From ear to ear his mouth stretched; and as he changed, through all Hi 3 body seemed to tingle a sullen brutish life. Then cried the lovely Snow-white/ "Disdain now a king's wife, And woo a cotter's daughter: jbaste to the forest wide ; In cave beside the river, you soon shall meet your bride."

— JOHANHES C. ANDEESEN. (To be continued.)

—Mr John Smith, schoolmaster, Coylton-by-Ayr, has just celebrated his jubilee as a teacher. His predecessor had been schoolmaster of Coylton, for 52 years. His name was John M'Clymont. Mr M'Clymont's predecessor was Hector Walker, for 54- years schoolmaster of "Ooylton ; so three men b.a,Ye occupied the position for 156 years.