 | Mansoul or The Riddle of the World |  |
Then daubed her beams and bords, with tallow and pitch;
And to the Night, (her rudder-bands belayed;)
They launched, with her great mainsail loost to wind.
So those with torches, casting loud outcries
To their War-gods, her kindled; and besought
Them, to Hel-haven, her thus aflame, to guide.
And to the Night, (her rudder-bands belayed;)
They launched, with her great mainsail loost to wind.
So those with torches, casting loud outcries
To their War-gods, her kindled; and besought
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Her crew, so many as remained alive,
To other ship-craft, climbed, (were seven keels:)
Whiles those made forth from land, with a full tide
And rising wind, sitting on their row-banks;
Carles thewed and bold, bowed o'er long ashen oars:
Matching their measured strokes, wherewith they smote
Swart star-lit waves, to Guldmunds lofty notes;
Their dead lords scald, in the dark North, of name:
Who a lamentable lay loud lifted up;
(Standing in forestern, neath the gilt ensign,
Of the War-wolf, Earl Knut his kinsmans keel;)
For their unburied slain.
To other ship-craft, climbed, (were seven keels:)
Whiles those made forth from land, with a full tide
And rising wind, sitting on their row-banks;
Carles thewed and bold, bowed o'er long ashen oars:
Matching their measured strokes, wherewith they smote
Swart star-lit waves, to Guldmunds lofty notes;
Their dead lords scald, in the dark North, of name:
Who a lamentable lay loud lifted up;
(Standing in forestern, neath the gilt ensign,
Of the War-wolf, Earl Knut his kinsmans keel;)
For their unburied slain.
| Mansoul or The Riddle of the World | |