 | The Works of William Mason |  |
SONG OF HAROLD THE VALIANT.
I
My ships to far Sicilia's coastHave row'd their rapid way,
While in their van my well-man'd barque
Spread wide her streamers gay.
Arm'd on the poop, myself a host,
I seem'd in glory's orb to move—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
II
To fight the foe in early youth,I march'd to Drontheim's field;
Numbers were theirs, but valour ours,
Which forc'd that foe to yield.
This right hand made their king a ghost:
His youthful blood now stains the grove—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
III
Rough was the sea, and rude the wind,And scanty were my crew;
Billows on billows o'er our deck
With frothy fury flew:
Deep in our hold the waves were tost,
Back to their bed each wave we drove—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
IV
What feat of hardihood so boldBut Harold wots it well?
I curb the steed, I stem the flood,
I fight with falchion fell;
The oar I ply from coast to coast,
On ice with flying skates I rove—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
V
Can she deny, the blooming maid,For she has heard the tale,
When to the South my troops I led,
The fortress to assail?
How, while my prowess thinn'd the host,
Fame bade the world each deed approve—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
VI
On Norway's cloud-cap'd mountains bred,Whose sons are bow-men brave,
I dar'd, a deed that peasants dread,
To plough old Ocean's wave;
By tempest driven, by dangers crost,
Through wild, unpeopl'd climes to rove—
Ah, Harold! check the empty boast,
A Russian maiden scorns thy love.
The original of this song is preserved in an old Icelandic Chronicle, called Knytlinga Saga. It was translated by Bartholinus into Latin, and from him into French by M. Mallet in his Introduction al' Histoire de Dannemarc. Vol. II. page 287 of the Northern Antiquities, taken from the above work, gives it in English prose under the title of an Ode of Harold the Valiant. He was a Norwegian Prince in the middle of the eleventh century. See also five pieces of Runic poetry published by Dr. Percy. It was versified with a view of being inserted in an Introduction to a projected Edition of an History of English Poetry (see Memoirs of Gray, last Edit. Vol. IV. p. 143) and was meant so be a specimen of the first Ballad (properly so called) now extant of northern origin.
| The Works of William Mason | |