The Sea King's Burial [pp. 672]

The Sea-King's Burial.
THE SEA-KING'S BURIAL.
"Old Kings about to die had their body laid into a ship,
the ship sent forth, with sails set and a slow fire burning
in it; that once out at sea, it might blaze up in a flame, and
in such manner bury worthily the old Hero at once in the
sky and in the Ocean."-Carlyle's Hero Worship.
What ship comes rushing on so fast
Across the stormy sea!
While creaks and strains her groaning mast
Her canvass flutters free.
On, on she drifts-the storm-fiend's scourge
Lashes the t)oiling deep,
While through the boiling foam and surge
Misshapen monsters sweep: Before the terrors of that storm
The boldest well might quail,
But o'er her deck there moves no form
Nor firl'd is any sail.
A Sea-King's bark that ship must tbe,
His pennon floats on high,
And bollly sends its standard free
Full to the stormy sky!"
Thus spake a Vikingir, as towards him came
O'er the storm-vex'd billows the Bark of a Sea-King.
Nearer and nearer drew that Ship
With full and swelling sail,
Deep in the brine her prow did dip
As she swept before the gale.
Butt a broad and lurid light blaz'd out
As onward still she came,
'Till mast, and sail, and cordage stout
Burst forth one sheet of flame.
It lit up the black and lurid sky,
It lit up the flashing waves,
Rolling one instant mountain high
Then yawning in fathomless caves;
But fiull in the light of that lurid glare,
On the deck of that fated Ship,
Lay an aged Vikingir, with snowy hair,
And a smile upon his lip,
And the hardy Sea-rover averted his head,
For he knew that he looked on a living man's tomb.
Fiercer and fiercer raged the blast,
And louder roared the flame,
While thie crested waves came rolling past
On a iough and boisterous game.
Bitt amid these sights and sounds of fear
Unmoved the Old King lay,
For they fell upon his aged ear
Like the sounds of battle fray;
And it was not song, that now arose
In a strong and steady strain
From the lips so soon about to close
Ne'er to unclose again,
Bitt a chant of bold and bloody deeds
That had caused the land to ring,
And clothed in sablle mourning-weeds
The spouse of many a king.
Thus, girt around with the winds and the waves,
'Mlid the roar of the storm rose the voice of Harfagar.
"I go, 1 go to Odin's Halls,
To quaff the foaming mead,
Mantling for himn who boldly falls,
Or works heroic dee(l.
The Valkyrs on the battle plain
Too oft have passed him by,
Yet, like a warrior, on his shield
Shall old Harfagar die.
Not like a dastard churl, will he
Shun the slow step of death,
But'mid the war of wind and sea
He comes to yield his breath.
For now old age hath dimmed the eye,
That once in ranks of war
Shone like a beacon-light on high
To land(smrnenr from afar."
Thus Harfag,ar the pitiless chanted the song
That the Scalds to their harps oft had sung.
"To night, to night I meet once more
Those comrades staunch of old,
Who stark and stiff on foreign shore
Fell, as should fall the bold.
No shrewish tears bewailed their fall,
Their dirge was rung on shields,
Red were the hands that held their pall
On corpse-encumbered fields.
Where loudest rang that music dread
From clashing shield and lance,
There, tower'd Harfagar's lofty head
Like Bridegroom's in the dance.
To Hela's halls for many a Carle
His broad axe hew'd a way,
While wearied paus'd each sullen Jarl
Like Eagles gorged with prey."
Thus sternly the Vikingir vaunted the deeds
That had made him the " Scourge of the Sea."
The tempest's wrath one moment still,
Burist trumrpet-toned once more,
And drown'd Harfagar's accents shrill
Beneath its angry roar.
The burning ship, one sheet of fire,
Drifts now a helpless wreck,
And fit for hero's funeral pyre
Blazes the burning deck.
One moment on the darkening sky
The Sea-King's form is traced,
The next, the anxious gazer's ey e
Beholds but Ocean's waste!
The floating fragments strew the waves,
Harfagar! where is he?
Ask of the wind that madly raves
His requiem to the sea!
Thus with winds for his dirge and the sea for his bier,
The soul of Harfagar passed onward to Odin.
E. D.
Columbia, S. C.
672
[NOvEMBER,