active than
actively good: they swung the axe to give the mortal blow, or as they
called it, "the whining Jetteqvinde."[E]

[Footnote E: Giantess.]

Here came the Vikings with their ships: on the headland yonder they
levied provisions; the grazing cattle were slaughtered and borne away.
Ye mouldering cliffs, had ye but a tongue, ye might tell us about the
duels with the two-handed sword--about the deeds of the giants. Ye saw
the hero hew with the sword, and cast the javelin: his left hand was
as cunning as his right The sword moved so quickly in the air that
there seemed to be three. Ye saw him, when he in all his martial array
sprang forwards and backwards, higher than he himself was tall, and if
he sprang into the sea he swam like a whale. Ye saw the two
combatants: the one darted his javelin, the other caught it in the
air, and cast it back again, so that it pierced through shield and man
down into the earth. Ye saw warriors with sharp swords and angry
hearts; the sword was struck downwards so as to cut the knee, out the
combatant sprang into the air, and the sword whizzed under his feet.
Mighty Sagas from the olden times! Mouldering rocks, could ye but tell
us of these things!

Ye, deep waters, bore the Vikings' ships, and when the strong in
battle lifted the iron anchor and cast it against the enemy's vessel,
so that the planks were rent asunder, ye poured your dark heavy seas
into the hold, so that the bark sank. The wild _Berserk_ who with
naked breast stood against his enemy's blows, mad as a dog, howling
like a bear, tearing his shield asunder, rushing to the bottom of the
sea here, and fetching up stones, which ordinary men could not
raise--history peoples these waters, these cliffs for us! A future
poet will conjure them to this Scandinavian Archipelago, chisel the
true forms out of the old Sagas, the bold, the rude, the greatness and
imperfections of the time, in their habits as they lived.

They rise again for us on yonder island, where the wind is whistling
through the young fir wood. The house is of beams, roofed with bark;
the smoke from the fire on the broad stone in the hall, whirls through
the air-hole, near which stands the cask of mead; the cushions lie on
the bench before the closed bedsteads; deer-skins hang over the balk
walls, ornamented with shields, helmets, and armour. Effigies of gods,
carved, on wooden poles, stand before the high seat where the noble
Viking sits, a high-born father's