Thou art so free a man_;
_Do lend me Skimming_, _thy horse_, _this day_;
_I'll pledge for him what I can_."

* * * * *

_In came Humble_, _with boot and spur_,
_He cast on the table his sword_:
"_Sivard stands in the green wood bound_,
_He speaks not a single word_.

"_O_, _I have been to the wild forest_,
_And have seiz'd the warrior stark_;
_Sivard there was taken by me_,
_And tied to the oak's rough bark_."

* * * * *

_The queen she sat in the high_, _high loft_,
_And thence look'd far and wide_:
"_O there comes Sward Snaresvend_,
_With a stately oak at his side_."

_Then loud laugh'd fair Queen Gloriant_,
_As she looked on Sivard full_:
"_Thou wert_, _no doubt_, _in great_, _great need_,
_When thou such flowers didst pull_."

1854.

_There were seven and seven times twenty_
_Away from Hald that went_;
_And when they came to Brattingsborg_
_There pitch'd they up their tent_.

_King Nilaus stood on the turret's top_,
_Had all around in sight_:
"_If yonder host comes here to joust_
_They hold their lives but light_.

"_Now_, _hear me_, _Sivard Snarenswayne_,
_One thing I crave of thee_;
_To meet them go_, _for I would know_
_Their arms_, _and who they be_."

* * * * *

_There shine upon the eighteenth shield_
_A Giant and a Sow_;
_Who deals worse blows amidst his foes_,
_Count Lideberg_, _than thou_?

_Wherever Sir Nordman comes in war_
_He winneth fame in field_;
_Yon blooming rose and verdant boughs_
_Adorn the twentieth shield_.

_A copper kettle_, _fairly wrought_,
_Upon the next you see_;
'_Tis borne by one who realms has won_,
_Sir Mogan good_, _by thee_!

_Forth comes the two-and-twentieth shield_,
_A sun mid mist and smoke_;
_Of wrestler line full many a spine_
_Has Asborn Milday broke_.

_A glittering faulchion shines upon_
_The four-and-twentieth shield_;
_And that doth bear Sir Jerfing's heir_,
_He's worthy it to wield_.

* * * * *

_Young Humble struck his hand on the board_,
_No longer he lists to play_;
_I tell to you that the rosy hue_
_From h