innumerable long fat white clouds; clouds of no shape; clouds
that I hate.

I awake; I am leaning against the side of the ship; I stagger; we are
tramping on the old path. A fine snow sifts down into my neck; my skin
is so hot and my bones are so cold. There is no sky, only something that
moves above there. Then, as I turn to the stern of the ship, I seem to
hear in the distance the sound of great drinking, and the echoing of the
warm beer-tankards as they strike in the air, and there comes a small
and weak voice beyond me neither above nor below:

"I am Odin, the thunder-holder, and I speak to you greeting, thus,
passing on."

And again the voice comes as I lean against the ship with my arms
outspread.

"I am Thor, of the hammer; hail to you, man, passing on."

The sounds of the mirth of the gods die down. Then a voice speaks
deeply, with no ringing in it as was in the voice of Thor, and I do not
understand. The snow comes driving into my eyes, and the ship seems to
lean toward me, and then away again, then all is still.

The snow comes into my eyes again, and I hear faint music as of churches
and sweet voices singing, and it seems to me when I can see again that
there are dim ships before me; ships whose names only I have learnt from
scanty books no more; and all those gods come dancing toward me; then
the music breaks, and there is great cracking of the ice, and I fall
down. There is no voice of Christian God, for I have sacked his
churches. The snow is in my eyes, and I am mad. I lean my head against
the ship. There is no warmth, and I am afraid, alone.

THE END.

PRINTED BY W. H. WHITE AND CO. LTD.
EDINBURGH RIVERSIDE PRESS.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

The spelling of four names has been simplified in order for the file to
be encoded in ASCII. The names are:

Foen--original has a macron over 'o'
Ole--original has a macron over 'e'
Snore--original has a macron over 'e'
Uffe--original has a macron over 'e'

End of Project Gutenberg's The Sentimental Vikings, by Richard Voorhees Risley

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