of early telepathy may be explained by the fact
that Thorstein, son of the Icelander Hall o' Side, fought for Sigurd
at Clontarf, and afterwards returned to Iceland and told the story
of the battle, which the Saga preserved; and the English poet, Thomas
Gray, used it as the theme of his well-known poem intituled _The Fatal
Sisters_. The old Norse ballad referred to Sigurd's death at Clontarf
in 1014. It is known as _Darratha-Liod_ or _The Javelin-Song_, and is
translated by the late Eirikr Magnusson and printed in the _Miscellany
of the Viking Society_ with the Old Norse original[38] and the
translator's scholarly notes and explanations. It is said that it was
often sung in Old Norse in North Ronaldsay until the middle of the
eighteenth century.

As translated it is as follows:--

DARRATHA-LIOD.

I.
Widely's warped
To warn of slaughter
The back-beam's rug--
Lo, blood is raining!
Now grey with spears
Is framed the web
Of human kind,
With red woof filled
By maiden friends
Of Randver's slayer.

II.
That web is warped
With human entrails,
And is hard weighted
With heads of people;
Bloodstained darts
Do for treadles,
The forebeam's ironbound
The reed's of arrows;
Swords be sleys[39]
For this web of war.

III.
Hild goes to weave
And Hiorthrimol
Sangrid and Svipol
With swords unsheathed.
Shafts will crack
And shields will burst,
The dog of helms
Will drop on byrnies.

IV.
Wind we, wind we
Web of javelins
Such as the young king
Has waged before.
Forward we go
And rush to the fray,
Where our friends
Engage in fighting.

V.
Wind we, wind we
Web of javelins
Where forward rush
The fighters' standards.
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *

VI.
Wind we, wind we
Web of javelins,
And faithfully
The king we follow.
Nor shall we leave
His life to perish;
Among the doomed
Our choice is ample.

VII.
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
There Gunn and Gondul
Who guarded the king
Saw borne by men
Bloody targets.

VIII.
That race will now
Rule the country
Which erstwhile held
But outer nesses.
The mighty king,
Meweens, is doomed.
Now pierced by points
The Earl hath fallen.

IX.