e King's countenance
"The guerdons of thy skill," cried he,
"Or, boy, thy luck, perchance?
This figured ivory drinking horn!
This turquoise-hilted sword!
But ... shall I see no marvel
Ere day dips in the fiord?"

"There is not in fair Norroway
My master on the ski
One bolder or more skilful....
A marvel wouldst thou see?"
--Bold and high was the answer--
"'Twas skill not luck, Oh! King,
I am the swiftest.... A marvel
Of whom the scalds shall sing."

"Oh! yonder stand the mountains
And yonder moans the sea
And he who leapt from the topmost crag....
A bold man would he be.
A bold man ... yea, a marvel
For the grey-haired scalds to hymn...."
Day dying touched his swarthy cheek
With a lurid light and grim,

While he made the gloomy challenge
And round a murmur ran,
But ... the boy bowed low and answered,
"Oh! King, behold the man
The swiftest and the boldest
In thy kingdom by the sea,
From mountain or ... from hatred
What man can do, dares he."

... He swept down from the mountain
Like an eaglet on a hare
With bent back and swinging arms
And tossing golden hair....
The King stood by the precipice
(A small sea moaned and broke)
... Looked down over the wrinkled sea
And swiftly loosed his cloak.

... He came as an arrow is loosened....
As a slinger slings a stone,
Clutched (as the sun shot downwards)
At one on the brink alone....
The King leapt back ... the King laughed out....
The great cloak floated free....
There came no sound--tho' he listened long--
From the darkened moaning sea.

The Knight and the Witch.

A voice cried over the Hills
"Follow the strange desire.
Oh! follow, follow, follow,
The world is on fire.
Day burns on funeral bed
In flame of sky and sea,
And, black against that red,
Is the tower where dwelleth she
And gazeth, white foot pressed
On bruised heaps of bloom,
O'er the sea which cannot rest
And sounds thro' her room.
Murmurs in her room
Thro' a casement open wide
The sea which is a tomb
For mariners of pride.
Oh! follow, follow, follow,
Come quickly unto her,
Her body is more sweet
Than cassia or myrrh,
She is whiter than the moon,
She is stranger than death,
Stronger than the new