THE OLD VIKING.

AN ADAPTATION FOR MUSIC.

Why ’midst these shadowy woods should I

In grave-like loneness, lingering, die?

’Tis ours to unfurl the sail, and ride

Away as of old on the flashing tide.

How bleak these beetling crags, and bare!

What lifeless gloom broods everywhere!

In this poor mousetrap of a hold,

How can a warrior’s heart be bold?

The billows dark, the galley strong,

I learned to love when life was young;

Why then should I, with whitened hair,

Die like an old wolf in his lair?

Oh, better far it were for me

To risk my life on the rolling sea,

To die as died my fathers brave,

And sleep with them in their ocean-grave!

Farewell, ye woods and crags, farewell!

My bark rides brave on the billowy swell;

The tall mast swings, the sail flaps free,

And our home once more is the boundless sea.

John Russell.

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Pronounced Killy-manjāhro, and meaning ‘The Mountain of the Demon of Cold.’

[2] Kalsoe is about ten miles long by about one mile and a half in width.

[3] Sysselman Müller of Thorshavn, Faroe, possesses one of these stones. It is brown, and rather common to look at; but no doubt the fact that Herr Müller is reputed to be the richest man in the Isles, as he is certainly the most influential, is due to the virtue of this stone. Herr Müller sits in the upper house of the Danish government; and this also may be attributable to his lucky-stone.

[4] This story, it is obvious, is allied to the Ayrshire traditions on which Burns founded his Tam o’ Shanter.

[5] It is necessary to explain that in talking to a brownie one must not call a knife, a sword, an axe, or anything of the kind by its right name, but indicate it by a paraphrase, ‘The sharp thing,’ &c. Nor must one say ‘Thank you’ to the brownies, if they do one a service, because, if so, it gives them power to injure the person who thanks them.

[6] Gydja is Faroese for an old wife, crone, or aged woman.