"We travel night and day,
No North Wind's Daughter find,
And reach a northern bay,
Where snow three giants grind."
"'Our greetings, grinders three,
Comes North Wind's Daughter forth?'-
'Thanks travellers on the sea,
No, sail on further north!'"
"We travel night and day,
The Daughter seeking twice-
And reach a northern bay,
Where giants forge pure ice."
"'Our greeting icesmiths three,
Comes North Wind's Daughter forth?'-
'Thanks travellers on the sea.
No, sail on further north!'"
Thus sang the sailor folk
Upon the Northern Sea,
Until the helmsman spoke:
Their way no more was free!
Bearslayer in this boat,
Sailed on the Northern Sea,
To Germany afloat,
To set Laimdota free.
But battered by the force
Of wind and storm that blew,
And lost, far from the course,
The way no more they knew.
It seemed that evil powers,
Sea ghosts, were ever near,
In day and night-time hours,
They filled the crew with fear.
Dank mists and deepest gloom
The light blocked as they swirled;
While hail and snow-filled spume
Were by the North Wind hurled.
Then, where the sky's edge gleamed,
A brilliant glow forth surged,
And, from the glow, what seemed
To be a sail emerged.