"So boldly dance we thus, I ween,
With true hearts under scarlet sheen--
The kingdom it is won!
"Never saw I a rosy dance
So gaily trode, and eyes so glance--
For Erik the king so young!"
THE END OF KING ERIK MENVED.
APPENDIX.
THE SWORD TIRFING.
The account of Hervor, the bold skioldmö, and of the sword Tirfing, mentioned at page 270, is to be found in the Harvarar Saga, or the story of Hervor. It was the translator's intention to have given this saga entire, to serve at once as a specimen of the character of the ancient literature of Scandinavia, and as a picture of the mind and manners of an extremely remote and barbarous age. Doubting, however, whether the saga, in all its integrity, would possess any great interest to the present matter-of-fact age, he has limited himself to such an abstract of it as will give a tolerable idea of its nature and contents.
In its present form, the saga is supposed to have been compiled in the thirteenth century, though parts of it may date as high as the tenth. Many of the persons mentioned are entirely fabulous, and several of the places have no existence. The only gleam of historical truth it contains, is probably in that portion which relates the battle of Angantyr and his brothers, on Samsoe, against Hialmar and Oddur, a similar account being given by Saxo of the twelve sons of Arngrim the Berserk. But to enter upon any critical investigation of this nature, would be obviously out of place on the present occasion.