When they rode down to the water’s brim,
He became a troll, so fierce and grim.
“Sir Alfast, thou art christened man—
What wilt thou with this water wan?”
“No knight am I, nor christened man—
My home is in this water wan.”
When they reached the midmost Sound,
Fifty fathom they sank to ground.
Long heard the fishers with dread and dree
How the king’s daughter sobbed under the sea!
Well aday!
Methinks ’tis hard to ride away.
THE WOOD-RAVEN
The raven flies at even
That flies not in the light,
And he must take the black fortune
That may not take the white.
(At even flies the raven.)
It was little Elva
Fared forth from the castle high;
She saw the wild wood-raven
That flew across the sky.
“Fly down, thou wild wood-raven,
And speak a word with me;
All my secret sorrow
That I will tell to thee.