“If there’s a swain from Iceland come,
And if he be thy kinsman near,
Then I to him will safety pledge,
No harm from me he need to fear.”
When he two years in the sea had been,
Young Roland he would fain be gone;
For Ellenlile was now with child,
A deed of folly had been done.
When that perceived proud Ellenlile,
Near Rosmer King she took her stand:
“Now wilt thou give the stranger lad
Leave to return to his own land?”
“And if the swain for home doth long,
Then I will take him to the shore;
And I will give him silver and gold,
And in a coffer it will store.
And so he took the ruddy gold,
And in a coffer it he laid;
Unknown to him proud Ellenlile
So sly therein herself convey’d.
He takes the man beneath his arm,
The coffer on his back he throws;
Then away, away beneath the salt spray
Striding the Giant Rosmer goes.
“Now have I brought thee to the land,
And moon and sun thou canst behold;
And now to use as thou shalt chuse
I give this coffer filled with gold.”
“I thank thee, Rosmer, honest man,
Thou’st brought me out of the ocean wild;
And now I’ll tell thee a piece of news,
The proud Dame Ellen is with child.”
Then ran the tears down Rosmer’s cheeks,
As falls the dew on hill and plain:
“If thou hadst not my troth and oath
Here as thou standest thee I’d brain.”
Rosmer hied to the hill so fast,
As hind before the hart doth run;
And when he came within the hill
Behold proud Ellenlile was gone.