See, young Yaspard's eye is blazing,
With the fires so fleet and free:
Come of Magnus, yarl and sea-king,
Son of Norland scald is he:
Well he knows the gruesome story
Of that evil-omened bird,
And of trows and vengeful demons
He hath dreamed and he hath heard.
But his heart is hot and steadfast,
And his hands are strong to try;
He will dare with fiends to combat—
He will dare, and he will die.
Forth against the howling tempest,
Forth against each evil power,
Wild and reckless, went young Yaspard
In a dark unguarded hour.
Cold the surf of Hel-ya Water
Breaks around the Norseman's grave,
And the boy is lifted rudely
By each charmed and chafing wars.
Now he struggles boldly onward,
Now he nears the haunted isle,
Where in grim and boding silence
Waits the bird of woe and wile.
Fain is Yaspard to encounter
That fierce harbinger of gloom—
Fain to dare the spells of magic,
Fain to foil the wrath of doom.
Hark! the solitary raven
Croaks a note of death and pain,
And a human call defiant
Answers from the flood again.
****
Morning breaks: a snow-drift cover
All the drear deserted earth;
In young Yaspard's home is weeping,
Quenched the fire upon his hearth.
But he broke the spells of evil,
And he found a hero's grave.
When you pass the Hel-ya Water
Cast a pebble to its wave." [12]
[1] Haven.
[2] Holy lake.
[3] Lowland mists meet each other.
[4] Wanderer.