Sick for thy native air.” L. E. L.

The champions had come from their fields of war,

Over the crests of the billows far;

They had brought back the spoils of a hundred shores,

Where the deep had foam’d to their flashing oars.

They sat at their feast round the Norse king’s board;

By the glare of the torch-light the mead was pour’d;

The hearth was heap’d with the pine-boughs high,

And it flung a red radiance on shields thrown by.

The Scalds had chanted in Runic rhyme