“The bear and the wolf thou shalt trammel, unto the thick stem of the oak, at thy pleasure;
Before thee the dragon shall fly from his nest, and shall leave thee sole lord of his treasure.”
Then about and around on the moonlight hill, in their fairy fashion they sported,
While unmov’d sat the gallant and fair young swain, whom they, in their wantonness, courted.
“And wilt thou not grant us our civil request, proud stripling, and wilt thou deny it?
By hell’s ruddy blazes, our gold-handled knife shall lay thee for ever in quiet.”
And if my good luck had not manag’d it so, that the cock crew out, then, in the distance,
I should have been murder’d by them, on the hill, without power to offer resistance.
’T is therefore I counsel each young Danish swain, who may ride in the forest so dreary,
Ne’er to lay down upon lone Elvir Hill though he chance to be ever so weary.
WALDEMAR’S CHASE.
The following Ballad is merely a versification of one of the many feats of Waldemar, the famed phantom hunter of the North, an account of whom, and of Palnatoka and Groon the Jutt, both spectres of a similar character, may be found in Thiele’s Danské Folkesagn.
Late at eve they were toiling on Harribee bank,
For in harvest men ne’er should be idle:
Towards them rode Waldemar, meagre and lank,
And he linger’d and drew up his bridle.
“Success to your labour; and have ye to night
Seen any thing pass ye, while reaping?”
“Yes, yes;” said a peasant, “I saw something white,
Just now, through the corn-stubble creeping.”
“Which way did it go?” “Why methought to the beach.”
Then off went Waldemar bounding;
A few minutes after, they heard a faint screech,
And the horn of the hunter resounding.