Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough Part 10

Up spoke Harald in wrathful case: "I would have word with this waxen face!

"What wilt thou pay, thou huckstered That I let thee live another year?

"For oath that thou wilt never reign Will I let thee live a year or twain."

"Kisses and love shalt thou have of me If yet my liegeman thou wilt be.

"But stroke of sword, and dint of axe, Or ere thou makest my face as wax."

As thick the arrows fell around As fall sere leaves on autumn ground.

In many a cheek the red did wane No maid might ever kiss again.

"Lay me aboard," Lord Harald said, "The winter day will soon be dead!

"Lay me aboard the b.a.s.t.a.r.d's s.h.i.+p, And see to it lest your grapnels slip!"

Then some they knelt and some they drowned, And some lay dead Lord Knut around.

"Look here at the wax-white corpse of him, As fair as the Queen in face and limb!

"Make now for the sh.o.r.e, for the moon is bright, And I would be home ere the end of night.

"Two sons last night had Thyrre the Queen, _So fair upriseth the rim of the sun._ And both she may lack ere the woods wax green,"

_So grey is the sea when day is done._

A little before the morning tide, _So fair upriseth the rim of the sun,_ Queen Thyrre looked out of her window-side, _So grey is the sea when day is done._

"O men-at-arms, what men be ye?"

"Harald thy son come over the sea."

"Why is thy face so pale, my son?"

"It may be red or day is done."

"O evil words of an evil hour!

Come, sweet son, to thy mother's bower!"

None from the Queen's bower went that day Till dark night over the meadows lay.

None thenceforth heard wail or cry Till the King's feast was waxen high.

Then into the hall Lord Harald came When the great wax lights were all aflame.

"What tidings, son, dost thou bear to me?

Speak out before I drink with thee."

"Tidings small for a seafarer.

Two falcons in the sea-cliffs were;

"And one was white and one was grey, And they fell to battle on a day;

"They fought in the sun, they fought in the wind, No boot the white fowl's wounds to bind.

"They fought in the wind, they fought in the sun, And the white fowl died when the play was done."

"Small tidings these to bear o'er the sea!

Good hap that nothing worser they be!

"Small tidings for a travelled man!

Drink with me, son, whiles yet ye can!

"Drink with me ere thy day and mine, _So fair upriseth the rim of the sun,_ Be nought but a tale told over the wine."

_So grey is the sea when day is done._

Now fareth the King with his men to sleep, _So fair upriseth the rim of the sun,_ And dim the maids from the Queen's bower creep, _So grey is the sea when day is done._

And in the hall is little light, And there standeth the Queen with cheeks full white.

And soft the feet of women fall From end to end of the King's great hall.

These bear the gold-wrought cloths away, And in other wise the hall array;

Till all is black that hath been gold So heavy a tale there must be told.

The morrow men looked on King Gorm and said, "Hath he dreamed a dream or beheld the dead?

"Why is he sad who should be gay?

Why are the old man's lips so grey?"

Slow paced the King adown the hall, Nor looked aside to either wall,

Till in high-seat there he sat him down, And deadly old men deemed him grown.

"O Queen, what thrall's hands durst do this, To strip my hall of mirth and bliss?"

"No thrall's hands in the hangings were, No thrall's hands made the tenters bare.

"King's daughters' hands have done the deed, The hands of Denmark's Surety-head."

"Nought betters the deed thy word unsaid.

Tell me that Knut my son is dead!"

She said: "The doom on thee, O King!

For thine own lips have said the thing."