THE SONS OF THE NORTH WIND 



Down thro' the Northlands 

 Come the White Brothers, 

 One clad in foam 

 And one mailed in water — 

 Foam white as bear-felt, 

 Water like coat of mail. 

 Snoio is the Song of Me, 

 Singeth the one ; 

 Silence the Breath of Me, 

 Whispers the other. 



So sings a Swedish poet, a lineal descendant 

 of one of the Saga-men whose songs the vikings 

 carried to the ends of the world of that day. 

 The song is called ' The Sons of the North 

 Wind,' and the allusion is to an old ballad-saga 

 common in one form or another throughout 

 all the countries of both the Gall and the Gael 

 . . . from Finland to the last of the island- 

 kinsdoms between Ultima Thule and the Gaelic 

 West. The White Brothers are familiar indeed, 

 though with us they come oftener clothed with 

 beauty than with terror, with strange and 



66 



