Oehlenschlaeger's Hakon Jarl 99 



The price therefor, and none hath need to speak 



Contemptuous thoughts or shirring words to clou4 



Thy memory with infamy. I love 



Thee here in death as I have loved in life. 



But yesterday throughout the North, thy sun 



Did shine, as heaven's sun, whose glory all 



The world reflects. Now all the hosts of men 



Have quite forg-otten thee, and turn their eyes, 



Their thoughts, toward stranger suns. One lonely heart, 



A woman's, ])eats in quiet sorrow still 



Beside thy dear remains. Pray then let her 



Bestow the honor due thee, which thy men 



Forgot through joy's debauch. 



[She places the szcord and the zvreath upon the cofHfi.] 



From Thora's hand 

 Receive this forest wreath, a wreath late plucked 

 From Norway's haughty fir, which twines itself 

 About thy warrior-sword; 'twill signify: 

 A northern hero this of rarest mould, — 

 A flower choked by winter's biting frost. 

 Some day the Saga of the North will tell, — 

 When time's rough hand hath soiled the written page, 

 When great achievements pass from mouth to mouth, 

 The colors blurred: "An evil man was Hakon, 

 A cruel worshipper of heathen gods." 

 With terrors they will name thy name. But I, 

 I shudder not ; nay, Hakon ! for I knew 

 Thee best. A mighty power, a niighty soul 

 Was sacrificed because of wild delusions. 

 Then calmly sleep, thou noblest of the North. 

 A thousand fond good-nights ! Aloft in heaven 

 God Odin satisfy thy soul! I leave 

 Thee now in solitude. W'hen next the door 

 Shall open. Thora's slaves will bring her corpse 

 And place it where it lived, at Hakon's side. 



137 



