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Olaf Trygvason
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 10)
Broad the sails o'er the North Sea go;
High on deck in the morning glow
Erling Skjalgsson from Sole
Scans all the sea toward Denmark:
"Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
Six and fifty the ships are there,
Sails are let down, toward Denmark stare
Sun-reddened men; - then murmur:
"Where is the great Long Serpent?
Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
When the sun in the second dawn
Cloudward rising no mast had drawn,
Grew to a storm their clamor:
"Where is the great Long Serpent?
Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
Silent, silent that moment bound,
Stood they all; for from ocean's ground
Sighed round the fleet a muffled:
"Taken the great Long Serpent,
Fallen is Olaf Trygvason."
Ever since, through so many a year,
Norway's ships must beside them hear,
Clearest in nights of moonshine:
"Taken the great Long Serpent,
Fallen is Olaf Trygvason."
Extra Info:
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN IN THE ORIGINAL METERS BY ARTHUR HUBBELL PALMER
Professor of the German Language and Literature In Yale University
Note 10.
OLAF TRYGVASON. Grandson of Harald Fairhair, and King from 995 to
1000. On one of his viking expeditions to England he was converted
to Christianity. Returning to Norway to win back his ancestral
inheritance from Haakon Jarl (see Note 14), he had fortune with
him; for as he steered into the Trondhjem Fjord, he received the
tidings of the successful uprising of the peasants against Haakon.
He founded Nidaros, the present city of Trondhjem, established
Christianity in a large part of the country, and soon became dearer
to the people than any other Norwegian King. But he had powerful
enemies outside of the land: the Danish King, Svein Forkbeard,
the Swedish King, Olaf, and Erik, son of Haakon Jarl. By a large
sea-force under these he was attacked off the island Svolder (near
the island of Ringen), and there lost his life. Erling Skjalgsson,
a great chieftain, holding large fiefs from Olaf and married to his
sister, lived at Sole in southwestern Norway. With a large number of
the smaller ships of Olaf Trygvason he had been allowed to sail away
in advance and did not know of the battle at Svolder.
Long Serpent was the name of the large fighting ship that Olaf had
built for this expedition. It held six hundred men.
Note 14.
KAARE'S SONG. Helga was the daughter of Maddad, a prominent and
wealthy man at Katanes. She came to Orkney, where the ruler, Haakon
Earl, fell in love with her and made her his mistress. She bore him
a son, Harald, and lived at Orkney sixteen years in spite of the
hate and disdain showed her by so many, especially by the Earl's
lawful wife. She and her sister Frakark exerted an evil influence
over Haakon Earl, inciting him among other things to murder his co-
ruler and kinsman Magnus Erlendson. It was believed that Haakon
Earl became crazy when he first saw Helga. This song, which Kaare,
one of the Earl's men, sings, describes this first meeting and was
commonly sung by Helga's enemies.
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