Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A NORSE WAR-SONG, A.D. 750, FR. THE DEATH SONG OF LODBROC, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER CRAIG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A NORSE WAR-SONG, A.D. 750, FR. THE DEATH SONG OF LODBROC, by                    
First Line: We hew'd with our swords
Last Line: We hew'd with our swords.
Subject(s): War


WE hew'd with our swords,
We hew'd with our swords.

Our swift galleys ruffled
The face of the fiords.

When we landed in wrath
On the shores of the Goth,

It was I, Lodbroc, then
Was the leader of men,

Because I had slain
The fierce snake of the plain --

We hew'd with our swords.

The enemy's bands
Met death at our hands.

We carved out a feast,
We carved out a feast,

For the beak of the bird
And the fang of the beast.

The gold-footed king
Of the birds on his wing

Swoop'd down on the shore,
And the ravens drew round
And waded in gore.

And with eyeballs aglare
Came the wolf from his lair.

For he knew we had spread
For his banquet the dead.

We hew'd with our swords.

We steered by the track,
By the Viking track

Where the spears go out
And the spoils come back.

We sailed on the flood,
We sailed on the flood,

To scatter the homestead
And revel in blood.

With the rise of the sun
Was our battle begun.

We hew'd with our swords.

We hollowed our tracks
With the blows of the axe.

Our keen arrows bit,
And the roar of the spears

As the targes were hit
Sang loud in our ears.

And the hum of the bows
Buzzed out from our hands

As our swift arrows flashed
Through the gleam of the brands,

And rattled like hail
On the close-woven mail.

We hew'd with our swords.

The tempest of blows
Fell fast on our foes,

And the flow of their blood
Came like rivers in flood;

Then before the red sun
Had sunk over the plain,

The red ground was piled
With the heaps of the slain.

A bountiful day
For the wild birds of prey,

That gathered with shrieks,
As they whetted their beaks

In the flesh of the dead,
In the feast we had spread. --

We hew'd with our swords.





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