One night when one o' the Irish Kings
Was sleeping in his bed,
Six Danish Kings--so Sigvat sings--
Came an' cut off his head.
The Irish boys they heard the noise,
And flocked unto the shore;
They caught the kings, and put out their eyes,
And left them in their gore.
_Chorus_--Oh! this is the way we served the kings,
An' spoiled their pleasure, the dirty things,
When they came to harry and flap their wings
Upon the Irish shore-ore,
Upon the Irish shore.
Next year the Danes took terrible pains
To wipe that stain away;
They came with a fleet, their foes to meet,
Across the stormy say.
Each Irish carl great stones did hurl
In such a mighty rain,
The Danes went down, with a horrible stoun,
An' never came up again!
Oh! this is the way, etcetera.
The men were still laughing and applauding Krake's song when Olaf, who
chanced to look over the bow of the vessel, started up and shouted
"Land, ho!" in a shrill voice, that rang through the whole ship.
Instantly, the poop and forecastle were crowded, and there, on the
starboard bow, they saw a faint blue line of hills far away on the
horizon. Olaf got full credit for having discovered the land first on
this occasion; and for some time everything else was forgotten in
speculations as to what this new land would turn out to be; but the
wind, which had been getting lighter every hour that day, died away
almost to a calm, so that, as there was no prospect of reaching the land
for some hours, the men gradually fell back to their old places and
occupation.
"Now, then, Krake," said Tyrker, "tell us the story about that king you
were talking of the other day; which was it? Harald--"
"Ay, King Harald," said Krake, "and how he came to get the name of
Greyskin. Well, you must know that it's not many years ago since my
father, Sigurd, was a trader between Iceland and Norway. He went to
other places too, sometimes--and once to Ireland, on which occasion it
was that I was taken prisoner and kept so long in the country, that I
became an Irishman. But after escaping and getting home I managed to
change back into an Icelander, as ye may see! Well, in my father's
younger days, before I was born--which was a pity! for he needed help
sorely at that time, and I would have been just the man to turn myself
handy to any sort of work; however, it wasn't _my_ fault,--in his
younger days, my father one summer went over from Iceland to Norway,--
his ship loaded till she could hardly float, with skins and peltry,
chiefly grey wolves. It's my opinion that the reason she didn't go down
was that they had packed her so tight there was no room for the water to
get in and sink her. Anyway, over the sea she went and got safe to
Norway.
"At that time King Harald, one of the sons of Eric, reigned in Norway,
after the death of King Hakon the Good. He and my father were great
friends, but they had not met for some time; and not since Harald had
come to his dignity. My father sailed to Hardanger, intending to
dispose of his pelts there if he could. Now, King Harald generally had
his seat in Hordaland and Bogaland, and some of his brothers were
usually with him; but it chanced that year that they went to Hardanger,
so my father and the king met, and had great doings, drinking beer and
talking about old times when they were boys together.
"My father then went to the place where the greatest number of people
were met in the fiord, but nobody would buy any of his skins. He
couldn't understand this at all, and was very much annoyed at it, and at
night when he was at supper with the king he tells him about it. The
king was in a funny humour that night. He had dashed his beard with
beer to a great extent, and laughed heartily sometimes without my father
being able to see what was the joke. But my father was a knowing man.
He knew well enough that people are sometimes given to hearty laughter
without troubling themselves much about the joke--especially when they
are beery,--so he laughed too, out of friendliness, and was very
sociable.
"When my father went away the king promised to pay him a visit on board
of his ship next day, which he did, sure enough; and my father took care
to let it be known that he was coming, so there was no lack of the
principal people thereabouts. They had all come down together, by the
merest chance, to the place where the ship lay, just to enjoy the fresh
air--being fresher there that day than at most other places on the
fiord, no doubt!
"King Harald came with a fully-manned boat, and a number of followers.
He was very condescending and full of fun, as he had been the night
before. When he was going away he looked at the skins, and said to my
father, `Wilt thou give me a present of one of these wolf-skins?'
"`Willingly,' says my father, `and as many more as you please.'
"On this, the king wrapped himself up in a wolf-skin and went back to
his boat and rowed away. Immediately after, all the boats in his suite
came alongside and looked at the wolf-skins with great admiration, and
every man bought just such another wolf-skin as the king had got. In a
few days so many people came to buy skins, that not half of them could
be served with what they wanted, and the upshot was that my father's
vessel was cleared out down to the keel, and thereafter the king went,
as you know, by the name of Harald Greyskin.
"But here we are, comrades," continued Krake, rising, "drawing near to
the land,--I'll have a look at it."
The country off which they soon cast anchor was flat and overgrown with
wood; and the strand far around consisted of white sand, and was very
low towards the sea. Biarne said that it was the country to which Leif
had given the name of Markland, because it was well-wooded; they
therefore went ashore in the small boat, but finding nothing in
particular to attract their interest, they soon returned on board and
again put to sea with an onshore wind from the north-east. [Some
antiquaries appear to be of opinion that Helloland must have been
Newfoundland, and Markland some part of Nova Scotia.]
For two days they continued their voyage with the same wind, and then
made land for the third time and found it to be an island. It was
blowing hard at the time, and Biarne advised that they should take
shelter there and wait for good weather. This they did, and, as before,
a few of them landed to explore the country, but there was not much to
take note of. Little Olaf, who was one of the explorers, observed dew
on the grass, and, remembering that Leif had said that the dew on one of
the islands which he met with was _sweet_, he shook some into the hollow
of his hand and tasted it, but looked disappointed.
"Are you thirsty, Olaf?" asked Karlsefin, who, with Biarne, walked
beside him.
"No, but I wondered if the dew would be sweet. My father said it was,
on one of the islands he came to."
"Foolish boy," said Biarne, laughing; "Leif did but speak in a figure.
He was very hot and tired at the time, and found the dew sweet to his
thirsty spirit as well as refreshing to his tongue."
"Thus you see, Olaf," observed Karlsefin, with a sly look at Biarne,
"whenever you chance to observe your father getting angry, and hear him
say that his beer is sour, you are not to suppose that it is really
sour, but must understand that it is only sour to his cross spirit as
well as disagreeable to his tongue."
Olaf received this with a loud laugh, for, though he was puzzled for a
moment by Biarne's explanation, he saw through the jest at once.
"Well, Biarne," returned Olaf; "whether the dew was sweet to my father's
tongue or to his spirit I cannot tell, but I remember that when he told
us about the sweet dew, he said it was near to the island where he found
it that the country he called Vinland lay. So, if this be the sweet-dew
island, Vinland cannot be far off."
"The boy is sharp beyond his years," said Karlsefin, stopping abruptly
and looking at Biarne; "what thinkest thou of that?"
"I think," replied the other, "that Olaf will be a great discoverer some
day, for it seems to me not unlikely that he may be right."
"Come, we shall soon see," said Karlsefin, turning round and hastening
back to the boat.
Biarne either had not seen this particular spot on his former visit to
these shores, which is quite probable, or he may have forgotten it, for
he did not recognise it as he had done the first land they made; but
before they left Ericsfiord, Leif had given them a very minute and
careful description of the appearance of the coast of Vinland,
especially of that part of it where he had made good his landing and set
up his booths, so that the explorers might be in a position to judge
correctly when they should approach it. Nevertheless, as every one
knows, regions, even when well defined, may wear very different aspects
when seen by different people, for the first time, from different points
of view. So it was on this occasion. The voyagers had hit the island a
short distance further south than the spot where Leif came upon it, and
did not recognise it in the least. Indeed they had begun to doubt
whether it really was an island at all. But now that Olaf had awakened
their suspicions, they hastened eagerly on board the "_Snake_," and
sailed round the coast until they came into a sound which lay between
the Island and a cape that jutted out northward from the land.
"'Tis Vinland!" cried Biarne in an excited tone.
"Don't be too sure of that," said Thorward, as a sudden burst of
sunshine lit up land and sea.
"I cannot be too sure," cried Biarne, pointing to the land. "See, there
is the ness that Leif spoke of going out northwards from the land; there
is the island; here, between it and the ness, is the sound, and yonder,
doubtless, is the mouth of the river which comes out of the lake where
the son of Eric built his booths. Ho! Vinland! hurrah!" he shouted,
enthusiastically waving his cap above his head.
The men were not slow to echo his cheer, and they gave it forth not a
whit less heartily.
"'Tis a noble land to look upon," said Gudrid, who with the other
females of the party had been for some time gazing silently and
wistfully towards it.
"Perchance it may be a _great_ land some day," observed Karlsefin.
"Who knows?" murmured Thorward in a contemplative tone.
"Ay, who knows?" echoed Biarne; "time and luck can work wonders."
"God's blessing can work wonders," said Karlsefin, impressively; "may He
grant it to us while we sojourn here!"
With that he gave orders to prepare to let go the anchor, but the sound,
over which they were gliding slowly before a light wind, was very
shallow, and he had scarcely ceased speaking when the ship struck with
considerable violence, and remained fast upon the sand.