Page:Five Pieces of Runic Poetry.djvu/44

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INTRODUCTION.

KING Regner Lodbrog was a celebrated Poet, Warrior, and (what was the same thing in those ages) Pirate; who reigned in Denmark, about the beginning of the ninth century. After many warlike expeditions by sea and land, he at length met with bad fortune. He was taken in battle by his adversary Ella king of Northumberland. War in those rude ages was carried on with the same inhumanity, as it is now among the savages of North-America: their prisoners were only reserved to be put to death with torture. Regner was accordingly thrown into a dungeon to be stung