Page:Northern Antiquities 2.djvu/285

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ocean seemed as one wound: the ravens waded in the blood of the slain.


****** “We fought with swords, in the day of that great fight, wherein I sent the inhabitants of Helsing to the Hall of Odin. Thence our ships carried us to Isa[1]: there our steel-pointed launces, reeking with gore, divided the armour with a terrible clang: there our swords cleft the shields asunder.


****** “We fought with swords, that day wherein I saw ten thousand of my foes rolling in the dust near a promontory of England. A dew of blood distilled from our swords. The arrows which flew in search of the helmets, bellowed through the air. The pleasure of that day was equal to that of clasping a fair virgin in my arms[2].


  1. Or the Vistula.
  2. I cannot help thinking, that the Reader will censure our ingenious Author, as not having here exerted his usual good taste in selecting, when he finds he has omitted such stanzas as the following, particularly the two last.

    “We fought with swords, in the Northumbrian land. A furious storm descended on the shields: