Offspring of heroes, wisely done! Oh, dearer is this gift to me Than Norway in her pride could be! _Angantyr._ O woman! mad and blind to fate! Rejoicing _now_, but wise too late, When thou shalt see thine offspring all, Beneath that fatal weapon fall. _Hervor._ Too long in parting I delay; My heroes call—I must obey. Let my sons quarrel as they will, My father’s gift! I hold thee still. Spirits whom I have roused, farewell! I feel the fires in which ye dwell Burning around me. Here I cease. Spirits, retire, and rest in peace![75] Footnote 74: For this translation we are indebted to a literary friend who furnished us with it many years ago. Footnote 75: Hervarar Saga, cap. vii.–xviii. pp. 57–221. Footnote 76: Profane not, youth—it is not thine To judge the spirit of our line— The bold berserkars’ rage divine, Through whose inspiring, deeds are wrought Past human strength and human thought. When full upon his gloomy soul The champion feels the influence roll, He swims the lake, he leaps the wall, Heeds not the depth nor plumbs the fall— Unshielded, mailless, on he goes Singly against a host of foes; Their spears he holds as withered reeds, Their mails like maidens’ silken weeds: One ‘gainst a hundred will he strive, Take countless wounds, and yet survive. How rush the eagles to his cry Of slaughter and of victory; And blood he quaffs like Odin’s bowl, Deep drinks his sword—deep drinks his soul, And all that meet him in his ire He gives to ruin, rout, and fire. Then, like gorged lion, seeks some den, And couches till he’s man agen. _Harold the Dauntless_, Canto iii. st. 8. Footnote 77: Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan., passim. Ihre, Glossarium Suio-Gothicum, sub voce _Berserker_. Depping, Histoire des Expeditions Maritimes des Normands, tom. i. chap. 2. Footnote 78: Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. v. Footnote 79: Son of the celebrated chief of this name. See before, page 77. Footnote 80: See Introduction, sketch of Odin’s life. Footnote 81: Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danica, lib. vi.–viii. pp. 102–149. Ynglinga Saga, cap. xxix. (apud Snorronis Heimskringlam, tom. i.). Eyrbiggia Saga, passim. Footnote 82: