Refrain: _But the tempest from the North Lashes dark and troubled billows On the gleaming waste of sand._ [Footnote 1: The translation of the refrain is somewhat free; but cf. Olrik, _D. F. Ì U._, p. 78. Extreme condensation is a feature of all Faroese and Danish ballad refrains which makes a literal translation into English practically impossible.] In MS. _B_ of the _Ballad of Angelfyr_ etc., _vv._ 1-11 correspond pretty closely to MS. _A_; but _vv._ 12-18 are different: 12. Alff he stood in Odderskier, And listened over the field; Then could he hear so far away Where his sons their swords did wield. 13. Up then rose Alff in Odderskier; He sprang on his red-roan steed; And came he so to Upsala Ere both the warriors were dead. 14. "O hearken, hearken, Young Helmer, Beloved son of mine: Why does the life blood from thy head In streams come running down?" 15. It was Young Helmer the Warrior, And his father answered he: "My brother Angelfyr could not have the maid, And therefore he wrought this ill to me. 16. "My body is pierced with fifteen wounds, All tainted with poison full sore; And had I only one of them I could not live an hour." 17. It was Alff in Odderskier, And an oak he uprootÈd; He struck with the oak Young Angelfyr, Till he lay on the earth stone dead. 18. Now both these warriors are lying dead, And dead lie they in their grave; And the King he is ready to give his daughter To the man whom he himself will have. INTRODUCTION TO THE FAROESE BALLAD OF ARNGRIM'S SONS The _Ballad of Arngrim's Sons_ was first taken down by Svabo towards the close of the eighteenth century. He never published it, but his MS. (III. 9) is preserved in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. In 1848 V. U. Hammershaimb took the ballad down again from oral recitation on Sand¯ and published it in the _Antiquarisk TÌdsskrift_, 1849-1851 (Copenhagen, 1852). He had, however, consulted Svabo's version, for he says in the prefatory note to the ballad: It is entirely confused in Svabo's version in the Royal Library. I have therefore kept to the version which I got on Sand¯, which in the main points agrees with the Saga. Only in the conclusion and two other passages have I followed Svabo's version. By 1855, however, it would seem that his view had changed. In his prefatory note to the _Ballad of Arngrim's Sons_, published in _Nordiske Oldskrifter_, vols. 18-19, Part II (Copenhagen, 1855), he writes: