Fridthjofs Saga | Page 4

Swedish readers until they appeared in this poem. Tegne'r's experiment of introducing them was a successful one; and they are now, in the minds of Swedes, as much a part of the work as the story itself. The feminine rhymes, occurring in fifteen of the twenty-four cantos, are so melodious that no one who had heard the original, even if he did not understand a word of it, could be quite satisfied with a version which does not reproduce them. The feminine rhymes and the alliteration of Canto XXI have presented obstacles which no single translation has hitherto overcome.
The original measures the feminine rhymes and the alliteration of "Ring's Drapa," are, in our estimation, essential features of a good rendering of the poem, and if we have done our work well we do not fear that any one will think there are too many translations.
For a fuller history of "Fridthjof 's Saga" than can be given in this note, we refer the reader to Anderson's "Viking Tales," where the sagas on which this story is founded appear in full.
The preparation of this translation has been a home work which has brightened for us the firelight of many a pleasant evening. We publish it in full faith that it will have a like happy effect in whatever home it may be read.
October, 1876.

CONTENTS.
Canto I. Fridthjof and Ingeborg
-
Canto II. King Bele and Thorstein
Canto III. Fridthjof's Inheritance
Canto IV. Fridthjof's Courtship
Canto V. King Ring
Canto VI. Fridthjof Plays Chess
Canto VII. Fridthjof's Happiness
Canto VIII. The Parting
Canto IX. Ingeborg's Lament
Canto X. Fridthjof at Sea
Canto XI. Fridthjof with Angantyr
Canto XII. The Return
Canto XIII. Balder's Funeral Pile
Canto XIV. Fridthjof Goes Into Exile
Canto XV. The Viking Code
Canto XVI. Fridthjof and Bjorn
Canto XVII. Fridthjof Comes to King Ring
Canto XVIII. The Ride on the Ice
Canto XIX. Fridthjof's Temptation
Canto XX. King Ring's Death
Canto XXI. Ring's Drapa
Canto XXII. The King's Election
Canto XXIII. Fridthjof at his Father's Grave
Canto XXIV. The Reconciliation
Glossary
CHARACTERS
Bele. (Pronounced Bay'-lay.) King of Sogn, in Norway.
Helge (Hel'-gay) and Halfdan. His sons.
Ingeborg. (Ing'-e-borg.) His daughter.
Thorstein. (Tor'-stine.) A peasant, -friend and companion-in-arms of King Bele.
Fridthjof. (Freet'-yof.) Son of Thorstein.
Hilding. Foster-father and teacher of Fridthjof and Ingeborg.
Bjorn. (B'yorn.) A sworn foster-brother of Fridthjof.
Ring. King of Ringric, in Norway.
Angantyr. (Ang'-an-teer.) Ruler of the Orkney Islands.
Atle. (At'-lay.) A berserk, and one orf Angantyr's warriors.
SCENE--Northern Norway and the Orkney Islands.
FRIDTHJOF'S SAGA.
Fridthjof and Ingeborg.
In Hilding's garden, green and fair,?Protected by his fostering care,?Two rare and stately plants were growing,?Unequaled grace and beauty showing.
The one a sturdy oak tree grew,?With lance-like stem so straight and true,?Its crown in northern tempests shaking?Like helmet plume in battle quaking.
The other like a rose sprang forth?When tardy winter leaves the north,?And spring, which in the buds lies dreaming,?Still waits with gems to set them gleaming.
Around the earth the storm-king raves,?The wrestling oak its anger braves;?The sun dissolves frost's mantle hoary,?The buds reveal their hidden glory.
So they grew up in joy and glee,?And Fridthjof was the young oak tree;?Unfolding in the vale serenely,?The rose was Ingeborg the queenly.
Saw you those two by light of day?You seem in Freyja's house to stay,?Where bride-pairs, golden-haired, were swinging,?Their way on rosy pinions winging.
But seeing them by moonlight pale?Round dancing in the leafy vale,?You'd think: The elf-king now advances,?And leads his queen in fairy dances.
How joyful 'twas, how lovely too,?When firs[ he learned his futhorc through;?No kings had e'er such honor brought them?As when to Ingeborg he taught them.
How joyously his boat would glide?With those two o'er the dark blue tide:?While he the driving sail was veering,?Her small white hands gave hearty cheering.
No bird's nest found so high a spot,?That he for her could find it not;?The eagle's nest from clouds he sundered,?And eggs and young he deftly plundered.
However swift, there ran no brook,?But o'er it Ingeborg he took;?How sweet when roaring torrents frighten,?To feel her soft arms round him tighten.
The first; spring flowers by sunshine fed,?The earliest berries turning red,?The first of autumn's golden treasure,?He proffered her with eager pleasure.

But quickly sped are childhood's days,--?There stands a youth whose ardent gaze?With pleading and with hope is laden,?And there, with budding charms, a maiden.
Young Fridthjof followed oft the chase,?Which led to many a fearful place;?With neither spear nor lance defended,?The wild bear's life he quickly ended.
When, struggling, met they breast to breast,?The hunter won, though hardly pressed,?And brought the bearskin home; such prizes,?Think you, a maiden e'er despises?
For woman values courage rare;?The brave alone deserves the fair,?Each one the other's grace completing,?As brow and helmet fitly meeting.
And when in winter evenings long,?By firelight reading, in a song,?Of fair abodes in radiant heaven
To every god and goddess given,
He thought: "Of gold is Ing'borg's hair,?A net for rose and lily fair:?Like Freyja's bounteous golden tresses,?A wheat-field which the breeze caresses.
Fair Idun's beauteous bosom beats?Beneath the green silk's safe retreats,--?I know a silk whose sheen encloses?Light; fairies two, with buds of roses.
And Frigg's