THE SKELETON IN ARMOR. "Well saw I the ancient parents, They were moving slow, in weeds of woe, 39 THE SKELETON IN ARMOR.' "SPEAK! speak! thou fearful guest! Why dost thou haunt me?" Then, from those cavernous eyes As when the Northern skies Gleam in December; 1 "This ballad was suggested to me," says Mr. Longfellow, "while riding on the sea-shore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors." It is generally conceded now that the Norsemen had nothing to do with the old mill at Newport, which is a close copy of one standing at Chesterton, in Warwickshire, England. The destruction of the armor shortly after it was found has prevented any trustworthy examination of it, to see if it was really Scandinavian or only Indian. The poet sings as one haunted by the skeleton, and able to call out its voice. 2 This old warrior was not embalmed as an Egyptian mummy. "Far in the Northern Land, "Oft to his frozen lair Tracked I the grisly bear, While from my path the hare Fled like a shadow; The Vik-ings took their name from an old Norse word, vik, still used in Norway, signifying creek, because these sea-pirates made their haunts among the indentations of the coast, and sallied out thence in search of booty. 2 The Skald was the Norse chronicler and poet who sang of brave deeds at the feasts of the warriors. The Saga was the saying or chronicle of the heroic deeds. There are many of these old sagas still preserved in Northern literature. 1 In the fables of Northern Europe there were said to be men who could change themselves into wolves at pleasure, and they were called were-wolves. a 2 There was a famous warrior in the fabulous history of Norway who went into battle bare of armor (ber bare; særkeshirt of mail), but possessed of a terrible rage; he had twelve sons like himself, who were also called Berserks or Berserkers, and the phrase Berserker rage has come into use to express a terrible fury which makes a man fearless and strong. Burning, yet tender; And as the white stars shine On that dark heart of mine "I wooed the blue-eyed maid, "Bright in her father's hall When of old Hildebrand I asked his daughter's hand, "While the brown ale he quaffed, THE SKELETON IN ARMOR. "She was a Prince's child, I but a Viking wild, And though she blushed and smiled, I was discarded! Should not the dove so white Why did they leave that night "Scarce had I put to sea, With twenty horsemen. "Then launched they to the blast, When the wind failed us; And with a sudden flaw "And as to catch the gale Round veered the flapping sail, Death! was the helmsman's hail, Death without quarter! Mid-ships with iron keel Struck we her ribs of steel; Down her black hulk did reel Through the black water! 43 |