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 224 LONGFELLOW

So far I live to the northward,

From the harbour of Skeringes-hale, If you only sailed by day With a fair wind all the way,

More than a month would you sail.

I own six hundred reindeer,

With sheep and swine beside; I have tribute from the Finns, Whalebone and reindeer-skins, And ropes of walrus-hide.

I ploughed the land with horses, But my heart was ill at ease,

For the old seafaring men

Came to me now and then,

With their sagas of the seas;

Of Iceland and of Greenland, And the stormy Hebrides,

And the undiscovered deep;

I could not eat nor sleep For thinking of those seas.

To the northward stretched the desert,

How far I fain would know; So at last I sallied forth, And three days sailed due north, As far as the whale-ships go.

To the west of me was the ocean, To the right the desolate shore, But I did not slacken sail For the walrus or the whale, Till after three days more.

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