Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/360

 wards Hakon expired, at the little hill on the shoreside at which he was born. So great was the sorrow over Hakon's death, that he was lamented both by friends and enemies; and they said that never again would Norway see such a king. His friends removed his body to Seaheim , in North Hordaland, and made a great mound, in which they laid the king in full armour and in his best clothes, but with no other goods. They spoke over his grave, as heathen people are used to do, and wished him inYalhalla. Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed a poem on the death of King Hakon, and on how well he was received in Valhalla. The poem is called " Hakonarmal: " —

In Odin's hall an empty place

Stands for a king of Yngve's race;

Go, my valkyriars,' Odin said,

Go forth, my angels of the dead,

Gondul and Skogul, to the plain

Drenched with the battle's bloody rain,

And to the dying Hakon tell,

Here in Valhalla he shall dwell.'

At Stord, so late a lonely shore,

Was heard the battle's wild uproar;

The lightning of the flashing sword

Burned fiercely at the shore of Stord.

From levelled halberd and spear-head

Life-blood was dropping fast and red;

And the keen arrows' biting sleet

Upon the shore at Stord fast heat.

Upon the thundering cloud of shield

Flashed bright the sword-storm o'er the field;

And on the plate-mail rattled loud

The arrow-shower's rushing cloud,

In Odin's tempest-weather, there

Swift whistling through the angry air;

And the spear-torrent swept away

Ranks of brave men from light of day.

With batter'd shield, and hlood-smear'd sword,

Sits one beside the shore at Stord,