Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/374

 3Q6 CHRONICLE OF THE saga viii. after Sigvat left the country, and went south to Rome, where he was at the time of the battle of Stiklestad. He made these verses then : — " Tired of war, I left my home, And took the saving road to Rome ; No more the wild wolf's jaws to fill, No more the blood of man to spill. The gold-entwined sword I left, The blue steel sword — the king's own gift; And with the pilgrim's staff in hand, I took my way through many a land." In autumn, as Sigvat was on his way back from the South, he heard the tidings of King Olaf 's fall, which gave him great grief. He then sang these lines : — " One morning early on a hill, The misty towns asleep and still, Wandering I thought upon the fields, Strewed o'er with broken mail and shields, Where our king fell, — our kind good king Where now his happy youthful spring ? My father too ! — for Thord was then One of the good king's chosen men." One day Sigvat went through a village, and heard a husband lamenting grievously over the loss of his wife, striking his breast, tearing his clothes, weeping bitterly, and saying he wanted to die ; and Sigvat sang these lines : — " This poor man mourns a much- loved wife, Gladly would he be quit of life. Must love be paid for by our grief? The price seems great for joy so brief. But the brave man who knows no fear Drops for his king a silent tear, And feels, perhaps, his loss as deep As those who clamour when they weep." Sigvat came home to Norway to the Drontheim country, where he had a farm and children. He came from the South along the coast in a merchant vessel, and as they lay in Hillar sound they saw a great many ravens flying about. Then Sigvat said, —