Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 094.djvu/464

454 have been the daughter of a Swede, called Sigurd, who died when she was three years old; she was then taken charge of by one Heimer, and removed to Norway. He was murdered by a man and woman called Ake and Grima, who took Aslauga with them to Spangereid, and made her keep their sheep. Regnar Lodbrok, sailing past with his fleet on some piratical expedition, put into the little harbour, and sent a few of his men on shore to bake bread; but these rovers were so much struck with Aslauga’s beauty, and so much occupied in admiring her, that they forgot the bread, which was accordingly burned. When they returned on board, Regnar was enraged at their carelessness; but his wrath was mollified when he heard the cause of the disaster, and, although he had a very handsome wife, named Thora, he determined to see the beauty who had caused the damage to his bread. He therefore sent his royal order for Aslauga to come on board his ship, and alone.

She promised to obey, and next day made her appearance alongside his vessel in a little fishing-boat, accompanied only by a very fierce dog. Nothing, however, would induce her to ascend the side of the sea-king’s ship; and as Regnar, failing in his persuasions, was probably about to try some more active means of getting her there, her dog bit him in the hand. The dog was immediately killed, and the damsel returned to the shore. But in the short interview she had won the susceptible heart of the warrior-king, and she made her own terms. She was to be his queen, or he was never to see her more. She further stipulated that he was to leave her then, and if his love continued, he was to return again in a year, when she would marry him.

At the expiration of the year Regnar returned "upon wings," as the Danish version has it. They were married, great festivities were held at his court, and she became his queen, Morals and manners must have both been very defective at that period, else Aslauga could not well have stepped into the living Thora’s place. She maintained her influence over the sea-king for the rest of his life; and after his murder, by the English chief Ella, she composed a poem to his memory, which was called "The Lay, or Lament of Kraaka." This royal couple were among the earliest poets of Denmark, though it is a disputed point whether Regnar Lodbrok’s "Death Song" was his own composition, that of some Skald, or the production of the widowed Aslauga.

The kings and chieftains of Scandinavia were not, however, generally themselves poets or historians, but they frequently had some bard among their retainers, for as books and manuscripts were rare, as there were no newspapers or periodicals in those days to chronicle passing events, the land and sea kings, and the warriors of note, were glad to have their deeds blazoned abroad, and handed down to posterity, in the songs and Sagas of the Skalds, and other bards, who were equally welcome guests in the halls of the Jarl’s castle, in the substantial abodes of the thriving burghers, and in the rude hut of the peasant.

These northern poets and historians, whose recitations, doubtless, blended many fables with some truths, were not unlike the minnesingers, the troubadours, and wandering minstrels of southern lands. One of the earliest of the court Skalds, mentioned in Danish history, was Thorbiorn Hornklofe, the poet-laureate of Harald Haarfager, a king equally famous