Page:The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson.djvu/196



'Oft to my mind My loss doth come, How I brotherless bide Bereaved and lone. Thereon I bethink me, When thickens the fight Thereon with much searching My soul doth muse:

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'Who staunch stands by me	In stress of fight, Shoulder to shoulder, Side by side? Such want doth weaken In war's dread hour; Weak-winged I fly, Whom friends all fail.

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'Son's place to his sire (Saith a proverb true) Another son born Alone can fill. Of kinsmen none (Though ne'er so kind) To brother can stand In brother's stead.

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'O'er all our ice-fields, Our northern snows, Few now I find Faithful and true. Dark deeds men love, Doom death to their kin, A brother's body Barter for gold.

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'Unpleasing to me	Our people's mood, Each seeking his own In selfish peace. To the happier bees' home Hath passed my son, My good wife's child To his glorious kin.

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'Odin, mighty monarch, Of minstrel mead the lord, On me a heavy hand Harmful doth lay. Gloomy in unrest Ever I grieve, Sinks my drooping brow, Seat of sight and thought.

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'Fierce fire of sickness First from my home Swept off a son With savage blow: One who was heedful, Harmless, I wot, In deeds unblemished, In words unblamed.

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'Still do I mind me, When the Friend of men High uplifted To the home of gods That sapling stout Of his father's stem, Of my true wife born A branch so fair.

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'Once bare I goodwill To the great spear-lord, Him trusty and true I trowed for friend: Ere the giver of conquest, The car-borne god, Broke faith and friendship False in my need.

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'Now victim and worship To Vilir's brother, The god once honoured, I give no more. Yet the friend of Mimir On me hath bestowed Some boot for bale, If all boons I tell.