Then darkly the words of the boding strain "Soft be thy step through the silence deep, And move not the urn in the house of sleep, For the viewless have fearful might!" But the gleaming sword and shield Hung o'er that urn, reveal'd By the tomb-fire's waveless ray. With a faded wreath of oak-leaves bound, With a beating heart his son drew near, And many a Saga's rhyme, Call'd back, to daunt the brave. But he rais'd his arm-and the flame grew dim, The deep tomb rang with a heavy sound, One moment-and all was still The stars were just fading, one by one, The clouds were just ting'd by the early sun, When there stream'd through the cavern a torch's flame, And the brother of Sigurd the valiant came To seek him in the tomb. VOL. II. Stretch'd on his shield, like the steel-girt slain "The morning wind blows free, "I have put out the holy sepulchral fire, "In the mantle of death he was here with me now,- "The morning wind blows free, "He is there, he is there, with his shadowy frown! The crown from his head, and the spear from his hand,- "He must go forth alone on his phantom steed, He is driven from Valhalla without his sword! But the slayer shall avenge the dead!" That sword its fame had won VALKYRIUR SONG. The Valkyriur, or Fatal Sisters of Northern Mythology, were supposed to single out the warriors who were to die in battle, and be received into the halls of Odin. When a northern chief fell gloriously in war, his obsequies were honored with all possible magnificence. His arms, gold and silver, war-horse, domestic attendants, and whatever else he held must dear, were placed with him on the pile. His dependants and friends frequently made it a point of honor to die with their leader, in order to attend on his shade in Valhalla, or the Palace of Odin. And lastly, his wife was generally consumed with him on the same pile. See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Herbert's Helga, &c. Tremblingly flash'd th' inconstant meteor light, THE Sea-king woke from the troubled sleep Milman, And he look'd from his bark o'er the gloomy deep, For the red sun's earliest ray Was to rouse his bands that day, To the stormy joy of fight! But the dreams of rest were still on earth, And the silent stars on high, And there waved not the smoke of one cabin rearth 'Midst the quiet of the sky; And along the twilight bay In their sleep the hamlets lay, For they knew not the Norse were nigh! The Sea-king look'd o'er the brooding wave, He turn'd to the dusky shore, And there seem'd, through the arch of a tide-worn cave, Slowly they moved to the billow side; And to beckon with faint hand And a sudden rising breeze "There are songs in Odin's Hall, "At the feast and in the song, Lo! the mighty sun looks forth- There was arming heard on land and wave, And the phantom forms of the tide-worn cave THE CAVERN OF THE THREE TELLS. EWISS TRADITION. The three founders of the Helvetic Confederacy are thought to sleep in a cavern near the lake of Lucerne. The herdsmen call them the Three Tells; and say that they lie there in their antique garb, in quiet slumber; and when Switzerland is in her utmost need, they will awaken and regain the liberties of the land. See Quarterly Review, No. 44. The Grutli, where the confederates held their nightly meetings, is a meadow on the shore of the Lake of Lucerne, or Lake of the Forest-cantons, here called the Forest-sea. OH! enter not yon shadowy cave Though the whispering pines that o'er it wave, With freshness fill the air: For there the Patriot Three, In the garb of old array'd, By their native Forest-sea The Patriot Three that met of yore And leagued their hearts on the Grutli shore, In the name of liberty! Now silently they sleep Amidst the hills they freed; Till their country's hour of need. They start not at the hunter's call, Nor the rush of a sudden torrent's fall, |