KING OLAF'S RETURN

KING OLAF'S RETURN
Situation And King Olaf heard the cry, Saw the red light in the sky,
Laid his hand upon his sword, As he leaned upon the railing, And his ships went sailing, sailing
Northward into Drontheim fiord.
Transition There he stood as one who dreamed; And the red light glanced and gleamed On the armor that he wore ;
And he shouted, as the rifted
Streamers o'er him shook and shifted,
"I accept thy challenge, Thor ! "
Retrospec- To his thoughts the sacred name live	Of his mother Astrid came,
Narrative	And the tale she oft had told
Of her flight by secret passes
Through the mountains and morasses, To the home of Hakon old.
Then strange memories crowded back Of Queen Gunhild's wrath and wrack, And a hurried flight by sea ;
Of grim Vikings, and the rapture Of the sea-fight, and the capture, And the life of slavery.
How a stranger watched his face In the Esthonian market-place,
Scanned his features one by one, Saying, "We should know each other ; I am Sigurd, Astrid's brother,
Thou art Olaf, Astrid's son !"
Then as Queen Allogia's page,
Old in honors, young in age,
Chief of all her men-at-arms ;
Till vague whispers, and mysterious, Reached King Valdemar, the imperious, Filling him with strange alarms.
Then his cruisings o'er the seas, Westward to the Hebrides,
And to Scilly's rocky shore ; And the hermit's cavern dismal Christ's great name and rites baptismal
In the ocean's rush and roar.
Conclusion All these thoughts of love and strife Glimmered through his lurid life,
As the stars' intenser light
Through the red flames o'er him trailing, As his ships went sailing, sailing
Northward in the summer night.
- HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, The Saga of King Olaf.