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and there upon the trampled plain the farmer iron-beard lay slain midway between the assailed and the assailing
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and seeing their leader stark and dead the people with a murmur said o king baptize us with thy holy water
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so all the drontheim land became a christian land in name and fame in the old gods no more believing and trusting
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and as a blood-atonement soon king olaf wed the fair gudrun and thus in peace ended the drontheim hus-ting
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cold will be the dagger's kiss laden with the chill of death is its breath
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forests have ears and fields have eyes often treachery lurking lies underneath the fairest hair
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every scald satires scrawled on poor thangbrand olaf's priest
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o king olaf little hope is there of these iceland men
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meekly said with bending head pious thangbrand olaf's priest
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little time have we for speaking choose between the good and evil be baptized or thou shalt die
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sing me a song divine with a sword in every line and this shall be thy reward
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and he loosened the belt at his waist and in front of the singer placed his sword
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but the king said o my son i miss the bright word in one of thy measures and thy rhymes
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and halfred the scald replied in another 't was multiplied three times
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and halfred the scald said this in the name of the lord i kiss who on it was crucified
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and a shout went round the board in the name of christ the lord who died
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could you not be gone a minute but some mischief must be doing turning bad to worse
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they who to the saga listened heard the name of thorberg skafting for a hundred year
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thirty men they each commanded iron-sinewed horny-handed shoulders broad and chests expanded
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when they landed from the fleet how they roared through drontheim's street boisterous as the gale
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never saw the wild north sea such a gallant company sail its billows blue
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the king yes olaf the king has wedded her with his ring and thyri is queen in the land
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i your pilot will be for i know all the channels where flows the deep sea
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king olaf laid an arrow on string have i a coward on board said he
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sullenly answered ulf the old sea-wolf you have need of me
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what was that said olaf standing on the quarter-deck
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it is accepted the angry defiance the challenge of battle
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it is accepted but not with the weapons of war that thou wieldest
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cross against corselet love against hatred peace-cry for war-cry
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patience is powerful he that o'ercometh hath power o'er the nations
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the dawn is not distant nor is the night starless love is eternal
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god is still god and his faith shall not fail us christ is eternal
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and all translated in the air reach me but as our dear lord's prayer and as the sermon on the mount
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o pitiless skies why did your clouds retain for peasants' fields their floods of hoarded rain
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o pitiless earth why open no abyss to bury in its chasm a crime like this
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then from his house a temple painted white with fluted columns and a roof of red the squire came forth august and splendid sight
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or a few cherries that are not so sweet as are the songs these uninvited guests sing at their feast with comfortable breasts
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of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams as in an idiot's brain remembered words hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams
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and so the dreadful massacre began o'er fields and orchards and o'er woodland crests the ceaseless fusillade of terror ran
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alone remained the drowsy squire to rake the embers of the fire and quench the waning parlor light
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this brings a tale into my mind which if you are not disinclined to listen i will now relate
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domeneddio cried the syndie straight this is the knight of atri's steed of state
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or dreaming speak to us and make a feint of being half awake and tell us what your dreams may be
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and yet on such a dismal day we need a merrier tale to clear the dark and heavy atmosphere
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below upon the altar-rail indulgences were set to sale like ballads at a country fair
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then from the pulpit overhead tetzel the monk with fiery glow thundered upon the crowd below
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count but the gain count not the loss your gold and silver are but dross and yet they pave the way to heaven
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i hear your mothers and your sires cry from their purgatorial fires and will ye not their ransom pay
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o senseless people when the gate of heaven is open will ye wait
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before the winter wore away her body in the churchyard lay her patient soul was with the just
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and from his pocket with all speed he drew the priestly title-deed and prayed the justice he would read
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though long thou livest yet this grace until the moment of thy death unchangeable continueth
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then said he to the priest: i find this document is duly signed brother john tetzel his own hand
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at all tribunals in the land in evidence it may be used therefore acquitted is the accused
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mine had a better and the jew's had none at all that i could see his aim was only to amuse
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it is a certain sign of death the cabin-boy here held his breath he felt his blood run cold
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i should like to see this ship said he i should like to find these chimneys three that are marked down in the chart
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o it must be like heaven thought he those far-off foreign lands to see and fortune seek and find
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her masts were stripped her yards were bare and on her bowsprit poised in air sat the klaboterman
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the rector paused the impatient governor cried this is the lady do you hesitate
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lord he thought in heaven that reignest who am i that thus thou deignest to reveal thyself to me
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who am i that from the centre of thy glory thou shouldst enter this poor cell my guest to be
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deep distress and hesitation mingled with his adoration should he go or should he stay
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should he leave the poor to wait hungry at the convent gate till the vision passed away
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where is the landlord bring him here let the lost pleiad reappear
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so he came back with downcast head exclaiming: well our bashful host hath surely given up the ghost
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you must he to the student said who know so many of the best and tell them better than the rest
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ah me he turns away and sighs there is a mist before his eyes
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lower and lower on his breast sinks his gray head he is at rest no longer he waits for any one
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and the baron smiles and says you see i told you but the simple truth ah you may trust the eyes of youth
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and in course of time the curate learns a secret so dreadful that by turns he is ice and fire he freezes and burns
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for the sake of the living and the dead thou shalt be wed as christians wed and all things come to a happy end
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it was not i it was another did these things unto thee o brother i only have thee hold thee break thee
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the king looked and replied: i know him well it is the angel men call azrael 't is the death angel what hast thou to fear
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and olger answered: when he shall appear you will behold what manner of man he is but what will then befall us i know not
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his helmet was of iron and his gloves of iron and his breastplate and his greaves and tassets were of iron and his shield
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the fields and all the roads were filled with iron and points of iron glistened in the sun and shed a terror through the city streets
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was eginhard a youth of frankish race whose face was bright with flashes that forerun the splendors of a yet unrisen sun
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they saw the palace courtyard white with snow and placid as a nun the moon on high gazing from cloudy cloisters of the sky
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come back within the hour on thy return the work appointed for thee shalt thou learn
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the missing man ah yes they said missing but whither had he fled
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thoughts of him to-day have been oft borne inward upon me wherefore i do not know but strong is the feeling within me that once more i shall see a face i have never forgotten
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then there were voices heard as of two men talking together and to herself as she listened upbraiding said hannah the housemaid it is joseph come back and i wonder what stranger is with him
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then came the hour of sleep death's counterfeit nightly rehearsal of the great silent assembly the meeting of shadows where no man speaketh but all are still and the peace and rest are unbroken
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when the lord's work is done and the toil and the labor completed he hath appointed to me i will gather into the stillness of my own heart awhile and listen and wait for his guidance
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then elizabeth said not troubled nor wounded in spirit so is it best john estaugh we will not speak of it further
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and on the first-day that followed he rose in the silent assembly holding in his strong hand a hand that trembled a little promising to be kind and true and faithful in all things
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lord how he drank the blood-red country wine as if the village vintage were divine
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good father said he easily we see how needful in some persons and how right mortification of the flesh may be
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good father the rebellious flesh i see has changed you back into an ass again and all my admonitions were in vain
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so brother timothy went back once more to his old life of labor and distress was beaten worse than he had been before
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but this i will not now discuss i leave the theme that we may thus remain within the realm of song
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the story that i told before though not acceptable to all at least you did not find too long
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i beg you let me try again with something in a different vein before you bid the curtain fall
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alas why art thou here and the army of amurath slain and left on the battle plain
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then again iskander cried now follow whither i ride for here thou must not stay
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but the sullen scribe replied our pathways here divide mine leadeth not thy way
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and the pasha bowed his head and after a silence said allah is just and great
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i yield to the will divine the city and lands are thine who shall contend with fate
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this simple ballad i retain clearly imprinted on my brain and as a tale will now repeat
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