The Skeleton In Armour

"Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!

Who, with thy hollow breast

Still in rude armor drest,

    Comest to daunt me!

Wrapt not in Eastern balms,

But with thy fleshless palms

Stretched, as if asking alms,

    Why dost thou haunt me?"

Then, from those cavernous eyes

Pale flashes seemed to rise,

As when the Northern skies

    Gleam in December;

And, like the water's flow

Under December's snow,

Came a dull voice of woe

    From the heart's chamber.

"I was a Viking old!

My deeds, though manifold,

No Skald in song has told,

    No Saga taught thee!

Take heed, that in thy verse

Thou dost the tale rehearse,

Else dread a dead man's curse;

    For this I sought thee.

"Far in the Northern Land,

By the wild Baltic's strand,

I, with my childish hand,

    Tamed the gerfalcon;

And, with my skates fast-bound,

Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,

That the poor whimpering hound

    Trembled to walk on.

"Oft to his frozen lair

Tracked I the grisly bear,

While from my path the hare

    Fled like a shadow;

Oft through the forest dark

Followed the were-wolf's bark,

Until the soaring lark

    Sang from the meadow.

"But when I older grew,

Joining a corsair's crew,

O'er the dark sea I flew

    With the marauders.

Wild was the life we led;

Many the souls that sped,

Many the hearts that bled,

    By our stern orders.

"Many a wassail-bout

Wore the long Winter out;

Often our midnight shout

    Set the cocks crowing,

As we the Berserk's tale

Measured in cups of ale,

Draining the oaken pail,

    Filled to o'erflowing.

"Once as I told in glee

Tales of the stormy sea,

Soft eyes did gaze on me,

    Burning yet tender;

And as the white stars shine

On the dark Norway pine,

On that dark heart of mine

    Fell their soft splendor.

"I wooed the blue-eyed maid,

Yielding, yet half afraid,

And in the forest's shade

    Our vows were plighted.

Under its loosened vest

Fluttered her little breast,

Like birds within their nest

    By the hawk frighted.

"Bright in her father's hall

Shields gleamed upon the wall,

Loud sang the minstrels all,

    Chanting his glory;

When of old Hildebrand

I asked his daughter's hand,

Mute did the minstrels stand

    To hear my story.

"While the brown ale he quaffed,

Loud then the champion laughed,

And as the wind-gusts waft

    The sea-foam brightly,

So the loud laugh of scorn,

Out of those lips unshorn,

From the deep drinking-horn

    Blew the foam lightly.

"She was a Prince's child,

I but a Viking wild,

And though she blushed and smiled,

    I was discarded!

Should not the dove so white

Follow the sea-mew's flight,

Why did they leave that night

    Her nest unguarded?

"Scarce had I put to sea,

Bearing the maid with me,

Fairest of all was she

    Among the Norsemen!

When on the white sea-strand,

Waving his armed hand,

Saw we old Hildebrand,

    With twenty horsemen.

"Then launched they to the blast,

Bent like a reed each mast,

Yet we were gaining fast,

    When the wind failed us;

And with a sudden flaw

Came round the gusty Skaw,

So that our foe we saw

    Laugh as he hailed us.

"And as to catch the gale

Round veered the flapping sail,

'Death!' was the helmsman's hail,

    'Death without quarter!'

Mid-ships with iron keel

Struck we her ribs of steel;

Down her black hulk did reel

    Through the black water!

"As with his wings aslant,

Sails the fierce cormorant,

Seeking some rocky haunt,

    With his prey laden, — 

So toward the open main,

Beating to sea again,

Through the wild hurricane,

    Bore I the maiden.

"Three weeks we westward bore,

And when the storm was o'er,

Cloud-like we saw the shore

    Stretching to leeward;

There for my lady's bower

Built I the lofty tower,

Which, to this very hour,

  Stands looking seaward.

"There lived we many years;

Time dried the maiden's tears;

She had forgot her fears,

    She was a mother;

Death closed her mild blue eyes,

Under that tower she lies;

Ne'er shall the sun arise

    On such another!

"Still grew my bosom then,

Still as a stagnant fen!

Hateful to me were men,

    The sunlight hateful!

In the vast forest here,

Clad in my warlike gear,

Fell I upon my spear,

    Oh, death was grateful!

"Thus, seamed with many scars,

Bursting these prison bars,

Up to its native stars

    My soul ascended!

There from the flowing bowl

Deep drinks the warrior's soul,

Skoal!

to the Northland!

skoal!

"

    Thus the tale ended.

Longfellow said that the poem "is connected with the old Round Tower at Newport. This skeleton in armor really exists. It was dug up near Fall River, where I saw it some two years ago. I suppose it to be the remains of one of the old Northern sea-rovers, who came to this country in the tenth century. Of course I make the tradition myself; and I think I have succeeded in giving the whole a Northern air." (Editor, p. 52.) The skeleton is described in The American Monthly Magazine (Jan. 1836) as follows: "In digging down a hill near the village, a large mass of earth slid off, leaving in the bank and partially uncovered a human skull, which on examination was found to belong to a body buried in a sitting posture; the head being about one foot below what had been for many years the surface of the ground. The surrounding earth was carefully removed, and the body found to be enveloped in a covering of coarse bark of a dark color. Within this envelope were found the remains of another of coarse cloth, made of fine bark, and about the texture of a Manilla coffee bag. On the breast was a plate of brass, thirteen inches long, six broad at the upper end, and five in the lower. This plate appears to have been cast, and is from one-eighth to three-thiry-seconds of an inch in thickness. It is so much corroded that whether or not anything was engraved upon it has not yet been ascertained. It is oval in form, the edges being irregular, apparently made so by corrosion. Below the breastplate, and entirely encircling the body, was a belt composed of brass tubes, each four and half inches in length, and three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, arranged longitudinally and close together, the length of the tube being the width of the belt. The tubes are of thin brass, cast upon yellow reeds, and were fastened together by pieces of sinew. Near the right knee was a quiver of arrows. The arrows are of brass, thin, flat, and triangular in shape, with a round hole cut through near the base. The shaft was fastened to the head by inserting the latter in an opening at the end of the wood and then tying with a sinew through the round hole, a mode of constructing the weapon never practised by the Indians, not even with their arrows of thin shell. Parts of the shafe still remain on some of them. When first discovered, the arrows were in a sort of quiver of bark, which fell to pieces when exposed to the air." (Editor, pp. 311-12.)----19. Skald: Scandinavian bard or ancient poet.26. Baltic's strand: the shores of Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula along the Baltic Sea, an extension of the Atlantic into northern Europe. 28. gerfalcon: hunting falcon.38.were-wolf: man-wolf (ancient Germanic compound of words for "man" and "wolf").53. the Berserk's tale: the story of a fierce Scandinavian warrior, one wearing a "bear-skin sark" (or shirt). 77. Hildebrand: a name found in early Germanic tales that means "war-sword."94. sea-mew: European sea-gull.110. Skaw: northmost headland, promontory, of Jutland in Denmark.134. the lofty tower: that found at Newport.159. Skoal: A "toast" made at the raising of a cup. 'In Scandinavia this is the customary salutation when drinking a health. I have slightly changed the orthography of the word, in order to preserve the correct pronunciation.' ~ Longfellow.