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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538816" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Hafbur And Signy</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>King Hafbur & King Siward<br>They needs must stir up strife,<br>All about the sweetling Signy<br>Who was so fair a wife.<br>O wilt thou win me then,<br>or as fair a maid as I be?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was the King’s son Hafbur<br>Woke up amid the night,<br>And ’gan to tell of a wondrous dream<br>In swift words nowise light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Me-dreamed I was in Heaven<br>Amid that fair abode,<br>And my true-love lay upon mine arm<br>And we fell from cloud to cloud.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As there they sat, the dames and maids,<br>Of his words they took no keep,<br>Only his mother well-beloved<br>Heeded his dreamful sleep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Go get thee gone to the mountain,<br>And make no long delay;<br>To the elve’s eldest daughter<br>For thy dream’s areding pray.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So the King’s son, even Hafbur,<br>Took his sword in his left hand,<br>And he’s away to the mountain<br>To get speech of that Lily-wand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He beat thereon with hand all bare,<br>With fingers small and fine,<br>And there she lay, the elve’s daughter,<br>And well wotted of that sign.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Bide hail, Elve’s sweetest daughter,<br>As on skins thou liest fair,<br>I pray thee by the God of Heaven<br>My dream arede thou clear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Me-dreamed I was in heaven,<br>Yea amid that fair abode,<br>And my true-love lay upon mine arm<br>And we fell from cloud to cloud.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Whereas thou dreamed’st thou wert in heaven,<br>So shalt thou win that may;<br>Dreamed’st thou of falling through the clouds,<br>So falls for her thy life away.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“And if it lieth in my luck<br>To win to me that may,<br>In no sorrow’s stead it standeth me<br>For her to cast my life away.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lord Hafbur lets his hair wax long,<br>And will have the gear of mays,<br>And he rideth to King Siward’s house<br>And will well learn weaving ways.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lord Hafbur all his clothes let shape<br>In such wise as maidens do,<br>And thus he rideth over the land<br>King Siward’s daughter to woo.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now out amid the castle-garth<br>He cast his cloak aside,<br>And goeth forth to the high-bower<br>Where the dames and damsels abide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hail, sit ye there, dames and damsels,<br>Maids and queens kind and fair,<br>And chiefest of all to the Dane-King’s daughter<br>If she abideth here!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Hail, sittest thou, sweet King’s daughter,<br>A-spinning the silken twine,<br>It is King Hafbur sends me hither<br>To learn the sewing fine.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hath Hafbur sent thee here to me?<br>Then art thou a welcome guest,<br>And all the sewing that I can<br>Shall I learn thee at my best.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“And all the sewing that I can<br>I shall learn thee lovingly,<br>Out of one bowl shalt thou eat with me,<br>And by my nurse shalt thou lie.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">King’s children have I eaten with,<br>And lain down by their side:<br>Must I lie abed now with a very nurse?<br>Then woe is me this tide!”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Nay, let it pass, fair maiden!<br>Of me gettest thou no harm,<br>Out of one bowl shalt thou eat with me<br>And sleep soft upon mine arm.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There sat they, all the damsels,<br>And sewed full craftily;<br>But ever the King’s son Hafbur<br>With nail in mouth sat he.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They sewed the hart, they sewed the hind,<br>As they run through the wild-wood green,<br>Never gat Hafbur so big a bowl<br>But the bottom soon was seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In there came the evil nurse<br>In the worst tide that might be:<br>“Never saw I fair maiden<br>Who could sew less craftily.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Never saw I fair maiden<br>Seam worse the linen fine,<br>Never saw I noble maiden<br>Who better drank the wine.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This withal spake the evil nurse,<br>The nighest that she durst:<br>“Never saw I yet fair maiden<br>Of drink so sore athirst.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“So little a seam as ever she sews<br>Goes the needle into her mouth,<br>As big a bowl as ever she gets<br>Out is it drunk forsooth.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Ne’er saw I yet in maiden’s head<br>Two eyes so bright and bold,<br>And those two hands of her withal<br>Are hard as the iron cold.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Hearken, sweet nurse, whereso thou art,<br>Why wilt thou mock me still?<br>Never cast I one word at thee,<br>Went thy sewing well or ill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Still wilt thou mock, still wilt thou spy;<br>Nought such thou hast of me,<br>Whether mine eyes look out or look in<br>Nought do they deal with thee.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O it was Hafbur the King’s son<br>Began to sew at last;<br>He sewed the hart, and he sewed the hind,<br>As they flee from the hound so fast.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He sewed the lily, and he sewed the rose,<br>And the little fowls of the air;<br>Then fell the damsels a-marvelling,<br>For nought had they missed him there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Day long they sewed till the evening,<br>And till the long night was deep,<br>Then up stood dames and maidens<br>And were fain in their beds to sleep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So fell on them the evening-tide,<br>O’er the meads the dew drave down,<br>And fain was Signy, that sweet thing,<br>With her folk to bed to be gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Therewith asked the King’s son Hafbur,<br>“And whatten a bed for me?”<br>“O thou shalt sleep in the bower aloft<br>And blue shall thy bolster be.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She went before, sweet Signy,<br>O’er the high bower’s bridge aright,<br>And after her went Hafbur<br>Laughing from heart grown light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then kindled folk the waxlights,<br>That were so closely twined,<br>And after them the ill nurse went<br>With an ill thought in her mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lights were quenched, the nurse went forth,<br>They deemed they were alone:<br>Lord Hafbur drew off his kirtle red,<br>Then first his sword outshone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lord Hafbur mid his longing sore<br>Down on the bed he sat:<br>I tell you of my soothfastness,<br>His byrny clashed thereat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then spake the darling Signy,<br>Out of her heart she said,<br>“Never saw I so rough a shirt<br>Upon so fair a maid.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She laid her hand on Hafbur’s breast<br>With the red gold all a-blaze:<br>“Why wax thy breasts in no such wise<br>As they wax in other mays?”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“The wont it is in my father’s land<br>For maids to ride to the Thing,<br>Therefore my breasts are little of growth<br>Beneath the byrny-ring.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And there they lay through the night so long,<br>The King’s son and the may,<br>In talk full sweet, but little of sleep,<br>So much on their minds there lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Hearken, sweet maiden Signy,<br>As here alone we lie,<br>Who is thy dearest in the world,<br>And lieth thine heart most nigh?”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“O there is none in all the world<br>Who lieth so near to my heart<br>As doth the bold King Hafbur:<br>Ne’er in him shall I have a part.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“As doth the bold King Hafbur<br>That mine eyes shall never know:<br>Nought but the sound of his gold-wrought horn<br>As he rides to the Thing and fro.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“O, is it Hafbur the King’s son<br>That thy loved heart holdeth dear?<br>Turn hither, O my well-beloved,<br>To thy side I lie so near.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“If thou art the King’s son Hafbur,<br>Why wilt thou shame me love,<br>Why ridest thou not to my father’s garth<br>With hound, and with hawk upon glove?”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Once was I in thy father’s garth,<br>With hound and hawk and all;<br>And with many mocks he said me nay,<br>In such wise did our meeting fall.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All the while they talked together<br>They deemed alone they were,<br>But the false nurse ever stood close without,<br>And nought thereof she failed to hear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O shame befall that evil nurse,<br>Ill tidings down she drew,<br>She stole away his goodly sword,<br>But and his byrny new.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She took to her his goodly sword,<br>His byrny blue she had away,<br>And she went her ways to the high bower<br>Whereas King Siward lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Wake up, wake up, King Siward!<br>Over long thou sleepest there,<br>The while the King’s son Hafbur<br>Lies abed by Signy the fair.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“No Hafbur is here, and no King’s son.<br>That thou shouldst speak this word;<br>He is far away in the east-countries,<br>Warring with knight and lord.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Hold thou thy peace, thou evil nurse,<br>And lay on her no lie,<br>Or else tomorn ere the sun is up<br>In the bale-fire shall ye die.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“O hearken to this, my lord and king,<br>And trow me nought but true;<br>Look here upon his bright white sword,<br>But and his byrny blue!”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then mad of mind waxed Siward,<br>Over all the house ’gan he cry,<br>“Rise up, O mighty men of mine,<br>For a hardy knight is anigh:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Take ye sword and shield in hand,<br>And look that they be true;<br>For Hafbur the King hath guested with us;<br>Stiffnecked he is, great deeds to do.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So there anigh the high-bower door<br>They stood with spear and glaive;<br>“Rise up, rise up, Young Hafbur,<br>Out here we would thee have!”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That heard the goodly Signy<br>And she wrang her hands full sore:<br>“Hearken and heed, O Hafbur,<br>Who stand without by the door!”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thank and praise to the King’s son Hafbur,<br>Manly he played and stout!<br>None might lay hand upon him<br>While the bed-post yet held out.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But they took him, the King’s son Hafbur,<br>And set him in bolts new wrought;<br>Then lightly he rent them asunder,<br>As though they were leaden and nought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Out and spake the ancient nurse,<br>And she gave a rede of ill:<br>“Bind ye him but in Signy’s hair,<br>So shall hand and foot lie still.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Take ye but one of Signy’s hairs<br>Hafbur’s hands to bind,<br>Ne’er shall he rend them asunder<br>His heart to her is so kind.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then took they two of Signy’s hairs<br>Bonds for his hands to be,<br>Nor might he rive them asunder<br>So dear to his heart was she.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then spake the sweetling Signy<br>As the tears fast down her cheek did fall:<br>“O rend it asunder, Hafbur,<br>That gift to thee I give withal.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now sat the King’s son Hafbur<br>Amidst the castle-hall,<br>And thronged to behold him man and maid,<br>But the damsels chiefest of all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They took him, the King’s son Hafbur,<br>Laid bolts upon him in that place,<br>And ever went Signy to and fro,<br>The weary tears fell down apace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She speaketh to him in sorrowful mood:<br>“This will I, Hafbur, for thee,<br>Piteous prayer for thee shall make<br>My mother’s sisters three.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“For my father’s mind stands fast in this,<br>To do thee to hang upon the bough<br>On the topmost oak in the morning-tide<br>While the sun is yet but low.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But answered thereto young Hafbur<br>Out of a wrathful mind:<br>“Of all heeds I heeded, this was the last,<br>To be prayed for by womankind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“But hearken, true-love Signy,<br>Good heart to my asking turn,<br>When thou seest me swing on oaken-bough<br>Then let thy high-bower burn.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then answered the noble Signy,<br>So sore as she must moan,<br>“God to aid, King’s son Hafbur,<br>Well will I grant thy boon.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They followed him, King Hafbur,<br>Thick thronging from the castle-bent:<br>And all who saw him needs must greet<br>And in full piteous wise they went.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But when they came to the fair green mead<br>Where Hafbur was to die,<br>He prayed them hold a little while:<br>For his true-love would he try.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“O hang me up my cloak of red,<br>That sight or my ending let me see.<br>Perchance yet may King Siward rue<br>My hanging on the gallows tree.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now of the cloak was Signy ware<br>And sorely sorrow her heart did rive,<br>She thought: “The ill tale all is told,<br>No longer is there need to live.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Straightway her damsels did she call<br>As weary as she was of mind:<br>“Come, let us go to the bower aloft<br>Game and glee for a while to find.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yea and withal spake Signy,<br>She spake a word of price:<br>“To-day shall I do myself to death<br>And meet Hafbur in Paradise.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“And whoso there be in this our house<br>Lord Hafbur’s death that wrought,<br>Good reward I give them now<br>To red embers to be brought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“So many there are in the King’s garth<br>Of Hafbur’s death shall be glad;<br>Good reward for them to lose<br>The trothplight mays they had.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She set alight to the bower-aloft<br>And it burned up speedily,<br>And her good love and her great heart<br>Might all with eyen see.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was the King’s son Hafbur<br>O’er his shoulder cast his eye,<br>And beheld how Signy’s house of maids<br>On a red low stood on high.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Now take ye down my cloak of red,<br>Let it lie on the earth a-cold;<br>Had I ten lives of the world for one,<br>Nought of them all would I hold.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">King Siward looked out of his window fair,<br>In fearful mood enow,<br>For he saw Hafbur hanging on oak<br>And Signy’s bower on a low.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Out then spake a little page<br>Was clad in kirtle red:<br>“Sweet Signy burns in her bower aloft,<br>With all her mays unwed.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Therewithal spake King Siward<br>From rueful heart unfain:<br>“Ne’er saw I two King’s children erst<br>Such piteous ending gain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“But had I wist or heard it told<br>That love so strong should be,<br>Ne’er had I held those twain apart<br>For all Denmark given me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O hasten and run to Signy’s bower<br>For the life of that sweet thing;<br>Hasten and run to the gallows high,<br>No thief is Hafbur the King.”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But when they came to Signy’s bower<br>Low it lay in embers red;<br>And when they came to the gallows tree,<br>Hafbur was stark and dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They took him the King’s son Hafbur,<br>Swathed him in linen white,<br>And laid him in the earth of Christ<br>By Signy his delight.<br>O wilt thou win me then,<br>or as fair a maid as I be?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Morris">William Morris</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538816" data-title="Hafbur And Signy de William Morris" data-description="TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH.


King Hafbur & King Siward
They needs must stir up strife,
All about the sweetling Signy
Who was so fair a wife.
O wilt thou win me then,
or as fair a maid as I be?

It was the King’s son Hafbur
Woke up amid the nigh..."></div>
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