Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

376
" To sweet Lincluden's haly cells
Fou dowie I'll repair ;
There peace wi' gentle patience dwells :
Nae deadly feuds are there.
In tears I'll wither ilka charm,
Like draps o' haleful yew ;
And wail the beauty that could harm
A knight sae brave and true."
HARDYKNUTE.*
A FRAGMENT.
Stately stept he east the wa',
And stately stept he west ;
Full seventy yeirs he now had sene,
With scarce seven yeirs of rest.
He lived when Britons' breach of faith
Wrocht Scotland mickle wae ;
And aye his sword tauld, to their cost,
He was their deidly fae.
High on a hill his castle stude,
With halls and towirs a-hicht,
* This ballad refers to the battle of the Largs, fought October 2, 1263,
between the forces of Haco, King of Norway, which had invaded Scotland
at that part of the coast of Ayrshire, and those of Alexander III., which
had been collected to repel the invasion. The subject of dispute between
these monarchs, was the sovereignty of the Northern and Western Islands
of Scotland, The Scots succeeded in driving back the Norsemen to their
ships, and a tempest, which soon after took place, almost completed the
destruction of the invaders. Haco himself took refuge, for the winter, in
Orkney, where he died of grief.