Ayrshire > Volume 1

THE NORSE VIKINGS 51
landed on the Scottish mainland and took tribute of gear
and of cattle. So they came to Kirkwall — ancient
Kirkwall, with its cathedral to St. Magnus — and there
they halted, for the ocean was boisterous that rolled
between them and far-off Bergen, the nights were dark
and cold, and winter was hasting down from its home in
the further north. There they resolved to remain till
the Spring. Acho sickened and dwined. He was well
advanced in years, and the anxieties of the campaign,
the hard life on board ship, and the loss of so many
warriors — albeit their spirits were in the happy abodes
of Valhalla — were telling upon him. As the days
shortened his health declined, and the time came on
when he should die. How could the great sea king
prepare himself better for the abodes of the Blessed than
in having read to him the chronicles of his fathers, the
mighty deeds of the heroic stock whence he had sprung ?
These were recited in his dying ears, the stirring tales of
old renown, until at last, duly prepared, fit and meet to
join the noble army of the Vikings in the life beyond, he
passed away. Sad of heart, his chiefs bore all that was
mortal of him to the cathedral of St. Magnus, where
they laid him down in front of the high altar, and all
the long winter through they kept watch and solemn
ward by his bier. By and by the Spring came, with its
longer suns and its brighter skies and its bluer seas, and
when the winds were fair and favouring, the Norsemen
carried their dead monarch on board that great galley
of his that had been the joy of all the beholders, and he
sailed on his last voyage. It was a sad homecoming to
the loved land of the Norsemen. They crossed the
deep, and out from Bergen came Prince Magnus and a
retinue of other Vikings, and received the body of the
King. His last voyage was done ; " and the breakers
of tempered metals stood crowding round the grave of
the ruler of the nation, while in their swimming eyes
appeared no look of joy."
So far the Raven's Ode, a poetic attempt to gild a
story of defeat, a saga for Norse hearts and for Norse