A Viking Morality Tale
He pulled his woollen jacket on
That stretched down to the knee,
Then donned a coat of heavy mail
And scowled, toward the sea,
A fleet of ships was waiting there
For winter snows to thaw,
Before he sailed for England,
For Danegeld, and for war.
The sons of Ragnar Lodbrok
Took up their beaten swords,
They sharpened up their spearheads
(The manuscript records) :
The sound of bloody tumult
Was music to their ears,
The wives held close the tiny bairns,
Allayed their yearly fears.
For every year the Vikings
Set out to plunder shores
That feared the Norsemen coming,
None tarried out of doors,
For when the grim marauders
Were seen to set their sails,
The Scotsmen and the Saxons all
Were heard to cry and wail.
'Protect us from the Northmen, Lord, '
The Christian altars rang,
'Protect us from the wrath of them, '
The Christian choirs sang,
Then every man and maid returned
So humble to each home,
To close and nail the shutters up
In valley, hill and combe.
But Ubbi, Ivar and Halfdan
Were heathens to the core,
They turned toward Northumbria
Intent on making war,
They burned and pillaged everything,
Slew every man and child,
But maids were taken captive for
The Army to defile.
They took the silver arm-rings of
The warriors they had slain,
And added jewels from each church
They burned along the way,
But when the winter storms came in
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poem by David Lewis Paget
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