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Fair Aslög* — rest, till starting forth,
Like her they prove their noble birth
With gorgeous robes and bearing high,
And golden hair and kingly eye.
Oh ! childhood's heaven doth ever hold
Its counties lyres of ruddy gold ;
Whate'er the bard doth later sing,
Heroic deeds, or flowers of spring,
In fairer forms all hath passed by,
In earlier days, his childhood's eye.
Still, when in verdant spring the quail
Strikes out his music in the vale,
And Luna from the eastern wave
Starts like a spectre from the grave,
* Aslög or Aslaug was the daughter of Sigurd Fafnisbani, (slayer of
the dragon Fafnir,) a sort of Scandinavian Hercules, and Brynhilda. At the
death of her father and mother she was three years old, and Heimir, Bryn-
hilda's foster-father, fearing for her the hostility of family enemies, con-
cealed her, with splendid garments and much treasure, in a large harp,
with which he wandered about as a mendicant musician. The rich cloth-
ing having been observed through an opening in the harp, by the mistress
of the cottage where they lodged, she incited her husband to kill Heimir,
and the harp being broken open, Aslög was discovered. Sigurd is a fa-
vorite hero of the Scandinavian mythic legends, and his life and exploits
form the principal subject of the Icelandic Völsunga-Saga.
