"Make dole of skyr and black bread
That old and young may live;
And look to Frey for favor
When first like Frey you give.
"Even now o'er Njord's sea-meadows
The summer dawn begins
The tun shall have its harvest,
The fiord its glancing fins."
Then up and swore Jarl Thorkell
"By Gimli and by Hel,
O Vala of Thingvalla,
Thou singest wise and well!
"Too dear the AEsir's favors
Bought with our children's lives;
Better die than shame in living
Our mothers and our wives.
"The full shall give his portion
To him who hath most need;
Of curdled skyr and black bread,
Be daily dole decreed."
He broke from off his neck-chain
Three links of beaten gold;
And each man, at his bidding,
Brought gifts for young and old.
Then mothers nursed their children,
And daughters fed their sires,
And Health sat down with Plenty
Before the next Yule fires.
The Horg-stones stand in Rykdal;
The Doom-ring still remains;
But the snows of a thousand winters
Have washed away the stains.
Christ ruleth now; the Asir
Have found their twilight dim;
And, wiser than she dreamed, of old
The Vala sang of Him
1868.
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