dear,
   On whom may blessings pour,
That service I wrought in your father’s court,
   Of all his swains the flower?
Both in and out I’ve borne you about
   In sunshine and in shower.”

“Yes, service you wrought in my father’s court,
   For money and clothes imparted,
And betrayed his life to the foeman’s knife,
   Like a monster treacherous hearted.
And as sure as now the crown’s on my brow,
   To the wheel thou shalt be carted.”

“Hew off, I intreat, my hands and feet,
   Most willingly them I proffer;
My eyes blood red tear out of my head,
   And the worst death let me suffer;
But all the pains that Ranild gains
   For his treason scarce enough are.”

“Thine eyeballs twain thou may’st retain,
   And thy hands and feet unriven;
But thou thy breath shalt yield to a death
   The cruellest under heaven;
And be it known, for my father alone
   This punishment is given.”

Ranild they brought from Roskild out,
   He wrung his hands with sorrow;
And the women all salt tears let fall,
   Who lived in that ancient borough.
The wretched wight wished all good night,
   And a light heart on the morrow.

Ranild they bore the town before,
   The wheel his sight saluted:
“Christ guard each noble from such like trouble,”
   In agony he shouted,
“If at Hielm I’d staid it had better sped,
   Nor to that had I been devoted.

“Would God would send a trusty friend,
   Who would my message carry,
To Kirstine fair, who sits in care,
   To Ranild true to tarry.
O Christ help all my babies small,
   And bless my bosom’s dearie!

“Ye Christian folk, whom, with dying look,
   On the mead I am discerning,
A pater pray for my soul, to stay
   Of God the anger burning;
That me He receive this very eve
   To the joys for which I’m yearning.”

CHILD STIG AND CHILD FINDAL

Child Stig and Child Findal two brothers were they,
There ne’er were two brothers more gallant and gay.

Child Stig serves the Dane King in bower and hall,
High dames brushed his hair, and fair maidens withal.

Child Stig by the board of the Monarch he stood,
To him little Kirstin was cruel of mood.

“Full seven years I have been Lord of the Rune,
Of its power I’ll make trial this same afternoon.”

With his right hand he skinked the wine and the mead
And cast with his left the Rune characters dread.

To cast them on Kirstin the gallant Stig meant,
But under the dress of Rigissa they went.

O pallid as ashes the gallant Stig grew,
And red as the blood was Rigissa to view.

The gallant Child Stig placed his cap on his head,
And unto his foster dame’s chamber he sped.

“Dear Foster dame, give me some counsel, I pray,
How I may escape from this palace away.

“To cast the Rune letters at Kirstin I meant,
But under the dress of Rigissa they went.

“I will mount my good courser so true and so tried,
And away to the ends of the earth I will ride.”

Said she: “Shouldst thou travel all Finland around,
This night at thy couch will Rigissa be found.

“And e’en shouldst thou ride to the earth’s farthest land,
This night by thy couch she will certainly stand.

“But, Child Stig, I advise thee, call