Formed to defy the march of armed hosts,
Yet rude the fire-scorched, uncemented mass,
Built of black rocks, gathered from mountain peaks,
Whose jagged summits piercing the blue heavens
First saw the rising, last the setting sun.
These had men gathered from the distant lands,
Knowing such rocks were surely loved of him.
Who smiled upon them, chiefest of earth's things.
Such was the mountain-altar of the sun.
And ever after his triumphant wars
On the black, blood-stained altar of the sun,
Since 'twas the custom of that northern land,
King Arvan offered up in sacrifice
The chiefest of the captives ta'en in war.
And this men did, well knowing that the sun
Looks not unwilling on the ruddy stream
That flows from warrior men, princes, and kings,
In that where'er he shines it crimsons earth;
Therefore they prudent strove his thirst to slake
With the red life-wine that he gladly quaffed,
Deeming that, sated well with captive blood,
His wrath would spare the children of the land.
Now on this day the sun-priest had prepared,
So Arvan bade, a worthy sacrifice.
On the black altar, in due order ranged,
Branchless and cleft, the pine tree stems were laid,
Waiting the holy fire, whose sacred flame,
Brought from the deep recesses of the fane,
Where bright it burnt, unseen of vulgar eyes,
Should kindle them into exultant life.
And all around the altar watched the priests,
Black-garbed, long-haired, with stern and awful eyes;
n of the sacred sea gathered like a raven cloud es on a battle-field,
Ful feast on slaughtered men : on his triumphant march, awing near the sacred square. ded by a long array
riors, whose swift-smiting swords and beaten down the foe.
g right hand a pine-branch bore; that scorneth heat and cold,
hern land emblem of strength.
ost of quiver-bearing men;
ore the branch; their right the bow, how subject to Arvan's sway,
ar against him; but his sword
their leaders, and their land,
night, now bled even as he willed.
Naum led them in war,
overn arrow-shooting men,
ce ruling their warrior lines.
d close, a brass-clad multitude;
ms, their breasts were mailed in brass, aves shone on their well-fenced legs. d glistening swords they forward went, w snake steals through the waste. of Garach, was their chief, the sword, valiant in fight: aven on the record stones, he, lapped in gentle sleep, urest oil to weary limbs, on by the wary foe,
Who from their lurking place, five score and twelve,
All shield-uplifting men, stormed sudden forth,
Hoping to take him captive where he lay :
But he, aroused from sleep, tossed his long hair,
Even as a lion shakes his angry mane ;
Then, for there was scant time to draw the glaive,
Seeing his foes assailed him unawares,
Swordless by might of his unweaponed hand,
He beat, as with a war-club to the ground,
The warrior twain, who led that sudden charge;
So gave a great shout, drawing his brown blade,
Wherewith he smote to earth one score and four ;
But the rest panic-stricken, fled like hares
When the grim hound assails their fear-filled tribes,
Such, and so great was Khala, Garach's son,
Marshalling now in peace manslaying men.
When the last line of warriors brazen-armed Had past like a great wave upon the sea, That swiftly moveth flashing yellow light, On to the wide-spread ocean's grizzled shore. A mixed multitude of men drew nigh, Savage they looked, fierce-eyed, with unkempt hair, Loose from their shoulders hung the hides of beasts, Tiger, and spotted pard, and furry bear,
Slain in the chase. Their naked sun-tanned limbs
Showed like to panthers' swarthy-hued and vast.
These were mace-wielders whom the distant plains
Of Northern Ari bore, mother of men.
Cruel they were in fight, shedders of blood;
Cruel they were e'en when the fight was won,
Unsparing to the lands they had subdued,
Seeing they listened not to human cries,
tears, nor feared the stars.
her's crying for her child;
-n, their sweet eyes o'erflowed
tears, entreated grace.
hey than all beasts of prey,
m bear, or spotted pard,
prowler of the wild.
os, unsparing in the war,
g women's barèd breasts.
ces beaten out the brains
; often, with joined hands,
had prayed to them for grace,
Id never hear sweet mercy's prayer,
Ess as their great lord Death:
of all tribes that lived on earth,
ho worshipped Death as God.
ervèd, knowing well his might :
He is strongest lord of all;
ust, for he destroyeth lust;
ife, since that he quencheth life:
worshipped him with hideous rites,
stone eterne his image vast,
Is ghastly on the eastern plains,
r black with human blood.
r the skin-wearers said,
ath; he hears no mortal prayer.
ildren, should have earless hearts,
ervants should be like their lord."
through the Rha city's throngèd streets,
ce, that untamed multitude;
'er they past, although long years
n ranged beneath king Arvan's sway,
Shedding their blood to serve the northern land,
Women shrank back as though they feared a wrong;
And little children, their affrighted eyes
Buried, fear-stricken, in their mother's robes,
As though a host of beasts of prey went by.
So terrible showed those barbarian hordes;
Nardon, the son of Darh, slayer of men,
Wielding his iron club, ruled the long lines.
Lo! when all these had past, an iron gleam
Filled the great sun-street through its breadth of way.
Down-flowing dark came the great stream of men;
An inky light it flung upon the eye
From helmed heads and orbed iron shields,
As a black river rippled by east wind,
And overarched by sullen tempest-clouds,
Reflects a gloom of frowns as it flows by.
These were King Arvan's chosen, Northmen all,
Bravest of men on whom the sun looked down.
A myriad pine-boughs shadowed the dark ranks,
A myriad falchions in their strong right hands
Flashed back on gazing eyes the light of Heaven.
While that they past, the people's tongues were mute,
They wondering greatly at that brave array.
These were the flower of all the North-land's hosts.
Irach, the Chief, ruled o'er their ranks in fight.
Them followed the war-chariots, iron-wheeled,
Scythe-studded, drawn by fiery-hearted steeds,
Swift renders in the fight of limbs of men :
A thousand chariots were there, ruled in fight
By chosen warriors. Whereso'er they past,
The earth shook with the trampling of the steeds,
While the dread rattle of the iron wheels
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