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140 NOTES
its confession of the hot-blooded deeds of a violent past, its utter sub-
mission to the will of God, and its vision of a future in which his de-
scendants “foothold may find where I slipped,” we see revealed those
traits which endeared him to memory after his death, and made of him
the national Hero and Saint. This penetration into the heart and soul
of Olaf marks the genius of Bjornson more clearly, perhaps, than any-
thing else in the poem.
PacE 81. THE ARMY AWAKENS.
Now dawns the morning of the fateful day (August 31, 1030). “The
night that King Olaf lay among his host as is aforesaid, he waked long,
and prayed to God for himself and his host, and slept but little. Against
dawn there fell heaviness upon him, and when he awoke, up ran the
day. The king deemed it somewhat early to rouse the host. Then he
asked where was Thormod the Skald. He was anigh there, and gave
answer, and asked what the king would with him. The king said : ‘Tell
us some song.’ Thormod sat up and sang out right high, so that it was
heard throughout all the host.” (Chapter 220.)
PaGE 81. Bjarkemaal.
The two stanzas here given are in the translation of Morris and Mag-
nusson. “ Bjarkemaal was a battle-song known throughout Norway.
It bore the name of Bodvar Bjarke, one of the warriors of Rolf Krake.
The saga relates that Rolf Krake with his warriors gave aid to his
step-father, the Swedish king Adils, against the Norwegian king Aale;
hence Rolf’s warriors in the song are called Adils’ followers. Among
these warriors were Haar den Hardgreipe (High the hard-gripping)
and Hroly Skjotande (Hrolf of the shooting) ; the best known were Bod-
var Bjarke and Hjalte. It was Bjarke or Hjalte who aroused the host
with the so-called Bjarkemaal on the night when Rolf Krake was at-
tacked by his brother-in-law, Hjartvar, and slain in the battle with
all his heroes. The battle is here called ‘Hilda’s play;’ Hilda was a
valkyrie. Bjarkemaal, which is a call to battle, is well fitted to the situa-
tion here, and its stirring words are likened to the mail-clad valkyries
(‘Bjarkemaal’s battle-clad maidens’), because the valkyries were pic-
tured as hovering in full armor over the fighters, urging them to battle,
and bearing away the slain. These conjuring words arouse in the host
memories of the valorous deeds of their forefathers, bringing before
their gaze
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