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3 . NICOLAUS RAGVALDI AND CHRISTOPHER. 155
The following rough but spirited lines at the end of his
poem deserve to be remembered :
Scapes a bird from the fowler s snare
It will again of such craft beware ;
Sweden, now hast thou scapen.
8
Wilt thou fall into the snare again,
Which did so closely thy limbs constrain,
And now, maybe, still lies open?
Stand thou firm then, O noble Swede,
Better that which thy land did need,
And turn thee backward never.
Venture thy neck and venture thy hand
To ransom thy home, thy fatherland ;
God cheer thee in thine endeavour !
Every bird will fight for its nest,
So too will every savage beast ;
Mark then what now doth behove thee.
God hath given thee sense and soul ;
Keep freedom ; be not another s thrall
So long as thy limbs can move thee.
Thomas was the first poet in the modern Swedish tongue
whose name has come down to us, and he is a man who did
honour to the Church both by his character and his talents.
His other two poems on Freedom and Faithfulness
(Troheten) are also well known.
3. RETIREMENT OF KING ERIC. NICOLAUS RAGVALDI.
KING CHRISTOPHER AND HIS LAND S-LAW.
The bishops, however, as a body, were not in favour of
attempting to set up a national kingship, and it was mainly
through the influence of Nicolaus, who became archbishop
in 1438, that they secured the election of the King of Den
mark, Christopher of Bavaria, on the retirement of Eric,
8
See for this form Shakespeare s Pericles, Act 2 (Gower).
The original of these lines may be found in Medeltids Dikter
och Rim, p. 390, and in Boethius, I.e., p. 28 ; cp. S. H. 2
, II.,
pp. 392-3 and 409. Friheten and Troheten are in Medeltids
D. o. R., pp. 391 foil., and 393 foil.
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