. Stories for the household . een sung, because there wasno singer among his companions. Then the old bard struck the strings of his harp, and sang of the The Bird of Popular Soiig. 819 courage of the hero, of the strength of the man, and of thegreatness of his good deeds. Then the face of the dead one gleamedlike the margin of the cloud in the moonlight. Grladly and of goodcourage, the form arose in splendour and in majesty, and vanished likethe glancing of the northern light. Nought was to be seen but thegreen turfy mound, with the stones on which no Eunic record has beengraven; bu
. Stories for the household . een sung, because there wasno singer among his companions. Then the old bard struck the strings of his harp, and sang of the The Bird of Popular Soiig. 819 courage of the hero, of the strength of the man, and of thegreatness of his good deeds. Then the face of the dead one gleamedlike the margin of the cloud in the moonlight. Grladly and of goodcourage, the form arose in splendour and in majesty, and vanished likethe glancing of the northern light. Nought was to be seen but thegreen turfy mound, with the stones on which no Eunic record has beengraven; but at the last sound of the harp there soared over the hill, asthough he had fluttered from the harp, a little bird, a charming singing-bird, with the ringing voice of the thrush, with the moving pathos oithe human heart, with a voice that told of home, like the voice that isheard by the bird of passage. The singing-bird soared away, overmountain and valley, over field and wood—he was the Bird of PopularSong, who never TUB OLD BARD. We hear his song—we hear it now in the room while the white beesare swarming without, and the storm clutches the windows. The birdsings not alone the requiem of heroes ; he sings also sweet gentle songsof love, so many and so warm, of Northern fidelity and truth. He hasstories in words and in tones ; he has proverbs and snatches of proverb ;songs which, like Eunes laid under a dead mans tongue, force him tospeak; and thus Popular Song tells of the land of his birth. In the old heathen days, in the times of the Vikings, the popularspeech was enshrined in the harp of the bard. In the days of knightly castles, when the strong fist held the scalesof justice, when only might was right, and a peasant and a dog were ofequal importance, where did the Bird of Song find shelter and urotec-tion ? Neither violence nor stupidity gave him a thought. But in the gabled window of the knightly castle, the lady of thecastle sat with the parchment roll before
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