Page:Five Pieces of Runic Poetry.djvu/86

if it had been brandished in water. The javelins clashed together: the shields were broken: the arms resounded on the sculls of men.

The arms of Tyr, the arms of Bauga^[1] were broke to pieces; so hard were the helmets of the northern warriors. They joined battle in the island Storda. The kings broke through the shining fences of shields: they stained them with human blood.

The swords waxed hot^[2] in the wounds distilling blood. The long

1. Tyr and Bauga were two subordinate gods of war: the expression means no more than the Martia tela of Virgil.
2. Or perhaps more literally, “burnt in the wounds.” One name for swords among the Runic poets is, “The fires of wounds,” Latin Vulnerum ignes.