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VIII.
With dauntless soul the hero rode;
Safe he reach’d the dire abode;
Now the sacred portals prest;
Trembling earth the God confest!
Towards the east then bent his way,
Where low beneath the sorceress lay.
With dauntless soul the hero rode;
Safe he reach’d the dire abode;
Now the sacred portals prest;
Trembling earth the God confest!
Towards the east then bent his way,
Where low beneath the sorceress lay.
IX.
With magic rites the concave rung;
Necromantic airs he sung;
Hyperborean climates view’d;
Runic rhymes[1] around he strew'd;
With magic rites the concave rung;
Necromantic airs he sung;
Hyperborean climates view’d;
Runic rhymes[1] around he strew'd;
- ↑ “Runic rhymes.”—The Scalds or Bards of the Scandinavians, boasted a power of disturbing the repose of the dead, and dragging them out of their gloomy abodes, by means of certain songs they knew how to compose. The same ignorance which, made poetry be regarded as something supernatural, persuaded them also, that the letters or Runic characters, included in them certain mysterious and magical properties. There were letters or Runes, to procure victory, to preserve
