LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,226)
  • Text Authors (19,713)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,115)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Harry Arbuthnot Acworth (1849 - 1933)

The Death of Olaf
Language: English 
King Olaf's dragons take the sea,
The piping south-wind drives them fast,
The shields dip deep upon the lee,
The white sails strain on every mast.
Leaping from wave to wave they round
The cape that bars the stormy sound,
And where the ocean opens wide
They see far stretched on either side
The Danish ships and Svithiod's ride;
High on his deck King Olaf stands,
The war-axe grasp'd in both his hands,
With helm of gold and jerkin red,
And fair curls blowing round his head,
First of his fleet, he leads the van
And seeks the battle, man to man.

But seaward, landward, cape and bay
Cast forth their foes on Norroway;
Ten thousand shaven oar-blades sweep
The bosom of the troubled deep;
As crash the prows, ring bill and shield,
And arm meets arm that will not yield;
Still where the foemen thickest throng
King Olaf's galley sweeps along,
And still her lofty sides to scale
Ply the fierce foemen oar and sail,
And pour their heroes bright in mail,
Woe, woe for Norroway!
O'erwhelmed, her stout sea-dragons fly,
Or, scatter'd, powerless, scarcely try
To join once more the fray:

'Yet still, like sunbeam through a cloud,
Glimmers the helm of Olaf proud,
Faint and more faint to see:
Around it close the dark'ning spears,
It sinks, it sparkles, disappears,
King Olaf, woe to thee!

Thy latest fight is fought in vain,
No more the axe of Olaf slain,
No more the glittering crest,
Shall victory pluck from ruin's verge,
Or to the chase his spearmen urge;
Above him rolls the sullen surge,
That stormy heart has rest.

Text Authorship:

  • by Harry Arbuthnot Acworth (1849 - 1933) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "The Death of Olaf", op. 30 no. 16, published 1896 [SATB chorus and orchestra], from King Olaf, no. 16. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Harold Ryan

This text was added to the website: 2009-10-03
Line count: 43
Word count: 271

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris