Olaf Trygvason
Broad the sails o'er the North Sea go;High on deck in the morning glowErling Skjalgsson from SoleScans all the sea toward Denmark:"Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
Six and fifty the ships are there,Sails are let down, toward Denmark stareSun-reddened men;--then murmur:"Where is the great Long Serpent?Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
When the sun in the second dawnCloudward rising no mast had drawn,Grew to a storm their clamor:"Where is the great Long Serpent?Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?"
Silent, silent that moment bound,Stood they all; for from ocean's groundSighed round the fleet a muffled:"Taken the great Long Serpent,Fallen is Olaf Trygvason."
Ever since, through so many a year,Norway's ships must beside them hear,Clearest in nights of moonshine:"Taken the great Long Serpent,Fallen is Olaf Trygvason."
Words in this poem
- moonshine n.
- The light of the moon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Olaf Trygvason is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Olaf Trygvason, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/olaf-trygvason.html, id L29260.
Form and metre
Olaf Trygvason is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA--- goA · glowA · sole · denmark · trygvason
- 2 AA--- thereA · stareA · murmur · serpent · trygvason
- 3 AA--- dawnA · drawnA · clamor · serpent · trygvason
- 4 AA--- boundA · groundA · muffled · serpent · trygvason
- 5 AA--- yearA · hearA · moonshine · serpent · trygvason
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Broad the sails o'er the North Sea go; | 8 | ········ |
| High on deck in the morning glow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Erling Skjalgsson from Sole | 6 | /˘···· |
| Scans all the sea toward Denmark: | 8 | ······/· |
| "Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?" | 8 | /˘//˘··· |
| Six and fifty the ships are there, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Sails are let down, toward Denmark stare | 9 | ······/·· |
| Sun-reddened men;--then murmur: | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| "Where is the great Long Serpent? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?" | 8 | /˘//˘··· |
| When the sun in the second dawn | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Cloudward rising no mast had drawn, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Grew to a storm their clamor: | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| "Where is the great Long Serpent? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Cometh never Olaf Trygvason?" | 8 | /˘//˘··· |
| Silent, silent that moment bound, | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Stood they all; for from ocean's ground | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sighed round the fleet a muffled: | 8 | ·˘····/˘ |
| "Taken the great Long Serpent, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Fallen is Olaf Trygvason." | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Ever since, through so many a year, | 8 | /···/˘·· |
| Norway's ships must beside them hear, | 8 | /···˘/·· |
| Clearest in nights of moonshine: | 7 | /˘···/· |
| "Taken the great Long Serpent, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Fallen is Olaf Trygvason." | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.