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IF there are many strokes of gallantry in the Ode of king Regner, the genius of Chivalry itself will seem to speak in that composed by a Norwegian prince, named Harald the Valiant, which is found in an old Icelandic Chronicle, called Knytlinga Saga. This piece is of much later date than the preceding: but it is yet sufficient to show, that these northern people had learned to combine the ideas of love and military valour, long before those very nations themselves, whose taste and manners they had afterwards so strong an inclination to adopt. Harald the Valiant lived about the middle of the eleventh century. He was one of the most illustrious adventurers of his time. He had traversed all the seas of the north, and carried his piratical incursions as far as the Mediterranean itself, and the coast of Africa. He was at length taken prisoner, and detained for some time at Constantinople. He complains in this Ode, that the glory he had acquired by so many exploits, had not been able to make any impression on Elissif[1], the daughter of Jarislas, king of Russia.
- ↑ In the original, as given by Bartholin, it is Elizabeth. T.
