A long low ship from the Orkneys’ sailed,
With a full gale driving her along,
Three score sailormen singing as they baled
To the tune of a Viking song —
We have a luck-charm
Carved on the tiller,
Cut in the fore-room
See we Thor's Hammer;
Gods will protect us
Under a shield-burgh,
Carved in the mast we —
The Runes of Yggdrasil!
But the Earl called down from the kicking tiller-head,
“Six hands lay along to me!
Tumble out the hawsers there, Skallagrim the Red!
For a battle with a Berserk sea;
Sing a song of work, of a well-stayed mast,
Of clinch and rivet and pine,
Of a bull's-hide sail we can carry to the last
Of a well-built ship like mine.
Never mind the Runes on the bending tree
Or the charms on the tiller that I hold,
Trust to your hands and the Makers of the Sea,
To the gods of the Viking bold!
Thor of the Hammer —
King of the Warriors,
We are not thralls here
— Men of the sea;
We are not idle,
Fight we as seamen,
Worthy your aid then
— Men of the Sea!”