buy food for his household. But the same spring a shoal of herrings set in upon the fishing ground beyond the coast-side; and Eyvind manned a ship's boat with his house servants and cottars, and rowed to where the herrings were come, and sang:—
"Now let the steed of ocean bound
O'er the North Sea with dashing sound;
Let nimble tern and screaming gull
Fly round and round—our net is full.
Fain would I know if Fortune sends
A like provision to my friends.
Welcome provision 'tis, I wot,
That the whale drives to our cook's pot."
So entirely were his moveable goods exhausted, that he was obliged to sell his arrows to buy herrings, or other meat for his table:—
"Our arms and ornaments of gold
To buy us food we gladly sold:
The arrows of the how gave we
For the bright arrows of the sea."[1]
- ↑ Herrings, from their swift darting along, are called the arrows of the sea; and there is a play upon the words pila (arrows) and sil (herrings), as being similar somewhat in sound.
