Gilfre
Legacy Name: Gilfre

Still on he passed beyond the land,

To where in seas unknown

The breakers on a frozen strand

In flakes of ice fall down.

But further north and yet more far

He steered with steadfast gaze,

As if he sought the northern star

By old familiar ways.

At last the waves grew firm and hard

His errant ship to block,

Gigantic icebergs rose and barred

His path, like hills of rock.

Here, where the winds in council meet

And sally forth to blow,

His rigid fingers loosed the sheet

And let the halliards go;

Down dropped the sail, the vessel swung

Secure beneath the lee

Of cliffs of ice, that overhung

And formed a canopy.

With frost bedecked, her sides, her mast,

Her spars, her rigging shone;

No earthly potentate could boast

So glorious a throne.

Upright he sat, and on his brow

Was placed a coronet,

With flashing emeralds aglow,

And sapphires richly set.

Across his shoulders to his feet

A mantle white was spread,

And all the deck about his seat

With white was carpeted.

The Arctic lights shot up on high

Above the starry dome,

Illuminating all the sky

To give him welcome home.

And now throughout the pathless waste,

That leads nowhence nowhere,

To greet their new-found king, in haste

His subjects gathered near;

Old Winter's chosen favourites,

Who wear his livery,

Wont to pursue their loves and fights,

Undisciplined and free.

The bears approached with stately stride,

Lords of the great white sward,

They made obeisance at his side,

And set a body-guard.

The foxes limped around and stared

With hunger in his face,

They touched him not, and scarcely dared

To snarl about the place.

The timid hares forgot their foes

Beneath his rule benign,

They crowded in from all the snows

Like pilgrims to a shrine.

Within the presence of the king

The king's own peace prevailed,

His influence kept a hallowed ring,

A refuge unassailed.

In heaven above to mark his reign,

In token of his sway,

The northern star shone forth again,

The comet passed away.

But him no summer sun shall warm,

No winter tempest chill,

Alike to him are calm and storm,

Alike are good and ill.

There in the frozen solitude

That guards the Arctic zone,

Where mortal man may not intrude,

He sits and reigns alone.

- The ending of 'The Viking' by Hugh McNab

Credits:
Polar Ice Fields image used in background.
Profile by myself, original code by dreamsky