In 1066 the Viking Harold Hadrada,
Left Oslo with an armada,
Two hundred and seventy vessels strong.
They gathered their swords,
And left home rearwards,
On a mission of raid and plunder.
They crossed the sea to England,
To kill the King Harold Godwin,
And place Hadrada on the throne.
Making sail to the south,
They arrived at the river Ouse,
And proceeded to the town of York.
Half way to York,
They met English swords,
And defeated them almost to the core.
Then the Viking Hadrada,
With the English army discarded,
Took hostages by the score.
Thinking victory was upon them,
They left their shields behind them,
And made way to the forest grove.
But King Godwin knew,
Of no Viking ruse,
And dispatched mail clad warriors in rows.
Down from the ridge,
They met on Stamford Bridge,
But one Viking stood in their approach.
The Vikings held their ground fast,
But they could not last,
To the superior shields and swords.
By the days end,
The Vikings could not fend,
The death of Harold Hadrada.
In 1066 the Viking Harold Hadrada,
Left Oslo with an armada,
Two hundred and seventy vessels strong.
But by the end of Fall,
Thirty longboats in all,
Returned to Norway in tatters.
Mark Anderson
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-death-of-the-viking-king-hadrada/
