irst enriched by the
voice, whose recent lapse into silence has made our hearts heavy:

"It is but the work of one night; the same night when Oluf
Hakonson, with iron and with fire, burst his onward way
through the stubborn ground; before the day breaks the
waters of the Maelar roll there; the Norwegian prince, Oluf,
sailed through the royal channel he had cut in the east. The
stockades, where the iron chains hang, must bear the
defences; the citizens from the burnt-down Sigtuna erect
themselves a bulwark here, and build their new little town
on stock-holms.[A] The clouds go, and the years go! Do you
see how the gables grow? there rise towers and forts. Birger
Jarl makes the town of Stockholm a fortress; the warders
stand with bow and arrow on the walls, reconnoitring over
lake and fiord, over Brunkaberg sand-ridge. There where the
sand slopes upwards from Roerstrand's Lake they build Clara
cloister, and between it and the town a street springs up:
several more appear; they form an extensive city, which soon
becomes the place of contest for different partisans, where
Ladelaas's sons plant the banner, and where the German
Albrecht's retainers burn the Swedes alive within its walls.
Stockholm is, however, the heart of the kingdom: that the
Danes know well; that the Swedes know too, and there is
strife and bloody combating. Blood flows by the
executioner's hand, Denmark's Christian the Second, Sweden's
executioner, stands in the market-place. Roll, ye runes! see
over Brunkaberg sand-ridge, where the Swedish people
conquered the Danish host, there they raise the May-pole: it
is midsummer-eve--Gustavus Vasa makes his entry into
Stockholm. Around the May-pole there grow fruit and
kitchen-gardens, houses and streets; they vanish in flames,
they rise again; that gloomy fortress towards the tower is
transformed into a palace, and the city stands magnificently
with towers and draw-bridges. There grows a town by itself
on the sand-ridge, a third springs up on the rock towards
the south; the old walls fall at Gustavus Adolphus's
command; the three towns are one, large and extensive,
picturesquely varied with old stone houses, wooden shops,
and grass-roofed huts; the sun shines on the brass balls of
the towers, and a forest of masts stands in