The Long Ships Quotes

“...Orm always afterwards used to say that, after good luck, strength, and skill at arms, nothing was so useful to a man who found himself among foreigners as the ability to learn a language.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“A wise man, once he is past fifty, does not befuddle his senses with strong drink, nor make violent love in the cool spring night, nor dance on his hands.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Mulled ale for the frozen man,
And mulled ale for the weary:
For mulled ale is the body's friend
And makes the sick heart merry.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Man is always so,” said Father Willibald, “be he heathen or baptized; content with his lot only as long as he meets no neighbor who possesses more.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“for there is no cure for love save love itself. That is the verdict of all the wise doctors who have ever practiced since the earliest times.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“For man can triumph over man, and weapon over weapon; against the gods we can pit sacrifice, and against witchcraft, contrary magic; but against bad luck no man has anything to oppose.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“I heard word
Of bellied sailcloth,
Creak of oars,
And gold in Eastland.
Then I smelled
A smell remembered:
Salt of spray
And black-pitched boat's keel.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Orm remarked that he knew enough about men not to argue with poets concerning their respective merits;”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“It would be a fearful prospect, he said, to envisage a life without ale, either on sea or ashore;”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“There were no ships to be seen, and no people; only here and there the traces of some old building. Many villages had flourished in these parts before the first Northmen came, but everything had long since been plundered and laid waste, so that nowadays men had to travel far to the south before they could find any prizes worth the taking.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Even if you cannot fully match my skill at composing verses,” he said, “yet be of good cheer. Remember that it is granted to the poets to drink from the largest horn at the banquet of the gods.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“But how they could continue to regard him as a god after the Jews had killed him, none of them could understand; for obviously no true God could be killed by men.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“He says that he is a Jew. They are a people from the East who killed the man whom the Christians regard as their God. This killing took place long ago, but the Christians still cherish a great hatred against the Jews because of it, and like to kill them, and will not accept any ransom for them or show them any clemency. For this reason most of the Jews live in the lands ruled by the Caliph of Córdoba, since in his kingdom the man they killed is not regarded as a god.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Det är illa gjort mot en sjuk man att likna honom vid en smålänning”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, Röde Orm

“His bed needed all the good craftsmanship that had gone into its making to keep it from splitting asunder as he would grip one of its beams to heave at the oar of his sleep; and he often said that there was no happiness in the world to compare with that of awakening from such a dream and finding it to be only a dream. Three”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“Of all the warriors that have ever been born in this land, he is the mightiest; and he has sworn a great oath that he will die in the field, with his face turned toward the false worshippers who believe that the son of Joseph was God.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships