Oral Exercise. In the following sentences, which words show possession? Which are singular? Which plural?

1. What doth the poor man's son inherit?

2. Rip's story was soon told.

3. The dwarfs' chain was the strongest ever made.

4. A Roman's arms, a Roman's life,

Take thou in charge this day!

5. "Death!" was the seamen's cry.

Written Exercise. - Write the possessive form of:
:-

I AM the God Thor,

I am the War God,
I am the Thunderer!
Here in my Northland,
My fastness and fortress,
Reign I forever!

Here amid icebergs
Rule I the nations;

This is my hammer,
Miolner the mighty;

Giants and sorcerers

Cannot withstand it!
These are the gauntlets
Wherewith I wield it,

5

10

15

20

And hurl it afar off;
This is my girdle;
Whenever I brace it,
Strength is redoubled!

The light thou beholdest
Stream through the heavens,
In flashes of crimson,
Is but my red beard
Blown by the night wind,
Affrighting the nations!

Jove is my brother;

Mine eyes are the lightning;
The wheels of my chariot
Roll in the thunder,

The blows of hammer
my

Ring in the earthquake!

Force rules the world still,
Has ruled it, shall rule it;
Meekness is weakness,
Strength is triumphant,

Over the whole earth

Still is it Thor's-Day!

-HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW: The Saga of King Olaf.

fast'ness, place that remains fast or firm or safe, fortress; Jove, Jupiter or Zeus.

1. Why does Thor call himself "the Thunderer"? 2. What part of the world is referred to by "Northland"? 3. What are sorcerers? 4. What light is referred to in the fourth stanza? Have you ever seen this light? What does Thor say causes it? What is it really? 5. Who was Jove? By what other name is he known? Why does Thor call him "brother"? 6. Give the old Norse belief as to the cause of lightning, thunder, earthquakes.

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THE NECKAN

IN summer, on the headlands,
The Baltic Sea along,

Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,
And sings his plaintive song.

Green rolls beneath the headlands,
Green rolls the Baltic Sea ;

And there, below the Neckan's feet,

His wife and children be.

He sings not of the ocean,

Its shells and roses pale;

Of earth, of earth the Neckan sings,

He hath no other tale.

5

10

He sits upon the headlands,

And sings a mournful stave

Of all he saw and felt on earth,

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Far from the kind sea wave.

5

10

Sings of his earthly bridal —

Priest, knights, and ladies gay.

"And who art thou," the priest began, "Sir Knight, who wedd'st to-day?"

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"I am no knight," he answered;

"From the sea waves I come."

The knights drew sword, the ladies scream'd,

The surplic'd priest stood dumb.

He sings how from the chapel

He vanish'd with his bride,

And bore her down to the sea halls,
Beneath the salt sea tide.

He sings how she sits weeping

'Mid shells that round her lie.

"False Neckan shares my bed," she weeps;

"No Christian mate have I."

He sings how through the billows

He rose to earth again,

And sought a priest to sign the cross,
That Neckan Heaven might gain.

He sings how, on an evening,
Beneath the birch trees cool,

He sate and play'd his harp of gold,
Beside the river pool.