King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve Part 20

THE THREE, _continuously._ House that spurns us, woe shall come upon you: Death shall hollow you. Now we curse the woman-- May all the woes smite her till she can feel them.

Shall we not roost in her bower yet? Woe! Woe!

_The distaff breaks, and Hallgerd drives them out with her hands. Their voices continue for a moment outside, dying away._

Call to the owl-friends.... Woe! Woe! Woe!

ASTRID.

Whence came these mounds of dread to haunt the night?

It doubles this disquiet to have them near us.

ODDNY.

They must be witches--and it was my distaff-- Will fire eat through me....

STEINVOR. Or the Norns themselves.

HALLGERD.

Or bad old women used to govern by fear.

To bed, to bed--we are all up too late.

STEINVOR, _as she turns with_ ASTRID _and_ ODDNY _to the das._ If beds are made for sleep we might sit long.

_They go out by the das door._

GUNNAR, _as he enters hastily from the left._ Where are those women? There's some secret in them: I have heard such others crying down to them.

HALLGERD.

They turned foul-mouthed, they beckoned evil toward us-- I drove them forth a breath ago.

GUNNAR. Forth? Whence?

HALLGERD.

By the great door: they cried about the night.

_RANNVEIG follows GUNNAR in._

GUNNAR.

Nay but I entered there and pa.s.sed them not.

Mother, where are the women?

RANNVEIG. I saw none come.

GUNNAR.

They have not come, they have gone.

RANNVEIG. I crossed the yard, Hearing a noise, but a big bird dropped past, Beating my eyes; and then the yard was clear.

_The deep baying of the hound is heard again._

GUNNAR.

They must be spies: yonder is news of them.

The wise hound knew them, and knew them again.

_The baying is succeeded by one wild howl._ Nay, nay!

Men treat thee sorely, Samm my fosterling: Even by death thou warnest--but it is meant That our two deaths will not be far apart.

RANNVEIG.

Think you that men are yonder?

GUNNAR. Men are yonder.

RANNVEIG.

My son, my son, get on the rattling war-woof, The old grey shift of Odin, the hide of steel.

Handle the snake with edges, the fang of the rings.

GUNNAR, _going to the weapons by the high-seat._ There are not enough moments to get under That heavy fleece: an iron hat must serve....

HALLGERD.

O brave! O brave!--he'll dare them with no shield.

GUNNAR, _lifting down the great bill from the wall._ Let me but reach this haft, I shall get hold Of steel enough to fence me all about.

_He shakes the bill above his head: a deep resonant humming follows. The das door is thrown open, and ODDNY, ASTRID, and STEINVOR stream through in their night-clothes._

STEINVOR. The bill!

ODDNY. The bill is singing!

ASTRID. The bill sings!

GUNNAR, _shaking the bill again._ Ay, brain-biter, waken ... Awake and whisper Out of the throat of dread thy one brief burden.

Blind art thou, and thy kiss will do no choosing: Worn art thou to a hair's grey edge, a nothing That slips through all it finds, seeking more nothing.

There is a time, brain-biter, a time that comes When there shall be much quietness for thee: Men will be still about thee. I shall know.

It is not yet: the wind shall hiss at thee first.

Ahui! Leap up, brain-biter; sing again.

Sing! Sing thy verse of anger and feel my hands.

RANNVEIG.

Stand thou, my Gunnar, in the porch to meet them, And the great door shall keep thy back for thee.

GUNNAR.

I had a brother there. Brother, where are you....

HALLGERD.

Nay nay. Get thou, my Gunnar, to the loft, Stand at the cas.e.m.e.nt, watch them how they come.

Arrows maybe could drop on them from there.

RANNVEIG.

'Tis good: the woman's cunning for once is faithful.

GUNNAR, _turning again to the weapons._ 'Tis good, for now I hear a foot that stumbles Along the stable-roof against the hall.

My bow--where is my bow? Here with its arrows....

Go in again, you women on the das, And listen at the cas.e.m.e.nt of the bower For men who cross the yard, and for their words.