King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve Part 23

O, smite and pulse On their anvil heads: The smithy is full, There are shoes to be made For the hoofs of the steeds Of the Valkyr girls....

FIRST MAN.

Hack through the shaft....

SECOND MAN.

Receive the blade In the breast of a shield, And wrench it round....

GUNNAR.

For the hoofs of the steeds Of the Valkyr girls Who race up the night To be first at our feast, First in the play With immortal spears In deadly holes....

THIRD MAN.

Try at his back....

MANY VOICES, _shouting in confusion._

Have him down.... Heels on the bill.... Ahui, ahui....

_The bill does not rise._

HROALD, _with the breaking voice of a young man, high over all._ Father.... It is my blow.... It is I who kill him....

_The crowd parts, suddenly silent, showing GUNNAR fallen._

_RANNVEIG covers her face with her hands._

HALLGERD, _laughing as she leans forward and holds her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in her hands._ O, clear sweet laughter of my heart, flow out!

It is so mighty and beautiful and blithe To watch a man dying--to hover and watch.

RANNVEIG.

Cease: are you not immortal in shame already?

HALLGERD.

Heroes, what deeds ye compa.s.s, what great deeds-- One man has held ye from an open door: Heroes, heroes, are ye undefeated?

GIZUR, _an old white-bearded man, to the other riders._ We have laid low to earth a mighty chief: We have laboured harder than on greater deeds, And maybe won remembrance by the deeds Of Gunnar when no deed of ours should live; For this defence of his shall outlast kingdoms And gather him fame till there are no more men.

MORD.

Come down and splinter those old birds his G.o.ds That perch upon the carven high-seat pillars; Wreck every place his shadow fell upon, Rive out his gear, drive off his forfeit beasts.

SECOND MAN.

It shall not be.

MANY MEN. Never.

GIZUR. We'll never do it: Let no man lift a blade or finger a clout-- Is not this Gunnar, Gunnar, whom we have slain?

Home, home, before the dawn shows all our deed.

_The riders go down quickly over the wall-top, and disappear._

HALLGERD.

Now I shall close his nostrils and his eyes, And thereby take his blood-feud into my hands.

RANNVEIG.

If you do stir I'll choke you with your hair.

I will not let your murderous mind be near him When he no more can choose and does not know.

HALLGERD.

His wife I was, and yet he never judged me: He did not set your motherhood between us.

Let me alone--I stand here for my sons.

RANNVEIG.

The wolf, the carrion bird, and the fair woman Hurry upon a corpse, as if they think That all is left for them the grey G.o.ds need not.

_She twines her hands in HALLGERD'S hair and draws her down to the floor._

O, I will comb your hair with bones and thumbs, Array these locks in my right widow's way, And deck you like the bed-mate of the dead.

Lie down upon the earth as Gunnar lies, Or I can never match him in your looks And whiten you and make your heart as cold.

HALLGERD.

Mother, what will you do? Unloose me now-- Your eyes would not look so at me alone.

RANNVEIG.

Be still, my daughter....

HALLGERD. And then?

RANNVEIG. Ah, do not fear-- I see a peril nigh and all its blitheness.

Order your limbs--stretch out your length of beauty, Let down your hands and close those deepening eyes, Or you can never stiffen as you should.

A murdered man should have a murdered wife When all his fate is treasured in her mouth.

This wifely hair-pin will be sharp enough.

HALLGERD, _starting up as_ RANNVEIG _half loosens her to take a hair-pin from her own head._

She is mad, mad.... O, the bower is barred-- Hallgerd, come out, let mountains cover you....

_She rushes out to the left._

RANNVEIG, _following her._ The night take you indeed....

_GIZUR enters from the left._

GIZUR. Ay, drive her out; For no man's house was ever better by her.

RANNVEIG.

Is an old woman's life desired as well?

GIZUR.

We ask that you will grant us earth hereby Of Gunnar's earth, for two men dead to-night To lie beneath a cairn that we shall raise.

RANNVEIG.