The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays Part 68

Now they run all together round one man: Now they murmur....

A VOICE Close in, lift bows again: He has no shafts, for this is one of ours.

(_Arrows fly in at the cas.e.m.e.nt._)

GUNNAR Wife, here is something in my arm at last: The head is twisted--I must cut it clear.

(STEINVOR _throws open the dais door and rushes through with a high shriek._)

STEINVOR Woman, let us out--help us out-- The burning comes--they are calling out for fire.

(_She shrieks again. ODDNY and ASTRID, who have come behind her, m.u.f.fle her head in a kirtle and lift her._)

ASTRID (_turning as they bear her out_) Fire suffuses only her cloudy brain: The flare she walks in is on the other side Of her shot eyes. We heard a pa.s.sionate voice, A shrill unwomanish voice that must be Mord, With "Let us burn him--burn him house and all."

And then a grave and trembling voice replied, "Although my life hung on it, it shall not be."

Again the cunning fanatic voice went on "I say the house must burn above his head."

And the unlifted voice, "Why wilt thou speak Of what none wishes: it shall never be."

(ASTRID _and_ ODDNY _disappear with_ STEINVOR.)

GUNNAR To fight with honest men is worth much friendship: I'll strive with them again.

(_He lifts his bow and loosens arrows at intervals while_ HALLGERD _and_ RANNVEIG _speak._)

HALLGERD (_in an undertone to_ RANNVEIG, _looking out meanwhile to the left_) Mother, come here-- Come here and hearken. Is there not a foot, A stealthy step, a fumbling on the latch Of the great door? They come, they come, old mother: Are you not blithe and thirsty, knowing they come And cannot be held back? Watch and be secret, To feel things pa.s.s that cannot be undone.

RANNVEIG It is the latch. Cry out, cry out for Gunnar, And bring him from the loft.

HALLGERD Oh, never: For then they'd swarm upon him from the roof.

Leave him up there and he can bay both armies, While the whole dance goes merrily before us And we can warm our hearts at such a flare.

RANNVEIG (_turning both ways, while HALLGERD watches her gleefully_) Gunnar, my son, my son! What shall I do?

(ORMILD _enters from the left, white and with her hand to her side, and walking as one sick._)

HALLGERD Bah--here's a bleached a.s.sault....

RANNVEIG Oh, lonesome thing, To be forgot and left in such a night.

What is there now--are terrors surging still?

ORMILD I know not what has gone: when the men came I hid in the far cowhouse. I think I swooned....

And then I followed the shadow. Who is dead?

RANNVEIG Go to the bower: the women will care for you.

(ORMILD _totters up the hall from pillar to pillar._)

ASTRID (_entering by the dais door_) Now they have found the weather-ropes and lashed them Over the carven ends of the beams outside: They bear on them, they tighten them with levers, And soon they'll tear the high roof off the hall.

GUNNAR Get back and bolt the women into the bower.

(ASTRID _takes_ ORMILD, _who has just reached her, and goes out with her by the dais door, which closes after them._)

Hallgerd, go in: I shall be here thereafter.

HALLGERD I will not stir. Your mother had best go in.

RANNVEIG How shall I stir?

VOICES (_outside and gathering volume_) Ai.... Ai.... Reach harder.... Ai....

GUNNAR Stand clear, stand clear--it moves.

THE VOICES It moves.... Ai, ai....

(_The whole roof slides down rumblingly, disappearing with a crash behind the watt of the house. All is dark above. Fine snow sifts down now and then to the end of the play._)

GUNNAR (_handling his bow_) The wind has changed: 'tis coming on to snow.

The harvesters will hurry in to-morrow.

(THORBRAND THORLEIKSSON _appears above the wall-top a little past_ GUNNAR, _and, reaching noiselessly with a sword, cuts_ GUNNAR'S _bowstring._)

GUNNAR (_dropping the bow and seizing his bill_) Ay, Thorbrand, is it thou? That's a rare blade, To shear through hemp and gut.... Let your wife have it For snipping needle-yarn; or try it again.

THORBRAND (_raising his sword_) I must be getting back ere the snow thickens: So here's my message to the end--or farther.

Gunnar, this night it is time to start your journey And get you out of Iceland....

GUNNAR (_thrusting at THORBRAND with the bill_) I think it is: So you shall go before me in the dark.

Wait for me when you find a quiet shelter.

(THORBRAND _sinks backward from the wall and is heard to fall farther. Immediately_ ASBRAND THORLEIKSSON _starts up in his place._)

ASBRAND (_striking repeatedly with a sword_) Oh, down, down, down!

GUNNAR (_parrying the blows with the bill_) Ay, Asbrand, thou as well?

Thy brother Thorbrand was up here but now: He has gone back the other way, maybe-- Be hasty, or you'll not come up with him.

(_He thrusts with the bill_: ASBRAND _lifts a shield before the blow._)

Here's the first shield that I have seen to-night.

(_The bill pierces the shield_: ASBRAND _disappears and is heard to fall._ GUNNAR _turns from the cas.e.m.e.nt._)

Hallgerd, my harp that had but one long string, But one low song, but one brief wingy flight, Is voiceless, for my bowstring is cut off.

Sever two locks of hair for my sake now, Spoil those bright coils of power, give me your hair, And with my mother twist those locks together Into a bowstring for me. Fierce small head, Thy stinging tresses shall scourge men forth by me.

HALLGERD Does ought lie on it?

GUNNAR Nought but my life lies on it; For they will never dare to close on me If I can keep my bow bended and singing.