ALL. [With their faces buried in their hands] Amen!
Everybody leaves silently and sadly. When KERSTI alone remains, the SHERIFF locks the doors in the rear. Then he fastens the shutters covering the opening where the fiddlers were seated.
From the fireplace is heard a loud noise as of thunder.
NECK. [Appears in the water-wheel with his fiddle and plays and sings as before] "I am hoping, I am hoping that thy Redeemer still liveth."
This he repeats several times, while KERSTI is kneeling on the floor with her handcuffed arms raised toward heaven.
The CHILD IN WHITE enters from behind the fireplace with a basket full of spruce branches and flowers.
The NECK stops singing and disappears.
The CHILD IN WHITE strews the spruce branches on the floor so that a green path is formed to the edge of the trap-door. When he has reached this, he drops flowers into the hole, from which the bell-like notes of the harmonica are heard.
Unseen by KERSTI, he goes up to her, places his hands on her head and stands still with upturned face as if in prayer.
The face of KERSTI, which until then has shown deep despair, assumes an expression of quiet happiness.
Curtain.
[1] From the Poetic Edda: "The Song of the High One." See introduction.
[2] From the Poetic Edda: "The Song of the Sun." See introduction.
FIFTH SCENE