TO
MY DEAR SCRIBE
PERSONS:
| Hialti, a Northman. |
| Thorgerd, His Wife. |
| Blanid, an Irish Bondmaid. |
| An Old Strange Man. |
THE CRIER BY NIGHT
The scene is the interior of a cottage near a misty mere and among unseen mountains on a wild night of late Autumn. In the back wall area door to the left and a long low window in the middle; the latter is shuttered on the outside, and on door and window the wind-driven rain rattles. In the middle of the left-hand wall a door leads into an outhouse; near it is a loom: toward the front of the right-hand wall another door leads to a sleeping-chamber; a settle extends along this wall and in front of it a long table is set. Two rushlights burn on the table. A round hearth is in the middle of the house; its smoke rises into a luffer which hangs from the thatched roof between two beams. The floor is thickly strewn with rushes. There are several wooden stools about the hearth, on one of which Hialti is sitting mending harness. Thorgerd is standing near the loom, spinning with a distaff.