NANNA (astonished, and calmer). What! thou avoid’st him?
HOTHER. Think’st thou I bear hatred
’Gainst one who yielded thee a glimpse of pleasure?
One—nearly one of Hother’s days? He gave me
My life, and shall I slay him in requital?
Oh! Nanna, . . . I’ve the mighty thought imagined;
But with it trembles yet my lip—oh, canst thou
Pay virtue its reward—forget for ever thy Hother,
And—in course of time—love Balder?
NANNA. Oh, hush! oh, hush! my Hother!
HOTHER. He is virtuous,
He loves thee well, and Odin is his father.
NANNA. How cruel!
HOTHER. I must fly from thee for ever!
NANNA. Oh horror! Whither? What is thy intention?
HOTHER. To die! Thou know’st my oath! Ha! the sun hastens!
Seest thou how high? I swore by Hothbrod’s ashes
With Balder not to live a day! Release me!
Ha! seest thou how high—
NANNA. And I have sworn too,
By tenderness, by Freya, by my bosom,
I’ll not release thee; I thy track will follow
In the black night of death! This arm I’ll cling to,
And my tear-moisten’d eye, until it bursteth,
Shall gaze on thee, shall gaze on thee, its Hother!
HOTHER. Then be courageous—of thy Hother worthy!
Think on his oath, and—