OOGNO
Alas for them! A miserly heart must be a sore affliction.
THAHN
A sore affliction indeed, and bad for our calling.
OOGNO (reflectively)
They have been thus for many months. What thing has befallen them?
THAHN
Some evil thing.
ULF
There has been a comet come near to the earth of late and the earth has been parched and sultry so that the gods are drowsy and all those things that are divine in man, such as benevolence, drunkenness, extravagance, and song, have faded and died and have not been replenished by the gods.