[As Loki swings his whip of fire, the Pack beneath fall on their faces. Amid them Fenris crouches at half stature. Baldur and Freyja kneel as frozen, with lifted hands toward Odin. Thus in sudden twilight and silence, fine silent lashes of unintermittent lightning uncoil and coil, as the scourge is whirled, around the cringing body of the wolf. A shudder only reveals his extreme pangs.]
ODIN Cease! [Loki ceases.] Wolf, what of thine oath?
FENRIS Oathless am I.
BALDUR Fenris, be tamed!
FENRIS I—I—I am Allfather!
ODIN Sublime inanity! heroic ape! This strong defiance were itself divine, And thou a titan-martyr, had thy pride One rational aim commensurate with thy woe. But all thy suffering is purposeless. Strike, Thor! Make of his obdurate heart thine anvil.
THE PACK [Some fawning toward Odin, others seeking protection of Fenris.] Heil, Othinn! Ulfr, heil!
[As Fenris, by a gesture of rage, drives these from him into the cavern, Thor raises his hammer. Immediate night shuts out the scene. In this surge of darkness the deep rolling of thunder swells and culminates, as by waves, in the blank burst of the thunder-bolt. Through a half-lull, amid moaning of the Pack, are heard voices from the crater.]
BALDUR’S VOICE She leaps. Hold, Thor! She casteth herself down.