ODIN O Freyja, larger liberty— The mightier peace which mortals only know— Even death.
FENRIS Freedom! Anarch—anarch! Freedom!
LOKI Hail, Odin; smoketh thine altar afar. Burneth to thee the cloven bullock’s heart; The sacrificers watch and wait thy sign.
ODIN Let them behold it! Thou and Thor, stretch out Your wings in storm, and ravish up their souls With night and death. [To Baldur and Freyja.] Come, you my children! Now Shall our immortal fires be mixed with clay In the great crucible, and these our spirits No more shall know themselves for gods, until The shadowy Master shows the great solution.
[In faint lightning and thunder, Loki and Thor disappear. Odin ascends the crater, followed by Baldur and Freyja. Climbing together the steep slope, these two look backward upon the prostrate wolf who, following them with his eyes, moves not until they reach the summit. There, against a sky of sunlit storm, Freyja pauses and stretches forth her arm to him.]
FREYJA Dear wolf!
FENRIS [Starts up madly.] Freyja! death—freedom! freedom! death!—Now—now!
[As Freyja and the gods pass from sight beyond the cliffs, Fenris gnaws at his chain in inarticulate fury.]