BALDUR This is the word of Odin! [Egil sinks prostrate.] If the wolf Seduce to his desire his brother’s bride, He shall be lord with her of heaven and earth And hell, and by their passion the serene And stablished beacons of the gods shall be Eclipsed in night, anarchical and void, Where, staggering with lust, the blinded world Reels back to chaos and the primal dark.
EGIL [Hiding his face.] And if the wolf renounce her?
BALDUR He shall perish, Slain by his own self-mastery, and all The spirits of light, freed from that awful dread, Shall strew his charnel, singing.
BALDUR She falters yet; she hangs upon his will. The lure of imperfection is the sin Of gods, the lure of godhood that of mortals. She wavers still.
EGIL Bright shadow, golden voice, Say what thou art.
BALDUR Baldur, the son of Odin.
EGIL [Starts up.] Then I—?
BALDUR Fenris, the wolf-god!
[He sinks again into the flowers, and is gone.]