BIARTEY
And mumble by the fire and blink….
Good Oddny, let me spin for you awhile,
That Gunnar's house may profit by his guesting:
Come, trust me with your distaff….
ODDNY
Are there spells
Wrought on a distaff?
STEINVOR
Only by the Norns,
And they'll not sit with human folk to-night.
ODDNY
Then you may spin all night for what I care;
But let the yarn run clean from knots and snarls,
Or I shall have the blame when you are gone.
BIARTEY (taking the distaff)
Trust well the aged knowledge of my hands;
Thin and thin do I spin, and the thread draws finer.
(She sings as she spins.)
They go by three.
And the moon shivers;
The tired waves flee,
The hidden rivers
Also flee.
I take three strands;
There is one for her,
One for my hands,
And one to stir
For another's hands.
I twine them thinner,
The dead wool doubts;
The outer is inner,
The core slips out….
(HALLGERD reënters by the dais door, holding a pair of shears.)