HALLGERD
O brave! O brave!—he'll dare them with no shield.
GUNNAR (lifting down the great bill)
Let me but reach this haft, I shall get hold
Of steel enough to fence me all about.
(He shakes the bill above his head: a deep resonant humming
follows.
The dais door is thrown open, and ODDNY, ASTRID, and STEINVOR
stream through in their night-clothes.)
STEINVOR
The bill!
ODDNY
The bill is singing!
ASTRID
The bill sings!
GUNNAR (shaking the bill again)
Ay, brain-biter, waken…. Awake and whisper
Out of the throat of dread thy one brief burden.
Blind art thou, and thy kiss will do no choosing:
Worn art thou to a hair's grey edge, a nothing
That slips through all it finds, seeking more nothing.
There is a time, brain-biter, a time that comes
When there shall be much quietness for thee:
Men will be still about thee. I shall know.
It is not yet: the wind shall hiss at thee first.
Ahui! Leap up, brain-biter; sing again.
Sing! Sing thy verse of anger and feel my hands.
RANNVEIG
Stand thou, my Gunnar, in the porch to meet them,
And the great door shall keep thy back for thee.
GUNNAR
I had a brother there. Brother, where are you….