(She shrieks again. ODDNY and ASTRID, who have come behind her,
muffle her head in a kirtle and lift her.)
ASTRID (turning as they bear her out)
Fire suffuses only her cloudy brain:
The flare she walks in is on the other side
Of her shot eyes. We heard a passionate voice,
A shrill unwomanish voice that must be Mord,
With "Let us burn him—burn him house and all."
And then a grave and trembling voice replied,
"Although my life hung on it, it shall not be."
Again the cunning fanatic voice went on
"I say the house must burn above his head."
And the unlifted voice, "Why wilt thou speak
Of what none wishes: it shall never be."
(ASTRID and ODDNY disappear with STEINVOR.)
GUNNAR
To fight with honest men is worth much friendship:
I'll strive with them again.
(He lifts his bow and loosens arrows at intervals while
HALLGERD and RANNVEIG speak.)
HALLGERD (in an undertone to RANNVEIG, looking out meanwhile
to the left)
Mother, come here—
Come here and hearken. Is there not a foot,
A stealthy step, a fumbling on the latch
Of the great door? They come, they come, old mother:
Are you not blithe and thirsty, knowing they come
And cannot be held back? Watch and be secret,
To feel things pass that cannot be undone.
RANNVEIG
It is the latch. Cry out, cry out for Gunnar,
And bring him from the loft.
HALLGERD
Oh, never:
For then they'd swarm upon him from the roof.
Leave him up there and he can bay both armies,
While the whole dance goes merrily before us
And we can warm our hearts at such a flare.
RANNVEIG (turning both ways, while HALLGERD watches her gleefully)
Gunnar, my son, my son! What shall I do?
(ORMILD enters from the left, white and with her hand to her
side, and walking as one sick.)