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FENRIS, THE WOLF

FENRIS, THE WOLF

A TRAGEDY

BY
PERCY MACKAYE

AUTHOR OF “THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS”

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
1905
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1905,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1905.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO
NORMAN HAPGOOD
CRITIC AND FRIEND

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The invocation of Ingimund to Odin, [on page 38], is adapted from Fragments of a Spell Song, preserved as an insertion in the Great Play of the Wolsungs, and to be found, both original and translation, in the Corpus Poeticum Boreale of Vigfusson and Powell, Oxford, 1883.

For dramatic reasons, various liberties have been taken by the writer with those elements of this play which are drawn from Scandinavian mythology. For example, according to mythology, the Fenris-wolf is the offspring, not of Odin, but of Loki; the wolf and Baldur are not brothers; no mention is made of the wolf’s Pack. Moreover, in the Old Icelandic utterances of the Pack—for purposes of sound merely—a preterite form has twice been used for a present tense, as in Ulfr sofnathi, “the wolf sleepeth.”

Where authenticity, however, has harmonised with the dramatic idea, it has equally been the writer’s aim.

Cornish, N.H., March, 1905.

• CHARACTERS
• Of the Prologue
• ODIN
• BALDUR
• THOR
• LOKI
• FENRIS
• FENRIS’S PACK
• FREYJA
• Of the Play
• INGIMUND, Priest of Odin
• EGIL, a Hunter
• ARFI, a Dwarf, his brother
• YORUL, liegeman of Egil
• ROLF, liegeman of Egil
• ERIC, liegeman of Egil
• WULDOR, liegeman of Arfi
• A LITTLE BOY
• THORDIS, daughter of Ingimund and priestess of Odin’s temple
• FRIDA, one of her Virgins
• A LITTLE GIRL
• Folk, Priests, Virgins, Children

Time and Place

The Age of Northern Mythology; Iceland. The incidents of
the play are conceived as taking place within the cycle
of a year.

THE PROLOGUE

Foreground—a frozen crater

At back, a cavern. Overhanging this, at left and back,
snow-crusted cliffs, partly bared by the winds, stand
out against the stars.

On one of these, Odin seated; on his shoulders,
two ravens. Beneath him, in the crater and
cavern, half-discernible, Fenris and his Pack.

ODIN He sleeps, yet restive still; with eyelids squint Through which his eyes, in dreams still shifting, flash Like flame through knot-holes. Yet he sleeps; beside him His wild pack, crouching, share his chain.—A lull: Betwixt moonset and sunrise, one at least, One lull in that insensate harsh defiance, The beast-night-barking of my wolfish son. You stars! Fenris is quiet. Now the dews May fall in silence, now the mountain birds Nest silent by the unawakened morning, The wide dark fold its wings and dream. Now peace, The infinite soliloquy of thought, Descends on Odin.

[A silent pause, during which the first pale signs of dawn appear on the crags. Odin whispers to the ravens on his shoulders and they fly away. He sits motionless and serene.]

THE PACK [Slumbrously.] Ulfr! Ulfr sofnathi!

ODIN [Gazes again on Fenris.] That this dread should breathe! And yon beast born from out my loins—to me, To me, that from this forehead plucked an eye To pawn for Mimi’s knowledge.—Wisdom, truth, Beauty, and law, the tranquil goals of mind, All these had I attained, and I a god; Yet on the lank, alluring hag of Chaos Begat this son, this living fang.

THE PACK [Slumbrously.] Ulfr! Ulfr sofnathi!

ODIN O thou Dumb spirit of the mind! O mystery! Were there a god whom Odin might invoke, To thee would Odin sue for pity.—Ages, A thousand ages, anguish; Anguish, remorse, forgiveness, malediction, Light into darkness, horror into hope, Revolving evermore.—O pain, O pain, Sear not my spirit blind!—Thou, tameless wolf, God of the void eternal retrograde, Prone deity of self, by that thou art— Illimitable passion, joyance mad Of being, hate, brute-cunning, gnawing lust, Fenris, I curse thee.

[Fenris wakes.]

THE PACK [Wildly.] Ulfr! Ulfr vaknathi!

FENRIS Father!

ODIN Still that name!

FENRIS Father!

ODIN Fenris, my son, forgive me.

FENRIS Fetch Fenris Freyja.

ODIN Bastard wolf, Be silent.

FENRIS Baldur, my brother’s bride betrothèd, Freyja, fetch me.

ODIN Still no longing but ’tis lust, No aspiration but ’tis appetite.

FENRIS Anarch! anarch! anarch! Father, free me!

ODIN Free thee, thou poor antagonist. Knowest thou Not yet why thou art chained? Retarded thing, Emancipate thyself! What might it avail Though Odin burst these links and loosed thee?—Thou Thyself art thine own bondage and thy pain.

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr!

FENRIS Anarch! anarch! Ulfr!

ODIN Yet could’st thou show some genesis of good, Some spring of growth. Hadst thou, in all these ages, Waxed toward my stature imperceptibly Even as the seed, that germinates in darkness, Feels toward the sky; yea, hadst thou now one pale Potential spark of godhood, nobler desire, Evolving intellect, one lineal trait To prove that upward through thy brutish heart Yearns infinite Reason, even now, poor son, Would I strike off these fetters, set thee free, Thee and thy pack, and put my hope in time.

THE PACK Heil! Heil, Othinn!

FENRIS Fenris! Free him.

ODIN But lo! instead, what art thou? Ye faint stars, Before you close your eyes in day, once more Behold him! Ye icy craters and hoar caves, Thou solitary dawn, eternal sky, Perennial snows—you timeless presences, Behold your consummation: this, even this, Is Odin’s elder son, creation’s heir!

FENRIS Anarch! anarch! anarch! anarch! anarch!

[Odin, covering his face, turns away and disappears behind the crag. Fenris, with his pack, retires into the cavern, dragging his chain. Outside Baldur is heard singing, joined, in chorus, by the voices of nature on whom he calls.]

BALDUR Flushing peak, fainting star, Freyja! Torches in thy temple are, Freyja! Spirits of air, Anses and elves, Brightens the dawn, Freyja is gone. Come! let us go to her, girding ourselves.

CHORUS Freyja, where art thou? Where? Where?

[Freyja enters, looking fearfully around her.]

FREYJA Those giant beards and backs!—They turn and look. The peaks pursue me, and the nudging cliffs Thrust out great chins and stare. Where should this lead?

BALDUR [Outside.] Mortal day, man’s desires, Freyja! Feed on earth thine altar-fires, Freyja! Spirits of earth, Wood-sprites and Wanes, Gone is our mirth, Sorrow remains. Come! let us hasten and bid her beware!

CHORUS Freyja, where art thou? Where? Where?

FREYJA Can this place be i’ the world? And were such shapes Wrought in the dear creation? And that voice— Was it this crater’s frozen mouth that moaned For blossoms and the south wind and my love?

BALDUR [Enters.] Freyja!

FREYJA O Baldur, come!

BALDUR What hast thou seen? Why hast thou left the silver roof of shields, Thy lover’s eyes, the laughter of the gods, To wander forth in night?

FREYJA Barkings I heard.

BALDUR Hush, Freyja!

FREYJA Through the music of the gods Faintly I heard it knell and yearn for me; And so I stole away. But tell me—

BALDUR Come!

FREYJA Tell me what thing of nameless woe—

BALDUR Oh, come And ask not. Come away to Valhal.

[He leads her impetuously away from the crater toward the sunrise.]

FREYJA [Resists gently.] Baldur!

BALDUR Freyja, look down! Spring leaps among the valleys And calls his universal flocks, to drink The love of Freyja. The forests rush together and the groves, And the male oaks, like herded elk at war, Tangle their budding antlers, and moan loud For Freyja’s love.

Look down! The silvered pastures and the lakes Lift all their sacrificial clouds, to crave The love of Freyja; And day’s bright stallion, snorting in the east, Paws the pale stream of morning into gold And champs his golden curb to burning foam For Freyja’s love.

[He draws her farther away.]

FREYJA But if one yearn in vain—

[The rattle of Fenris’s manacles echoes in the crater.]

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr vaknathi!

FREYJA Listen! They cry— “The wolf awakeneth!” What wolf? And why That clang of steel?

BALDUR His chain.

FREYJA [In dreadful wonder.] But he?

BALDUR A beast Untamed and tameless.—Ask not with thine eyes!— Fenris, my brother.

FREYJA [Springs joyfully toward the crater.] Ah!

BALDUR [Stays her.] Where art thou going?

FREYJA To greet my lover’s kindred. Were it not well?

BALDUR Oh, would it were! Look not; this kin is monstrous.

FREYJA Is it not a god as we?

BALDUR It is a god, Freyja, but not as we.—It is the wolf-god, Lord of the dumb and kithless wild, that live To breed and kill their forms of dreadful beauty— A vacant sacrifice to him: the doe, That stills all night her knocking heart, to hear The wood-cat’s footfall, breathes mute prayer to Fenris; The frothing stag, that blazons the black boar With gules of death, bruits hymns to Fenris; yet Their pangs assuage him not, for he himself Remains the abject deity of lust, His rites, the stretched claw and the stiffened mane; His priest—a sated fang; his altar—fear.

FREYJA But why makes he his sanctuary thus Lonely in desolation?

BALDUR ’Tis the will Of Odin. Ask no more. This cleft he chose Wherein to hide the secret woe of the world, That never thou shouldst look upon its face.

FREYJA

I?

BALDUR Thou, O maiden! Thou art the hope of the world.

FENRIS Freyja!

FREYJA He calls me.

FENRIS Freyja!

FREYJA Hark! He yearns For me!

BALDUR [Urging her away.] ’Tis Odin’s will.

FENRIS Freyja!

FREYJA He cries In pain. Hold me no longer.—Fenris!

ODIN [Entering, intercepts her path with his spear.] Stay!

FREYJA Allfather! hark his pain. Alas, poor wolf!

ODIN Poor wolf? Poor world! poor blind, precarious Reason, Beneath whose sovereign throne this horror sits, Cat-crouching to usurp it.—Fear him; go!

FENRIS Ai! ai! anarch! Freyja!

FREYJA He yearns for me. Am I not beautiful? Am I not holy? Wherefore should I fear? All living things love Freyja; gods and men, Anses and elves and helpless animals. Where I walk glittering, there lovers press And consecrate their eyes and beat their hearts Like moths against the moon. And shall I go Nor smile once kindly on him? Even the moon Is kinder to her loves.

ODIN He craves no smile From thee, nor ever smiled into the face Of love since his birth-hour. He lusts for thee.

FREYJA Why should he not? Hath Odin never lusted? What mind that knows the lust of intellect Shall mock desire? Ah! Who that ever yearned, Yearned not in ignorance?

BALDUR Have pity, father!

ODIN [To Freyja.] Child, pitiest thou this thing?

FREYJA Hath not its voice Cried out immortally and craved me? Pity? Love is a kind of pity for itself That longs so endlessly. Allfather, never Ere now hast thou gainsaid me.

ODIN Yet must now! This bitterness is mine alone to bear. O Freyja! O my Baldur! You of all The creatures of my will, bright lovers, you Only are happy. Be so still. Depart! Forget these wolvish cries; seek not to help Evil unsolvable.

FREYJA What then is evil, That lovers may not solve it?

ODIN [His face turning wistful with a beautiful light, lifts his obstructive spear, and stands from the path.] Hope of the world!

FENRIS Freyja!

ODIN Behold!

[He watches with the look of wistfulness as Freyja and Baldur, springing to the brink of the crater, gaze down upon Fenris.]

FREYJA Ah me!

BALDUR Fenris, my brother!

FREYJA O pain! Why dost thou look upon me so?

FENRIS Fair art, Freyja; shalt Fenris fear not?

FREYJA What wouldst thou?

FENRIS Lithe thy limbs are; lief am to lie with thee.

FREYJA Are these snows thy dwelling-place? No flowers grow here. Take these.

[Freyja lets fall some of her flowers into the crater.]

FENRIS [Tearing them, as the Pack yells.] Anarch! anarch!

FREYJA [Drawing back.] Alas!

BALDUR Peace, brother!

FREYJA Thou lovest me. Why, then, art thou not glad?

FENRIS Chafe, choke me, chains; chaffeth the churl at me!

FREYJA Take heart; we come to bring thee peace. O Baldur!

[Clinging to Baldur, she gazes with fascinated awe upon Fenris, who, pacing ever in and out, amid his involving Pack, with the swift, incessant shuttle movement of a caged wild thing, upturns his shifting eyes in yearning.]

FENRIS Free me, Freyja; frore am I, frost-bit, Go we together into greenwood glad. Mirk under moon-mist mad will meet thee, Hunt thee from hiding, thy heart-beats hear! Press thee, panting!

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr!

FENRIS Bite—bark at thee—

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr!

FENRIS Miles, miles, miles!

FREYJA [To Baldur.] He loves me, yet his looks are terrible. He saw me, yet he smiled not. Flowers I gave him, But he destroyed them. Sorrowful he is, Yet hath no tears in his eyes.—What shall we do?

FENRIS Free me, Freyja; fair art thou, froward— Go we together into greenwood glad. Burns thine eyebeam bright as the bitch-wolf’s, Longeth Fenris in thy lair to lie; Longeth to chase thee.

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr!

FENRIS Chafe, champ thee—

THE PACK Ulfr! Ulfr!

FENRIS Leave thee with child.

FREYJA Baldur, what reeling darkness snows around us From heaven? The rose of dawn is stung with blight.

ODIN [Aside.] O mystery! O will behind the will, How shall this end?

BALDUR From heaven no darkness falls; It is the glamour of his woeful eyes, That spet the night within them.

FREYJA [Half wildly, whispers at Baldur’s ear.] It must cease! The shy bird hath his song within the wood, The shepherd’s call is sweet along the hills, To husband and to lover are the sounds Of gracious voices in the home places,— To him, the ceaseless clanging of his chain.

BALDUR O Freyja, we will minister to him, Until for him the shy bird’s song is sweet, And sweet the shepherd’s call along the hills. Fenris!

[Swinging from the brink of the crater, he lets himself down. As he descends, Fenris springs toward him to the limit of his chain.]

FENRIS Hail, Baldur! hail, brother! Boast thy beauty now; Woo now and wive thee, welcome to Fenris’ woe. All elf-gifts thou asked Odin gave thee, Sunlight, summer, song for solace, Fair face, freedom, Freyja to friend. Me what gave he? Mark!—Mountain-mist, madness, Monstrous made me, marr’d, wolf-masked, Cramped in snow-crater, frost-crusted, chained; Numb, naked, night-winds gnaw me, Blistereth black ice, biteth my bones.

BALDUR Thou shalt be free.

FENRIS Me mocketh, mocketh! Ai!

BALDUR Fenris, my brother, hear me! I bring thee freedom.

FENRIS [Holding out his chain to Baldur.] Liest;—loose me!

BALDUR Hush! I know the secret How thou mayst slip these shackles. I have learned From Odin how he binds thee. Wilt thou hear?

FENRIS [Craftily beckoning Baldur under the shadow of a cleft.] Tss! Wise is the One-Eyed. Tss! read me thy riddle now.

BALDUR Know then, O Fenris, Odin of himself Is weak to hold thee. Of his kin, another Conniveth with him.

FENRIS Kin, sayst?

BALDUR Thou, his son. Thou forgest Chains stubborner than Odin’s, links of lust Mightier than these of steel, which are themselves The might of these thou wearest. O my brother, Lay off thine own, and Odin’s shall be straw.

FENRIS Thus readest thy riddle?

BALDUR Thus findest thou freedom: do our father’s will. His law is wisdom. All the folk of heaven And earth and hell obey him gladly; thou— Submit thou also; make thine oath to Odin.

FENRIS Oathless be Odin; am I earth’s overlord!

[Odin beckons to the eastward with his spear. From the distance comes a flash of fire and faint thunder.]

BALDUR Hush, brother, hush! He hears; for thy pain’s sake Remember he is Allfather. Be meek.

FENRIS Am I Asa’s heir!—I—I—I am Allfather!

[By a dazzling river of light and thunder-peal, the whole scene is riven. On the peaks at either side appear Loki and Thor. Loki holds in his hand a serpentine whip of many lashes, as of glittering brass; Thor, a white hammer. The Pack cower, moaning; Fenris stands glaring, with head bent backward as in sudden pain.]

ODIN Hail, Loki! Welcome, Thor! in happy time. Are ye not come to crown me Odin the Wise? Shake out the live scorn of thy withering laughter, Loki, over the world: Odin hath been defied! Hammer it, Thor, on the clanged doors of hell, Till their intestine thunders toll our doom— “The wolf shall sit alone, at Valhal’s feast, And eat of Odin’s heart!”

FREYJA Alas! What words

ODIN This is mine heir. Hath it not spoken? This Shall sit one day in Odin’s seat. Mine heir! The heir of all the gods. Behold then, gods, How this, your prince, receives his tutelage.

BALDUR Father, what wilt thou do?

ODIN Tame him, the tameless; The eternal goad against the eternal stone. Yea, though I tame him not till doomsday darken. [To Loki.] Loosen thy scourge.

[Held by his chain, Fenris flees wildly in circles, and seeking to hide himself, finally crouches in terror, centre. He is prevented from entering the cavern by Thor, who stands there.]

FENRIS Anarch! Ai! anarch! Anarch! Ulfr! Ulfr!

BALDUR AND FREYJA Have pity!

ODIN Pity ask Of him; this wolf must reign or I. Strike, Loki! Let thy bright lashes scorch with all their snakes Till the live, brassy serum eats and crawls Into the writhing blood. Begin!

BALDUR AND FREYJA Have mercy!

[As Loki swings his whip of fire, the Pack beneath fall on their faces. Amid them Fenris crouches at half stature. Baldur and Freyja kneel as frozen, with lifted hands toward Odin. Thus in sudden twilight and silence, fine silent lashes of unintermittent lightning uncoil and coil, as the scourge is whirled, around the cringing body of the wolf. A shudder only reveals his extreme pangs.]

ODIN Cease! [Loki ceases.] Wolf, what of thine oath?

FENRIS Oathless am I.

BALDUR Fenris, be tamed!

FENRIS I—I—I am Allfather!

ODIN Sublime inanity! heroic ape! This strong defiance were itself divine, And thou a titan-martyr, had thy pride One rational aim commensurate with thy woe. But all thy suffering is purposeless. Strike, Thor! Make of his obdurate heart thine anvil.

THE PACK [Some fawning toward Odin, others seeking protection of Fenris.] Heil, Othinn! Ulfr, heil!

[As Fenris, by a gesture of rage, drives these from him into the cavern, Thor raises his hammer. Immediate night shuts out the scene. In this surge of darkness the deep rolling of thunder swells and culminates, as by waves, in the blank burst of the thunder-bolt. Through a half-lull, amid moaning of the Pack, are heard voices from the crater.]

BALDUR’S VOICE She leaps. Hold, Thor! She casteth herself down.

FREYJA’S VOICE Beat on my heart, for mine containeth his.

ODIN Light! light once more! [The thunder dies away. Sudden dawn breaks, ripening soon to daylight. Within the crater, Freyja is revealed, standing over the exhausted form of Fenris.] Freyja, what hast thou dared?

FREYJA The bolt of iron and the scourge of brass Avail not, Odin.—Let me conquer him For thee!

ODIN How wouldst thou tame him?

FREYJA By my love, Yea, and the exceeding might of Baldur’s love, Whose gracious arts of poesie shall aid me. Grant him to us!

BALDUR Grant him to us, O father!

ODIN [Going apart.] O thou unknown Destroyer and Deliverer, Rape not again from me this nestling hope! [He descends into the crater.]

BALDUR AND FREYJA Grant him to us, Allfather, to be tamed!

FENRIS [Clutching the snow at their feet, feebly.] I—I am Allfather!

ODIN Lovers, I grant him to you; but not here, For this concession must be darkly hid Till you have proved its beauteous consummation. Not, therefore, here I grant, but yonder. [Indicates the earth below them.] There You shall enact a vast experiment, Whereof the pregnant sequel none may know Save only him, the master magian, Whose prentices we gods and titans are, And the blind wills of men his medium. For he, with silent face from us averted, Holds in the awful hollow of his hand The world—his crucible, and plies with them Ordeals of anguish and of ecstasy. Therefore the earth must be your place of passion, And there in slumber, even as mortals dream, Slumb’ring, that they are bright immortal gods, You shall be mortals, and shall walk as men, Forgetful of your immortality.

[Faintly, as from a great distance, there rises a sound of many voices crying, “Odin! Asa Odin!” and the rumour of beasts in pain.]

Hark, now! from far below us, the deep moan And lowing of a mortal sacrifice. Speak, Thor! What seest thou at Odin’s altar?

THOR A mighty hunter and a twisted dwarf Make sacrifice; rivals they seem, in feud, And claim the hand of Thordis, thy priest’s daughter, And the priest cries on Odin for a portent To choose which of the brothers shall be bridegroom.

ODIN Lo, then, my portent! We ourselves, we four, Shall be those rival brothers, priest and bride; Loki and Thor shall ravish them with death That we, in resurrection, may take on Their bodies as our mortal vestiture. For I will act with you this mystery, Dreaming myself the priest of mine own shrine; And Freyja, child, thy goddess heart shall beat Within the heart of Thordis, mortal maid; Thy boundless spirit, Baldur, shall be pinched Within the gnarled limbs of the stunted dwarf, Twisted with pain, as now thy brother is; Thou, envious wolf, jealous of Baldur’s joys! Thy feverish being shall invest the power And glorious stature of the hunter. So Shalt thou have scope and license measureless To woo the heart of Freyja. So shall ye, Lovers, make proof of your conjoinèd love And trothèd meekness, whether these be strong To tame this wolf, and from his blinding lusts Evolve a nobler consciousness, or weak To let themselves be blasted, and the world Itself eclipsed in universal chaos.

FREYJA If we be strong?

ODIN The wolf-god shall be tamed.

FENRIS [In rage, half rising.] Oathless am I unto Odin ever! [He sinks back, faint.]

BALDUR [To Odin.] And tamed?

ODIN He shall go free.

FREYJA Even in such freedom As ours?

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.]

ACT I

Scene I: Outside a tribal temple.

The gable beams are low; only the entrance end of the building, set at an angle, on the left, is visible. In the distance rises a snow-capped volcano, its slopes—in the nearer background—pied with the young leaves and blossoms of early spring; against these, jutting from behind the temple, a gallows-tree. On the right, at back, a solitary pine of great age sways solemn boughs over half the scene, the centre of which is occupied by a vast monolith, or boulder, tapering upward to a jagged end. The face of this stone, graved deeply with runes, is (on its lower half) dark carmine and smooth as ivory; from behind it blue smoke is rising; before it stands an altar of stone, on which is set a silver bowl.

In front of this altar stands Ingimund, the temple priest, clad in a sleeveless leathern smock to the knees; his arms are reddened with sacrifice; from his throat—beneath his long, grey hair—hangs an image of Odin; on his right wrist a ring of plain gold; in his left hand a spear. On either side of him an altar priest holds a bunch of sprinkling twigs. From the temple four other priests are bearing a slaughtered bullock to the fire behind the rune-stone. Massed in the right foreground are Egil and his men; on the left, Arfi and his men. Egil, noble of stature, stands moodily filing the grooves of a crossbow; Arfi, bent and dwarfed, sits with his ear close to a harp, which he thrums softly.

From the right background, beneath the pine, enters, singing, a procession of the folk, escorting an ark on wheels, drawn by oxen, whose flanks are wreathed with flowers, and whose horns are adorned with gold. Following the ark, which passes on into the temple, horses and sheep are led to the sacrifice. These, as they pass before him, Ingimund marks with the sign of a spear, while the altar priests sprinkle them with blood from the silver bowl.

At the entrance of the temple stand Thordis and her Virgins, who take from the beasts their garlands and hang them on the doors and outer walls. The men and women of the throng, chanting to a barbaric cadence, lift up their arms and faces to the sky.

THE FOLK Wanderer of earth and air, Walker on the giant flood, Odin! Asa Odin! Pilgrim of the storm!

Lyer in the Sybil’s lair, Reader of the runes of blood, Thou who hearkenest all prayer— World-spirit and worm, Odin! Asa Odin! Hear us, Allfather!

[Distant thunder.]

FRIDA Thordis, he hears.

THE VIRGINS He hears!

THE FOLK He hears!

YORUL [To Rolf.] Behold The dwarf, where he sits shrivelled by his harp. Ho, Arfi! hear’st thou Odin? Hast invited The trolls, thy cousins, to the bridal?

WULDOR Silence! He listens to the stars behind the storm.

YORUL The tree-frogs, Wuldor. He, thy master, is Their father.

WULDOR So thy master is their uncle.

YORUL My master shall be bridegroom, never fear! Hath Arfi slain his boar?

WULDOR Hath Egil sung The slaying of his boar?

YORUL Hath Arfi leashed The wild stag by the horns and led him home?

WULDOR Hath Egil read the runes on Odin’s stone?

YORUL Weaklings and women ye!

WULDOR Thou liest, Yorul.

YORUL [Strikes Wuldor.]

Ho, Egil, here!

WULDOR [Retaliating.] Ho, Arfi!

[The followers, from either side, spring forward and fight fiercely. Ingimund strikes among them with his spear.]

INGIMUND Fools of anger! This ground is Odin’s; he alone may judge Which of your masters shall betroth his priestess. Back! and await his sign.—Come, Thordis.

FRIDA [Parting with Thordis by the temple.] Joy And love be thine, dear lady.

[Leaving her maidens, Thordis comes quietly from the temple and stands before the rune-stone and Ingimund, who, with his spear, beckons also Egil and Arfi. As these join Thordis, the altar priests, with a heavy chain of gold, enclose the four in a circular space, while the folk chant as before.]

THE FOLK Save us, Lord, from lovers’ hate, Shelter us from brothers’ feud! Odin! Asa Odin! Only thou art wise.

Choose unto this maid a mate Hallowed by thy sanctitude, Send thine omen while we wait, Making sacrifice. Odin! Asa Odin! Save us, Allfather!

[Thunder; storm gathers and the scene grows darker, as bigger clouds of smoke roll upward from behind the rune-stone.]

INGIMUND [Removing the gold circlet from his wrist.] Here, Your right hands here—all three—on Odin’s ring. [To Egil, then Arfi.] Press deeper in the sand thy foot, now thine. [To the Priests.] Fill up the footprints with the sacred blood. Brother in brother’s footstep, hark your oath— Your oath to abide by Asa Odin’s will.

[As Egil and Arfi grasp the ring, lightning begins to play over the scene, and thunder deepens the voices of the people.]

THE FOLK Odin! Odin! Asa Odin! Send upon thy folk a portent!

INGIMUND [Lifting his face and spear toward the sky, intones.] By thy runes forever writ On Allwaker’s ear and Allswift’s hoof, On Sleipni’s teeth and the sledge-bands, On the Wolf’s claw and the eagle’s beak, On the bloody wings and the bridge’s end!—

THE FOLK Odin! Odin! Asa Odin! Send upon thy folk a portent!

INGIMUND By thy runes forever writ On Brage’s tongue and the bear’s paw, On the midwife’s palm and the amber god, On Norna’s nail and the owl’s neb, On wine and wort and the Sibyl’s seat!—

THE FOLK Odin! Odin! Asa Odin! Send thy portent, O Allfather!

FRIDA Look! look! himself doth come.

THE FOLK Fly! fly! Oh, fly!

FRIDA Himself doth come, and with him all the gods!

[Amid supernatural darkness and thunder-peal, Ingimund, Thordis, Egil, and Arfi are struck to the earth, and all the people flee, except Yorul and Frida, who crouch beside the temple.]

THE FOLK [In the distance.] Bow down! bow down! [Pause; the passing of the storm; silence.]

FRIDA [Rising.] Yorul!—You do not speak. Yorul!

YORUL O Frida, hush!

FRIDA And did you see them? Four were they all together, and they passed Like fire, and four returned, in robes of flame, But paler.

YORUL May be so; I saw them not.

FRIDA Two others stood on Odin’s stone, and one Laughed loud, and whirled a whip of blazing brass, And one thrust through his beard a smoking hammer.

YORUL May be; may be. What did you say? Speak not! [Embracing her.] O heart of mine, thou beatest yet. We live. The sun—how still it is! What’s that?

FRIDA A bird Singing under the temple’s eaves.

YORUL And all Are fled. What be those four that lie so still?

[Together they approach the bodies.]

FRIDA Alas! O lady dear!

YORUL Dead! they are dead. Egil, my master! Odin’s voice hath slain him. Cursed be Odin!

FRIDA Yorul—take them back, Those words! Their sacrilege shall work us woe.

YORUL What matter? He is dead.

FRIDA Oh, do not think it! Perhaps they sleep. Look how their brows still wear High thoughts. I think they dream. Go! fetch a leech.

YORUL A leech for death?

FRIDA Go quickly, Yorul!

YORUL Well! [Going out.] A leech here for the dead! A leech, ho! [Exit.]

FRIDA [Alone with the four bodies, stands before the rune-stone.] Odin! Have pity on the dead; let them awake! [Slowly the bodies rise and look upon her; she crouches before them.] Ah me! Your eyes! They burn. O turn away Your bright eternal eyes!

[She falls unconscious. Egil, who has risen with the gold altar chain wound about him, gnaws it.]

EGIL Death! Freedom! freedom!

[Enter Yorul and a Leech, followed by the folk.]

THE LEECH Who calls for leechcraft here?

YORUL [Stands bewildered.] A miracle!

THORDIS [Bends over Frida.] The child is stricken.

ARFI Let me lift her, Thordis.

YORUL A miracle! O Frida, speak to me!

THE LEECH [To the folk.] Stand off! Give air!

WULDOR [To the folk.] Hath Yorul then deceived us?

ROLF Behold, they live!

FRIDA [Rising, faintly.] Thanks; lead me to the temple.

INGIMUND What hath befallen?

WULDOR Hail, Ingimund! The portent Of Odin hath befallen.

INGIMUND Saw ye, or what?

[Wuldor and the folk whisper among themselves. Yorul supports Frida toward the temple.]

YORUL But how? What chanced?