ACT III

ACT III

Scene: A forest glade

On the left, a green bank and a pool, back of which is athicket; on the right, a vista, beneath boughs, of adistant volcano, rising through the wet light of dawn.EGIL’S VOICE[Outside.]Help—O! help—O!SHRILL VOICES[Outside.]A troll! a troll! a troll![Enter, right,Egil,running. He is completely surroundedand swarmed over by little children in bright springgarb. One little girl has climbed upon his shoulder,where she clings.]THE CHILDRENHeigh! hold him fast. Troll! troll!EGILHelp, gentle greenwood!Am I but now escaped men’s prison wallsTo fall into this ambush of thine elves!Save me, you wrens and warblers! Fetch me wings!THE CHILDREN[Taking hands, dance about him, singing.]Thrice, thrice,Thrice around thee!Star-wiseOur steps surround thee;Now yield thee, yield thee, proud Sir Troll!Body and soulOur spells have bound thee.EGILThrice, thrice,Thrice around me!Star-wiseYour steps surround me.Now yield I me and pay my toll—Body and soulAs ye have bound me.[He lies down, pretending death; each child places his footupon him, with a shout. At this he springs up, laughing,seizes a little boy and girl, and, seating himself on alog, places them on his knees. The others cluster abouthim.]Ha, sirrah! is this maid thy sister?THE LITTLE BOYYes,She’s mine.EGILWhat wouldst thou do if I should steal her?THE LITTLE BOYI’d kill you.EGILHa! wouldst let him?THE LITTLE GIRLOh, of course;He is my brother.EGIL’Tis a brother’s rightTo kill, I see.THE LITTLE GIRLIn play, you know.EGILIn play.THE CHILDRENCome play! Come play!EGILWhat now?THE CHILDREN[Severally.]Fox and wild geese!Glass-mountain, Spinning-fairy, Cat-skin, Crows,Frog-bridegroom!THE LITTLE GIRLIknow what!EGIL[Takes both her hands, smiling.]Well, what?THE LITTLE GIRLI’ll beRed Riding-hood, and you shall be the wolf.[Egil drops her hands and rises.]THE LITTLE BOYI’m the good hunter and these are my men.EGIL[Vassal-like to the little boy.]Beseech you, sir, may I not play your part?I’d fain be the good hunter.THE LITTLE BOYGranted, earl.I’d fainer be the wolf.[To the children.]Come! gather your flowers.EGILAnd when you’ve filled your laps and aprons upWith wind-flowers and arbutus, bring them here.Mind! ’tis our lady Thordis’ wedding-day.THE CHILDREN[Running from the little boy.]The wolf! the wolf![Passing left into the wood, they are seen for some timegathering flowers and watching, in their game, thestealthy approachments of the little boy.]EGILO freedom! happy world!Hark, how they laugh, with bubbling undersongSweetening the over-choir of the birds.And I—I, too, can laugh; can loose my soulFree-wing’d into the open with a cryUnfetter’d as a lark.[Looking up into the tree-tops, he laughs again.]O rarest laughter!O medicine of the long-languish’d mind!O welling of the heart’s sweet waters up,Washing the acid tang of cynic woeSere from the spirit’s lips. O benisonOf innocence! And have I lived beforeThis hour? Is not this day creation’s dawn?[Flinging himself upon the bank.]These children, with their lifted flowerlike faces,These flowers, with their dewy childlike eyes,These parting vapours on the golden hills,Yea, all these leaves of little twinkling grassWhose roots strike down to tears of yesterday—Now shine like things immaculate, new-born,And I, and they, like issue of one mother,The offspring of an universal birth.Oh, what exceeding power hath lovelinessFor her beholder![Where he lies thus rapt in the sylvan landscape, thefirst sunlight breaks through the wood, and by it theShadowof a man is thrown sharply, from the left,across the reclining form of Egil. At the same time,from the right, is heard Arfi’s voice, singing.]THE VOICE OF ARFIThy heart, love, give or takeOr cast away;Mine shall not breakForever and a day;For lovers kiss their mates where thoughts are kind.Love lives within the mind—the mind—the mind.[Slowly having risen to his feet, Egil perceivesthe human shadow and starts.]EGILYorul![The shadow recedes, left, from the scene.]Yorul, stay!Come back!THE VOICE OF ARFIThe redstart and the rose,The clear sunrise,What mortal knowsTheir grace to immortalise?Seek them again, where Death can never find,By love, within the mind—the enamour’d mind.EGILIt must not be.—Yorul!—What, IWas mad, who now am sane and innocent.Come back! It shall not—Yorul!THORDIS[Calls outside.]Egil!EGIL[Pausing.]She![Enter, right,ThordisandArfi.They are dressed in white,the dwarf being quaintly garlanded. They are followed byWuldor.Thordis goes gaily toward Egil, extending bothher hands.]THORDISDeserter! runagate!—Look, Arfi, here’sOur truant brought to bay. And will not yield!And will not even surrender up his eyesTo his imploring gaolers.—O proud brother!Not even a hand-clasp in return for allThy struck-off shackles?[Taking her hands, he still looks off left.]EGILLady!THORDISStill no eyesFor mortals? Quite enamoured of a wood-sprite?Alas! we’ve broke a tryst and she has flown!Call her: perchance she’ll hear.EGIL[Looking upon Thordis.]Lady!—[Quickly then turning away, speaks under his breathto Wuldor.]A word,A word!ARFIHe’s deeply moved.THORDISHe’s deeply changed.Saw you his eyes when they turned full on me,And he said, “Lady”? There were tears in them,Tears, and yet through them glowed the ancient fire,Not now in wrath, but tenderness.EGIL[Aside to Wuldor.]Overtake him;The oath he swore to Egil—tell him—EgilNow countermands. Bid him do nothing; go![Watches Wuldor off, left. Arfi, quietly lookingat him, speaks to Thordis.]ARFIYou love him dearly?THORDISVery dearly.EGILBrother,Thordis, your hands again!ARFI[Smiling.]Have you despatchedWuldor to find the lady wood-sprite?EGILFriends,Were we less deeply known to one another,And chiefly I to you—what thing I was,What now, perchance, am grown—well, I suppose’Twere custom, were it not? to wreathe our lipsWith honey-blossoms of superfluousCongratulation: you are to be wed,And I am free, and my emancipationOwes all itself to you.—“Heaven be with you!”“I thank you well,” “Joy is to me!”—But theseThings being said, and rung with all the chimesOf truth, I beg of you let now these handsSpeak the unsaid remainder for our heartsIn silence.[The three hold hands.]ARFI[After a pause.]Vaster powers than we have wroughtThis friendship. Whom the gods join hand in handTheir fates thenceforth are mingled.THORDIS[Loosening her hands with a laugh.]So, dear lord,Be merry!ARFI[Speaks low, with a smile.]Have I not divinest reason?This is the place.THORDISArfi! The sacred pool?ARFIThe pool of Freyja—there! The wood-folk call itHer mirror, for they say that once i’ the year,Ever at May-day, the fresh goddess comesTo sit beside it with her elves, whilst theyComb her bright hair.THORDISAnd then she peers within it?ARFIAs you do now.—Sweetest, good-bye!THORDISGood-bye?But where are you going?ARFIThe wood pathway to heaven.I’m going to hasten that laggard priest, your father,To make him make you mine.EGILStop! You’re alone.ARFIWell?EGIL[Embarrassed.]Will it be now?ARFIAm I not written largeWith bridal runes? Hang not these garlands thickAs invocations from an inn-house gable?“Here light ye down, fair guests! Light down, light down,Dear lady, at the sign of the ‘Green Bridegroom!’”—Farewell, sweetheart. This day is clothed in greenFor joy. I will return with IngimundAs swift as longing.EGILStay; we must be wise.You must not leave me here alone with her.ARFIWhy? Are you not my brother?EGILI am heWho vowed against you hatred and revenge.ARFIAlso you are my brother.EGILI am heThat with a brutish fang struck at your life.ARFIGood-bye, dear brother.EGILWait! Was I not thenYour brother—then? Will not a brother lust?A brother covet? Are not beauty, grace,Lures to a brother’s eyes? Are brothers’ soulsBy nature kin? Or is that name a spellTo render heart and mind innocuousThat else might murder, ravish? Oh, be notSo rash as put your trust in me becauseI am your brother.ARFI[Returning to Egil, embraces him.]Lad, keep this with you.I would not be so rash asnotto trustIn you a power more august than yourselfFor all the joy and honour which this dayHolds out to me.—Adieu! This day is joy’s.[Exit, right.]EGILNow we’re alone. How is it with you—sister?THORDISStrangely, my brother; how is it with you?EGILO God!How many waking dawns and desperate nightsHave I, in sharp imagination, moanedFor this sweet hour, to stand—as nowI stand—alone with you, in liberty.THORDISAnd now that time has come.[She reaches to him her hand; he does not take it.]EGILNow it is come,But ah! how sternly different is this truthFrom all I dreamed. Can this be freedom? See!What hangs upon these arms? They wear no chains.Why, then, do they not catch you breathless upAnd bear you hence in rapture? In your eyes—Lo! veilless I behold your virgin soul!And yet she does not fly, nor I pursue.THORDISWhat should she fear?EGILWhat should she not?—These eyesRenouncing hers; these hands that dare not pressHer vesture’s hem, lest they consume like coalsThat robèd sanctuary; these desiresThat burn around her like the hedge of flamesRound Brunhild’s bower; this waiting dawn, this hushAnd solitary wood—What fear? Herself,Herself that, all resolved to beauty, breathesHerself unto these eyes, these hands, this dawn,These leash’d desires!THORDISYou love me, you would say.Why should you not?EGILI have renounced you.THORDISMe,But not your love for me. Surely that stillIs happiness.EGILWhy, yes, I must be happy;For this is pain, and pain is very sweetTo those who love; and this is bitter sweetTo breathe the name of “sister” ’gainst your cheekWhere but so late the sigh of “sweetheart” stoleWarm from my brother’s lips.—O lure and vision!Do you not see? I have climbed up to youOut of the rank abyss; this is the verge:One word, one look, from you must hurl me back,Or save me.THORDISLook.EGILHow have you dared to trust me?THORDISWhen have we ever ceased to trust you?EGIL“We”?THORDISArfi and I. Oh, he is very wise.His judgment is as gracious as a child’sThat in the wonderland of its own wisdomImagines nothing baser than itself.EGILBut Iambaser.THORDISHath it proved so?EGIL[After a pause.]No!No; thanks to you and him and my own pain,It shall not prove so. This at last is powerAnd innocence; this—this at last is freedom.Now when I clasp your hand I clasp his also—My saviour’s; now beneath your face, for shrine,I will confess my spirit to you both,For are you not my gods? You have createdMy heaven and hell, and builded my path heavenward.Now from your eyes nothing—nothing withinThis heart shall be concealed.THORDIS[Smiling.]What then is your secret?[On the edge of the scene, left, unobserved by them,reappears the humanShadow.]EGIL[Slowly rises.]My secret?THORDISCome, sit with me on this bank,And I will be a listening stream, a bird,An opening flower, to overhear you.[He follows and sits beside her; the Shadowslowly moves toward them.]EGILBut—THORDISThat thought which falters now behind your lips.EGILI have no thought which hides from you.[The Shadow moves between them. Egil startsup with a cry.]Again!Again it falls upon me!THORDISWhat?EGIL’Tis gone.THORDISWhat’s gone?EGILIt is no matter.THORDISA surprise!I see: a wedding-day surprise for us.EGILNo, but a lie. I lied to you. Last nightI told you I renounced you, but I lied.THORDISEgil!EGILIt was the music, the harp-demon;It blinded and then tempted me; it lured meTo obtain my freedom falsely. But to-day,This morning when my body fetterlessRoamed in this wood-side, and the little childrenClimbed over me in laughter, and I tooLaughed with them, and all nature laughed and echoed“Thou art emancipated!”—I was healed;Then I was healed and now all’s well again;All’s well; no harm shall come to him.THORDISTo whom?I do not understand.EGILYou have no need;I claim your own assurance. Will you trust me?THORDISSo well that, now you have put your secret by,I will tell mine.EGILWhat secret can you haveFor me?THORDISYou have been wicked; so perhapsHave I.EGIL[Smiling.]You!THORDIS[Showing her hand.]Look! look there.EGILA scar.THORDISThe markOf fangs.EGILWhat thing has dared to give you pain?THORDISHave you forgot?EGILAh me! I had forgot.Cannot you, too, forget?THORDISI would not; that’sMy secret. Yes, this scar is dear to me.EGILThat sign of blasphemy, of him—the werewolf—THORDISIs dear to me.EGILThordis!THORDISI loved the wolf.It was a life to nourish and protect,A being alien and mysterious,Yearning and captive. It was terrible,And yet so eager, swift, and passionateIt fascinated me. It was ignoble,Cruel, yet infinite of promise; cunning,Malicious, yet beautifully animate,Sublimely animal.EGILO pain!THORDISTo take itInto my bosom, foster its wild growthFrom hour to hour, to watch from day to dayThe fierce light of its eyes glow deeper, milder,To nestle it only to set it free—these joysWere pangs to me.EGIL[Low.]Have pity!THORDISThen it wasSo lordly, so imperious of strength,In grace so sinuous, in pride so ardent—Who had not been enamoured of it?EGILCease!It wrought some monstrous spell to make you wanton.THORDISIf that be wantonness which fain would takeNo joy of loving but the giving joy.EGILBut for that beast you turned your thoughts from Arfi?THORDISYou do not understand; Arfi and IAre one; it needs no murmured wedding vowsTo make us that. But I am beautiful,And all who look upon me love to pressNearer and touch my gown, and when I passI feel the ruddy mantling of their cheeksAnd the wild admiration start; and theseAre joys to Arfi as to me, and weReturn their love.EGILEven so you loved me?THORDISNo,More than all those, for you alone of thoseHad need of me.—And so you have my secret.I fear indeed it is a wicked one;For I have been like a too-doting nurseThat lets her heart hang backward in regretAnd whispers her loved one, “Grow, but do not leave me!”EGILFor what then have I grown, O gods?THORDISFor this:To be yourself, and free of that nurse-bondage.EGILFree! but alone, adrift! Oh, take me backInto the bosom of your care. Once moreNestle me there, the wild thing!THORDISThat once moreSo you might struggle for your freedom? Nay,The wild thing now is dead.[Enter Wuldor, left; he goes to Egil.]WULDORI cannot speakWith him. When I approached, he fled from me,Silent. I called, but both his hands he pressedOver his ears, and silently amongThe trees eluded me.EGIL[Seizing Wuldor’s wrists, speaks huskily.]I have not willed this;They cannot lay this crime on me—these gods,For I have annulled it, I have cancelled it.Come here, look in my heart; is it not clean?Woe thou mayest see there, yearning, pain, but not—Say, canst thou see there—murder? Answer not,But go! What will comewillcome; what have ITo do with it? Go, go, I say.[Exit Wuldor, right, looking darkly.]THORDISYou are ill,Your gestures—they are wild.EGILWhy should they not be?The wild thing is not dead, but is exalted.Gods, why should we, your hinds, coin and deviseDreams of emancipation! We are quibblersAnd hypocrites, damned, every slave of us,To hug our chains in secret. Rather thanAcknowledge what we are, the mind outwitsThe heart, the heart hoodwinks the mind, the tongueCajoles and counterplots them both, while truth—[Breaks into laughter.]THORDISTell me the truth.EGILAgain? Another version?Why, listen then: I love you; not in the awful,Serene idea of self-sacrifice,But passion, which of right demands returnOf passion, nature’s just and ancient barter.I want you; I demand you—all yourself.I offer all myself.THORDISWhat of your brother?EGILI ask you nothing which he does not ask.He offers nothing which I do not offer.There was a difference between us once,Not now.THORDISHath he not made you what you are?EGILYes, he and you.THORDISAnd in requital nowYou would seduce his bride?EGILNo, not seduce;Demand. Yes, though I seem to rave, I speakLove and conviction. Judge me, dear my lady.You chose between us brothers when we wereContrasted in our souls as some meek bardOf pity, with a beast. Look on us nowAgain, before it be too late, and chooseBetween us now.THORDISI have chosen once for all.EGILBut have you chosen blindly?[Points into the wood.]Do you see,By yonder pine, that wild crab-apple tree?THORDISI see a tree just bursting into flower.EGILIs not it beautiful?THORDIS’Tis ravishing.EGILLast winter, had you passed, you might have seen itWrithing its frozen limbs there like a thingAccurst, all pinched and scrambled by the pangsOf screaming winds; you would have shrunk from itBeneath the verdurous pine, in whose sad boughsThe same winds sung like voices of tuned lyres.THORDISIt may be so.EGILYet now behold it, now!A pale-rose pyre of fragrance and of flame,Wherein, like sacrificial spirits, sitThe tawny and vermilion birds, and strikeTheir silvery chants in unison, and hungAmid the tangled bloom, in murmurous choirs,The blazing gold bees shrill their mellow horns.Look, Thordis, look again! If you were Freyja,Herself, goddess of spring, which would you chooseFor shelter now, and joy?THORDIS[Gazing at him.]Ah me!EGILIf spring—If spring and the sweet south can so transform,What cannot love? Your warmth, your breath, your soul,Soft on my numbness, my deformity,Breathed, and I sprung—a burning tree of bloom—Beside you. Have you eyes for flights unseen?Hearing for choirs unheard? Here, too, beside youFierce swarms of golden fancies work in songThe fecund pollen of my passion, hereA thousand bird-wing’d visions nest them downInto the heart of me, to chant your praise.You that have so transformed me, you repulse meNow?[Enter right, in the background, Arfi; he pauses unseen.]THORDISTake your eyes from mine.EGILYou love me; youWho fostered me, the wild thing, love me still.My secret scar is on you; you are mine,Not his.THORDISOh, leave me!EGILYet you seize my hand.THORDISLeave me, leave me!EGILYet you take me to your heart.THORDISA myriad loves the heart hath, but one mate.Once only may the cry of soul and bodyBe answered; the great need can be but once.EGILNow is the great need come.THORDISHow may we know?EGILI am your being’s master. If his soulWere listening to us now, I would cry out:“I have outgrown thee, brother. What thou artI am and more, for I have wrung from theeThy potent mind, and forged it to my passionsTo make a lordlier instrument. Mine, therefore,Not thine, the ordainèd need of her. Mine!”THORDISLove me![He kisses her. Arfi moves into the thicket and disappears.Thordis, putting Egil from her, draws a dagger uponherself.]Ah, my betrayer! It is ended.EGIL[Seizing the knife from her.]No;You shall not choose so. If that name indeedBe mine, keep silence now, while I avengeThe kiss of thy seducer.[As he turns the knife upon himself, Thordis cries out.]THORDISEgil!EGILLove![Springing to her, beside the pool, he recoils.]Impending image! persecuting shape!Depart.THORDISAlas! are we both mad?EGILRemoveThe prying horror of thine eyes. Not now—At this the utmost instant of my joyIntrude not now.THORDISWhom do you speak to?EGIL[Staring past Thordis into the pool.]There!Look, we have murdered him. It comes to tell us;It points at thee, to say thou, too, art guilty.We have betrayed and killed him, thou and I.See, see! It kneels and craves our sanction.—Rise,Remorseless shadow! Go! I give it thee.[He hurls the dagger into the pool. As he staggers back,Thordis rests his head on her shoulder.]THORDISPeace, brain and heart!VOICES[Far away, right, sing.]How should the bed, the bridal bed,Freyja, be spread?Pine garlands at the foot, rose garlands at the head.EGILIs it gone?THORDISNothing is there.Rest, rest, poor dreamer!THE VOICES[Sing.]What on the maid, the bride and maid,Freyja, be laid?The rose’s innocence, ere those fresh garlands fade.EGILHark! the bridal virgins![Thordis shrinks from him.]Stay, Thordis; now the awful need is come.While yet we are alone in the great silence,Now, now, before they find it, pale and red,Heaped in the path of roses, now—be mine.THORDISFreyja, help me! Freyja, goddess and maiden!EGILHis soul descends upon us both, and sealsThis act with blood of sacrifice. His bloodOur nuptial rite hath reddened.THORDISSave me!EGILHush!This is the vernal god, the appalling armThat clasped the world i’ the primal age, and moaned—“Let there be life!”—Hush, love; do not you hearThe stealing saps stir through the forest, feelThe seeking joys of all wild, mating thingsThrob in their blood and ours, their kindred,—THORDIS[Breaking from him.]Help!Help, Arfi![She escapes, right, into the wood. As Egil pursues her, theresteps from the thicket, into his path, Arfi. Egil pauses.]EGILMay the dead be summoned backTo curse us with forgiveness?—Spirit, be sternAnd not compassionate. Come in your wounds,Fell and disfigured, not benignly thus.Oh, not your love-your vengeance! Not your love![Shields his eyes with his arms. As he does so, Arfi, witha serene gesture, is about to speak, when from thethicket Yorul springs silently out and stabs him. Arfifalls motionless; Yorul withdraws. Slowly Egil looksagain.]Yea, now thou hast resumed thy murder-garment,And hast drawn on thy bridal-robe of wounds,And laid thee at my feet in vengeance. NowThis is indeed thy vengeance—brother! master![Stoops beside the body.]VOICES OF THE VIRGINS[Sing, near.]What o’er the man the maid shall wed,Freyja, be shed?The pine’s immortal breath, ere those green boughs are dead.[Starting up, fearful, Egil hales the body toward the left,but having reached the centre pauses, as the laughterof children rises in the way before him. Turning, heis dragging the body down scene, when the children,scampering in, left, with their aprons and basketsfull of wild flowers, run towards him. Finger on lip,he motions them silence; their laughter and shouts dieaway, awed.]EGILHe is asleep; the bridegroom is asleep.Scatter your wild flowers over him. Look, he smiles,He’ll laugh when he awakes and sees them.—Soft!THE CHILDREN[Whispering, gather in a circle and, pleased as at some gameof mystery, heap the flowers upon Arfi, and sing low.]Flowers bringAnd fairy numbers!Sweet SpringHis spirit cumbers.Still be highhole! still be thrush!Hush! hush!Now he slumbers.[Treading softly, with covert laughter and “hushes,” thechildren steal away. Heaped over the body of Arfi andcompletely concealing it, they have left behind them agreat pile of arbutus, violets, and other flowers. Someof these Egil is replacing more carefully, when the pileis shaken from within, and up through it rises the formBaldur.Dazzled, Egil kneels.]BALDURHail, brother!EGILArt thou sunlight, or a voice?BALDURThis is the word of Odin![Egil sinks prostrate.]If the wolfSeduce to his desire his brother’s bride,He shall be lord with her of heaven and earthAnd hell, and by their passion the sereneAnd stablished beacons of the gods shall beEclipsed in night, anarchical and void,Where, staggering with lust, the blinded worldReels back to chaos and the primal dark.EGIL[Hiding his face.]And if the wolf renounce her?BALDURHe shall perish,Slain by his own self-mastery, and allThe spirits of light, freed from that awful dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.EGILAh! but she—BALDURShe falters yet; she hangs upon his will.The lure of imperfection is the sinOf gods, the lure of godhood that of mortals.She wavers still.EGILBright shadow, golden voice,Say what thou art.BALDURBaldur, the son of Odin.EGIL[Starts up.]Then I—?BALDURFenris, the wolf-god![He sinks again into the flowers, and is gone.]EGILAh! the dream!The dream is true; the truth is visionary.[From the left, two or three of the children return fromthe wood, and stand silent. From the right, the lutesand pipes of the bridal procession grow louder, andshortly enter the virgins,Ingimund,Thordis,Wuldor, and others, as Egil still stands lost insoliloquy.]“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.”THORDISWas not he with you, father?INGIMUNDHe went beforeA little space, to greet you first.—My child,Why do you cling to me?EGIL[Approaching her.]Goddess and maiden!THORDISHe’s mad. Save us! We both are mad.INGIMUNDThy brother,Where is he?EGILFather, he hath gone beforeA little space, but left thy word with me.INGIMUNDMyword?EGILThe word of truth.[A little girl, moving back some of the flowers, hasdisclosed the dead body of Arfi, blood-stained.]THE LITTLE GIRLHe’s still asleep.THORDIS[Goes to it with a cry.]Arfi!WULDORI thought it, Ingimund; he’s murdered.INGIMUNDHis bane! What hand struck this?EGILLo, I will tell;The dream must end. Thou saidest: He shall perish,And all the spirits of light, freed from that dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.INGIMUNDMadman! Thou—YORUL[Entering from the thicket.]Imurdered him.THORDIS[Starting up from the body.]Yorul!YORUL[Showing dagger.]His blood is here.EGILYet shall the dreamers wake, the truth prevail.YORUL’Twas I! This hand—EGILAnd shall that hand put outThe beacons of the gods with primal dark,And hurl the blinded world to chaos?THORDISEgil!Thou art innocent! Oh, in this blank of deathThat truth remains.EGIL[Turning upon Yorul.]Scourge and seductor!INGIMUND[To Egil.]Speak!Hath this man done this deed?EGIL[Slowly.]Yes; it was Yorul.[Yorul is seized.]

On the left, a green bank and a pool, back of which is athicket; on the right, a vista, beneath boughs, of adistant volcano, rising through the wet light of dawn.EGIL’S VOICE[Outside.]Help—O! help—O!SHRILL VOICES[Outside.]A troll! a troll! a troll![Enter, right,Egil,running. He is completely surroundedand swarmed over by little children in bright springgarb. One little girl has climbed upon his shoulder,where she clings.]THE CHILDRENHeigh! hold him fast. Troll! troll!EGILHelp, gentle greenwood!Am I but now escaped men’s prison wallsTo fall into this ambush of thine elves!Save me, you wrens and warblers! Fetch me wings!THE CHILDREN[Taking hands, dance about him, singing.]Thrice, thrice,Thrice around thee!Star-wiseOur steps surround thee;Now yield thee, yield thee, proud Sir Troll!Body and soulOur spells have bound thee.EGILThrice, thrice,Thrice around me!Star-wiseYour steps surround me.Now yield I me and pay my toll—Body and soulAs ye have bound me.[He lies down, pretending death; each child places his footupon him, with a shout. At this he springs up, laughing,seizes a little boy and girl, and, seating himself on alog, places them on his knees. The others cluster abouthim.]Ha, sirrah! is this maid thy sister?THE LITTLE BOYYes,She’s mine.EGILWhat wouldst thou do if I should steal her?THE LITTLE BOYI’d kill you.EGILHa! wouldst let him?THE LITTLE GIRLOh, of course;He is my brother.EGIL’Tis a brother’s rightTo kill, I see.THE LITTLE GIRLIn play, you know.EGILIn play.THE CHILDRENCome play! Come play!EGILWhat now?THE CHILDREN[Severally.]Fox and wild geese!Glass-mountain, Spinning-fairy, Cat-skin, Crows,Frog-bridegroom!THE LITTLE GIRLIknow what!EGIL[Takes both her hands, smiling.]Well, what?THE LITTLE GIRLI’ll beRed Riding-hood, and you shall be the wolf.[Egil drops her hands and rises.]THE LITTLE BOYI’m the good hunter and these are my men.EGIL[Vassal-like to the little boy.]Beseech you, sir, may I not play your part?I’d fain be the good hunter.THE LITTLE BOYGranted, earl.I’d fainer be the wolf.[To the children.]Come! gather your flowers.EGILAnd when you’ve filled your laps and aprons upWith wind-flowers and arbutus, bring them here.Mind! ’tis our lady Thordis’ wedding-day.THE CHILDREN[Running from the little boy.]The wolf! the wolf![Passing left into the wood, they are seen for some timegathering flowers and watching, in their game, thestealthy approachments of the little boy.]EGILO freedom! happy world!Hark, how they laugh, with bubbling undersongSweetening the over-choir of the birds.And I—I, too, can laugh; can loose my soulFree-wing’d into the open with a cryUnfetter’d as a lark.[Looking up into the tree-tops, he laughs again.]O rarest laughter!O medicine of the long-languish’d mind!O welling of the heart’s sweet waters up,Washing the acid tang of cynic woeSere from the spirit’s lips. O benisonOf innocence! And have I lived beforeThis hour? Is not this day creation’s dawn?[Flinging himself upon the bank.]These children, with their lifted flowerlike faces,These flowers, with their dewy childlike eyes,These parting vapours on the golden hills,Yea, all these leaves of little twinkling grassWhose roots strike down to tears of yesterday—Now shine like things immaculate, new-born,And I, and they, like issue of one mother,The offspring of an universal birth.Oh, what exceeding power hath lovelinessFor her beholder![Where he lies thus rapt in the sylvan landscape, thefirst sunlight breaks through the wood, and by it theShadowof a man is thrown sharply, from the left,across the reclining form of Egil. At the same time,from the right, is heard Arfi’s voice, singing.]THE VOICE OF ARFIThy heart, love, give or takeOr cast away;Mine shall not breakForever and a day;For lovers kiss their mates where thoughts are kind.Love lives within the mind—the mind—the mind.[Slowly having risen to his feet, Egil perceivesthe human shadow and starts.]EGILYorul![The shadow recedes, left, from the scene.]Yorul, stay!Come back!THE VOICE OF ARFIThe redstart and the rose,The clear sunrise,What mortal knowsTheir grace to immortalise?Seek them again, where Death can never find,By love, within the mind—the enamour’d mind.EGILIt must not be.—Yorul!—What, IWas mad, who now am sane and innocent.Come back! It shall not—Yorul!THORDIS[Calls outside.]Egil!EGIL[Pausing.]She![Enter, right,ThordisandArfi.They are dressed in white,the dwarf being quaintly garlanded. They are followed byWuldor.Thordis goes gaily toward Egil, extending bothher hands.]THORDISDeserter! runagate!—Look, Arfi, here’sOur truant brought to bay. And will not yield!And will not even surrender up his eyesTo his imploring gaolers.—O proud brother!Not even a hand-clasp in return for allThy struck-off shackles?[Taking her hands, he still looks off left.]EGILLady!THORDISStill no eyesFor mortals? Quite enamoured of a wood-sprite?Alas! we’ve broke a tryst and she has flown!Call her: perchance she’ll hear.EGIL[Looking upon Thordis.]Lady!—[Quickly then turning away, speaks under his breathto Wuldor.]A word,A word!ARFIHe’s deeply moved.THORDISHe’s deeply changed.Saw you his eyes when they turned full on me,And he said, “Lady”? There were tears in them,Tears, and yet through them glowed the ancient fire,Not now in wrath, but tenderness.EGIL[Aside to Wuldor.]Overtake him;The oath he swore to Egil—tell him—EgilNow countermands. Bid him do nothing; go![Watches Wuldor off, left. Arfi, quietly lookingat him, speaks to Thordis.]ARFIYou love him dearly?THORDISVery dearly.EGILBrother,Thordis, your hands again!ARFI[Smiling.]Have you despatchedWuldor to find the lady wood-sprite?EGILFriends,Were we less deeply known to one another,And chiefly I to you—what thing I was,What now, perchance, am grown—well, I suppose’Twere custom, were it not? to wreathe our lipsWith honey-blossoms of superfluousCongratulation: you are to be wed,And I am free, and my emancipationOwes all itself to you.—“Heaven be with you!”“I thank you well,” “Joy is to me!”—But theseThings being said, and rung with all the chimesOf truth, I beg of you let now these handsSpeak the unsaid remainder for our heartsIn silence.[The three hold hands.]ARFI[After a pause.]Vaster powers than we have wroughtThis friendship. Whom the gods join hand in handTheir fates thenceforth are mingled.THORDIS[Loosening her hands with a laugh.]So, dear lord,Be merry!ARFI[Speaks low, with a smile.]Have I not divinest reason?This is the place.THORDISArfi! The sacred pool?ARFIThe pool of Freyja—there! The wood-folk call itHer mirror, for they say that once i’ the year,Ever at May-day, the fresh goddess comesTo sit beside it with her elves, whilst theyComb her bright hair.THORDISAnd then she peers within it?ARFIAs you do now.—Sweetest, good-bye!THORDISGood-bye?But where are you going?ARFIThe wood pathway to heaven.I’m going to hasten that laggard priest, your father,To make him make you mine.EGILStop! You’re alone.ARFIWell?EGIL[Embarrassed.]Will it be now?ARFIAm I not written largeWith bridal runes? Hang not these garlands thickAs invocations from an inn-house gable?“Here light ye down, fair guests! Light down, light down,Dear lady, at the sign of the ‘Green Bridegroom!’”—Farewell, sweetheart. This day is clothed in greenFor joy. I will return with IngimundAs swift as longing.EGILStay; we must be wise.You must not leave me here alone with her.ARFIWhy? Are you not my brother?EGILI am heWho vowed against you hatred and revenge.ARFIAlso you are my brother.EGILI am heThat with a brutish fang struck at your life.ARFIGood-bye, dear brother.EGILWait! Was I not thenYour brother—then? Will not a brother lust?A brother covet? Are not beauty, grace,Lures to a brother’s eyes? Are brothers’ soulsBy nature kin? Or is that name a spellTo render heart and mind innocuousThat else might murder, ravish? Oh, be notSo rash as put your trust in me becauseI am your brother.ARFI[Returning to Egil, embraces him.]Lad, keep this with you.I would not be so rash asnotto trustIn you a power more august than yourselfFor all the joy and honour which this dayHolds out to me.—Adieu! This day is joy’s.[Exit, right.]EGILNow we’re alone. How is it with you—sister?THORDISStrangely, my brother; how is it with you?EGILO God!How many waking dawns and desperate nightsHave I, in sharp imagination, moanedFor this sweet hour, to stand—as nowI stand—alone with you, in liberty.THORDISAnd now that time has come.[She reaches to him her hand; he does not take it.]EGILNow it is come,But ah! how sternly different is this truthFrom all I dreamed. Can this be freedom? See!What hangs upon these arms? They wear no chains.Why, then, do they not catch you breathless upAnd bear you hence in rapture? In your eyes—Lo! veilless I behold your virgin soul!And yet she does not fly, nor I pursue.THORDISWhat should she fear?EGILWhat should she not?—These eyesRenouncing hers; these hands that dare not pressHer vesture’s hem, lest they consume like coalsThat robèd sanctuary; these desiresThat burn around her like the hedge of flamesRound Brunhild’s bower; this waiting dawn, this hushAnd solitary wood—What fear? Herself,Herself that, all resolved to beauty, breathesHerself unto these eyes, these hands, this dawn,These leash’d desires!THORDISYou love me, you would say.Why should you not?EGILI have renounced you.THORDISMe,But not your love for me. Surely that stillIs happiness.EGILWhy, yes, I must be happy;For this is pain, and pain is very sweetTo those who love; and this is bitter sweetTo breathe the name of “sister” ’gainst your cheekWhere but so late the sigh of “sweetheart” stoleWarm from my brother’s lips.—O lure and vision!Do you not see? I have climbed up to youOut of the rank abyss; this is the verge:One word, one look, from you must hurl me back,Or save me.THORDISLook.EGILHow have you dared to trust me?THORDISWhen have we ever ceased to trust you?EGIL“We”?THORDISArfi and I. Oh, he is very wise.His judgment is as gracious as a child’sThat in the wonderland of its own wisdomImagines nothing baser than itself.EGILBut Iambaser.THORDISHath it proved so?EGIL[After a pause.]No!No; thanks to you and him and my own pain,It shall not prove so. This at last is powerAnd innocence; this—this at last is freedom.Now when I clasp your hand I clasp his also—My saviour’s; now beneath your face, for shrine,I will confess my spirit to you both,For are you not my gods? You have createdMy heaven and hell, and builded my path heavenward.Now from your eyes nothing—nothing withinThis heart shall be concealed.THORDIS[Smiling.]What then is your secret?[On the edge of the scene, left, unobserved by them,reappears the humanShadow.]EGIL[Slowly rises.]My secret?THORDISCome, sit with me on this bank,And I will be a listening stream, a bird,An opening flower, to overhear you.[He follows and sits beside her; the Shadowslowly moves toward them.]EGILBut—THORDISThat thought which falters now behind your lips.EGILI have no thought which hides from you.[The Shadow moves between them. Egil startsup with a cry.]Again!Again it falls upon me!THORDISWhat?EGIL’Tis gone.THORDISWhat’s gone?EGILIt is no matter.THORDISA surprise!I see: a wedding-day surprise for us.EGILNo, but a lie. I lied to you. Last nightI told you I renounced you, but I lied.THORDISEgil!EGILIt was the music, the harp-demon;It blinded and then tempted me; it lured meTo obtain my freedom falsely. But to-day,This morning when my body fetterlessRoamed in this wood-side, and the little childrenClimbed over me in laughter, and I tooLaughed with them, and all nature laughed and echoed“Thou art emancipated!”—I was healed;Then I was healed and now all’s well again;All’s well; no harm shall come to him.THORDISTo whom?I do not understand.EGILYou have no need;I claim your own assurance. Will you trust me?THORDISSo well that, now you have put your secret by,I will tell mine.EGILWhat secret can you haveFor me?THORDISYou have been wicked; so perhapsHave I.EGIL[Smiling.]You!THORDIS[Showing her hand.]Look! look there.EGILA scar.THORDISThe markOf fangs.EGILWhat thing has dared to give you pain?THORDISHave you forgot?EGILAh me! I had forgot.Cannot you, too, forget?THORDISI would not; that’sMy secret. Yes, this scar is dear to me.EGILThat sign of blasphemy, of him—the werewolf—THORDISIs dear to me.EGILThordis!THORDISI loved the wolf.It was a life to nourish and protect,A being alien and mysterious,Yearning and captive. It was terrible,And yet so eager, swift, and passionateIt fascinated me. It was ignoble,Cruel, yet infinite of promise; cunning,Malicious, yet beautifully animate,Sublimely animal.EGILO pain!THORDISTo take itInto my bosom, foster its wild growthFrom hour to hour, to watch from day to dayThe fierce light of its eyes glow deeper, milder,To nestle it only to set it free—these joysWere pangs to me.EGIL[Low.]Have pity!THORDISThen it wasSo lordly, so imperious of strength,In grace so sinuous, in pride so ardent—Who had not been enamoured of it?EGILCease!It wrought some monstrous spell to make you wanton.THORDISIf that be wantonness which fain would takeNo joy of loving but the giving joy.EGILBut for that beast you turned your thoughts from Arfi?THORDISYou do not understand; Arfi and IAre one; it needs no murmured wedding vowsTo make us that. But I am beautiful,And all who look upon me love to pressNearer and touch my gown, and when I passI feel the ruddy mantling of their cheeksAnd the wild admiration start; and theseAre joys to Arfi as to me, and weReturn their love.EGILEven so you loved me?THORDISNo,More than all those, for you alone of thoseHad need of me.—And so you have my secret.I fear indeed it is a wicked one;For I have been like a too-doting nurseThat lets her heart hang backward in regretAnd whispers her loved one, “Grow, but do not leave me!”EGILFor what then have I grown, O gods?THORDISFor this:To be yourself, and free of that nurse-bondage.EGILFree! but alone, adrift! Oh, take me backInto the bosom of your care. Once moreNestle me there, the wild thing!THORDISThat once moreSo you might struggle for your freedom? Nay,The wild thing now is dead.[Enter Wuldor, left; he goes to Egil.]WULDORI cannot speakWith him. When I approached, he fled from me,Silent. I called, but both his hands he pressedOver his ears, and silently amongThe trees eluded me.EGIL[Seizing Wuldor’s wrists, speaks huskily.]I have not willed this;They cannot lay this crime on me—these gods,For I have annulled it, I have cancelled it.Come here, look in my heart; is it not clean?Woe thou mayest see there, yearning, pain, but not—Say, canst thou see there—murder? Answer not,But go! What will comewillcome; what have ITo do with it? Go, go, I say.[Exit Wuldor, right, looking darkly.]THORDISYou are ill,Your gestures—they are wild.EGILWhy should they not be?The wild thing is not dead, but is exalted.Gods, why should we, your hinds, coin and deviseDreams of emancipation! We are quibblersAnd hypocrites, damned, every slave of us,To hug our chains in secret. Rather thanAcknowledge what we are, the mind outwitsThe heart, the heart hoodwinks the mind, the tongueCajoles and counterplots them both, while truth—[Breaks into laughter.]THORDISTell me the truth.EGILAgain? Another version?Why, listen then: I love you; not in the awful,Serene idea of self-sacrifice,But passion, which of right demands returnOf passion, nature’s just and ancient barter.I want you; I demand you—all yourself.I offer all myself.THORDISWhat of your brother?EGILI ask you nothing which he does not ask.He offers nothing which I do not offer.There was a difference between us once,Not now.THORDISHath he not made you what you are?EGILYes, he and you.THORDISAnd in requital nowYou would seduce his bride?EGILNo, not seduce;Demand. Yes, though I seem to rave, I speakLove and conviction. Judge me, dear my lady.You chose between us brothers when we wereContrasted in our souls as some meek bardOf pity, with a beast. Look on us nowAgain, before it be too late, and chooseBetween us now.THORDISI have chosen once for all.EGILBut have you chosen blindly?[Points into the wood.]Do you see,By yonder pine, that wild crab-apple tree?THORDISI see a tree just bursting into flower.EGILIs not it beautiful?THORDIS’Tis ravishing.EGILLast winter, had you passed, you might have seen itWrithing its frozen limbs there like a thingAccurst, all pinched and scrambled by the pangsOf screaming winds; you would have shrunk from itBeneath the verdurous pine, in whose sad boughsThe same winds sung like voices of tuned lyres.THORDISIt may be so.EGILYet now behold it, now!A pale-rose pyre of fragrance and of flame,Wherein, like sacrificial spirits, sitThe tawny and vermilion birds, and strikeTheir silvery chants in unison, and hungAmid the tangled bloom, in murmurous choirs,The blazing gold bees shrill their mellow horns.Look, Thordis, look again! If you were Freyja,Herself, goddess of spring, which would you chooseFor shelter now, and joy?THORDIS[Gazing at him.]Ah me!EGILIf spring—If spring and the sweet south can so transform,What cannot love? Your warmth, your breath, your soul,Soft on my numbness, my deformity,Breathed, and I sprung—a burning tree of bloom—Beside you. Have you eyes for flights unseen?Hearing for choirs unheard? Here, too, beside youFierce swarms of golden fancies work in songThe fecund pollen of my passion, hereA thousand bird-wing’d visions nest them downInto the heart of me, to chant your praise.You that have so transformed me, you repulse meNow?[Enter right, in the background, Arfi; he pauses unseen.]THORDISTake your eyes from mine.EGILYou love me; youWho fostered me, the wild thing, love me still.My secret scar is on you; you are mine,Not his.THORDISOh, leave me!EGILYet you seize my hand.THORDISLeave me, leave me!EGILYet you take me to your heart.THORDISA myriad loves the heart hath, but one mate.Once only may the cry of soul and bodyBe answered; the great need can be but once.EGILNow is the great need come.THORDISHow may we know?EGILI am your being’s master. If his soulWere listening to us now, I would cry out:“I have outgrown thee, brother. What thou artI am and more, for I have wrung from theeThy potent mind, and forged it to my passionsTo make a lordlier instrument. Mine, therefore,Not thine, the ordainèd need of her. Mine!”THORDISLove me![He kisses her. Arfi moves into the thicket and disappears.Thordis, putting Egil from her, draws a dagger uponherself.]Ah, my betrayer! It is ended.EGIL[Seizing the knife from her.]No;You shall not choose so. If that name indeedBe mine, keep silence now, while I avengeThe kiss of thy seducer.[As he turns the knife upon himself, Thordis cries out.]THORDISEgil!EGILLove![Springing to her, beside the pool, he recoils.]Impending image! persecuting shape!Depart.THORDISAlas! are we both mad?EGILRemoveThe prying horror of thine eyes. Not now—At this the utmost instant of my joyIntrude not now.THORDISWhom do you speak to?EGIL[Staring past Thordis into the pool.]There!Look, we have murdered him. It comes to tell us;It points at thee, to say thou, too, art guilty.We have betrayed and killed him, thou and I.See, see! It kneels and craves our sanction.—Rise,Remorseless shadow! Go! I give it thee.[He hurls the dagger into the pool. As he staggers back,Thordis rests his head on her shoulder.]THORDISPeace, brain and heart!VOICES[Far away, right, sing.]How should the bed, the bridal bed,Freyja, be spread?Pine garlands at the foot, rose garlands at the head.EGILIs it gone?THORDISNothing is there.Rest, rest, poor dreamer!THE VOICES[Sing.]What on the maid, the bride and maid,Freyja, be laid?The rose’s innocence, ere those fresh garlands fade.EGILHark! the bridal virgins![Thordis shrinks from him.]Stay, Thordis; now the awful need is come.While yet we are alone in the great silence,Now, now, before they find it, pale and red,Heaped in the path of roses, now—be mine.THORDISFreyja, help me! Freyja, goddess and maiden!EGILHis soul descends upon us both, and sealsThis act with blood of sacrifice. His bloodOur nuptial rite hath reddened.THORDISSave me!EGILHush!This is the vernal god, the appalling armThat clasped the world i’ the primal age, and moaned—“Let there be life!”—Hush, love; do not you hearThe stealing saps stir through the forest, feelThe seeking joys of all wild, mating thingsThrob in their blood and ours, their kindred,—THORDIS[Breaking from him.]Help!Help, Arfi![She escapes, right, into the wood. As Egil pursues her, theresteps from the thicket, into his path, Arfi. Egil pauses.]EGILMay the dead be summoned backTo curse us with forgiveness?—Spirit, be sternAnd not compassionate. Come in your wounds,Fell and disfigured, not benignly thus.Oh, not your love-your vengeance! Not your love![Shields his eyes with his arms. As he does so, Arfi, witha serene gesture, is about to speak, when from thethicket Yorul springs silently out and stabs him. Arfifalls motionless; Yorul withdraws. Slowly Egil looksagain.]Yea, now thou hast resumed thy murder-garment,And hast drawn on thy bridal-robe of wounds,And laid thee at my feet in vengeance. NowThis is indeed thy vengeance—brother! master![Stoops beside the body.]VOICES OF THE VIRGINS[Sing, near.]What o’er the man the maid shall wed,Freyja, be shed?The pine’s immortal breath, ere those green boughs are dead.[Starting up, fearful, Egil hales the body toward the left,but having reached the centre pauses, as the laughterof children rises in the way before him. Turning, heis dragging the body down scene, when the children,scampering in, left, with their aprons and basketsfull of wild flowers, run towards him. Finger on lip,he motions them silence; their laughter and shouts dieaway, awed.]EGILHe is asleep; the bridegroom is asleep.Scatter your wild flowers over him. Look, he smiles,He’ll laugh when he awakes and sees them.—Soft!THE CHILDREN[Whispering, gather in a circle and, pleased as at some gameof mystery, heap the flowers upon Arfi, and sing low.]Flowers bringAnd fairy numbers!Sweet SpringHis spirit cumbers.Still be highhole! still be thrush!Hush! hush!Now he slumbers.[Treading softly, with covert laughter and “hushes,” thechildren steal away. Heaped over the body of Arfi andcompletely concealing it, they have left behind them agreat pile of arbutus, violets, and other flowers. Someof these Egil is replacing more carefully, when the pileis shaken from within, and up through it rises the formBaldur.Dazzled, Egil kneels.]BALDURHail, brother!EGILArt thou sunlight, or a voice?BALDURThis is the word of Odin![Egil sinks prostrate.]If the wolfSeduce to his desire his brother’s bride,He shall be lord with her of heaven and earthAnd hell, and by their passion the sereneAnd stablished beacons of the gods shall beEclipsed in night, anarchical and void,Where, staggering with lust, the blinded worldReels back to chaos and the primal dark.EGIL[Hiding his face.]And if the wolf renounce her?BALDURHe shall perish,Slain by his own self-mastery, and allThe spirits of light, freed from that awful dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.EGILAh! but she—BALDURShe falters yet; she hangs upon his will.The lure of imperfection is the sinOf gods, the lure of godhood that of mortals.She wavers still.EGILBright shadow, golden voice,Say what thou art.BALDURBaldur, the son of Odin.EGIL[Starts up.]Then I—?BALDURFenris, the wolf-god![He sinks again into the flowers, and is gone.]EGILAh! the dream!The dream is true; the truth is visionary.[From the left, two or three of the children return fromthe wood, and stand silent. From the right, the lutesand pipes of the bridal procession grow louder, andshortly enter the virgins,Ingimund,Thordis,Wuldor, and others, as Egil still stands lost insoliloquy.]“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.”THORDISWas not he with you, father?INGIMUNDHe went beforeA little space, to greet you first.—My child,Why do you cling to me?EGIL[Approaching her.]Goddess and maiden!THORDISHe’s mad. Save us! We both are mad.INGIMUNDThy brother,Where is he?EGILFather, he hath gone beforeA little space, but left thy word with me.INGIMUNDMyword?EGILThe word of truth.[A little girl, moving back some of the flowers, hasdisclosed the dead body of Arfi, blood-stained.]THE LITTLE GIRLHe’s still asleep.THORDIS[Goes to it with a cry.]Arfi!WULDORI thought it, Ingimund; he’s murdered.INGIMUNDHis bane! What hand struck this?EGILLo, I will tell;The dream must end. Thou saidest: He shall perish,And all the spirits of light, freed from that dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.INGIMUNDMadman! Thou—YORUL[Entering from the thicket.]Imurdered him.THORDIS[Starting up from the body.]Yorul!YORUL[Showing dagger.]His blood is here.EGILYet shall the dreamers wake, the truth prevail.YORUL’Twas I! This hand—EGILAnd shall that hand put outThe beacons of the gods with primal dark,And hurl the blinded world to chaos?THORDISEgil!Thou art innocent! Oh, in this blank of deathThat truth remains.EGIL[Turning upon Yorul.]Scourge and seductor!INGIMUND[To Egil.]Speak!Hath this man done this deed?EGIL[Slowly.]Yes; it was Yorul.[Yorul is seized.]

On the left, a green bank and a pool, back of which is athicket; on the right, a vista, beneath boughs, of adistant volcano, rising through the wet light of dawn.

EGIL’S VOICE[Outside.]Help—O! help—O!

SHRILL VOICES[Outside.]A troll! a troll! a troll!

[Enter, right,Egil,running. He is completely surroundedand swarmed over by little children in bright springgarb. One little girl has climbed upon his shoulder,where she clings.]

THE CHILDRENHeigh! hold him fast. Troll! troll!

EGILHelp, gentle greenwood!Am I but now escaped men’s prison wallsTo fall into this ambush of thine elves!Save me, you wrens and warblers! Fetch me wings!

THE CHILDREN[Taking hands, dance about him, singing.]Thrice, thrice,Thrice around thee!Star-wiseOur steps surround thee;Now yield thee, yield thee, proud Sir Troll!Body and soulOur spells have bound thee.

EGILThrice, thrice,Thrice around me!Star-wiseYour steps surround me.Now yield I me and pay my toll—Body and soulAs ye have bound me.[He lies down, pretending death; each child places his footupon him, with a shout. At this he springs up, laughing,seizes a little boy and girl, and, seating himself on alog, places them on his knees. The others cluster abouthim.]Ha, sirrah! is this maid thy sister?

THE LITTLE BOYYes,She’s mine.

EGILWhat wouldst thou do if I should steal her?

THE LITTLE BOYI’d kill you.

EGILHa! wouldst let him?

THE LITTLE GIRLOh, of course;He is my brother.

EGIL’Tis a brother’s rightTo kill, I see.

THE LITTLE GIRLIn play, you know.

EGILIn play.

THE CHILDRENCome play! Come play!

EGILWhat now?

THE CHILDREN[Severally.]Fox and wild geese!Glass-mountain, Spinning-fairy, Cat-skin, Crows,Frog-bridegroom!

THE LITTLE GIRLIknow what!

EGIL[Takes both her hands, smiling.]Well, what?

THE LITTLE GIRLI’ll beRed Riding-hood, and you shall be the wolf.

[Egil drops her hands and rises.]

THE LITTLE BOYI’m the good hunter and these are my men.

EGIL[Vassal-like to the little boy.]Beseech you, sir, may I not play your part?I’d fain be the good hunter.

THE LITTLE BOYGranted, earl.I’d fainer be the wolf.[To the children.]Come! gather your flowers.

EGILAnd when you’ve filled your laps and aprons upWith wind-flowers and arbutus, bring them here.Mind! ’tis our lady Thordis’ wedding-day.

THE CHILDREN[Running from the little boy.]The wolf! the wolf!

[Passing left into the wood, they are seen for some timegathering flowers and watching, in their game, thestealthy approachments of the little boy.]

EGILO freedom! happy world!Hark, how they laugh, with bubbling undersongSweetening the over-choir of the birds.And I—I, too, can laugh; can loose my soulFree-wing’d into the open with a cryUnfetter’d as a lark.[Looking up into the tree-tops, he laughs again.]O rarest laughter!O medicine of the long-languish’d mind!O welling of the heart’s sweet waters up,Washing the acid tang of cynic woeSere from the spirit’s lips. O benisonOf innocence! And have I lived beforeThis hour? Is not this day creation’s dawn?[Flinging himself upon the bank.]These children, with their lifted flowerlike faces,These flowers, with their dewy childlike eyes,These parting vapours on the golden hills,Yea, all these leaves of little twinkling grassWhose roots strike down to tears of yesterday—Now shine like things immaculate, new-born,And I, and they, like issue of one mother,The offspring of an universal birth.Oh, what exceeding power hath lovelinessFor her beholder!

[Where he lies thus rapt in the sylvan landscape, thefirst sunlight breaks through the wood, and by it theShadowof a man is thrown sharply, from the left,across the reclining form of Egil. At the same time,from the right, is heard Arfi’s voice, singing.]

THE VOICE OF ARFIThy heart, love, give or takeOr cast away;Mine shall not breakForever and a day;For lovers kiss their mates where thoughts are kind.Love lives within the mind—the mind—the mind.

[Slowly having risen to his feet, Egil perceivesthe human shadow and starts.]

EGILYorul![The shadow recedes, left, from the scene.]Yorul, stay!Come back!

THE VOICE OF ARFIThe redstart and the rose,The clear sunrise,What mortal knowsTheir grace to immortalise?Seek them again, where Death can never find,By love, within the mind—the enamour’d mind.

EGILIt must not be.—Yorul!—What, IWas mad, who now am sane and innocent.Come back! It shall not—Yorul!

THORDIS[Calls outside.]Egil!

EGIL[Pausing.]She!

[Enter, right,ThordisandArfi.They are dressed in white,the dwarf being quaintly garlanded. They are followed byWuldor.Thordis goes gaily toward Egil, extending bothher hands.]

THORDISDeserter! runagate!—Look, Arfi, here’sOur truant brought to bay. And will not yield!And will not even surrender up his eyesTo his imploring gaolers.—O proud brother!Not even a hand-clasp in return for allThy struck-off shackles?[Taking her hands, he still looks off left.]

EGILLady!

THORDISStill no eyesFor mortals? Quite enamoured of a wood-sprite?Alas! we’ve broke a tryst and she has flown!Call her: perchance she’ll hear.

EGIL[Looking upon Thordis.]Lady!—[Quickly then turning away, speaks under his breathto Wuldor.]A word,A word!

ARFIHe’s deeply moved.

THORDISHe’s deeply changed.Saw you his eyes when they turned full on me,And he said, “Lady”? There were tears in them,Tears, and yet through them glowed the ancient fire,Not now in wrath, but tenderness.

EGIL[Aside to Wuldor.]Overtake him;The oath he swore to Egil—tell him—EgilNow countermands. Bid him do nothing; go![Watches Wuldor off, left. Arfi, quietly lookingat him, speaks to Thordis.]

ARFIYou love him dearly?

THORDISVery dearly.

EGILBrother,Thordis, your hands again!

ARFI[Smiling.]Have you despatchedWuldor to find the lady wood-sprite?

EGILFriends,Were we less deeply known to one another,And chiefly I to you—what thing I was,What now, perchance, am grown—well, I suppose’Twere custom, were it not? to wreathe our lipsWith honey-blossoms of superfluousCongratulation: you are to be wed,And I am free, and my emancipationOwes all itself to you.—“Heaven be with you!”“I thank you well,” “Joy is to me!”—But theseThings being said, and rung with all the chimesOf truth, I beg of you let now these handsSpeak the unsaid remainder for our heartsIn silence.[The three hold hands.]

ARFI[After a pause.]Vaster powers than we have wroughtThis friendship. Whom the gods join hand in handTheir fates thenceforth are mingled.

THORDIS[Loosening her hands with a laugh.]So, dear lord,Be merry!

ARFI[Speaks low, with a smile.]Have I not divinest reason?This is the place.

THORDISArfi! The sacred pool?

ARFIThe pool of Freyja—there! The wood-folk call itHer mirror, for they say that once i’ the year,Ever at May-day, the fresh goddess comesTo sit beside it with her elves, whilst theyComb her bright hair.

THORDISAnd then she peers within it?

ARFIAs you do now.—Sweetest, good-bye!

THORDISGood-bye?But where are you going?

ARFIThe wood pathway to heaven.I’m going to hasten that laggard priest, your father,To make him make you mine.

EGILStop! You’re alone.

ARFIWell?

EGIL[Embarrassed.]Will it be now?

ARFIAm I not written largeWith bridal runes? Hang not these garlands thickAs invocations from an inn-house gable?“Here light ye down, fair guests! Light down, light down,Dear lady, at the sign of the ‘Green Bridegroom!’”—Farewell, sweetheart. This day is clothed in greenFor joy. I will return with IngimundAs swift as longing.

EGILStay; we must be wise.You must not leave me here alone with her.

ARFIWhy? Are you not my brother?

EGILI am heWho vowed against you hatred and revenge.

ARFIAlso you are my brother.

EGILI am heThat with a brutish fang struck at your life.

ARFIGood-bye, dear brother.

EGILWait! Was I not thenYour brother—then? Will not a brother lust?A brother covet? Are not beauty, grace,Lures to a brother’s eyes? Are brothers’ soulsBy nature kin? Or is that name a spellTo render heart and mind innocuousThat else might murder, ravish? Oh, be notSo rash as put your trust in me becauseI am your brother.

ARFI[Returning to Egil, embraces him.]Lad, keep this with you.I would not be so rash asnotto trustIn you a power more august than yourselfFor all the joy and honour which this dayHolds out to me.—Adieu! This day is joy’s.[Exit, right.]

EGILNow we’re alone. How is it with you—sister?

THORDISStrangely, my brother; how is it with you?

EGILO God!How many waking dawns and desperate nightsHave I, in sharp imagination, moanedFor this sweet hour, to stand—as nowI stand—alone with you, in liberty.

THORDISAnd now that time has come.

[She reaches to him her hand; he does not take it.]

EGILNow it is come,But ah! how sternly different is this truthFrom all I dreamed. Can this be freedom? See!What hangs upon these arms? They wear no chains.Why, then, do they not catch you breathless upAnd bear you hence in rapture? In your eyes—Lo! veilless I behold your virgin soul!And yet she does not fly, nor I pursue.

THORDISWhat should she fear?

EGILWhat should she not?—These eyesRenouncing hers; these hands that dare not pressHer vesture’s hem, lest they consume like coalsThat robèd sanctuary; these desiresThat burn around her like the hedge of flamesRound Brunhild’s bower; this waiting dawn, this hushAnd solitary wood—What fear? Herself,Herself that, all resolved to beauty, breathesHerself unto these eyes, these hands, this dawn,These leash’d desires!

THORDISYou love me, you would say.Why should you not?

EGILI have renounced you.

THORDISMe,But not your love for me. Surely that stillIs happiness.

EGILWhy, yes, I must be happy;For this is pain, and pain is very sweetTo those who love; and this is bitter sweetTo breathe the name of “sister” ’gainst your cheekWhere but so late the sigh of “sweetheart” stoleWarm from my brother’s lips.—O lure and vision!Do you not see? I have climbed up to youOut of the rank abyss; this is the verge:One word, one look, from you must hurl me back,Or save me.

THORDISLook.

EGILHow have you dared to trust me?

THORDISWhen have we ever ceased to trust you?

EGIL“We”?

THORDISArfi and I. Oh, he is very wise.His judgment is as gracious as a child’sThat in the wonderland of its own wisdomImagines nothing baser than itself.

EGILBut Iambaser.

THORDISHath it proved so?

EGIL[After a pause.]No!No; thanks to you and him and my own pain,It shall not prove so. This at last is powerAnd innocence; this—this at last is freedom.Now when I clasp your hand I clasp his also—My saviour’s; now beneath your face, for shrine,I will confess my spirit to you both,For are you not my gods? You have createdMy heaven and hell, and builded my path heavenward.Now from your eyes nothing—nothing withinThis heart shall be concealed.

THORDIS[Smiling.]What then is your secret?

[On the edge of the scene, left, unobserved by them,reappears the humanShadow.]

EGIL[Slowly rises.]My secret?

THORDISCome, sit with me on this bank,And I will be a listening stream, a bird,An opening flower, to overhear you.

[He follows and sits beside her; the Shadowslowly moves toward them.]

EGILBut—

THORDISThat thought which falters now behind your lips.

EGILI have no thought which hides from you.[The Shadow moves between them. Egil startsup with a cry.]Again!Again it falls upon me!

THORDISWhat?

EGIL’Tis gone.

THORDISWhat’s gone?

EGILIt is no matter.

THORDISA surprise!I see: a wedding-day surprise for us.

EGILNo, but a lie. I lied to you. Last nightI told you I renounced you, but I lied.

THORDISEgil!

EGILIt was the music, the harp-demon;It blinded and then tempted me; it lured meTo obtain my freedom falsely. But to-day,This morning when my body fetterlessRoamed in this wood-side, and the little childrenClimbed over me in laughter, and I tooLaughed with them, and all nature laughed and echoed“Thou art emancipated!”—I was healed;Then I was healed and now all’s well again;All’s well; no harm shall come to him.

THORDISTo whom?I do not understand.

EGILYou have no need;I claim your own assurance. Will you trust me?

THORDISSo well that, now you have put your secret by,I will tell mine.

EGILWhat secret can you haveFor me?

THORDISYou have been wicked; so perhapsHave I.

EGIL[Smiling.]You!

THORDIS[Showing her hand.]Look! look there.

EGILA scar.

THORDISThe markOf fangs.

EGILWhat thing has dared to give you pain?

THORDISHave you forgot?

EGILAh me! I had forgot.Cannot you, too, forget?

THORDISI would not; that’sMy secret. Yes, this scar is dear to me.

EGILThat sign of blasphemy, of him—the werewolf—

THORDISIs dear to me.

EGILThordis!

THORDISI loved the wolf.It was a life to nourish and protect,A being alien and mysterious,Yearning and captive. It was terrible,And yet so eager, swift, and passionateIt fascinated me. It was ignoble,Cruel, yet infinite of promise; cunning,Malicious, yet beautifully animate,Sublimely animal.

EGILO pain!

THORDISTo take itInto my bosom, foster its wild growthFrom hour to hour, to watch from day to dayThe fierce light of its eyes glow deeper, milder,To nestle it only to set it free—these joysWere pangs to me.

EGIL[Low.]Have pity!

THORDISThen it wasSo lordly, so imperious of strength,In grace so sinuous, in pride so ardent—Who had not been enamoured of it?

EGILCease!It wrought some monstrous spell to make you wanton.

THORDISIf that be wantonness which fain would takeNo joy of loving but the giving joy.

EGILBut for that beast you turned your thoughts from Arfi?

THORDISYou do not understand; Arfi and IAre one; it needs no murmured wedding vowsTo make us that. But I am beautiful,And all who look upon me love to pressNearer and touch my gown, and when I passI feel the ruddy mantling of their cheeksAnd the wild admiration start; and theseAre joys to Arfi as to me, and weReturn their love.

EGILEven so you loved me?

THORDISNo,More than all those, for you alone of thoseHad need of me.—And so you have my secret.I fear indeed it is a wicked one;For I have been like a too-doting nurseThat lets her heart hang backward in regretAnd whispers her loved one, “Grow, but do not leave me!”

EGILFor what then have I grown, O gods?

THORDISFor this:To be yourself, and free of that nurse-bondage.

EGILFree! but alone, adrift! Oh, take me backInto the bosom of your care. Once moreNestle me there, the wild thing!

THORDISThat once moreSo you might struggle for your freedom? Nay,The wild thing now is dead.

[Enter Wuldor, left; he goes to Egil.]

WULDORI cannot speakWith him. When I approached, he fled from me,Silent. I called, but both his hands he pressedOver his ears, and silently amongThe trees eluded me.

EGIL[Seizing Wuldor’s wrists, speaks huskily.]I have not willed this;They cannot lay this crime on me—these gods,For I have annulled it, I have cancelled it.Come here, look in my heart; is it not clean?Woe thou mayest see there, yearning, pain, but not—Say, canst thou see there—murder? Answer not,But go! What will comewillcome; what have ITo do with it? Go, go, I say.[Exit Wuldor, right, looking darkly.]

THORDISYou are ill,Your gestures—they are wild.

EGILWhy should they not be?The wild thing is not dead, but is exalted.Gods, why should we, your hinds, coin and deviseDreams of emancipation! We are quibblersAnd hypocrites, damned, every slave of us,To hug our chains in secret. Rather thanAcknowledge what we are, the mind outwitsThe heart, the heart hoodwinks the mind, the tongueCajoles and counterplots them both, while truth—[Breaks into laughter.]

THORDISTell me the truth.

EGILAgain? Another version?Why, listen then: I love you; not in the awful,Serene idea of self-sacrifice,But passion, which of right demands returnOf passion, nature’s just and ancient barter.I want you; I demand you—all yourself.I offer all myself.

THORDISWhat of your brother?

EGILI ask you nothing which he does not ask.He offers nothing which I do not offer.There was a difference between us once,Not now.

THORDISHath he not made you what you are?

EGILYes, he and you.

THORDISAnd in requital nowYou would seduce his bride?

EGILNo, not seduce;Demand. Yes, though I seem to rave, I speakLove and conviction. Judge me, dear my lady.You chose between us brothers when we wereContrasted in our souls as some meek bardOf pity, with a beast. Look on us nowAgain, before it be too late, and chooseBetween us now.

THORDISI have chosen once for all.

EGILBut have you chosen blindly?[Points into the wood.]Do you see,By yonder pine, that wild crab-apple tree?

THORDISI see a tree just bursting into flower.

EGILIs not it beautiful?

THORDIS’Tis ravishing.

EGILLast winter, had you passed, you might have seen itWrithing its frozen limbs there like a thingAccurst, all pinched and scrambled by the pangsOf screaming winds; you would have shrunk from itBeneath the verdurous pine, in whose sad boughsThe same winds sung like voices of tuned lyres.

THORDISIt may be so.

EGILYet now behold it, now!A pale-rose pyre of fragrance and of flame,Wherein, like sacrificial spirits, sitThe tawny and vermilion birds, and strikeTheir silvery chants in unison, and hungAmid the tangled bloom, in murmurous choirs,The blazing gold bees shrill their mellow horns.Look, Thordis, look again! If you were Freyja,Herself, goddess of spring, which would you chooseFor shelter now, and joy?

THORDIS[Gazing at him.]Ah me!

EGILIf spring—If spring and the sweet south can so transform,What cannot love? Your warmth, your breath, your soul,Soft on my numbness, my deformity,Breathed, and I sprung—a burning tree of bloom—Beside you. Have you eyes for flights unseen?Hearing for choirs unheard? Here, too, beside youFierce swarms of golden fancies work in songThe fecund pollen of my passion, hereA thousand bird-wing’d visions nest them downInto the heart of me, to chant your praise.You that have so transformed me, you repulse meNow?

[Enter right, in the background, Arfi; he pauses unseen.]

THORDISTake your eyes from mine.

EGILYou love me; youWho fostered me, the wild thing, love me still.My secret scar is on you; you are mine,Not his.

THORDISOh, leave me!

EGILYet you seize my hand.

THORDISLeave me, leave me!

EGILYet you take me to your heart.

THORDISA myriad loves the heart hath, but one mate.Once only may the cry of soul and bodyBe answered; the great need can be but once.

EGILNow is the great need come.

THORDISHow may we know?

EGILI am your being’s master. If his soulWere listening to us now, I would cry out:“I have outgrown thee, brother. What thou artI am and more, for I have wrung from theeThy potent mind, and forged it to my passionsTo make a lordlier instrument. Mine, therefore,Not thine, the ordainèd need of her. Mine!”

THORDISLove me![He kisses her. Arfi moves into the thicket and disappears.Thordis, putting Egil from her, draws a dagger uponherself.]Ah, my betrayer! It is ended.

EGIL[Seizing the knife from her.]No;You shall not choose so. If that name indeedBe mine, keep silence now, while I avengeThe kiss of thy seducer.

[As he turns the knife upon himself, Thordis cries out.]

THORDISEgil!

EGILLove![Springing to her, beside the pool, he recoils.]Impending image! persecuting shape!Depart.

THORDISAlas! are we both mad?

EGILRemoveThe prying horror of thine eyes. Not now—At this the utmost instant of my joyIntrude not now.

THORDISWhom do you speak to?

EGIL[Staring past Thordis into the pool.]There!Look, we have murdered him. It comes to tell us;It points at thee, to say thou, too, art guilty.We have betrayed and killed him, thou and I.See, see! It kneels and craves our sanction.—Rise,Remorseless shadow! Go! I give it thee.

[He hurls the dagger into the pool. As he staggers back,Thordis rests his head on her shoulder.]

THORDISPeace, brain and heart!

VOICES[Far away, right, sing.]How should the bed, the bridal bed,Freyja, be spread?Pine garlands at the foot, rose garlands at the head.

EGILIs it gone?

THORDISNothing is there.Rest, rest, poor dreamer!

THE VOICES[Sing.]What on the maid, the bride and maid,Freyja, be laid?The rose’s innocence, ere those fresh garlands fade.

EGILHark! the bridal virgins![Thordis shrinks from him.]Stay, Thordis; now the awful need is come.While yet we are alone in the great silence,Now, now, before they find it, pale and red,Heaped in the path of roses, now—be mine.

THORDISFreyja, help me! Freyja, goddess and maiden!

EGILHis soul descends upon us both, and sealsThis act with blood of sacrifice. His bloodOur nuptial rite hath reddened.

THORDISSave me!

EGILHush!This is the vernal god, the appalling armThat clasped the world i’ the primal age, and moaned—“Let there be life!”—Hush, love; do not you hearThe stealing saps stir through the forest, feelThe seeking joys of all wild, mating thingsThrob in their blood and ours, their kindred,—

THORDIS[Breaking from him.]Help!Help, Arfi!

[She escapes, right, into the wood. As Egil pursues her, theresteps from the thicket, into his path, Arfi. Egil pauses.]

EGILMay the dead be summoned backTo curse us with forgiveness?—Spirit, be sternAnd not compassionate. Come in your wounds,Fell and disfigured, not benignly thus.Oh, not your love-your vengeance! Not your love![Shields his eyes with his arms. As he does so, Arfi, witha serene gesture, is about to speak, when from thethicket Yorul springs silently out and stabs him. Arfifalls motionless; Yorul withdraws. Slowly Egil looksagain.]Yea, now thou hast resumed thy murder-garment,And hast drawn on thy bridal-robe of wounds,And laid thee at my feet in vengeance. NowThis is indeed thy vengeance—brother! master![Stoops beside the body.]

VOICES OF THE VIRGINS[Sing, near.]What o’er the man the maid shall wed,Freyja, be shed?The pine’s immortal breath, ere those green boughs are dead.

[Starting up, fearful, Egil hales the body toward the left,but having reached the centre pauses, as the laughterof children rises in the way before him. Turning, heis dragging the body down scene, when the children,scampering in, left, with their aprons and basketsfull of wild flowers, run towards him. Finger on lip,he motions them silence; their laughter and shouts dieaway, awed.]

EGILHe is asleep; the bridegroom is asleep.Scatter your wild flowers over him. Look, he smiles,He’ll laugh when he awakes and sees them.—Soft!

THE CHILDREN[Whispering, gather in a circle and, pleased as at some gameof mystery, heap the flowers upon Arfi, and sing low.]

Flowers bringAnd fairy numbers!Sweet SpringHis spirit cumbers.Still be highhole! still be thrush!Hush! hush!Now he slumbers.

[Treading softly, with covert laughter and “hushes,” thechildren steal away. Heaped over the body of Arfi andcompletely concealing it, they have left behind them agreat pile of arbutus, violets, and other flowers. Someof these Egil is replacing more carefully, when the pileis shaken from within, and up through it rises the formBaldur.Dazzled, Egil kneels.]

BALDURHail, brother!

EGILArt thou sunlight, or a voice?

BALDURThis is the word of Odin![Egil sinks prostrate.]If the wolfSeduce to his desire his brother’s bride,He shall be lord with her of heaven and earthAnd hell, and by their passion the sereneAnd stablished beacons of the gods shall beEclipsed in night, anarchical and void,Where, staggering with lust, the blinded worldReels back to chaos and the primal dark.

EGIL[Hiding his face.]And if the wolf renounce her?

BALDURHe shall perish,Slain by his own self-mastery, and allThe spirits of light, freed from that awful dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.

EGILAh! but she—

BALDURShe falters yet; she hangs upon his will.The lure of imperfection is the sinOf gods, the lure of godhood that of mortals.She wavers still.

EGILBright shadow, golden voice,Say what thou art.

BALDURBaldur, the son of Odin.

EGIL[Starts up.]Then I—?

BALDURFenris, the wolf-god!

[He sinks again into the flowers, and is gone.]

EGILAh! the dream!The dream is true; the truth is visionary.

[From the left, two or three of the children return fromthe wood, and stand silent. From the right, the lutesand pipes of the bridal procession grow louder, andshortly enter the virgins,Ingimund,Thordis,Wuldor, and others, as Egil still stands lost insoliloquy.]

“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.”

THORDISWas not he with you, father?

INGIMUNDHe went beforeA little space, to greet you first.—My child,Why do you cling to me?

EGIL[Approaching her.]Goddess and maiden!

THORDISHe’s mad. Save us! We both are mad.

INGIMUNDThy brother,Where is he?

EGILFather, he hath gone beforeA little space, but left thy word with me.

INGIMUNDMyword?

EGILThe word of truth.

[A little girl, moving back some of the flowers, hasdisclosed the dead body of Arfi, blood-stained.]

THE LITTLE GIRLHe’s still asleep.

THORDIS[Goes to it with a cry.]Arfi!

WULDORI thought it, Ingimund; he’s murdered.

INGIMUNDHis bane! What hand struck this?

EGILLo, I will tell;The dream must end. Thou saidest: He shall perish,And all the spirits of light, freed from that dread,Shall strew his charnel, singing.

INGIMUNDMadman! Thou—

YORUL[Entering from the thicket.]Imurdered him.

THORDIS[Starting up from the body.]Yorul!

YORUL[Showing dagger.]His blood is here.

EGILYet shall the dreamers wake, the truth prevail.

YORUL’Twas I! This hand—

EGILAnd shall that hand put outThe beacons of the gods with primal dark,And hurl the blinded world to chaos?

THORDISEgil!Thou art innocent! Oh, in this blank of deathThat truth remains.

EGIL[Turning upon Yorul.]Scourge and seductor!

INGIMUND[To Egil.]Speak!Hath this man done this deed?

EGIL[Slowly.]Yes; it was Yorul.

[Yorul is seized.]

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