Iron is broken, the swordSri Aurobindo
Collected Plays and Stories
CWSA. Volume 3 and 4
Plays
Eric
A Dramatic Romance
Eric
Swegn
Gunthar
Hardicnut
Ragnar
Harald
Aslaug
Hertha
Eric’s Palace at Yara.
Eric of Norway, first whom these cold fiords,
Deep havens of disunion, from their jagged
And fissured crevices at last obey,
The monarch of a thousand Vikings! Yes,
But how long shall that monarchy endure1
Which only on the swiftness of a sword
Has taken its restless seat? Strength’s iron hound
Pitilessly bright behind his panting prey
Can guard for life’s short splendour what it won.
But2 when the sword is broken or when death
Proves swifter? All this realm with labour built
Dissolving like a transitory cloud
Becomes the thing it was, cleft, parcelled out
By discord. I have found the way to join,
The warrior’s sword, builder of unity,
But where’s the way to solder? where? O Thor
And Odin, masters of the northern world,
Wisdom and force I have; some strength is hidden3
I have not; I would find4] it out. Help me,
Whatever power thou art who5 mov’st the world,
To Eric unrevealed. Some sign I ask.
Love is the hoop of the gods
Hearts to combine.
Sleeps in the grave of its lord.
Hearts to combine.
Is that your answer? Freya, mother of heaven,
Thou wast forgotten. The heart! the seat is there.
For unity is sweet substance6 of the heart
And not a chain that binds, not iron, gold,
Nor any helpless thought the reason knows.
How shall I seize it? where? give me a net
By which the fugitive can be snared. It is
Too unsubstantial for my iron mind.
When Love desires Love,
Then Love is born.
Nor even beauty’s spell
Escapes his scorn.
Then Love is born.
Who sings outside? Harald! who sings outside?
Two dancing-girls from Gothberg. Shall they come?
Admit them.
From light lips and casual thoughts
The gods speak best as if by chance, nor knows
The speaker that he is an instrument
But thinks his mind the mover of his words.
Harald returns with Aslaug and Hertha.
King Eric, these are they who sang.
Women,
Who are you? or what god directed you?
The god who7 rules all men, Necessity.
My lips at least were used.
Thou sayest. Dost thou know by whom?9
By Fate.
For she alone is prompter on our stage,
And all things move by an established doom10,
Not freely. Eric’s sword and Aslaug’s song,
Music and thunder are the rhythmic11 chords
Of one majestic harp. With equal mind12
She breaks the tops that she has built; her thrones
Are ruins. She treads her way foreseen; our steps
Are hers, our wills are blinded by her gaze.
I think the soul is master. Who art thou?
Expelled from Gothberg with displeasure fierce,
Norwegians by the wrathful Swede constrained,
To Norway we return.
Why went you forth?
From a bleak country rich by spoil alone
Of kinder populations, far too cold13,
Too rough to love the sweetness of a song,
The rhythm of a dance, with need for spur,14
We fled15 to an entire and cultured race,
Whose hearts come apt and liberal from the gods
Are steel to steel, but flowers to a flower.
And wherefore war they upon women now?
By thy aggressions moved.
A nobler choice
Of vengeance I will give them, though more hard.
Gunthar, thou comest from the front16. What news?
Swegn, earl of Trondhjem, lifts his outlawed head.
By desperate churls and broken nobles joined
He moves towards the Swede.
Let Sigurd’s force
Cut off from Sweden and his lair the rude17
Revolted lord.
He only now resists,
Champion of discord, remnant like our seas,18
The19 partisan and pattern of the past.
They20 waste their surge of strength in sterile foam,
Hungry for movement, careless what they break,
Splendid, disastrous, active for no fruit.
Such men are better with the gods than here
To trouble earth. Taken, let him not live.21
Taken22! Our words are only an arrogant breath,
Who all are here, the doomer and the doomed,
As captives of a greater doom than ours,
To live or die.
I silence my heart24
Which has remembered what all men forget,
That Olaf of the seas was Norway’s head
And Swegn his son.
Will you remain with me?
Though25 from my act there flowed on you distress,
Make me be fountain of your better days;
Your loss shall turn a fall to splendid gains.
Thy royal26 bounty shall atone for much.
Nobler atonement’s needed27.
It is yours.
Harald, make room for them within my house.
Gunthar, we will converse some other hour28.
Love! If it were this girl with antelope eyes
And the high head so proudly lifted up
Upon a neck as white as any swan’s!
But how to sway men’s hearts rugged and hard
As Norway’s mountains, as her glaciers cold,
The houses of their violent desires,29
Whose guests are interest and power and pride?
Perhaps this stag-eyed woman comes for that,
To teach me.
Hertha, Aslaug.
Hertha, we dance before the man tonight.
Because30 I will not act
Lifting in vain a rash frustrated hand.
When all is certain, I will strike.
To near,
To strike while all posterity applauds!
For Norway’s poets to the end of time
Shall sing in phrases31 noble as the theme
Of Aslaug’s dance and Aslaug’s dagger.
Yes,
If we succeed, but who will sing the praise
Of foiled assassins? Shall we32 risk defeat?
While we sleep flung in a dishonoured tomb33,
And Swegn of Norway roams34 until the end
The desperate snows and forest35 silences
Hopeless36, proscribed, alone37?
No more38 defeat!
Too often, too deeply have we drunk that cup39!
The man we come to slay,–
A mighty man!
He has the face and figure of a god,
A marble emperor with brilliant eyes.
How came the usurper by a face like that?
His father was a son40 of Odin’s stock.
His fable since he rose! A pauper house
Of one poor vessel and a narrow fiord
And some bare pine-trees41 possessor,– this42 was he,
The root he sprang from.
But from this43 to tower
In three swift44 summers undisputed45 lord
Of Norway, before years had put their growth
Upon his chin! If not of Odin’s race,
Odin is for him. Are you not afraid,
You who see Fate even in a sparrow’s flight,
When Odin is for him?
Aslaug is against.
He has a strength, an iron strength, and Thor
Strikes hammerlike in his uplifted sword.
But46 Fate alone decides when all is said,
Not Thor, nor47 Odin. I will try my fate.
He is a pure48 usurper, is he not?
Norway’s election made him king, men49 say.
Left Olaf Sigualdson50 no heirs behind?
Was his chair vacant51?
Of Trondhjem; but they cried52,
The inland53 and the north were free to choose.
As rebels are.
To the South rejoicing55 in her golden gains,
Crying56, “I am Norway”, all the rude-lipped North57
Blew bronze refusal and its free stark head58
To breathe cold heaven was lifted like its hills.59
We sought60 the arbitration of the sword,
That sharp blind last appeal61. The sword has judged
Against our claim.
When it is keen and swift enough!63 O yet,64
If65 kindly peace even now were possible66!
The67 suzerainty? it is his. We fought for it68,
We have lost it.69 Let it rest where it has fallen.70
Better our barren empire of the snows!
Better71 with reindeer herding to survive,
Or else a free and miserable death
Together!
Therefore I flung73 the doubt before your mind,
To strike more surely.74 Aslaug, did you see
The eyes of Eric on you?
I am fair.
You see nothing more75?
What is it to me how he looks? He is
My human obstacle and that is all.
No, Aslaug, there’s much more. Alone with you,
Absorbed,– you see it,– suddenly you strike
And strike again, swift great exultant blows.
It is too base!
Unlulled, he could not perish.
Have you not seen his large and wakeful gaze?
This is our chance. Must not Swegn mount his throne?
So that I have not to degrade myself,
Arrange it as you will. You own a swift,
Contriving, careful brain I cannot match.
To dare, to act was always Aslaug’s part.
You will not shrink?
I sprang not from the earth
To bound my actions by the common rule.
I claim my kin with those whom Heaven’s gaze
Moulded supreme, Swegn’s sister, Olaf’s child,
Aslaug of Norway.
Then it must be done.
Hertha, I will not know the plots you weave:
But when I see your signal, I will strike.
Pride violent! loftiness intolerable!
The grandiose kingdom-breaking blow is hers,
The baseness, the deception are for me.
It was this,76 the assumption, the magnificence,
Made Swegn her tool. To me his lover, counsellor,
Wife, worshipper, his ears were coldly deaf.
But, lioness of Norway, thy loud bruit
And leap gigantic are ensnared at last
In my compelling toils. She must be trapped!
She is the fuel for my husband’s soul
To burn itself on a disastrous pyre.
Remove its cause, the flame will sink to rest,–
And77 we in Trondhjem shall live peacefully
Till Eric dies, as some day die he must,
In battle or by a revolting sword,
And leaves the spacious world unoccupied.
Then other men may feel the sun once more.
Always she talks of Fate: does she not see,
This man was born beneath exultant stars,
Had gods to rock his cradle?
He must possess
His date, his strong and unresisted time78
When Fate herself runs on his feet. Then comes79,–
All things too great end soon,– death, overthrow,
The slow revenges of the jealous gods80.
Submitting we shall save ourselves alive
For a81 late summer when cold spring is past.
Eric, Aslaug.
Come hither.
Thou hast sent for me?
Come hither.
What82 art thou?
What thou knowest.
Do I know?
Does he suspect? (aloud) I am a dancing-girl.
My name is Aslaug. That thou knowest.
Where
Did Odin forge thy sweet imperious eyes,
Thy noble stature and thy lofty look?
Thou dancest,– yes, thou hast that motion; song,83
The natural expression of thy soul,
Comes from thy lips, floats, hovers and returns
Like a wild bird which84 wings around its nest.
This art the princesses of Sweden use,85
And those Norwegian girls who frame themselves
On Sweden.
It may be, my birth and past
Were nobler than my present fortunes are.
Why cam’st thou to me?
Does Death admonish him
Of danger? does he feel the impending stroke?
Hertha could turn the question.
Why soughtst thou out
Eric of Norway? Wherefore broughtst thou here
This86 beauty as compelling as thy song
No man can gaze on and possess his soul?
I am a dancing-girl; my song, my87 face
Are my best88 stock. I carried89 them for gain
Here to the richest90 market.
I buy them for a price.92 Aslaug, thy body too.
Release me! Wilt thou lay thy hands on death?
All Norway has not sold itself thy slave.
This was not spoken like a dancing-girl!
What is this siege? I have no dagger with me.
Will he discover me? will he compel?
Though93 Norway has not sold itself my slave,
Thou hast. Remember what thou art, or else94
Thou feignst95 to be.
I am caught in his snare.
He is subtle, terrible. I see the thing
He drives at and admire unwillingly
The marble96 tyrant.
Or leave it.
If thou wert fashioned98 nobler than thou feignst,
Confess that mightier name and lay thyself99
Between my hands. But if a dancing-girl,
I have bought thee for a hire, thy face, thy song,
Thy body. I turn not, girl, from any way
I can possess thee, more than the sea hesitates
To engulf what it embraces.
Thou100 speakest words
I scorn to answer.
Or to101 understand?
Thou art an enemy who102 in disguise
Invad’st my house to spy upon my fate.103
What if I were?
Thou hast too lightly then
Devised thy chains and close104 imprisonment105,
Too thoughtlessly adventured a divine
And glorious stake, this body, heaven’s hold,106
This face, the earth’s desire107.
I do not think I am afraid of death.
Far be death from thee who, if heaven were just,
Wouldst walk immortal! Thou seest no nearer109 peril?
None that I tremble at or wish to flee.110
Let this shake thee111 that thou art by thy choice
Caged with the danger of the lion’s mood112,
Helpless hast seen113 the hunger of his eyes
And feelst on thee114 the breath of his desire.
I came not here to spy.
Why cam’st thou then?
To sing, to dance, to115 earn.
Thou hast a brain, and117 knowest why I looked
On118 thee, why I have kept119 thee in my house.
My house! what fate has brought thy steps within?
Thou, thou hast found120 the way to121 my desire!
Thinkst thou thy feet have entered to escape122
As lightly as a wild bee from a flower,
The lair and antre of thy enemy?
Disguise? Canst thou disguise thy splendid soul?
Then123 if thy face124 and speech more nobly express
The truth of thee than this125 vocation can,
Reveal it and deserve126 my clemency.
Thy clemency!
(restraining127 herself)
I am a dancing-girl;
I came to earn.
Thou art obstinate in pride128!
I have not any choice to make129.
Wilt thou still struggle vainly in the net130?
Because thou hast the lioness in thy mood,
Thou thoughtst to play with Eric! It is I
Who play with thee; thou liest in my grasp,
As surely as if I held thee on my knees.131
I am enamoured of thy golden hair,
Thy body like the snow, thy antelope eyes,
This132 neck that seems to know it carries heaven
Upon it easily. Thy song, thy speech,
This gracious rhythmic motion of thy limbs133
Walking or dancing, all134 the careless pride
That undulates in every gesture and tone,
Have seized upon me smiling to possess135.
But I have only learned from Fate and strength136
To seize by force, master, enjoy, compel,137
As I will thee. Enemy and prisoner138,
Or dancing-girl and purchased chattel, choose!
Thou wilt not speak139? thou findest no reply?
Because I am troubled by thy violent words.
I cannot answer thee, or will not yet.
How could he see this death? Is he a god
And knows men’s hearts? This is a terrible
And iron pressure!
What was thy design?
To spy? to140 slay? For thou art capable
Even of such daring.
Swiftly, swiftly done
It might be still!141 To put him off an hour,
Some minutes,– O142, to strike!
What hast thou chosen143?
King, mend thy words and end this comedy144.
I have laughed till now and dallied with thy thoughts,145
A little amazed. Unfearing I stand here146,
Who come with open heart to seek a king,
Pure of all hostile purpose, innocent
Of all the guileful thoughts and blood-stained plans
Thou burdenest thy fierce suspicions with.
This is the Nemesis of men who rise
Too suddenly by fraud or147 violence
That they suspect all hearts, yes, every word
Of sheltering some direr148 violence,
Some149 subtler fraud, and they expect their fall
Sudden and savage as their rise has been150.
Thou art my dancing-girl and nothing more?
Assume this chain, this necklace, for thy life.151
Nor think it even152 thy price.
She153 dashes the necklace to the ground.
It is not so154 that women’s hearts are wooed.
Yet155 so I woo thee, so do all men woo
Enamoured of what thou hast claimed to be156.
Art thou the dancing-girl of Norway still
Or some disguised high-reaching nobler soul?
I am thy dancing-girl, King Eric. Look,157
I lift158 thy necklace.
Take it, yet159 be free.
Thou canst not slip out from my hands by this.160
No feigned161 decision will I let162 thee make,
But one which163 binds us both. I give thee time,
In hope thy saner mind will yet164 prevail,
Not courage most perverse, though ardent, rule.
Only one way thou hast to save thyself:
Reveal165 thy treason, Aslaug, trust thy king.
Aslaug, alone, lifts the chain, admires it and throws it on a chair166.
You are too much like drops of royal blood.
She lifts it again167.
A necklace? No, my168 chain! Or wilt thou prove
A god’s death-warrant?
She puts it round her neck169.
O counsellor, art thou come?
I heard thee call.
I called. Why did I call? See, Hertha, see
How richly Norway’s Eric buys his doom!
He gave thee this? It is a kingdom’s price.
A kingdom’s price! the kingdom of the slain!
A price to rid the nations of a god.
O Hertha, what has earth to do with gods,
Who suffers only human weight? Will she
Not go too swiftly downward from her base
If Eric treads her long?
Sister of Swegn,
There are new lustres in thy face and eyes.
What did Eric say,
Eric to Aslaug, sister of King Swegn?
A kingdom’s price! Swegn’s kingdom! And for him,
My marble emperor, my god who loves,
This mortal Odin? What for him? By force
Shall he return to his effulgent throne?
You were not used to a divided mind.
Nor am I altered now, nor170 heart-perplexed.
But these are thoughts which171 naturally arise.
He loves you then?
He loves and he suspects.
What, Aslaug?
What we are and we intend.
If he suspects!
It cannot matter much,
If we are rapid.
If we spoil it all!
I will not torture Swegn with useless tears
Perishing vainly. I will slay and die.
He shall remember that he wears172 his crown
By173 our great sacrifice and soothe his grief
With the strong magnificent circle,174 or else bear it
A noble duty to the nobly dead.
Child, you must humour him, you must consent.
To what?
To all.
Hast thou at all perused
The infamy which175 thou advisest?
Yes.
I do not bid you yield, but seem to yield.
Even I who am Swegn’s wife, would do as much.
But though you talk, you still are less in love,
Valuing an empty outward purity
Before your brother’s life, your brother’s crown.
You know the way to bend me to your will!
Give freedom, but no licence176 to his love,
For when he thinks to embrace, we shall have struck.
And, Hertha, if a swift and violent heart
Betrayed my will and overturned your plans?
Is there no danger, Hertha, there?
Till now
I feared not that from Aslaug, sister of Swegn.
No, since I consent.
You shall not blame again my selfishness,
Nor my defect of love.
Swegn then might rule!
I had almost forgotten Fate between
Smiling, alert, and his too partial177 gods.
They say the anarchy of love disturbs
Gods even: shaken are the marble natures,
The deathless178 hearts are melted to the pang
And rapture. I would be, O Odin, still179
Monarch of my180 calm royalty within,
My thoughts181 my subjects182. Do183 I hear her come?
Thou com’st? thou art resolved? thou hast184 made thy choice?
I choose, if there is anything to choose,
The truth.
Who art thou?
Aslaug, who am now
A dancing-woman.
And afterwards? Hast thou then185
Understood nothing?186
What should I understand?
What I shall do with thee. This earthly heaven
In which thou liv’st shall not be thine at all.
It was not fashioned for187 thy joy but mine
And only made for my immense desire.
Thou triest me still.
I saw thee shake.
It is not easily
A woman’s heart sinks188 prostrate in such absolute
Surrender.
Thy heart? Is it thy heart that yields?
O thou unparalleled enchanting frame
For housing of a strong immortal guest,
If man could seize the heart as palpably,
The form189, the limbs, the substance of this soul!
That, that we ask for; all else can be seized
So vainly! Walled from ours are other hearts190:
For if life’s barriers twixt our souls were broken,
Men would be free and one191, earth paradise
And the gods live neglected.
This heart of mine?
Purchase it richly, for it is for sale.
Yes, speak.
With love; I meant no more.
With love?
Thou namest lightly a tremendous word.
If thou hadst known this mightiest thing on earth
And named it, should it not have upon thy lips
So moving an impulsion for a man
That he would barter worlds to hear it once?
Words are but ghosts unless they speak the heart.
I have yielded.
There is
A trouble in my blood. I do not shake.
Thou heardst me?
Not tonight. Thou art too swift,
Too sudden.
Thou hast had leisure to consult
Thy comrade smaller, subtler than thyself?
Better hadst thou chosen candour and thy frank soul
Consulted, not a guile by others breathed.
What guile, who give192 all for an equal price?
Thou giv’st thy blood of rubies; I my life.
Thou hast not chosen then to understand193.
Because I sell myself, yet keep my pride?
Thou shalt keep nothing that I choose to take.
I see a tyranny I will delight in
And force a oneness; I will violently
Compel the goddess that thou art. But I know
What soul is lodged within thee, thou as yet
Ignorest mine. I still hold in my strength,
Though it hungers like a lion for the leap,
And give thee time once more; misuse it not.
Beware, provoke not the fierce god too much;
Have dread of his flame round thee194.
Aslaug (alone195)
Odin and Freya, you have snares! But see,
I have not thrown the dagger from my heart,
But clutch it still. How strange that look and tone,
That things of a corporeal potency
Not only travel coursing through the nerves
But seem to touch the seated soul within!
It was a moment’s wave, for it has passed
And the high purpose in my soul lives on
Unconquerably intending to fulfil.
A room in Eric’s house.
Hertha, Aslaug.
See what a keen and fatal glint it has,
Aslaug.
Hast thou been haunted by a look,
O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee,
Compelling memory?
Then the gods too work?
A marble statue gloriously designed
Without that breath our cunning maker gives,
One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes!
Out of these eyes there looks an intellect
That claims us all; this marble holds a heart,
The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay
This glory of God’s making in the dust!
Why do these thoughts besiege me? Have I then –
No, it is nothing; it is pity works,
It is an admiration physical.
O he is far too great, too beautiful
For a dagger’s penetration.
It would turn,
The point would turn; it would deny itself
To such a murder.
Aslaug, it is love.
What saidst thou?
When he lays a lingering hand
Upon thy tresses,– Aslaug, for he loves,–
Canst thou then strike?
What shakes me? Have I learned
To pity, to tremble? That were new indeed
In Olaf’s race. Give me self-knowledge, Gods.
What are these unaccustomed moods you send
Into my bosom? They are foreign here.
Eric enters and regards them. Hertha, seeing him, rises to depart.
Thou art the other dancing-woman come
From Sweden to King Eric!
He has eyes
That look into the soul. What mean his words?
But they are common. Let me leave you, Aslaug.
I would have freedom here from thy pursuit.
Why shouldst thou anywhere be free from me?
I am full of wrath against thee and myself.
It is too strange – I am afraid!
Of what? Of what? Am I not Aslaug still?
Art thou a sorceress or conspirator?
But thou art both to seize my throne and heart,
And I will deal with thee, thou dreadful charm,
As with my enemy.
Let him never touch!
I give thee grace no longer; bear thy doom.
My doom is in my hands, not thine.
Eric (with a sudden196 fierceness)
Thou errst,
And thou hast always erred. Dar’st thou imagine
That I who have enveloped in three years
All Norway more rebellious than its storms,
Can be resisted by a woman’s strength,
However fierce, however swift and bold?
I have seen thy strength. I cherish mine unseen.
And I thy weakness. Something yet thou fearst.
Nothing at all.
Yes! though thy eyes defy me,
Thy colour changes and thy limbs betray thee.
All is not lionlike and masculine there
Within.
Touch me not!
Why dost thou fear it? Is it thine own heart
Thou tremblest at? Aslaug, is it thy heart?
He takes her suddenly into his arms and kisses her. Aslaug remains like one stricken and bewildered.
Lift up thine eyes; let me behold thy strength!
Thou art taken199.
Whatever was thy purpose, thou art mine,
Aslaug, thou sweet and violent soul surprised,
Intended for me when the stars were planned!
Sweetly, O Aslaug, to thy doom consent,
The doom to love, the death of hatred. Draw
No useless curtaining of shamed refusal
Betwixt200 our yearnings, passionately take
The201 leap of love across the abyss of hate.
Force not thy soul to anger. Leave veils and falterings
For meaner hearts. Between us let there be
A noble daylight.
Let me think awhile!
Thy arms, thy lips prevent me.
Love only!
O Eric, king, usurper, conqueror!
O robber of men’s hearts and kingdoms! O
Thou only monarch!
Art thou won at last,
O woman who disturbst the musing stars
With passion? Soul of Aslaug, art thou mine?
Thine, Eric? Eric! Whose am I, by whom am held?202
I cannot think. I have lost myself! My heart
Desires eternity in an embrace.
Wilt thou deny me anything I claim
Ever, O Aslaug? Art thou mine indeed?
What have I done? What have I spoken? I love!
(after a silence, feeling in her bosom)
But what was there concealed within my breast?
I take not a divided realm, a crown
That’s shared.
Thou hadst a purpose in thy heart
I know not, but divine. Thou lov’st at length;
But I have knowledge of the human heart,
What opposite passions wrestle there with gusts
And treacherous surprises. I trust not then
Too sudden a change, but if thou canst be calm,
Yet passionately submit, I will embrace thee
For ever. Think and speak. Art thou all mine?
I know no longer if I am my own.
The world swims round me and heaven’s points are changed.
A purpose! I had one. I had besides
A brother! Had! What have I now? You Gods,
How have you rushed upon me! Leave me, King.
It is not good to trust a sudden heart.
The blood being quiet, we will speak again
Like souls that meet in heaven, without disguise.
I do not leave thee, for thou art ominous
Of an abysm uncrossed203.
For there has been too much between us once
And now too little. Leave me, King, awhile
To wrestle with myself and calmly know
In this strange strife the gods have brought me to,
Which thing of these in me must live and which
Be dumb for ever.
Something yet205 resists.
I will not leave thee till I know it and tame,
For, Aslaug, thou wast won.
King, thou art wise
In war and counsel, not in women’s hearts.
Thou hast surprised a secret that my soul
Kept tremblingly from my own knowledge. Yet,
If thou art really wise, thou wilt avoid
To touch with a too rude and sudden hand
The direr god who made my spirit fear
To own its weakness.
Art thou wise thyself?
I take thee not for counsellor.
Yet beware.
There was a gulf between my will and heart
Which is not bridged yet.
Break thy will, unless
Thou wouldst have me break it for thee.
The older Aslaug rises now against the new.
It rises, rises. Let it rise. Leave me
My freedom.
Aslaug, no, for free thou roamst
A lioness midst thy passions.
Do then, O King,
Whatever Fate commands.
I am master of my Fate.
Too little, who are not masters of ourselves!
Art thou that dancing-woman, Aslaug, yet?
I am the dancing-girl who sought thee, yet,
Eric.
It may be still the swiftest way.
Let then my dancing-woman dance for me
Tonight in my chambers. I will see the thing
Her dancing means and tear its mystery out.
If thou demandest it, then Fate demands.
Thy god grows sombre and he menaces,
It seems! For afterwards I can demand
Whatever soul and body can desire
Twixt man and woman?
If thy Fate permits.
Thy love, it seems, communes not with respect.
The word exists not between thee and me.
It is burned up in too immense a fire.
Wilt thou persist even after thou hast lain
Upon my bosom? Thou claimest my respect?
Yet art a dancing-woman, so thou sayst?
Aslaug, let not the darker gods prevail.
Put off thy pride and take up truth and love.
I am a dancing-woman, nothing more.
The hate love struck down rises in thy heart.
But I will have it out, by violence,
Unmercifully.
He strides upon her, and she half cowers from him, half defies.
(taking her violently into his arms)
Thus blotted into me
Thou shalt survive the end of Time. Tonight!
How did it come? What was it leaped on me
And overpowered? O torn distracted heart,
Wilt thou not pause a moment and give leave
To the more godlike brain to do its work?
Can the world change within a moment? Can
Hate suddenly be love? Love is not here.
I have the dagger still within my heart.
O he is terrible and fair and swift!
He is not mortal. Yet be silent, yet
Give the brain leave. O marble brilliant face!
O thou art Odin, thou art Thor on earth!
What is there in a kiss, the touch of lips,
That it can change creation? There’s a wine
That turns men mad; have I not drunk of it?
To be his slave, know nothing but his will!
Aslaug and Eric! Aslaug, sister of Swegn,
Who makes his bed on the inclement snow
And with the reindeer herds, that was a king.
Who takes his place?
Eric and Aslaug rule.
Eric who doomed him to the death, if seized,
Aslaug, the tyrant, the usurper’s wife,
Who by her brother’s murder is secured
In her possession. Wife! The concubine,
The slave of Eric,– that his pride intends.
What was it seized on me, O heavenly powers?
I have given myself, my brother’s throne and life,
My pride, ambition, hope, and grasp, and keep
Shame only. Tonight! What happens then tonight?
I dance before him,– royal Olaf’s child
Becomes the upstart Eric’s dancing-girl!
What happens else tonight? One preys upon
Aslaug of Norway! O, I thank thee, Heaven,
That thou restorest me to sanity.
It was his fraudulent and furious siege,
And something in me proved a traitor. Fraud?
O beauty of the godlike brilliant eyes!
O face expressing heaven’s supremacy!
No, I will put it down, I put it down.
Help me, you gods, help me against my heart.
I will strike suddenly, I will not wait.
’Tis a deceit, his majesty and might,
His dreadful beauty, his resistless brain.
It will be very difficult to strike!
But I will strike. Swegn strikes, and Norway strikes,
My honour strikes, the Gods, and all his life
Offends each moment.
Hertha, I strike tonight.
Why, what has happened?
That thou shalt not know.
It is not difficult
To know what drives her. I must act at once,
Or this may have too suddenly a tragic close.
Not blood, but peace, not death, you Gods, but life,
But tranquil sweetness!
Eric, Hertha.
I sent for thee to know thy name and birth.
My name is Hertha and my birth too mean
To utter before Norway’s lord.
Yet speak.
A Trondhjem peasant and a serving-girl
Were parents to me.
And from such a stock
Thy beauty and thy wit and grace were born?
The Gods prodigiously sometimes reverse
The common rule of Nature and compel
Matter with soul. How else should it be guessed
That Gods exist at all?
Who nurtured thee?
A dancing-girl of Gothberg by a lord
Of Norway entertained, to whom a child
I was delivered. Song and dance were hers;
I made them mine.
Their names? the thrall? the lord?
Olaf of Norway, earl of Trondhjem then,
And Thiordis whom he loved.
Thou knowest Swegn,
The rebel?
Yes, I know.
And lov’st perhaps?
Myself much better.
Treacherous and rude and ruthless, is he not?
I would not speak of kings and mighty earls:
These things exceed my station.
Ah, thou lov’st!
Thou art mistaken, King.
He cannot conquer and he will not yield,
But weakens Norway. This in him I blame.
Thou hast seen that? Thy peasant father got
A wondrous politician for his child!
I am what the Gods
Have made me. But I understand at last;
Thou thinkst me other than I seem.
Some thought
Like that I had.
King Eric, wilt thou hear?
I much desire it, if I hear the truth.
Betray me not to Aslaug then.
That’s just.
What if I came, O King,
For other purpose, not to sing and dance,
And yet thy friend, the well-wisher, at least,
Of Norway and her peace?
Speak plainly now.
If I can show thee how to conquer Swegn
Without one stroke of battle, wilt thou grant
My bitter need?
I would give much.
Wilt thou?
If so I conquer him and thy desire
Is something I can grant without a hurt
To Norway or myself.
It is.
Speak then,
Demand.
I have not finished yet. Meantime
If I avert a danger from thy head
Now threatening it, do I not earn rewards
More ample?
More? On like conditions, then.
If I yield up great enemies to thy hands
Thou knowst not of, wilt thou reject my price,
Confusing different debts in one account?
Hast thou yet more to ask? Thou art too shrewd
A bargainer.
Giving Norway needed peace,
Thyself friends, safety, empire, is my claim
Excessive then?
I grant thee three demands.
They are all. He asks not more who has enough.
Thrice shall I ask and thrice shall Eric give
And never have an enemy again
In Norway.
Speak.
Thy enemies are here,
No dancing-girls, but Hertha, wife of Swegn,
And Aslaug, child of Olaf Sigualdson206,
His sister.
It is well.
The danger lies
In Aslaug’s hand and dagger which she means
To strike into thy heart. Tonight she strikes.
And Swegn?
Send me to him with perilous word
Of Aslaug in thy hands; so with her life
Buy his surrender, afterwards his love
With kingly generosity and trust.
Freely and frankly hast thou spoken, Queen
Who wast in Trondhjem: now as freely ask.
The life of Swegn; his liberty as well,
Submitting.
They are thine.
And Aslaug’s life
And pardon, not her liberty.
They are given.
And, last, forgiveness for myself, O King,
My treason and my plots.
This too I grant.
I have nothing left to ask for.
Thou hast done?
Let me consign thee to thy prison then.
My prison! Wilt thou send me not to Swegn?
I will not. Why, thou subtle, dangerous head,
Restored to liberty, what perilous schemes
Might leap into thy thoughts207! Shall I give Swegn,
That fierce and splendid fighter, such a brain
Of cunning to complete and guide his sword?
What if he did not yield, rejected peace?
Wilt thou not tell him Aslaug’s life is safe?
Thou hast promised, King.
I keep
My promise to thee, Hertha, wife of Swegn.
For Swegn thou askest life and liberty,
For Aslaug life and pardon, for thyself
Forgiveness only. I can be cunning too.
Hertha, thou art my prisoner and thrall.
Hertha (after a pause, smiling)
I see. I am content. Thou showest thyself
Norway’s chief brain as her victorious sword.
Free or a prisoner, let me do homage
To Eric, my King and Swegn’s.
Thou art content?
This face and noble bearing cannot lie.
I am content and feel as safe with thee
As in my husband’s keeping.
So thou art,
Thou subtle voice, thou close and daring brain.
I would I felt myself as safe with thee.
King Eric, think me not thy enemy.
What thou desirest, I desire yet more.
Keep to that well; let Aslaug not suspect.
My way I’ll take with her and thee and Swegn.
Thou helpst me even as Thor and Odin did.
Eric’s Chamber.
Eric, Harald.
At dawn have all things ready for my march.
Let none be near tonight. Send here to Send to me' class="var_text">me209
Aslaug the dancing-girl.
The empire and210 the knowledge of myself.
For this strong angel Love, this violent
And glorious guest, let it possess my heart
Without a rival, not invade the brain,
Not with imperious discord cleave my soul
Jangling its ordered211 harmonies, nor turn
The manifold music of humanity
Into a single and a maddening note.
Strength in the spirit212, wisdom in the mind,
Love in the heart complete the trinity
Of glorious manhood. There was the wide flaw,–
The coldness of the radiance that I was.
This was the vacant space213 I could not fill.
It left my soul the torso of a god,
A great design unfinished, and my works
Mighty but214 crude like things admired that pass
Bare of the immortality which215 keeps
The ages. O, the word they spoke was true!
’Tis Love, ’tis Love fills up the gulfs216 of Time!
By Love we find our kinship with the stars,
The spacious uses of the sky. God’s image
Lives nobly perfect in the soul he made,
When Love completes the godhead in a man.217
Thou com’st to me! I give thee grace no more.
Only a heart.
A noble heart, though wayward. Give it me,
Aslaug, to be the secret of the dawns,
The heart of sweetness housed in Aslaug’s breast
Delivered from revolt and ruled by love.
Why hast thou sent for me and forced to come?
Wilt thou have pity on me even yet
And on thyself?
I am a warrior, one
Who have known not mercy. Wilt thou teach it me?
I have learned, Aslaug, from my soul and Life
The great wise pitiless calmness of the gods,
Found for my strength the proud swift blows they deal
At all resistance to their absolute walk,
Thor’s hammer-stroke upon the unshaped world.
Its will is beaten on a dreadful forge,
Its roads are hewn by violence divine.
Is there a greater and a sweeter way?
Knowst218 thou it? Wilt thou lead me there? Thy step
Swift and exultant, canst thou tread its flowers?
I know not who inspires thy speech; it probes.
My mind tonight is full of Norway’s needs.
Tonight I were not Norway!
Thou knowest Swegn?
I knew and I remember.
Yes, Swegn,– a soul
Brilliant and furious, violent and great,
A storm, a wind-swept ocean, not a man.
That would seize219 Norway? that will make it one?
But Odin gave the work to me. I came
Into this mortal frame for Odin’s work.
So deify ambition and desire.
If one could snap this mortal body, then
Swegn even might rule,– not govern himself, yet govern
All Norway! Aslaug, canst thou rule thyself?
’Tis difficult for great and passionate hearts.
Then Swegn must die that Eric still may rule!
Was there no other way the gods could find?
A deadly duel are the feuds of kings.
They are so.
Aslaug, thou feelest for thy heart?
Unruled it follows violent impulses
This way, that way, working calamity
Dreams that it helps the world. What shall I do,
Aslaug, with an unruly noble heart?
Shall I220 not load it with the chains of love
And rob it of its treasured pain and wrath
And bind it to its own supreme desire?
Richly ’twould beat beneath an absolute rule
And sweetly liberated from itself
By a golden bondage.
And what of other impulses it holds?
They shall keep still;
They shall not cry nor question; they shall trust.
It cannot be that he reads all my heart!
The gods play with me in his speech.
Thou knowest
Why thou art called?
I know why I am here.
Few know that, Aslaug, why they have come here,
For that is heaven’s secret. Sit down beside me
Nearer my heart. No hesitating! come.
They yet are free.
Is it the gods who bid me to strike soon?
My heart reels down into a flaming gulf.
If thou wouldst rule with love, must thou not spare
Thy enemies?
When they have yielded. Is thy choice made?
Whatever defence thou hast against me yet
Use quickly, before I seize these restless hands
And thy more restless heart that flees from bliss.
Desiredst thou me not to dance tonight,
O King, before thee?
Now? Dance, while yet thy limbs are thine.
I dance
The dance of Thiordis with the dagger, taught
To Hertha in Trondhjem and by her to me.
Aslaug, my dancing-girl, thou and thy dance
Have daring, but too little subtlety.
What use to struggle longer in the net?
Vain agony! he221 watches and he knows!
I’ll strike him suddenly. It cannot be222
The senses will so overtake the will
As to forbid its godlike motion. If
I feared not my wild heart, I could lean down
And lull suspicion with a fatal gift.
My blood would cleanse what shame was in the touch.
So would one act who knew her tranquil will
But none thus in the burning heart sunk down.
Wilt thou play vainly with that fatal toy?
My limbs refuse.
They have no right.
O Gods, I did not know myself till now,
Thrown in this furnace. Odin’s irony
Shaped me from Olaf’s seed! I am in love
With chains and servitude and my heart desires
Fluttering like a wild bird within its cage
A tyrant’s harshness.
Wilt thou dance? or wait
Till the enamoured motion of thy limbs
Remember joy of me?
So would I have
Thy perfect motion223 grow a dream of love.
Tomorrow at the dawning will I march224
To225 violent226 battle and the sword of Swegn
Bring back to be thy plaything, a support
Appropriate to thy action in the dance.
Aslaug, it shall replace thy dagger.
Fate
Still drives me with his speech and Eric calls
My weakness on to slaughter Eric. Yes,
But he suspects, he knows! Yet will I strike,
Yet will I tread down my rebellious heart,
And then I too can die and end remorse.227
Where is thy chain
I gave thee, Aslaug? I would watch it rise,
Rubies of passion on a bosom of snow,
And climb for ever on228 thy breast aheave
With the sea’s rhythm as thou dancest. Dance
Weaving my life a measure with thy feet
And of thy dancing I will weave the stroke
That conquers Swegn.
The necklace? I will bring it.
Rubies of passion! Blood-drops still of death!
The power to strike has gone out of her arm
And only in her stubborn thought survives.
She thinks that she will strike. Let it be tried!
He lies back and feigns to sleep. Aslaug returns.
Now I could slay him. But he will open his eyes
Appalling with the beauty of his gaze.
He did not know of peril! All he has said
Was only at a venture thought and spoken,–
Or spoken by Fate? Sleeps he his latest sleep?
Might I not touch him only once in love
And no one229 know of it but death and I,
Whom I must slay like one who hates? Not hate,
O Eric, but the hard necessity
The gods have sent upon our lives,– two flames
That meet to quench each other. Once, Eric! then
The cruel rest. Why did I touch him? I am faint!
My strength ebbs from me. O thou glorious god,
Why wast thou Swegn’s and Aslaug’s enemy?
We might so utterly230 have loved. But death
Now intervenes and claims thee at my hands –
And this alone he leaves to me, to slay thee
And die with thee, our only wedlock. Death!
Whose death? Eric’s or Swegn’s? For one I kill.
Dreadful necessity of choice! His breath
Comes quietly and with a happy rhythm,
His eyes are closed like Odin’s in heaven’s sleep.
I must strike blindly out or not at all231
Screening out with my lashes love,– as now – or now!232
For Time is like a sapper mining still
The little resolution that I keep.
Swegn’s death or life upon that little stands.
Swegn’s death or life and such an easy stroke,
Yet so impossible to lift my hand!
To wait? To watch more moments these closed lids,
This quiet face and try to dream that all
Is different! But the moments are Fate’s thoughts
Watching me233. While I pause, my brother’s slain,
Myself am234 doomed his235 concubine and slave.
I must not think of him! Close, mind236, close, eyes237.
Free the unthinking hand to its harsh work.
She lifts twice the dagger, lowers238 it twice, then flings it on the ground.239
Eric of Norway, live and do thy will
With Aslaug, sister of Swegn and Olaf’s child,
Aslaug of Trondhjem. For her thought is now240
A harlot and her heart a concubine,
Her hand her brother’s murderess.
Thou hast broken
At last.
Ah, I am broken by my weak
And evil nature. Spare me not, O King,
One vileness, one humiliation known
To tyranny. Be not unjustly merciful!
For I deserve and I consent to all.
Aslaug!
No, I deny my name and parentage.
I am not she who lived in Trondhjem: she
Would not have failed, but slain even though she loved.
Let no voice call me Aslaug any more.
Sister of Swegn, thou knowest that I love.
Daughter of Olaf, shouldst thou not aspire
To sit by me on Norway’s throne?
Desist!
Thou shalt not utterly pollute the seat
Where Olaf sat. If I had struck and slain,
I would deserve a more than regal chair.
But not on such must Norway’s diadem rest,
A weakling with a hand as impotent
And faltering as her heart, a sensual slave
Whose passionate body overcomes her high
Intention. Rather do thy tyrant will.
King, if thou spare me, I will slay thee yet.
Recoil not from thy heart, but strongly see
And let its choice be absolute over thy soul.
Its way once taken thou shalt find thy heart
Rapid; for absolute and extreme in all,
In yielding as in slaying thou must be,
Sweet violent spirit whom thy gods surprise.
Submit thyself without ashamed reserve.
What more canst thou demand than I have given?
I am prone to thee, prostrate, yielded.
Throw from thee
The bitterness of thy self-abasement. Find
That thou hast only joy in being mine.
Yes, with shame and grief and love.
Thou art my Fate and I am in thy grasp.
And shall it spare thee?
Spare Swegn. I am in thy hands.
Is’t a condition? I am lord of thee
And lord of Swegn to slay him or to spare.
No, an entreaty. I am fallen here,
My head is at thy feet, my life is in thy hands:
The luxury of fall is in my heart.
Rise up then, Aslaug, and obey thy lord.
What is thy will with me?
This, Aslaug, first.
Take up thy dagger, Aslaug, dance thy dance
Of Thiordis with the dagger. See thou241 near me;
For I shall sit, nor shouldst thou strike, defend.
What thy passion chose, let thy freed242 heart confirm;
My life and kingdom twice are in thy hands
And I will keep them only as thy gift.
So are they thine already; but I obey.
She dances and then lays the dagger at his feet243.
Eric, my king and Norway’s, my life is mine
No longer, but for thee to keep or break.
Swegn’s life I hold. Thou gavest it to me
With the dagger.
It is thine to save.
Norway
Thou hast given, casting it for ever away
From Olaf’s line.
What thou hast taken, I give.
And244 last thyself without one covering245 left
Against my passionate, strong, devouring love.
Thou seest I leave246 thee nothing.
I am thine.
Because thou hast no help?
I have no help. My gods have brought me here
And given me into thy dreadful hands.
Thou art content at last that they have breathed
Thy248 plot into thy mind to snare thy soul
In its own violence, bring to me a slave,
A bright-limbed prisoner and thee to thy lord249?
I know it now.
I recognise with prostrate heart my fate
And I will quietly put on my chains
Nor ever strive nor250 wish to break them more.
Yield up to me the burden of thy fate
And treasure of thy limbs and priceless life.
I will be careful of the golden trust.
It was unsafe with thee. And now submit
Gladly at last. Surrender body and soul,
O Aslaug, to thy lover and thy lord.
Compel me, they cannot resist thy will.
I251 will have thy heart’s heart’s surrender252, not
Its253 body only. Give me up thy heart.
Open its secret chambers, yield their keys.
O Eric, is not my heart already thine,
My body thine, my soul into thy grasp
Delivered? I rejoice that God has played
The grand comedian with my tragedy
And trapped me in the snare of thy delight.
Aslaug, the world’s sole woman! thou cam’st here
To save for us our hidden hope254 of joy
Parted by old confusion. Some day surely
The world too shall be saved from death by love.
Thou hast saved Swegn, helped Norway. Aslaug, see,
Freya within her niche commands this room
And incense burns to her. Not255 Thor for thee,
But Freya.
Thou for me! not other gods.
Aslaug, thou hast a ring upon thy hand256.
Before Freya give it me and wear instead
This ancient circle of Norwegian rites.
The thing this means shall bind thee to our joy,
Beloved, while the upbuilded worlds endure.
Then if thy spirit wander from its home,
Freya shall find her thrall and lead her back
A million years from now.
A million lives!
The world has changed for me within one night.
O surely, surely all shall yet go well,
Since Love is crowned.
Aslaug, the hour arrives
When I must leave thee. For the dawn looks pale
Into our chamber and these first rare sounds
Expect the arising sun, the daylight world.
Eric, thou goest hence to war with Swegn,
My brother?
What knows257 thy heart?
That Swegn shall live.
Thou knowst his safety from deliberate swords.
None shall dare touch the head that Aslaug loves.
But258 if some evil chance came edged with doom,
Which Odin and my will shall not allow259,
Thou wouldst not hold me guilty of his death,
Aslaug?
Fate orders all and Fate I now
Have recognised as260 the world’s mystic Will
That loves and labours.
Because it knows261 and loves,
Our hearts, our wills are counted, are indulged.
Aslaug, for a262 few days in love263 and trust
Anchor thy mind. I shall bring back thy joy.
For now264 I go with mercy and from love.
Swegn lives. A Mind, not iron gods with laws265
Deaf and inevitable, overrules.
Swegn’s fastness in the hills.
Swegn, Hardicnut, with soldiers.
Fight on, fight always, till the Gods are tired.
In all this dwindling remnant of the past
Desires one man to rest from virtue, cease
From desperate freedom?
No man wavers here.
Let him depart unhurt who so desires.
Why should he go and whither? To Eric’s sword
That never pardoned266? If our hearts were vile,
Unworthily impatient of defeat,
Serving not harassed right but chance and gain,
Eric himself would keep them true.
Not thine,
My second soul. Yet could I pardon him
Who faltered267, for the blow transcends! And were
King Eric not in Yara where he dwells,
I would have seen his hand in this defeat,
Whose stroke is like the lightning’s, silent, straight,
Not to be parried.
Sigurd smote, perhaps,
But Eric’s brain was master of his stroke.
The traitor Sigurd! For young Eric’s part
In Olaf’s death, he did a warrior’s act
Avenging Yarislaf and Hacon slain,
And Fate, not Eric slew. But he who, trusted, lured
Into death’s ambush, when the rebel seas
Rejoicing trampled down the royal head
They once obeyed, him I will some day have
At my sword’s mercy.
Ragnar, does it come,
The last assault, death’s trumpets?
Rather peace,
If thou prefer it, Swegn. An envoy comes
From Eric’s army.
Ragnar, bring him in.
He treats victorious? When his kingdom shook,
His party faltered, then he did not treat
Nor used another envoy than his sword.
(to Gunthar who enters, escorted by Ragnar)
Earl Gunthar, welcome,– welcome more wert thou
When loyal.
Ragnar, Swegn and Hardicnut,
Revolting Earls, I come from Norway’s King
With peace, not menace.
Where then all these days
Behind you lurked the Northerner?
Thou art
In his dread shadow and in your mountain lair
Eric surrounds you.
Swegn (contemptuously268)
I will hear his words.
Eric, the King, the son of Yarislaf,
To Swegn, the Earl of Trondhjem. “I have known
The causes and the griefs that raise thee still
Against my monarchy. Thou knowest mine
That raised me against thy father,– Hacon’s death,
My mother’s brother, butchered shamefully
And Yarislaf by secret sentence slain.
Elected by our peers I seized his throne.
But thou, against thy country’s ancient laws
Rebelling, hast preferred for judge the sword.
Respect then the tribunal of thy choice
And its decision. Why electest thou
In thy drear fastness on the wintry hills
To perish? Trondhjem’s earldom shall be thine,
And honours and wealth269 and state, if thou accept
The offer of thy lenient gods. Consider,
O Swegn, thy country’s wounds, perceive at last
Thy good and ours, prolong thy father’s house.”
I return to him
His proffered mercy. Let him keep it safe
For his own later use.
Thou speakest high.
What help hast thou? what hope? what god concealed?
I have the snow for friend and, if it fails,
The arms of death are broad enough for Swegn,
But not subjection.
For their sake thou lov’st,
Thy wife’s and sister’s, yield.
Thou art not wise.
This was much better left unsaid.
It seems270
Your pastime to insult the seed of Kings. Yet why
Am I astonished if triumphant mud
Conceives that the pure heavens are of its stuff
And nature? To the upstart I shall yield271,
The fortune-fed adventurer, the boy
Favoured by the ironic Gods? Since fell
By Sigurd’s treachery and Eric’s fate
In resonant battle on the narrow seas
Olaf, his children had convinced the world,
I thought, of their great origin. Men have said,
“Their very women have souls too great to cry
For mercy even from the Gods.” His Fates
Are strong indeed when they compel our race
To hear such terms from his!
Go, tell thy King,
Swegn of the ancient house rejects his boons.
Not terms between us stand, but wrath, but blood.
I would have flayed him on a golden cross
And kept his women for my household thralls,
Had I prevailed. Can he not do as much
That he must chaffer and market Norway’s crown?
These are the ways of Kings, strong, terrible
And arrogant, full of sovereignty and might272.
Force in a King’s his warrant from the Gods.
By force and not by bribes and managements
Empires are founded! But your chief was born
Of huckstering earls who lived by prudent gains.
How should he imitate a royal flight
Or learn the leap of Kings upon their prey?
Swegn Olafson, thou speakest fatal words.
Where lodge thy wife and sister? Dost thou know?
Too far for Eric’s reach.
Earl, art thou sure?
What means this question?
That the Gods are strong
Whom thou in vain despisest, that they have dragged
From Sweden into Eric’s dangerous hands
Hertha and Aslaug, that the evil thou speakst
Was fatally by hostile Powers inspired.
Thou liest! They are safe and with the Swede.
I pardon thy alarm the violent word.
Earl Swegn, canst thou not see the dreadful Gods
Have chosen earth’s mightiest man to do their will?
What is that will but Norway’s unity
And Norway’s greatness? Canst thou do the work?
Look round on Norway by a boy subdued,
The steed that even Olaf could not tame
See turn obedient to an unripe hand.
Behold him with a single petty pace
Possessing Sweden. Sweden once subdued,
Thinkst thou the ships that crowd the Northern seas
Will stay there? Shall not Britain shake, Erin
Pray loudly that the tempest rather choose
The fields of Gaul? Scythia shall own our yoke,
The Volga’s frozen waves endure our march,
Unless the young god’s fancy rose-ensnared
To Italian joys attracted amorously
Should long for sunnier realms or lead his high
Exultant mind to lord in eastern Rome.
What art thou but a pebble in his march?
Consider, then, and change thy fierce response.
Deceives the lie they tell, thy reason, Swegn?
Earl Gunthar may believe, who even can think
That Yarislaf begot a god!
Gunthar,
I have my fortune, thou thy answer. Go.
I pity, Swegn, thy rash and obstinate soul.
Aslaug would scorn me yielding, even now
And even for her. He has unnerved my will,
The subtle tyrant! O, if this be true,
My Fate has wandered into Eric’s camp,
My soul is made his prisoner. Friends, prepare
Resistance; he’s the thunderbolt that strikes
And threatens only afterwards. It is
Our ultimate battle.
On the difficult rocks
We will oppose King Eric and his gods.
Swegn with his earls and followers in flight.
Swift, swift into the higher snows, where Winter
Eternal can alone of universal things
Take courage against Eric to defend
His enemies. O you little remnant left
Of many heroes, save yourselves for Fate.
She yet may need you when she finds the man
She lifts perpetually, too great at last
Even for her handling.
Ragnar, go with him,
While I stand here to hinder the pursuit
Or warn in time. Fear not for me, assailed273.
Leave, Ragnar, leave me; I am tired at last.
All go out upward except Hardicnut.
Here then you reach me on these snows. O if my death
Could yet persuade indignant Heaven to change
[Scene incomplete]
Eric’s Palace.
Not by love only, but by force and love.
This man must lower his fierceness to the fierce,
He must be beggared of the thing left, his pride,
And know himself for clay, before he will consent274
To value my gift. He would not honour nor revere275
This unfamiliar movement of my soul
But would contemn and think my seated strength
Had changed to trembling. Strike276 the audience-bell277,
Harald278. The master of my stars is he
Who owns no master. Odin, what is this play,
Thou playest with thy world, of fall and rise,
Of death, birth, greatness, ruin? The time may come
When Eric shall not be remembered! Yes,
But there’s a script, there are archives that endure.
Before a throne in some superior world
Bards with undying lips and eyes still young
After the ages sing of all the past
And the immortal Children279 hear. Somewhere
In this gigantic world of which one grain of dust
Is all our field, Eternal Memory keeps
Our great things and our trivial equally
To whom the peasant’s moans above his dead
Are tragic as a prince’s fall. Some say
Atomic Chance put280 Eric here, Swegn there,
Aslaug between. O you revealing Gods,281
But I have seen myself282 and know though veiled
The immortality that thinks in me,
That plans and reasons.283 Masters of Norway, hail!
For all are masters here, not I alone
Who am my country’s brain of unity,
Your oneness. Swegn’s at last in Norway’s hands,
Who shook our fates. And what shall Norway do with Swegn,
One of her mightiest?
If his might submits
Then, Eric, let him live. We cannot brook
These discords284 always.
Norway cannot brook.
Therefore he must submit. Bring him within.
We’ll see if this strong iron can be bent,
This crudeness bear the fire. Swegn Olafson,
Hast thou considered yet thy285 state? hast thou
Submitted to the286 gods; or must we, Swegn,
Consider now thy sentence?
I have seen
My dire misfortunes287, I have seen myself
And know that I am greater. Do thy will,
Since what the son of Yarislaf commands,
The son of Olaf bears!
Thou wilt not yield?
My father taught me not the word.
Shall I?
Thou hast forgotten, Swegn, thy desperate words.
Or were they meant only for the free snows,
And here retracted?
Son of Yarislaf, they stand.
I claim the cross I would have nailed thee on,
I claim the flayer’s knife.
These for thyself.
And for thy wife and sister, Swegn?
Alas!
I think thy father taught thee not that288 word,
But I have taught thee. Since thou lovest yet,–
No man who says that he will stand alone,
Swegn, can afford to love,– thou then art mine
Inevitably. He must be half a god289
Who can oppose Thor’s anger, Odin’s will
Nor dream of breaking. Such the gods delight in,
Raising or smiting; such in the gods delight,
Raised up or smitten. But thou wast always man
And canst not now be more. Thou vauntst thy blood,
Thy strength? Thou art much stronger, so thou sayst,
Than thy misfortunes. Art thou stronger, Swegn,
Than theirs? Can all thy haughty pride of race
Or thy heart’s mightiness undo my will
In whose strong hands they lie290? Swegn Olafson,
The gods are mightier than thy race and blood,
The gods are mightier than thy arrogant heart.
They will not have one violent man oppose
His egoism, his pride and his desire
Against a country’s fate. Use then thy eyes291
And learn thy strength.
At a sign of his hand Aslaug and Hertha are brought in.
For thou and these are only Eric’s slaves
Who have been his stubborn hinderers. Therefore Fate,
Whose292 favourite and brother I have grown,
Turned wroth with you and293 dragged294 you all into my grasp.
I will that you should live and yield. These yield,
But thou withstandest wisdom, Fate and love
Allied against thee. Swegn Olafson, submit,295
Stand by my side and share thy father’s throne.
Yes, thou art fierce and subtle! Let them pronounce
My duty’s preference296 if not my heart’s,
To them or Right.
O narrow obstinate heart!
Had this been for297 thy country or a cause
Men worship, then it would indeed have been298
A noble blindness, but thou serv’st thy pride,
Swegn, son of Olaf, not the noble cause299
Of God or man or country. Look now on these.
I give thee the selection of their fate.
If these remain my slaves, an upstart’s, Swegn,
Who yet are Olaf’s blood and Norway’s pride,
I swear ’tis thou that mak’st them so. Now choose.
How sayst thou,
Swegn Olafson, shall these be Eric’s thralls?
Wilt thou abide by their pronouncement, Swegn?
Aslaug and Hertha, see your brother and lord,
This mighty captive, royal once, now fallen
And helpless in my hands.
I wish to spare
His mightiness, his race, his royal heart;
But he prefers the cross instead, prefers
Your shame – thy brother, Aslaug,– Hertha, he.
Thy spouse consents to utmost shame for both
If from the ages he can buy this word,
“Swegn still was stubborn.” That to him is all.
He who forgot to value Norway’s will,
Forgets to value now your pride, your love.
This was not royal, nor like Olaf’s son!
Come, will you speak to him, will you persuade?
Walk there aside awhile;300 aim at his heart.
Hertha, my subject, Aslaug, thou my thrall,
Save, if he will, this life.301
’Tis thus we meet,–
Were not the snows of Norway preferable,
Daughter of Olaf?
They were high, but cold.
Wilt thou not speak to Hertha, Swegn, my lord?
Hertha, alas, thy crooked scheming brain
That brought us here.
The gods use instruments,
Not ask their counsel302. O Swegn, accept the gods
And their decision.
Must we live always cold?
O brother, cast the snows out of thy heart.
Yield, husband, to the sun.
There is no shame in yielding to the gods.
Nor303 to a god, although his room be earth
And his body mortal.
There was an Aslaug once
Whose speech had other grandeurs. Can it find304
In all its sweet and lofty harmonies305
The word or argument306 that can excuse thy fall,
O not to me, but to that worshipped self
Thou wast, my sister?
I307 have308 no argument except my heart
Nor need excuse for what I glory in.
Brother, were we not always one? ’Tis strange
That I must reason with thee.
O, thou knewest.
Therefore I fell, therefore my strength is gone,
And where a god’s magnificence lived once,
Here, here ’tis empty. O inconstant heart,
Thou wast my Fate, my courage, and at last
Thou hast gone over to my enemy,
Taking my Fate, my courage. I will hear
No words from such. Thou wouldst betray what’s left,
Until not even Swegn is left to Swegn,
But only a coward’s shadow.
Hear me, Swegn.
Ah, Hertha! what hast thou to say to me?
Save me, my lord, from my own punishment,
Forgetting my deserts.
Alas! thy love,
Though great, was never wise, and must it ask309
So huge a recompense? Thou hadst myself.
Will310 this persuade thee? I have nothing else.
Thou only and so only couldst prevail311.
O thou hast overcome my strength at last.
King, thou hast conquered. Not to thee I yield,
But those I loved are thy allies. From these
Recall thy312 wrath and on my head313 pronounce
What doom thou wilt, though yielding is doom enough
For Swegn of Norway.
Abjure rebellion then; receive my boons,314
Receive my mercy.
Mercy. It is received.315
Let all the world hear Olaf’s son abjure
His birth and greatness. I accept – accept!
King Eric’s boons, King Eric’s mercy. O torture!
The spirit of Olaf will no more sit still
Within me. O though thou slaughter these with pangs316,
I will not yield. Take, take thy mercy back.
I take it back. What wouldst thou in its stead?
Do what thou wilt with these and me. I have done!
Thou castst thy die, thou weak and violent man, I will cast mine
And conquer.
I have endured the worst.
Not so.
Thou thinkest I will help thee to thy death,
Allowing the blind grave to seal thy eyes
To all that I shall do to these317. Learn, Swegn,
I am more cruel! Thou shalt live and see
On these318 my vengeance. Go, Aslaug,319 and return
Robed as thou wast upon the night thou knowest
Wearing thy dagger, wearing too thy ring.
What wilt thou do with her? God! what wilt thou do?
O wherefore have I seen and taken back love
Into a heart had320 shut itself to all321
But death and greatness?
I will inflict on them
What thou canst not endure to gaze upon –
Or if thou canst, then with that hardness live
For die thou shalt not.
I have ways for that.
Thou thoughtst to take thy refuge in a grave
And let these bear thy punishment for thee,
Thy heart being spared. It was no valiant thought,
No worthy escape for Swegn. Aslaug and Hertha,
Remove322 your outer robes.
What must I see?
As dancing-girls these323 women came to me.
As dancing-girls I keep them. Thou shalt see
Aslaug of Norway at her trade – to dance
Before me and my courtiers. That begins,
There’s more behind, unless thou change thy mood.
Thou knowest how to torture.
And to break.
Thou seest, Swegn. Shall I command the dance?
Shall this be the result of Olaf’s house?
Daughter of Olaf, wilt thou then obey?
Yes, since thou lov’st me not, my brother Swegn,
Whom else should I obey, save him I love?
If thou hadst324 loved me still, I should not need.
Dance.
No. Stay325, Aslaug. Since thou bad’st me love
Thee, not my glory, as indeed I must
To save the house of Olaf from this shame,–
Whose treacherous weakness works for him and thee,–
Pause not again – for pause is fatal now.
King, I have yielded, I accept thy boons.
Heir of a starveling Earl, I bow my head
Even to thy mercies. I am Olaf’s son,
Yet yield – that name remember326, speak this word –327
I shall be faithful to my own disgrace328.
O fear not, King, I can be great again.
Without329 conditions hast thou yielded?
No.
Let these be spared all shame – for that I yield.
My honour has a price – and O ’tis330 small.
That’s given. Without terms besides331?
One prayer.
Give me a dungeon deep enough, O King,
To hide my face from all these eyes.
Swear then,
Whatever prison I assign thee, be it wide
Or narrow, to observe its state, its bounds
And do even there my will.
That too is sworn!
Let Thor and Odin witness to my oath.
Four prisons I assign to Olaf’s son.
Thy palace first in Trondhjem, Olaf’s roof –
This332 house in Yara333, Eric’s court – thy country
To whom thou yieldest, Norway – and at last
My army’s head when I invade the world.
Thou hast surprised me, Eric, with an oath
And circumvented.
Hertha, to thy lord
Return unharmed334 – thou seest thou wast safe
As in his dearest keeping. Take, Hertha,335
Trondhjem with thee and Olaf’s treasures; sit336
The second in the land, beneath our throne.
Eric, enough. Have I not yielded? Here
Let thy boons rest.
Is to myself. Look not upon this hand
I clasp in mine, although the fairest hand
That God has made. Observe this ring instead337
And338 recognise it.
On Aslaug’s hand; she341 who once wears it sits342
Thenceforth on343 Norway’s throne.
Possess thy father’s chair
Intended for thee always from the first,
Nor be amazed that in these dancing robes
I seat her here, for they increase its pomp344
More than imperial purple. Think not345, Swegn,
Thy sister shamed or false who came to me,
Spilling my blood and hers to give thee back thy crown,346
A violent and mighty purpose such
As only noble hearts conceive; and only
She yielded to that noble heart at last
Because of347 Odin’s pressure348.
So they came.
Aslaug, thou soughtst my throne, but findst it thine349.
I grudge it not to thee – for thy great heart
Deserved350 it. Eric, thou hast won at last,
I could not shame thy sister, Swegn,
Save by my wife’s disgrace, and this was none
But only a deceit to prove thy heart
And now thou352 seest thou353 couldst not have rebelled
Except by violence to354 Olaf’s seed
That must again rule Norway.
Eric, for thy boons,
They hurt not now, take what return thou wilt,
For I am thine. Thou hast found out the way
To save from me thy future. It is secured355]
Even with356 my heart’s strings.
Swegn, I too have boons
To ask of thee.
Let them be difficult then,
If thou wouldst have me grant them.
Swegn, excuse and love
Thy comrade Hardicnut, for he intended
A kind betrayal.
This is nothing, King.
His act my heart had come to understand
And it358 has pardoned.
Forgive then Swegn, dearest,359
Sigurd, thy foe, as I have pardoned first
My father’s slaughterer. This thing is hard.360]
He’s361 pardoned, not forgiven. Let him not come
Too often in my sight362.
The gods have won.
Let this embrace engulf our ended strife,
Brother of Aslaug.
Husband of my sister,
Thou assum’st our blood and it ennobles thee
To the height of thy great victories – this thy last
And greatest. Thou hast dealt with me as a King,
Then as a brother.
Thou adornst thy throne.
Rest, brother, from thy hardships, toils and363 wars
Until I need the364 sword that matched with mine,
To smite my foemen.
Aslaug, what thinkst365 thou?
If thou art satisfied, all was well done366.
Thou hast the tyrant in thy nature still,
And so I love thee best, for then I recognise367
My conqueror. O what canst thou do but well?368
For in thy every act and word I see
The gods compel thee.
O369 thou hast changed me with thy starry eyes,
Daughter of Olaf, and hast made me a man370
Where was but height and iron; all my roots
Of action, mercy, greatness, enterprise,
Sit now transplanted to371 thy breast, O charm,
O noble marvel! From thy bosom my strength
Comes out to me. Mighty indeed is love,372
Thou sangst of, Aslaug, once, the373 golden hoop
Mightier, swifter374 than the warrior’s sword.
Dost thou remember what thou cam’st to do,
Aslaug, from Gothberg?
Aslaug (wondering)375
Only ten days ago
I came from Gothberg!
She turns with a laugh and embraces Eric.
The gods have spoken since and shown their hand.
They seal376 our eyes and drive us, but at last
Our souls remember when the act is done,377
That it was fated. Aslaug, now for us378
The world begins again,– our world, beloved,379
Since once more we – who since the stars were formed380
Playing the game of games by Odin’s will
Have met and parted – parted, {{0}}meet381 again
For ever.
1 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this and next four lines there are these three lines:
But only by the swiftness of his sword
That monarchy’s assured, | secured headlong, athirst,
My iron hound pursues its panting prey. | Ineffugably that pursues its pray.
2 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: And
3 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: one [some] strength’s behind
4 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: search [must find
5 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
6 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: is substance
7 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
8 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ’Twas thou that sang’st!
9 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative line in footnotes: Thou knowest. Know’st thou too by whoom?
10 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed in footnotes as alternative. In main text: Things seen and unforeseen move by a doom,
11 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: but petty
12 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of these four lines there are two:
Of one majestic harp. She builds, she breaks,
She thrones, she slays, as needed for her harmony. | for the balance of her harmonies.
13 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: wild
14 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: by need coerced
15 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: passed
16 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: host
17 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: From Sweden and his lairs cut off the rude|fierce
18 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ruthless, fell and fierce|bold
19 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: This
20 In 1972 ed. this line and next two lines are absent
21 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, main variant is: Let him not live, if taken. Another variants in footnotes are: (i) Let him not live, o’ercome. (ii) Let him not live, if seized. (iii) Taken, let him not live.
22 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of these four lines there is one: Not live? | (i) And yet... | (ii) Taken, who shall live?
23 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, main variant is: Will you be silent?
24 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6:
Blame my heart; | (i) ’Twas my heart | (ii) It was my heart
For|And it remembered too|though unseasonably
That Olaf Thorleikson ruled Norway once,|was Norway’s Lord
Swegn was his heir.|And Swegn his son
25 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6:
Forgetting Gothberg and your golden|Swedish gains?
Since I have been the fount of your distress, | Since I was reason that you are distressed,
Make me the source of your great plenty too. | Let me be reason of your plenty too.
26 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: A kingly | The royal
27 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, main variant is: asked for
28 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Go, Gunthar, we will soon converse; now rest. | Gunthar, we will converse ere they depart | Gunthar, we will converse within the hour.
29 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this and next lines there is one: To all but interest and power and pride?
30 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6:
Because I do not choose | Because I will not strike,
Merely to wound and then be stayed. | Wound perhaps only and be stayed.
31 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: praises
32 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternatives in footnotes: Will you | If we
33 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
34 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: roam
35 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternatives in footnotes: mountain
36 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Outlawed
37 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: pursued | and poor
38 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Never | Not again
39 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
40 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: an earl
41 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: some pine-trees
42 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
43 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
44 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: short | brief | swift
45 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternatives in footnotes: the magnificent
46 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one: His voice is like a chant of victory.
47 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: not
48 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: mere
49 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: they
50 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thorleikson
51 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the throne empty
52 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that’s their cry
53 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternatives in footnotes: centre
54 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: There was a discord there.
55 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: The South exulting
56 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Cried
57 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: but the northern earls
58 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Refused consent or, free auxiliaries,
59 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Admitted only leadership in war.
60 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: chose
61 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: last appeal of all
62 Alternetive in 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: The dagger shall o’erride
63 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Still you come back to that.
64 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Yet think this out. | (i) Now think it out. | (ii) But think a little.
65 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one: Rather than by our blood to call|pay for his
66 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Is not a gentle peace still possible? | Is not a composition possible?
67 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one: Swegn might have|rule Trondhjem, Eric all|in the north
68 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternatives in footnotes: (i) The suzerainty his: we fought for it. (ii) The suzerainty? Is it not his? We fought,
69 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: And lost it.
70 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Think of this before we strike.
71 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative: Nobler
72 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Better is a tried resolve. | It is good to be resolved.
73 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: cast
74 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Be sure in striking. | One strikes more (out) surely.
75 From this place and till the words ...Pride violent... text in two edition is different. In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6:
Hertha
It gives us the great chance.
At ease, alone with us, absorbed, suddenly
You strike, I leap in seconding the blow.|Suddenly you strike, I come in, widen the blow.
Can he escape then? Swegn shall have his throne. | Shall not Swegn have the throne?
Aslaug
Arrange it as you will. You have a swift
Contriving careful brain I cannot match.
To dare, to act was always Aslaug’s part.
Hertha
You will not shrink?
Aslaug
I am not of the earth,
To bound my actions by the common rule.
I claim my kin with those whom Heaven’s gaze
Moulded supreme, — Swegn’s sister, Olaf’s child,
Aslaug of Norway.
Hertha
Then it must be done.
Aslaug
Hertha, I will not know the plots you weave;
But when I see your signal, I will strike.
76 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: This,
77 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Then
78 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: resistless time, — then comes, —
79 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
80 In 1972 ed. this line and next line are absent
81 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: And our
82 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Who
83 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the art, and song,
84 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
85 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: learn
86 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: That
87 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
88 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: all my
89 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: have carried
90 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: To the most wealthy
91 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Is it so? | Dost thou, girl?
92 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I buy these from thee. | I have bought them from thee.
93 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: If
94 Alternative in 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: or claim’st to be.
95 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: claim’st
96 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: mighty
97 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: Therefore choose thy part.
98 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: art really
99 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this and next five lines there are five:
Declare it. If|But thou art a dancing-girl,
I have bought|I hold thee for my|a hire, thy song, thy dance,
Thy body. I shrink not from whatever way I can
Possess thee more than hesitates the sea to engulf
What it embraces.
Thy body. Girl, I care not by what way
I shall possess thee.
100 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: King, thou
101 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Or even to
102 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: that
103 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Enterest my court to know and break my plans. | Seekest my court to spy upon my plans.
104 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: long
105 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: Devised thy capture and imprisonment,
106 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thyself
107 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
108 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is: What canst thou to me?
109 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: greater
110 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Than death? None that I tremble at or shun.
111 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Dost thou not see
112 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: paw?
113 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Dost thou not see
114 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Feel on thy face
115 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
116 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Then richly earn. | Then earn, Aslaug.
117 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Aslaug, even then thou | Thou art no fool, thou
118 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Upon
119 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I kept
120 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: given
121 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: means of
122 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this and next three lines there is a note:
Two cancelled lines after this:
Nor think thy feet have entered to escape
Unchained the antre of thy enemy.
123 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Yet
124 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: form
125 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thy
126 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Avow it, beg
127 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: controlling
128 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
129 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: anything to choose
130 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
131 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: How wilt thou now escape my passionate will?
132 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thy
133 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: The rhythmic motion of thy gracious limbs
134 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
135 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: sweet control
136 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I have not learnt to yield to any power,
137 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: But to surprise, to force and to command.
138 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: So will I hold thee. Prisoner and enemy,
139 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: art perturbed
140 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: or
141 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: may be yet.
142 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
143 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: dost thou choose
144 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
145 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I have laughed till now. Unthinking I came here
146 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: And dallied with thy thoughts, a little amazed,
147 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: and
148 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: a kindred
149 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Or
150 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line after this one: I am a dancing-girl and nothing more.
151 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Wear then this necklace and submit thyself, —
152 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: all
153 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Aslaug
154 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thus
155 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: If
156 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there are two lines after this one:
Was’t falsely claimed? Wilt thou deny it now
And hope to earn thy pardon with a smile?
157 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: See
158 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: take
159 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: still
160 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: As thou decidest, thy price or else my gift.
161 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: light
162 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I would have
163 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
164 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Ponder and let thy saner mind
165 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Confess
166 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is:
He goes out. Aslaug, after a silence, takes the chain from her neck, admires it and throws it on a chair.
167 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is:
After another pause she takes it again.
168 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: a
169 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is:
(resuming the necklace on her neck)
170 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: not
171 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
172 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: owes
173 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: To
174 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: That it was necessary,
175 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
176 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: license
177 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the unconquered
178 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: iron
179 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Still, O Odin, I would be
180 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: a
181 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: blood
182 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: subject
183 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: But
184 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Art thou resolved and hast thou
185 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thou
186 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a footnote: Another version, starting with this line, omits the next speech of Aslaug and continues Eric’s words:
Yet nothing understood? Or art thou, Aslaug,
Surrendered to thy fate? This earthly heaven
187 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is: shaped to bear
188 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: falls
189 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: forms
190 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line after this one: He touches her eyes and body as he speaks.
191 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: our
192 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is: gave
193 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there are two lines after this one:
Thy soul is truthfuller, Aslaug, than thy words:
Thy lips consent, thy eyes defy me still.
194 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line after this one:
He goes out.
195 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: breaking into a laugh
196 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: with sudden
197 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: If it’s
198 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: fear’st
199 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this line and next line there is one line:
Whatever was thy purpose, thou art taken,
200 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Between
201 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thy
202 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
203 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: Of something unachieved.
204 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. Main variant is: It would be best,
205 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: still
206 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thorleikson
207 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thought
208 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this line is placed at footnotes as alternative. In main text instead it there are two lines:
I come not back without the head of Swegn
Or else his living body. {{0}}Send to me
209 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: with
210 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: various
211 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: nature
212 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: gap
213 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
214 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: that
215 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: gaps
216 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: Reflected in the nature of a man.
217 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Knowest
218 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: will hold
219 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: we
220 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: since he
221 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this line and next seven lines there are these five lines:
I’ll strike him suddenly. One who was fit
For what I purpose, would not shrink at all
Finding the abyss about her either way,
But striking cleanse the touch in her own blood.
So might one act who was not her heart’s prey.
222 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: movement
223 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. In the main instead of this line there are two lines:
But that shall be when Norway’s only mine,
Swegn taken. Tomorrow at the dawn I march
224 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Towards
225 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: vehement
226 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6 instead of this line there are these two lines:
And when ’tis done, I’ll strike myself and finish
With grief and shame and love.
227 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: again upon
228 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: none
229 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: easily
230 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is:
If I must strike, it could be only now;
231 In 1998 ed. this line is absent
232 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: us
233 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Myself I am
234 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: a
235 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: O mind
236 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: O eyes
237 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and lowers
238 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ground, falling on her knees at Eric’s feet.
239 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: grown
240 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: those
241 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: fixed
242 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
243 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: At
244 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: refuge
245 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: spare
246 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Aslaug (faintly)
247 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: This
248 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there are three lines after this one:
Thy dagger could no more have touched my heart, | breast,
Though undefended, than a wind the sun:
Fate and thy love were my friends within thy heart.
249 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: or
250 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: But I
251 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thy heart’s surrender
252 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: The
253 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: hopes
254 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Nor
255 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: hands
256 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thinks
257 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Yet
258 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line after this one:
Or in the fight his splendid rashness slew,
259 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: all
260 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: labours
261 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: these
262 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: hope
263 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Because
264 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. In the main text insfead of this line and next line there is one line:
Swegn lives. A heart, not iron gods, o’errules.
265 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: pardons
266 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: followed
267 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: scornfully
268 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: honours, wealth
269 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line and next line there is one line:
But why
270 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line there are these six lines:
And nature?...
Still there are men who hope to purchase | ask for Swegn’s
Allegiance, to intimidate with death
And bribe with safety Olaf’s son. It seems
Your pastime to insult the seed of Kings.
Think’st thou that to the upstart I shall yield,
271 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: right
272 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is editorial note: Illegible
273 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: He could not honour | [In footnotes: Alternative for two lines:]
For he will not honour mildness nor revere
274 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
275 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: Sound
276 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: audience-gong
277 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Herald
278 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Immortal’s Children
279 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: has put
280 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: But I have seen myself,
281 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: O you revealing gods,
282 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes: That loves, that labours.
283 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: disorders
284 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: this
285 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thy
286 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: misfortune
287 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the
288 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line and next five lines there is one line:
Inevitably. Thou vauntest thy blood,
289 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thou liest
290 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line and next three lines there is one line:
Against a country’s fate. Thou hast no strength
291 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Norway, whose
292 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and
293 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is: brought
294 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: I offer, Swegn, yield to me,
295 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: preferences
296 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: but
297 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is alternative in footnotes:
Men worship, thine would then indeed have been
298 In 1972 ed. this line and next eight lines are absent (till the words Wilt thou abide...)
299 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: with him and
300 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line there are these three lines:
Save, if he will, this life. Remember, Swegn,
If Olaf’s children must be shame-crowned slaves,
’Tis thou that makest them so.
301 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: consent
302 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Not
303 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: it not find.
There is also a footnote in 1972 ed.: Alternative to the words starting with “Can it not find....”
Let me hear
What arguments thou hast to justify
A thing our father’s spirit cries upon.
After this, Aslaug’s speech begins with “I seek no argument....”
304 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
305 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: argument
306 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one:
What argument?
307 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: seek
308 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this line and next two are differ:
O my beloved, has been great to me,
Though great, was never wise! but must it ask
So huge a recompense?
309 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one:
Thou hadst myself. Thou askest my honour.
310 1972 ed. this and next sentence are in reverse order
311 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the
312 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: on me instead
313 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, the words receive my boons are placed at footnotes as alternative to Receive my mercy
314 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of this line and next three lines there is one line:
O fortune! It will out. | I have said; it is received.
315 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: pains
316 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thine
317 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: them
318 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Aslaug, go
319 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: heart that had
320 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, instead of words ...itself to all... there is a footnote: Illegible
321 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: My thralls, remove
322 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: the
323 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: But hadst thou
324 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Stay
325 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: name I remember
326 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, this variant is placed at footnotes as alternative. The main text is:
I shall be faithful to my own disgrace.
327 In 1972 ed. this line and next one are absent
328 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a line before this one:
O fear not, King. I can be great again.
329 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and it is
330 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: binding
331 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thy
332 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Nara
333 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: unharassed
334 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
335 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Trondhjem’s and Olaf’s treasures with thee take
336 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: instead
337 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: This ring and
338 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Swegn
339 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: It’s Freya’s ring, worn
340 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: And she
341 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: it
342 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Thenceforth sits on
343 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: beauty
344 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Nor think
345 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ....[Illegible] spilling my blood and hers,
346 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ’twas
347 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: purpose
348 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thine own
349 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Deserves
350 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Norway
351 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: And thou
352 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: seest that thou
353 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: treason against
354 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: has....[Illegible
355 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: With
356 In 1972 ed. this line and next five lines (till words Swegn, excuse and love) are absent
357 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: yet
358 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Forgive, Swegn,
359 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: is thy....[Illegible
360 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: ’Tis
361 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there are six lines after this one:
Eric
Swegn, I too have boons
To ask of thee.
Swegn
Let them be difficult then,
If thou wouldst have me grant them.
362 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and thy
363 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thy
364 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: thinkest
365 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: then all well, nobly done
366 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: What canst thou do but well
367 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
368 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Or
369 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: and....[Illegible] a man
370 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: in
371 In 1972 ed. this words are absent
372 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: sangst, Aslaug, once of the
373 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Mightier and swifter
374 In 1972 ed. this line and next four lines are absent (till words The gods have spoken)
375 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: shut
376 In 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6, there is a lines after this one:
Aslaug
i.e. all rest text is pronounced by Aslaug
377 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: Now for us, O beloved,
378 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: who since the stars were formed
379 In 1972 ed. this line is absent
380 1972 ed. SABCL, volume 6: met