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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Death of Balder + +Author: Johannes Ewald + +Release Date: October 27, 2004 [eBook #13879] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH OF BALDER*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<p>An Edition of 250 Copies only will be printed.<br /> +No more will be published.</p> +<h1>THE DEATH OF BALDER<br /> +FROM THE DANISH OF JOHANNES EWALD<br /> +(1773)<br /> +TRANSLATED BY GEORGE BORROW</h1> +<p>Author of “Bible in Spain,” “Lavengro,” “Wild +Wales,” etc.</p> +<p>LONDON<br /> +JARROLD & SONS, 3 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.<br /> +1889</p> +<h2>PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION.</h2> +<p>The works of the late poet Ewald are deservedly popular in Denmark. +The present tragedy, and the opera of “The Fishermen” (“Fiskerne”), +in which occurs the bold lyric which has become the national song of +the Danes, are esteemed his best productions.</p> +<p>For the fidelity with which the present version has been made I appeal +to those of my countrymen who understand the original, and demand whether +I have given a thought or expression equivalents to which are not to +be found in the Danish tragedy.</p> +<p>I have imitated the peculiar species of blank verse in which the +original is composed, in order that the English reader may form an exact +idea thereof, and though by having done so my poetry may have somewhat +of a cramped, embarrassed gait, I have a firm hope that I shall not +meet very severe reprehension for having sacrificed elegance to fidelity.</p> +<p>GEORGE BORROW.</p> +<h2>THE PERSONS.</h2> +<p>Balder. Hother.<br /> +Thor. Nanna.<br /> +Loke. The Three Valkyrier.</p> +<p><i>The place of action is a pine-wood on the Norwegian mountains. +Round about it are seen steep and uneven rocks. The top of the +hindermost and highest is covered with snow</i>.</p> +<h2>ACT THE FIRST.</h2> +<p>BALDER and THOR are seated upon stones at some distance from each +other. Both are armed—THOR with his hammer, and BALDER with +spear and sword.</p> +<p>BALDER. Land whose proud and rocky bosom<br /> +Braves the sky continually!</p> +<p>THOR. Where should strength and valour blossom,<br /> +Land of rocks, if not in thee?</p> +<p>BALDER. Odin’s shafts of ruddy levin<br /> +Back from thy hard sides are driven;<br /> +Never sun thy snow dispels.</p> +<p>THOR. Sure, he’ll joy in deeds of daring,<br /> +Ne’er for ease voluptuous caring,<br /> +Who upon the mountain dwells.</p> +<p>BOTH. Land whose proud and rocky bosom<br /> +Braves the sky continually!<br /> +Where should strength and valour blossom,<br /> +Land of rocks, if not in thee?</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>he springs up, but</i> THOR<i> remains sitting, like one +in deep thought</i>). Ha! I will quickly fly from thee for +ever,<br /> +Thou hated land, where everything so proudly<br /> +Upbraids me for my weakness—for my fetters:<br /> +Where I, pursu’d by pains of hopeless passion,<br /> +The live-long nights among deaf rocks do wander—<br /> +Whose echoes sport with Balder’s lamentations,<br /> +Each cold, each feelingless, as Nanna’s bosom,<br /> +The fair, unpitying savage!</p> +<p>THOR. Son of Odin!</p> +<p>BALDER. Speak, mighty Thor!</p> +<p>THOR. Thou sighest, then—and vainly?</p> +<p>BALDER. Vainly: without a glimpse of hope; bewildered.<br /> +What, what have I not promised, vow’d, attempted?<br /> +How oft have I, O Thor!—I blush, but hear it—<br /> +To tears debas’d myself: my tears have trickled—<br /> +Have vainly trickled—before Gevar’s daughter.</p> +<p>THOR. Ha! Gevar’s daughter?</p> +<p>BALDER. Yes, the haughty Nanna.</p> +<p>THOR. Dost mean the daughter of the wise King Gevar,<br /> +Who reads the actions of the unborn hero,<br /> +The will of Fate, malicious foemen’s projects,<br /> +And war and death of warriors in the planets:<br /> +Dost mean his daughter?</p> +<p>BALDER. Think’st thou other fathers possess a Nanna?</p> +<p>THOR. Gods!</p> +<p>[<i>He again casts his eyes upon the ground, like one who meditates +deeply</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Behind yon pine wood he built an altar unto thee and +Odin,<br /> +There thou mayst see the roof of his still dwelling.<br /> +There lives the earthly Freia—cruel maiden—<br /> +There slumbers she, perhaps—the proud one rests in<br /> +Joy’s downy arms, undreaming aught of Balder!<br /> +As if I did not love, were not a half-god;<br /> +As if by Skalds my name were never chanted<br /> +As if I were a demon, bad as Loke!<br /> +Ha! if upon my tongue lurked bane and magic,<br /> +When fear enchains it and the pale lip trembles;<br /> +When broken words and a disordered wailing<br /> +Are all with which I can express my bosom’s<br /> +Desire intense, and dread unwonted torments.<br /> +Ha! were my voice like Find’s when he, distracted,<br /> +Goes over Horthedal; as when he bellows,<br /> +And wild at last, and blind with fury, splinters<br /> +The oaks, the glory of the sacred forest.<br /> +Ha! if the blood of maids and unarm’d wretches<br /> +Of harmless travellers, stained the hands of Balder—<br /> +If ruddy lightnings burnt between these fingers—<br /> +Then might’st thou well be pale;<br /> +And thou wert right to fly from me, O Nanna!</p> +<p>THOR. Now, Balder, hear my word, and fly from Nanna!</p> +<p>BALDER. From Nanna! Yes, I ought—that see I plainly.<br /> +Ha! some accursed fiend my foot has fasten’d<br /> +To these wild mountains and to Nanna’s shadow!<br /> +And is there nothing then of hope remaining?<br /> +When did I first become so grim—so frightful?<br /> +When? Tell me, Thor, is breath of mine destructive?<br /> +Has death among my tears and smiles its dwelling?<br /> +What shall I do? Reply! But thou art silent,<br /> +And from thine eyeball flames contemptuous anger.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>he rises</i>). Ha! drivellest thou before the God +of Thunder?</p> +<p>BALDER. To Thor, to Odin’s friend, I breathe my sorrow.</p> +<p>THOR. How long dost think, degenerate son of Odin,<br /> +Unmanly pining for a foolish maiden,<br /> +And all the weary train of love-sick follies,<br /> +Will move a bosom that is steeled by virtue?<br /> +Thou dotest! Dote and weep, in tears swim ever;<br /> +But by thy father’s arm, by Odin’s honour,<br /> +Haste, hide thy tears and thee in shades of alder!<br /> +Haste to the still, the peace-accustom’d valley,<br /> +Where lazy herdsmen dance amid the clover.<br /> +There wet each leaf which soft the west wind kisses,<br /> +Each plant which breathes around voluptuous odours,<br /> +With tears! There sigh and moan and the tired peasant<br /> +Shall hear thee, and, behind his ploughshare resting,<br /> +Shall wonder at thy grief, and pity Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER. And is this all the comfort thou canst offer?</p> +<p>THOR. I gave thee counsel: fly from her who flies thee!<br /> +What holds thee here, where thou canst hope for nothing?</p> +<p>BALDER. And can I? Ah, my friend, that is my duty!<br /> +But fly! And never, never see thee, Nanna!<br /> +And ne’er again behold the roof where under<br /> +Thou sleepest! Honour the mere thought destroyeth!<br /> +Ere that, I’ll perish here, unfamed, forgotten!</p> +<p>THOR. Well, perish, then! I see too plain ’tis +useless<br /> +Against a harsh, eternal fate to struggle!</p> +<blockquote><p>The hill fiend dreads my hammer’s might<br /> +Before it turns the Jotun white,<br /> +And rocks, whereon I strike, give way.<br /> +But nothing cruel fate can move;<br /> +And what Allfather there above<br /> +Resolves upon, stands firm for aye.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Know, son of Odin, thou whom reason, friendship,<br /> +Whom scorn—e’en scorn—to move are all unable,<br /> +Know that prophetic were thy words! Fate hastens!<br /> +The Valkyrie prepares the spear already,<br /> +Its deadly point already does she sharpen.<br /> +Ah, see! the prince of battle holds it brandish’d;<br /> +He strikes! he strikes! and all the Aser sorrow.</p> +<p>BALDER. Dark is thy speech, O Thor! dark as thy visage.</p> +<p>THOR. Before my eyes are murky shadows flitting.<br /> +A mortal youth, with blood of Asa crimson’d!<br /> +The fight and death of gods, the fall of Asgara!<br /> +Hear, son of Odin, wretched slave of passion,<br /> +Think not that dreams, that magic’s foul deception,<br /> +That spectres of the night my brain bewilder;<br /> +And oh! think not that merely chance has led me<br /> +To Balder’s presence, and to these high forests!<br /> +I sought thee, came with speed to give thee warning:<br /> +Fear, then! It is thy friend, ’tis Thor, who’s speaking!<br /> +And on my lips I bear the words of Odin.<br /> +Thou know’st there grows in night’s mysterious valley<br /> +A tree, as yet by men or gods seen never;<br /> +It bears a bough, which bough, when once ’tis harden’d<br /> +In Nastroud’s flames, can slay thee.</p> +<p>BALDER. Yes, I know it.</p> +<p>THOR. That knowest thou, friend! And is it a mere slumber,<br /> +A fleeting trance, a pleasant dream of battle,<br /> +With which the spear’s impregnated in Nastroud?<br /> +Ha! whom it slays wakes never up in Valhall;<br /> +In mist and darkness must he lie for ever.<br /> +From gods and men alike for ever parted,<br /> +Must Balder be detested—Hæla’s booty,<br /> +Not Odin’s quest?</p> +<p>BALDER. Aye; when the tree’s discover’d.</p> +<p>THOR. Well, now, attend and heed a father’s warning!<br /> +When Odin high from Lidskialf saw thee raving,<br /> +In toils of love, ’mong Norway’s snowy mountains,<br /> +The speech of Mimmer on his heart fell heavy.<br /> +Hear it and tremble! Not for death, O Balder!<br /> +Nor e’en for Hæla, but thy father’s anguish;<br /> +“The year”—such was his word (thou knowest Mimmer,<br /> +And scarce canst think he’d breathe the words of falsehood)—<br /> +“The year when Norway’s desert hills shall echo<br /> +The half-god’s wasted love-caus’d lamentations,<br /> +When he’s rejected by a prophet’s daughter,<br /> +That year shall see the spear which holds his ruin,<br /> +Shall see the gods in grief, and Odin weeping.”<br /> +Hear that and quake! And fly, and spare thy father!<br /> +If not, dote on and die, for that’s thy fortune!</p> +<p>[<i>He disappears among the trees</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>alone</i>). And must I die? Ah well, I merely +forfeit<br /> +A worthless breath, which is by Nanna hated.<br /> +Ha! hated. How that thought that Nanna hates me<br /> +Torments my breast! Death, only death, can drown it.<br /> +It burns, it scorches me, like Nastroud’s blazes.<br /> +Come, tenfold death, come quickly, and extinguish<br /> +The thought: destroy it, crush it, with this bosom.<br /> +Thanks be to Thor, for he my eyelids lifted,<br /> +Disclosing I had chance of rest—of dying!<br /> +E’en Surtur, he whose hostile fingers planted<br /> +The tree, the black tree, by the feeble starlight;<br /> +Who nurs’d its infant root with blood fresh taken<br /> +From slaughter’d babes, and drew a circle round it,<br /> +And mutter’d magic words, and gave it power<br /> +To shoot the bane of Nastroud in my bosom,<br /> +Was not so cruel as thyself, O Nanna!<br /> +What! cruel? No, by Odin! Pity drove him<br /> +To rear up remedy benign and grateful<br /> +For the dire wound with which thou torment’st me.<br /> +Ah, maid! thou mak’st me look to death with longing<br /> +And yet to die! and die from thee! and never—<br /> +Ha! my heart freezes! The mere word would kill me!<br /> +But then, most likely thou wilt pity Balder,<br /> +And with a hot, a precious tear bedew him!</p> +<blockquote><p>Say, O maid! when thou dost pour<br /> +From thine eyes the briny shower<br /> +O’er a lifeless lump of clay!<br /> +Cease thy weeping, cruel maiden:<br /> +All thy grief is vainly vented:<br /> +See the breast so long tormented<br /> +Which thy pity now should gladden,<br /> +Beats no more and rots away!<br /> +O Nanna! Nanna!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>[<i>He sits down and holds both his hands before his eyes</i>.</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>in the shape of an old Finman</i>). Balder!</p> +<p>[<i>He walks in a crooked attitude, and supports himself upon a knotted +staff. He enters so that his back is turned to</i> BALDER.</p> +<p>Help, ye gods of heaven!<br /> +Oh, I unfortunate! that frost and hunger,<br /> +And fear of bears and wolves and evil spirits<br /> +Should now destroy me on these frightful mountains!<br /> +Oh, that I but beheld a smoke uprising,<br /> +A single trace of a bewildered hunter!<br /> +That I but heard a cheery horn resounding!<br /> +But nothing, nothing! Never, never rises<br /> +A friendly sound among these wildernesses,<br /> +Which human feet till now has never trodden.<br /> +Ah! who will succour me?</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>goes towards him and takes him kindly by the arm</i>). +What ails thee, father?</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>as if terrified</i>). Aha! I can no more! Ah!</p> +<p>BALDER. Come and rest thee!<br /> +Here lean upon my arm!</p> +<p>LOKE. Ah!</p> +<p>BALDER. How thou tremblest,<br /> +My hoary friend! But cast thy terrors from thee—<br /> +There thou art safe: this breast is warmed by pity.</p> +<p>LOKE. Forgive me, sir; forsooth, I was confounded!<br /> +Thou see’st in me a poor and ancient Finman.<br /> +Far, far away from these terrific mountains,<br /> +This year I built of flags and stones my hovel;<br /> +I sought for reindeer—all my wealth; they doubtless<br /> +Were captured by the bear! I, wretched being!<br /> +My sight is feeble, and the night surprised me;<br /> +The wind, as I observe too late, has shifted,<br /> +And not a star is gleaming in the heavens:<br /> +Ah! far must be the way unto my hovel!<br /> +My feet are wearied out, for I have wandered<br /> +The long and chilly night among the mountains.</p> +<p>BALDER. What wishest thou?</p> +<p>LOKE. I die of frost and hunger.<br /> +Whoe’er thou art, and if thou feelest pity—<br /> +Excuse my doubt—yet wouldst thou save the remnant<br /> +Of life which trembles on my lips, conduct me<br /> +Straight to the cheering hearth where bask thy servants.</p> +<p>BALDER. The way would prove for thee too far; but see’st +thou<br /> +The lofty roof behind the forest yonder,<br /> +There, there resides of earth the fairest daughter:<br /> +Thither repair, thou fortunate old stranger!<br /> +There she resides.—Ah! thou wilt be to Nanna<br /> +A dear, a welcome guest! She loves the wretched;<br /> +Her noble heart swells always with compassion<br /> +For every sufferer. Only not—Thou stayest!<br /> +Why go’st thou not?</p> +<p>LOKE. I go; but thou wast speaking,<br /> +Methinks, of Nanna?</p> +<p>BALDER. Yes.</p> +<p>LOKE. Of Gevar’s daughter?</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>astonished</i>). Thou know’st her?</p> +<p>LOKE. No; but oftentimes her bridegroom<br /> +Has come fatigued with hunting, to my hovel.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah who—</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>turns away as if to depart</i>). She dwells there, +does she?</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>seizes him by the arm</i>). Stay! who is the bride-groom?<br /> +Speak, reptile, speak! Who? When? Reply, thou traitor,<br /> +Or here thou diest!</p> +<p>LOKE. Spare me, sir, in mercy!<br /> +I faint with terror!</p> +<p>BALDER. Speak! by all the powers,<br /> +Thy smallest hair is sacred! I have promised.<br /> +Now, speak!</p> +<p>LOKE. I am an old and harmless creature.</p> +<p>BALDER. But Nanna’s bridegroom?</p> +<p>LOKE. Truly, sir, I wonder,<br /> +That one like thee, a dweller ’mongst these mountains,<br /> +Should know him not, the noblest and the bravest<br /> +Of all the sons of earth.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ye gods of heaven!<br /> +And who? His name?</p> +<p>LOKE. One who is bold as Odin,<br /> +And strong as Thor, and beautiful as Balder.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha! kill me not, but answer: name him.</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>with a loud voice</i>). Hother!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>with agitation</i>). What! Who? The +Leire King?<br /> +The Skioldung Hother?</p> +<p>LOKE. Who here is foster’d up by Nanna’s father.</p> +<p>BALDER. Thou killest me! Thou see’st how I tremble!<br /> +Yet, that I never saw him here! Where is he?</p> +<p>LOKE. At Gevar’s.</p> +<p>BALDER. By the gods, it overcomes me!<br /> +What, under Nanna’s roof?</p> +<p>LOKE. At night-time only,<br /> +As I believe; for ere the east hills redden,<br /> +Upstarts he, lovely as a young spring morning,<br /> +And griping firm his lusty spear, he wanders<br /> +Among the rocks. Ah, master! thou hast seen him—<br /> +Withouten doubt thou hast. ’Tis true he hideth<br /> +For some time past his god-like form in wadmal, <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a><br /> +And rolls beneath a rugged cap his tresses—<br /> +I wonder, wherefore.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha! thou flash of lightning,<br /> +Which clear’st all up at once! I, wretched madman!<br /> +How senseless was I, and by pride how blinded<br /> +To sons of earth my eyes I never lower’d.<br /> +Ah! is my proud solicitude thus baffled?<br /> +But she can only love the gods, I’m certain!</p> +<p>LOKE. Excuse me, sir, I do not understand thee.<br /> +She loves not Odin half so much as Hother.</p> +<p>BALDER. Fly, slave—begone! for Udgaard, Loke’s +poison,<br /> +Is on thy tongue! That foe of gods has sent thee:<br /> +Thou art his messenger, thou art—thou art, thou traitor!<br /> +Dost dare to linger? But thou art in safety,<br /> +For, worm, thy weakness and my oath protect thee.<br /> +Ha! I myself will fly before my fury. [<i>He goes</i>.</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>he looks contemptuously after</i> BALDER, <i>then raises +himself to his full height, discards at once his assumed figure, and +appears as</i> LOKE). My weakness, mighty Balder? Do not +scorn it!<br /> +To dust and ashes, boaster, it shall crush thee.<br /> +Not Loke’s messenger, but Loke, stung thee.<br /> +Already bellows the young god with torment:<br /> +Hear, Odin! hear thy lov’d one, hear him howling!<br /> +Delay thee not! enjoy his voice and feel it!<br /> +Harmonious is it to the ears of Loke.<br /> +Quick, quick! thou ne’er again, perchance, will hear it.<br /> +Survey him near: how swells each vein with poison,<br /> +Which I have poured into his breast with cunning!<br /> +Soon Odin, soon will thy beloved be silent;<br /> +Soon from thy sight will Balder flit for ever;<br /> +Then will it be thy turn to mourn, O tyrant!<br /> +It comes—the long-protracted day of vengeance!<br /> +It comes—the sigh’d-for hour of retribution!<br /> +How long hast thou not tortur’d Loke’s bowels,<br /> +And fearless trampled ’neath thy feet his offspring?<br /> +Hear Hæl and Fenris’ Wolf, and Midgaard’s Serpent—<br /> +Loud howl they!—hear them night and day proclaiming<br /> +Thy unmatched cruelty with frightful voices!<br /> +Each of them was a god, and fair as Balder,<br /> +But now to earth and heaven, and to myself, a horror:<br /> +Each is a monster, bow’d with chains of darkness.<br /> +The hour’s at hand, the tardy hour of vengeance:<br /> +Already blow I in war’s horn: to combat,<br /> +Up, up ye mighty gods, and rescue Balder!<br /> +There see I him, the hero youth, who only,<br /> +Arm’d with the tree of death by Odin’s maidens,<br /> +Can be—so Fate decrees—this Balder’s slayer.<br /> +And he shall be it: quickly shall he brandish<br /> +The life-destroying bough, if Asa Loke,<br /> +By mighty art and wonderful delusions,<br /> +Knows how to work the maidens to his purpose.<br /> +He comes! I will conceal myself, and listen.</p> +<p>HOTHER, <i>and presently</i> LOKE—<i>the first dressed like +a Norwegian peasant, with a hunting-spear in his hand; the other undistinguished</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>he comes down from the rocks and unbinds the skiers <a name="citation2"></a><a href="#footnote2">{2}</a> +from his feet ere he steps forward on the scene</i>).</p> +<p>Upon the oak’s summit,<br /> +A squirrel at play<br /> +Deceives with a rustle<br /> +The hunter so gay;<br /> +He starts, and, low crouching,<br /> +His spear he grasps tight,<br /> +And, swelling up, boundeth<br /> +His hand with delight.</p> +<p>Now quick—be not daunted!<br /> +He’s coming—take heed!<br /> +The bold bear, the old bear,<br /> +Doth hitherward speed.<br /> +Oh, sound the most pleasant<br /> +This ear ever knew!<br /> +He cometh—a bigger<br /> +This weapon ne’er slew.</p> +<p>Thou sovereign of forests!<br /> +Thou pride of thy race!<br /> +Oh, fortunate hunter—<br /> +Oh, glorious chase!<br /> +Now quick! be not daunted,<br /> +He comes—be prepared!<br /> +Where is he, the savage?<br /> +His bellow, who heard?</p> +<p>No more on the oak-top<br /> +The squirrel doth play;<br /> +Deceived has a rustle<br /> +The hunter so gay;<br /> +No sound as he listens<br /> +His hearing assails,<br /> +Save the pattering of leaves<br /> +That are moved by the gales.</p> +<p>There comes he—where? Oh, what a foolish stripling<br /> +Am I, who here about four days have wandered<br /> +In quest of a mere phantom! Surely, Nanna,<br /> +Thou dost deceive me—dost but prove thy lover;<br /> +And think’st thou, virtuous one, that if a godhead<br /> +Came down in light effulgent, and before thee<br /> +Knelt and laid heaven at thy feet—Ha! think’st<br /> +Thou that fear, base doubt of Nanna’s faith and<br /> +Honour, would sully Hother’s breast? I know thou<br /> +Lovest me—thou hast avowed it: what shall then<br /> +This wooer avail—this wooer who must not be<br /> +Anger’d? Why the deception?</p> +<p>LOKE. Hail, thou son of Hothbrod!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>astonished</i>). Ha! scarcely do I know myself!<br /> +By Odin,<br /> +I look more like a rugged elf than Hother.<br /> +And who art thou, that knowest me? who art thou?</p> +<p>LOKE. My name is Vanfred! When thy mother bore thee<br /> +I was at hand and swore unto thee friendship.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Grim is thy visage, and thine eye doth promise,<br /> +But little good. What dost thou seek?</p> +<p>LOKE. Whom, Skolding,<br /> +Whom fearest thou? Why hide in yonder vestments?</p> +<p>HOTHER. I fear? thou warlock! Wise thou wert in speaking<br /> +Of friendship!</p> +<p>LOKE. Spare thy wrath my youthful warrior!<br /> +Reserve it for thy foes!</p> +<p>HOTHER. They shall not miss it!</p> +<p>LOKE. And yet ’tis plain thou hidest thee from some one.</p> +<p>HOTHER. It was Nanna bade me. Ha! I blush by heaven!<br /> +When Nanna spake I always blindly listen’d.<br /> +She has disguised me, as thou see’st, stranger;<br /> +She plagues me with her fears; the dreamer would not—<br /> +Would really not—for all the wide world’s riches,<br /> +That the wood goblin, or perhaps some lover<br /> +Invisible, should know me.</p> +<p>LOKE. Pretty folly!<br /> +Balder invisible! the handsome half-god!</p> +<p>HOTHER. What! Balder, son of Odin? He her lover?<br /> +O heaven! Say, where is he? where?</p> +<p>LOKE. With Nanna.</p> +<p>HOTHER. There? Now? (<i>After some refection</i>.) +She drove me out.</p> +<p>LOKE. Perhaps, thou see’st<br /> +That she has rid herself of thee by cunning.</p> +<p>HOTHER. I simply thought the Alf had caus’d thy terror;<br /> +But Balder, false one, he shall soon experience<br /> +That I fear no one. [<i>About to go</i>.</p> +<p>LOKE. Softly, prince! be cautious!<br /> +I see thy courage; but thy foe is mighty.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Is my arm weak?</p> +<p>LOKE. It is against a half-god;<br /> +Yet he can die. I know a spear which slayeth.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Thou dreamest!</p> +<p>LOKE. Spare thy doubts. That spear or nothing<br /> +Can wound his breast.—But see, the sun is rising,<br /> +And I must fly to subterranean places;<br /> +But I’ll forsake thee not. This horn I give thee,<br /> +And when thy need is greatest, then, O Hother!<br /> +Blow strongly in that horn, and turning westward,<br /> +Call thrice aloud on Vanfred—Vanfred! Vanfred!</p> +<p>[<i>The two last times he cries it with a hollow voice, after having +disappeared among the rocks, and the last time of all evidently farther +away than the other. Immediately thereupon a noise is heard among +the rocks, as of distant thunder</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER, <i>and presently</i> NANNA.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>casts away the horn</i>). Accurs’d be thou, +thy horn, and all thy magic!<br /> +Is Hother fearful? Does he crave in battle<br /> +The aid of warlocks and of arts ignoble?<br /> +Is not my arm sufficient? Ha! I’ll show thee!</p> +<p>[<i>He is going; but</i> NANNA <i>meets him at the entrance of the +scene</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Where now?</p> +<p>HOTHER. I go to dare the wrath of Balder.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>affrighted</i>). Ah!</p> +<p>HOTHER. His stern look may teach me how to tremble.</p> +<p>NANNA. O Heaven!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Hold me not!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>anxiously and affectionately</i>). Where now, my +Hother?</p> +<p>HOTHER. I soon shall find him!</p> +<p>[<i>He goes in spite of</i> NANNA’S <i>endeavour to detain +him</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah! he goes—he rages;<br /> +And Balder yells with wrath. Some serpent surely<br /> +Has breath’d to-day his poison in their bosoms.<br /> +They hate, they seek each other! Who asunder<br /> +Will hold the raging bears. Ah! who will soften<br /> +The foaming ones? I have this hour expected,<br /> +And long by art have I delay’d its coming;<br /> +But now is art, and prayer, and all else useless:<br /> +E’en now they meet in conflict. I am powerless!<br /> +What can my tears avail? Alas! blood only<br /> +Will satiate them and Heaven: thine must trickle,<br /> +My Hother. What art thou against a half-god?<br /> +When thy fire, Ourath, but glimmers,<br /> +Tears can quench it instantly;<br /> +But it flames, and now ’twere wonder<br /> +Could the weak drops keep it under.<br /> +Ah! thy blazes fierce and cruel<br /> +In the lov’d one’s grief find fuel,<br /> +And are fann’d by plaintive cry.<br /> +Tear, with which mine eye is swelling,<br /> +Thou canst not remove the ill;<br /> +O keep in thou fruitless wailing,<br /> +Let my bosom hide thee still. [<i>She goes</i>.</p> +<h2>ACT THE SECOND.</h2> +<p><i>The three</i> VALKRIER. <i>They are armed as war-maids, +and besides the spears which hang over their shoulders, each has a short +spear in her hand: they take each other by the hands, and walk in a +circle, singing</i>.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. O’er the hill, o’er the dell,<br /> +O’er the sea’s foamy waters,<br /> +Unweariedly ply,<br /> +Valhalla, thy daughters,<br /> +The blood-dropping wing:<br /> +Die, battle, and die!<br /> +Is the bidding they bring.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Not fever’s foul pains.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Not hunger.</p> +<p>THE THIRD. Not chains.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. But fight and delight.<br /> +For the brave ever brings,<br /> +Valhalla, thy daughters,<br /> +By light and by night,<br /> +O’er the land and the waters,<br /> +With blood-drooping wing.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. The crash of the spear,<br /> +In deadly career,<br /> +Is alone to me dear.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. The feeble moan press’d<br /> +From the dying man’s breast<br /> +Is what pleases me best.</p> +<p>THE THIRD. The cry on the plain<br /> +Round the corse of the slain<br /> +I list to most pain.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. Die, battle, and die!<br /> +O’er the hill, o’er the dell,<br /> +O’er the sea’s foamy waters,<br /> +Unweariedly ply,<br /> +Valhalla, thy daughters,<br /> +The blood-dropping wing:<br /> +Die, battle, and die,<br /> +Is the bidding they bring.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. I hear the sound of arms; but now it ceases.<br /> +How long will he delay, the noble warrior?</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Whom wait’st thou for?</p> +<p>THE FIRST. And thou? what will my sister<br /> +In this wild spot which blood has never crimson’d?</p> +<p>THE SECOND. What has assembled us? and here where scarcely<br /> +A sword has flashed since days of Jotun Ymer,<br /> +Was it a god or destiny which drove us?</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Thou knowest that the morning sun illumines<br /> +Ten thousand spears on Scotland’s heathy mountains;<br /> +High beats with joy each warrior’s heart. In silence,<br /> +They forward press, and only wait my on-cry.<br /> +Thither would I—but hear the strange adventure<br /> +Which stopp’d my flight upon these rocks. Envelop’d<br /> +In a black, tempest, I a Finman follow’d,<br /> +Who boldly climb’d the mountain summits,<br /> +And sprang o’er every yawning rift undaunted:<br /> +Then saw I Hothbrod’s valiant son. I saw him<br /> +As in the brook he cleans from dust his armour,<br /> +And sharp’d laboriously his rusty dagger,<br /> +And prov’d upon the pine’s thick stem his falchion;<br /> +Then brandish’d he his hunting-spear: far backward<br /> +He drew his nervous arm; I heard the weapon<br /> +Hiss, but my eye beheld it scarce a moment,<br /> +For like the lightning which the black clouds swallow<br /> +It vanished, and the heir vainly sought it.<br /> +Then look’d I round about, and saw my Finman,<br /> +Who held the spear and laugh’d; I storm’d with fury.<br /> +Then down he plung’d within a midnight chasm;<br /> +And from the deep uprose a voice like thunder<br /> +Which slowly booms among the Finnish deserts.<br /> +“Unarm’d,” it bellow’d, “shall the warrior +perish?<br /> +Wither shall he of age, and deep in Hælheim<br /> +Be hidden, far from Odin, far from Valhall.”<br /> +Angry, I rooted up the oaks in search of<br /> +A spear for battle’s friend—and this I fix’d on;<br /> +I gave it tempest’s speed and strength to humble<br /> +Each warrior whom it smiteth, when with wonder<br /> +Of thy fast sounding voice I heard an echo.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Ye stars! what sorcery! But to me now listen!<br /> +I hasten’d unto Hortha’s gloomy forests,<br /> +To glut myself in Roman blood; then look’d I<br /> +Down from the thunder-cloud in which I journey’d,<br /> +And on these towering hills my eyes I fastened;<br /> +Then saw I Denmark’s Hother, prince of battle,<br /> +Like the rock-pine, which o’er the ocean beetles;<br /> +He stood, and storm-winds with his locks were playing,<br /> +Then from the brake a wolf sprang, grim and frightful,<br /> +And big as Fenri’s Wolf: the Skoldung saw it,<br /> +And brandish’d high his spear. Forth went it booming,<br /> +As booming goes from the cold North a whirlwind;<br /> +Straight vanished wolf and spear; but deep a-forest<br /> +Was heard as from a thousand wolves a howling.<br /> +“See, see,” it howl’d, “the Skoldung Hother +loses<br /> +His spear, and in his hand the sword is fragile.<br /> +Now have we peace, and Norway’s Kemps may slumber.”<br /> +Disturb’d at such dark sorcery, I seiz’d on<br /> +The spear of steel thou see’st, and laid lightning<br /> +And fiends’ death on its point, when I beheld thee.</p> +<p>THE THIRD (<i>who hitherto has stood in deep thought</i>). +Sharp is my sight in war; but here is darkness.<br /> +But do not think that chance and magic<br /> +Here assembled battle’s angry daughters.<br /> +Allfather for the fight prepares; Allfather<br /> +Assembles us with murky wink: I saw him,<br /> +The mighty Thor; wroth was he, and his hammer<br /> +Was in his hand. He stood by Gevar’s dwelling:<br /> +He spoke to me, and soon as e’er I answer’d<br /> +He vanished, thundering in the eastern heavens.<br /> +It is not sport, nor any childish quarrel,<br /> +Be ye assured, makes Thor descend from Asgaard.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. He spake to thee?</p> +<p>THE THIRD. As when the warriors slumber,<br /> +And suddenly are wak’d to thousand dangers<br /> +By din of shields and mingled squadrons’ tumult,<br /> +So tower’d he up and shouted when he saw me,<br /> +And dread and hollow as the ocean’s bellow,<br /> +As moan of forests in the nightly tempest,<br /> +Sounded his voice unto my ear!<br /> +“What, Rota!” he shouted; Rota here! “Ye gods +of heaven!<br /> +Whom seekest thou, where unclomb rocks engirdle<br /> +Peace, smiling peace? O say! whom, sent by Skulda,<br /> +Wilt thou devote upon the stilly mountains?<br /> +But ah! what light had I the power to kindle?<br /> +Dark is my spirit. The terrific Norna,<br /> +She who allots to time, ere it approaches,<br /> +It’s luck, and binds it with determined fingers<br /> +Unto Fate’s will, is silent, and drives Rota<br /> +Far from each plain belov’d where battle rages.<br /> +Yet shook the fatal spear with which conflicting<br /> +Monarchs I greet, at sunrise thrice it trembled;<br /> +And death lies heavy in my arm—that know I,<br /> +But for the victim.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Threatens Fate our Hother?</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Thor’s fear and even thine betoken danger.</p> +<p>THE THIRD. So seems it. Ah! if it concern’d our +Hother!<br /> +Ye mind full well how high the Danish hero<br /> +I ever lov’d—I saw him by a fountain,<br /> +Dejected, weaponless, and half in slumber;<br /> +But deep into the forest fled the savage,<br /> +From whom he took his sword, the sharp-edged Mimer,<br /> +And Hother’s spear in his rude hands he carried.<br /> +“Retain my falchion, thou ferocious warrior!<br /> +Little in conflict shall it e’er avail thee!”<br /> +So shouted he, and all the rocks resounded.<br /> +Then straight I brought my choicest spear from Valhall—<br /> +Long since I cut it from a lonely wild beech,<br /> +Which, hid from day, grew up in Lapland’s deserts;<br /> +A circle of grey stones stood round about it,<br /> +On each was clotted blood, and bones, and ashes;<br /> +Blood as I cut the spear the stem emitted—<br /> +It crushes stone, and steel, and giants’ armour.</p> +<p>HOTHER, THE OTHERS.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>he is armed, but without a spear</i>). Where is +this prince of beauty, Nanna’s half-god?</p> +<p>[<i>He starts slightly upon perceiving the</i> VALKYRIER. <i>They +advance towards him, hand in hand</i>.</p> +<p>Excuse me my astonishment, fair war-maids!</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Hail to thee dauntless warrior, bane of Gelder!</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Hail to thee, Skoldung, valiant son of Hothbrod!</p> +<p>THE THIRD. Hail, hail to thee, my Hother, Leire’s ruler!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>astonished</i>.) Ye know me!</p> +<p>THE THIRD. Yes, thou noble youth, and love thee!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Your goodness overwhelms me—to what godhead<br /> +Stand I indebted for this lucky meeting?</p> +<p>THE FIRST. I bring to thee a spear to fight with heroes!</p> +<p>THE SECOND. And this, I hand to thee, can slaughter demons!</p> +<p>THE THIRD. This spear is excellent in fight with Jotuns.</p> +<p>HOTHER. How shall I e’er repay these costly presents?</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Be valiant! fight! send battle’s sons to Valhall!</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Extend the Danish sway and Odin’s worship!</p> +<p>THE THIRD. The sire of many warlike kings of Leire!</p> +<p>[<i>They vanish</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. There’s nought but sorcery upon these mountains!<br /> +They’ve vanished! Do I dream to-day? Where am I?<br /> +Sight, feeling, reason are alike enchanted!<br /> +But here, ye gods! here in my bosom rages<br /> +The magic—Vanfred’s poison. Nanna, Nanna!<br /> +Shall I mistrust thee, then—shall I, thy Hother?</p> +<p>[<i>He places the two spears against a tree, whereon he hangs his +shield. That which the first</i> VALKYRIER <i>gave him he retains +in his hand</i>.</p> +<p>The fire which love enkindles<br /> +First warms with bliss the heart,<br /> +But soon, ah! soon the traitor<br /> +Awaketh burning smart!<br /> +Love’s flame at first discloses<br /> +Pure innocence alone;<br /> +But quickly by its splendour<br /> +A deed of guilt is shown.<br /> +O love! thy bliss is vanish’d,<br /> +Thy flame extinguish quite,<br /> +For in my bride black falsehood<br /> +Now only meets my sight.</p> +<p>NANNA, HOTHER.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>who has stood at the entrance of the scene, and has heard +the latter part of Hother’s song</i>). I overheard thee, +weak, ignoble Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah yes, weak! credulous!</p> +<p>NANNA. Save thyself repentance!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Where is thy demigod?</p> +<p>NANNA. This bosom, Hother, acquitteth me;<br /> +That were enough for Nanna, if—</p> +<p>HOTHER. Oh, pray, proceed!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>affectionately</i>). Lov’d less—</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>contemptuously</i>). Whom? Balder?</p> +<p>NANNA. Savage! what fiend has pour’d into thy bosom<br /> +His bane of late? Ha! fly from me: detest me!<br /> +Wilt thou love her thou canst mistrust!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah, Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. I have debas’d myself to excusation<br /> +(Virtue from that, O Hother, ever shrinketh);<br /> +Yet trust’st thou not?—one’s wont to trust the lov’d +one!<br /> +Thou know’st (I told it thee before) that Gevar,<br /> +Thy wise instructor, has declar’d that Heaven<br /> +Threatens a bloody, horrible misfortune,<br /> +In case our love be nois’d about in Asgaard,<br /> +Ere certain stars shall stand in other orbits;<br /> +And canst thou wonder when so great an Asa<br /> +As Odin’s Balder cometh unexpected,<br /> +That I all trembling will conceal—</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, trembling!<br /> +My curse upon the slave who first invented<br /> +A word which ne’er my Nanna’s lips should sully;<br /> +Thy excusations kill me! I imagined<br /> +It was a chaste, a maidenish reflection,<br /> +That made my Nanna blush at our affection:<br /> +Unmurmuring I obeyed, and kept in secret.<br /> +Why hast thou ta’en from me that sweet delusion?<br /> +Why spak’st thou not, and say for whom thou tremblest?<br /> +For Balder’s death? Thou lovest then thy half-god.<br /> +But no, ye gods! No, I believe thee, Nanna!<br /> +It is for mine, for Hother’s death, thou fearest.<br /> +Then think’st thou me so weak, so wholly powerless,<br /> +And lov’st me still? When e’er lov’d maids the +dastard?</p> +<p>NANNA. ’Tis no disgrace to quake before a half-god!</p> +<p>HOTHER. ’Fore Odin’s self mere cowards quake. Now +hear me!<br /> +I—I, or Balder, die to-day!</p> +<p>NANNA. O Hother!<br /> +I came to quarrel, came prepar’d with anger;<br /> +But ah, in burning tears it soon has melted.<br /> +Thou die, or Balder! he—a half-god!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Nanna!<br /> +Thy tears insult me sore, and yet—I know not—<br /> +They gladden me—they torture—they enchant me.<br /> +I love them—I excuse them—I—I know not—<br /> +O tear—sweet, bitter tear, desist from flowing!<br /> +Thou showest tenderness—but ah! betrayest<br /> +Mistrust and slight respect!—ah, love thy Hother,<br /> +But oh! believe, he will deserve thee, Nanna:<br /> +Thy heart is far too noble for the coward<br /> +Who beareth shield and sword and yet can tremble.</p> +<p>HOTHER. The slave only feareth.</p> +<p>NANNA. The hero can fall!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah then his fame cheereth<br /> +His bride in her thrall.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah then his bride weeps!</p> +<p>HOTHER. She’s honour’d.</p> +<p>NANNA. She weepeth!</p> +<p>HOTHER. She’s honour’d.</p> +<p>NANNA. And weepeth.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah, then his fame cheereth<br /> +His bride in her thrall.</p> +<p>BOTH. Ah then his fame cheereth<br /> +His bride in her thrall.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, if thou now fallest?</p> +<p>HOTHER. And if I now fall?</p> +<p>NANNA. Then I shall be wasted<br /> +By ne’er-ceasing smart.</p> +<p>HOTHER. But were my fame blasted<br /> +Then break would thy heart.</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh! what is remaining?</p> +<p>HOTHER. My valour’s proud story.</p> +<p>NANNA. Mere grief and complaining!</p> +<p>HOTHER. My name is thy glory.</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh! if thou now fallest.</p> +<p>HOTHER. And if I now fall,</p> +<p>NANNA. Then I shall be wasted<br /> +With grief and complaining!</p> +<p>HOTHER. My name is remaining;<br /> +But honour once blasted<br /> +We both should lose all.</p> +<p>BOTH. The slave only feareth,<br /> +The hero can fall;<br /> +But then his fame cheereth<br /> +His bride in her thrall.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>with a terrified look, she seizes</i> HOTHER <i>by the +arm, upon perceiving</i> BALDER). Ah! Hother, come.</p> +<p>BALDER, HOTHER, NANNA.</p> +<p>BALDER. Dost fly me, cruel Nanna!<br /> +Am I so frightful? how have I offended?</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>will rush towards</i> BALDER, <i>but</i> NANNA <i>makes +every effort to prevent him</i>). Ha, Balder, we have met at last.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>much agitated</i>). My Hother!<br /> +Ah, if thou lovest me—if thou respectest my prayer—</p> +<p>BALDER. Thy Hother? O, ye gods! how bitter!</p> +<p>HOTHER. To thee, perhaps to me ’tis sweet and grateful!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>with majesty</i>). Presumptuous one!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>casts herself in her anguish nearly at</i> HOTHER’S +<i>feet, who is about to lay hands on</i> BALDER). If thou hast +ever lov’d me,<br /> +Come with me, Hother! come unto my father!</p> +<p>HOTHER. What! shall I fly?</p> +<p>NANNA. Do thou whate’er thou pleasest!<br /> +Thou wouldst not have me perish in the forest,<br /> +Thou wouldst not, sure, that I should be a witness—</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha, Nanna! fly not from me!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>to</i> BALDER). Thou commandest,<br /> +I say she shall fly from thee. (<i>To</i> NANNA) Come, my +Nanna!<br /> +(<i>To</i> BALDER). But do not thou despair! nor yet imagine<br /> +Thou wilt have long to wait, if wait thou darest.</p> +<p>[HOTHER <i>and</i> NANNA <i>exeunt</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha! wherefore crush’d I not to earth the brawler?<br /> +But Nanna loves him—and shall Balder render<br /> +Nanna unhappy, cause despair to enter<br /> +Her breast, and dim with tears her eyes’ effulgence?<br /> +And what is his offence, the noble hero?<br /> +He loves—ha, who can gaze upon thy beauties<br /> +And love thee not, proud maiden? But he braves me!<br /> +Ah! he is young and fortunate, and if I<br /> +Had slain him now, ’twas Nanna’s love I punish’d,<br /> +And not his insolence; and, O my bosom!<br /> +Shall thy pure flame dishonour thee? No, Balder!<br /> +Love on and die, but of thyself be worthy!<br /> +Ha, let me lose my life and all, Allfather!<br /> +And Nanna e’en! Yes, let me lose e’en Nanna!<br /> +But not the virtue she herself doth honour!</p> +<p>[<i>He hangs his shield upon a tree, which is opposite to that where +Hother’s hangs, and sets his spear up against it</i>.</p> +<p>True bliss, through virtue only known,<br /> +By virtue’s self deserv’d alone.<br /> +Only for thee doth Balder sigh:<br /> +My sad heart would a heaven disdain<br /> +Which through dishonour it must gain.<br /> +So dear let slaves enjoyment buy!<br /> +Yes, Balder, worthy of thyself continue!<br /> +Canst thou wish Nanna to abandon Hother?<br /> +Wish her whose virtue thy high soul so worships<br /> +Should weak and base become for thy advantage?<br /> +But—does she love him? has he won her promise?<br /> +Who knoweth but she merely has dissembled,<br /> +And shown a fictious flame to prove thee, Balder!<br /> +Transporting dream!</p> +<p>NANNA, BALDER.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>rushes in, terrified</i>). Ha! Balder if thou +lovest—Ah, if thou—</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>casts himself at</i> NANNA’S<i> feet</i>). +Heavens,<br /> +Nanna! canst thou doubt it?<br /> +I burn, I burn!</p> +<p>[<i>Whilst</i> NANNA <i>in her terror makes every effort to raise +him, they come into a familiar attitude, in which</i> HOTHER, <i>who +has slain bears, and who is wiping the blood from his spear at the moment +he appears, perceives them. He starts, and remains standing among +the trees, so that he cannot hear what they say</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh, rescue then my Hother!<br /> +Two savage bears among the bushes yonder<br /> +Attack’d him; if thou hast love for virtue,<br /> +Assist him quick; if thou delayest a moment,<br /> +The noblest heart that ever beat they’ll mangle!<br /> +Oh! quick: bethink thee not!</p> +<p>BALDER. No, cruel Nanna!<br /> +Fear not! My arm shall rescue him thou lovest!</p> +<p>[<i>Just as he is about to rise</i> HOTHER <i>steps forward</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER, THE LAST.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ye heavens! do I dream! Enamour’d half-god!<br /> +Excuse me for disturbing thee!</p> +<p>BALDER (as <i>he rises up</i>). There is he!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>goes tenderly to meet</i> HOTHER). Ah, Hother! +Ah, my Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>pushes her back with his hand</i>). Go, false woman!</p> +<p>BALDER. Gods, how unthankful art thou—how ferocious!<br /> +Can such a bear of Nanna be deserving?</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>takes his shield down from the tree</i>). Now, pay +for all, and end thy prate in Valhall!</p> +<p>NANNA. Savage, thou mean’st not sure—</p> +<p>HOTHER. Beware thee, Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh, hear me—</p> +<p>HOTHER. I have seen. Go, hide thee, false one!</p> +<p>NANNA. Thou wilt not sure—</p> +<p>HOTHER. I will! And now, by Hothbrod,<br /> +He dieth by my hand!</p> +<p>BALDER. Presumptuous mortal!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Thy shield! thy spear! I hate all vaunt, my half-god.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>rushes towards</i> BALDER, <i>who taketh his weapons</i>). +O Balder! noble Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah, poor Nanna!<br /> +Thou see’st he forces me—that death he beggeth!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! this is all too much. Protect him—hide +him!<br /> +Cover thy gallant with thy faithless bosom!<br /> +I will not slay thee; but my oath is uttered,<br /> +That he or I shall fall! And now!</p> +<p>[<i>He turns the point of his spear against himself</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, Hother!<br /> +What doest thou?</p> +<p>HOTHER. I’ve sworn!</p> +<p>NANNA. Hold, hold, thou savage!<br /> +I go—I fly. Oh help, ye gods of heaven!</p> +<p>[<i>She goes away in a kind of distraction, but she remains standing +at the entrance of the scene, where she with fearful curiosity looks +on and off the combatants. The warriors go in circle with uplifted +spears</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Now, valiant Balder, call upon thy father!</p> +<p>BALDER. Shame on thee, Hother! Thou offendest Nanna.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Prat’st still, my hero?</p> +<p>BALDER. Well—thou wilt?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, Hothbrod!</p> +<p>[<i>He casts the spear which he had received from the first</i> VALKYRIER, +<i>and had retained in his hand. It striketh</i> BALDER, <i>but +falls, without taking any effect, at his feet</i>. BALDER <i>in +return casts his spear into his left hand, and tears down a huge piece +of the neighbouring rock</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ye gods of Gevar!</p> +<p>BALDER. Nanna!</p> +<p>[<i>He casts his spear behind him out of the scene</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Noble being!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! darest thou mock me, thou inflated braggart?</p> +<p>[<i>He takes from the tree the spear which the Valkyrier</i>, ROTA, +<i>gave him, and casts it. It strikes so hard against</i> BALDER’S +<i>breast, that he nearly sinks upon his knee; but it nevertheless falls +to the ground without wounding him</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha! Surtur, ha! Was that the fell destroyer?<br /> +Fly from my fury!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Cool its heat in Valhall!</p> +<p>[<i>He casts the last spear, which he has seized in the meantime, +but, like the first, without any apparent effect</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>as he draws his sword</i>). Now, then, presumptuous?</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>as he likewise draws</i>). Demon! and no half-god!<br /> +Thou blunt’st the spear; but here’s a sword remaining!<br /> +Now, Hothbrod!</p> +<p>[<i>He strikes at him with his utmost force, but the sword reboundeth +from the helm of</i> BALDER.</p> +<p>BALDER. Odin!</p> +<p>[<i>He strikes</i> HOTHER’S <i>sword from his hand, so that +it flies into pieces, seizes him by the arm, and sets his sword against +his breast</i>. HOTHER <i>sinks upon his knee beneath the powerful +grasp, but raises himself immediately, without</i> BALDER’S <i>attempting +to hinder him but he retains him so in his power that he cannot move +himself</i>. NANNA <i>rushes in and casts herself down upon her +knee before</i> BALDER.</p> +<p>NANNA. Generous, noble Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER. Take up thy bride and live!</p> +<p>HOTHER. My life detest I,<br /> +I would not give the smallest hair of Nanna,<br /> +For yet a thousand years thy whole godship!</p> +<p>BALDER. Die, then!</p> +<p>[<i>He lifts his sword like one who will strike</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Why dost delay?</p> +<p>NANNA. Ha! here thou savage!<br /> +Here, strike into this breast and spare my bridegroom.</p> +<p>[BALDER <i>lets his sword sink</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Still, still, thou lovest me? Oh, Nanna! +Nanna!<br /> +There see’st thou, fiend, she loveth me!</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah, torment!<br /> +Ha! I can end thee! [<i>He lifts his sword again</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Let my tears prevent thee!</p> +<p>HOTHER. By heavens! she’s mocking thee! If thou +delayest,<br /> +She’ll laugh full at thee in the arms of Hother.</p> +<p>NANNA. Believe him not, but virtue—thine own bosom!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>sheathing his sword</i>). Live, Hother! live!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! have I begged for mercy?</p> +<p>BALDER. No! Live; forget our strife, thou dauntless warrior!<br /> +Embrace thy friend, and be, as erst, unshackled!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! cruel, proud, and all too noble en’my!<br /> +Thou know’st, thou feelest but too well thy triumph!<br /> +Ha! thou hast overcome, hast humbled Hother!<br /> +And think’st thou he can live? Heard, heard has heaven<br /> +My oath, that I or Balder die!</p> +<p>[<i>He grasps his dagger, and is about to stab himself with it, but</i> +BALDER <i>wrests it out of his hand</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Bethink thee!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ye heavens! Hother! ah! how art thou fallen!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>affectionately</i>). My Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah! farewell for ever, Nanna!</p> +<p>[<i>He goes hastily away</i>. NANNA <i>attempts to follow him, +but</i> BALDER <i>detains her</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA, BALDER.</p> +<p>NANNA. Woe’s me! he will destroy himself.</p> +<p>BALDER. By Odin!<br /> +He shall not! Be composed! believe, I’ve power<br /> +To hinder it! Believe thy Balder, Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>she takes with fervour his hand and bends herself for some +time over it</i>). I do believe thee, noble one, I know thee!<br /> +I feel all thy exaltedness. Thy virtues<br /> +I hold in reverence. Oh! that all my friendship,<br /> +That these hot tears were able to reward thee!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>casts himself upon his knees before her</i>). Oh +glimpse! Oh wave of hope, in which I’m drowning!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>agitated</i>). What hopest thou?</p> +<p>BALDER. Let not thy lips, oh Nanna<br /> +Awaken Balder from his dream of rapture;<br /> +Let him enjoy it; let him read his destiny,<br /> +His hope, his life, in yonder precious tear-drops.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, what avails it ’gainst one’s fate to +struggle?<br /> +My heart can ne’er of Balder be deserving.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah, that I but—</p> +<p>NANNA. Excuse me now; thou knowest<br /> +I’ve—Ah! a miserable friend to comfort.</p> +<p>[<i>She tears herself away from him, gives a friendly look and goes. +He follows her for some time with his eyes</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Yet will I hope! Hear, hear ye rocks! that Balder<br /> +Ventures to hope!—stern fate is now contented!<br /> +Blunted is Surtur’s spear, and Nanna wavers!<br /> +Oh virtue! which, when blood rag’d high didst triumph,<br /> +How sure, how nobly thou reward’st thy lover!<br /> +Ye rocks which so lately gave ear to my groans,<br /> +Now hear of my hope and my gladness the tones,<br /> +And reply ye proud woods that no longer seem drear;<br /> +In vain fate and heaven, oh Balder, have cas’d,<br /> +With vigour the bosom thou lovest, and placed<br /> +In the hand of the hero the sorcerer’s spear.<br /> +Oh virtue! thou still dost thy servant befriend;<br /> +Ye echoes the triumph of true love extend,<br /> +And virtue’s fair guerdon proclaim far and near.</p> +<p>THOR, BALDER.</p> +<p>THOR. Boldly resounds thy song, thou friend of battle!<br /> +So bluster from the hero’s lips the bloody<br /> +Hard-gotten vict’ries, and the slain foes’ praises,<br /> +Whilst he surveys the lonely field of slaughter,<br /> +Thou smilest, pleasure from thine eye is flashing,<br /> +Like Odin’s, when he freed the earth from danger<br /> +By watering it with blood of savage giants.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha, friend! press thou thy breast unto this bosom,<br /> +And feel what lip but feebly can interpret,<br /> +Feel heaven’s rapture in my soul!</p> +<p>THOR. Thou ravest!</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah! Nanna, friend!—</p> +<p>THOR. Ha! now I understand thee.<br /> +And well it is, full well, that Odin’s Balder<br /> +At length by tears has soften’d Gevar’s daughter!<br /> +This triumph—</p> +<p>BALDER. Thou art mocking!</p> +<p>THOR. No, thy vict’ry<br /> +Shall to me be as one of my most prais’d ones,<br /> +As that I won from Nagaard’s gloomy demon!<br /> +Ha! it is great! It takes from me and Odin<br /> +The dastard fear which has too long tormented<br /> +Our bosoms. I no more thine ear shall weary<br /> +With vain advice. Enough! the maiden loveth.</p> +<p>BALDER. She loveth—yes, by Hæl! she loveth Hother.</p> +<p>THOR. Ha! Balder, dost thou mock me? Whom? +What Hother?</p> +<p>BALDER. Hast Thor forgotten then the valiant Leir-King?</p> +<p>THOR (<i>in thought</i>). No!—by my hammer, no!—I +saw him battle<br /> +At Rolf, the Daneman’s festival; I saw him,<br /> +Strong in his arm.</p> +<p>BALDER. But yet it lost the falchion.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>yet in thought</i>). Before his spear the copper hauberk +yielded<br /> +Like softest wax. Shall he—But scarce a mortal<br /> +Avails thereto—But then if fate—</p> +<p>BALDER. Banish, oh banish,<br /> +These murky thoughts, oh Thor! and share my pleasure.</p> +<p>THOR. Thy pleasure! Do I dream? Loves Nanna, Hother?</p> +<p>BALDER. Ay, doth she!</p> +<p>THOR. That rejoices thee? Thou ravest.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah hear!—my joy thou wilt thyself approve of.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>after some reflection</i>). Now, noble one, I understand: +embrace me—<br /> +Thy vict’ry’s worthy thee—and me—and Odin.<br /> +On Gevar’s rocks I will myself engrave it.<br /> +Oh! not a weak, soft-hearted maid, but Balder,<br /> +But thee, my friend—the monster in thy bosom,<br /> +Thy love, thy foolish love, thou overcamest.</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah, hush thee, cruel one! I feel I’m blushing.<br /> +Know, I had never o’er my heart less power.<br /> +I burn, and tremble at the thought of seeing<br /> +The flame put out by which I am tormented.</p> +<p>THOR. What do I hear? Ye heavens! can an Asa<br /> +Lose virtue thus, and all—well, quaff thy pleasure!<br /> +And rave and dote! Thou lov’st and art rejected?<br /> +How pleasurably! By my arm, I’m thinking<br /> +The Valkyrie has touch’d thy skull already,<br /> +Thou ravest so—I see thy fate is hastening.</p> +<p>BALDER. My fate’s first law is love.</p> +<p>THOR. Alas, the second<br /> +Is death!</p> +<p>BALDER. And where’s the battle? where’s the slayer?</p> +<p>THOR. The slayer? Hother.</p> +<p>BALDER. Weaponless, despairing,<br /> +He wanders ’mong the rocks. We fought.</p> +<p>THOR. He liveth?</p> +<p>BALDER. Ah, Nanna wept.</p> +<p>THOR. Curst tears! the blood of Asa<br /> +For ye must pay!</p> +<p>BALDER. And friend, had he the power,<br /> +Think’st thou that Hother, that the Skiolding basely<br /> +Would murder him to whom his life he oweth?</p> +<p>THOR. Not so would he. But if he must, what can he<br /> +’Gainst destiny, if she the death-spear hands him,<br /> +And guides herself his arm?</p> +<p>BALDER. Oh, banish, banish<br /> +Thy timid care, and hear and share my transport;<br /> +Just now, as Hother’s life I spar’d there glitter’d,<br /> +Through Nanna’s tears the first, first glimpse of pity;<br /> +Sweetly she smil’d, and granting me her friendship,<br /> +She press’d my hand with loving warmth.</p> +<p>THOR. Ha! vex not<br /> +Mine ear, I pray thee, with thy follies—little<br /> +Is Asa Thor with dastard love acquainted;<br /> +Yet can I see into her heart. She thanks thee<br /> +For Hother’s life: that gives thee joy? Thou dreamest.</p> +<p>BALDER. My life’s the dream thou dost aspire to scatter.</p> +<p>THOR. It is thy death!</p> +<p>BALDER. What death? See fate accomplished!<br /> +Behold this spear which late the Leir-King brandish’d!<br /> +My knee grew weak: I stagger’d when it struck me;<br /> +Yet still I live, and it to earth fell blunted.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>Whilst he surveys the spear</i>). Do not deceive thyself, +this spear was harden’d<br /> +In flames celestial, not in Nastroud’s blazes.<br /> +But death has greeted Odin’s son, and Rota,<br /> +She who invites the hero-kings to Valhall,<br /> +Is here, where never din of arms resounded.<br /> +With terror view’d I battle’s haughty daughter:<br /> +Dark stood she on a rock, enveiled in vapour;<br /> +And on her shoulder, on her steel-cas’d shoulder,<br /> +The bird of death, the mournful owl, sat croaking.<br /> +Whom seeks she, far from every bloody Champain?<br /> +And Surtur’s branch, how soon is that discover’d,<br /> +If fate but wish! And think’st thou Loke slumbers?<br /> +Ah, Balder fly! forget a foolish passion!<br /> +Fly, ere thy fate, which hasteneth, is accomplish’d.<br /> +Follow me straight!</p> +<p>BALDER. What—fly! and give up Nanna!<br /> +The hope in which I live is far too noble<br /> +For me to fly from it.</p> +<p>THOR. O Balder, hear me!<br /> +Hear why I come, and if thou wish’st for rescue,<br /> +Then heed a friend’s, a father’s last, last warning!<br /> +Wondering at thy infatuation, troubled<br /> +By threatening, now no longer dark forebodings,<br /> +By panic seiz’d, press’d by unwonted sadness,<br /> +I left these hills, and thunder-peals announced me<br /> +In Asgaard, every eye my trouble notic’d;<br /> +Straightway around me stream’d the eldest Aser,<br /> +Each first would know, what grief, or rather terror,<br /> +Press’d down my eye. But straight Allfather made me<br /> +A sign: he blushes, Balder, at thy weakness!<br /> +He bade me keep it, whilst we could, a secret,<br /> +And question first once more the ancient Mimer.<br /> +I question’d him, and murky fate’s explorer<br /> +Thus answer’d: “If the sun (ah, hear and tremble,<br /> +And save thee, whilst thou canst!) if it to-morrow,<br /> +When by its glories yonder hills are brighten’d,<br /> +Which oft have echoed back the half-god’s wailings,<br /> +Behold him yet in love and yet rejected,<br /> +Then likewise it beholds the spear which slays him,<br /> +And Odin’s tears and all the Aser’s sorrow!”</p> +<p>BALDER. Time presses, then. Excuse me, Thor; I hasten<br /> +With tears to soften Nanna’s noble bosom,<br /> +To move her with my prayer, and, lowly kneeling,<br /> +My doom demand, be’t life or death; for quickly<br /> +Shall Balder’s fate disclose itself. [<i>He goes</i>.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>whilst he looks after him with compassion</i>). Ah, +madman!<br /> +Headlong thou hurriest to meet destruction!</p> +<h2>ACT THE THIRD.</h2> +<p><i>It is dark night. The storm howls among the rocks. +Sometimes it lightens and thunders, and the bears bellow here and there +in the forest</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>sitting upon a rock unarmed and in a dejected attitude</i>).</p> +<blockquote><p>The rocks are reeling,<br /> +When storms are roaring,<br /> +And thunders pealing,<br /> +I feel no fright!<br /> +What I’m enduring<br /> +Is wilder, stranger<br /> +Than thunder’s anger<br /> +Or tempests might.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Welcome, thou night! O darkness thick! how friendly,<br /> +Compassionately hid’st thou me from Hother!<br /> +From him, the weak, the overcome, the fallen!<br /> +Come, then, embrace me, Hœtheim’s murky princess!<br /> +With all thy horrors dark, thou foe of gladness!<br /> +Ah, come! conceal the feeble, shiver’d weapon!<br /> +Cover the gloomy rock where I— Ha! thunder<br /> +Annihilate thee, accursed thought, that darest<br /> +Disturb the Skoldung where to rest he’s flung him!<br /> +But I may breathe it to the night, and Hœtheim<br /> +I may entrust with Hother’s ignominy.<br /> +Ha! hear it, night! and in thy depths conceal it!<br /> +There is a rock—a gloomy one—a horrid,<br /> +For ugly demons swarm upon its summit,<br /> +And dragons nestle in its murky caverns:<br /> +There did I fall, and with me fell my honour.<br /> +There knelt I powerless, and my life accepted!<br /> +Now am I calm, for I no more behold it;<br /> +Nor yet behold the proud, the noble foeman,<br /> +Nor yet my Nanna’s cheek, o’erspread with blushes;<br /> +Nor yet the burning, hated tears which rescued,<br /> +Which purchased Hother from triumphant Balder!<br /> +Ha! storm, thou sinkest! Howl and whoop around me!<br /> +Peal, thunders, peal! and drown the cruel echo<br /> +Of dastard prayer, of Nanna’s intercession!</p> +<blockquote><p>Life of my Nanna,<br /> +Thy breath doth kill,<br /> +Its sweet lamenting,<br /> +One stroke preventing,<br /> +With many, with many<br /> +This breast doth fill.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thou lovest me! Ha! weak, enamour’d Nanna!<br /> +Thou lovest Hother’s life, but not thy Hother.<br /> +How cold, how cruel to his name, his honour!<br /> +But I—I too was cruel! I accus’d thee—<br /> +Beloved Nanna, at thy feet full quickly<br /> +Hother’s best blood shall wash away that insult!</p> +<p>[<i>He springs up and walks about the scene</i>.</p> +<p>Why do I slumber? Why delay a moment<br /> +To keep my oath? Ha, cruel, cruel destiny!<br /> +E’en death itself thou dost refuse to Hother,<br /> +For every sword and precipice thou hidest;<br /> +Ha, feeble spear! whereon I, fool-like, trusted,<br /> +Where art thou now? and thou my fragile Mimring<br /> +Ne’er frail in fight before; and thou my dagger—</p> +<p>[<i>He stumbles over the horn which he cast away in the first act</i>.</p> +<p>What, what is this? By Hal, the horn which Vanfred<br /> +Gave me wherewith in time of need to call him.<br /> +Ha! by the gods, was ever need so horrid,<br /> +To crave to die, yet want the power of dying;<br /> +Friendship so warm as his will never surely<br /> +Refuse a dagger to this breast.</p> +<p>[<i>He winds the horn, which echoes frightfully among the rocks</i>.</p> +<p>Ha, Vanfred!<br /> +I call thee now; where art thou, Vanfred? Vanfred!</p> +<p>[<i>A whirlwind is heard, and</i> LOKE <i>immediately appears</i>.</p> +<p>LOKE, HOTHER.</p> +<p>LOKE. Hail, hail to thee, most fortunate of heroes!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! darest thou mock Hother?</p> +<p>LOKE. What disturbeth<br /> +A fortune which thy foe himself, which Skulda,<br /> +Which heavenly and subterranean powers<br /> +Establish with united strength?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Old dreamer!<br /> +Lend me a spear, and better right hand shall<br /> +Establish it than all the powers thou namest!</p> +<p>LOKE. I know thy state of mind and wretched project.<br /> +By Nastroud, that worst of fools, if Balder<br /> +Had not thine eyes with Asa magic blinded,<br /> +And hid each dagger, each abyss thou soughtest,<br /> +Ere now in mist thou’dst unreveng’d been lying!</p> +<p>HOTHER. What, has he hindered me, the noble, proud one!</p> +<p>LOKE. Yes, proud; for he despises thee.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Despises!</p> +<p>LOKE. And think’st thou he for sake of pleasing Nanna<br /> +Would e’er have deign’d to guard thee from destruction,<br /> +If he had much regarded Hother’s anger,<br /> +And if thy love one grain of sand he heeded?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Bad art thou, Vanfred; all thy words are poison’d.</p> +<p>LOKE (<i>incensed</i>). Ha! Hother, thou reward’st +in evil fashion<br /> +The friendship and the happiness I bring thee.</p> +<p>HOTHER. What happiness?</p> +<p>LOKE. But come, thy misery sours thee;<br /> +Know, I can straight assuage it!</p> +<p>HOTHER. And delayest.</p> +<p>LOKE. Know then at once, thou lucky son of Hothbrod,<br /> +The spear which sendeth Balder’s soul to Hælheim.</p> +<p>HOTHER. A spear, a spear! ’tis all I—</p> +<p>LOKE. Is discover’d!<br /> +I knew, for I had read it in the planets,<br /> +Valhalla’s battle-loving maids must seek for<br /> +The ne’er seen weapon, and prepare for slaughter<br /> +Its deadly point, and I—yes, I—seduc’d them,<br /> +The haughty three, to seek the spear.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Seduc’d them?</p> +<p>LOKE. And dost thou think they wish the death of Balder?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, Vanfred! more.</p> +<p>LOKE. At first thou hadst not the right one;<br /> +Thy combat, friend, prov’d that. Near then had<br /> +Balder crush’d thee and my design. Aghast I saw him<br /> +Brandish the Jotun’s bane—I’m well acquainted<br /> +With Balder’s strength; but ha! the fool prov’d tender;<br /> +He saw thy bride, and spar’d thee. Then up mounted<br /> +My courage and thine own.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>to himself</i>). I blush: my courage!<br /> +(<i>To</i> LOKE). What, courage! I was raging—blind +with fury!</p> +<p>LOKE. Courage of fury—I, by Hæl, care little,<br /> +My youthful hero, which thine eyeball gleams with,<br /> +If thou seek vengence, and thine enemy falleth.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Who art thou—who? But speak; proceed; explain +thee!</p> +<p>LOKE. Strong was thine arm, and strong ’gainst Jotun’s +armour<br /> +Was Rota’s lance, but all too weak ’gainst Balder;<br /> +And yet he kneel’d; I saw the proud one palen.<br /> +But ha! he rear’d himself; my heart then fail’d me,<br /> +For I could best appreciate thy full danger;<br /> +Raised was his arm; bright appear’d the massive falchion;<br /> +He called on Odin’s name, and then none living<br /> +Could save thee but himself—the fool! his lofty<br /> +Courage shall prove his overthrow.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, Vanfred!</p> +<p>LOKE. Well?</p> +<p>HOTHER. I do admire more and more thy wisdom.<br /> +But whilst we fought, where were the maids of battle?</p> +<p>LOKE. They were my dread; I quak’d at every shadow<br /> +And every leaf that mov’d, lest I should see them.<br /> +When I saw that no one of the sisters<br /> +Heard the high call, and din of shield and falchion,<br /> +My courage rose—I knew thou wast in safety:<br /> +They hear no fight where no one’s doomed to perish.</p> +<p>HOTHER. And now the spear thou spak’st about?</p> +<p>LOKE. She has it,<br /> +Valfather’s favour’d maid—his trusty servant,<br /> +At length discover’d by unwearied searching<br /> +The spear by which his much-lov’d son shall perish.<br /> +Shortly ere thou didst call, as in my cavern<br /> +I sat, its vaulted roof begun to tremble.<br /> +Three times my stilly dwelling shook, and o’er me<br /> +A sound assailed my ear; ’twas like the tempest’s<br /> +When it uptears the mountain oak; then heard I<br /> +The voice of Rota; black huge drops did trickle<br /> +Of Jotun blood, of them whom Odin slaughtered,<br /> +Through the rock’s rifts. I knew by all these signals<br /> +That she had found the right, the fatal weapon.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>impatiently</i>). Where is it—where?</p> +<p>LOKE. She hardens it in Nastroud.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Peace, dreamer! Go!</p> +<p>LOKE. I see this heat with pleasure,<br /> +And to extinguish all thy doubts, I’ll show thee—<br /> +If thou dare see her—the terrific Rota.</p> +<p>HOTHER. What, Vanfred! if I dare?</p> +<p>LOKE. Enough! Look westward!</p> +<p>[<i>He touches</i> HOTHER’S <i>eyelids. Immediately is +seen the entrance of a vast cavern, which is only illumined by the flames +which, with a continual roaring, now sinking, now rising, appear in +its deepest part. At the entrance, on each side, is a little round +altar. On the one a flame is burning in which lies the fatal spear. +On the other stands a caldron. The</i> VALKYRIER <i>move in a +circle round the first</i>.</p> +<p>THE THREE VALKRIER.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Flames of Nastroud<br /> +Blaze away!<br /> +The deepmost deeps feel<br /> +Valhall’s May.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Flames whose roaring<br /> +With dismay<br /> +E’en Asa hears,<br /> +Fate’s voice obey.</p> +<p>ROTA. Poisonous blazes<br /> +Harden a spear<br /> +For Valhall’s May!</p> +<p>ALL THREE. Poisonous blazes<br /> +Harden a spear<br /> +For Valhall’s May.</p> +<p>ROTA. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>ROTA (<i>takes the spear from the fire and goes towards the other +altar</i>). Enough, enough! Now will we in the caldron<br /> +Cool its red point—now backward turns the circle,<br /> +And as we turn, the life of him turns backward<br /> +Whom the spear smites; as quench’d are Nastroud’s sparkles<br /> +Vanish shall the life of him it woundeth.</p> +<p>[<i>She retains the spear in her hand, and all three march round +the caldron</i>.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. In juice of rue,<br /> +And trefoil too;<br /> +In marrow of bear<br /> +And blood of Trold,<br /> +Be cool’d the spear,<br /> +Three times cool’d,<br /> +When not from blazes<br /> +Which Nastroud raises<br /> +For Valhall’s May.</p> +<p>ROTA (<i>she dips it in, and then immediately gives it to the first</i> +VALKYRIE, <i>who does the same, and then hands it to the second, likewise +dips it in the caldron; meanwhile they sing</i>:)</p> +<p>THE FIRST. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>THE SECOND. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>ALL THREE. Whom it woundeth<br /> +It shall slay.</p> +<p>[ROTA <i>takes the spear. The</i> VALKYRIER <i>and the cavern +disappear. The scene appears the same as in the first of this +act. The tempest still continues to rage</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Evanished! sunken! sorcery surroundeth<br /> +My every step, and ties the arm of Hother.<br /> +Fool that I am! the moon will soon break over<br /> +Gevar’s high rocks; and I, by Hothbrod’s ashes,<br /> +Like one who fearfully will prolong existence,<br /> +I’m paying heed to phantoms. Vanfred! Vanfred!<br /> +Fiend, who didst vow me friendship I detested!<br /> +Say, where is now the spear which kills for certain?</p> +<p>LOKE. Thou saw’st it.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! I saw! I saw! Where is it?</p> +<p>LOKE. Do I not know that Odin’s maids prepar’d +it<br /> +Only for thee, that fate will only suffer<br /> +Thine arm in Balder’s heart to thrust it?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Lately<br /> +Thou saidst, think’st thou they wish the death of Balder?<br /> +But now against him they the weapon harden;<br /> +Now Valhall’s maidens hate the noble half-god.<br /> +Hence with thy contradictions, false deceiver!</p> +<p>LOKE. I have already said that I seduced them;<br /> +My subtlety, not they, the spear has harden’d.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Good now! thy subtlety! how nobly Hother<br /> +Passes the night! Proceed with thy narration.</p> +<p>LOKE. Then hear. Thou dost remember Rota’s present.<br /> +The spear which set the haughty half-god kneeling,<br /> +That shiver’d I, and brought it unto Rota.<br /> +I borrowed Tyr’s, the Asa’s dress and figure.<br /> +“Behold,” I cried, “thy spear, thou crafty Rota!<br /> +Late at a Jotun’s foot I found it lying,<br /> +Sent from the Leir-King’s hand; it still was buzzing,<br /> +For strong is Hother’s arm; I knew the weapon,<br /> +And I, who trusted in thy art, I shouted.<br /> +Now ill it stands with yonder mountain Jotun;<br /> +But loud he laugh’d, and straight the lance upsnatching,<br /> +He shiver’d it, and here, O crafty Rota!<br /> +Here bring I back to thee the precious fragments!”<br /> +With joy I saw her eyes with fury flashing,<br /> +She swore by Odin’s arm, by all the powers,<br /> +And by the highest Godhead—by Allfather,<br /> +Restless to search till she a spear discover’d<br /> +With power to slay the strongest son of Ymer,<br /> +And all who could be slain. She swore and vanished.<br /> +Then seem’d it—then, by Hæla’s mists, then seem’d +it<br /> +As if fate only for that oath had waited.<br /> +Three times above me thunder’d the high Norna;<br /> +She spake; but terrible is Skulda’s thunder;<br /> +I cannot bear its sound; I swift departed;<br /> +But soon was conscious of our spear’s discovery.<br /> +Then thou didst call— But hear the heavy pinions!<br /> +’Tis she! ’tis Rota! I aside must hasten;<br /> +For Valhall’s maids detest me. [LOKE <i>goes aside</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER, and presently the Valkyrie ROTA.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>he pursues</i> LOKE<i> with a contemptuous look</i>). +Outcast!<br /> +Ha! dastard slave! and thou didst swear me friendship!<br /> +No, ne’er hast thou been Hother’s friend, thou traitor,<br /> +But the sworn enemy of the gods and virtue!</p> +<p>ROTA (<i>handing him the fatal spear with a half-averted countenance</i>). +Here, son of Hothbrod! here, my much-lov’d warrior!<br /> +Receive this spear, and use it as—</p> +<p>HOTHER. Thou weepest!</p> +<p>ROTA. Thou saw’st my tear—dear and noble the blood +is<br /> +Which it forebodes; but do thou use this weapon!<br /> +Yet ’tis no gift of mine—’tis that of Skulda.</p> +<p>HOTHER. I know thou fearest for the generous Balder;<br /> +But, noble maid, if thou my heart see’st into,<br /> +Thou know’st that he is safe as Thor in Valhall.</p> +<p>ROTA. Think’st thou to thwart the Norna’s will, +young hero?<br /> +She pointed out the hidden tree; she bade me<br /> +Break off the bough of death; she bade me harden<br /> +Its point in Nastroud’s flames; she— But what will I?<br /> +My tears are wasted, like thy noble project.<br /> +Well, then: use thou this spear! Death is its surname,<br /> +And whom it smites eternal sleep shall fetter<br /> +In Hælheim’s silent night, if he is mortal;<br /> +The immortal demon, whose eye by hate and wickedness<br /> +Is clouded, ’twill plunge to torments of a thousand winters.<br /> +Mark that, and use it well! Thy breast is noble;<br /> +But him, the wretch! who breathest poison in it,<br /> +(Full well I know he’s near) him shalt thou punish.</p> +<p>[ROTA <i>disappears</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER, <i>and presently</i> LOKE.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Now, now! is all a dream? Yet, I’ve the +weapon!<br /> +How welcome death! my noble foe no longer<br /> +Shall hide thee from me, nor of thee deprive me;<br /> +Now can I keep what I have sworn! O Nanna!<br /> +I bring a noble offering to thy virtue!</p> +<p>[<i>He is going, but</i> LOKE <i>meets him at the entrance</i>.</p> +<p>LOKE. Whither? thou Fortune’s fav’rite!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>sharply</i>). Ha! to Hælheim.</p> +<p>LOKE. Hother, I scoff thy wise determination.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>incensed</i>). Thou scoffest?</p> +<p>LOKE. Yes, thou holdest thy foeman’s life,<br /> +And thou wilt die.</p> +<p>HOTHER. What foeman’s?</p> +<p>LOKE. Whose, if not Balder’s?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ah, my life he gave me!<br /> +And though I hold the gift in little value,<br /> +I took it still. And shall his lofty spirit<br /> +His downfall prove? Shall I, shall Hother punish<br /> +The pity I craved not?</p> +<p>LOKE. By Hæl! he’s coming!<br /> +Waste not the moments in these foolish visions.</p> +<p>HOTHER. What wouldst thou?</p> +<p>LOKE. Stand behind that pine, and kill him!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha! dastard slave!</p> +<p>[<i>He strikes</i> LOKE <i>on the head with the spear, and he instantly +sinks howling into the earth. He is no sooner out of sight than +everything becomes quiet. The sun rises in its full majesty. +After</i> HOTHER <i>has for some time looked on all this with astonishment, +he says</i>:</p> +<p>Like thee fall every traitor<br /> +Who breatheth wickedness in the Skiolding’s bosom!<br /> +Ha, Balder! [<i>He goes somewhat aside</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. BALDER.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>without perceiving</i> HOTHER). Gloomy was this +night and horrid!<br /> +Around about me angry gods consulted.<br /> +What seek they? To affright the soul of Balder?<br /> +Now all is still.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Now unconcern’d and haughty<br /> +Walks the high demigod! Ah, little thinks he<br /> +Each breath he draweth is the gift of Hother.</p> +<p>BALDER. Who utter’d Hother’s name? I heard +it utter’d,<br /> +But all is hushed as death. I know not wherefore<br /> +That name affects me more than any other,<br /> +And why within mine ear ’tis ever buzzing.<br /> +Ah! can I more than pity him, poor mortal!<br /> +Who now his life and feebleness bewaileth,<br /> +And trembles weaponless at his own shadow.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, now! for that is worthy of the Skoldung;<br /> +I’ll be as proud as thou, and fly thy presence! [<i>He goes</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Who’s speaking here? Who dares disturb +my musings?<br /> +But, know I not that Finnish fiends are swarming<br /> +Upon the rocks! The sun approach’d the ocean,<br /> +And yet I found not Nanna: all deserted<br /> +Was Gevar’s house, and hollow rang each echo<br /> +Of Balder’s sighs. Where was she, then? where was she?<br /> +Ah! Hother charm’d thee. In the arms of Hother<br /> +Thou didst not hear my sighs, my timid knocking,<br /> +And my enamour’d call, thou cruel maiden!<br /> +And what if I had found thee? Then thine answer<br /> +Most probably had prov’d the death of Balder.<br /> +I know myself no more; my heart it flutters,<br /> +And here about it creeps unwonted chillness.<br /> +Yes, Nanna! yes; ’twas thou taught’st me to tremble.<br /> +Ah! belov’d maiden! I, a half-god, tremble<br /> +When thou but breathest, when thy lip thou movest,<br /> +As if to utter No, thy lip is open’d.<br /> +Oh, hush! and let me sink with hope to Hælheim!<br /> +But did I not behold thine eye beam friendship<br /> +On Balder? felt I not thy warm tear trickle<br /> +Upon this hand? and saw I not thy blushes?<br /> +Ha! I’ll think through, I will enjoy entirely<br /> +My hope: why then, my heart, beat’st thou so wildly?<br /> +And why in Balder’s eyes are tears uprising,<br /> +And hope to me a stranger? Oh, my treasure,<br /> +Thou teachest me a dastard’s fear! I tremble<br /> +Now I’ve a glimpse of hope to be depriv’d of.<br /> +Ah! if ’tis torn from me again, if Nanna—<br /> +Oh doubt! oh fear with which my heart is tortur’d!<br /> +Yes, Thor, my friend, thy words were truth and wisdom;<br /> +That pity that she showed was thanks for sparing Hother:<br /> +She trembled but for Hother—for the lov’d one:<br /> +Each tear but begged his life. What cruel delusion<br /> +Has led my soul astray? Ah, wretched meteor<br /> +Of empty hope! thou, thou for me couldst glitter,<br /> +As if I had been ignorant of her hatred.<br /> +Ha! she has ever fled my path, my shadow;<br /> +And when, to my own torment, once I wrested<br /> +From the proud maid some sort of heed and answer,<br /> +’Twas mockery mere: she called herself unworthy<br /> +To be great Balder’s bride and Odin’s daughter,<br /> +And held my love-sick sighs for jest and flatt’ry.<br /> +Yet never have I heard the word which killeth,<br /> +Without the aid of Surtur’s deadly sapling—<br /> +The No, the frightful No, by Nanna utter’d.<br /> +Ha! I will hear it! Yes, by Hælheim’s darkness!<br /> +My tears shall now extract that No from Nanna.</p> +<p>NANNA, BALDER.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>she rushes distractedly in upon the stage</i>). Ah!<br /> +No one answers me! Do thou give hearing<br /> +To Nanna’s hard rock, which no god heedeth!<br /> +My anguish ease! Reply! Ah, where’s my lov’d +one?</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>aside</i>). My fate will have it so. Ha, Nanna.</p> +<p>NANNA. Show me,<br /> +Ye silent forests, shades once lov’d, now awful,<br /> +Oh, show me him—disclose me my dearest!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>aside</i>). Ha! shall I? Dare I?</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, where art thou, Hother?<br /> +Perhaps in an abyss, all crushed and bloody<br /> +And silent! Woe is me! for ever silent!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>springing to her</i>). Dear Nanna! Oh what +terror—</p> +<p>NANNA. Ha! I’ve seen him!<br /> +The direst dream has shown to me my Hother!<br /> +Close by a yawning chasm was he standing,<br /> +And round about him bellow’d hideous monsters.</p> +<p>BALDER. Thine—as thou callest him—thine Hother +liveth.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>whilst she recognizes</i> BALDER). Ha Balder! thou +hast slain him! Ah, forgive me!<br /> +My dream confuses me—thou see’st I tremble.<br /> +I heard the fall of gods—the gods lamenting;<br /> +And bloody by the Hall there stood a spectre:<br /> +Big was the ruddy wound whereto it pointed.<br /> +Like one deep musing it conceal’d its visage;<br /> +But big the tears were through its fingers streaming:<br /> +Ah, the pale son of night was tall as Hother!</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha! Hother can’t be dead.</p> +<p>NANNA. I do believe thee;<br /> +But ah! I cannot rest—I cannot, Balder,<br /> +Till I have seen his face, have spoken to him,<br /> +Embrac’d his arm, and press’d it to this bosom.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>distractedly</i>). Ha, Nanna! this is more—’tis +more, by Odin,<br /> +Than I can bear!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>terrified</i>). Ye mighty gods of heaven!<br /> +Thou fright’nest me, forlorn one!</p> +<p>[<i>She endeavours to escape, but</i> BALDER<i> detains her by force, +and flings himself at her feet</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER. Oh my Nanna!<br /> +Stay! by these burning tears I do adjure thee,<br /> +By all my sufferings! Stay, oh stay!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>with disquiet</i>). What wilt thou?</p> +<p>BALDER. I scarcely know! Ah! I have hop’d, +dear Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. Unhand me! Let me fly! What hast thou hop’d +for?<br /> +Thou know’st who has my love. Unhand me, Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER. No, by the gods! here at thy feet I’ll hear thee<br /> +Pronounce my doom. Is there no hope remaining?<br /> +Can all my tenderness—these tears—can nothing<br /> +Soften thy cruelty? Oh, answer, Nanna!<br /> +Say so at once! Plunge in my heart the dagger!</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, wherefore, Balder, dost thou love a mortal?</p> +<p>BALDER. Perhaps thou doubtest my love, perhaps thou wishest<br /> +Its whole extent. Ha, towards Heaven<br /> +I’ll lift my better hand, and vow eternal,<br /> +Eternal tenderness to thee, my Nanna!<br /> +If greater proofs thou wish’st for, do but name them,<br /> +That I may show to thee how dear I love thee!</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, Balder, spare me! spare thyself! What wilt +thou?<br /> +How often have I said my heart can never<br /> +Merit the like of thee!</p> +<p>BALDER. Accurst evasion!<br /> +Why dost thou seek to spare me? Crush me! kill me!<br /> +Say that thou never wilt!</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, I love Hother!<br /> +How can I?</p> +<p>BALDER. Perhaps thou only think’st thou lov’st +him.<br /> +Can he deserve thee, Nanna? he, a mortal?</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>incensed</i>). He loveth virtue, Balder; he is valiant,<br /> +And great is he ’mongst kings; he ruleth over<br /> +The Danes!</p> +<p>BALDER. I’m more than any king, oh Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. Wert thou a god, I’d still have none but Hother!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>stretches his right hand despairingly towards heaven</i>). +Although rejected—hear it all ye heavens—<br /> +Although rejected, I will love thee, Nanna!</p> +<p>[<i>He has scarcely finished speaking when the Valkyrie</i> ROTA<i> +appears. The Bird of Death sits upon her shoulder. She averts +her countenance, touches his skull with her spear, and says</i>:</p> +<p>To battle, friend! to wounds, and fall, and darkness!</p> +<p>[<i>She immediately disappears, and as</i> BALDER<i> and</i> NANNA<i> +have their backs turned to her, and have both been too attentive to +themselves to observe any one else, she is neither seen nor heard but +by the spectators</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>he springs up like a maniac, and holds his hand for some +time before his head</i>). Ha! how I’m dreaming! how I waste +my moments<br /> +In dastard sighs, bewailing like a woman!<br /> +And have I not a shield and sword? To battle!<br /> +To battle, Balder! Let thy broad sword glitter!<br /> +Lift high the sword, cleave down the haughty warrior,<br /> +And dip thy spear in blood, thou son of Odin!<br /> +Ha! din of shield ’gainst shield, and battle’s bellow,<br /> +They, they shall gladden me—and deafen Nanna!<br /> +And I will cool this heart in blood of Kempions!</p> +<p>[<i>He draws his sword, and runs away in madness</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>alone</i>). Ye heavens! what did he mean? Alas, +he rages!<br /> +Wretch that I am! he goes to slay my Hother!</p> +<blockquote><p>My hopes ye annih’late,<br /> +Ye powers of the sky!<br /> +Who’ll strengthen me, fainting,<br /> +Against the god’s might?<br /> +Who’ll heed my lamenting,<br /> +My sorrowful plight?<br /> +Ah! whom can I wend to?<br /> +Will earth e’er attend to<br /> +A powerless cry,<br /> +Which cruel gods smile at?<br /> +My hopes ye annih’late,<br /> +Ye powers of the sky!<br /> +Ha! ye have crush’d my heart! Oh Hother! Hother!<br /> +Where art thou? Ah! I can no more! I’m swooning!<br /> +O Death! O Freya!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>[<i>She supports herself, fainting, against a tree</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER, NANNA.</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>he rushes up to her in alarm</i>). Dearest!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>looking stiffly upon him</i>). Ah! my Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. So wild! so pale! Ah! would thy noble bosom<br /> +Was not so tender!</p> +<p>NANNA. Voice of my belov’d one!<br /> +Oh, speak again! Oh, speak again!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Thou tremblest,<br /> +My bride! my much-lov’d bride! And burning tear-drops,<br /> +Oh, hide them! Ha! they burn me—melt my courage!<br /> +Weep not, my bride!</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah, joy! the joy of heaven,<br /> +Entices forth these tears! My Hother liveth!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>mournfully</i>). Still liveth!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>affectionately and sorrowfully</i>). Still!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>turning away his face</i>). O cruel, cruel fortune!<br /> +Yet I have sworn?</p> +<p>NANNA. Fright me not, my Hother!<br /> +Affright me not! What mean’st thou? Mighty powers!<br /> +Thine eyes thou turnest from thy bride!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>looking upon her with tenderness</i>). Ah, Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. Ha! tears on Hother’s cheeks! Oh, save me, +Freya!<br /> +What means this? Oh, I die!</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>he embraces her with violence</i>). Oh, dearest +Nanna!</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh heaven! say—</p> +<p>HOTHER (<i>embraces her again</i>). Once more, my bride!</p> +<p>NANNA. I tremble<br /> +What means this?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Canst thou bury in oblivion<br /> +Thy Hother’s cruel doubt? Say, canst thou pardon<br /> +His only crime?</p> +<p>NANNA. Think’st thou I can remember<br /> +That Hother e’er has err’d?</p> +<p>HOTHER. How nobly spoken!<br /> +Farewell, my bride! farewell, for ever.</p> +<p>[<i>He embraces her for the third time, and is going; but she holds +fast his arm</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Cruel!<br /> +If thou hast ever lov’d me—</p> +<p>HOTHER. Canst thou doubt it?<br /> +By Odin, more than the best light! Can Hother’s<br /> +Tears not make bare to thee his heart?</p> +<p>NANNA Then wherefore<br /> +Wouldst thou fly from me!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Honour calleth—Honour!<br /> +And that—forgive me—that is more than Nanna.<br /> +Ha! I must fly from thee! Each tear thou sheddest<br /> +Enfeebles but my heart, and makes death bitter.</p> +<p>[<i>He is going</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA.. If thou regard’st my vow—regard’st +my terror,<br /> +Wouldst thou not see me die, and die distracted—</p> +<p>HOTHER. What wilt thou?</p> +<p>NANNA. Ah! a prayer!—oh how I tremble—<br /> +But if thou meetest Balder—</p> +<p>HOTHER. I avoid him!</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>astonished, and calmer</i>). What! thou avoid’st +him?</p> +<p>HOTHER. Think’st thou I bear hatred<br /> +’Gainst one who yielded thee a glimpse of pleasure?<br /> +One—nearly one of Hother’s days? He gave me<br /> +My life, and shall I slay him in requital?<br /> +Oh! Nanna, . . . I’ve the mighty thought imagined;<br /> +But with it trembles yet my lip—oh, canst thou<br /> +Pay virtue its reward—forget for ever thy Hother,<br /> +And—in course of time—love Balder?</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh, hush! oh, hush! my Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. He is virtuous,<br /> +He loves thee well, and Odin is his father.</p> +<p>NANNA. How cruel!</p> +<p>HOTHER. I must fly from thee for ever!</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh horror! Whither? What is thy intention?</p> +<p>HOTHER. To die! Thou know’st my oath! Ha! +the sun hastens!<br /> +Seest thou how high? I swore by Hothbrod’s ashes<br /> +With Balder not to live a day! Release me!<br /> +Ha! seest thou how high—</p> +<p>NANNA. And I have sworn too,<br /> +By tenderness, by Freya, by my bosom,<br /> +I’ll not release thee; I thy track will follow<br /> +In the black night of death! This arm I’ll cling to,<br /> +And my tear-moisten’d eye, until it bursteth,<br /> +Shall gaze on thee, shall gaze on thee, its Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Then be courageous—of thy Hother worthy!<br /> +Think on his oath, and—</p> +<p>NANNA (<i>she releases him</i>). Ah, what wilt thou, Hother?</p> +<p>HOTHER. And see him die!</p> +<p>[<i>He lifts his spear to stab himself. At that same moment +the frantic</i> BALDER<i> rushes upon the scene</i>.</p> +<p>BALDER, HOTHER, NANNA.</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>he runs directly up to</i> NANNA). Come! follow +me now, Nanna!<br /> +Our bridal festival’s prepar’d in Hælheim,<br /> +In Asgaard. Follow me, thou murky daughter<br /> +Of joy! Ha, quick! Of dastard love I dream not.<br /> +Jotuns await my arm. Hurrah! thou stayest!<br /> +Thou stayest! Come!</p> +<p>[<i>He seizes her by the arm, and seeks to drag her away by force</i>. +HOTHER<i> steps between, and endeavours to thrust him aside with his +hand</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Oh, save me! save me, Hother!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Hold, Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER (<i>he releases</i> NANNA, <i>and drawing his sword, hews +at</i> HOTHER <i>with his utmost might, who seeks to parry the blow +with his spear, retreating at the same time). Fall, presumptuous +wretch</i>!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Beware thee!</p> +<p>BALDER. Fall, nidding!</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, beware thee!</p> +<p>BALDER. Die!</p> +<p>[<i>He stumbles, and runs the spear into his breast; whereupon he +immediately drops his sword and sinks upon one knee</i>.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Ha, Balder!</p> +<p>BALDER. Ha, Nanna!—Thor! I have deserv’d +my fortune.</p> +<p>[<i>He dies, and a mighty whirlwind passes over the scene</i>.</p> +<p>NANNA. Ye heavens!</p> +<p>HOTHER. He is dead, the mighty Balder!</p> +<p>A VOICE FAR AWAY IN THE FOREST. He is dead, the mighty Balder!</p> +<p>MANY VOICES, <i>which answer one another amongst the rocks</i>.<br /> +The mighty Balder is dead.</p> +<p>[<i>It thunders</i>; ODIN <i>and</i> FRIGGA <i>appear upon a cloud +in a very mournful attitude</i>. THOR <i>and many of the</i> ASER +<i>come forward from one side of the wood, and the three</i> VALKYRIER +<i>from the other</i>.</p> +<p>THOR (<i>and his retinue</i>). Odin, thy Balder is dead!</p> +<p>CHORUS. Thunders, burst your cloudy portals!<br /> +Heaven, earth, and ocean rave!<br /> +Weep ye gods, and mourn ye mortals,<br /> +O’er the mighty Balder’s grave!</p> +<p>THOR. Gods of battle stern and gory,<br /> +Weep ye o’er the hero slain!<br /> +Balder, thou the Aser’s glory!<br /> +Love, base love, has prov’d thy bane.</p> +<p>CHORUS. Balder, thou the Aser’s glory,<br /> +Love, base love, has prov’d thy bane.</p> +<p>ROTA. I of slaughter swift purveyor,<br /> +Sorrow o’er the hero slain!<br /> +Balder, thou the Jotun-slayer,<br /> +Loke’s falsehood was thy bane.</p> +<p>CHORUS. Balder, thou the Jotun-slayer,<br /> +Loke’s falsehood was thy bane.</p> +<p>HOTHER. Hother’s burning tears are flowing<br /> +O’er the mighty Balder slain;<br /> +Ah, thy heart with virtue glowing,<br /> +Noble Balder, was thy bane.</p> +<p>CHORUS. Ah, thy heart with virtue glowing,<br /> +Noble Balder, was thy bane.</p> +<p>NANNA. Nanna weeps with pallid feature<br /> +O’er the mighty Balder slain:<br /> +Friend of gods and every creature!<br /> +Fate alone has prov’d thy bane.</p> +<p>CHORUS. Friend of gods and every creature!<br /> +Fate alone has prov’d thy bane.</p> +<p>MANY VOICES <i>answer one another among the rocks</i>. The<br /> +mighty Balder is dead!</p> +<p>CONCLUDING CHORUS. Thunders, burst your cloudy portals!<br /> +Heaven, earth, and ocean rave!<br /> +Weep and howl, ye gods and mortals,<br /> +O’er the mighty Balder’s grave.</p> +<h2>EXPLANATION OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS AND NAMES.</h2> +<p>ALLFATHER was one of Odin’s surnames, but it signifies in this +piece the highest being, who governs all things, and Odin himself.</p> +<p>ALF, a spirit; the same as Demon amongst the Greeks. There +were good and bad Alf’s or Elves, light and black, as the Edda +calls them.</p> +<p>ASER, was one of Odin’s surnames, and on that account the name +of Aser was given to all the gods.</p> +<p>ASGARD, the castle or city of the gods, erected by Odin and his brothers.</p> +<p>THE FALL OF ASGARD. At the end of the world the heavens were +to burst, and the castle of the gods to fall.</p> +<p>BALDER, son of Odin and Frigga, the best and most beautiful amongst +the Aser. His death and the circumstances which caused it in this +piece—that is, the whole plot—are taken partly from the +Edda (43rd, 44th and 45th falle), partly from the third book of Saxo, +and something is, according to poetic license, added or altered.</p> +<p>FENRI’S wolf, was begot by Loke with the giantess Angerbode. +This wolf in the conflict of Surtur with the gods was to swallow Odin, +who on account of this prophecy kept him in chains.</p> +<p>FIGHT AND DEATH OF GODS. At the destruction of the world, Odin +and the other gods were to fight with Surtur and his train, and all +to perish in this conflict. This period is termed, in the Edda, +Ragnarokr, the “twilight of the gods.”</p> +<p>FIND, a Trold or Demon of this name.</p> +<p>FREYA, the most exalted of the goddesses next to Frigga. She +was the protectress of the human race in general, but particularly of +lovers.</p> +<p>FRIGGA, the wife of Odin and the mother of Balder; the most exalted +of all the goddesses.</p> +<p>GELDER, king of the Saxons (according to Saxo, in the life of Hother). +He is presumed here to have been killed by Hother, who is therefore +called “the bane of Gelder.”</p> +<p>GEVAR, according to Saxo, a spæman or prophet, the father of +Nanna and the foster-father of Hother. He makes him likewise king +of Norway; but Giver is not so in this piece.</p> +<p>HÆL <i>or</i> HÆLA, the goddess of death. She was +the daughter of Loke and the giantess Angerbode, and was hurled down +by Odin to her horrible habitation.</p> +<p>HÆLHEIM, Hæl’s dwelling. In the Edda it is +called Helim, that is, Hell; but as the word Hell has now a different +signification, it was necessary to invent here a word to express Hæl’s +dwelling.</p> +<p>HÆLWAY, the way of the dead, or the path to Hælheim.</p> +<p>HERTE, HERTA, <i>or</i> HERTHA, the earth, considered as a divine +being and worshipped as a goddess by the old German and Northern people, +as likewise by the Romans and others. The Edda calls this goddess +Jörd (that is, earth), and makes her the daughter and wife of Odin, +and the mother of Thor, his first son.</p> +<p>HERTEDAL, the place in Sielland where Herte’s grove was.</p> +<p>HOTHBROD, the father of Hother, according to Saxo, who makes him +king of Sweden, and thus Hother a Swede. Contrary to which, the +author of this piece found himself justified in reckoning Hother amongst +the Skioldungs.</p> +<p>HOTHER, according to Saxo, was king of Denmark and Sweden; but his +Life, by the same, is a chain of fables, which has yet given considerable +occasion to the contents of this piece.</p> +<p>LEIRE, the ancient place of residence of the Danish kings, whence +they were termed “Kings of Leire.”</p> +<p>LIDSKIALF, in the Edda Klidskialf, a place in Asgard from which Odin +surveys the whole world.</p> +<p>LOKE, a very wicked god, who, according to the Edda, was the cause +of the death of Balder, and was therefore conducted by the other gods +to a cavern, where they chained him to three rocks, there to suffer +the most painful punishment until the destruction of the world. +By the giantess Angerbode he begot Fenri’s Wolf, Midgard’s +Serpent, and Hæl. He was reckoned among the Aser, and was, +notwithstanding his wickedness, beautiful of appearance.</p> +<p>MIDGARD’S SERPENT, a serpent begot by Loke with the giantess +Angerbode. It was to be one of the occasioners of the world’s +destruction, and was on that account cast by Odin into the deep sea, +where it grew to such a degree that it lay round the whole earth, and +bit its own tail.</p> +<p>MIMMER, the owner of a fountain wherein wisdom and knowledge of the +future lay concealed, out of which he drank every morning. Odin +was once obliged to lay one of his eyes in pawn, in order to obtain +a draught from this fountain. He was likewise, when Surtur should +attack the gods, to ride to this fountain and seek counsel from Mimer +on his own and his army’s account.</p> +<p>MIMRING, this is the sword called here, which Hother, according to +the relation of Saxo, took from a satyr or wild man of the same name.</p> +<p>NANNA, daughter of Gevar, beloved by Hother, and by Balder, son of +Odin, according to Saxo, whose narration bears that Hother wedded Nanna, +and afterwards slew Balder by the assistance of an enchanted belt which +three nymphs had bestowed upon him.</p> +<p>NASTROUD, was properly the place where the ungodly were to be after +the destruction of the world, but here the word is intended to signify +the glowing and burning world towards the south, at whose extremest +end Surtur had his habitation, and which is called in the Edda, Muspel, +or Muspelheim.</p> +<p>NORNIES, were the goddesses of destiny, whose messages Odin himself +was compelled to fear and to attend to. They were three in number. +But the eldest, Urd (been), presided over the past; the second, Verande +(being), the present; and the youngest, Skuld (shall be), the future.</p> +<p>ODIN, the god of war, the most exalted of the gods, and father of +them all.</p> +<p>ROTA, one of the Valkyrier. See VALKYRIER.</p> +<p>SKIOLDUNG. Skiold, son of Odin, was the founder of the Danish +monarchy. His descendants were called after him Skioldungs, or, +contractedly, Skiolds.</p> +<p>SKULDA (<i>in the Edda</i>, SKULD), the youngest Nornie. See +NORNIES.</p> +<p>SURTUR (<i>the Black</i>), the ruler of the glowing or burning world, +at whose extremest end was his seat or dwelling. See above: NASTROUD. +At the fated time he was with his army to overcome and slaughter Odin +and all the gods, and thereupon set fire to the whole world.</p> +<p>THOR, was the god of thunder and strength: with his hammer he slew +Yults, Trolds, and other foes of Odin and the gods.</p> +<p>TYR, one of the bravest and wisest gods, so that it was customary +to say proverbially, “As bold as Tyr,” “Wise as Tyr.”</p> +<p>VALFATHER, the father of the slain or fallen in battle: one of Odin’s +surnames.</p> +<p>VALHALL, (<i>the Hall of the Slain</i>), the place where all warriors +who had fallen by the enemy were so nobly entertained by Odin. +It is commonly called Valhalla; but Valhall is the right, and <i>Valhalla</i> +only the Latinized name in Resenius’ edition of the Edda.</p> +<p>VALKYRIER, were virgins, or war-maids, who waited upon the heroes +in Valhall. Three of them, amongst whom was Rota, were commonly +dispatched to the field of battle by Odin, in order to choose them who +were to be slain, which employment the name Valkyrier denotes. +These three have obtained a place in this tragedy, and Rota is made +the principal of them.</p> +<p>UDGAARD (UDGARD), Loke’s dwelling outside of heaven. +His usual name in the Edda is Udgarda Loke, Loke of Udgard; and thus +Saxo in the Life of Gorm the first calls him Ugartilocum.</p> +<p>YMER, the first giant, Yutt, or Jotun, who lived before the heaven +and the earth existed, and who was killed with all his offspring by +Odin and his brothers. Only one of this giant race, by name Borgeline, +escaped, together with his wife, and became the stem-father of the subsequent +Jotuns.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> Wadmal, +a coarse woollen stuff, much worn by Norwegian peasants.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2">{2}</a> Skiers +are wooden pattens to run upon over the frozen snow</p> +<p> </p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH OF BALDER***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 13879-h.htm or 13879-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/8/7/13879 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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