The Vikings of Helgeland Part 6

(THOROLF comes up from the s.h.i.+ps, with SIGURD'S men.)

THOROLF. All is ready for the feast.

DAGNY. Come then, Sigurd--my brave, my n.o.ble warrior!

SIGURD. Beware, Dagny--beware! It rests with thee now whether this meeting shall end peacefully or in bloodshed. (Cheerfully to the others.) Away then, to the feast in Gunnar's hall!

(Goes out with DAGNY to the right; the others follow.)

ACT SECOND.

(The feast-room in GUNNAR'S house. The entrance-door is in the back; smaller doors in the side-walls. In front, on the left, the greater high-seat; opposite it on the right, the lesser. In the middle of the floor, a wood fire is burning on a built-up hearth. In the background, on both sides of the door, are daises for the women of the household.

From each of the high-seats, a long table, with benches, stretches backwards, parallel with the wall. It is dark outside; the fire lights the room.)

(HIORDIS and DAGNY enter from the right.)

DAGNY. Nay, Hiordis, I cannot understand thee. Thou hast shown me all the house; I know not what thing thou lackest, and all thou hast is fair and goodly;--then why bemoan thy lot?

HIORDIS. Cage an eagle and it will bite at the wires, be they of iron or of gold.

DAGNY. In one thing at least thou art richer than I; thou hast Egil, thy little son.

HIORDIS. Better no child, than one born in shame.

DAGNY. In shame?

HIORDIS. Dost thou forgot thy father's saying? Egil is the son of a leman; that was his word.

DAGNY. A word spoken in wrath--why wilt thou heed it?

HIORDIS. Nay, nay, Ornulf was right; Egil is weak; one can see he is no freeborn child.

DAGNY. Hiordis, how canst thou----?

HIORDIS (unheeding). Thus is shame sucked into the blood, like the venom of a snake-bite. Of another mettle are the freeborn sons of mighty men. I have heard of a queen that took her son and sewed his kirtle fast to his flesh, yet he never blinked an eye. (With a look of cruelty.) Dagny, that will I try with Egil!

DAGNY (horrified). Hiordis, Hiordis!

HIORDIS (laughing). Ha-ha-ha! Dost thou think I meant my words?

(Changing her tone.) But, believe me or not as thou wilt, there are times when such deeds seem to lure me; it must run in the blood,-- for I am of the race of the Jotuns,[1] they say.--Come, sit thou here, Dagny. Far hast thou wandered in these five long years; tell me, thou hast ofttimes been a guest in the halls of kings?

[1] The giants or t.i.tans of Scandinavian mythology.

DAGNY. Many a time--and chiefly with AEthelstan of England.

HIORDIS. And everywhere thou hast been held in honour, and hast sat in the highest seats at the board?

DAGNY. Doubtless. As Sigurd's wife----

HIORDIS. Ay, ay--a famous man is Sigurd--though Gunnar stands above him.

DAGNY. Gunnar?

HIORDIS. One deed did Gunnar do that Sigurd shrank from. But let that be! Tell me, when thou didst go a-viking with Sigurd, when thou didst hear the sword-blades sing in the fierce war-game, when the blood streamed red on the deck--came there not over thee an untameable longing to plunge into the strife? Didst thou not don harness and take up arms?

DAGNY. Never! How canst thou think it? I, a woman!

HIORDIS. A woman, a woman,--who knows what a woman may do!--But one thing thou canst tell me, Dagny, for that thou surely knowest: when a man clasps to his breast the woman he loves--is it true that her blood burns, that her bosom throbs--that she swoons in a shuddering ecstasy?

DAGNY (blus.h.i.+ng). Hiordis, how canst thou----!

HIORDIS. Come, tell me----!

DAGNY. Surely thou thyself hast known it.

HIORDIS. Ay once, and only once; it was that night when Gunnar sat with me in my bower; he crushed me in his arms till his byrnie burst, and then, then----!

DAGNY (exclaiming). What! Sigurd----!

HIORDIS. Sigurd? What of Sigurd? I spoke of Gunnar--that night when he bore me away----

DAGNY (collecting herself). Yes, yes, I remember--I know well----

HIORDIS. That was the only time; never, never again! I deemed I was bewitched; for that Gunnar could clasp a woman---- (Stops and looks at DAGNY.) What ails thee? Methinks thou turnest pale and red!

DARNY. Nay, nay!

HIORDIS (without noticing her). The merry viking-raid should have been _my_ lot; it had been better for me, and--mayhap for all of us.

That were life, full and rich life! Dost thou not wonder, Dagny, to find me here alive? Art not afraid to be alone with me in the hall?

Deem'st thou not that I must have died in all these years, and that it is my ghost that stands at thy side?

DAGNY (painfully affected). Come--let us go--to the others.

HIORDIS (seizing her by the arm). No, stay! Seems it not strange to thee, Dagny, that any woman can yet live after five such nights?

DAGNY. Five nights?

HIORDIS. Here in the north each night is a whole winter long.

(Quickly and with an altered expression.) Yet the place is fair enough, doubt it not! Thou shalt see sights here such as thou hast not seen in the halls of the English king. We shall be together as sisters whilst thou bidest with me; we shall go down to the sea when the storm begins once more; thou shalt see the billows rus.h.i.+ng upon the land like wild, white-maned horses--and then the whales far out in the offing! They dash one against another like steel-clad knights!

Ha, what joy to be a witching-wife and ride on the whale's back--to speed before the skiff, and wake the storm, and lure men to the deeps with lovely songs of sorcery!

DAGNY. Fie, Hiordis, how canst thou talk so!

HIORDIS. Canst thou sing sorceries, Dagny?