Modern Icelandic Plays Part 60

_Sveinungi._

What kind of knowledge is that?

_Slvi._

Those stones teach me to know my country and how it has been built by fire and water and ice. They give me an opportunity of finding out new links in laws that are eternal and mightier than all mankind.

_Sveinungi._

Indeed! Since you are so pa.s.sing wise, you ought to have told me days ago that a great earthquake would come to-night. _That_ I could have understood; but it seems that you knew as little there as the rest of us. I believe old Jakobina is wiser than you.

_Slvi._

I don't know how wise she is, but I do know of people who go through life as if they were blind. They may have been living in the same place all their lives, and yet they have never seen the landscape they live with-- neither its beauty nor its peculiar character.

_Sveinungi._

They haven't? (_Points toward the "hraun."_) I have been out there in a snowstorm so heavy that I could scarcely see a hand before me, and shall I tell you how I found my way? I knew where I was by feeling before me with my hands. (_Laughs._) No, I have never seen the _hraun_!

_Slvi._

I did not say that you were among the blind, and I am sure you are human enough not to force your daughter to marry against her will. It would not give you much joy to feel that you had made her unhappy for her whole life. If you think you do not know me well enough, you can find out all you wish from myself or from others.

_Sveinungi._

I have no desire to learn anything about you, and you need not worry about my daughter. She will stay here with me.

_Slvi._

Ljot is not a child any longer. She can decide for herself.

_Sveinungi._

Perhaps you think she can't live without you. (_To Ljot._) If you care as much for him as he imagines, I will let you prove it. I will let you choose between him and me. If you choose him, then I have no daughter any more.

_Ljot._

You don't mean to force me to such a choice!

_Sveinungi._

Can you for a single moment be in doubt about whom to choose of us two-- him or your old father?

_Ljot (kneeling)._

He is so unutterably dear to me.

_Sveinungi._

Get up! I don't want to see you lying like a dog at my feet.

_Ljot (rising)._

Then you have no daughter.

_Slvi._

I knew you would not fail me!

_Jorunn._

You had better give your consent, Sveinungi, since it cannot be otherwise. I cannot do without my only child.

_Sveinungi (goes to Ljot)._

You are quite free, Ljot; I will not try to force you, but when you have thought it over, you will not leave your father and mother for the sake of a stranger. You are my only child, and you have been the light of my eyes since you were a little tot. When I came home from work I was never too tired to listen to what you had to say. When you stroked my cheek it was like warm summer rain falling on my face. It will be lonely and empty here if you go. You cannot do it.

_Ljot._

Father, it is you who drive me away.

_Sveinungi._

You must listen to me. It has always been my intention that you should take the farm, and yesterday when you promised to marry Halfdan it seemed to me that all my wishes had been fulfilled. I was happy, and not only for your sake, but fully as much for the farm. Yet you would leave it now in the midst of misfortune. Look about you! Not a single building is standing. Can you let your old father sit here alone and forsaken?

You might as well kill your father. And for whom should I build it up again if you are not to have it? It might as well be left to rot on the ground.

_Ljot._

You don't know, father, how much I care for him. I used to dream often that the mountains fell so that I could see the land beyond. To-night it seemed to me that the mountains fell.

_Sveinungi._

You are a wilful girl. (_To Slvi._) Could you think of taking over my farm, perhaps?

_Slvi._

I could not--

_Sveinungi (interrupting)._

Do you two believe that you can cow me? (_Pointing to the ruins._) There is a chest of drawers in there that Ljot keeps her clothes in. I will have nothing of hers in my house. (_To Slvi._) Will you go in there with me and bring it out?

_Slvi._

I have nothing to do in there.

_Sveinungi._

You can go, Ljot. I can't bear to see you. (_Goes over to the ruins; stands resting his hands on the walls._)