Early Plays by Henrik Ibsen (best novels in english txt) 📕

ARNE.  Cursed be you that you play me false!

THE GUESTS.  [Threatening, as several of them draw their knives

and rush in on Lady Kirsten's people.]  Revenge!  Revenge on the

house of Liljekrans!

LADY KIRSTEN'S MEN.  [Raise their axes and prepare to defend

themselves.]  Strike too!  Down with the men of Guldvik!

LADY KIRSTEN.  [Throws herself between the contending parties.]

Stop, stop; I pray you, stop!  Lord Arne! hear me to the end ere

you judge my conduct.

ARNE.  [Who has tried to quiet his kinsmen, approaches LADY

KIRSTEN and speaks in a low tone as he tries to overcome his

inner agitation, which is nevertheless apparent.]  Forgive me,

Lady Kirsten!  I was too quick in my wrath.  Had I stopped to

think I might surely have known the whole was a jest on your

part; I beg you, do not contradict me, it must be so!  No wedding

tomorrow,--how could such a thing happen!  If it is ale and mead

you lack, or if you need silver or embroidered linens, then come

you to me.

LADY KIRSTEN.  It is no poor man's house that your daughter is

marrying into, Lord Arne!  Do you but come to the wedding with

all your kinsmen and friends, aye, come with three times as many

if you wish,--in my home you shall find plenty of room and

banquet fare, as much as you may desire.  Think not for a moment

that such an inglorious reason could stand in my way.

ARNE.  You have changed your mind, perchance?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Nor that either!  If I have given my word, then am

I likewise ready to keep it, today just as well as tomorrow; for

such was ever the custom and rule in my family.  But in this

instance it is not in my power; one there is lacking--

INGEBORG.  One!  Whom?  Surely I should think that when the bride

is ready,--

LADY KIRSTEN.  For a wedding two people are needed, the groom as

well as the bride--

ARNE AND THE GUESTS.  Olaf!

INGEBORG.  My betrothed!

LADY KIRSTEN.  Yes, he, my son--this night he is fled from his

home and his bride.

GUESTS.  Fled!

ARNE.  Fled!  He!

LADY KIRSTEN.  As I hope for the grace of heaven, I have no hand

therein.

ARNE.  [With suppressed exasperation.]  And the wedding was to be

tomorrow!  My daughter has put on her golden attire; invitations

I have sent around in the district; my kinsmen and friends come

from far away to attend the festive day.

ARNE.  [Flaring up.]  Ah, take you good care, if Arne of Guldvik

is held up to scorn before his neighbors; it shall profit you

little,--that I solemnly swear!

LADY KIRSTEN.  You reason unjustly, if you think--

ARNE.  'Tis not, Lady Kirsten, for you to say so!  We two have an

old account to settle; it is not the first time that you set your

cunning traps for me and mine.  The race of Guldvik has long had

to suffer, when you and your kinsmen plotted deception and guile.

Power we had,--we had wealth and property too; but you were too

crafty for us.  You knew how to lure us with wily words and ready

speech,--those are wares I am little able to reckon as I should.

LADY KIRSTEN.  Lord Arne!  Hear me, I pray!

ARNE.  [Continuing.]  Now I see clearly that I have behaved like

the man who built his house on the ice-floe: a thaw came on and

down he went to the bottom.  But you shall have little joy of

this.  I shall hold you to account, Lady Kirsten!  You must

answer for your son; you it was who made love for him, and your

affair it will be to keep the word you have given me!  A fool I

was, aye, tenfold a fool, that I put my faith in your glib

tongue.  Those who wished me well gave me warning; my enemies

made me an object of scorn; but little heed gave I to either.  I

put on my gala attire; kinsmen and friends I gathered together;

with song and laughter we set out for the festive hall, and

then,--the bridegroom has fled.

INGEBORG.  Never will I marry one who holds me so lightly.

ARNE.  Be still!

HEMMING.  [Softly to ARNE.]  Mistress Ingeborg is right; best it

is you break the agreement.

ARNE.  Be still, I say!

LADY KIRSTEN.  [To ARNE.]  You may well be rilled with wrath and

resentment; but if you think I meant to deceive you, you do me

the greatest injustice.  You think we are playing a game of

deception with you.  But tell me,--what would tempt me and my son

to such a thing?  Does he not love Ingeborg?  Where could he

choose him a better bride?  Is she not fair and lithe?  Is her

father not rich and mighty?  Is not her family mentioned with

honor as far as it is known?

ARNE.  But how then could Olaf--

LADY KIRSTEN.  The lot I have suffered is worse than you think.

You will pity me instead of growing angry when you have

heard.--Since the sun rose this morning I have wandered up here

to find him again.

ARNE.  Up here?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Yes, up here; I must tell you--you'll be

frightened--but nevertheless,--Olaf is bewitched in the mountain!

GUESTS.  Bewitched in the mountain!

INGEBORG.  [At the same time.]  Deliver me, God!

ARNE.  What say you, Lady Kirsten?

LADY KIRSTEN.  He is bewitched in the mountain!  Nothing else can

it be.--Three weeks ago, after the betrothal feast at Guldvik, he

did not come home till far into the next day.  Pale he was and

moody and quiet as I had never seen him before.  And thus the

days went by; he spoke but little; he lay in his bed most of the

time and turned his face to the wall; but when evening came on,

it seemed a strange uneasiness seized him; he saddled his horse

and rode away, far up the mountain side; but no one dared follow

him, and no one knew where he went beyond that.  Believe me, 'tis

evil spirits that have charmed his mind; great is the power they

wield in here; from the time the terrible plague overran the

country it has never been quite safe in the mountain here; there

is scarcely a day goes by but the chalet girls hear strange

playing and music, although there is no living soul in the place

whence it comes.

ARNE.  Bewitched in the mountain!  Could such a thing be

possible?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Would to God it were not; but I can no longer

doubt it.  Three days is it now since he last was at home.

ARNE.  And you have seen none who knows where he is?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Alas, no, it is not so easy.  Up here a hunter

yesterday saw him; but he was wild and shy as the deer; he had

picked all sorts of flowers, and these he scattered before him

wherever he went, and all the while he whispered strange words.

As soon as I heard of this, I set out with my people, but we have

found nothing.

INGEBORG.  You met none who could tell you--

LADY KIRSTEN.  You know of course the mountain-side is desolate.

ARNE.  [As he spies THORGJERD, who rises from the river.]  Here

comes one will I ask.

HEMMING.  [Apprehensively.]  Master!  Master!

ARNE.  What now?

HEMMING.  Let him go!  Do you not see who it is?

THE GUESTS AND LADY KIRSTEN'S PEOPLE.  [Whispering among

themselves.]  Thorgjerd the fiddler!  The crazy Thorgjerd!

INGEBORG.  He has learned the nixie's songs.

HEMMING.  Let him go, let him go!

ARNE.  No,--not even were he the nixie himself--

[The Preceding.]

[THORGJERD has in the meantime gone to the edge of the

stage to the left; at ARNE's last words he turns about

suddenly as if he had been addressed.]

THORGJERD.  [As he draws a step or two nearer.]  What do you want

of me?

ARNE.  [Startled.]  What's that?

HEMMING.  Now see!

ARNE.  Let me manage this.

ARNE.  [To THORGJERD.]  We seek Olaf Liljekrans.  Have you met

him about here today?

THORGJERD.  Olaf Liljekrans?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Why, yes,--you know him well.

THORGJERD.  Is he not one of the evil men from the villages?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Evil?

THORGJERD.  They are all evil there!  Olaf Liljekrans curses the

little bird when it sings on his mother's roof.

LADY KIRSTEN.  You lie, you fiddler!

THORGJERD.  [With an artful smile.]  So much the better for him.

ARNE.  How so?

THORGJERD.  You ask about Olaf Liljekrans?  Has he gone astray in

here?  You seek him and cannot find him?

LADY KIRSTEN.  Yes, yes!

THORGJERD.  So much the better for him;--if it were a lie that I

told, he will suffer no want.

INGEBORG.  Speak out what you know!

THORGJERD.  Then I should never be done!

THORGJERD.  [Mischievously.]  Elves and sprites hold sway here.

Be you of good cheer!  If you find him not he is at play with the

elves; they are fond of all who love little birds, and Olaf, you

said....  Go home,--go home again.  Olaf is up in the mountain;

he suffers no want.

LADY KIRSTEN.  Curse you for saying such things!

ARNE.  [To LADY KIRSTEN.]  Do not heed what he says.

THORGJERD.  [Approaches again.]  I go hence now to tune my harp;

Olaf Liljekrans is up in the mountain,--there shall his wedding

be held.--Mad Thorgjerd must also be there; he can make tables

and benches dance, so stirring is the music he plays.  But you,

take you heed; go you home again; it is not safe for you here.

Have you not heard the old saying:

  Beware of the elves when they frolic around,

  They may draw you into their play;

  And all that you see and all that you hear

  Will stay with your mind alway.

THORGJERD.  [Suddenly breaking out with wild joy.]  But here

there are wedding guests,--ah!  Each lady has on her very best

gown, each man his very best coat,--now I see.  Olaf Liljekrans

is likewise a groom in the village,--there also he has a

betrothed!  Well, you have heard of such things before!  I know

that at any rate once, --it is years ago--but well I remember....

THORGJERD.  [He continues after a moment's pause, more and more

wildly.]

  Sir Alvar and Ingrid had plighted their troth,

  She was a sprightly maiden;

  Three blessed long days they feasted and sang,

  With jolly good wine they were laden.

  The bride was fair and the bride was gay,

  The dance of the guests she led,

  When in came the nixie, the evil wight,

  And sat on the edge of the bed.

  Like a fiddler he sat on the edge of the bed,

  And music bewitchingly played.

  Around danced the benches and tables and all,

  As lightly as servant and maid!--

  The nixie he went through the open door,--

  The truth it boots not to hide!--

  And while he played on the harpstrings sweet,

  There followed him ever--the bride!

THORGJERD.  [Wildly, triumphantly.]

  Fast in a spell lay knight and page,

  The groom knew not whither to go,

  The nixie made ready the bridal bed,

  Little Ingrid's bed in the river below.

THORGJERD.  [Suddenly becomes quiet and says softly.]  That song

I shall never forget!--But go you home, night is coming on, and

when the sun is down the forest belongs to the others.  Farewell!

I shall take greetings to Olaf where he sits--in the mountain!

[Goes out to the left.]

[The Preceding except THORGJERD.]

ARNE.  [To LADY KIRSTEN.]  He lies!  Do not believe him!

HEMMING.  But it is nevertheless