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

My mother's estate grew cramped and narrow!

Through thicket, o'er highway, I hastened away

To the grove so pleasant with bow and with arrow!

There met I again the elf-maiden fair.

HEMMING.  [Steps back amazed.]  When then,--have you wakened and

found--?

OLAF.  I took my betrothal ring, shot with it there

Right over her head, far into the air;

Now is she evermore bound!

HEMMING.  And it is the bride you are waiting for here?

OLAF.  Yes, yes, the bride; soon will she be near!

HEMMING.  [Aside.]  His soul is enthralled, his mind is ill;

All this Lady Kirsten shall know!

HEMMING.  [Aloud.]  And dare you go wandering fearless up here

In the hills?

OLAF.  It is here so still,

'Tis sweetly I dream as I go!

[Goes slowly in between the huge rocks in front on the right.]

HEMMING.  His wedding tomorrow his people prepare;

Yet for his betrothed he seems little to care;

'Tis little he knows that she is so near,

And less that she holds another one dear!--

He wanders around in the forest astray,

And Ingeborg gave me the golden ring!

His mother I'll seek without further delay;

The saints only know what the morrow will bring!

[Goes out to the left.]

[OLAF LILJEKRANS enters again from the right.]

OLAF.  [As he tears to pieces some flowers he has gathered off

the stage.]  "Of all the flowers on the hill over yonder

Must you the fairest one find;

And bit by bit you must tear it asunder,

And scatter it far to the wind,--

Then--only then will you happiness find!"

These mysterious words give my spirit no rest.

The fairest of flowers?  And what is the test?

Where will it be found?  Is its beauty revealed

In the fragrance or deep in the blossom concealed?

Or hid in some magic power that I never

Can possibly find if I search forever?

So may there be virtue in many a spear

Whose steel is rusty and out of gear;

So too may a harp that no longer sings

But hangs forgotten in the halls of mirth,

Hide in its forsaken and dusty strings

The strangest magic on earth.

[OLAF LILJEKRANS.  ALFHILD from the back of the stage.

She is fantastically dressed and adorned with flowers

and garlands of leaves; she looks about anxiously

until she discovers OLAF and runs joyfully to meet

him.]

ALFHILD.  O, stay, stay!  Do not go away from me!

OLAF.  [As if suddenly awakened to life.]  Alfhild! my young and

beautiful bride!

ALFHILD.  Olaf! my handsome knight!  I grew tired of waiting; I

had to come here to meet you!

OLAF.  But tell me, why are you always afraid to come here?

ALFHILD.  I have so often told you that I never went beyond this

valley until you visited me.  My father has said that evil powers

hold sway out there; only here among the mountains could I fare

safely and without harm!  O, let whatever power will hold sway;

you are here, and that is enough for me!  Come, let me look into

your eyes!  Truly, I have you again!

OLAF.  Have me!  Alas, Alfhild!  You artful, you beautiful woman,

indeed you have me again!  My soul you have charmed so deeply, so

deeply.  Lead me whither and as far as you will, into the

mountain, under the hill, to the grassy meadow, where song and

refrain echo sweetly in the evening, on the bottom of the river,

down under the rapids, where there are harps for powerful

plaintive lays; wherever your home is, there I am ready to

wander!

ALFHILD.  Why speak you thus?  You must surely know better than

what you are saying.--Spirits and elves hold sway in mountain and

hillock, and on the bottom of the river lives the nixie,--so

father has said.  Think you that I am an elf or--

OLAF.  You are the fairest in the world; be you what you please,

so long as you are mine!

ALFHILD.  Were I an elfen maid, then truly, say I, it would fare

with you ill!

OLAF.  Me!

ALFHILD.  Yes, you!  When you rode on your lonely path, I should

go out to meet you and give you the drink of forgetfulness from

the golden horn.  I should mix therein my magic and charm so that

you would forget both heaven and earth, forget where you were

born and reared, what name you answered to, and where your

kinsmen fared,--one thing alone should you remember, one thing

alone should fill your mind and soul.

OLAF.  Forsooth, then are you the elfen maid!  For from the first

hour you have practiced your magic on me.

ALFHILD.  Have I?

OLAF.  Through the meadow I rode, below where the river runs,--it

was night and the songs and the plaintive lays echoed strangely

around me....

OLAF.  Bewildered I grew and lost my path; I wandered far, far in

among the mountains; I discovered the beautiful valley, where no

foot has trod, where no eye has feasted ere mine....

OLAF.  A heavy slumber fell upon me in there; the elf maidens

played in the meantime, and they drew me into their play....

OLAF.  But when I awoke, there was affliction in my soul;

homeward I rode, but down there I could no more be content; it

seemed as if I had left behind me the richest and best in life,

as if a wonderful treasure were held in store for me, if only I

sought and found it....

OLAF.  Up to the valley I had to go before I could find peace....

OLAF.  You came to meet me, fair and glowing as in this hour; I

seized your hand, I looked you in the eye--heaven and earth, the

beauty of all creation, was in your eye!....

OLAF.  Then I forgot both kinsmen and friends!....

OLAF.  I came there the next night, I embraced you, I pressed you

to my bosom,--the glory of heaven was in your embrace....

OLAF.  --Then I forgot my Christian name and my forefathers'

home....

OLAF.  And I came the third night; I had to come; I kissed your

red lips; my eyes burned their way into your soul.--More than the

glory of creation was therein!  I forgot more than God and home,

more than heaven and earth.  I forgot myself.

[Prostrates himself before her.]

OLAF.  Alfhild!  Alfhild!

ALFHILD.  If it be a drink of forgetfulness which you speak of,

then have I also charmed myself with it.  I have fared as the

minstrel who learned the nixie's songs in order to charm his

sweetheart;--he charmed and charmed so long that at length the

magic wove itself round his own soul too, and he could never win

himself free therefrom.

[Stops and continues standing thoughtfully.]

OLAF.  [As he rises.]  What are you brooding over?

ALFHILD.  High in the mountain there is a rocky ledge so steep

that not even the eagle can fasten his claws thereon; there

stands a lonely birch,--ill does it thrive, it is poor in leaves;

but downward it bends its branches to the valley which lies far

away; it is as though it longed for its sisters in the fresh and

luxuriant grove, as though it yearned to be transplanted in the

warm sunny life down below....

ALFHILD.  Like the birch in the mountain was also my life; I

longed to get away; I longed for you through the long, long

years, even before I knew you existed.  The valley became too

cramped for me, but I did not know that beyond the mountains

there was another valley like this one in here.  The knights and

the ladies that visited me every evening were not enough for me,

and they told me nothing of the life beyond!

OLAF.  Knights and ladies?  You told me you never met any one

there.

ALFHILD.  No one like you!  But every evening my father

sang songs to me, and when the night came and my eyes

were closed, they came to visit me, all those that live

in my father's songs.  Merry knights and beautiful ladies

there were among them; they came with falcons on their

hands, riding on stately steeds.  They danced in the field,

and laughter and merriment reechoed wherever they fared;

the elves listened silently from behind each flower and the

birds from the trees where they had fallen asleep.  But

with the coming of dawn they again disappeared; lonely

I wandered; I decked myself with flowers and with green

leaves, for I knew the next night they would come again.

Alas, that life was after all not sufficient for me; a mighty

longing rilled my bosom; it would never have been stilled

if you had not come!

OLAF.  You speak of your father; at no time did I see him in

there!

ALFHILD.  But seldom he comes now; he has never been there since

the night we first met.

OLAF.  But tell me, where is he?

ALFHILD.  You have told me you rode late one summer night in the

meadow where the river flows; there you heard strange songs which

you only half understood, but which haunt and haunt you so that

you will never forget them.

OLAF.  Yes, yes!

ALFHILD.  You once heard my father's songs!  It is on them that I

have been nourished.  In truth, neither have I fully understood

them; they seemed to me to be the most precious treasure, to be

life itself; now they mean little to me; they are to me but a

token of all the glory that was to come.  In all of them was

there a handsome knight; I imagined him to be the best and most

glorious thing in all the valleys, the best and most glorious as

far as bird can fly, as far as clouds can sail.  Olaf! it was

you,--I know you again!  Oh, you must tell me of your home, of

the distant valley whence you come; life out there must be rich

and glorious; there it must be that my birds all fly with the

falling of the leaves; for when they again come to visit me, they

have so much to tell that is strange, so many a marvel to sing

about, that all the flowers begin to bud and to blossom, the

trees to grow green, and the big and glorious sun to rise early

and go tardily to rest, in order to listen to all the stories and

songs.  But little grasp I of all that they tell; you must

interpret it for me, you must make everything clear that inwardly

craves an answer.

OLAF.  Little am I able to answer what you ask of my home.  My

home?  If I have had a home other than this, then I remember but

little about it.  It is all to me like a misty dream which is

forgotten in the hour we waken.  Yet, come! far below us there

lies a village; there it seems I remember I wandered before I saw

you; there it seems to me that my kinsmen live.  Do you hear how

the river conjures and rushes; let us follow it; out on the ledge

near the waterfall we can overlook the village where I--once had

my home.  Come, come!

ALFHILD.  But dare I--

OLAF.  Follow and trust me, I shall protect you!

ALFHILD.  I am ready; I know it well enough; whether I wished to

or not, I must follow you wherever you go.

[They go out to the right.]

CHORUS OF WEDDING GUESTS AND LADY.  KIRSTEN'S PEOPLE

                (From the forest to the left.)

  Awake to our call, come free your will

  From elves that hover around!