The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays by Gordon Bottomley et al. (best books to read .TXT) 📕

to her smouldering beauty,
  Leave the fire that's kinder than the woman,
  Leave the roof-tree ere it falls. It falls.

  (GUDFINN joins her. Each time HALLGERD flags they turn as they
  chant, and point at her.)
  We shall cry no more in the high rock-places,
  We are gone from the night, the winds and the clouds are empty:
  Soon the man in the West shall receive our message.

(JOFRID'S voice joins the other voices.)

  Men reject us, yet their house is unstable.
  The slayers' hands are warm—the sound of their riding
  Reached us down the ages, ever approaching.

      HALLGERD (at the same time, her voice high over theirs)
  Pack, ye rag-heaps—or I'll unravel you.

      THE THREE (continuously)
  House that spurns us, woe shall come upon you:
  Death shall hollow you. Now we curse the woman—
  May all the woes smite her till she can feel them.
  Shall we not roost in her bower yet? Woe! Woe!

  (The distaff breaks, and HALLGERD drives them out with her hands.
  Their voices continue for a moment outside, dying away.)

Call to the owl-friends…. Woe! Woe! Woe!

                        ASTRID
  Whence came these mounds of dread to haunt the night?
  It doubles this disquiet to have them near us.

                        ODDNY
  They must be witches—and it was my distaff—
  Will fire eat through me….

                        STEINVOR
                                   Or the Norns themselves.

                        HALLGERD
  Or bad old women used to govern by fear.
  To bed, to bed—we are all up too late.

      STEINVOR (as she turns with ASTRID and ODDNY to the dais)
   If beds are made for sleep we might sit long.

(They go out by the dais door.)

      GUNNAR (as he enters hastily from the left)
  Where are those women? There's some secret in them:
  I have heard such others crying down to them.

                        HALLGERD
  They turned foul-mouthed, they beckoned evil toward us—
  I drove them forth a breath ago.

                        GUNNAR
                              Forth? Whence?

                        HALLGERD
  By the great door: they cried about the night.

(RANNVEIG follows GUNNAR in.)

                        GUNNAR
  Nay, but I entered there and passed them not.
  Mother, where are the women?

                        RANNVEIG
                         I saw none come.

                        GUNNAR
  They have not come, they have gone.

                        RANNVEIG
                                       I crossed the yard,
  Hearing a noise, but a big bird dropped past,
  Beating my eyes; and then the yard was clear.

(The deep baying of the hound is heard again.)

                        GUNNAR
  They must be spies: yonder is news of them.
  The wise hound knew them, and knew them again.

(The baying is succeeded by one mid howl.)

                                      Nay, nay!
  Men treat thee sorely, Samm my fosterling:
  Even by death thou warnest—but it is meant
  That our two deaths will not be far apart.

                        RANNVEIG
  Think you that men are yonder?

                        GUNNAR
                                       Men are yonder.

                        RANNVEIG
  My son, my son, get on the rattling war-woof,
  The old grey shift of Odin, the hide of steel.
  Handle the snake with edges, the fang of the rings.

      GUNNAR (going to the weapons by the high-seat)
  There are not enough moments to get under
  That heavy fleece: an iron hat must serve.

                        HALLGERD
  O brave! O brave!—he'll dare them with no shield.

      GUNNAR (lifting down the great bill)
  Let me but reach this haft, I shall get hold
  Of steel enough to fence me all about.

  (He shakes the bill above his head: a deep resonant humming
  follows.

  The dais door is thrown open, and ODDNY, ASTRID, and STEINVOR
  stream through in their night-clothes.)

                        STEINVOR
  The bill!

                        ODDNY
                        The bill is singing!

                        ASTRID
                                                   The bill sings!

      GUNNAR (shaking the bill again)
  Ay, brain-biter, waken…. Awake and whisper
  Out of the throat of dread thy one brief burden.
  Blind art thou, and thy kiss will do no choosing:
  Worn art thou to a hair's grey edge, a nothing
  That slips through all it finds, seeking more nothing.
  There is a time, brain-biter, a time that comes
  When there shall be much quietness for thee:
  Men will be still about thee. I shall know.
  It is not yet: the wind shall hiss at thee first.
  Ahui! Leap up, brain-biter; sing again.
  Sing! Sing thy verse of anger and feel my hands.

                        RANNVEIG
  Stand thou, my Gunnar, in the porch to meet them,
  And the great door shall keep thy back for thee.

                        GUNNAR
  I had a brother there. Brother, where are you….

                        HALLGERD
  Nay, nay. Get thou, my Gunnar, to the loft,
  Stand at the casement, watch them how they come.
  Arrows maybe could drop on them from there.

                        RANNVEIG
  'Tis good: the woman's cunning for once is faithful.

      GUNNAR (turning again to the weapons)
  'Tis good, for now I hear a foot that stumbles
  Along the stable-roof against the hall.
  My bow—where is my bow? Here with its arrows….
  Go in again, you women on the dais,
  And listen at the casement of the bower
  For men who cross the yard, and for their words.

                        ASTRID
  O Gunnar, we shall serve you.

(ASTRID, ODDNY, and STEINVOR go out by the dais door.)

                        RANNVEIG
                                  Hallgerd, come;
  We must shut fast the door, bar the great door,
  Or they'll be in on us and murder him.

                        HALLGERD
  Not I: I'd rather set the door wide open
  And watch my Gunnar kindling at the peril,
  Keeping them back—shaming men for ever
  Who could not enter at a gaping door.

                        RANNVEIG
  Bar the great door, I say, or I will bar it—
  Door of the house you rule…. Son, son, command it.

      GUNNAR (as he ascends to the loft)
  O spendthrift fire, do you waft up again?
  Hallgerd, what riot of ruinous chance will sate you?…
  Let the door stand, my mother: it is her way.

  (He looks out at the casement.)
  Here's a red kirtle on the lower roof.

(He thrusts with the bill through the casement.)

      A MAN'S VOICE (far off)
  Is Gunnar within?

    THORGRIM THE EASTERLING'S VOICE (near the casement)
                        Find that out for yourselves:
  I am only sure his bill is yet within.

(A noise of falling is heard.)

                        GUNNAR
  The Easterling from Sandgil might be dying—
  He has gone down the roof, yet no feet helped him.

  (A shouting of many men is heard: GUNNAR starts back from the
  casement as several arrows fly in.)

  Now there are black flies biting before a storm.
  I see men gathering beneath the cart-shed:
  Gizur the White and Geir the priest are there,
  And a lean whispering shape that should be Mord.
  I have a sting for some one—

(He looses an arrow: a distant cry follows.)

                                    Valgard's voice….
  A shaft of theirs is lying on the roof;
  I'll send it back, for if it should take root
  A hurt from their own spent and worthless weapon
  Would put a scorn upon their tale for ever.

(He leans out for the arrow.)

                        RANNVEIG
  Do not, my son: rouse them not up again
  When they are slackening in their attack.

                        HALLGERD
  Shoot, shoot it out, and I'll come up to mock them.

      GUNNAR (loosing the arrow)
  Hoia! Swerve down upon them, little hawk.

(A shout follows.)

  Now they run all together round one man:
  Now they murmur….

                        A VOICE
                            Close in, lift bows again:
  He has no shafts, for this is one of ours.

(Arrows fly in at the casement.)

                        GUNNAR
  Wife, here is something in my arm at last:
  The head is twisted—I must cut it clear.

  (STEINVOR throws open the dais door and rushes through with a
  high shriek.)

                        STEINVOR
  Woman, let us out—help us out—
  The burning comes—they are calling out for fire.

  (She shrieks again. ODDNY and ASTRID, who have come behind her,
  muffle her head in a kirtle and lift her.)

      ASTRID (turning as they bear her out)
  Fire suffuses only her cloudy brain:
  The flare she walks in is on the other side
  Of her shot eyes. We heard a passionate voice,
  A shrill unwomanish voice that must be Mord,
  With "Let us burn him—burn him house and all."
  And then a grave and trembling voice replied,
  "Although my life hung on it, it shall not be."
  Again the cunning fanatic voice went on
  "I say the house must burn above his head."
  And the unlifted voice, "Why wilt thou speak
  Of what none wishes: it shall never be."

(ASTRID and ODDNY disappear with STEINVOR.)

                        GUNNAR
  To fight with honest men is worth much friendship:
  I'll strive with them again.

  (He lifts his bow and loosens arrows at intervals while
  HALLGERD and RANNVEIG speak.)

    HALLGERD (in an undertone to RANNVEIG, looking out meanwhile
      to the left)
                              Mother, come here—
  Come here and hearken. Is there not a foot,
  A stealthy step, a fumbling on the latch
  Of the great door? They come, they come, old mother:
  Are you not blithe and thirsty, knowing they come
  And cannot be held back? Watch and be secret,
  To feel things pass that cannot be undone.

                        RANNVEIG
  It is the latch. Cry out, cry out for Gunnar,
  And bring him from the loft.

                        HALLGERD
                                Oh, never:
  For then they'd swarm upon him from the roof.
  Leave him up there and he can bay both armies,
  While the whole dance goes merrily before us
  And we can warm our hearts at such a flare.

    RANNVEIG (turning both ways, while HALLGERD watches her gleefully)
  Gunnar, my son, my son! What shall I do?

  (ORMILD enters from the left, white and with her hand to her
  side, and walking as one sick.)

                        HALLGERD
  Bah—here's a bleached assault….

                        RANNVEIG
                                      Oh, lonesome thing,
  To be forgot and left in such a night.
  What is there now—are terrors surging still?

                        ORMILD
  I know not what has gone: when the men came
  I hid in the far cowhouse. I think I swooned….
  And then I followed the shadow. Who is dead?

                        RANNVEIG
  Go to the bower: the women will care for you.

(ORMILD totters up the hall from pillar to pillar.)

      ASTRID (entering by the dais door)
  Now they have found the weather-ropes and lashed them
  Over the carven ends of the beams outside:
  They bear on them, they tighten them with levers,
  And soon they'll tear the high roof off the hall.

                        GUNNAR
  Get back and bolt the women into the bower.

  (ASTRID takes ORMILD, who has just reached her, and goes out with
  her by the dais door, which closes after them.)

Hallgerd, go in: I shall be here thereafter.

                        HALLGERD
  I will not stir. Your mother had best go in.

                        RANNVEIG
  How shall I stir?

      VOICES (outside and gathering volume)
        Ai…. Ai…. Reach harder…. Ai….

                        GUNNAR
  Stand clear, stand clear—it moves.

  THE VOICES
                          It moves…. Ai, ai….

  (The whole roof slides down rumblingly, disappearing with a crash
  behind the watt of the house. All is dark above. Fine snow sifts
  down now and then to the end of the play.)

      GUNNAR (handling his bow)
  The wind has changed: 'tis coming on to snow.
  The harvesters will hurry in to-morrow.

  (THORBRAND THORLEIKSSON appears above the wall-top a little past
  GUNNAR, and, reaching noiselessly with a sword, cuts GUNNAR'S
  bowstring.)

      GUNNAR (dropping the bow and seizing his bill)
  Ay, Thorbrand, is it thou? That's a rare blade,
  To shear through hemp and gut…. Let your wife have it
  For snipping needle-yarn; or try it again.

      THORBRAND (raising his sword)
  I must be getting back ere the snow thickens:
  So here's my message to the end—or farther.
  Gunnar, this night it is time to start your journey
  And get you out of Iceland….

      GUNNAR (thrusting at THORBRAND with the bill)
                                     I think it is:
  So you shall go before me in the dark.
  Wait for me when you find a quiet shelter.

  (THORBRAND sinks backward from the wall and is heard to fall
  farther. Immediately ASBRAND THORLEIKSSON starts up in his
  place.)

      ASBRAND (striking repeatedly with a sword)
  Oh, down, down, down!

      GUNNAR (parrying the blows with the bill)
                          Ay, Asbrand, thou as well?
  Thy brother Thorbrand was up here but now:
  He has gone back the other way, maybe—
  Be hasty, or you'll not come up with him.

(He thrusts with the bill: ASBRAND lifts a shield before the blow.)

Here's the first shield that I have seen to-night.

(The bill pierces the shield: ASBRAND disappears and is heard to fall. GUNNAR turns from the casement.)

  Hallgerd, my harp that had but one long string,
  But one low song, but one brief wingy flight,
  Is voiceless, for my bowstring is cut off.
  Sever two locks of hair for my sake now,
  Spoil those bright coils of power, give me your hair,
  And with my mother twist those locks together
  Into a bowstring for me. Fierce small head,
  Thy stinging tresses shall scourge men forth by me.

                        HALLGERD
  Does ought lie on it?

                        GUNNAR
  Nought but my life lies on it;
  For they will never dare to close on me
  If I can keep my bow bended and singing.

      HALLGERD (tossing back her hair)
  Then now I call to your mind that bygone blow
  You gave my face; and never a whit do