Original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Plays include 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric', 'Vasavadutta' and others.
Original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Plays include 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric', 'Vasavadutta' and others. The volume also contains incomplete or fragmentary plays and fictional stories.
A dramatic romance
SCENE: Eric's Palace in his town of Yara. The Mountains, Swegn's Fastness.
ERIC
SWEGN
HARDICNUT
RAGNAR
GUNTHAR
HARALD
ASLAUG
HERTHA
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Eric's palace.
Eric, Aslaug, Hertha, Harald, Gunthar.
ERIC Eric of Norway, first whom these cold fiords, Deep havens of disunion, from their jagged And fissured crevices at last obey, The monarch of a thousand Vikings! Yes, But only by the swiftness of his sword That monarchy's assured,1 headlong, athirst, My iron hound pursues its panting prey.2 And when the sword is broken? or when death Proves swifter? All this realm with labour built, Dissolving like a transitory cloud, Becomes the thing it was, cleft, parcelled out By discord. I have found the way to join,— The warrior's sword, builder of unity; But where's the way to solder? where? O Thor And Odin, masters of the northern world, Wisdom and force I have; one3 strength's behind I have not; I would search4 it out. Help me, Whatever Power thou art that mov'st the world, To Eric unrevealed. Some sign I ask.
ASLAUG (outside, singing) Love is the hoop of the gods Hearts to combine. Iron is broken, the sword Sleeps in the grave of its lord; Love is divine.
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Love is the hoop of the gods Hearts to combine.
ERIC (rising from his seat) Is that your answer? Freya, Mother of Heaven, Thou wast forgotten. The heart! the seat is there; For unity is substance of the heart And not a chain that binds, not iron, gold Nor any helpless thought that5 reason knows. How shall I seize it? where? Give me a net By which the fugitive can be snared. It is Too unsubstantial for my iron mind.
ASLAUG (outside, singing) When Love desires Love, Then Love is born; Nor golden gifts compel, Nor even beauty's spell Escapes his scorn. When Love desires Love, Then Love is born.
ERIC (calling) Who sings outside? (to Harald, as he enters) Harald, who sings outside?
HARALD Two dancing girls from Gothberg. Shall they come?
ERIC Admit them.
Harald goes out.
From light lips and casual thoughts The gods speak best, as if by chance, nor knows The speaker that he is an instrument
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But thinks his mind the mover of his words.
Harald returns with Aslaug and Hertha.
HARALD King Eric, these are they who sang.
ERIC Women, Who are you? or what god directed you?
ASLAUG The god that rules all men, Necessity.
ERIC 'Twas thou that sang'st!
ASLAUG My lips at least were used.
ERIC Thou sayest. Dost thou know by whom?6
ASLAUG By Fate. For she alone is prompter on our stage, Things seen and unforeseen move by a doom,7 Not freely. Eric's sword and Aslaug's song, Music and thunder are but petty chords Of one majestic harp. She builds, she breaks, She thrones, she slays, as needed for her harmony.8
ERIC I think the soul is master. (Turning to Hertha)
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Who art thou?
HERTHA Expelled from Gothberg with displeasure fierce, Norwegians by the wrathful Swede constrained To Norway we return.
ERIC Why went you forth?
HERTHA From a bleak country rich by spoil alone Of kinder populations, far too wild, Too rough to love the sweetness of a song, The rhythm of a dance, by need coerced We passed to an entire and cultured race Whose hearts, come apt and liberal from the Gods, Are steel to steel but flowers to a flower.
ERIC And wherefore war they upon women now?
ASLAUG By thy aggressions moved.
ERIC A nobler choice Of vengeance I will give them, though more hard! (to Gunthar who enters) Gunthar, thou comest from the front?9 What news?
GUNTHAR Swegn, Earl of Trondhjem, lifts his outlawed head. By desperate churls and broken nobles joined He moves towards the Swede.
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ERIC Let Sigurd's force From Sweden and his lairs cut off the rude10 Revolted lord. He only now resists, Champion of discord, ruthless, fell and fierce11 This partisan and pattern of the past. Such men are better with the Gods than here To trouble earth. Let him not live, if taken.12
ASLAUG Not live?13
HERTHA Will you be silent?14
ASLAUG Blame my heart;15 For16 it remembered too17 unseasonably That Olaf Thorleikson ruled Norway once,18 Swegn was his heir.19
ERIC Will you remain with me, Forgetting Gothberg and your golden20 gains? Since I have been the fount of your distress,21 Make me the source of your great plenty too.22
HERTHA A kingly23 bounty shall atone for much.
ASLAUG (low to herself) Nobler atonement's asked for.24
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ERIC It is yours. Harald, make room for them within my house. Go, Gunthar, we will soon converse; now rest.25
All go out except Eric.
Love! If it were this girl with antelope eyes And the high head so proudly lifted up Upon a neck as white as any swan's! But how to sway men's hearts, rugged and hard As Norway's mountains, as her glaciers cold To all but interest and power and pride? Perhaps this stag-eyed woman comes for that,— To teach me.
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Hertha, Aslaug.
ASLAUG Hertha, we dance before the man tonight. Why not tonight?
HERTHA Because I do not choose26 Merely to wound and then be stayed.27
ASLAUG To near, To strike, while all posterity applauds. For Norway's poets to the end of time Shall sing in praises noble as the theme Of Aslaug's dance and Aslaug's dagger.
HERTHA Yes, If we succeed; but who will sing the praise Of foiled assassins? Shall we28 risk defeat? Shall29 Swegn of Norway roam until the end The desperate snows and forest30 silences, Outlawed, proscribed, pursued31?
ASLAUG Never32 defeat!
HERTHA The man we come to slay—
ASLAUG A mighty man!
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He has the face and figure of a god,— A marble emperor with brilliant eyes. How came the usurper by a face like that?
HERTHA His father was an earl of Odin's stock.
ASLAUG His fable since he rose! A pauper house Of one poor vessel and a narrow fiord And some pine-trees possessor,—that was he, The root he sprang from.
HERTHA But from that to tower In three short33 summers undisputed34 lord Of Norway, before years had put their growth Upon his chin! If not of Odin's race, Odin is for him. Are you not afraid, You who see Fate even in a sparrow's flight, When Odin is for him?
ASLAUG Aslaug is against. He has a strength, an iron strength, and Thor Strikes hammerlike in his uplifted sword. His voice is like a chant of victory. But Fate alone decides, when all is said, Not Thor, not Odin. I will try my Fate.
HERTHA He is a mere usurper, is he not? Norway's election made him King, they say.
ASLAUG Left Olaf Thorleikson no heirs behind?
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Was the throne empty?
HERTHA Of Trondhjem, that's their cry. The inland35 and the north were free to choose.
ASLAUG As rebels are.
HERTHA There was a discord there. The South exulting in her golden gains Cried, "I am Norway," but the northern earls Refused consent or, free auxiliaries, Admitted only leadership in war. We chose the arbitration of the sword, That last appeal of all,—the sword has judged Against our claim.
ASLAUG The dagger shall o'erride.36
HERTHA Still you come back to that. Yet think this out.37 Rather than by our blood to call38 for his Is not a gentle peace still possible?39 Swegn might have40 Trondhjem, Eric all41 the north The suzerainty? It is his. We fought for it.42 We have lost it.43 Think of this before we strike.
ASLAUG Better our barren empire of the snows! Nobler44 with reindeer herding to survive,
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Or else a free and miserable death Together.
HERTHA Better is a tried resolve.45 Therefore I cast the doubt before your mind. Be sure in striking.46 Aslaug, did you see The eyes of Eric on you?
ASLAUG (indifferently) I am fair. Men look upon me.
HERTHA It gives us the great chance. At ease, alone with us, absorbed, suddenly You strike, I leap in seconding the blow.47 Can he escape then? Swegn shall have his throne.48
ASLAUG Arrange it as you will. You have a swift Contriving careful brain I cannot match. To dare, to act was always Aslaug's part.
HERTHA You will not shrink?
ASLAUG I am not of the earth, To bound my actions by the common rule. I claim my kin with those whom Heaven's gaze Moulded supreme,—Swegn's sister, Olaf's child, Aslaug of Norway.
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HERTHA Then it must be done.
ASLAUG Hertha, I will not know the plots you weave; But when I see your signal, I will strike.
She goes out.
HERTHA (alone) Pride violent! loftiness intolerable! The grandiose kingdom-breaking blow is hers, The baseness, the deception are for me. This, the assumption, the magnificence, Made Swegn her tool. To me, his lover, counsellor, Wife, worshipper, his ears were coldly deaf. But, lioness of Norway, thy loud bruit And leap gigantic are ensnared at last In my compelling toils. She must be trapped! She is the fuel for my husband's soul To burn itself on a disastrous pyre. Remove its cause, the flame will sink to rest; Then we in Trondhjem shall live peacefully Till Eric dies, as some day die he must In battle or by a revolting sword, And leaves the spacious world unoccupied; Then other men may feel the sun once more. Always she talks of Fate; does she not see This man was born beneath exultant stars, Had gods to rock his cradle? He must possess His date, his strong resistless time,—then comes,— All things too great end soon,—death, overthrow, And our late summer when cold spring is past.
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Eric, Aslaug.
ERIC Come hither.
ASLAUG Thou hast sent for me?
ERIC Come hither. Who art thou?
ASLAUG What thou knowest.
ERIC Do I know?
ASLAUG (to herself) Does he suspect? (aloud) I am a dancing-girl, My name is Aslaug. That thou knowest.
ERIC Where Did Odin forge thy sweet imperious eyes, Thy noble stature and thy lofty look? Thou dancest,—yes; thou hast the art, and song, The natural expression of thy soul, Comes from thy lips, floats, hovers and returns Like a wild bird that wings around its nest. This art the princesses of Sweden learn And those Norwegian girls who frame themselves On Sweden.
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ASLAUG It may be my birth and past Were nobler than my present fortunes are.
ERIC Why cam'st thou to me?
ASLAUG (to herself) Does Death admonish him Of danger? Does he feel the impending stroke? Hertha could turn the question.
ERIC Why sought'st thou out Eric of Norway? Wherefore brought'st thou here That beauty as compelling as thy song, No man can gaze on and possess his soul?
ASLAUG I am a dancing-girl. My song and face Are all my stock; I have carried them for gain To the most wealthy market.
ERIC Is it so?49 I buy these50 from thee. Aslaug, thy body too!
ASLAUG Release me! Wilt thou lay thy hands on death? All Norway has not sold itself thy slave?
ERIC This was not spoken like a dancing-girl!
ASLAUG (to herself) What is this siege? I have no dagger with me.
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Will he discover me? Will he compel?
ERIC If Norway has not sold itself my slave, Thou hast. Remember what thou art—or claim'st to be.51
ASLAUG (to herself) He is subtle, terrible. I see the thing He drives at and admire unwillingly The mighty tyrant.
ERIC Better play thy part.52 If thou art really nobler than thou feign'st, Declare it. If53 thou art a dancing-girl, I have bought54 thee for my55 hire, thy song, thy dance, Thy body. I shrink not from whatever way I can Possess thee more than hesitates the sea to engulf What it embraces.56
ASLAUG King, thou speakest words I scorn to answer.
ERIC Or even to understand? Thou art an enemy who57 in disguise Enterest my court to know and break my plans.58
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ASLAUG What if I were?
ERIC Thou hast too lightly then Devised thy chains and long imprisonment,59 Too thoughtlessly adventured a divine And glorious stake, thyself.
ASLAUG What canst thou to me?60 I do not think I am afraid of death.
ERIC Far be death from thee who, if heaven were just, Wouldst walk immortal! Thou seest no greater peril?
ASLAUG Than death? None that I tremble at or shun.
ERIC Dost thou not see that thou art by thy choice Caged with the danger of the lion's mood?61 Dost thou not see the hunger of his eyes, Feel on thy face the breath of his desire?
ASLAUG (alarmed) I came not here to spy.
ERIC Why cam'st thou then?
ASLAUG To sing, to dance and earn.
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ERIC Then richly earn.62 Aslaug, even then63 thou knowest why I looked Upon thee, why I kept thee in my house. Thou, thou hast given the means of my desire!64 Yet if thy form and speech more nobly express The truth of thee than thy vocation can, Avow it, beg my clemency.
ASLAUG (violently) Thy clemency! (controlling herself) I am a dancing-girl. I came to earn.
ERIC Choose yet.
ASLAUG (after a pause) I have not anything to choose.
ERIC Because thou hast the lioness in thy mood, Thou thought'st to play with Eric. It is I Who play with thee. Thou liest in my grasp. How wilt thou now escape my passionate will? I am enamoured of thy golden hair, Thy body like the snow, thy antelope eyes, Thy neck that seems to know it carries heaven Upon it easily. Thy song, thy speech, The rhythmic motion of thy gracious limbs Walking or dancing, and the careless pride That undulates in every gesture and tone, Have seized upon me smiling sweet control.
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I have not learnt to yield to any power, But to surprise, to force and to command. So will I hold thee. Prisoner and enemy, Or dancing-girl and purchased chattel, choose. Thou art perturbed? Thou findest no reply?
ASLAUG Because I am troubled by thy violent words, I cannot answer thee or will not yet. (turning away) How could he see this death? Is he a god And knows men's hearts? This is a terrible And iron pressure.
ERIC What was thy design? To spy or slay? For thou art capable Even of such daring.
ASLAUG (to herself) Swiftly, swiftly done, It may be yet. To put him off an hour, Some minutes and to strike!
ERIC What dost thou choose?
ASLAUG (turning to him) I have laughed till now. Unthinking I came here And dallied with thy thoughts, a little amazed, Pure of all hostile purpose, innocent Of all the guileful thoughts and blood-stained plans Thou burdenest thy fierce suspicions with. This is the Nemesis of men who rise Too suddenly, by fraud or65 violence, That they suspect all hearts, yes, every word
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Of sheltering a kindred violence Or subtler fraud, and they expect their fall Sudden and savage as their rise has been. I am a dancing-girl and nothing more.
ERIC Thou art my dancing-girl and nothing more? Wear then this necklace and submit thyself,— Nor think it all thy price.
Aslaug dashes the necklace to the ground.
Thou art not subtle.
ASLAUG (agitated) It is not thus that women's hearts are wooed.
ERIC If so I woo thee, so do all men woo, Enamoured of what thou hast claimed to be. Was't falsely claimed? Wilt thou deny it now And hope to earn thy pardon with a smile? Art thou the dancing-girl of Norway still, Or some disguised, high-reaching, nobler soul?
ASLAUG (suddenly) I am thy dancing-girl, King Eric. See I take thy necklace.
ERIC Take it; still be free As thou decidest, thy price or else my gift. No light decision I would have thee make, But one that binds us both. I give thee time. Ponder and let thy saner mind prevail, Not courage most perverse, though ardent, rule. Confess thy treason, Aslaug, trust thy King.
He goes out. Aslaug, after a silence, takes the chain from her neck, admires
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it and throws it on a chair.66
ASLAUG You are too much like drops of royal blood.
After another pause she takes it again.67
A necklace? No, a chain! Or wilt thou prove A god's death-warrant? (resuming the necklace on her neck)68 Hertha, Hertha, here! (to Hertha as she enters) O counsellor, art thou come?
HERTHA I heard thee call.
ASLAUG I called. Why did I call? See, Hertha, see, How richly Norway's Eric buys his doom!
HERTHA He gave thee this? It is a kingdom's price.
ASLAUG A kingdom's price! the kingdom of the slain! A price to rid the nations of a god! O Hertha, what has earth to do with gods, Who suffers only human weight? Will she Not go too swiftly downward from her base, If Eric treads her long?
HERTHA Sister of Swegn, There are new lustres in thy face and eyes. What said he to thee?
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ASLAUG What did Eric say? Eric to Aslaug, sister of King Swegn! A kingdom's price! Swegn's kingdom! And for him, My marble emperor, my god who loves, This mortal Odin? What for him? By force Shall he return to his effulgent throne?
HERTHA You were not used to a divided mind.
ASLAUG Nor am I altered now, not heart-perplexed: But these are thoughts that naturally arise.
HERTHA He loves you then?
ASLAUG He loves and he suspects.
HERTHA What, Aslaug?
ASLAUG What we are and we intend.
HERTHA If he suspects!
ASLAUG It cannot matter much If we are rapid.
HERTHA If we spoil it all! I will not torture Swegn with useless tears,
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Perishing vainly, I will slay and die. He shall remember that he owes his crown To our great sacrifice and soothe his grief, That it was necessary, or else bear it, A noble duty to the nobly dead. (after a moment's reflection) Child, you must humour him, you must consent.
ASLAUG To what?
HERTHA To all.
ASLAUG Hast thou at all perused The infamy that thou advisest?
HERTHA Yes. I do not bid you yield, but seem to yield. Even I who am Swegn's wife, would do as much; But though you talk, you still are less in love, Valuing an empty outward purity Before your brother's life, your brother's crown.
ASLAUG You know the way to bend me to your will.
HERTHA Give freedom but no license to his love. For when he thinks to embrace, we shall have struck.
ASLAUG And, Hertha, if a swift and violent heart Betrayed my will and overturned your plans? Is there no danger, Hertha, there?
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HERTHA Till now I feared not that from Aslaug, sister of Swegn. But if you fear it!
ASLAUG No, since I consent. You shall not blame again my selfishness, Nor my defect of love.
HERTHA (alone) Swegn then might rule! (with a laugh) I had almost forgotten Fate between Smiling, alert, and the unconquered gods.
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ERIC They say the anarchy of love disturbs Gods even, shaken are the marble natures, The deathless69 hearts are melted to the pang And rapture. Still, O Odin, I would be Monarch of a calm royalty within, My blood my subject. But I hear her come. (to Aslaug who enters) Art thou resolved and hast thou made thy choice?
ASLAUG I choose, if there is anything to choose, The truth.
ERIC Who art thou?
ASLAUG Aslaug, who am now A dancing-woman.
ERIC And afterwards? Hast thou Understood nothing?70
ASLAUG What should I understand?
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ERIC What I shall do with thee. This earthly heaven In which thou liv'st shall not be thine at all; It was not shaped to bear71 thy joy but mine And only made for my immense desire. This hast thou understood?
ASLAUG (pale and troubled) Thou triest me still.
ERIC I saw thee shake.
ASLAUG It is not easily A woman's heart sinks72 prostrate in such absolute Surrender.
ERIC Thy heart! Is it thy heart that yields? (taking her hands in his own) O thou unparalleled enchanting frame For housing of a strong immortal guest! If man could seize the heart as palpably, The forms, the limbs, the substance of this soul! That, that we ask for; all else can be seized So vainly! Walled from ours are other hearts:
He touches her eyes and body as he speaks.
For if life's barriers twixt our souls were broken Men would be free and our earth paradise And the gods live neglected.
ASLAUG (quickly) This heart of mine? Purchase it richly, for it is for sale.
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ERIC Yes, speak!
ASLAUG With love. I meant no more.
ERIC With love? Thou namest lightly a tremendous word. If thou hadst known this mightiest thing on earth And named it, should it not have upon thy lips So moving an impulsion for a man That he would barter worlds to hear it once? Words are but ghosts unless they speak the heart.
ASLAUG I have yielded.
ERIC Then tonight. Thou shak'st?
ASLAUG There is A trouble in my blood. I do not shake.
ERIC Thou heard'st me?
ASLAUG Not tonight. Thou art too swift, Too sudden.
ERIC Thou hast had leisure to consult Thy comrade smaller, subtler than thyself? Better hadst thou chosen candour and thy frank soul Consulted, not a guile by others breathed.
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ASLAUG What guile, who gave73 all for an equal price? Thou giv'st thy blood of rubies, I my life.
ERIC Thou hast not chosen then to understand. Thy soul is truthfuller, Aslaug, than thy words: Thy lips consent, thy eyes defy me still.
ASLAUG Because I sell myself, yet keep my pride?
ERIC Thou shalt keep nothing that I choose to take. I see a tyranny I will delight in And force a oneness; I will violently Compel the goddess that thou art. But I know What soul is lodged within thee, thou as yet Ignorest mine. I still hold in my strength, Though it hungers like a lion for the leap, And give thee time once more; misuse it not. Beware, provoke not the fierce god too much; Have dread of his flame round thee.
He goes out.
ASLAUG (breaking into a laugh) Odin and Freya, you have snares! But see, I have not thrown the dagger from my heart, But clutch it still. How strange that look and tone That things of a corporeal potency Not only travel coursing through the nerves But seem to touch the seated soul within! It was a moment's wave; for it has passed And the high purpose in my soul lives on Unconquerably intending to fulfil.
Curtain
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A room in Eric's house.
HERTHA See what a keen and fatal glint it has, Aslaug.
ASLAUG Hast thou been haunted by a look, O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee, Compelling memory?
HERTHA Then the gods too work.
ASLAUG A marble statue gloriously designed Without that breath our cunning maker gives, One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes! Out of these eyes there looks an intellect That claims us all; this marble holds a heart, The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay This glory of God's making in the dust! Why do these thoughts besiege me? Have I then— No, it is nothing; it is pity works, It is an admiration physical. O he is far too great, too beautiful For a dagger's penetration. It would turn, The point would turn; it would deny itself To such a murder.
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HERTHA Aslaug, it is love.
ASLAUG (angrily) What saidst thou?
HERTHA When he lays a lingering hand Upon thy tresses,—Aslaug, for he loves,— Canst thou then strike?
ASLAUG What shakes me? Have I learned To pity, to tremble? That were new indeed In Olaf's race. Give me self-knowledge, gods. What are these unaccustomed moods you send Into my bosom? They are foreign here.
Eric enters and regards them. Hertha, seeing him, rises to depart.
ERIC Thou art the other dancing-woman come From Sweden to King Eric!
HERTHA He has eyes That look into the soul. What mean his words? But they are common. Let me leave you, Aslaug.
ASLAUG I would have freedom here from thy pursuit.
ERIC Why shouldst thou anywhere be free from me? I am full of wrath against thee and myself. Come near me.
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ASLAUG (to herself) It is too strange—I am afraid! Of what? Of what? Am I not Aslaug still?
ERIC Art thou a sorceress or conspirator? But thou art both to seize my throne and heart. And I will deal with thee, thou dreadful charm, As with my enemy.
ASLAUG Let him never touch!
ERIC I give thee grace no longer; bear thy doom.
ASLAUG My doom is in my hands, not thine.
ERIC (with sudden fierceness) Thou err'st, And thou hast always erred. Dar'st thou imagine That I who have enveloped in three years All Norway more rebellious than its storms, Can be resisted by a woman's strength, However fierce, however swift and bold?
ASLAUG I have seen thy strength. I cherish mine unseen.
ERIC And I thy weakness. Something yet thou fear'st.
ASLAUG Nothing at all.
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ERIC Yes, though thy eyes defy me, Thy colour changes and thy limbs betray thee. All is not lionlike and masculine there Within.
He advances towards her.
ASLAUG Touch me not!
ERIC If it's that thou fear'st? Why dost thou fear it? Is it thine own heart Thou tremblest at? Aslaug, is it thy heart?
He takes her suddenly into his arms and kisses her. Aslaug remains like one stricken and bewildered.
Lift up thine eyes; let me behold thy strength!
ASLAUG O gods! I love! O loose me!
ERIC Whatever was thy purpose, thou art taken, Aslaug, thou sweet and violent soul surprised, Intended for me when the stars were planned! Sweetly, O Aslaug, to thy doom consent, The doom to love, the death of hatred. Draw No useless curtaining of shamed refusal Between our yearnings, passionately take Thy leap of love across the abyss of hate. Force not thy soul to anger. Leave veils and falterings For meaner hearts. Between us let there be A noble daylight.
ASLAUG Let me think awhile!
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Thy arms, thy lips prevent me.
ERIC Think not! Only feel, Love only!
ASLAUG O Eric, king, usurper, conqueror! O robber of men's hearts and kingdoms! O Thou only monarch!
ERIC Art thou won at last, O woman who disturb'st the musing stars With passion? Soul of Aslaug, art thou mine?
ASLAUG (sinking on a seat) I cannot think. I have lost myself! My heart Desires eternity in an embrace.
ERIC Wilt thou deny me anything I claim Ever, O Aslaug? Art thou mine indeed?
ASLAUG What have I done? What have I spoken? I love! (after a silence, feeling in her bosom) But what was there concealed within my breast?
ERIC (observing her action) I take not a divided realm, a crown That's shared. Thou hadst a purpose in thy heart I know not, but divine. Thou lov'st at length; But I have knowledge of the human heart, What opposite passions wrestle there with gusts
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And treacherous surprises. I trust not then Too sudden a change, but if thou canst be calm, Yet passionately submit, I will embrace thee For ever. Think and speak. Art thou all mine?
ASLAUG I know no longer if I am my own. The world swims round me and heaven's points are changed. A purpose! I had one. I had besides A brother! Had! What have I now? You gods, How have you rushed upon me? Leave me, King. It is not good to trust a sudden heart. The blood being quiet, we will speak again Like souls that meet in heaven, without disguise.
ERIC I do not leave thee, for thou art ominous Of an abysm uncrossed.74
ASLAUG It would be best,75 For there has been too much between us once And now too little. Leave me, King, awhile To wrestle with myself and calmly know In this strange strife the gods have brought me to, Which thing of these in me must live and which Be dumb for ever.
ERIC Something still resists. I will not leave thee till I know it and tame. For, Aslaug, thou wast won.
ASLAUG King, thou art wise In war and counsel, not in women's hearts.
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Thou hast surprised a secret that my soul Kept tremblingly from my own knowledge. Yet, If thou art really wise, thou wilt avoid To touch with a too rude and sudden hand The direr god who made my spirit fear To own its weakness.
ERIC Art thou wise thyself? I take thee not for counsellor.
ASLAUG Yet beware, There was a gulf between my will and heart Which is not bridged yet.
ERIC Break thy will, unless Thou wouldst have me break it for thee. The older Aslaug rises now against the new.
ASLAUG It rises, rises. Let it rise. Leave me My freedom.
ERIC Aslaug, no, for free thou roam'st A lioness midst thy passions.
ASLAUG (with a gesture) Do then, O King, Whatever Fate commands.
ERIC I am master of my Fate.
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ASLAUG Too little, who are not masters of ourselves!
ERIC Art thou that dancing-woman, Aslaug, yet?
ASLAUG I am the dancing-girl who sought thee, yet, Eric.
ERIC It may be still the swiftest way. Let then my dancing-woman dance for me Tonight in my chambers. I will see the thing Her dancing means and tear its mystery out.
ASLAUG If thou demandest it, then Fate demands.
ERIC Thy god grows sombre and he menaces, It seems! For afterwards I can demand Whatever soul and body can desire Twixt man and woman?
ASLAUG If thy Fate permits. Thy love, it seems, communes not with respect.
ERIC The word exists not between thee and me. It is burned up in too immense a fire. Wilt thou persist? Even after thou hast lain Upon my bosom thou claimest my respect? Yet art a dancing-woman, so thou say'st. Aslaug, let not the darker gods prevail. Put off thy pride and take up truth and love.
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ASLAUG (sombre) I am a dancing-woman, nothing more.
ERIC The hate love struck down rises in thy heart. But I will have it out, by violence, Unmercifully.
He strides upon her, and she half cowers from him, half defies. (taking her violently into his arms) Thus blotted into me Thou shalt survive the end of Time. Tonight!
ASLAUG How did it come? What was it leaped on me And overpowered? O torn distracted heart, Wilt thou not pause a moment and give leave To the more godlike brain to do its work? Can the world change within a moment? Can Hate suddenly be love? Love is not here. I have the dagger still within my heart. O he is terrible and fair and swift! He is not mortal. Yet, be silent, yet Give the brain leave. O marble brilliant face! O thou art Odin, thou art Thor on earth! What is there in a kiss, the touch of lips, That it can change creation? There's a wine That turns men mad; have I not drunk of it? To be his slave, know nothing but his will! Aslaug and Eric! Aslaug, sister of Swegn, Who makes his bed on the inclement snow And with the reindeer herds, that was a king. Who takes his place? Eric and Aslaug rule. Eric who doomed him to the death, if seized,
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Aslaug, the tyrant, the usurper's wife, Who by her brother's murder is secured In her possession. Wife! The concubine, The slave of Eric,—that his pride intends. What was it seized on me, O heavenly powers? I have given myself, my brother's throne and life, My pride, ambition, hope, and grasp, and keep Shame only. Tonight! What happens then tonight? I dance before him,—royal Olaf's child Becomes the upstart Eric's dancing-girl! What happens else tonight? One preys upon Aslaug of Norway! O, I thank thee, heaven, That thou restorest me to sanity. It was his fraudulent and furious siege, And something in me proved a traitor. Fraud? O beauty of the godlike brilliant eyes! O face expressing heaven's supremacy! No, I will put it down, I put it down. Help me, you gods, help me against my heart. I will strike suddenly, I will not wait. 'Tis a deceit, his majesty and might, His dreadful beauty, his resistless brain. It will be very difficult to strike! But I will strike. Swegn strikes, and Norway strikes, My honour strikes, the gods, and all his life Offends each moment. (to Hertha who enters) Hertha, I strike tonight.
HERTHA Why, what has happened?
ASLAUG That thou shalt not know. I strike tonight.
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HERTHA It is not difficult To know what drives her. I must act at once, Or this may have too suddenly a tragic close. Not blood, but peace, not death, you Gods, but life, But tranquil sweetness!
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Eric, Hertha.
ERIC I sent for thee to know thy name and birth.
HERTHA My name is Hertha and my birth too mean To utter before Norway's lord.
ERIC Yet speak.
HERTHA A Trondhjem peasant and a serving-girl Were parents to me.
ERIC And from such a stock Thy beauty and thy wit and grace were born?
HERTHA The gods prodigiously sometimes reverse The common rule of Nature and compel Matter with soul. How else should it be guessed That gods exist at all?
ERIC Who nurtured thee?
HERTHA A dancing-girl of Gothberg by a lord Of Norway entertained, to whom a child I was delivered. Song and dance were hers; I made them mine.
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ERIC Their names? the thrall? the lord?
HERTHA Olaf of Norway, earl of Trondhjem then, And Thiordis whom he loved.
ERIC Thou knowest Swegn, The rebel?
HERTHA Yes, I know.
ERIC And lov'st perhaps?
HERTHA Myself much better.
ERIC Yes? He is a man Treacherous and rude and ruthless, is he not?
HERTHA (with a movement) I would not speak of kings and mighty earls: These things exceed my station.
ERIC Ah, thou lov'st! Thou wilt not blame.
HERTHA Thou art mistaken, King. He cannot conquer and he will not yield, But weakens Norway. This in him I blame.
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ERIC Thou hast seen that? Thy peasant father got A wondrous politician for his child! Do I abash thee?
HERTHA I am what the Gods Have made me. But I understand at last; Thou think'st me other than I seem.
ERIC Some thought Like that I had.
HERTHA King Eric, wilt thou hear?
ERIC I much desire it, if I hear the truth.
HERTHA Betray me not to Aslaug then.
ERIC That's just. She shall not know.
HERTHA What if I came, O King, For other purpose, not to sing and dance, And yet thy friend, the well-wisher, at least, Of Norway and her peace?
ERIC Speak plainly now.
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HERTHA If I can show thee how to conquer Swegn Without one stroke of battle, wilt thou grant My bitter need?
ERIC I would give much.
HERTHA Wilt thou?
ERIC If so I conquer him and thy desire Is something I can grant without a hurt To Norway or myself.
HERTHA It is.
ERIC Speak then, Demand.
HERTHA I have not finished yet. Meantime If I avert a danger from thy head Now threatening it, do I not earn rewards More ample?
ERIC More? On like conditions, then.
HERTHA If I yield up great enemies to thy hands Thou know'st not of, wilt thou reject my price, Confusing different debts in one account?
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ERIC Hast thou yet more to ask? Thou art too shrewd A bargainer.
HERTHA Giving Norway needed peace, Thyself friends, safety, empire, is my claim Excessive then?
ERIC I grant thee three demands.
HERTHA They are all. He asks not more who has enough. Thrice shall I ask and thrice shall Eric give And never have an enemy again In Norway.
ERIC Speak.
HERTHA Thy enemies are here, No dancing-girls, but Hertha, wife of Swegn, And Aslaug, child of Olaf Thorleikson, His sister.
ERIC It is well.
HERTHA The danger lies In Aslaug's hand and dagger which she means To strike into thy heart. Tonight she strikes.
ERIC And Swegn?
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HERTHA Send me to him with perilous word Of Aslaug in thy hands; so with her life Buy his surrender, afterwards his love With kingly generosity and trust.
ERIC Freely and frankly hast thou spoken, Queen Who wast in Trondhjem: now as freely ask.
HERTHA The life of Swegn; his liberty as well, Submitting.
ERIC They are thine.
HERTHA And Aslaug's life And pardon, not her liberty.
ERIC They are given.
HERTHA And, last, forgiveness for myself, O King, My treason and my plots.
ERIC This too I grant.
HERTHA I have nothing left to ask for.
ERIC Thou hast done? Let me consign thee to thy prison then.
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HERTHA My prison! Wilt thou send me not to Swegn?
ERIC I will not. Why, thou subtle, dangerous head, Restored to liberty, what perilous schemes Might leap into thy thought! Shall I give Swegn, That fierce and splendid fighter, such a brain Of cunning to complete and guide his sword? What if he did not yield, rejected peace? Wilt thou not tell him Aslaug's life is safe? To prison!
HERTHA Thou hast promised, King!
ERIC I keep My promise to thee, Hertha, wife of Swegn. For Swegn thou askest life and liberty, For Aslaug life and pardon, for thyself Forgiveness only. I can be cunning too. Hertha, thou art my prisoner and thrall.
HERTHA (after a pause, smiling) I see. I am content. Thou showest thyself Norway's chief brain as her victorious sword. Free or a prisoner, let me do homage To Eric, my King and Swegn's.
ERIC Thou art content?
HERTHA This face and noble bearing cannot lie. I am content and feel as safe with thee As in my husband's keeping.
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ERIC (smiling) So thou art, Thou subtle voice, thou close and daring brain. I would I felt myself as safe with thee.
HERTHA King Eric, think me not thy enemy. What thou desirest, I desire yet more.
ERIC Keep to that well; let Aslaug not suspect. My way I'll take with her and thee and Swegn. Fear nothing, Hertha; go.
Hertha goes out.
O Freya Queen, Thou help'st me even as Thor and Odin did. I make my Norway one.
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The chamber of Eric.
Eric, Harald.
ERIC At dawn have all things ready for my march. I come not back without the head of Swegn Or else his living body. Send to me76 Aslaug the dancing-girl.
I have resumed The empire with77 the knowledge of myself. For this strong angel Love, this violent And glorious guest, let it possess my heart Without a rival, not invade the brain, Not with imperious discord cleave my soul Jangling its various78 harmonies, nor turn The manifold music of humanity Into a single and a maddening note. Strength in the nature,79 wisdom in the mind, Love in the heart complete the trinity Of glorious manhood. There was the wide flaw,— The coldness of the radiance that I was. This was the vacant gap80 I could not fill. It left my soul the torso of a god, A great design unfinished and my works Mighty and crude like things admired that pass, Bare of the immortality that keeps The ages. O, the word they spoke was true!
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'Tis Love, 'tis Love fills up the gulfs81 of Time. By Love we find our kinship with the stars, The spacious uses of the sky. God's image Lives nobly perfect in the soul he made, Reflected in the nature of a man.82
Aslaug enters.
Thou com'st to me! I give thee grace no more. What hast thou in thy bosom?
ASLAUG Only a heart.
ERIC A noble heart, though wayward. Give it me, Aslaug, to be the secret of the dawns, The heart of sweetness housed in Aslaug's breast Delivered from revolt and ruled by love.
ASLAUG Why hast thou sent for me and forced to come? Wilt thou have pity on me even yet And on thyself?
ERIC I am a warrior, one Who have known not mercy. Wilt thou teach it me? I have learned, Aslaug, from my soul and Life The great wise pitiless calmness of the gods, Found for my strength the proud swift blows they deal At all resistance to their absolute walk, Thor's hammer-stroke upon the unshaped world. Its will is beaten on a dreadful forge, Its roads are hewn by violence divine. Is there a greater and a sweeter way? Knowest thou it? Wilt thou lead me there? Thy step Swift and exultant, canst thou tread its flowers?
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ASLAUG I know not who inspires thy speech; it probes.
ERIC My mind tonight is full of Norway's needs. Aslaug, she takes thy image.
ASLAUG Mine. O if Tonight I were not Norway!
ERIC Thou knowest Swegn?
ASLAUG I knew and I remember.
ERIC Yes, Swegn,—a soul Brilliant and furious, violent and great, A storm, a wind-swept ocean, not a man. That would seize83 Norway? that will make it one? But Odin gave the work to me. I came Into this mortal frame for Odin's work.
ASLAUG So deify ambition and desire!
ERIC If one could snap this mortal body, then Swegn even might rule,—not govern himself, yet govern All Norway! Aslaug, canst thou rule thyself? 'Tis difficult for great and passionate hearts.
ASLAUG Then Swegn must die that Eric still may rule!
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Was there no other way the gods could find?
ERIC A deadly duel are the feuds of kings.
ASLAUG They are so.
She feels for her dagger.
ERIC Aslaug, thou feelest for thy heart? Unruled, it follows violent impulses, This way, that way; working calamity, Dreams that it helps the world. What shall I do, Aslaug, with an unruly noble heart? Shall we not load it with the chains of love, And rob it of its treasured pain and wrath And bind it to its own supreme desire? Richly 'twould beat beneath an absolute rule And sweetly liberated from itself By a golden bondage.
ASLAUG And what of other impulses it holds? Shall they not once rebel?
ERIC They shall keep still; They shall not cry nor question; they shall trust.
ASLAUG It cannot be that he reads all my heart! The gods play with me in his speech.
ERIC Thou knowest Why thou art called?
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ASLAUG I know why I am here.
ERIC Few know that, Aslaug, why they have come here, For that is heaven's secret. Sit down beside me, Nearer my heart. No hesitating! Come. I do not seize thy hands.
ASLAUG They yet are free. Is it the gods who bid me to strike soon? My heart reels down into a flaming gulf. If thou wouldst rule with love, must thou not spare Thy enemies?
ERIC When they have yielded. Is thy choice made? Whatever defence thou hast against me yet Use quickly, before I seize these restless hands, And thy more restless heart that flees from bliss.
Aslaug rises trembling.
ASLAUG Desired'st thou me not to dance tonight, O King, before thee?
ERIC It was my will. Is it thine Now? Dance, while yet thy limbs are thine.
ASLAUG I dance The dance of Thiordis with the dagger, taught To Hertha in Trondhjem and by her to me.
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ERIC (smiling) Aslaug, my dancing-girl, thou and thy dance Have daring, but too little subtlety.
ASLAUG (moving to a distance) What use to struggle longer in the net? Vain agony, since he watches and he knows! I'll strike him suddenly. One who was fit For what I purpose, would not shrink at all Finding the abyss about her either way, But striking cleanse the touch in her own blood. So might one act who was not her heart's prey.
ERIC Wilt thou play vainly with that fatal toy? Dance now!
ASLAUG My limbs refuse.
ERIC They have no right.
ASLAUG O gods, I did not know myself till now, Thrown in this furnace. Odin's irony Shaped me from Olaf's seed! I am in love With chains and servitude and my heart desires, Fluttering, like a wild bird within its cage, A tyrant's harshness.
ERIC Wilt thou dance? or wait Till the enamoured motion of thy limbs Remember joy of me? So would I have Thy perfect movement84 grow a dream of love.
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But that shall be when Norway's only mine, Swegn taken. Tomorrow at the dawn I march85 Towards vehement86 battle and the sword of Swegn Bring back to be thy plaything, a support Appropriate to thy action in the dance. Aslaug, it shall replace thy dagger.
ASLAUG Fate Still drives me with his speech, and Eric calls My weakness on to slaughter Eric. Yes, But he suspects, he knows. Yet will I strike, Yet will I tread down my rebellious heart, And when 'tis done, I'll strike myself and finish With grief and shame and love.
ERIC Where is thy chain I gave thee, Aslaug? I would watch it rise, Rubies of passion on a bosom of snow, And climb again upon thy breast aheave87 With the sea's rhythm as thou dancest. Dance Weaving my life a measure with thy feet, And of thy dancing I will weave the stroke That conquers Swegn.
ASLAUG The necklace? I will bring it. Rubies of passion! Blood-drops still of death!
ERIC The power to strike has gone out of her arm And only in her stubborn thought survives.
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She thinks that she will strike. Let it be tried!
He lies back and feigns to sleep. Aslaug returns.
ASLAUG Now I could slay him! But he will open his eyes Appalling with the beauty of his gaze. He did not know of peril! All he has said Was only at a venture thought and spoken,— Or spoken by Fate? Sleeps he his latest sleep? Might I not touch him only once in love— And none know of it but death and I— Whom I must slay like one who hates? Not hate, O Eric, but the hard necessity The gods have sent upon our lives,—two flames That meet to quench each other. Once, Eric! then The cruel rest. Why did I touch him? I am faint! My strength ebbs from me. O thou glorious god, Why wast thou Swegn's and Aslaug's enemy? We might so easily have loved. But death Now intervenes and claims thee at my hands— And this alone he leaves to me, to slay thee And die with thee, our only wedlock. Death! Whose death? Eric's or Swegn's? For one I kill. Dreadful necessity of choice! His breath Comes quietly and with a happy rhythm, His eyes are closed like Odin's in heaven's sleep. If I must strike, it could be only now;88 For Time is like a sapper, mining still The little resolution that I keep. Swegn's death or life upon that little stands. Swegn's death or life and such an easy stroke! Yet so impossible to lift my hand! To wait? To watch more moments these closed lids, This quiet face and try to dream that all Is different! But the moments are Fate's thoughts
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Watching us.89 While I pause, my brother's slain, Myself I am doomed a concubine and slave! I must not think of him! Close, O mind, close, O eyes! Free the unthinking hand to its harsh work.
She lifts twice the dagger and lowers it twice, then flings it on the ground, falling on her knees at Eric's feet.
Eric of Norway, live and do thy will With Aslaug, sister of Swegn and Olaf's child, Aslaug of Trondhjem! For her thought is grown90 A harlot and her heart a concubine, Her hand her brother's murderess.
ERIC Thou hast broken At last!
ASLAUG Ah, I am broken by my weak And evil nature. Spare me not, O King, One vileness, one humiliation known To tyranny. Be not unjustly merciful! For I deserve and I consent to all.
ERIC Aslaug!
ASLAUG No, I deny my name and parentage. I am not she who lived in Trondhjem: she Would not have failed, but slain even though she loved. Let no voice call me Aslaug any more.
ERIC Sister of Swegn, thou knowest that I love. Daughter of Olaf, shouldst thou not aspire
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To sit by me on Norway's throne?
ASLAUG Desist! Thou shalt not utterly pollute the seat Where Olaf sat. If I had struck and slain, I would deserve a more than regal chair; But not on such must Norway's diadem rest, A weakling with a hand as impotent And faltering as her heart, a sensual slave Whose passionate body overcomes her high Intention. Rather do thy tyrant will. King, if thou spare me, I will slay thee yet.
ERIC Recoil not from thy heart, but strongly see And let its choice be absolute over thy soul. Its way once taken thou shalt find thy heart Rapid; for absolute and extreme in all, In yielding as in slaying thou must be, Sweet violent spirit whom thy gods surprise. Submit thyself without ashamed reserve.
ASLAUG What more canst thou demand than I have given? I am prone to thee, prostrate, yielded.
ERIC Throw from thee The bitterness of thy self-abasement. Find That thou hast only joy in being mine. Thou tremblest?
ASLAUG Yes, with shame and grief and love. Thou art my Fate and I am in thy grasp.
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ERIC And shall it spare thee?
ASLAUG Spare Swegn. I am in thy hands.
ERIC Is't a condition? I am lord of thee And lord of Swegn to slay him or to spare.
ASLAUG No, an entreaty. I am fallen here, My head is at thy feet, my life is in thy hands. The luxury of fall is in my heart.
ERIC Rise up then, Aslaug, and obey thy lord.
ASLAUG What is thy will with me?
ERIC This, Aslaug, first. Take up thy dagger, Aslaug, dance thy dance Of Thiordis with the dagger. See those near me; For I shall sit nor, shouldst thou strike, defend. What thy passion chose, let thy fixed heart confirm; My life and kingdom twice are in thy hands And I will keep them only as thy gift.
ASLAUG So are they thine already; but I obey. Eric, my King and Norway's, my life is mine No longer, but for thee to keep or break.
ERIC Swegn's life I hold. Thou gavest it to me
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With the dagger.
ASLAUG It is thine to save.
ERIC Norway Thou hast given casting it forever away From Olaf's line.
ASLAUG What thou hast taken, I give.
ERIC At last thyself without one refuge left Against my passionate strong devouring love. Thou seest I spare thee nothing.
ASLAUG (faintly) I am thine. Do what thou wilt with me.
ERIC Because thou hast no help.
ASLAUG I have no help. My gods have brought me here And given me into thy dreadful hands.
ERIC Thou art content at last that they have breathed This plot into thy mind to snare thy soul In its own violence, bring to me a slave, A bright-limbed prisoner and thee to thy lord? Thy dagger could no more have touched my heart,91 Though undefended, than a wind the sun:
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Fate and thy love were my friends within thy heart. See Odin's sign to thee.
ASLAUG I know it now. I recognise with prostrate heart my fate And I will quietly put on my chains Nor ever strive or wish to break them more.
ERIC Yield up to me the burden of thy fate And treasure of thy limbs and priceless life. I will be careful of the golden trust. It was unsafe with thee. And now submit Gladly at last. Surrender body and soul, O Aslaug, to thy lover and thy lord.
ASLAUG Compel me; they cannot resist thy will.
ERIC But I will have thy heart's surrender, not The body only. Give me up thy heart. Open its secret chambers, yield their keys.
ASLAUG O Eric, is not my heart already thine, My body thine, my soul into thy grasp Delivered? I rejoice that God has played The grand comedian with my tragedy And trapped me in the snare of thy delight.
ERIC Aslaug, the world's sole woman! thou cam'st here To save for us our hidden hopes of joy Parted by old confusion. Some day surely The world too shall be saved from death by Love.
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Thou hast saved Swegn, helped Norway. Aslaug, see, Freya within her niche commands this room And incense burns to her. Nor Thor for thee, But Freya.
ASLAUG Thou for me! not other gods.
ERIC Aslaug, thou hast a ring upon thy hands: Before Freya give it me and wear instead This ancient circle of Norwegian rites. The thing this means shall bind thee to our joy, Beloved, while the upbuilded worlds endure. Then if thy spirit wander from its home, Freya shall find her thrall and lead her back A million years from now.
ASLAUG A million lives!
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ASLAUG The world has changed for me within one night. O surely, surely all shall yet go well, Since Love is crowned.
ERIC (entering) Aslaug, the hour arrives When I must leave thee. For the dawn looks pale Into our chamber and these first rare sounds Expect the arising sun, the daylight world.
ASLAUG Eric, thou goest hence to war with Swegn, My brother?
ERIC What thinks thy heart?
ASLAUG That Swegn shall live.
ERIC Thou know'st his safety from deliberate swords. None shall dare touch the head that Aslaug loves. Yet if some evil chance came edged with doom Which Odin and my will shall not allow Or in the fight his splendid rashness slew, Thou wouldst not hold me guilty of his death, Aslaug?
ASLAUG Fate orders all and Fate I now Have recognised all the world's mystic will That loves and labours.
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ERIC Because it labours and loves Our hearts, our wills are counted, are indulged. Aslaug, for these few days in hope and trust Anchor thy mind. I shall bring back thy joy, Because I go with mercy and from love.
He embraces her and goes.
ASLAUG Swegn lives. A heart, not iron gods, o'errules.92
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Swegn's fastness in the hills. Swegn, Hardicnut, Ragnar, with soldiers.
SWEGN Fight on, fight always, till the gods are tired. In all this dwindling remnant of the past Desires one man to rest from virtue, cease From desperate freedom?
HARDICNUT No man wavers here.
SWEGN Let him depart unhurt who so desires.
HARDICNUT Why should he go and whither? To Eric's sword That never pardons? If our hearts were vile, Unworthily impatient of defeat, Serving not harassed right but chance and gain, Eric himself would keep them true.
SWEGN Not thine, My second soul. Yet could I pardon him Who followed. For the blow transcends! And were King Eric not in Yara where he dwells, I would have seen his hand in this defeat, Whose stroke is like the lightning's, silent, straight, Not to be parried.
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HARDICNUT Sigurd smote, perhaps, But Eric's brain was master of his stroke.
SWEGN The traitor Sigurd! For young Eric's part In Olaf's death, he did a warrior's act Avenging Yarislaf and Hacon slain, And Fate, not Eric slew. But he who, trusted, lured Into death's ambush, when the rebel seas Rejoicing trampled down the royal head They once obeyed, him I will some day have At my sword's mercy. (to Ragnar who enters) Ragnar, does it come, The last assault, death's trumpets?
RAGNAR Rather peace, If thou prefer it, Swegn. An envoy comes From Eric's army.
SWEGN Ragnar, bring him in.
Ragnar goes out.
He treats victorious? When his kingdom shook, His party faltered, then he did not treat Nor used another envoy than his sword. (to Gunthar who enters, escorted by Ragnar) Earl Gunthar, welcome,—welcome more wert thou When loyal.
GUNTHAR Ragnar, Swegn and Hardicnut, Revolting earls, I come from Norway's King With peace, not menace.
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SWEGN Where then all these days Behind you lurked the Northerner?
GUNTHAR Thou art In his dread shadow and in your mountain lair Eric surrounds you.
SWEGN (scornfully) I will hear his words.
GUNTHAR Eric, the King, the son of Yarislaf, To Swegn, the Earl of Trondhjem. "I have known The causes and the griefs that raise thee still Against my monarchy. Thou knowest mine That raised me against thy father,—Hacon's death, My mother's brother butchered shamefully And Yarislaf by secret sentence slain. Elected by our peers I seized his throne. But thou, against thy country's ancient laws Rebelling, hast preferred for judge the sword. Respect then the tribunal of thy choice And its decision. Why electest thou In thy drear fastness on the wintry hills To perish? Trondhjem's earldom shall be thine, And honours, wealth and state if thou accept The offer of thy lenient gods. Consider, O Swegn, thy country's wounds, perceive at last Thy good and ours, prolong thy father's house." I expect thy answer.
SWEGN I return to him His proffered mercy. Let him keep it safe For his own later use.
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GUNTHAR Thou speakest high. What help hast thou? what hope? what god concealed?
SWEGN I have the snow for friend and, if it fails, The arms of death are broad enough for Swegn, But not subjection.
GUNTHAR For their sake thou lov'st, Thy wife's and sister's, yield.
RAGNAR Thou art not wise. This was much better left unsaid.
SWEGN But why Am I astonished if triumphant mud Conceives that the pure heavens are of its stuff And nature?... Still there are men who hope to purchase93 Swegn's Allegiance, to intimidate with death And bribe with safety Olaf's son. It seems Your pastime to insult the seed of Kings. Think'st thou that to the upstart I shall yield, The fortune-fed adventurer, the boy Favoured by the ironic gods? Since fell By Sigurd's treachery and Eric's fate In resonant battle on the narrow seas Olaf, his children had convinced the world, I thought, of their great origin. Men have said, "Their very women have souls too great to cry For mercy even from the gods." His fates Are strong indeed when they compel our race
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To hear such terms from his! Go, tell thy King, Swegn of the ancient house rejects his boons. Not terms between us stand, but wrath, but blood. I would have flayed him on a golden cross And kept his women for my household thralls, Had I prevailed. Can he not do as much That he must chaffer and market Norway's crown? These are the ways of Kings, strong, terrible And arrogant; full of sovereignty and right. Force in a King's his warrant from the gods. By force and not by bribes and managements Empires are founded! But your chief was born Of huckstering earls who lived by prudent gains. How should he imitate a royal flight Or learn the leap of Kings upon their prey?
GUNTHAR Swegn Olafson, thou speakest fatal words. Where lodge thy wife and sister? Dost thou know?
HARDICNUT Too far for Eric's reach.
GUNTHAR Earl, art thou sure?
SWEGN What means this question?
GUNTHAR That the gods are strong Whom thou in vain despisest, that they have dragged From Sweden into Eric's dangerous hands Hertha and Aslaug, that the evil thou speak'st Was fatally by hostile Powers inspired.
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SWEGN Thou liest—they are safe and with the Swede.
GUNTHAR I pardon thy alarm the violent word. Earl Swegn, canst thou not see the dreadful gods Have chosen earth's mightiest man to do their will? What is that will but Norway's unity And Norway's greatness? Canst thou do the work? Look round on Norway by a boy subdued, The steed that even Olaf could not tame See turn obedient to an unripe hand. Behold him with a single petty pace Possessing Sweden. Sweden once subdued, Think'st thou the ships that crowd the Northern seas Will stay there? Shall not Britain shake, Erin Pray loudly that the tempest rather choose The fields of Gaul? Scythia shall own our yoke, The Volga's frozen waves endure our march, Unless the young god's fancy rose-ensnared To Italian joys attracted amorously Should long for sunnier realms or lead his high Exultant mind to lord in eastern Rome. What art thou but a pebble in his march? Consider then and change thy fierce response.
HARDICNUT Deceives the lie they tell, thy reason, Swegn? Earl Gunthar may believe, who even can think That Yarislaf begot a god!
SWEGN Gunthar, I have my fortune, thou thy answer. Go.
GUNTHAR I pity, Swegn, thy rash and obstinate soul.
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SWEGN Aslaug would scorn me yielding, even now And even for her. He has unnerved my will, The subtle tyrant! O, if this be true, My Fate has wandered into Eric's camp, My soul is made his prisoner. Friends, prepare Resistance; he is the thunderbolt that strikes And threatens only afterwards. It is Our ultimate battle.
HARDICNUT On the difficult rocks We will oppose King Eric and his gods.
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Swegn with his earls and followers in flight.
SWEGN Swift, swift into the higher snows, where Winter Eternal can alone of universal things Take courage against Eric to defend His enemies. O you little remnant left Of many heroes, save yourselves for Fate. She yet may need you when she finds the man She lifts perpetually, too great at last Even for her handling.
HARDICNUT Ragnar, go with him, While I stand here to hinder the pursuit Or warn in time. Fear not for me,...94 Leave, Ragnar, leave me; I am tired at last.
All go out upward except Hardicnut.
Here then you reach me on these snows! O if my death Could yet persuade indignant Heaven to change....
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Eric, Gunthar, Swegn, Aslaug, Hertha.
ERIC Not by love only, but by force and love. This man must lower his fierceness to the fierce, He must be beggared of the thing left, his pride And know himself for clay. He could not honour95 This unfamiliar movement of my soul But would contemn and think my seated strength Had changed to trembling. Sound96 the audience-gong,97 Herald. The master of my stars is he Who owns no master. Odin, what is this play, Thou playest with thy world, of fall and rise, Of death, birth, greatness, ruin? The time may come When Eric shall not be remembered! Yes, But there's a script, there are archives that endure. Before a throne in some superior world Bards with undying lips and eyes still young After the ages sing of all the past And the Immortal's Children hear. Somewhere In this gigantic world of which one grain of dust Is all our field, Eternal Memory keeps Our great things and our trivial equally To whom the peasant's moans above his dead Are tragic as a prince's fall. Some say Atomic Chance has put Eric here, Swegn there, Aslaug between. But I have seen myself, O you revealing gods, and know though veiled The immortality that thinks in me, That plans and reasons.98 Masters of Norway, hail! For all are masters here, not I alone
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Who am my country's brain of unity, Your oneness. Swegn's at last in Norway's hands Who shook our fates. And what shall Norway do with Swegn, One of her mightiest?
GUNTHAR If his might submits, Then, Eric, let him live. We cannot brook These disorders always.
ERIC Norway cannot brook. Therefore he must submit. Bring him within. We'll see if this strong iron can be bent, This crudeness bear the fire. Swegn Olafson, Hast thou considered yet this state? Hast thou Submitted to thy gods or must we, Swegn, Consider now thy sentence?
SWEGN I have seen My dire misfortune. I have seen myself And know that I am greater. Do thy will Since what the son of Yarislaf commands, The son of Olaf bears!
ERIC Thou wilt not yield?
SWEGN My father taught me not the word.
ERIC Shall I? Thou hast forgotten, Swegn, thy desperate words. Or were they meant only for the free snows, And here retracted?
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SWEGN Son of Yarislaf, they stand. I claim the cross I would have nailed thee on, I claim the flayer's knife.
ERIC These for thyself. And for thy wife and sister, Swegn?
SWEGN Alas!
ERIC I think thy father taught thee not the word, But I have taught thee. Since thou lovest yet,— No man who says that he will stand alone, Swegn, can afford to love,—thou then art mine Inevitably. Thou vauntest thy blood, Thy strength? Thou art much stronger, so thou say'st, Than thy misfortunes. Art thou stronger, Swegn, Than theirs? Can all thy haughty pride of race Or thy heart's mightiness undo my will In whose strong hands thou liest? Swegn Olafson, The gods are mightier than thy race and blood, The gods are mightier than thy arrogant heart. They will not have one violent man oppose His egoism, his pride and his desire Against a country's fate. Thou hast no strength, For thou and these are only Eric's slaves Who have been his stubborn hinderers. Therefore Fate, Norway, whose favourite and brother I have grown, Turned wroth and brought99 you all into my grasp. I will that you should live and yield. These yield, But thou withstandest wisdom. Fate and love, Allied against thee, I offer, Swegn, yield to me, Stand by my side and share thy father's throne.
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SWEGN (after a silence) Yes, thou art fierce and subtle! Let them pronounce My duty's preferences, if not my heart's, To them or Right.
ERIC O narrow obstinate heart! Had this been but thy country or a cause Men worship, then it would indeed have been100 A noble blindness, but thou serv'st thy pride. Wilt thou abide by their pronouncement, Swegn? Aslaug and Hertha, see your brother and lord, This mighty captive, royal once, now fallen And helpless in my hands. I wish to spare His mightiness, his race, his royal heart; But he prefers the cross instead, prefers Your shame—thy brother, Aslaug,—Hertha, he Thy spouse consents to utmost shame for both, If from the ages he can buy this word, "Swegn still was stubborn." That to him is all. He who forgot to value Norway's will, Forgets to value now your pride, your love. This was not royal nor like Olaf's son! Come, will you speak to him, will you persuade? Walk there aside with him and aim at his heart. Hertha, my subject, Aslaug, thou my thrall, Save, if he will, this life. Remember, Swegn, If Olaf's children must be shame-crowned slaves, 'Tis thou that makest them so.
SWEGN 'Tis thus we meet,— Were not the snows of Norway preferable, Daughter of Olaf?
ASLAUG They were high, but cold.
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HERTHA Wilt thou not speak to Hertha, Swegn, my lord?
SWEGN Hertha, alas, thy crooked scheming brain That brought us here.
HERTHA The gods use instruments, Not ask their consent. O Swegn, accept the gods And their decision.
ASLAUG Must we live always cold? O brother, cast the snows out of thy heart. Let there be summer.
HERTHA Yield, husband, to the sun. There is no shame in yielding to the gods.
ASLAUG Not to a god, although his room be earth And his body mortal.
SWEGN There was an Aslaug once Whose speech had other grandeurs. Can it not find101 The argument that can excuse thy fall, O not to me, but to that worshipped self Thou wast, my sister?
ASLAUG What argument?
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I seek no argument except my heart Nor need excuse for what I glory in. Brother, were we not always one? 'Tis strange That I must reason with thee.
SWEGN O, thou knewest. Therefore I fell, therefore, my strength is gone And where a god's magnificence lived once, Here, here, 'tis empty. O inconstant heart, Thou wast my Fate, my courage, and at last Thou hast gone over to my enemy, Taking my Fate, my courage. I will hear No words from such. Thou wouldst betray what's left, Until not even Swegn is left to Swegn, But only a coward's shadow.
HERTHA Hear me, Swegn.
SWEGN Ah, Hertha, what hast thou to say to me?
HERTHA Save me, my lord, from my own punishment, Forgetting my deserts.
SWEGN Alas! thy love, O my beloved, has been great to me, Though great, was never wise! but must it ask So huge a recompense?
ASLAUG Thou hadst myself. Thou askest my honour. Will this persuade thee? I have nothing else.
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SWEGN O thou hast overcome my strength at last. Thou only and so only couldst prevail. King, thou hast conquered. Not to thee I yield, But those I loved are thy allies. From these Recall the wrath, on me instead pronounce What doom thou wilt—though yielding is doom enough For Swegn of Norway.
ERIC Abjure rebellion then, Receive my mercy.102
SWEGN O fortune! It will out.103 The spirit of Olaf will no more sit still Within me. O though thou slaughter these with pains I will not yield. Take, take thy mercy back.
ERIC I take it back. What wouldst thou in its stead?
SWEGN Do what thou wilt with these and me. I have done!
ERIC Thou cast'st thy die, thou weak and violent man! I will cast mine And conquer.
SWEGN I have endured the worst.
ERIC Not so. Thou thinkest I will help thee to thy death, Allowing the blind grave to seal thy eyes
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To all that I shall do to thine. Learn, Swegn, I am more cruel! Thou shalt live and see On them my vengeance. Aslaug, go and return Robed as thou wast upon the night thou knowest Wearing thy dagger, wearing too thy ring.
SWEGN What wilt thou do with her? God! what wilt thou do? O wherefore have I seen and taken back love Into a heart that had shut....104 But death and greatness?
ERIC I will inflict on them What thou canst not endure to gaze upon Or if thou canst then with that hardness live. For die thou shalt not. I have ways for that. Thou thought'st to take thy refuge in a grave And let these bear thy punishment for thee, Thy heart being spared. It was no valiant thought, No worthy escape for Swegn. Aslaug and Hertha, My thralls, remove your outer robes.
SWEGN What must I see?
ERIC As dancing-girls the women came to me, As dancing-girls I keep them. Thou shalt see Aslaug of Norway at her trade—to dance Before me and my courtiers. That begins, There's more behind, unless thou change thy mood.
SWEGN Thou knowest how to torture.
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ERIC And to break.
Aslaug re-enters.
Thou seest, Swegn. Shall I command the dance? Shall this be the result of Olaf's house?
SWEGN Daughter of Olaf, wilt thou then obey?
ASLAUG Yes, since thou lov'st me not, my brother Swegn, Whom else should I obey, save him I love? But hadst thou loved me still, I should not need.
ERIC Dance.
SWEGN Stay, Aslaug. Since thou bad'st me love Thee, not my glory, as indeed I must To save the house of Olaf from this shame,— Whose treacherous weakness works for him and thee.
ERIC Pause not again—for pause is fatal now.
SWEGN King, I have yielded, I accept thy boons. Heir of a starveling Earl, I bow my head Even to thy mercies. I am Olaf's son, I shall be faithful to my own disgrace.105
ERIC O fear not, King. I can be great again. Without conditions hast thou yielded.
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SWEGN No. Let these be spared all shame—for that I yield My honour has a price—and it is small.
ERIC That's given without terms binding.
SWEGN One prayer: Give me a dungeon deep enough, O King, To hide my face from all these eyes.
ERIC Swear then, Whatever prison I assign thee, be it wide Or narrow, to observe its state, its bounds And do even there my will.
SWEGN (with a gesture) That too is sworn! Let Thor and Odin witness to my oath.
ERIC Four prisons I assign to Olaf's son. Thy palace first in Trondhjem, Olaf's roof, Thy house in Nara, Eric's court—thy country, To whom thou yieldest, Norway—and at last My army's head when I invade the world.
SWEGN (amazed and doubtful) Thou hast surprised me, Eric, with an oath And circumvented.
ERIC Hertha, to thy lord Return unharassed—thou seest thou wast safe.
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Trondhjem's and Olaf's treasures with thee take The second in the land beneath our throne.
SWEGN Eric, enough! Have I not yielded? Here Let thy boons rest.
ERIC 'Tis truth. For my next boon Is to myself. Look not upon this hand I clasp in mine, although the fairest hand That God has made. Observe instead This ring and recognise it.
SWEGN It's Freya's ring, worn On Aslaug's hand. And she who once wears it Thenceforth sits on Norway's throne.
ERIC Possess thy father's chair Intended for thee always from the first. Nor be amazed that in these dancing-robes I seat her here—for they increase its beauty More than imperial purple. Nor think, Swegn, Thy sister shamed or false who came to me ....106 spilling my blood and hers, A violent and mighty purpose—such As only noble hearts conceive; and only She yielded to that noble heart at last Because 'twas Odin's purpose.
SWEGN So they came. Aslaug, thou sought'st my throne, but findst thine own. I grudge it not to thee—for thy great heart
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Deserves it. Eric, thou hast won at last Norway.
ERIC I could not shame thy sister, Swegn, Save by my wife's disgrace and this was none But only a deceit to prove thy heart And thou seest that thou couldst not have rebelled Except by treason against Olaf's seed That must again rule Norway.
SWEGN Eric, for thy boons— They hurt not now—take what return thou wilt; For I am thine, thou hast found out the way To save from me thy future. It has....107 With my heart's strings.
ERIC Swegn, excuse and love Thy comrade Hardicnut, for he intended A kind betrayal.
SWEGN This is nothing, King. His act my heart had come to understand And yet has pardoned.
ERIC Forgive, Swegn, Sigurd, thy foe, as I have pardoned first My father's slaughterer. This is thy....108
SWEGN 'Tis pardoned, not forgiven. Let him not come Too often in my sight.
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ERIC Swegn, I too have boons To ask of thee.
SWEGN Let them be difficult then, If thou wouldst have me grant them.
ERIC The gods have won. Let this embrace engulf our ended strife, Brother of Aslaug.
SWEGN Husband of my sister, Thou assum'st our blood and it ennobles thee To the height of thy great victories—this thy last And greatest. Thou hast dealt with me as a King, Then as a brother. Thou adorn'st thy throne.
ERIC Rest, brother, from thy hardships and thy wars Until I need thy sword that matched with mine To smite my foemen. Aslaug, what thinkest thou? If thou art satisfied, then all well, nobly done.
ASLAUG Thou hast the tyrant in thy nature still And so I love thee best. What canst thou do but well? For in thy every act and word I see The gods compel thee.
ERIC Or thou hast changed me with thy starry eyes, Daughter of Olaf, and....109 a man
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Where was but height and iron, all my roots Of action, mercy, greatness, enterprise Sit now transplanted in thy breast, O charm, O noble marvel! From thy bosom my strength Comes out to me. Thou sangst, Aslaug, once of the golden hoop, Mightier and swifter than the warrior's sword. Dost thou remember what thou cam'st to do, Aslaug, from Gothberg? The gods have spoken since and shown their hand. They shut our eyes and drive us, but at last Our souls remember when the act is done.
ASLAUG That it was fated. Now for us, O beloved, The world begins again, who since the stars were formed Playing the game of games by Odin's will Have met and parted, parted, met again For ever.
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