Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (37 page)
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Authors: Henrik Ibsen
[HEMMING. Shortly afterwards OLAF Liljekrans from the, background. The moon rises.]
HEMMING. The golden ring unto me she has granted,
Then still is she true, I am not deceived!
‘Twas only in jest that she scolded and ranted
As though she were bitterly grieved.
All will I venture, no more will I dread!
HEMMING.
[Despondent.]
And yet, I am only a penniless swain,
And early tomorrow is she to be wed!
HEMMING.
[Quickly.]
But into the forest the bridegroom is fled;
O, if he should never come home again!
HEMMING.
[Starts to rush out, but stops with a cry.]
Olaf! there is he!
[OLAF comes slowly forward between the rocks in the background. He walks dreaming, his head uncovered, and his hands full of flowers which he tears to pieces and scatters on the way; his whole behavior during the following indicates an unsettled mind.]
OLAF.
[Without noticing HEMMING.]
If only I knew What she meant, could somehow the riddle unravel!
[Starts to go out to the left.]
HEMMING. Lord Olaf! Lord Olaf! O where do you travel?
O hear me, Lord Olaf!
OLAF.
[Half awakening.]
Hemming! Is it you? Stand not in my way!
HEMMING. What is it that weighs
On your mind, that you wander in here for three days?
[Observes him more closely.]
HEMMING. And what is the game that here you do play, —
Your cheek is white, and your forehead is gray!
OLAF. Be not so amazed that my cheek is white,
Three nights have I fought so strange a fight;
Be not so amazed that my forehead is gray,
Three nights have I been in the elfen play.
HEMMING. Heaven protect us!
OLAF. I am ill, I am faint!
I remember neither devil nor saint!
HEMMING.
[Apprehensively.]
Come, Olaf, with me to your mother’s estate!
OLAF. My mother’s estate! Where stood it of late?
‘Tis here, as it seems, that I have my home!
The wood has become my ancestral hall,
The river’s roaring, the pine-trees’ moan,
Is sweeter to me than my mother’s call.
OLAF.
[With increasing rapture.]
Aye, here it is quiet! Aye, here it is fair!
Behold, my hall for the feast I prepare.
HEMMING.
[Aside.]
O what has come o’er him?
OLAF. Soon comes my bride!
HEMMING. Your bride! Then you know — ?
OLAF.
[Continuing.]
When the day has died,
When slumber the birds, when fades the cloud,
Then here will she come so young and so proud!
HEMMING.
[Crosses himself.]
All heavenly saints! I fear the worst!
OLAF. Know you when it was that I saw her here first?
I rode late one evening from Guldvik hall,
Some kind of feast I seem to recall.
My spirit was heavy, my heart full of woe!
That something had grieved me is all that I know.
I rode all alone up the mountain side,
At midnight I passed by the river so wide;
Then heard I beyond a melodious wail,
That rang like a song over mountain and dale.
It seemed a plaintive, bewitching lay;
I folded my hands, I tried to pray,
But tied was my tongue and my thoughts went astray;
The strains did beguile and lure me away.
‘Twas now like weeping and now like laughter,
‘Twas now full of mirth, and now ever after
As were it the cry of a perishing man,
As were it a soul in the anguish of death,
That I heard in the song so beguiling, that ran
Like a stream around me! — I scarce got my breath!
So sorely bewildered was I in my soul;
It was as if powers both gentle and strong
Enticed me and lured me away from my goal,
I needs must come up, I was carried along.
And ever rang out the mysterious call;
How far I rode on I no longer recall.
HEMMING.
[Aside.]
And the bride, of whom the minstrel sang, — she too had to follow —
OLAF. My foal stopped short, I awoke in a maze,
I looked around with a wondering gaze;
‘Twas all so pleasant and fair! But what land
I was in I could not understand!
I stood in a valley; — a deep peace lay
Over all like dew in the night!
The moon on the edge of the tarn did play;
It seemed to laugh as it vanished away
In the rolling billows so bright!
My head was heavy, my spirit oppressed,
I yearned for nothing but sleep;
I laid me down ‘neath a linden to rest
In the whispering forest so sweet!
HEMMING. Lord Olaf! Lord Olaf! How dared you do it?
OLAF.
[Continuing.]
I ventured then into the elf-maidens’ play;
The fairest of maidens gave me a bouquet
Of snow-drops blue and of lilies white;
She pierced my soul with her glances so bright,
And whispered to me what nobody knows, —
A word I’ll keep ever in mind:
“Olaf Liljekrans! know you where happiness grows,
Know you the hour when peace you will find?
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!”
HEMMING. You have slumbered and dreamed!
OLAF. That very same day
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!