Early Plays - Catiline, the Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
ASGAUT. Then fetch him!
RODERIK. Here he stands!
SOME. Ha, that old man!
GANDALF. O woe!
BLANKA. No, no, you shall not--
RODERIK. Struck by this hand the viking found his death, Now rests he peacefully in yonder mound!
GANDALF. My father's barrow!
RODERIK. He was strong and brave; Wherefore I laid him here in viking style.
GANDALF. Since he is buried, then,--
ASGAUT. Though he be buried, The fallen king cries for revenge,--strike, strike!
BLANKA. He is deceiving you!
BLANKA. [To GANDALF.] Do you not see It is alone his daughter he would save?
Yet, how should your kind understand a soul That sacrifices all--
GANDALF. I do not understand?
You do not think I can?
GANDALF. [To the VIKINGS.] He shall not die!
ASGAUT. How so?
BLANKA. O father! He is good like you.
ASGAUT. You mean to break your oath?
GANDALF. No, I shall keep it!
JOSTEJN. Then what have you in mind?
HROLLOUG. Explain!
GANDALF. I swore To take revenge or else to die myself.
Well, he is free,--I to Valhalla go.
BLANKA. [To RODERIK.] What does he mean?
ASGAUT. Your honor you would save?--
GANDALF. Go,--hold a s.h.i.+p in readiness for me, With hoisted sail, the pyre light in the prow; In ancient fas.h.i.+on I shall go aboard!
Behold, the evening breeze blows from the strand,-- On crimson wings I sail into Valhalla!
[JOSTEJN goes out to the right.]
ASGAUT. Ah, 'tis the woman who has cast her spell on you!
BLANKA. No, you must live!
GANDALF. I live? No, to the G.o.ds I must be true, I cannot break with them.
BLANKA. Your oath is b.l.o.o.d.y, Balder hates it.
GANDALF. Yes, But Balder lives no longer with us now!
BLANKA. For you he lives; your soul is gentleness.
GANDALF. Yes, to my ruin! It became my task As king to keep intact our great ideal,-- But I lack strength enough! Come, Asgaut, you Shall take the kingly sceptre from my hand; You are a warrior of the truest steel; On me the Southern plague has been at work.
But if I cannot for my people live, I now can die for them.
ASGAUT. Well said, King Gandalf!
BLANKA. Then need no more be said! Die like a hero, Faithful and true unto the very end!
But now that we must part forever,--know, That when you die yourself to keep your oath You are then likewise marking me for death!
GANDALF. What! You for death?
BLANKA. My life was like a flower, Transplanted in an unfamiliar soil, Which therefore slumbered in its prison folds: Then came a sunbeam from the distant home,-- O, that was you, my Gandalf! Opened then The flower its calyx. In another hour, Alas! the sunbeam paled,--the flower died!
GANDALF. O, have I understood you right? You could?
Then is my promise thrice unfortunate!
BLANKA. But we shall meet again!
GANDALF. O, nevermore!
You go to heaven and the holy Christ, I to Valhalla; silent I shall take My place among the rest,--but near the door; Valhalla's merriment is not for me.
JOSTEJN. [Returns with a banner in his hand.]
See, now the bark is ready, as you bade.
ASGAUT. O, what a glorious end! Many a man Will envy you, indeed.
GANDALF. [To BLANKA.] Farewell!
BLANKA. Farewell!
Farewell for life and for eternity!
RODERIK. [Struggling with himself.] Wait! Wait!
[Prostrates himself before BLANKA.]
