Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (109 page)

SCENE SECON
D

[Near a mountain tarn; the ground is soft and marshy round about. A storm is gathering.]
[ÅSE enters, calling and gazing around her despairingly, in every direction. SOLVEIG has difficulty in keeping
up with her. SOLVEIG’S FATHER and MOTHER, with HELGA, are some way behind.]

ÅSE
[tossing about her arms, and tearing her hair]
All things are against me with wrathful might!
Heaven, and the waters, and the grisly mountains!
Fog-scuds from heaven roll down to bewilder him!
The treacherous waters are lurking to murder him!
The mountains would crush him with landslip and rift! —
And the people too! They’re out after his life!
God knows they shan’t have it! I can’t bear to lose him!
Oh, the oaf! to think that the fiend should tempt him!
[Turning to SOLVEIG.]
Now isn’t it clean unbelievable this?
He, that did nought but romance and tell lies; —
he, whose sole strength was the strength of his jaw;
he, that did never a stroke of true work; —
he — ! Oh, a body could both cry and laugh! —
Oh, we clung closely in sorrow and need.
Ay, you must know that my husband, he drank,
loafed round the parish to roister and prate,
wasted and trampled our gear under foot.
And meanwhile at home there sat Peerkin and I —
the best we could do was to try to forget;
for ever I’ve found it so hard to bear up.
It’s a terrible thing to look fate in the eyes;
and of course one is glad to be quit of one’s cares,
and try all one can to keep thought far away.
Some take to brandy, and others to lies;
and we — why we took to fairy-tales
of princes and trolls and of all sorts of beasts;
and of bride-rapes as well. Ah, but who could have dreamt
that those devil’s yarns would have stuck in his head?
[In a fresh access of terror.]
Hu! What a scream! It’s the nixie or droug!
Peer! Peer! — Up there on that hillock — !
[She runs to the top of a little rise, and looks out over the tarn. SOLVEIG’S FATHER and MOTHER come up.]

ÅSE
Not a sign to be seen!

THE FATHER
[quietly]
It is worst for him!

ÅSE
[weeping]
Oh, my Peer! Oh, my own lost lamb!

THE FATHER
[nods mildly]
You may well say lost.

ÅSE
Oh no, don’t talk like that!
He is so clever. There’s no one like him.

THE FATHER
You foolish woman!

ÅSE
Oh ay; oh ay;
foolish I am, but the boy’s all right!

THE FATHER
[still softly and with mild eyes]
His heart is hardened, his soul is lost.

ÅSE
[in terror]
No, no, he can’t be so hard, our Lord!

THE FATHER
Do you think he can sigh for his debt of sin?

ÅSE
[eagerly]
No, but he can ride through the air on a buck,
though!

THE MOTHER
Christ, are you mad?

THE FATHER
Why, what do you mean?

ÅSE
Never a deed is too great for him.
You shall see, if only he lives so long —

THE FATHER
Best if you saw him on the gallows hanging.

ÅSE
[shrieks]
Oh, cross of Christ!

THE FATHER
In the hangman’s hands,
it may be his heart would be turned to repentance.

ÅSE
[bewildered]
Oh, you’ll soon talk me out of my senses!
We must find him!

THE FATHER
To rescue his soul.

ÅSE
And his body!
If he’s stuck in the swamp, we must drag him out;
if he’s taken by trolls, we must ring the bells for him.

THE FATHER
Hm! — Here’s a sheep-path —

ÅSE
The Lord will repay you
your guidance and help!

THE FATHER
It’s a Christian’s duty.

ÅSE
Then the others, fie! they are heathens all;
there wasn’t one that would go with us —

THE FATHER
They knew him too well.

ÅSE
He was too good for them!
[Wrings her hands.]
And to think — and to think that his life is at stake!

THE FATHER
Here are tracks of a man.

ÅSE
Then it’s here we must search!

THE FATHER
We’ll scatter around on this side of our saeter.
[He and his wife go on ahead.]

SOLVEIG
[to ÅSE]
Say on; tell me more.

ÅSE
[drying her eyes]
Of my son, you mean?

SOLVEIG
Yes; —
Tell everything!

ÅSE
[smiles and tosses her head]
Everything? — Soon you’d be tired!

SOLVEIG
Sooner by far will you tire of the telling than I of the hearing.

SCENE THIR
D

[Low, treeless heights, close under the mountain moorlands; peaks in the distance. The shadows are long; it is late in the day.]
[PEER GYNT comes running at full speed, and stops short on the hillside.]

PEER
The parish is all at my heels in a pack!
Every man of them armed or with gun or with club.
Foremost I hear the old Hegstad-churl howling. —
Now it’s noised far and wide that Peer Gynt is abroad!
It is different, this, from a bout with a smith!
This is life! Every limb grows as strong as a bear’s.
[Strikes out with his arms and leaps in the air.]
To crush, overturn, stem the rush of the foss!
To strike! Wrench the fir-tree right up by the root!
This is life! This both hardens and lifts one high!
To hell then with all of the savourless lies!

THREE SAETER GIRLS
[rush across the hillside, screaming and singing]
To crushTrond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?

PEER
To whom are you calling?

THE GIRLS
To the trolls! to the trolls!

FIRST GIRL
Trond, come with kindness!

SECOND GIRL
Bard, come with force!

THIRD GIRL
The cots in the saeter are all standing empty!

FIRST GIRL
Force is kindness!

SECOND GIRL
And kindness is force!

THIRD GIRL
If lads are awanting,
one plays with the trolls!

PEER
Why, where are the lads, then?

ALL THREE
[with a horse-laugh]
They cannot come hither!

FIRST GIRL
Mine called me his sweetheart and called me his darling.
Now he has married a grey-headed widow.

SECOND GIRL
Mine met a gipsy-wench north on the upland.
Now they are tramping the country together.

THIRD GIRL
Mine put an end to our bastard brat.
Now his head’s grinning aloft on a stake.

ALL THREE
Trond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?

PEER
[stands, with a sudden leap, in the midst of them]
I’m a three-headed troll, and the boy for three girls!

THE GIRLS
Are you such a lad, eh?

PEER
You shall judge for yourselves!

FIRST GIRL
To the hut! To the hut!

SECOND GIRL
We have mead!

PEER
Let it flow!

THIRD GIRL
No cot shall stand empty this Saturday night!

SECOND GIRL
[kissing him]
He sparkles and glisters like white-heated iron.

THIRD GIRL
[doing likewise]
Like a baby’s eyes from the blackest tarn.

PEER
[dancing in the midst of them]
Heavy of heart and wanton of mind.
The eyes full of laughter, the throat of tears!

THE GIRLS
[making mocking gestures towards the mountain-tops, screaming and singing]
Heavy of Trond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack! — To-night will you sleep in our arms?
[They dance away over the heights, with PEER GYNT in their midst.]

SCENE FOURT
H

[Among the Ronde mountains. Sunset. Shining snowpeaks all around.]
[PEER GYNT enters, dizzy and bewildered.]

PEER
Tower over tower arises!
Hei, what a glittering gate!
Stand! Will you stand! It’s drifting
further and further away!
High on the vane the cock stands
lifting his wings for flight; —
blue spread the rifts and bluer,
locked is the fell and barred. —
What are those trunks and tree-roots,
that grow from the ridge’s clefts?
They are warriors heron-footed!
Now they, too, are fading away.
A shimmering like rainbow-streamers
goes shooting through eyes and brain.
What is it, that far-off chiming?
What’s weighing my eyebrows down?
Hu, how my forehead’s throbbing —
a tightening red-hot ring — !
I cannot think who the devil
has bound it around my head!
[Sinks down.]
Flight o’er the Edge of Gendin —
stuff and accursed lies!
Up o’er the steepest hill-wall
with the bride, — and a whole day drunk;
hunted by hawks and falcons,
threatened by trolls and such,
sporting with crazy wenches: —
lies and accursed stuff!
[Gazes long upwards.]
Yonder sail two brown eagles.
Southward the wild geese fly.
And here I must splash and stumble
in quagmire and filth knee-deep!
[Springs up.]
I’ll fly too! I will wash myself clean in
the bath of the keenest winds!
I’ll fly high! I will plunge myself fair in
the glorious christening-font!
I will soar far over the saeter;
I will ride myself pure of soul;
I will forth o’er the salt sea waters,
and high over Engelland’s prince!
Ay, gaze as ye may, young maidens;
my ride is for none of you;
you’re wasting your time in waiting — !
Yet maybe I’ll swoop down, too. —
What has come of the two brown eagles — ?
They’ve vanished, the devil knows where! —
There’s the peak of a gable rising;
it’s soaring on every hand:
it’s growing from out the ruins; —
see, the gateway is standing wide!
Ha-ha, yonder house, I know it;
it’s grandfather’s new-built farm!
Gone are the clouts from the windows;
the crazy old fence is gone.
The lights gleam from every casement;
there’s a feast in the hall to-night.
There, that was the provost clinking
the back of his knife on his glass; —
there’s the captain flinging his bottle,
and shivering the mirror to bits. —
Let them waste; let it all be squandered!
Peace, mother; what need we care!
‘Tis the rich Jon Gynt gives the banquet;
hurrah for the race of Gynt!
What’s all this bustle and hubbub?
Why do they shout and bawl?
The captain is calling the son in; —
oh, the provost would drink my health.
In then, Peer Gynt, to the judgment;
it rings forth in song and shout:
Peer Gynt, thou art come of great things,
and great things shall come of thee!
[Leaps forward, but runs his head against a rock, falls, and remains stretched on the ground.]

SCENE FIFT
H

[A hillside, wooded with great soughing trees. Stars are gleaming through the leaves; birds are singing in the tree-tops.]
[A GREEN-CLAD WOMAN is crossing the hillside; PEER GYNT follows her, with all sorts of lover-like antics.]

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
[stops and turns round]
Is it true?

PEER
[drawing his finger across his throat]
As true as my name is Peer; —
as true as that you are a lovely woman!
Will you have me? You’ll see what a fine man I’ll be;
you shall neither tread the loom nor turn the spindle.
You shall eat all you want, till you’re ready to burst.
I never will drag you about by the hair —

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Nor beat me?

PEER
No, can you think I would?
We kings’ sons never beat women and such.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
You’re a king’s son?

PEER
Yes.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
I’m the Dovre-King’s daughter.

PEER
Are you? See there, now, how well that fits in!

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Deep in the Ronde has father his palace.

PEER
My mother’s is bigger, or much I’m mistaken.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Do you know my father? His name is King Brose.

PEER
Do you know my mother? Her name is Queen Åse.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
When my father is angry the mountains are riven.

PEER
They reel when my mother by chance falls a-scolding.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
My father can kick e’en the loftiest roof-tree.

PEER
My mother can ride through the rapidest river.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Have you other garments besides those rags?

PEER
Ho, you should just see my Sunday clothes!

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
My week-day gown is of gold and silk.

PEER
It looks to me liker tow and straws.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Ay, there is one thing you must remember: —
this is the Ronde-folk’s use and wont:
all our possessions have twofold form.
When you shall come to my father’s hall,
it well may chance that you’re on the point
of thinking you stand in a dismal moraine.

PEER
Well now, with us it’s precisely the same.
Our gold will seem to you litter and trash!
And you’ll think, mayhap, every glittering pane
is nought but a bunch of old stockings and clouts.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Black it seems white, and ugly seems fair.

PEER
Big it seems little, and dirty seems clean.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
[falling on his neck]
Ay, Peer, now I see that we fit, you and I!

PEER
Like the leg and the trouser, the hair and the comb.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
[calls away over the hillside]
Bridal-steed! Bridal-steed! bridal-steed mine!
[A gigantic pig comes running in with a rope’s end for a bridle and an old sack for a saddle. PEER GYNT
vaults on its back, and seats the GREEN-CLAD ONE in front of him.]

Peer follows the Woman in Green

PEER
Hark-away! Through the Ronde-gate gallop we in!
Gee-up, gee-up, my courser fine!

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
[tenderly]
Ah, but lately I wandered and moped and pined — .
One never can tell what may happen to one!

PEER
[thrashing the pig and trotting off]
You may know the great by their riding-gear!