Act One

  Eric's palace.

   SCENE I
 

Eric, Aslaug, Hertha, Harold, 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.

¹secured      ²Ineffugably that pursues its prey.      ³some      ⁴ must find

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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 that¹ 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

¹our/the

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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?¹

ASLAUG

By Fate.

For she alone is prompter on our stage,

Things seen and unforeseen move by a doom,²

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.³

ERIC

I think the soul is master.

(Turning to Hertha)

¹Thou knowest. Know'st thou too by whom?

²And all things move by an established doom,

³ for the balance of her harmonies.

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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?¹ What news?

GUNTHAR

Swegn, Earl of Trondhjem, lifts his outlawed head.
By desperate churls and broken nobles joined
He moves towards the Swede.

¹host

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ERIC

Let Sigurd's force
From Sweden and his lairs cut off the rude¹
Revolted lord. He only now resists,
Champion of discord, ruthless, fell and fierce²
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.³

ASLAUG

Not live?⁴

HERTHA

Will you be silent?⁵

ASLAUG

Blame my heart;⁶
For⁷ it remembered too⁸ unseasonably
That Olaf Thorleikson ruled Norway once,⁹
Swegn was his heir.¹⁰

ERIC

Will you remain with me,
Forgetting Gothberg and your golden¹¹ gains ?
Since I have been the fount of your distress,¹²
Make me the source of your great plenty too.¹³

HERTHA

A kingly¹⁴ bounty shall atone for much.

ASLAUG (low to herself)

Nobler atonement's asked for.¹⁵

¹fierce    ²bold     ³(i) Let him not live, o'ercome.    (ii) Let him not live, if seized.   (iii) Taken, let him not live.    ⁴ (i) And yet.. . (ii) Taken, who shall live?      ⁵ Be silent.    ⁶ (i) 'Twas my heart (ii) It was my heart    ⁷And    ⁸ though    ⁹was Norway's Lord    ¹⁰And Swegn his son       ¹¹ Swedish    ¹²Since I was reason that you are distressed, ¹³ Let me be reason of your plenty too. ¹⁴The royal ^l5 needed.

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ERIC

It is yours.
Harald, make room for them within my house.
Go, Gunthar, we will soon converse; now rest.¹

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.

                                                
¹Gunthar, we will converse    {ere they depart.

                                      {within the hour.

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