Chapter V: Act IV

_A small hut in the hills. Two large stones covered with skins serve as seats. The low bedstead is also covered with skins. On the wall hang some poor, clumsy tools. In the slanting roof, a small window is darkened with snow. On the hearth, a low fire. Outside, a snowstorm. Now and then, snow comes whirling down the smoke-hole._

_Kari is pacing to and fro, beating his arms. Halla sits silent. They are both dressed in skins._

_Halla._

Are you cold?

_Kari._

I don't know. (_Halla rises and puts some faggots on the fire. Kari takes a stick from the wall; counts._) I needn't count the notches. This is the seventh day the snowstorm is raging without a break, and it is past Easter. How long do you think it can keep on?

_Halla._

It's no use asking me about it.

_Kari (replaces the stick in the wall)._

If the walls were not frozen so hard, the storm would have torn down the hut long ago.

_Halla._

It is bound to stop sometime.

_Kari._

You think so? It's four years now since that terrible summer when the sun was red and dim from morning till night. (_In secret awe._) There may come a summer when the sun does not rise at all.

_Halla._

It was the ashes that made the sun look so red that summer.

_Kari._

I could well live a whole summer without the sun, if I only had food. (_Picks up a big knife._) This fellow has not tasted meat in a whole eternity. (_A rapturous ring comes into his voice._) I remember a ram I once killed; he was so fat he could hardly walk. (_Plants himself in front of Halla._) If he stood there now, bodily, should you have strength enough to hold his feet for me?

_Halla._

I think I should.

_Kari._

We should have to take care not to be too greedy. If we could only hold back the first two days, we might eat as much as we wanted afterward. (_His mouth waters; he swallows saliva._) You have seen a butchered sheep hung up to dry in the wind; its flesh is as tender as a young girl's. I feel as though I could fondle it; I could bite it.

_Halla._

We have promised each other not to speak of food.

_Kari._

And how do you think the heart would taste smoking hot from the fire? I could swallow it in one mouthful. I should feel as if I had eaten, if I could only smell warm meat.

_Halla._

You will make me sick if you don't stop talking about food. Don't you think I am just as hungry as you are? And I hold my peace.

_Kari._

Yes, you hold your peace. (_Puts down the knife._) If I did not see your eyes, I should think you were dead, and yet you are human and living like myself. Are you not? (_Halla is silent._) Or perhaps you are a heathen image? Must I kneel down before you and pray for fine weather? Shall I build a fire before you and stain your feet with blood? What do you want?

_Halla._

I want to be left in peace.

_Kari._

You ought to be a tree, then you could wither in peace. Why don't you cry out like every living thing that suffers. You don't know how your calmness racks me. Even the trees cry and moan in the autumn gales-- they wail!

_Halla._

I should wail too, if there was any one that could hear me.

_Kari._

I don't care whether anybody hears my screams or not. I'll scream; I'll yell. (_Yells._)

_Halla (stands up)._

Are you not ashamed of yourself?

_Kari (in a weak voice)._

This cannot last. I should have gone long ago. I ought to have gone at once, the first day the food gave out, but you thought every day that the morrow would bring fine weather. I know you said it to soothe me, but it was not right.

_Halla._

It was no use going to certain death.

_Kari._

I should never be afraid of getting lost. If the snowstorm is ever so dark, I find my way. (_Raises his hand._) I know where I am by trend of the wind.

_Halla._

If you were so sure of yourself, you ought indeed to have gone long ago.

_Kari (hardening)._

You say that?

_Halla._

Yes, I say that.

_Kari._

Take care! You have tempted me to stay day after day. Your believing and hoping palsied my will. You wormed your own fear into my heart and broke my courage. If we both die of hunger, the fault is yours, and yours alone.

_Halla._

Is it my fault?

_Kari._

You have lived in the hills for sixteen years, and you don't know them more than a child does. Perhaps you think the snowstorm will have pity? Won't you open the door and bid the snowstorm be still? Why don't you?

_Halla._

You say that it is my fault if we starve to death. Who was it that stole?

_Kari (stands for a moment speechless)._

You are homely. I have never before seen how homely you are. Your face makes me think of the head of a dead horse. (_Reaches out his arms._) May I feel of your hair if it doesn't all come out?

_Halla._

Don't touch me!

_Kari_ (_lets his arms fall. An expression of sadness comes into his voice_). I thought you were the only one who understood that I could not help what I did. Neither could you help what you have done, and yet you are bringing my misdeeds up against me.

_Halla._

Never before have I upbraided you for this, but you put the whole blame on me.

_Kari._

And you said it in such a hard tone. It was as if you struck me with stones.

_Halla._

My voice was no harder than yours.

_Kari._

It's becoming in you to chide me, as if you had not yourself urged me to steal many a time!

_Halla._

Since we became outlawed we have had a right to steal. We had to do it to keep from starving.

_Kari._

I thought you had forgiven me, and then you have been hoarding your charges. For sixteen years you have kept them, and they have not been corrupted either by rust or moth.

_Halla._

Come now, don't be angry, Kari. I said it in the heat of temper.

_Kari._

I am not angry, but it hurt so! I thought that you would be my spokesman before the Great Judge. If you If could forgive me, He might do it, too.

_Halla._

I did not mean to hurt you. I only said it to defend myself.

_Kari (following up his own thoughts)._

There are stones in the hills that are blood-stained from my feet; you must gather those and bring them before the Great Judge.

_Halla._

Won't you take to weeping, so I can gather up your tears and bring them before the Great Judge?

_Kari._

Are you mocking me?

_Halla._

Yes; I won't listen to your whining any longer. Now we shall sit down and hold our peace. (_Sits down._)

_Kari._

You shall not be worried by my whining. (_Takes the fur socks down from the wall; sits down and unties the straps of his shoes. Halla watches him in silence, while he puts on one sock._)

_Halla._

Are you going?

_Kari._

Yes.

_Halla._

You don't ask my advice?

_Kari._

No, this time I don't ask it.

_Halla (rising)._

When you go out of that door, you need not think of me any more.

_Kari._

I know your voice when you are angry. You ought to thank me for going out in such weather.

_Halla._

Yes, you are brave. It is not that you have any hope of saving our lives. You will only lie down in the snow and die.

_Kari._

You can believe it if you like.

_Halla (goes to him)._

I beg of you, let those hard words be forgotten.

_Kari._

It is not because of them that I am going. The worst that can befall me is to die in the snow, and that is better than sitting here.

_Halla._

First of all, we must use our common sense. The only thing we can do is to wait here until the weather clears.

_Kari._

And then the food will come flying in through the door!

_Halla._

Not that, but there will be means of help. We can dig up roots to still the worst hunger, and we can go to the lake for fish.

_Kari._

The snowstorm may last four or five days yet, and by that time we shall be dead from hunger.

_Halla._

How long shall you be gone?

_Kari._

Two days at the most.

_Halla (goes to him and touches his shoulder)._

I beg you to stay for my sake! We have lived together for sixteen years, and now let us also die together.

_Kari._

I know your way of hiding your will. Now it is your will that I should stay, but this time you are foiled.

_Halla._

You cared for me when I fled with you to the hills. You told me there was no one like me in all the world. You carried me across the streams, until I grew strong enough to ford them myself. You risked your life to get the things you knew I liked. Have you forgotten?

_Kari._

I have forgotten nothing.

_Halla._

And all the nights we slept with the heavens above us! Was it not blessed to feel the morning breeze over your face and to open your eyes and look into the blue sky? Then you kissed me and said that you loved me.

_Kari._

You shall not stop me from going.

_Halla (turns away from him)._

I know why I have this fear of being alone. It is because I am so far away from every living thing, and there's no sun and no stream here. (_Turns toward him._) If we feel that we must die, you can close the smoke-hole, and I will fill the hut with smoke. We shall lie down side by side. (_Touches his hand._) I will take your hand, and we shall dream that we are going out into a sand-storm together.

_Kari (harshly)._

Now leave me in peace.

_Halla (in helpless fear)._

I will tell you the truth. I don't dare to be alone.

_Kari._

Are you afraid of the dark?

_Halla._

When you are gone, I know I shall begin to listen. I know what I shall hear.

_Kari._

What do you hear?

_Halla._

I hear the sound of a great heavy waterfall. I hear the screams of my child. You must not leave me.

_Kari (turns away)._

You spare me nothing; you make my going as hard as can be.

_Halla._

I forbid you to go! It's inhuman to leave me here alone. If you ever come back, you will find me a mad beast.

_Kari._

Now you shall keep still. I will not listen to your whining any longer.

_Halla._

You are like all the rest. When your will is set, you have no heart. (_Sits down silently._)

_Kari_ (_fastens his foot-gear; ties a rope around his waist_). When I draw it tight enough, I don't feel that I am hungry. (_Puts on a coat of heavy fur._) You must watch the fire and not let it go out. I'll bring you some more faggots from the wood-shed.

_Halla (stands up; her voice is husky)._

Better kill me before you go. (_Bares her breast._) Stab me with your knife-- right here! I won't scream. (_Shuts her eyes._) I shall think I am nursing my child, and the little teeth are biting my breast.

_Kari._

Have you gone mad?

_Halla._

You haven't the heart, but you have the heart to let me sit here all alone. A wretched little train-oil lamp you would put out before you went; you could not bear to let it burn over nothing. (_Sits down._)

_Kari (stands silent a long time)._

I have been guilty of many a bad deed, but so far as I know, I have never been cruel. Nor will I be cruel to you. (_Takes off his coat._) Then we shall wait together as you wish. Does that make you feel happier?

_Halla._

I don't know. I can feel neither joy nor grief any longer. I think I would rather be alone.

_Kari._

You don't mean that.

_Halla._

If you think it wiser to go, you must do so.

_Kari._

I thought it would make you glad if I stayed.

_Halla (rising)._

If you had taken me in your arms and told me that you loved me with all my wretchedness and all my homeliness, that would have made me glad; but you did not.

_Kari._

Yet you know it was for your sake I stayed.

_Halla._

Are you so sure of that? Perhaps you were afraid that you might be guilty of a wrong deed. I think you had in mind the Great Judge rather than me.

_Kari._

I have once been judged by men; that is why I so often think of the last judgment.

_Halla._

I will have no talk of conscience between you and me. Be yourself with me, whether you are good or bad. After all, you don't know if the Great Judge looks kindly at what you call good deeds. Look at me! Look at me! You could not be more cruel to your worst enemy. Why was I given this hunger and not the food to still it? I have never wished to be born. I would rather be anything else than a human being. I would rather be the sand, whirling aimlessly over yonder waste. If there is a God, He must be cruel-- but there is no God.

_Kari._

You are only lashing yourself up. You ought rather to humble yourself and pray God to help both you and me. Without Him we are but dust and ashes.

_Halla._

I want no mercy any more, but you can go on calling for help. (_Mockingly._) I am sure He will hear you, if He is not busy breaking up the glaciers or cleaning out the gorge of a volcano to make it belch up more fire.

_Kari._

Don't say another word! We are wretched enough without your calling down new curses upon us.

_Halla._

I have but one sole and only wish before I die, and that is to do some unheard-of cruel deed. I should like to be a snowslide. I would come in the dead of night. It would be a joy to see the people half naked running for their lives-- chaste old maids with gouty hips, and smug peasant women with bellies bobbing with fat. (_Sits down, breaks into a paroxysm of laughter, wild and continued._)

_Kari._

You have become a monster. I am afraid of you-- afraid of the only human being I care for. (_Walks over to a corner, where he finds his old Bible. Sits down, turning the pages with trembling hands; reads._) "And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins: for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen."

(_They sit silent a while. Halla, leaning her elbows on her
knees, her face buried in her hands, cries softly. Kari rises,
stands silent for a moment, then goes to her._)

_Kari._

You must not lose heart. When things are at the worst, they will mend. Perhaps the storm will quiet down during the night.

_Halla._

It is so hard. (_Bursts into sobs._)

_Kari (kneeling)._

But, dearest Halla! Are you ill?

_Halla (warding him off)._

Let me alone.

_Kari (rises slowly)._

You were always so strong. I thought nothing could make you lose heart.

_Halla_ (_looks up. She has stopped crying; her voice is calm and cold_). You don't love me any more. You have never loved me.

_Kari._

Is that what you are crying for?

_Halla._

Before when you wanted to leave me, I besought you by all the memories I thought were dear to you. That did not touch you. I humbled myself so low that I would have thanked you just for a little pity,-- that might have been an afterglow of your love, but you had no pity. You stayed only because you were anxious about your own soul.

_Kari._

I stayed also for your sake.

_Halla._

You know better. You would rather die than have your God find you guilty of an evil deed. You counted the saving of your soul higher than your life, but I have no God, and I have never been able to tell my soul from my love. If you had loved me, you would have understood that I was pleading for my soul. You would have heard it in my voice, but you did not hear it.

_Kari._

You forget that it was to save our lives I wanted to go.

_Halla_ (_rises. Her eyes are large and burning_). Why did you not take me with you?

_Kari._

If I had gone alone, I might have come back alive. The two of us would have been sure to perish.

_Halla (kneels)._

I once dreamed of two people. To them their love was the one and only law. When they had lived a long life together, they were thrown into direst need. Hunger drew near to the fine web that time had woven between them and would tear it asunder. Then they looked into each other's eyes, and together they walked out into the snowstorm to die.

_Kari._

It is every man's duty to keep alive as long as he can.

_Halla (rising)._

And why should it be, when life has become an agony to ourselves and of use to no one?

_Kari._

It is the law of God.

_Halla._

The storm writes many laws in the sand. (_Sits down._) When my strength had given out, you could have left me in the snow.

_Kari._

You know very well that I would never have done that.

_Halla._

That would have been better than to leave me waiting here. And I don't believe that death is so hard. The storm carries you until you drop from weariness, and then the snow comes and covers you up. (_Staring before her with eyes wide open._)

_Kari (is silent for a moment)._

You are bitter, because of our sore plight. Many a time have I told myself that I have been the curse of your life. If you had never known me, you would now be living in peace and quiet. You could have ridden to church every Sunday, if you liked. You would have been the rich and comely widow with all the young men flocking about you. I dare say you have often been sorry that you fled with me to the hills. (_Halla is silent._) I remember once we had been out hunting together all night. Early in the morning we stood on the rim of the mountain plain looking down upon the fields and the dwellings of men. On some of the farms, the fires were lighted already, and the smoke rose straight up into the blue air, and the streams ran so quietly and pleasantly through the meadows. I thought then that I could see the homesickness in your eyes.

_Halla (starting up, her voice cold and calm again)._

If I could only have saved my faith in my own love, but I love you no longer, and it may be that I never have loved you. As a child I used to live more in my dreams than in the life about me. When I fled with you to the hills, I thought it was because I loved you, but perhaps it was only my longing for the strange and unknown. Afterwards, when the days became harder and lonelier, my love for you was a shelter which I would seek when sorrow for what I had done came clutching at my heart.

_Kari._

Say no more! You are befouling our love-- yours and mine. You say it was only a longing for the unknown and the free, unfettered life that made you flee with me to the hills. Shame on you! (_His voice is soft and full of sadness._) I know what you have been. No woman was ever greater in her love than you. When the sun strikes the rim of the glacier, it takes on the loveliest hues, though in truth it is nothing but dull, colorless clay. So your love has been the sunlight in my life, and I love you-- have always loved you. When I was away from you even for a single day, I would long to see you and hear your voice as eagerly as I would long for the murmur of a brook when nearly dying from thirst. When I went hunting and had good luck, I always thought of you. When I pictured to myself how pleased you would be, I forgot all about my weariness. But you must not ask the impossible of a man.

_Halla (rising)._

I am cold. Will you fetch some wood?

_Kari._

Yes, indeed. (_Goes to the door; leaves it ajar._) You cannot see a hand before you. (_Goes out and shuts the door after him._)

[_Halla goes to the door, listens, opens the door. A cloud
of snow comes whirling in. Outside the storm sweeps past.
She takes a long, lingering look around the hut, goes out
into the doorway, throws her head back, and disappears,
carried by the storm._

(_The stage stands empty for a moment._)

_Kari returns, covered with snow, his arms full of faggots._

_Kari._

Why do you leave the door open? (_Sees that Halla is not there, drops the faggots, goes out hurriedly, calls._) Halla! (_His call is heard outside the hut. He comes back into the doorway, looks in, cries out._) Almighty God! (_Two heart-broken cries are heard outside, the latter farther away and hushed by the storm._) Halla! Halla!

(_The snow comes whirling into the empty hut._)

THE HRAUN FARM

[_Gaarden Hraun_]

A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

1912

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

SVEINUNGI, owner of the Hraun Farm.
JORUNN, his wife.
LJOT, their daughter.
EINAR, a relative of Jorunn.
JAKOBINA, an old woman.
FRIDA, a child, eleven years old.
SØLVI, a geologist.
JON }
INDRIDI }
HELGI }
RANNVEIG } Servants.
BJØRG }
THORA }
A Shepherd Boy.

_The action takes place in Iceland. Time, the Present. "Hraun" is the Icelandic word for lava-field._