Chapter 6

(_The 'Little Hall' at Reynistad. Daytime. Enter_ LADY HELGA, JORUN, _and her two sons_, KALF, _eight years, and_ THORGEIR, _six years_.)

_Jorun_.--What do you need for your journey, lady? I do not know whether I can assist you, because there is no one but women at home.

_Helga_.--That knew I well that only women were at home. I need ice-spurs for my horse, or else he will fall under me and I lose life or limb.

_Jorun_.--You are welcome to our horseshoes as to all other things, lady.

_Helga_.--Harden well the ice-spurs for my horse, Haf. It seems to me that most iron is soft at Reynistad.

_Haf_.--It shall be done, lady! (_Exit_.)

_Jorun_.--Soft iron bends but does not break!

_Helga_.--Neither does it remain sharp long.

_Jorun_.--Are you finding fault with my husband and me because we observe the 'Peace of God'? I might easily let the women fetch so many of my servants as would be needed to take you and Haf prisoners.

_Helga_.--Yes, if we waited until they came. But let us drop this; rather show me your boys, because I should like to see what will become of them when they grow up.

_Jorun_.--There are but few that can see that in such small boys, excepting their own mother.

_Helga_ (_sits down and extends her hand_).--Come to me, Kalf, my foster-son. (KALF _comes up to her_.) What do you want to be when you grow up? A bishop?

_Kalf_.--I want to become a great chieftain!

_Helga_.--What chieftain would you most want to be like?

_Kalf_.--The one who commands the greatest army.

_Helga_.--You want to command a great army, foster-son?

_Kalf_.--Yes, and be victorious in many battles.

_Helga_ (_placing_ KALF _on her knee_).--I think as before about my foster-son Half. In him you will bring up a man fit to be a chieftain, Jorun, though I know not how fit you are for that task.

_Jorun_.--My sons will have to be satisfied with such bringing up as I am able to give them.

_Helga_,--Which chieftain would you most like to be?

_Kalf_.--Kolbein the Young.

_Helga_.--Older people ought to say that! (_To_ THORGEIR.) But what do you most like to become, little tot? (THORGEIR _comes up to her_.)

_Thorgeir_.--Like father. (_Puts a finger into his mouth_.)

_Helga_.--Do you want to be a priest?

_Thorgeir_.--I want to be like my papa. (HELGA _gazes at him; he retires behind his mother, concealing his face in her gown, and cries_.)

_Jorun_.--You must not make my boy cry, lady.

_Helga_--You may keep that boy yourself. But give me your boy Kalf along to Flugumyr, for that would further reconciliations. I wish to be the mother of a chieftain.

_Kalf_.--Will you give me sword and helmet, and shield, then?

_Helga_.--Yes, my boy, a shield with an eagle on it.

_Jorun_.--A woman who herself has no children is not destined to be mother to a chieftain. My son Kalf shall never come into your hands whilst I live. I wish him to learn works of peace, and not warfare and slaughter.

_Helga_.--Let your Thorgeir be ordained priest, as kinsmen of yours have done. (_Stands_ KALF _on the floor, getting up herself and stroking him on his head_.) But be careful to raise Kalf in such a manner that he become a successor to my husband and his father.

_Jorun_.--Go now, boys! (_The boys leave the room_.) You say that Kalf will be the successor of your husband and of his father?

_Helga_.--You know about the ill health of my husband Kolbein, which may take him away earlier than one might suspect. And yet it may be that Brand Kolbeinsson will not live even as long as he.

_Jorun_.--What is that you say? As a fact I know that Hjalti, the son of the bishop, is not coming from the South to settle our differences!

_Helga_ (_laughs_).--He, the cod-biter! His men were all at the fishing-stations when Asbjorn arrived in the South. Hjalti is coming by no means, and my husband is raging at him.

_Jorun_.--You must have stirred up Kolbein the Young in this matter as never before. Did you not drive home with the corpse of Thorolf, saying to him that there was life in him still; but when he took Thorolf out of your sleigh his head rolled about Kolbein's feet. Nor was that to be wondered at, considering the love that was between you and Thorolf.

_Helga_.--The slayers of Thorolf themselves incited me most.

_Jorun_.--And now it may appear to you as though not only Thorolf was to be avenged. Asbjorn fared South with eleven men and returned alone. He lost all men in the winter storms that have been raging now for some time. At last there were only six who returned over the Kjol, without food and worn out. Man after man threw himself down on the frozen ground to die; they cursed the wars that will not let men die in peace with God and men, they cursed Brand Kolbeinsson, and Broddi, and Kolbein the Young, because it is they who are the cause of this war.

_Helga_.--You say the truth about the journey of Asbjorn from the South. But I shall forget about all that, and shall procure the best terms for your husband from Kolbein, if you will give me your boy Kalf to foster and to let me bring him up. It has become rather solitary about me now at Flugumyr!

_Jorun_.--And you wish that I shall bring up my sons so that dying men shall curse them?

_Helga_.--You shall surrender the boy to me, whether you like it or no.

_Jorun_.--Then would I rather die!

_Helga_.--Weak spirit! My husband has promised me the life of a man in this feud, and also that I might choose who it shall be.

_Jorun_.--Then I _know_ that it will be the life of my husband.

_Helga_.--You spoke of the love between me and Thorolf Bjarnason. I shall not deny it. Thorolf summoned your husband before the judgment of God before he was put to death. Now he is dead I can do nothing more pleasing to him than to see to it that Brand Kolbeinsson follow the summons in due time.

_Jorun_.--You are a devil, Helga! You dare to treat thus a chieftain as beloved as Brand Kolbeinsson?

_Helga_.--Loud you exclaim now, my lady! Yet I am better than you think me. If Brand is as beloved a chieftain as you make him out to be, somebody will surely be ready to die in his place; and that will I promise you that I shall give your husband full release, and kill _him_ instead who offers himself to that end. (_She laughs_.)

_Jorun_.--You promise me that because you know full well that no one will do that.

_Helga_.--Is not Brand Kolbeinsson a beloved chieftain?

_Jorun_.--Yet you will stand by your word neither to me nor my husband.

_Helga_.--When did I ever fail to live up to my promise?

_Jorun_.--Did you never say that you would love your husband?

_Helga_.--When I was given to Kolbein I never once was asked whether I would love him, so that if I have been much lacking in this matter I have never deceived him in any way. Your husband may rest assured that if any one offer to die instead of so highly beloved a chieftain, then shall I take that man's life, and not Brand's.

_Haf_ (_coming in again_).--Now your horse is provided with ice-spurs. Make haste; I see men riding this way. (LADY HELGA _and_ HAF _depart_.)

_Jorun_ (_throwing up her hands in dismay_).--And to-night the Peace of God is at an end! Holy mother of God! Rather extinguish the sun than let my husband be taken from me and put to death. Rather extinguish the sun than let this war continue. The earth does not deserve to exist when no one obeys the command of love and peace.

_Brand_ (_enters_).--You are praying?

_Jorun_.--Lady Helga departed but this moment; she said to me that her husband had promised her the life of a man in this feud, and that she intended to choose yours.

_Brand_.--It is altogether uncertain as yet whether kinsman Kolbein will get power over my life.

_Jorun_.--Hjalti, the bishop's son, will not come to effect a settlement between you.

_Brand_.--I am not so sure whether we shall need him. Broddi has two hundred men, and if Deacon Sigurd and Helgi Skaftason manage to get any men it is likely that we shall have a greater host than kinsman Kolbein. (SIGURD, _deacon, enters_. BRAND _goes to meet him_.) You come late, deacon!

_Sigurd_.--I have been going about asking for help, as you bade me, and I may as well say in few words that no one will take up arms for you, excepting only your tenants, if you mean to begin hostilities against Kolbein the Young.

_Brand_.--That had I not expected.

_Sigurd_.--People are saying that the district is growing poor through warfare, that brothers, fathers, or sons lie buried on battlefields in all directions, and that they want to know where to look for their bones before more men are sent to their death.

_Brand_.--I have not been the cause of warring hitherto, and these same men will take to their arms by the hundreds, whenever Kolbein the Young summons them, and yet half of the lands he now rules are really mine.

_Sigurd_.--That I told them also; but I cannot tell you what they answered thereupon!

_Brand_.--You certainly must!

_Sigurd_.--They said that Kolbein had ever been victorious in war, but you never.

_Brand_ (_gloomy_).--It is true, I have not been victorious!

(HELGI SKAFTASON _enters_. BRAND _goes to meet him_.)

_Brand_.--What tidings have you from, the West?

_Helgi_ (_leaning wearily on his axe_).--The weather has been very bad--

_Brand_.--I know that! I know that!

_Helgi_.--I found the men on guard in the West. When I came to the first of them, the messengers of Lady Helga were there. Both they and the guards raised a great outcry against me, and I owe it to my horse and the storm that I escaped with my life. At the second and the third post it went the same way.

_Brand_.--And no one wanted to follow me?

_Helgi_.--They all said that you always suffered the most disgraceful reverses, while victory was perched on the helmet of Kolbein.

_Brand_.--I did not have the hardness and the ruthlessness of my kinsman Kolbein to kill men.

_Jorun_.--And it is better not to be ruthless.

_Helgi_.--I went to the peasants in the West, but got the worst reception. Often I did not even get food. I was allowed to stay overnight only in the outhouses. At Bolstadahlid the hut burned down in which I slept. I do not know whether the farmer intended to burn me in it, but three armed men were standing outside when I made my escape from the fire. They did nothing to put out the fire, but neither did they attack me. Maybe that they were not minded to seek a night's shelter under my axe. After that I was not allowed to come into the house. I stood under the house wall during the remainder of the night, with my axe on my shoulder, and looking into the fire. Now I have come here!

_Brand_.--Our cause is altogether lost. Yeoman Thorvard tries to murder my messenger! (_Murmurs to himself_.) Thorolf said, 'He shall shun churches and Christian people, the houses of God and the houses of men, and every home but hell.'

_Jorun_.--You will have to fight against terrible odds.

_Einar the Rich_ (_enters with a pair of scales and a gold ring in his hand_).--Now I shall ride home by the fastest and shall return within a short while with twenty men.

_Brand_.--That will be excellent, Einar. (_Exeunt_ BRAND _and_ JORUN.)

_Einar_.--Deacon Sigurd, what weighs the ring you wear on your arm there?

_Sigurd_.--Why do you ask?

_Einar_.--A ring has been paid me for a debt, and I want to weigh it now.

_Sigurd_.--My ring weighs four ounces.

_Einar_.--Mine was to weigh as much; let me have yours for a moment!

_Sigurd_ (_takes_ THOROLF'S _ring off his arm and gives it to him_).--But let me have it back at once!

_Einar_ (_weighs the rings. As soon as_ SIGURD _looks away he exchanges the rings; handing_ SIGURD _the other_).--Thank you, deacon. Here is your ring! I am astonished that a priest should wear so precious a piece of gold on his arm.

_Sigurd_.--This ring is not my own. (_Puts it on_.)

_Einar_.--I did not know that. Farewell, friends! (_Exit_.)

_Helgi Skaftason_ (_approaches closely to_ DEACON SIGURD).--I dreamed last night that I stood out of doors and looked up at the sky, and I thought I saw streams of blood run over all the sky. And down below on earth shone flames that licked up to the vault of heaven from all directions.

_Sigurd_.--You became aware in your sleep that the hut was burning about you.

_Helgi_.--No! I dreamed this dream three times, and awoke each time and never became aware of the fire. The end of the dream was most terrible and always the same.

_Sigurd_.--And what was the end of it?

_Helgi_.--Meseemed Thorolf Bjarnason drowned me in blood, and then I awoke and thought I was in hell.

_Sigurd_.--Put no faith in that hellish dream. You dreamed about the end of the world.

_Helgi_.--Yes, my world is at an end. The eyes of Lady Helga marked me for death, when I dried the blade of my axe on the fringes of her veil.

_Sigurd_.--That was indeed a most unfortunate act!

_Helgi_.--Thorolf had been her lover for many years.

_Sigurd_.--I do not know about that. I am not her father confessor.

_Sigurd_.--No. She has the father devil as father confessor, but not you.

_Sigurd_.--You speak ill of so great a lady.

_Helgi_.--And I shall have to sell my life and salvation as dearly as I ever may. (_Sobs_.) Help me, deacon, I sink, I sink!

_Sigurd_ (_taking his ring off his arm_).--Take this ring! And ride at once to Flugumyr and give it to Lady Helga, with this last message from Thorolf Bjarnason that you shall have peace for life and limb, although you have slain him.

_Helgi_.--That ring? That is the ring of Einar the Rich!

_Sigurd_.--Ah, the wretch stole the right ring, and now he has ridden away! Holy Mother of God, then I know not what to do for you!

_Helgi_ (_close to him, as before_).--I shall not live more than three days, and then I shall awake in the place I dreamed of. Deacon, as sure as you want to be saved yourself, read masses for my soul when I am dead.

_Sigurd_.--I shall, depend on it. It may be your dream signifies the fall of that chieftain whom you shall harm most. I dreamed (BRAND _and_ JORUN _appear behind them_), that night when I lodged at Sauda--I dreamed three times in succession that Brand Kolbeinsson stood at my bedside and said, 'Domine Jesu Christe, accipe spiritum meum!'

_Helgi_.--And what mean these words?

_Sigurd_.--My Lord Jesus Christ, receive thou my soul!

_Jorun_ (_throwing her arms about_ BRAND).--Never let such dreams trouble you, my dear husband. (_The others are startled by her words_.)

_Brand_.--Thorolf prophesied to me that I would not have a priest near me when I was put to death.

_Jorun_.--That prophecy shall not come true, in case you really should suffer a sudden death now. Come into the church, deacon, and shrive me and my husband.

_Sigurd_.--Come along with us into the church, Helgi Skaftason! For it is the last refuge of every man.

_Helgi_.--I want to have my food, and no consecrated host! And when I am done eating it is better I should see how the watches are kept. Never forget those masses, deacon!

(_All depart. After a little while_ KALF _and_ THORGEIR _poke their heads in and enter, when they see that the room is empty_.)

_Kalf_.--Nobody here; come now, we are going to play.

_Thorgeir_.--Yes, play great, big men!

_Kalf_.--Father is going to fight against Kolbein the Young now, and Broddi with him. Will you be Broddi?

_Thorgeir_.--No, I want to be papa!

_Kalf_.--Then you want to be what I wanted to be; so I shall be Kolbein the Young. So, now let's begin.

_Thorgeir_.--Yes, and I am papa.

_Kalf_.--Now first we have got to fight one another.

_Thorgeir_.--No. Because I am papa!

_Kalf_ (_commands_).--Draw up your forces in battle array, Brand Kolbeinsson! Come now, Geiri, and play with me; we must fight now!

_Thorgeir_.--You are out of your mind! Why do you want to rush at me? I who am father? (_Kneels down in the background, folding his hands over his breast, looking down and moving his lips_.)

_Kalf_.--Why, don't you remember that I am Kolbein the Young? Now the battle begins! (_Commanding_.) Order your troops, Brand Kolbeinsson! Defend yourself! Are you running and hiding yourself now, Brand Kolbeinsson?

_Thorgeir_.--No, I am in church and saying my prayers.

_Kalf_.--I shall teach you saying prayers when you are to fight with me! (_Angrily_.) Now I am dragging you out of church, Brand Kolbeinsson. (_Grasps him and drags him out to the middle of the floor_. THORGEIR _remains on his knees_.) There, now you have got out of church!

_Thorgeir_.--No, papa is still in the church!

_Kalf_.--Now you are out of it! Cut off his head, Helgi Skaftason! (_Grasps_ THORGEIR _by his shoulder and lifts up his other hand_.)

_Thorgeir_ (_still kneeling_).--Are you out of your mind? Do you want to kill me, who am papa--and I--while I am in church,--and--and--and I--while I am saying my prayers?

_Kalf_ (_lifting up his hand_).--Cut off his head, Helgi Skaftason!

_Thorgeir_ (_as before, weeping_).--Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!

_Kalf_ (_stamping, with commanding voice_).--Cut off his head, Helgi Skaftason! (_Enter_ JORUN. THORGEIR _is weeping_.)

_Jorun_.--What are you doing there, boys? Why are you crying, Thorgeir?

_Kalf_.--We are playing here.

_Thorgeir_ (_tearfully_).--He wants to cut my head off,--I who am papa, and in church, and praying.

_Kalf_.--Yes, and I was Kolbein the Young, and wanted to have Helgi Skaftason behead him--just in play.

_Jorun_.--Don't cry any more, my boy. (_Caresses_ THORGEIR.) And you, Kalf, do you want to have your father beheaded in your game? No more such games! (_Slaps_ KALF.)

_Kalf_.--You slap me? I who am Kolbein the Young? So you think he will allow himself to be slapped with impunity by a woman?

_Jorun_.--How does this lion's whelp come among us? I had rather not live than bring up rovers. Never more play war, Kalf! Protect those that are weak! (_Embraces_ THORGEIR, _leads the boys to the door, and calls out_:) Put Kalf into the dark room for a while!

_Broddi_ (_shouts from without_).--I must get to speak with you, Brand Kolbeinsson! Quick, quick!

_Jorun_.--Broddi here! There comes war incarnate mailed from head to foot. May God have pity on all wives!

(_Enter_ BRAND _without arms and_ BRODDI _all armed_.)

_Broddi_.--You have collected a good and well-armed body of men?

_Brand_.--I have had great difficulty in gathering troops. I have only my tenants and my servants, altogether eighty men.

_Broddi_.--And whilst I make the fort at Holar unconquerable, whilst I break up the frozen ground, whilst I pour water over all the ramparts of our stronghold so that they become like slippery ice--meanwhile you have done nothing. You sing hymns in the churches, beat your breast, and chant 'Miserere.' Your conduct is not becoming a chieftain.

_Jorun_.--You speak harshly to my husband because he wants peace before all things.

_Broddi_.--Peace! Whoever heard of peace after violent dissensions, except the battles be won or--lost?

_Brand_.--You know, Broddi, that I egged on neither you nor others to take Thorolf Bjarnason's life. And yet have I done all in my power to collect many men. I sent Deacon Sigurd and Helgi Skaftason----

_Broddi_.--The priest and the executioner?--and, of course, only these two?

_Brand_.--Yes, I had but few men at home, at that time.

_Broddi_.--You do not know how to get a body of men together! You send the priest with the crucifix in his hand. All know that he wishes peace, and no one rises for him. You send the hangman with the axe on his shoulder to remind people of his business, but you forget that with such a fellow no one will speak. In such wise you will not get a pack of dogs to follow you. But if you want to raise a great host you will have to go out yourself with sixty men and kill two or three of the first that refuse to follow you. Thus did Kolbein the Young collect his troops at first, and because Kalf Guttormsson would not bear arms against Sighvat, his good friend, both he and his son were slain.

_Jorun_.--How often the murder of my father and brother is mentioned, and no one cares though I hear it.

_Brand_.--I have been heavily oppressed with care. I have been summoned before the tribunal of God because of having violated a pledged truce; and my kinswoman Helga will be intent on making me follow that summons. And now the priest in my house has dreamed thrice in the same night that I stood by his bedside and prayed God to receive my soul.

_Broddi_.--Dreams signify nothing. The summons you talk about I think nothing but old women's notions. The tribunal of arms is the one I believe in; they are to decide between us and Kolbein the Young.

_Brand_.--Is it your opinion that we can overcome my kinsman Kolbein with less force than he has himself?

_Broddi_.--The fortifications at Holar are impregnable now. Together with your men we have more than three hundred men, and I have moved victuals into the fort from the bishop's residence which ought to last us for three weeks.

_Brand_.--You have robbed the bishop's see!

_Broddi_.--No, I have come by the victuals in an honest manner. You know that warriors may take as their own all food they find. I should like to see my brother-in-law Kolbein attack us by scaling these ramparts of ice, and see his men tumble down from above, and the ice coloring red under them.

_Jorun_.--My husband shudders at that sport; he is sick in his soul.

_Broddi_ (_seizing_ BRAND).--There is no time now to have a sick soul. We shall have to fight. As soon as my brother-in-law Kolbein has made an onset at our fort and lost many men he will himself see fit to obtain conditions of peace from us.

_Brand_.--That will he never!

_Broddi_.--Maybe, maybe.

_Brand_.--It will cost many lives to attack and defend Holar this time. Ought we to sacrifice them all merely to lengthen our own lives by a few years?

_Broddi_.--Lives? Worth, each, one or two hundred ounces of silver! Brand, you do not know the joy there is in fighting! Every man in the fort has sworn to fall at his post. And I shall spare no effort, so that he who will set down an account of it will be able to say with truth that our last defence was the most glorious ever told of in sagas, and that the fame thereof shall last while there live men in this land.

_Brand_.--I shall come to Holar, unless I find better counsel which you approve of.

(ALF OF GROF, DEACON SIGURD, _and_ HELGI SKAFTASON _lead in the_ CLERK HELGI _between them. He has a bandage over his eyes_.)

_The Clerk Helgi_.--Pax vobiscum! May Brand Kolbeinsson hear my voice?

_Brand_.--He is here.

_Helgi_.--What other persons are here?

_Brand_.--Broddi Thorleifsson and Jorun, my wife!

_Helgi_.--It is without the knowledge of Kolbein the Young and to bear word from Bishop Botolf that I am here. Will all of you keep silent about my coming here?

_All_.--Yes.

_Helgi_.--Then take the bandage from my eyes!

_Broddi_.--No. What happenings are there at Flugumyr?

_Helgi_.--I am no spy. My errand is to hand you the bishop's letter, Brand Kolbeinsson. (_Holds out the parchment, which_ BRAND _seizes_.)

_Brand_.--Have you other messages besides?

_Helgi_.--No! (_Stretches forth both his hands_.) Give me your hands, my sons. (BRAND _and_ BRODDI _clasp them_.) The very next time Asbjorn Illugason meets you, Broddi, he means to exchange blows with you.

_Broddi_.--Glad I am that Kolbein, my brother-in-law, at least does not bid some contemptible wretch to dispatch me. (HELGI SKAFTASON _leads out the_ CLERK HELGI.) The bishop's letter! The bishop's letter!

_Sigurd_ (_reads_).--Botolf of Holar, a poor servant of the Holy Church and prisoner at Flugumyr, sends to Brand Kolbeinsson and his friends God's greetings and his. Pax vobiscum! You and your companions are not to put overmuch trust in the fortifications of Holar, because from the church, the dwelling house, and outhouses in the inclosure there lead secret passages into them which are known to Kolbein the Young, but not to me.

_Broddi_.--And that he could not have told us before, the hell-hound!

_Sigurd_ (_reads_).--Through the eggings on of Helga his wife, Kolbein is now become so frantic and furious that some of my clerks think he cannot suffer the sound of a bell. He has threatened to break down the fort of Holar, to spare no one, and has promised his Lady Helga the life of a man, whomever she will choose.

_Broddi_ (_laughs_).--I wonder whether she will have my life?

_Brand_.--No. It will be my life she desires.

_Jorun_.--She shall never have it.

_Alf_.--My head she wants, the vixen!

_Helgi_.--I need not guess _whose_ life it will be.

_Sigurd_ (_continues_).--But I fear that the mercy of God will most readily fall to your share if all the men who were present at the slaying of Thorolf submit themselves unconditionally to Kolbein before the 'Peace of God' is at an end; then I would hope that you will be fortunate enough to pacify Kolbein's mind, so that full reconciliation may be obtained, of which Kolbein also stands in great need because of Thord Kakali and the King. Valete!

_Brand_.--The counsel of the bishop will be the best for all of us. The slayers of Thorolf Bjarnason ought not to jeopardize other men's life to save their own. Lady Helga has told my wife that she meditated my death, because of the slaying of Thorolf; and though I have but little incited you to the deed, so that it may be said to have been done against my will even, yet will I for the welfare of the district rather give myself up to Kolbein and suffer death, than that many men should lose their lives because of us; and rather than that my kinsman Kolbein should be routed by Thord Kakali through the insurrection which I and Broddi have raised against him. (_Silence_.)

_Sigurd_.--Spoken like a man, Brand Kolbeinsson! (_Exit_ JORUN.)

_Broddi_.--We have sworn to each other not to separate before that this our cause was entirely brought to an end; now I see your highmindedness, Brand Kolbeinsson, as I have seen it before. The bishop has torn from under me my trust in the fort. Hence I shall take that council to fare to Flugumyr with you, whilst I maintain that it is entirely doubtful as yet who is to die, Kolbein the Young, Brand, or I; but that I think sure, also, that short time will pass between the death of any one of us three.

_Alf_.--Let all of us go to Flugumyr and surrender to Kolbein. Will you not go with us, Helgi Skaftason?

_Helgi_.--No one can escape his fate. I shall do what Brand does. But it is certain death for me!

_Broddi_.--Let us go then! (_Enter_ JORUN _with_ KALF _and_ THORGEIR.)

_Jorun_.--Say farewell to your father, my boys! He intends to start on the longest journey in this world.

_Kalf_ (_going up to his father_).--Do you mean to go to war now, father?

_Brand_ (_lifts him up and kisses him_).--Your mother said I intended to start on the longest journey in this world.

_Kalf_.--Then you intend to start out to Rome. That I do not mean to do, once I am a chieftain. (BRAND _sets him down on the floor again_.)

_Brand_.--It may be that I come to Rome; but that Rome lies high aloft. (KALF _goes up to_ BRODDI.) Now you come to me, Thorgeir! (THORGEIR _goes up to him. He takes him on his lap_.) Don't weep, my little boy, if I be late returning to-morrow.

_Thorgeir_.--Don't go away from me, father! Let the others go to war, but you remain at home yourself!

_Brand_.--No, I cannot stay here; if I remain here there will be fighting here and killing of men; but if I go I shall return with peace.

_Thorgeir_.--Oh yes! Peace is good, let me have it when you return, so I can put it into my toy box. I will not break it at all.

_Broddi_.--The boy is right. All the peace that now exists in Iceland may be put into a linen chest.

_Brand_ (_kisses the boy and sets him down_).--Yes, keep it well, my boy. If you obtain it you will never have to start out on the journey that I now must take.

_Kalf_.--You are not going to Rome, Broddi?

_Broddi_.--No. Not just now!

_Kalf_.--You are going to war, Broddi! I wish I were grown up, too!

_Broddi_.--I should like, if I might, strike one great blow, before going to Rome with your father.

_Kalf_.--And let that blow become far famed, Broddi!

(JORUN _leads the boys out. They go to the door. Some depart_.)

_Jorun_.--Have you nothing to say to me, my husband, before going?

_Brand_.--Do not weep when I am gone. (_They embrace each other closely_.) Make our sons love peace! And always think that I have said that to you which you most wish I had said to you.

(_All except_ DEACON SIGURD _and_ JORUN _leave_.)

_Jorun_.--Now I declare myself in league with the holy queen Maria, as did Guttorm, my brother, before he was slain! (_Approaches_ SIGURD.) I shall travel with you to Flugumyr to try whether I may save the life of my husband.

_Broddi_.--What may a woman effect in such a great feud? It will be a most perilous journey. Who knows what may happen there!

_Jorun_.--The life of my husband is more precious to me than my own. But I need a man's clothes, deacon, and then let us ride after the others. Lend me the garments of your son who died when half grown. Permit me to wear them on the journey, so that no one may recognize me at Flugumyr.

_Sigurd_ (_drying a tear_).--You are welcome to the boy's clothes.

_Jorun_.--And that you will have to promise me, deacon, to let no one know who I am, whatever happen.

_Sigurd_ (_hands her a key, wiping off a tear_).--I promise it. The boy's clothes lie in my chest under my vestments. Take them and may they help you, Lady Jorun, you blessed woman!

_Jorun_.--There is still more to do, deacon. While I get myself ready, you are to tell the stewardess that she is to give the servant girls and men servants the food they choose to have, and as much and as good food as if it were prepared for a banquet.

_Sigurd_.--It does not seem to me, though, as if any festival were at hand this evening.

_Jorun_.--Do as I bid you! Probable it is that this will be the last time that I have prepared food for my servants. (_She takes the crucifix from her neck, hangs it upon a chair and kneels down before the cross_. DEACON SIGURD _looks at her awhile, then leaves the room in all stillness_.)

(_Curtain_)