Chapter 4
My hopes ye annih'late, Ye powers of the sky! Who'll strengthen me, fainting, Against the god's might? Who'll heed my lamenting, My sorrowful plight? Ah! whom can I wend to? Will earth e'er attend to A powerless cry, Which cruel gods smile at? My hopes ye annih'late, Ye powers of the sky! Ha! ye have crush'd my heart! Oh Hother! Hother! Where art thou? Ah! I can no more! I'm swooning! O Death! O Freya!
[She supports herself, fainting, against a tree.
HOTHER, NANNA.
HOTHER (he rushes up to her in alarm). Dearest!
NANNA (looking stiffly upon him). Ah! my Hother!
HOTHER. So wild! so pale! Ah! would thy noble bosom Was not so tender!
NANNA. Voice of my belov'd one! Oh, speak again! Oh, speak again!
HOTHER. Thou tremblest, My bride! my much-lov'd bride! And burning tear-drops, Oh, hide them! Ha! they burn me--melt my courage! Weep not, my bride!
NANNA. Ah, joy! the joy of heaven, Entices forth these tears! My Hother liveth!
HOTHER (mournfully). Still liveth!
NANNA (affectionately and sorrowfully). Still!
HOTHER (turning away his face). O cruel, cruel fortune! Yet I have sworn?
NANNA. Fright me not, my Hother! Affright me not! What mean'st thou? Mighty powers! Thine eyes thou turnest from thy bride!
HOTHER (looking upon her with tenderness). Ah, Nanna!
NANNA. Ha! tears on Hother's cheeks! Oh, save me, Freya! What means this? Oh, I die!
HOTHER (he embraces her with violence). Oh, dearest Nanna!
NANNA. Oh heaven! say--
HOTHER (embraces her again). Once more, my bride!
NANNA. I tremble What means this?
HOTHER. Canst thou bury in oblivion Thy Hother's cruel doubt? Say, canst thou pardon His only crime?
NANNA. Think'st thou I can remember That Hother e'er has err'd?
HOTHER. How nobly spoken! Farewell, my bride! farewell, for ever.
[He embraces her for the third time, and is going; but she holds fast his arm.
NANNA. Cruel! If thou hast ever lov'd me--
HOTHER. Canst thou doubt it? By Odin, more than the best light! Can Hother's Tears not make bare to thee his heart?
NANNA Then wherefore Wouldst thou fly from me!
HOTHER. Honour calleth--Honour! And that--forgive me--that is more than Nanna. Ha! I must fly from thee! Each tear thou sheddest Enfeebles but my heart, and makes death bitter.
[He is going.
NANNA.. If thou regard'st my vow--regard'st my terror, Wouldst thou not see me die, and die distracted--
HOTHER. What wilt thou?
NANNA. Ah! a prayer!--oh how I tremble-- But if thou meetest Balder--
HOTHER. I avoid him!
NANNA (astonished, and calmer). What! thou avoid'st him?
HOTHER. Think'st thou I bear hatred 'Gainst one who yielded thee a glimpse of pleasure? One--nearly one of Hother's days? He gave me My life, and shall I slay him in requital? Oh! Nanna, . . . I've the mighty thought imagined; But with it trembles yet my lip--oh, canst thou Pay virtue its reward--forget for ever thy Hother, And--in course of time--love Balder?
NANNA. Oh, hush! oh, hush! my Hother!
HOTHER. He is virtuous, He loves thee well, and Odin is his father.
NANNA. How cruel!
HOTHER. I must fly from thee for ever!
NANNA. Oh horror! Whither? What is thy intention?
HOTHER. To die! Thou know'st my oath! Ha! the sun hastens! Seest thou how high? I swore by Hothbrod's ashes With Balder not to live a day! Release me! Ha! seest thou how high--
NANNA. And I have sworn too, By tenderness, by Freya, by my bosom, I'll not release thee; I thy track will follow In the black night of death! This arm I'll cling to, And my tear-moisten'd eye, until it bursteth, Shall gaze on thee, shall gaze on thee, its Hother!
HOTHER. Then be courageous--of thy Hother worthy! Think on his oath, and--
NANNA (she releases him). Ah, what wilt thou, Hother?
HOTHER. And see him die!
[He lifts his spear to stab himself. At that same moment the frantic BALDER rushes upon the scene.
BALDER, HOTHER, NANNA.
BALDER (he runs directly up to NANNA). Come! follow me now, Nanna! Our bridal festival's prepar'd in Haelheim, In Asgaard. Follow me, thou murky daughter Of joy! Ha, quick! Of dastard love I dream not. Jotuns await my arm. Hurrah! thou stayest! Thou stayest! Come!
[He seizes her by the arm, and seeks to drag her away by force. HOTHER steps between, and endeavours to thrust him aside with his hand.
NANNA. Oh, save me! save me, Hother!
HOTHER. Hold, Balder!
BALDER (he releases NANNA, and drawing his sword, hews at HOTHER with his utmost might, who seeks to parry the blow with his spear, retreating at the same time). Fall, presumptuous wretch!
HOTHER. Beware thee!
BALDER. Fall, nidding!
HOTHER. Ha, beware thee!
BALDER. Die!
[He stumbles, and runs the spear into his breast; whereupon he immediately drops his sword and sinks upon one knee.
HOTHER. Ha, Balder!
BALDER. Ha, Nanna!--Thor! I have deserv'd my fortune.
[He dies, and a mighty whirlwind passes over the scene.
NANNA. Ye heavens!
HOTHER. He is dead, the mighty Balder!
A VOICE FAR AWAY IN THE FOREST. He is dead, the mighty Balder!
MANY VOICES, which answer one another amongst the rocks. The mighty Balder is dead.
[It thunders; ODIN and FRIGGA appear upon a cloud in a very mournful attitude. THOR and many of the ASER come forward from one side of the wood, and the three VALKYRIER from the other.
THOR (and his retinue). Odin, thy Balder is dead!
CHORUS. Thunders, burst your cloudy portals! Heaven, earth, and ocean rave! Weep ye gods, and mourn ye mortals, O'er the mighty Balder's grave!
THOR. Gods of battle stern and gory, Weep ye o'er the hero slain! Balder, thou the Aser's glory! Love, base love, has prov'd thy bane.
CHORUS. Balder, thou the Aser's glory, Love, base love, has prov'd thy bane.
ROTA. I of slaughter swift purveyor, Sorrow o'er the hero slain! Balder, thou the Jotun-slayer, Loke's falsehood was thy bane.
CHORUS. Balder, thou the Jotun-slayer, Loke's falsehood was thy bane.
HOTHER. Hother's burning tears are flowing O'er the mighty Balder slain; Ah, thy heart with virtue glowing, Noble Balder, was thy bane.
CHORUS. Ah, thy heart with virtue glowing, Noble Balder, was thy bane.
NANNA. Nanna weeps with pallid feature O'er the mighty Balder slain: Friend of gods and every creature! Fate alone has prov'd thy bane.
CHORUS. Friend of gods and every creature! Fate alone has prov'd thy bane.
MANY VOICES answer one another among the rocks. The mighty Balder is dead!
CONCLUDING CHORUS. Thunders, burst your cloudy portals! Heaven, earth, and ocean rave! Weep and howl, ye gods and mortals, O'er the mighty Balder's grave.
EXPLANATION OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS AND NAMES.
ALLFATHER was one of Odin's surnames, but it signifies in this piece the highest being, who governs all things, and Odin himself.
ALF, a spirit; the same as Demon amongst the Greeks. There were good and bad Alf's or Elves, light and black, as the Edda calls them.
ASER, was one of Odin's surnames, and on that account the name of Aser was given to all the gods.
ASGARD, the castle or city of the gods, erected by Odin and his brothers.
THE FALL OF ASGARD. At the end of the world the heavens were to burst, and the castle of the gods to fall.
BALDER, son of Odin and Frigga, the best and most beautiful amongst the Aser. His death and the circumstances which caused it in this piece--that is, the whole plot--are taken partly from the Edda (43rd, 44th and 45th falle), partly from the third book of Saxo, and something is, according to poetic license, added or altered.
FENRI'S wolf, was begot by Loke with the giantess Angerbode. This wolf in the conflict of Surtur with the gods was to swallow Odin, who on account of this prophecy kept him in chains.
FIGHT AND DEATH OF GODS. At the destruction of the world, Odin and the other gods were to fight with Surtur and his train, and all to perish in this conflict. This period is termed, in the Edda, Ragnarokr, the "twilight of the gods."
FIND, a Trold or Demon of this name.
FREYA, the most exalted of the goddesses next to Frigga. She was the protectress of the human race in general, but particularly of lovers.
FRIGGA, the wife of Odin and the mother of Balder; the most exalted of all the goddesses.
GELDER, king of the Saxons (according to Saxo, in the life of Hother). He is presumed here to have been killed by Hother, who is therefore called "the bane of Gelder."
GEVAR, according to Saxo, a spaeman or prophet, the father of Nanna and the foster-father of Hother. He makes him likewise king of Norway; but Giver is not so in this piece.
HAEL or HAELA, the goddess of death. She was the daughter of Loke and the giantess Angerbode, and was hurled down by Odin to her horrible habitation.
HAELHEIM, Hael's dwelling. In the Edda it is called Helim, that is, Hell; but as the word Hell has now a different signification, it was necessary to invent here a word to express Hael's dwelling.
HAELWAY, the way of the dead, or the path to Haelheim.
HERTE, HERTA, or HERTHA, the earth, considered as a divine being and worshipped as a goddess by the old German and Northern people, as likewise by the Romans and others. The Edda calls this goddess Jord (that is, earth), and makes her the daughter and wife of Odin, and the mother of Thor, his first son.
HERTEDAL, the place in Sielland where Herte's grove was.
HOTHBROD, the father of Hother, according to Saxo, who makes him king of Sweden, and thus Hother a Swede. Contrary to which, the author of this piece found himself justified in reckoning Hother amongst the Skioldungs.
HOTHER, according to Saxo, was king of Denmark and Sweden; but his Life, by the same, is a chain of fables, which has yet given considerable occasion to the contents of this piece.
LEIRE, the ancient place of residence of the Danish kings, whence they were termed "Kings of Leire."
LIDSKIALF, in the Edda Klidskialf, a place in Asgard from which Odin surveys the whole world.
LOKE, a very wicked god, who, according to the Edda, was the cause of the death of Balder, and was therefore conducted by the other gods to a cavern, where they chained him to three rocks, there to suffer the most painful punishment until the destruction of the world. By the giantess Angerbode he begot Fenri's Wolf, Midgard's Serpent, and Hael. He was reckoned among the Aser, and was, notwithstanding his wickedness, beautiful of appearance.
MIDGARD'S SERPENT, a serpent begot by Loke with the giantess Angerbode. It was to be one of the occasioners of the world's destruction, and was on that account cast by Odin into the deep sea, where it grew to such a degree that it lay round the whole earth, and bit its own tail.
MIMMER, the owner of a fountain wherein wisdom and knowledge of the future lay concealed, out of which he drank every morning. Odin was once obliged to lay one of his eyes in pawn, in order to obtain a draught from this fountain. He was likewise, when Surtur should attack the gods, to ride to this fountain and seek counsel from Mimer on his own and his army's account.
MIMRING, this is the sword called here, which Hother, according to the relation of Saxo, took from a satyr or wild man of the same name.
NANNA, daughter of Gevar, beloved by Hother, and by Balder, son of Odin, according to Saxo, whose narration bears that Hother wedded Nanna, and afterwards slew Balder by the assistance of an enchanted belt which three nymphs had bestowed upon him.
NASTROUD, was properly the place where the ungodly were to be after the destruction of the world, but here the word is intended to signify the glowing and burning world towards the south, at whose extremest end Surtur had his habitation, and which is called in the Edda, Muspel, or Muspelheim.
NORNIES, were the goddesses of destiny, whose messages Odin himself was compelled to fear and to attend to. They were three in number. But the eldest, Urd (been), presided over the past; the second, Verande (being), the present; and the youngest, Skuld (shall be), the future.
ODIN, the god of war, the most exalted of the gods, and father of them all.
ROTA, one of the Valkyrier. See VALKYRIER.
SKIOLDUNG. Skiold, son of Odin, was the founder of the Danish monarchy. His descendants were called after him Skioldungs, or, contractedly, Skiolds.
SKULDA (in the Edda, SKULD), the youngest Nornie. See NORNIES.
SURTUR (the Black), the ruler of the glowing or burning world, at whose extremest end was his seat or dwelling. See above: NASTROUD. At the fated time he was with his army to overcome and slaughter Odin and all the gods, and thereupon set fire to the whole world.
THOR, was the god of thunder and strength: with his hammer he slew Yults, Trolds, and other foes of Odin and the gods.
TYR, one of the bravest and wisest gods, so that it was customary to say proverbially, "As bold as Tyr," "Wise as Tyr."
VALFATHER, the father of the slain or fallen in battle: one of Odin's surnames.
VALHALL, (the Hall of the Slain), the place where all warriors who had fallen by the enemy were so nobly entertained by Odin. It is commonly called Valhalla; but Valhall is the right, and Valhalla only the Latinized name in Resenius' edition of the Edda.
VALKYRIER, were virgins, or war-maids, who waited upon the heroes in Valhall. Three of them, amongst whom was Rota, were commonly dispatched to the field of battle by Odin, in order to choose them who were to be slain, which employment the name Valkyrier denotes. These three have obtained a place in this tragedy, and Rota is made the principal of them.
UDGAARD (UDGARD), Loke's dwelling outside of heaven. His usual name in the Edda is Udgarda Loke, Loke of Udgard; and thus Saxo in the Life of Gorm the first calls him Ugartilocum.
YMER, the first giant, Yutt, or Jotun, who lived before the heaven and the earth existed, and who was killed with all his offspring by Odin and his brothers. Only one of this giant race, by name Borgeline, escaped, together with his wife, and became the stem-father of the subsequent Jotuns.
Footnotes:
{1} Wadmal, a coarse woollen stuff, much worn by Norwegian peasants.
{2} Skiers are wooden pattens to run upon over the frozen snow