ODDNY _stands spinning at the side; near her_ ASTRID _and_ STEINVOR _sit stitching a robe which hangs between them._
ASTRID Night is a winter long: and evening falls. Night, night and winter and the heavy snow Burden our eyes, intrude upon our dreams, And make of loneliness an earthly place.
ORMILD This bragging land of freedom that enthralls me Is still the fastness of a secret king Who treads the dark like snow, of old king Sleep. He works with night, he has stolen death's tool frost That makes the breaking wave forget to fall.
ASTRID Best mind thy comb-pot and forget our king Before the Longcoat helps at thy awaking.... I like not this forsaken quiet house. The housemen out at harvest in the Isles Never return. Perhaps they went but now, Yet I am sore with fearing and expecting Because they do not come. They will not come. I like not this forsaken quiet house, This late last harvest, and night creeping in.
ODDNY I like not dwelling in an outlaw's house. Snow shall be heavier upon some eyes Than you can tell of--ay, and unseen earth Shall keep that snow from filling those poor eyes. This void house is more void by brooding things That do not happen, than by absent men. Sometimes when I awaken in the night My throbbing ears are mocking me with rumours Of crackling beams, beams falling, and loud flames.
ASTRID (_pointing to the weapons by the high-seat_) The bill that Gunnar won in a far sea-fight Sings inwardly when battle impends; as a harp Replies to the wind, thus answers it to fierceness, So tense its nature is and the spell of its welding; Then trust ye well that while the bill is silent No danger thickens, for Gunnar dies not singly.
STEINVOR But women are let forth free when men go burning?
ODDNY Fire is a hurrying thing, and fire by night Can see its way better than men see theirs.
ASTRID The land will not be nobler or more holpen If Gunnar burns and we go forth unsinged. Why will he break the atonement that was set? That wise old Njal who has the second sight Foretold his death if he should slay twice over In the same kin, or break the atonement set: Yet has he done these things and will not care. Kolskegg, who kept his back in famous fights, Sailed long ago and far away from us Because that doom is on him for the slayings; Yet Gunnar bides although that doom is on him And he is outlawed by defiance of doom.