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Page 29
_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.
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