[The day dawns in the background.]
AURELIA. [Points toward the increasing light.]
No, the terrors and the gloom of death love scatters
far.
See, the storm-clouds vanish; faintly gleams the morning
star.
AURELIA. [With uplifted arms.]
Light is victor! Grand and full of freshness
dawns the day!
Follow me, then! Death already speeds me on
his way.
[She sinks down over him.]
CATILINE. [Presses her to himself and speaks with
his last strength.] Oh, how sweet! Now I remember
my forgotten dream, How the darkness was dispersed
before a radiant beam, How the song of children ushered
in the new-born day. Ah, my eye grows dim, my
strength is fading fast away; But my mind is clearer
now than ever it has been: All the wanderings
of my life loom plainly up within. Yes, my life
a tempest was beneath the lightning blaze; But my
death is like the morning’s rosy-tinted haze.
[Bends over her.]
CATILINE.
You have driven the gloom away; peace dwells within
my breast.
I shall seek with you the dwelling place of light
and rest!
CATILINE. [He tears the dagger quickly out of his
breast and speaks with dying voice.] The gods of
dawn are smiling in atonement from above; All the
powers of darkness you have conquered with your love!
[During the last scene FURIA has withdrawn farther
and farther into the background and disappears at
last among the trees. CATILINE’s head sinks
down on AURELIA’s breast; they die.]
* * *
* *
[Kaempehojen]
A Dramatic Poem
in One Act
1854
* * *
* *
DRAMATIS PERSONA
RODERIK An old recluse.
BLANKA His foster-daughter.
GANDALF A sea-king from Norway.
ASGAUT An old viking.
HROLLOUG " " "
JOSTEJN " " "
Several VIKINGS
HEMMING A young scald in Gandalf’s
service.
* * *
* *
SETTING
The action takes place on a small island off the coast
of Sicily shortly before the introduction of Christianity
into Norway.
An open place surrounded by trees near the shore.
To the left in the background the ruins of an old
temple. In the center of the scene a huge barrow
upon which is a monument decked with flower wreaths.
* * *
* *
[At the right of the stage sits RODERIK writing.
To the left BLANKA in a half reclining position.]
