THE PROLOGUE
Foreground—a frozen crater
At back, a cavern. Overhanging this, at left and back,
snow-crusted cliffs, partly bared by the winds, stand
out against the stars.
On one of these, Odin seated; on his shoulders,
two ravens. Beneath him, in the crater and
cavern, half-discernible, Fenris and his Pack.
ODIN
He sleeps, yet restive still; with eyelids squint
Through which his eyes, in dreams still shifting, flash
Like flame through knot-holes. Yet he sleeps; beside him
His wild pack, crouching, share his chain.—A lull:
Betwixt moonset and sunrise, one at least,
One lull in that insensate harsh defiance,
The beast-night-barking of my wolfish son.
You stars! Fenris is quiet. Now the dews
May fall in silence, now the mountain birds
Nest silent by the unawakened morning,
The wide dark fold its wings and dream. Now peace,
The infinite soliloquy of thought,
Descends on Odin.
[A silent pause, during which the first pale signs of dawn
appear on the crags. Odin whispers to the ravens on his
shoulders and they fly away. He sits motionless and serene.]
THE PACK
[Slumbrously.]
Ulfr! Ulfr sofnathi!
ODIN
[Gazes again on Fenris.]
That this dread should breathe!
And yon beast born from out my loins—to me,
To me, that from this forehead plucked an eye
To pawn for Mimi’s knowledge.—Wisdom, truth,
Beauty, and law, the tranquil goals of mind,
All these had I attained, and I a god;
Yet on the lank, alluring hag of Chaos
Begat this son, this living fang.
THE PACK
[Slumbrously.]
Ulfr! Ulfr sofnathi!
ODIN
O thou
Dumb spirit of the mind! O mystery!
Were there a god whom Odin might invoke,
To thee would Odin sue for pity.—Ages,
A thousand ages, anguish;
Anguish, remorse, forgiveness, malediction,
Light into darkness, horror into hope,
Revolving evermore.—O pain, O pain,
Sear not my spirit blind!—Thou, tameless wolf,
God of the void eternal retrograde,
Prone deity of self, by that thou art—
Illimitable passion, joyance mad
Of being, hate, brute-cunning, gnawing lust,
Fenris, I curse thee.
[Fenris wakes.]
THE PACK
[Wildly.]
Ulfr! Ulfr vaknathi!
FENRIS
Father!
ODIN
Still that name!
FENRIS
Father!
ODIN
Fenris, my son, forgive me.
FENRIS
Fetch Fenris Freyja.
FENRIS
Baldur, my brother’s bride betrothèd,
Freyja, fetch me.
ODIN
Still no longing but ’tis lust,
No aspiration but ’tis appetite.
FENRIS
Anarch! anarch! anarch! Father, free me!
ODIN
Free thee, thou poor antagonist. Knowest thou
Not yet why thou art chained? Retarded thing,
Emancipate thyself! What might it avail
Though Odin burst these links and loosed thee?—Thou
Thyself art thine own bondage and thy pain.
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr!
FENRIS
Anarch! anarch! Ulfr!
ODIN
Yet could’st thou show some genesis of good,
Some spring of growth. Hadst thou, in all these ages,
Waxed toward my stature imperceptibly
Even as the seed, that germinates in darkness,
Feels toward the sky; yea, hadst thou now one pale
Potential spark of godhood, nobler desire,
Evolving intellect, one lineal trait
To prove that upward through thy brutish heart
Yearns infinite Reason, even now, poor son,
Would I strike off these fetters, set thee free,
Thee and thy pack, and put my hope in time.
THE PACK
Heil! Heil, Othinn!
FENRIS
Fenris! Free him.
ODIN
But lo! instead, what art thou? Ye faint stars,
Before you close your eyes in day, once more
Behold him! Ye icy craters and hoar caves,
Thou solitary dawn, eternal sky,
Perennial snows—you timeless presences,
Behold your consummation: this, even this,
Is Odin’s elder son, creation’s heir!
FENRIS
Anarch! anarch! anarch! anarch! anarch!
[Odin, covering his face, turns away and disappears behind
the crag. Fenris, with his pack, retires into the cavern,
dragging his chain. Outside Baldur is heard singing,
joined, in chorus, by the voices of nature on whom he calls.]
BALDUR
Flushing peak, fainting star,
Freyja!
Torches in thy temple are,
Freyja!
Spirits of air,
Anses and elves,
Brightens the dawn,
Freyja is gone.
Come! let us go to her, girding ourselves.
CHORUS
Freyja, where art thou?
Where? Where?
[Freyja enters, looking fearfully around her.]
FREYJA
Those giant beards and backs!—They turn and look.
The peaks pursue me, and the nudging cliffs
Thrust out great chins and stare. Where should this lead?
BALDUR
[Outside.]
Mortal day, man’s desires,
Freyja!
Feed on earth thine altar-fires,
Freyja!
Spirits of earth,
Wood-sprites and Wanes,
Gone is our mirth,
Sorrow remains.
Come! let us hasten and bid her beware!
FREYJA
Can this place be i’ the world? And were such shapes
Wrought in the dear creation? And that voice—
Was it this crater’s frozen mouth that moaned
For blossoms and the south wind and my love?
BALDUR
[Enters.]
Freyja!
FREYJA
O Baldur, come!
BALDUR
What hast thou seen?
Why hast thou left the silver roof of shields,
Thy lover’s eyes, the laughter of the gods,
To wander forth in night?
FREYJA
Barkings I heard.
BALDUR
Hush, Freyja!
FREYJA
Through the music of the gods
Faintly I heard it knell and yearn for me;
And so I stole away. But tell me—
FREYJA
Tell me what thing of nameless woe—
BALDUR
Oh, come
And ask not. Come away to Valhal.
[He leads her impetuously away from the crater toward
the sunrise.]
FREYJA
[Resists gently.]
Baldur!
BALDUR
Freyja, look down! Spring leaps among the valleys
And calls his universal flocks, to drink
The love of Freyja.
The forests rush together and the groves,
And the male oaks, like herded elk at war,
Tangle their budding antlers, and moan loud
For Freyja’s love.
Look down! The silvered pastures and the lakes
Lift all their sacrificial clouds, to crave
The love of Freyja;
And day’s bright stallion, snorting in the east,
Paws the pale stream of morning into gold
And champs his golden curb to burning foam
For Freyja’s love.
FREYJA
But if one yearn in vain—
[The rattle of Fenris’s manacles echoes in the crater.]
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr vaknathi!
FREYJA
Listen! They cry—
“The wolf awakeneth!” What wolf? And why
That clang of steel?
BALDUR
His chain.
FREYJA
[In dreadful wonder.]
But he?
BALDUR
A beast
Untamed and tameless.—Ask not with thine eyes!—
Fenris, my brother.
FREYJA
[Springs joyfully toward the crater.]
Ah!
BALDUR
[Stays her.]
Where art thou going?
BALDUR
Oh, would it were! Look not; this kin is monstrous.
FREYJA
Is it not a god as we?
BALDUR
It is a god,
Freyja, but not as we.—It is the wolf-god,
Lord of the dumb and kithless wild, that live
To breed and kill their forms of dreadful beauty—
A vacant sacrifice to him: the doe,
That stills all night her knocking heart, to hear
The wood-cat’s footfall, breathes mute prayer to Fenris;
The frothing stag, that blazons the black boar
With gules of death, bruits hymns to Fenris; yet
Their pangs assuage him not, for he himself
Remains the abject deity of lust,
His rites, the stretched claw and the stiffened mane;
His priest—a sated fang; his altar—fear.
FREYJA
But why makes he his sanctuary thus
Lonely in desolation?
BALDUR
’Tis the will
Of Odin. Ask no more. This cleft he chose
Wherein to hide the secret woe of the world,
That never thou shouldst look upon its face.
FREYJA
I?
BALDUR
Thou, O maiden! Thou art the hope of the world.
FENRIS
Freyja!
FREYJA
He calls me.
FENRIS
Freyja!
FREYJA
Hark! He yearns
For me!
BALDUR
[Urging her away.]
’Tis Odin’s will.
FENRIS
Freyja!
FREYJA
He cries
In pain. Hold me no longer.—Fenris!
ODIN
[Entering, intercepts her path with his spear.]
Stay!
ODIN
Poor wolf? Poor world! poor blind, precarious Reason,
Beneath whose sovereign throne this horror sits,
Cat-crouching to usurp it.—Fear him; go!
FENRIS
Ai! ai! anarch! Freyja!
FREYJA
He yearns for me. Am I not beautiful?
Am I not holy? Wherefore should I fear?
All living things love Freyja; gods and men,
Anses and elves and helpless animals.
Where I walk glittering, there lovers press
And consecrate their eyes and beat their hearts
Like moths against the moon. And shall I go
Nor smile once kindly on him? Even the moon
Is kinder to her loves.
ODIN
He craves no smile
From thee, nor ever smiled into the face
Of love since his birth-hour. He lusts for thee.
FREYJA
Why should he not? Hath Odin never lusted?
What mind that knows the lust of intellect
Shall mock desire? Ah! Who that ever yearned,
Yearned not in ignorance?
ODIN
[To Freyja.]
Child, pitiest thou this thing?
FREYJA
Hath not its voice
Cried out immortally and craved me? Pity?
Love is a kind of pity for itself
That longs so endlessly. Allfather, never
Ere now hast thou gainsaid me.
ODIN
Yet must now!
This bitterness is mine alone to bear.
O Freyja! O my Baldur! You of all
The creatures of my will, bright lovers, you
Only are happy. Be so still. Depart!
Forget these wolvish cries; seek not to help
Evil unsolvable.
FREYJA
What then is evil,
That lovers may not solve it?
ODIN
[His face turning wistful with a beautiful light, lifts his
obstructive spear, and stands from the path.]
Hope of the world!
ODIN
Behold!
[He watches with the look of wistfulness as Freyja and
Baldur, springing to the brink of the crater, gaze down
upon Fenris.]
FREYJA
Ah me!
BALDUR
Fenris, my brother!
FREYJA
O pain! Why dost thou look upon me so?
FENRIS
Fair art, Freyja; shalt Fenris fear not?
FREYJA
What wouldst thou?
FENRIS
Lithe thy limbs are; lief am to lie with thee.
FREYJA
Are these snows thy dwelling-place?
No flowers grow here. Take these.
[Freyja lets fall some of her flowers into the crater.]
FREYJA
[Drawing back.]
Alas!
BALDUR
Peace, brother!
FREYJA
Thou lovest me. Why, then, art thou not glad?
FENRIS
Chafe, choke me, chains; chaffeth the churl at me!
FREYJA
Take heart; we come to bring thee peace. O Baldur!
[Clinging to Baldur, she gazes with fascinated awe upon
Fenris, who, pacing ever in and out, amid his involving
Pack, with the swift, incessant shuttle movement of
a caged wild thing, upturns his shifting eyes in
yearning.]
FENRIS
Free me, Freyja; frore am I, frost-bit,
Go we together into greenwood glad.
Mirk under moon-mist mad will meet thee,
Hunt thee from hiding, thy heart-beats hear!
Press thee, panting!
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr!
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr!
FENRIS
Miles, miles, miles!
FREYJA
[To Baldur.]
He loves me, yet his looks are terrible.
He saw me, yet he smiled not. Flowers I gave him,
But he destroyed them. Sorrowful he is,
Yet hath no tears in his eyes.—What shall we do?
FENRIS
Free me, Freyja; fair art thou, froward—
Go we together into greenwood glad.
Burns thine eyebeam bright as the bitch-wolf’s,
Longeth Fenris in thy lair to lie;
Longeth to chase thee.
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr!
FENRIS
Chafe, champ thee—
THE PACK
Ulfr! Ulfr!
FREYJA
Baldur, what reeling darkness snows around us
From heaven? The rose of dawn is stung with blight.
ODIN
[Aside.]
O mystery! O will behind the will,
How shall this end?
BALDUR
From heaven no darkness falls;
It is the glamour of his woeful eyes,
That spet the night within them.
FREYJA
[Half wildly, whispers at Baldur’s ear.]
It must cease!
The shy bird hath his song within the wood,
The shepherd’s call is sweet along the hills,
To husband and to lover are the sounds
Of gracious voices in the home places,—
To him, the ceaseless clanging of his chain.
BALDUR
O Freyja, we will minister to him,
Until for him the shy bird’s song is sweet,
And sweet the shepherd’s call along the hills.
Fenris!
[Swinging from the brink of the crater, he lets himself
down. As he descends, Fenris springs toward him
to the limit of his chain.]
FENRIS
Hail, Baldur! hail, brother! Boast thy beauty now;
Woo now and wive thee, welcome to Fenris’ woe.
All elf-gifts thou asked Odin gave thee,
Sunlight, summer, song for solace,
Fair face, freedom, Freyja to friend.
Me what gave he? Mark!—Mountain-mist, madness,
Monstrous made me, marr’d, wolf-masked,
Cramped in snow-crater, frost-crusted, chained;
Numb, naked, night-winds gnaw me,
Blistereth black ice, biteth my bones.
BALDUR
Thou shalt be free.
FENRIS
Me mocketh, mocketh! Ai!
BALDUR
Fenris, my brother, hear me!
I bring thee freedom.
FENRIS
[Holding out his chain to Baldur.]
Liest;—loose me!
BALDUR
Hush! I know the secret
How thou mayst slip these shackles. I have learned
From Odin how he binds thee. Wilt thou hear?
FENRIS
[Craftily beckoning Baldur under the shadow of a cleft.]
Tss! Wise is the One-Eyed. Tss! read me thy riddle now.
BALDUR
Know then, O Fenris, Odin of himself
Is weak to hold thee. Of his kin, another
Conniveth with him.
FENRIS
Kin, sayst?
BALDUR
Thou, his son. Thou forgest
Chains stubborner than Odin’s, links of lust
Mightier than these of steel, which are themselves
The might of these thou wearest. O my brother,
Lay off thine own, and Odin’s shall be straw.
FENRIS
Thus readest thy riddle?
BALDUR
Thus findest thou freedom: do our father’s will.
His law is wisdom. All the folk of heaven
And earth and hell obey him gladly; thou—
Submit thou also; make thine oath to Odin.
FENRIS
Oathless be Odin; am I earth’s overlord!
[Odin beckons to the eastward with his spear. From the
distance comes a flash of fire and faint thunder.]
BALDUR
Hush, brother, hush! He hears; for thy pain’s sake
Remember he is Allfather. Be meek.
FENRIS
Am I Asa’s heir!—I—I—I am Allfather!
[By a dazzling river of light and thunder-peal, the whole
scene is riven. On the peaks at either side appear
Loki and Thor. Loki holds in his hand a serpentine
whip of many lashes, as of glittering brass; Thor,
a white hammer. The Pack cower, moaning; Fenris
stands glaring, with head bent backward as in
sudden pain.]
ODIN
Hail, Loki! Welcome, Thor! in happy time.
Are ye not come to crown me Odin the Wise?
Shake out the live scorn of thy withering laughter,
Loki, over the world: Odin hath been defied!
Hammer it, Thor, on the clanged doors of hell,
Till their intestine thunders toll our doom—
“The wolf shall sit alone, at Valhal’s feast,
And eat of Odin’s heart!”
FREYJA
Alas! What words
ODIN
This is mine heir. Hath it not spoken? This
Shall sit one day in Odin’s seat. Mine heir!
The heir of all the gods. Behold then, gods,
How this, your prince, receives his tutelage.
BALDUR
Father, what wilt thou do?
ODIN
Tame him, the tameless;
The eternal goad against the eternal stone.
Yea, though I tame him not till doomsday darken.
[To Loki.]
Loosen thy scourge.
[Held by his chain, Fenris flees wildly in circles, and
seeking to hide himself, finally crouches in terror,
centre. He is prevented from entering the cavern
by Thor, who stands there.]
FENRIS
Anarch! Ai! anarch! Anarch! Ulfr! Ulfr!
BALDUR AND FREYJA
Have pity!
ODIN
Pity ask
Of him; this wolf must reign or I. Strike, Loki!
Let thy bright lashes scorch with all their snakes
Till the live, brassy serum eats and crawls
Into the writhing blood. Begin!
[As Loki swings his whip of fire, the Pack beneath fall on
their faces. Amid them Fenris crouches at half stature.
Baldur and Freyja kneel as frozen, with lifted hands
toward Odin. Thus in sudden twilight and silence, fine
silent lashes of unintermittent lightning uncoil and coil,
as the scourge is whirled, around the cringing body
of the wolf. A shudder only reveals his extreme pangs.]
ODIN
Cease! [Loki ceases.] Wolf, what of thine oath?
FENRIS
Oathless am I.
BALDUR
Fenris, be tamed!
FENRIS
I—I—I am Allfather!
ODIN
Sublime inanity! heroic ape!
This strong defiance were itself divine,
And thou a titan-martyr, had thy pride
One rational aim commensurate with thy woe.
But all thy suffering is purposeless.
Strike, Thor! Make of his obdurate heart thine anvil.
[As Fenris, by a gesture of rage, drives these from him into
the cavern, Thor raises his hammer. Immediate night
shuts out the scene. In this surge of darkness the deep
rolling of thunder swells and culminates, as by waves,
in the blank burst of the thunder-bolt. Through a
half-lull, amid moaning of the Pack, are heard voices
from the crater.]
BALDUR’S VOICE
She leaps. Hold, Thor! She casteth herself down.
FREYJA’S VOICE
Beat on my heart, for mine containeth his.
ODIN
Light! light once more!
[The thunder dies away. Sudden dawn breaks, ripening
soon to daylight. Within the crater, Freyja is
revealed, standing over the exhausted form of
Fenris.]
Freyja, what hast thou dared?
FREYJA
The bolt of iron and the scourge of brass
Avail not, Odin.—Let me conquer him
For thee!
ODIN
How wouldst thou tame him?
FREYJA
By my love,
Yea, and the exceeding might of Baldur’s love,
Whose gracious arts of poesie shall aid me.
Grant him to us!
BALDUR
Grant him to us, O father!
ODIN
[Going apart.]
O thou unknown Destroyer and Deliverer,
Rape not again from me this nestling hope!
[He descends into the crater.]
BALDUR AND FREYJA
Grant him to us, Allfather, to be tamed!
FENRIS
[Clutching the snow at their feet, feebly.]
I—I am Allfather!
ODIN
Lovers, I grant him to you; but not here,
For this concession must be darkly hid
Till you have proved its beauteous consummation.
Not, therefore, here I grant, but yonder.
[Indicates the earth below them.]
There
You shall enact a vast experiment,
Whereof the pregnant sequel none may know
Save only him, the master magian,
Whose prentices we gods and titans are,
And the blind wills of men his medium.
For he, with silent face from us averted,
Holds in the awful hollow of his hand
The world—his crucible, and plies with them
Ordeals of anguish and of ecstasy.
Therefore the earth must be your place of passion,
And there in slumber, even as mortals dream,
Slumb’ring, that they are bright immortal gods,
You shall be mortals, and shall walk as men,
Forgetful of your immortality.
[Faintly, as from a great distance, there rises a sound of
many voices crying, “Odin! Asa Odin!” and the rumour
of beasts in pain.]
Hark, now! from far below us, the deep moan
And lowing of a mortal sacrifice.
Speak, Thor! What seest thou at Odin’s altar?
THOR
A mighty hunter and a twisted dwarf
Make sacrifice; rivals they seem, in feud,
And claim the hand of Thordis, thy priest’s daughter,
And the priest cries on Odin for a portent
To choose which of the brothers shall be bridegroom.
ODIN
Lo, then, my portent! We ourselves, we four,
Shall be those rival brothers, priest and bride;
Loki and Thor shall ravish them with death
That we, in resurrection, may take on
Their bodies as our mortal vestiture.
For I will act with you this mystery,
Dreaming myself the priest of mine own shrine;
And Freyja, child, thy goddess heart shall beat
Within the heart of Thordis, mortal maid;
Thy boundless spirit, Baldur, shall be pinched
Within the gnarled limbs of the stunted dwarf,
Twisted with pain, as now thy brother is;
Thou, envious wolf, jealous of Baldur’s joys!
Thy feverish being shall invest the power
And glorious stature of the hunter. So
Shalt thou have scope and license measureless
To woo the heart of Freyja. So shall ye,
Lovers, make proof of your conjoinèd love
And trothèd meekness, whether these be strong
To tame this wolf, and from his blinding lusts
Evolve a nobler consciousness, or weak
To let themselves be blasted, and the world
Itself eclipsed in universal chaos.
FREYJA
If we be strong?
ODIN
The wolf-god shall be tamed.
FENRIS
[In rage, half rising.]
Oathless am I unto Odin ever!
[He sinks back, faint.]
BALDUR
[To Odin.]
And tamed?
ODIN
He shall go free.
ODIN
O Freyja, larger liberty—
The mightier peace which mortals only know—
Even death.
FENRIS
Freedom! Anarch—anarch! Freedom!
LOKI
Hail, Odin; smoketh thine altar afar.
Burneth to thee the cloven bullock’s heart;
The sacrificers watch and wait thy sign.
ODIN
Let them behold it! Thou and Thor, stretch out
Your wings in storm, and ravish up their souls
With night and death.
[To Baldur and Freyja.]
Come, you my children! Now
Shall our immortal fires be mixed with clay
In the great crucible, and these our spirits
No more shall know themselves for gods, until
The shadowy Master shows the great solution.
[In faint lightning and thunder, Loki and Thor disappear.
Odin ascends the crater, followed by Baldur and Freyja.
Climbing together the steep slope, these two look
backward upon the prostrate wolf who, following them
with his eyes, moves not until they reach the summit.
There, against a sky of sunlit storm, Freyja pauses and
stretches forth her arm to him.]
FREYJA
Dear wolf!
FENRIS
[Starts up madly.]
Freyja! death—freedom! freedom! death!—Now—now!