ASGAUT. Then fetch him!

RODERIK. Here he stands!

SOME. Ha, that old man!

GANDALF. O woe!

BLANKA. No, no, you shall not--

RODERIK. Struck by this hand the viking found his death, Now rests he peacefully in yonder mound!

GANDALF. My father's barrow!

RODERIK. He was strong and brave; Wherefore I laid him here in viking style.

GANDALF. Since he is buried, then,--

ASGAUT. Though he be buried, The fallen king cries for revenge,--strike, strike!

BLANKA. He is deceiving you!

BLANKA. [To GANDALF.] Do you not see It is alone his daughter he would save?

Yet, how should your kind understand a soul That sacrifices all--

GANDALF. I do not understand?

You do not think I can?

GANDALF. [To the VIKINGS.] He shall not die!

ASGAUT. How so?

BLANKA. O father! He is good like you.

ASGAUT. You mean to break your oath?

GANDALF. No, I shall keep it!

JOSTEJN. Then what have you in mind?

HROLLOUG. Explain!

GANDALF. I swore To take revenge or else to die myself.

Well, he is free,--I to Valhalla go.

BLANKA. [To RODERIK.] What does he mean?

ASGAUT. Your honor you would save?--

GANDALF. Go,--hold a ship in readiness for me, With hoisted sail, the pyre light in the prow; In ancient fashion I shall go aboard!

Behold, the evening breeze blows from the strand,-- On crimson wings I sail into Valhalla!

[JOSTEJN goes out to the right.]

ASGAUT. Ah, 'tis the woman who has cast her spell on you!

BLANKA. No, you must live!

GANDALF. I live? No, to the G.o.ds I must be true, I cannot break with them.

BLANKA. Your oath is b.l.o.o.d.y, Balder hates it.

GANDALF. Yes, But Balder lives no longer with us now!

BLANKA. For you he lives; your soul is gentleness.

GANDALF. Yes, to my ruin! It became my task As king to keep intact our great ideal,-- But I lack strength enough! Come, Asgaut, you Shall take the kingly sceptre from my hand; You are a warrior of the truest steel; On me the Southern plague has been at work.

But if I cannot for my people live, I now can die for them.

ASGAUT. Well said, King Gandalf!

BLANKA. Then need no more be said! Die like a hero, Faithful and true unto the very end!

But now that we must part forever,--know, That when you die yourself to keep your oath You are then likewise marking me for death!

GANDALF. What! You for death?

BLANKA. My life was like a flower, Transplanted in an unfamiliar soil, Which therefore slumbered in its prison folds: Then came a sunbeam from the distant home,-- O, that was you, my Gandalf! Opened then The flower its calyx. In another hour, Alas! the sunbeam paled,--the flower died!

GANDALF. O, have I understood you right? You could?

Then is my promise thrice unfortunate!

BLANKA. But we shall meet again!

GANDALF. O, nevermore!

You go to heaven and the holy Christ, I to Valhalla; silent I shall take My place among the rest,--but near the door; Valhalla's merriment is not for me.

JOSTEJN. [Returns with a banner in his hand.]

See, now the bark is ready, as you bade.

ASGAUT. O, what a glorious end! Many a man Will envy you, indeed.

GANDALF. [To BLANKA.] Farewell!

BLANKA. Farewell!

Farewell for life and for eternity!

RODERIK. [Struggling with himself.] Wait! Wait!

[Prostrates himself before BLANKA.]