OLAF. But tell me, where is he?

ALFHILD. You have told me you rode late one summer night in the meadow where the river flows; there you heard strange songs which you only half understood, but which haunt and haunt you so that you will never forget them.

OLAF. Yes, yes!

ALFHILD. You once heard my father's songs! It is on them that I have been nourished. In truth, neither have I fully understood them; they seemed to me to be the most precious treasure, to be life itself; now they mean little to me; they are to me but a token of all the glory that was to come. In all of them was there a handsome knight; I imagined him to be the best and most glorious thing in all the valleys, the best and most glorious as far as bird can fly, as far as clouds can sail. Olaf! it was you,--I know you again! Oh, you must tell me of your home, of the distant valley whence you come; life out there must be rich and glorious; there it must be that my birds all fly with the falling of the leaves; for when they again come to visit me, they have so much to tell that is strange, so many a marvel to sing about, that all the flowers begin to bud and to blossom, the trees to grow green, and the big and glorious sun to rise early and go tardily to rest, in order to listen to all the stories and songs. But little grasp I of all that they tell; you must interpret it for me, you must make everything clear that inwardly craves an answer.

OLAF. Little am I able to answer what you ask of my home. My home? If I have had a home other than this, then I remember but little about it. It is all to me like a misty dream which is forgotten in the hour we waken. Yet, come! far below us there lies a village; there it seems I remember I wandered before I saw you; there it seems to me that my kinsmen live. Do you hear how the river conjures and rushes; let us follow it; out on the ledge near the waterfall we can overlook the village where I--once had my home. Come, come!

ALFHILD. But dare I--

OLAF. Follow and trust me, I shall protect you!

ALFHILD. I am ready; I know it well enough; whether I wished to or not, I must follow you wherever you go.

[They go out to the right.]

CHORUS OF WEDDING GUESTS AND LADY. KIRSTEN'S PEOPLE (From the forest to the left.) Awake to our call, come free your will From elves that hover around!

SCENE XI

[LADY KIRSTEN and HEMMING enter from the left.]

HEMMING. Here he was;--why--now he is gone!

LADY KIRSTEN. And he said he was waiting for the bride who was to come?

HEMMING. Yes, but whom he had in mind I could not quite make out; for his speech was strangely incoherent. Ingeborg he did not mean,--that is certain.

LADY KIRSTEN. Say nothing, good Hemming! say nothing of what he just said! You did well to let me alone know he was here. You shall be richly rewarded for this, but first we must find him again--

HEMMING. [As he looks out to the right.] See,--see there, in the moonlight, on the hill near the river,--yes, surely I think--

LADY KIRSTEN. Hush, hush, it is Olaf!

HEMMING. There are two; a woman is with him--

LADY KIRSTEN. Heavenly saints!

HEMMING. He is pointing out the village as if--there they go!

LADY KIRSTEN. Call Lord Arne and our people! We will meet again here; I bring Olaf with me!

HEMMING. But dare you then--?

LADY KIRSTEN. Do as I say; but say nothing of what you have heard and seen. You can say that Olaf came up here to hunt deer and bear, and that he went astray in the mountain.

HEMMING. You can rely on me, Lady Kirsten!

[Goes out to the left.]

LADY KIRSTEN. Is it true, then? Have evil sprites gained control over him? Yes, so I can pretend to Arne of Guldvik, but little I believe it myself;--and yet it is said it happened often enough in the days gone by. But it is elfen maids no doubt of flesh and blood that--. There he goes down to the river,--I must hasten!

[Goes out to the right in the background.]

CHORUS. [From the forest to the left.]

With ringing of bells we hurry along, We wander in field and in dell!

O Christian, come, give heed to our song, Wake up from your magic spell!

SCENE XII

[OLAF and ALFHILD come in from the right in the background. Later LADY KIRSTEN.]

ALFHILD. O, you must tell me still more of the world!

Your words to my soul are refreshing indeed; It seems as if here in the wonders you tell My innermost longings you read!....

Did you ne'er on a summer night sit by a tarn, So deep that no one could fathom it quite, And see in the water the stars so bright, Those knowing eyes that express with their flickering light Much more than a thousand tongues could possibly say?

I often sat thus; I sought with my hands to capture The sparkling riddles below in the deep-- I s.n.a.t.c.hed after them, I would see them close, Then they grew blurred like eyes that weep,-- It is idle to search and to seek--

So too in my soul there was many a riddle I yearned to solve in the days that are gone!

They tricked me as did all the stars in the deep, Grew stranger and stranger the more I brooded thereon!

OLAF. Am I not to myself a mysterious riddle?

Am I Olaf Liljekrans, the n.o.bly born, The knight so proud, who vaunted his race, Who laughed the singing of birds to scorn!

And yet, from my heart I tear what I was!

Happy I am,--and that can I understand-- Your prophecy failed,--I should happiness find, When the fairest of flowers I had found in the land.

Ah! happiness here I have found!

ALFHILD. I prophesied nothing.

But--tell me more of the life that is yonder!

OLAF. The life that is yonder may go its own way; Here is my home; with you will I wander, My lovely wife! Alfhild, behold!

Is it not as if here in the mountainous fold Were built for us two a bower so fair!

The snowdrops in splendor stand garbed everywhere; In here there is feasting, there is joy, there is mirth, More real than any I have found on this earth!

The song rings out from the river so deep; It is that which makes me both laugh and weep!

The song of magic, the mysterious lay, Has made me so free, so happy and gay!