Part 3 (1/2)

No more on the oak-top The squirrel doth play; Deceived has a rustle The hunter so gay; No sound as he listens His hearing a.s.sails, Save the pattering of leaves That are moved by the gales.

There comes he--where? Oh, what a foolish stripling Am I, who here about four days have wandered In quest of a mere phantom! Surely, Nanna, Thou dost deceive me--dost but prove thy lover; And think'st thou, virtuous one, that if a G.o.dhead Came down in light effulgent, and before thee Knelt and laid heaven at thy feet--Ha! think'st Thou that fear, base doubt of Nanna's faith and Honour, would sully Hother's breast? I know thou Lovest me--thou hast avowed it: what shall then This wooer avail--this wooer who must not be Anger'd? Why the deception?

LOKE. Hail, thou son of Hothbrod!

HOTHER (astonished). Ha! scarcely do I know myself!

By Odin, I look more like a rugged elf than Hother.

And who art thou, that knowest me? who art thou?

LOKE. My name is Vanfred! When thy mother bore thee I was at hand and swore unto thee friends.h.i.+p.

HOTHER. Grim is thy visage, and thine eye doth promise, But little good. What dost thou seek?

LOKE. Whom, Skolding, Whom fearest thou? Why hide in yonder vestments?

HOTHER. I fear? thou warlock! Wise thou wert in speaking Of friends.h.i.+p!

LOKE. Spare thy wrath my youthful warrior!

Reserve it for thy foes!

HOTHER. They shall not miss it!

LOKE. And yet 'tis plain thou hidest thee from some one.

HOTHER. It was Nanna bade me. Ha! I blush by heaven!

When Nanna spake I always blindly listen'd.

She has disguised me, as thou see'st, stranger; She plagues me with her fears; the dreamer would not-- Would really not--for all the wide world's riches, That the wood goblin, or perhaps some lover Invisible, should know me.

LOKE. Pretty folly!

Balder invisible! the handsome half-G.o.d!

HOTHER. What! Balder, son of Odin? He her lover?

O heaven! Say, where is he? where?

LOKE. With Nanna.

HOTHER. There? Now? (After some refection.) She drove me out.

LOKE. Perhaps, thou see'st That she has rid herself of thee by cunning.

HOTHER. I simply thought the Alf had caus'd thy terror; But Balder, false one, he shall soon experience That I fear no one. [About to go.

LOKE. Softly, prince! be cautious!

I see thy courage; but thy foe is mighty.

HOTHER. Is my arm weak?

LOKE. It is against a half-G.o.d; Yet he can die. I know a spear which slayeth.