Modern Icelandic Plays Part 48

(_Silence._)

_Helgi._

There was a man walking across the _hraun_ a little while ago. Who can it be?

_Indridi._

I saw him too.

_Jon._

It was Slvi. He carried his gun.

(_Silence._)

_Ljot._

How still it is on the _hraun_.

_Einar._

I thought you were listening for something, while you lay there quiet as a mouse. I thought you were listening for the earthquake.

_Frida._

Can one hear the earthquake when it is coming?

_Rannveig._

Are you afraid? Yes, sometimes it can be heard a little before the shock. They say it sounds like the clatter of hoofs from many hundred horses.

_Bjrg._

To me it sounded like the whistling of the wind.

_Jorunn._

You should sit down, Sveinungi. You'll get tired standing.

_Sveinungi._

I am not tired.

(_Silence._)

_Frida._

What if the earth should open up right here where we are sitting?

_Rannveig._

It won't. Who told you that it might?

_Frida._

Jakobina said so.

_Rannveig._

You must not listen to all she says; she talks so much.

_Jakobina._

I say nothing but what is true. At the time of the last great earthquake the ground cracked and made a fissure many miles long; I saw it myself.

The earth opened her mouth to breathe.

_Einar (to Frida)._

Don't be afraid. I have a black lamb-- do you remember it?-- with white feet. When I get it home in the fall, I will give it to you.

_Jakobina_ (_facing the "hraun"_). Not one of you knows the _hraun_ as I do. Can you tell me why the hollows out there are never filled with snow? Have you ever seen the snow falling fast enough to cover even the rims around them? It's the earth blowing her breath against it. The earth sets traps for men; the earth is a man-eater.

_Jorunn (to Jakobina)._

You must not frighten the child.

(_Silence._)

_Sveinungi._

Wasn't it you, Jakobina, who said that sometimes blood comes on the window-panes? It bodes ill, they say.

_Jakobina._

Why do you ask? There is no one here who has seen it, is there?

_Sveinungi._

Never mind why I ask.

_Jakobina._

Well, if I must say it, it is a sign that some one in the house is going to die soon.

_Sveinungi._

Or it might bode ill to the farm itself, maybe.