Hadda Pada | Page 3

ball of
yarn under her arm. She is dressed in an Icelandic costume]. Take care!
Don't drop the ball! [Drops a stitch, takes it up again-- smiles.] Who
knows--maybe it is your life-egg, children!

KRISTRUN. Life-egg! ... Is that a fairy-tale?
RANNVEIG. Haven't you ever heard it? Come, let me tell you about it.
[Takes a chair and sits down beside them.] Once upon a time there
lived two giantesses who were sisters. One day, they lured a young
prince to them. They let the prince sleep under a coverlet woven of
gold, while they themselves slept under one woven of silver. When at
last the prince pledged himself in marriage to one of them, he made
them tell him how they spent the day in the forest. They went hunting
deer and birds, and when they rested, they sat down under an oak, and
threw their life-egg to each other. If they broke it they both would die.
The next day, the prince went to the forest, and saw the sisters sitting
there, under the oak. One of them was holding a golden egg in her hand,
and just as she tossed it into the air, he hurled his spear. It hit the egg,
and broke it--the giantesses fell down, dead.
KRISTRUN. Brave giantesses who dared to treat your sacred
possession so heedlessly!
RANNVEIG. One does not hear the footstep of vengeance. It came to
them unexpectedly.
KRISTRUN. How I wish my whole fate were held in this ball.
RANNVEIG. What would you do if it were?
KRISTRUN. I would lay it gently in the hand of the man I loved,
saying: Take it to a safe place!--and I would shut my eyes--while he
were searching for the place.
RANNVEIG. If my sister were here, perhaps she could read your fate
in the ball, both the past and the future ... Who knows, but the whole
Universe may be mirrored in this one glass globe.
KRISTRUN. That's your favorite superstition. [Smiling surreptitiously.]
Tell me, Veiga--haven't you a life-egg? [Turns abruptly from her,
throwing the ball to Hadda.]
RANNVEIG [evasively]. I had one once. ...
KRISTRUN [catching the ball]. Then you haven't it any more?
RANNVEIG. No.
KRISTRUN. And you are still alive?
RANNVEIG. He who lived once in happiness dies twice. [Sees the
sisters throw the ball faster and faster.] Don't throw the ball so
carelessly.
KRISTRUN. Be calm. The prince won't come. And even if he

came--do you think we have the same life-egg, I and Hrafnhild?
RANNVEIG. Now stop making fun of me! The ball may hit you in the
face--there now!--that's enough!--you nearly dazed my Hadda. It is
strange to like to do this. [Picks up the ball, and puts it back on the
velvet.]
KRISTRUN. Tell me, Veiga, perhaps your life-egg was a young man's
heart. ...
RANNVEIG. We won't talk about it any more.
KRISTRUN. And how did it break?
RANNVEIG [enraged]. At least I didn't play with it. I never played
with anybody else's feelings.
KRISTRUN. There--there, don't snarl so, you're simply barking-- bow,
wow!
RANNVEIG [furious]. How many have you made fools of already?
KRISTRUN. Let me see--. [Counts on her fingers.] One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, [throws off one shoe, and counts
on her toes] eleven ... twelve ... thirteen--ah! here's a hole in my
stocking. Thirteen! Thirteen, Veiga dear! The unlucky number!
Wonderful! I'll never throw him over!
RANNVEIG. You're horribly flippant, Kristrun.
KRISTRUN [sits down at the small table, shades her face as she looks
into the ball]. Fancy, Veiga, I see your whole fate in the ball.
RANNVEIG. Leave the crystal alone, it won't hurt you.
KRISTRUN. As sure as I live--I can see the most trivial events in your
life. I see you by day, in this room here, when your nose begins to itch,
and you steal into the kitchen to take a pinch of snuff. I see. ... [Looks
up; Rannveig has come up to her, and is about to strike her.]
KRISTRUN [slipping away from her]. Look out, the snuff is dripping
from your nose! [Runs out, Rannveig shuts the door behind her, and
turns around. She passes her finger under her nose, looks at it, shakes
her head.]
HADDA PADDA. You and Runa don't seem to get on any better since
I've been away.
RANNVEIG. We have never gotten along together. ... I don't
understand the young people nowadays. They are merely butterflies-
-all of them.
HADDA PADDA. You once told me, dear, that sometime in every

one's life there comes a wishing hour. Maybe Runa had hers when she
wished for the joy of living.
RANNVEIG. It's a strange joy then, to want to make other people
miserable! To use the beauty God has given her, against those who
cannot