Hadda Pada | Page 3

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 resist it. ... Why do you suppose the new engineer has stopped coming here since the son of the Chief Justice returned from Copenhagen--and he seemed like such a sweet boy too! It is not the first or the second time she has changed her mind.
HADDA PADDA. When a true and deep love comes to her, she will not change her mind.
RANNVEIG. It's no use to stand up for her;