Modern Icelandic Plays | Page 3

Sigurjónsson used this ending when he rewrote the last
scenes of the fourth act for Fru Dybvad, who played the part of Halla in
Copenhagen, concluding with Halla's exclamation: "So there is then a
God!" With Eyvind, as with The Hraun Farm, we can thus take our
choice of two endings.
The Wish (Önsket), Sigurjónsson's latest play, was published in 1915.
Gloomy and terrible, but strong and restrained, it is built on a theme of
seduction, remorse, and forgiveness in death, woven about the
legendary figure of Galdra-Loftur, who lived in Iceland at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. It ends with an intensely dramatic
scene in the old cathedral church at Hólar.
In addition to these four plays, Sigurjónsson has also written some
beautiful verse.
In Mrs. Schanche, Sigurjónsson has a translator well fitted by artistic
family traditions for the task. Herself of Norwegian descent, she has
been for upward of thirty years a resident of Philadelphia. She has
interpreted the pure idiom of Sigurjónsson's dialogue with real dramatic
perception. In editing the volume the Publication Committee has had
the valuable assistance of Hanna Astrup Larsen.
Georg Brandes, the veteran Danish critic, though not given to over
optimism, has recognized Sigurjónsson's distinction, and the Icelander
is acclaimed by the public who best know Ibsen and Strindberg, in
Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania. Eyvind has been successful
also on the German stage. "Poetic talent of high order," says Brandes,
"manifests itself in this new drama, with its seriousness, rugged force,
and strong feeling. Few leading characters, but these with a most
intense inner life; courage to confront the actual, and exceptional skill
to depict it; material fully mastered and a corresponding confident
style!" And the French critic, Leon Pineau, concludes a long account of
Sigurjónsson's production with the following estimate of Eyvind of the
Hills: "In this drama there is no haze of fantasy, no bold and startling
thesis, not even a new theory of art-- nothing but poetry; not the poetry

of charming and fallacious words, not that of lulling rhythm, nor of
dazzling imagery which causes forgetfulness, but the sublimely
powerful poetry which creates being of flesh and blood like ourselves--
to whom Jóhann Sigurjónsson has given of his own soul."
Written by the author in a language not his by birth, this rock-ribbed
tragedy of the strong and simple passions of Iceland lends itself
peculiarly to international interpretation. It is with some curiosity,
therefore, as well as satisfaction, that we introduce to English readers a
young representative of the renaissance of Icelandic literature. How
will he be judged by our countrymen, and what will be his place, if any,
upon the American stage?
H. G. L.
New York, June 1, 1916.

EYVIND OF THE HILLS
[Bjærg-Ejvind og Hans Hustru]
A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS
1911

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
HALLA (pronounced Hadla), a well-to-do widow. KARI (pronounced
Kowri), overseer on Halla's farm. BJØRN, Halla's brother-in-law,
farmer and bailiff. ARNES, a vagrant laborer. GUDFINNA, an elderly,
unmarried relative of the family. MAGNUS } ODDNY } Halla's
servants. SIGRID } A Shepherd Boy } ARNGRIM, a leper. A District
Judge. TOTA, a child of three years. Peasants, peasant women, and
farm-hands.
The action takes place in Iceland in the middle of the eighteenth

century. The story of the two principal characters is founded an
historical events. Halla's nature is moulded on a Danish woman's soul.

ACT I
A "badstofa" or servants' hall. Along each side-wall, a row of
bedsteads with bright coverlets of knitted wool. Between the bedsteads,
a narrow passageway. On the right, the entrance, which is reached by
a staircase. On the left, opposite the entrance, a dormer-window with
panes of bladder. On the right, over the bedsteads, a similar window.
Long green blades of grass are visible through the panes. In the centre
back a door opens into Halla's bed-chamber, which is separated from
the "badstofa" by a thin board partition. A small table-leaf is attached
by hinges to the partition. A copper train-oil lamp is fastened in the
doorcase. Over the nearest bedsteads a cross-beam runs at a man's
height from the floor; from this to the roof-tree is half of a man's height.
Under the window stands a painted chest. Carved wooden boxes are
pushed in under the bedsteads. The "badstofa" is old, the woodwork
blackened by age and soot.
It is early spring, a late afternoon. Gudfinna and Oddny are sitting on
the beds facing each other, Gudfinna mending shoes, Oddny putting
patches on a coat. The Shepherd Boy is standing in the middle of the
room, throwing a dart adorned with red cock's feathers. The costumes
are old Icelandic.
The Boy (throws his dart).
Ho! ho! I came pretty near hitting her that time!
Gudfinna.
Hitting whom?
The Boy.
Can't you see the little