Peer Gynt and Brand by Henrik Ibsen

Author:Henrik Ibsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141970790
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

SCENE 3

Low, treeless hills near the mountain plateau; peaks in the distance. There are long shadows; it is late in the day.

PEER [enters, running, and halts on the side of the hill]:

The parish has joined in the hunt, Peer!

Popguns and rattles – I can hear

that Old Man Hæggstad’s in good voice:

‘Peer Gynt’s away, halloo-hallay!’

Better than scrapping with Aslak any day.

I’ve the brawn of a bear, grip hard as a vice;

I’ll wrestle the fell, grapple the waterfall.

Here goes a firtree, up by its roots!

This is the way to live! Oh, how it puts

thews in your zest for life. To hell

with piety, its watery gruel!

THREE SETER GIRLS [come running along the slope, shrieking and singing]:

Trond! Baard! Kaare! Trolls of the fells!

Listen to us, you need to lie in our arms.

PEER: Who is it you serenade so?

GIRLS:            Our trolls!

Trolls! You deaf?

FIRST GIRL:    Oh, Trond, be gentle with our charms!

SECOND GIRL: Don’t listen to her, Baard; knock us about!

THIRD GIRL: The beds stand empty in the seter hut!

FIRST GIRL: In love, gentle and rough are the same thing.

SECOND GIRL: In love, rough and gentle are the game-thing.

THIRD GIRL: No boys to hug, of course we play with trolls!

PEER: Where are the boys?

ALL THREE [shrieking with laughter]:

Found themselves other joys!

FIRST GIRL: Mine was my kinsman and my lover, both.

He’s married a widow pretty long in the tooth.

SECOND GIRL: Mine met a gipsy girl, up in the north parts.

Now both are beggars begging crusts and clouts.

THIRD GIRL: Mine murdered our bastard child. They struck

his head off. Now it grins at me from a stake.

ALL THREE: Trond! Baard! Kaare! Trolls from the fells,

come down and bed with us this very hour.

PEER [takes a leap so that he stands among them]:

I’m a troll with three heads and a lad for three girls!

FIRST GIRL: It’s busy you are!

PEER: Judgement comes later.

FIRST GIRL: So it’s off to the seter!

SECOND GIRL: There’s mead to drink.

PEER: We’ll all get drunk.

THIRD GIRL: There’ll be three beds put to use

tonight in the seter house.

SECOND GIRL [kissing PEER]:

He’s fizzing like white-hot iron, my bonny spark!

THIRD GIRL: Dead baby’s eyes from the black tarn, his look.

PEER [now part of the dancing group]:

Heavy the heart; randy the other part.

Bright the eyes; grief clogs the throat.

GIRLS [thumbing their noses towards the hilltops, screeching their song]:

Trond, Baard, Kaare, poor pack of trolls,

gone your last hope to lie with us lusty girls!

Exeunt.

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