Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 4).djvu/116

The Old Man.

We troll-folk, my son, are less black than we're painted;^[1]
That's another distinction between you and us.—
But the serious part of the meeting is over;
Now let us gladden our ears and our eyes.
Music-maid, forth! Set the Dovrë-harp sounding!
Dancing-maid, forth! Tread the Dovrë-hall's floor! [Music and a dance.

The Courtier.

How like you it?

Peer.

                 Like it? H'm——

The Old Man.

                                  Speak without fear!
What see you?

Peer.

              Why something unspeakably grim:^[2]
A bell-cow with her hoof on a gut-harp strumming.
A sow in socklets a-trip to the tune.

The Courtiers.

Eat him!

The Old Man.

         His sense is but human, remember!

Troll-Maidens.

Hu, tear away both his ears and his eyes!

1. Literally, "Better than our reputation."
2. "Ustyggelig stygt." "Ustyggelig" seems to be what Mr. Lewis Carroll
   calls a portmanteau word, compounded of
   "usigelig" = unspeakable, and "styg" = ugly. The words
   might be rendered "beyond grimness grim."