The door against troll-folk, and men, and women.
Bars I must fix me; bars that can shut out
All the cantankerous little hobgoblins.—
They come with the darkness, they knock and they rattle:
Open, Peer Gynt, we're as nimble as thoughts are!
'Neath the bedstead we bustle, we rake in the ashes,
Down the chimney we hustle like fiery-eyed dragons.
Hee-hee! Peer Gynt; think you staples and planks
Can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts?
[Solveig comes on snow-shoes over the heath; she has a shawl over her head, and a bundle in her hand.
Solveig.
God prosper your labour. You must not reject me.
You sent for me hither, and so you must take me.
Peer.
Solveig! It cannot be! Ay, but it is!—
And you're not afraid to come near to me!
Solveig.
One message you sent me by little Helga;
Others came after in storm and in stillness.
All that your mother told bore me a message,
That brought forth others when dreams sank upon me.
Nights full of heaviness, blank, empty days,
Brought me the message that now I must come.
It seemed as though life had been quenched down there;
