Let me sit at your bedside here.
There; now we'll shorten the evening
With many a lilt and lay.
Åse.
Best bring from the closet the prayer-book:
I feel so uneasy of soul.
Peer.
In Soria-Moria Castle
The King and the Prince give a feast.
On the sledge-cushions lie and rest you;
I'll drive you there over the heath
Åse.
But, Peer dear, am I invited?
Peer.
Ay, that we are, both of us.
[He throws a string round the back of the chair on which the cat is lying, takes up a stick, and seats himself at the foot of the bed.
Gee-up! Will you stir yourself, Black-boy?
Mother, you're not a-cold?
Ay, ay; by the pace one knows it,
When Granë[1] begins to go!
Åse.
Why, Peer, what is it that's ringing?
Peer.
The glittering sledge-bells, dear!
- ↑ Granë (Grani) was the name of Sigurd Fafnirsbane's horse,
descended from Odin's Sleipnir. Sigurd's Granë was grey;
Peer Gynt calls his "Svarten," Black-boy, or Blackey.—See the
"Volsunga Saga," translated by Morris and Magnussen.
Camelot edition, p. 43.
