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;