RANNVEIG
  Cease:  are you not immortal in shame already?

                        HALLGERD
  Heroes, what deeds ye compass, what great deeds—–­
  One man has held ye from an open door: 
  Heroes, heroes, are ye undefeated?

      GIZUR (an old white-bearded man, to the other riders)
  We have laid low to earth a mighty chief: 
  We have laboured harder than on greater deeds,
  And maybe won remembrance by the deeds
  Of Gunnar when no deed of ours should live;
  For this defence of his shall outlast kingdoms
  And gather him fame till there are no more men.

                      MORD

Come down and splinter those old birds his gods
That perch upon the carven high-seat pillars,
Wreck every place his shadow fell upon,
Rive out his gear, drive off his forfeit beasts.

SECOND MAN
It shall not be.

MANY MEN
Never.

                      GIZUR

We’ll never do it: 
Let no man lift a blade or finger a clout—­
Is not this Gunnar, Gunnar, whom we have slain? 
Home, home, before the dawn shows all our deed.

(The riders go down quickly over the wall-top, and disappear.)

HALLGERD
Now I shall close his nostrils and his eyes,
And thereby take his blood-feud into my hands.

                        RANNVEIG
  If you do stir I’ll choke you with your hair. 
  I will not let your murderous mind be near him
  When he no more can choose and does not know.

                        HALLGERD
  His wife I was, and yet he never judged me: 
  He did not set your motherhood between us. 
  Let me alone—­I stand here for my sons.

                        RANNVEIG
  The wolf, the carrion bird, and the fair woman
  Hurry upon a corpse, as if they think
  That all is left for them the grey gods need not.

  (She twines her hands in HALLGERD’S hair and draws her down to
  the floor.)

  Oh, I will comb your hair with bones and thumbs,
  Array these locks in my right widow’s way,
  And deck you like the bed-mate of the dead. 
  Lie down upon the earth as Gunnar lies,
  Or I can never match him in your looks
  And whiten you and make your heart as cold.

HALLGERD
Mother, what will you do?  Unloose me now—–­
Your eyes would not look so at me alone.

RANNVEIG
Be still, my daughter....

HALLGERD
And then?

                      RANNVEIG

Ah, do not fear—­
I see a peril nigh and all its blitheness. 
Order your limbs—­stretch out your length of beauty,
Let down your hands and close those deepening eyes,
Or you can never stiffen as you should. 
A murdered man should have a murdered wife
When all his fate is treasured in her mouth. 
This wifely hairpin will be sharp enough.