Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/294



Aye, surely! You saw—

Now God help and spare me! The ice must now either break or bear me!

Gudmund!

Teach me, I pray, How to interpret the ancient lay They sing of the church in the valley there: A gentle knight and a lady fair, They loved each other well. That very day on her bier she lay He on his sword-point fell. They buried her by the northward spire, And him by the south kirk wall; And theretofore grew neither bush nor briar In the hallowed ground at all. But next spring from their coffins twain Two lilies fair upgrew— And by and by, o'er the roof-tree high, They twined and they bloomed the whole year through. How read you the riddle?