re too old,
Yet I'd not marvel if we outlasted him.
Sisters, that is a fair fierce girl who spins....
My fair fierce girl, you could fight--but can you ride?
Would you not shout to be riding in a storm?
Ah--h, girls learnt riding well when I was a girl,
And foam rides on the breakers as I was taught....
My fair fierce girl, tell me your noble name.

ODDNY
My name is Oddny.

BIARTEY
Oddny, when you are old
Would you not be proud to be no man's purse-string,
But wild and wandering and friends with the earth?
Wander with us and learn to be old yet living.
We'd win fine food with you to beg for us.

STEINVOR
Despised, cast out, unclean, and loose men's night-bird.

ODDNY
When I am old I shall be some man's friend,
And hold him when the darkness comes....

BIARTEY
And mumble by the fire and blink....
Good Oddny, let me spin for you awhile,
That Gunnar's house may profit by his guesting:
Come, trust me with your distaff....

ODDNY
Are there spells
Wrought on a distaff?

STEINVOR
Only by the Norns,
And they'll not sit with human folk to-night.

ODDNY
Then you may spin all night for what I care;
But let the yarn run clean from knots and snarls,
Or I shall have the blame when you are gone.

BIARTEY (_taking the distaff_)
Trust well the aged knowledge of my hands;
Thin and thin do I spin, and the thread draws finer.

(_She sings as she spins._)

They go by three.
And the moon shivers;
The tired waves flee,
The hidden rivers
Also flee.

I take three strands;
There is one for her,
One for my hands,
And one to stir
For another's hands.

I twine them thinner,
The dead wool doubts;
The outer is inner,
The core slips out....

(HALLGERD _reenters by the dais door, holding a pair of shears._)

HALLGERD
What are these women, Oddny? Who let them in?

BIARTEY (_who spins through all that follows_)
Lady, the man of fame who is your man
Gave us his peace to-night, and that of his house.
We are blown beggars trampi