: "Why grieve for what you have done, compelled by the immortal
gods?"

Jofrid's breast was shaken by a sigh deep as a sob. She had a
feeling which she could not explain, a feeling that she ought to
struggle with the man of stone, if she was to be happy. But at the
same time she felt helplessly weak.

Her impenitence and the struggle out on the heath seemed to her to
be one and the same thing, and if she could not conquer the first
by some means or other, the last would gain power over her.

She looked back towards the cottage, where the weavings glowed
under the roof timbers, where the musicians spread merriment, and
where everything she loved was, then she felt that she could not go
into slavery. Not even for Toenne's sake could she do it. She saw
his pale face within in the house, and she asked herself with a
contraction of the heart if he was worth the sacrifice of
everything for his sake.

In the cottage the people had started a new dance. They arranged
themselves in a long line, took each other by the hand, and with a
wild, strong young man at the head, they rushed forward at dizzy
speed. The leader drew them through the open door out cm to the
moonlit heath. They stormed by Jofrid, panting and wild, stumbling
against stones, falling into the heather, making wide rings round
the house, circling about the heaps of stones. The last of the line
called to Jofrid and stretched out his hand to her. She seized it
and ran too.

It was not a dance, only a mad rush; but there was pleasure in it,
audacity and the joy of living. The rings became bolder, the cries
sounded louder, the laughter more boisterous. From cairn to cairn,
as they lay scattered over the heath, wound the line of dancers. If
any one fell in the wild swinging, he was dragged up, the slow ones
were driven onward; the musicians stood in the doorway and played
the faster. There was no time to rest, to think, nor to look about.
The dance went on at always madder speed over the yielding moss and
slippery rocks.

During all this Jofrid felt more and more clearly that she wished
to keep her freedom, that she would rather die than lose it. She
saw that she could not follow Toenne. She thought of running away,
of hurrying into the wood and never coming back.

They had circled about all the cairns except that of King Atle.
Jofrid saw that they were now turning towards it and she kept her
eyes fixed on the stone man. Then she saw how his giant arms were
st