since she had taken off his hat. She held it out over his head like
a parasol, but she did not put it back, rather held it so, that she
could still look down into his face. Then it seemed to him that he
did not need to ask or to speak. He carried her silently down to
his mother's hut. But his whole being was filled with happiness,
and when he stood on the threshold of his home, he saw the white
snake, which gives good fortune, glide in under its foundation.

VALDEMAR ATTERDAG

The spring that Hellqvist's great picture "Valdemar Atterdag levies
a Contribution on Visby" was exhibited at the Art League, I went in
there one quiet morning not knowing that that work of art was
there. The big, richly colored canvas with its many figures made at
the first glance an extraordinary impression. I could not look at
any other picture, but went straight to that one, took a chair and
sank into silent contemplation. For half an hour I lived in the
Middle Ages.

Soon I was within the scene that was passing in the Visby market-place.
I saw the beer vats which began to be filled with the golden brew
that King Valdemar had ordered, and the groups which gathered
around them. I saw the rich merchant with his page bending under
his gold and silver dishes; the young burgher who shakes his fist
at the king; the monk with the sharp face who closely watches His
Majesty; the ragged beggar who offers his copper; the woman who has
sunk down beside one of the vats; the king on his throne; the
soldiers who some swarming out of the narrow streets; the high
gables, and the scattered groups of insolent guards and refractory
people.

But suddenly I noticed that the chief figure of the picture is not
the king, nor any of the burghers, but one of the king's steel-clad
shield-bearers, the one with the closed vizor.

Into that figure the artist has put a strange force. There is not a
hair of him to be seen; he is steel and iron, the whole man, and
yet he gives the impression of being the rightful master of the
situation.

"I am Violence; I am Rapacity," he says. "It is I who am levying
contribution on Visby. I am not a human being; I am merely steel
and iron. My pleasure is in suffering and evil. Let them go on and
torture one another. To-day it is I who am lord of Visby."

"Look," he says to the beholder, "can you see that it is I who am
master? As far as your eye can reach, there is nothing here but
people who are torturing one another. Groanin