ASTRID He kept you his--yea, and maybe saved you From a debasement that could madden or kill, For women thieves ere now have felt a knife Severing ear or nose. And yet the feud You sowed with Otkell's house shall murder Gunnar. Otkell was slain: then Gunnar's enviers, Who could not crush him under his own horse At the big horse-fight, stirred up Otkell's son To avenge his father; for should he be slain Two in one stock would prove old Njal's foretelling, And Gunnar's place be emptied either way For those high helpless men who cannot fill it. O mistress, you have hurt us all in this: You have cut off your strength, you have maimed yourself, You are losing power and worship and men's trust. When Gunnar dies no other man dare take you. HALLGERD You gather poison in your mouth for me. A high-born woman may handle what she fancies Without being ear-pruned like a pilfering beggar. Look to your ears if you touch ought of mine: Ay, you shall join the mumping sisterhood And tramp and learn your difference from me. (_She turns from_ ASTRID.) Steinvor, I have remembered the great veil, The woven cloud, the tissue of gold and garlands, That Gunnar took from some outlandish ship And thinks was made in Greekland or in Hind: Fetch it from the ambry in the bower. (STEINVOR _goes out by the dais door._) ASTRID Mistress, indeed you are a cherished woman. That veil is worth a lifetime's weight of coifs: I have heard a queen offered her daughter for it, But Gunnar said it should come home and wait-- And then gave it to you. The half of Iceland Tells fabulous legends of a fabulous thing, Yet never saw it: I know they never saw it, For ere it reached the ambry I came on it Tumbled in the loft with ragged kirtles. HALLGERD What, are you there again? Let Gunnar alone. (STEINVOR _enters with the veil folded._ HALLGERD _takes it with one hand and shakes it into a heap._) This is the cloth. He brought it out at night, In the first hour that we were left together, And begged of me to wear it at high feasts And more outshine all women of my time: He shaped it to my head with my gold circlet, Saying my hair smouldered like Rhine-fire through, He let it fall about my neck, and fall About my shoulders, mingle with my skirts, And billow in the draught along the floor. (_She rises and holds the veil behind her head._)