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    The Vikings of Helgeland (1858)
    The Vikings of Helgeland (1858)
    The Vikings of Helgeland (1858)
    Ebook140 pages1 hour

    The Vikings of Helgeland (1858)

    By Henrik Ibsen

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    Henrik Ibsen (20th March, 1828 – 23rd May, 1906) is often referred to as the father of realism and ranked just below Shakespeare as Europe’s greatest ever playwright especially as his plays are performed most frequently throughout the world after Shakespeare’s. He was Norwegian and although set his plays in Norway, he wrote them in Danish and lived most of his professional life in Italy and Germany. His affect on the theatre is still evident today and shapes the distinction of plays being art as opposed to entertainment since he broke down all previous traditions and explored issues, developed characterisation, revealed uncomfortable truths, challenged assumptions and brokedown facades in ourselves as well as society. These factors are clearly demonstrated in The Vikings of Helgeland, another of Ibsen’s historical tragedies. The play takes place in the tenth century, during the time of Erik Blood-Axe in northern Norway when the country was becoming Christian and the influence of the Old Norse Sagas was diminishing. Ornulf and his seven sons are seeking their abducted sisters but tragedy awaits them in Ibsen’s fine play.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateAug 20, 2013
    ISBN9781780007816
    The Vikings of Helgeland (1858)
    Author

    Henrik Ibsen

    Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.

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      Book preview

      The Vikings of Helgeland (1858) - Henrik Ibsen

      The Vikings Of Hegeland by Henrik Ibsen

      The outstanding playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on March 20th, 1828 in Skien, Grenland, Norway.

      A playwright, theatre director, and poet Ibsen was a founder of modernism in theatre and is often cited as the the father of realism.

      His plays include many classics; Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm and The Master Builder are just some of the many that have helped to ensure he is the most oft performed playwright after Shakespeare.

      Ibsen wrote at a time when the stage was heavily censored and writers were expected to observe strict moral codes.  Ibsen broke these rules producing controversial works that were unafraid to explore the human condition.

      Such was his standing that many playwrights and novelists have claimed him as a seminal influence including George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, James Joyce and Eugene O'Neill.

      Ibsen was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902, 1903 and 1904.

      Although most of his plays were set in Norway he wrote almost everything in Danish which was the then common language of Norway and Denmark.  Intriguingly most of his great plays were written whilst he resided in Italy and Germany over a twenty five year period.

      Henrik Johan Ibsen died on May 23rd, 1906 in Kristiania (now modern day Oslo), Norway.

      Index of Contents

      Characters

      Act First

      Act Second

      Act Third

      Act Fourth

      Henrik Ibsen – A Short Biography

      Henrik Ibsen – A Concise Bibliography

      Task Of The Poet – A Speech by Henrik Ibsen

      Selected Poetry of Henrik Ibsen

      Notable Quotes of Henrik Ibsen

      THE VIKINGS OF HELGELAND. PLAY IN FOUR ACTS

      CHARACTERS

      ORNULF OF THE FIORDS, an Icelandic Chieftain.

      SIGURD THE STRONG, a Sea-King.

      GUNNAR HEADMAN,[1] a rich yeoman of Helgeland.

      DAGNY, Ornulf's daughter.

      HIORDIS, his foster-daughter.

      KARE THE PEASANT, a Helgeland-man.

      EGIL, Gunnar's son, four years old.

      ORNULF'S SIX OLDER SONS.

      ORNULF'S AND SIGURD'S MEN.

      Guests, house-carls, serving-maids, outlaws, etc.

      SCENE - The action takes place in the time of Erik Blood-axe (about A.D. 933) at, and in the neighbourhood of, Gunnar's house on the island of Helgeland, in the north of Norway.

      ACT FIRST

      (A rocky coast, running precipitously down to the sea at the back. To the left, a boat-house; to the right, rocks and pine-woods. The masts of two war-ships can be seen down in the cove. Far out to the right, the ocean, dotted with reefs and rocky islands; the sea is running high; it is a stormy snow-grey winter day.)

      (SIGURD comes up from the ships; he is clad in a white tunic with a silver belt, a blue cloak, cross-gartered hose, untanned shoes, and a steel cap; at his side hangs a short sword. ORNULF comes in sight immediately afterwards, up among the rocks, clad in a dark lamb-skin tunic with a breastplate and greaves, woollen stockings, and untanned shoes; over his shoulders he has a cloak of brown frieze, with the hood drawn over his steel cap, so that his face is partly hidden. He is very tall, and massively built, with a long white beard, but somewhat bowed by age; his weapons are a round shield, sword, and spear.

      SIGURD (enters first, looks around, sees the boat-shed, goes quickly up to it, and tries to burst open the door.)

      ORNULF (appears among the rocks, starts on seeing SIGURD, seems to recognise him, descends and cries:) Give place, Viking!

      SIGURD (turns, lays his hand on his sword, and answers:)

      'Twere the first time if I did!

      ORNULF

      Thou shalt and must! I have need of the shelter for my stiff-frozen men.

      SIGURD

      Then must outlaws be highly prized in Helgeland!

      ORNULF

      Dearly shalt thou aby that word!

      SIGURD

      Now will it go ill with thee, old man!

      (ORNULF rushes upon him; SIGURD defends himself.)

      (DAGNY and some of SIGURD'S men come up from the strand; Ornulf's six sons appear on the rocks to the right.)

      DAGNY (who is a little in front, clad in a red kirtle, blue cloak, and fur hood, calls down to the ships:) Up, all Sigurd's men! My husband is fighting with a stranger!

      ORNULF'S SONS.

      Help for Ornulf! (They descend.)

      SIGURD (to his men).

      Hold! I can master him alone!

      ORNULF (to his sons).

      Let me fight in peace! (Rushes in upon SIGURD) I will see thy blood!

      SIGURD

      First see thine own!

      (Wounds him in the arm so that his spear falls.)

      ORNULF 

      A stout stroke, Viking!

      Swift the sword thou swingest,

      keen thy blows and biting;

      Sigurd's self, the Stalwart,

      stood before thee shame-struck.

      SIGURD (smiling).

      Then were his shame his glory!

      ORNULF'S SONS (with a cry of wonder).

      Sigurd himself! Sigurd the Strong!

      ORNULF

      But sharper was thy stroke that night thou didst bear away Dagny, my daughter.

      (Casts his hood back.)

      SIGURD AND HIS MEN.

      Ornulf of the Fiords!

      DAGNY (glad, yet uneasy).

      My father and my brothers!

      SIGURD

      Stand thou behind me.

      ORNULF

      Nay, no need. (Approaching SIGURD) I knew thy face as soon as I was ware of thee, and therefore I stirred the strife; I was fain to prove the fame that tells of thee as the stoutest man of his hands in Norway. Henceforth let peace be between us.

      SIGURD

      Best if so it could be.

      ORNULF

      Here is my hand. Thou art a warrior indeed; stouter strokes than these has old Ornulf never given or taken.

      SIGURD (seizes his outstretched hand).

      Let them be the last strokes given and taken between us two; and do thou thyself adjudge the matter between us. Art thou willing?

      ORNULF

      That am I, and straightway shall the quarrel be healed. (To the others.) Be the matter, then, known to all. Five winters ago came Sigurd and Gunnar Headman as vikings to Iceland; they lay in harbour close under my homestead. Then Gunnar, by force and craft, carried away my foster-daughter, Hiordis; but thou, Sigurd, didst take Dagny, my own child, and sailed with her over the sea. For that thou art now doomed to pay three hundred pieces of silver, and thereby shall thy misdeed be atoned.

      SIGURD

      Fair is thy judgment, Ornulf; the three hundred pieces will I pay, and add thereto a silken cloak fringed with gold. It is a gift from King AEthelstan of England, and better has no Icelander yet borne.

      DAGNY

      So be it, my brave husband; and my father, I thank thee. Now at last is my mind at ease.

      (She presses her father's and brothers' hands, and talks low to them.)

      ORNULF

      Then thus stands the treaty between us; and from this day shall Dagny be to the full as honourably regarded as though she had been lawfully betrothed to thee, with the good will of her kin.

      SIGURD

      And in me canst thou trust, as in one of thine own blood.

      ORNULF

      That doubt I not; and see! I will forthwith prove thy friendship.

      SIGURD

      Ready shalt thou find me; say, what dost thou crave?

      ORNULF

      Thy help in rede and deed. I have sailed hither to Helgeland to seek out Gunnar Headman and draw him to reckoning for the carrying away of Hiordis.

      SIGURD (surprised).

      Gunnar!

      DAGNY (in the

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