Vol. VI No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

THE BERMONDSEY BOOK
scarcely found it necessary to bolster himself up with "Do it now," "A
Stab in time saves nine" or such like slogan—he just got on with the job
instinctively. There is small doubt but that he conformed to the "Then
current mode in Worshipping both Thorand Odin" and for his activities
the raising of heroes and the slaying thereof. Such was his simple faith.
Ibsen's drama deals with a couple of particularly hefty young
warriors named Gunnar and Sigurd, and needless to say they both
possess that grossly exaggerated sense of the importance of blood-letting
common to the whole Viking fraternity. Tread softly for they bo*th
love a female "Hiordis" by name—large browed, deep chested,
potential mother of heroes. She—magnificent jade—will only bestow
her mighty self on the one that performs the deed of greatest prowess.
Sigurd therefore goes out and throttles a couple of bears but having
more than a brotherly affection for his mate permits him to accept
all the credit of this doubtful achievement. Gunnar, therefore, collars
Hiordis and Sigurd contents himself with a nice-minded girl, "Dagny"
by name, daughter of Ornulf, a positively super Viking.
All this happened before the rise of the curtain showing very
clearly that Ibsen adopted the reach-back method pretty early in life.
Ultimately the actual truth respecting the above little affair comes to
the surface and this is where the malecho gets a look in. The crescendo
is reached at the end of Act Four when Sigurd receives a well-placed
arrow in his diaphragm from the bow of Hiordis. She—unhappy
woman—then hurls herself over a convenient cliff actuated, no doubt,
by the "united in death" idea; a couple of characters rush on with the
"Who has done this uphappy deed" stuff; a gust of the Ride of the
Valkyries floats on the evening breeze and the play closes.
Such is the story which, the intelligent reader will have noted, is
entirely different from any Ibsen we have hitherto met being absolutely
devoid of any moral or philosophical significance whatever. The characters
are all pretty forthright, with the exception of Hiordis and here
we get the first glimpse (I suppose) of Ibsen's subsequent big women.
Esme Church put up a tussle with her but the part requires a giantess
—Sybil Thorndike, Ellen Terry and Miss Church blended into one—
a somewhat large order. Scenery properly subdued, as is usual in
Norway, Iceland, or wherever it was the action took place, and costumes
very harmonious when we consider the action took place Anno
Domini 933.
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