cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

Where the elf-girl likes to sit,
Where the treasure is buried.... Oh! I am shaking!
What if she is sitting there when I arrive,
And frightens me away from my work?
Cheer up! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
(He goes behind the hill.)
SCENE TWO.
AGNETE.
(comes in with the stick in her hand).
You beings, who hover about these places!
If your power is more than magic tricks,
Then spare the unlucky one, who laments
That she belonged to you from birth!
You king, who rules this thicket,
Show yourself to me, but in gentle beams,
So that my eyes may endure the silver gleams
As easily as the moon's radiance tonight!
You mist-images, whose dance entertains
The monarch who lives here in the hill!
Will you regard me as your sister,
And include me in your graceful chorus?
Forgive me! Even if I am the cause:
I have wandered here as elf-girl,
Have approached your hidden riches,
Have felt your threatening attraction pass by.
Here, far from the mobs and the noise,
I have met my beloved in this silent grove,
Heard oaths of fidelity from his lying mouth.
No, I shall not see this place again,
Which was the graveyard of my young happiness,
Where now I tread on the withered myrtle,
Which was planted by a faithless friend!
And yet... yet it is there the earth conceals
My birth-ring in its hiding place.
I must go there!... What is that I see?
Yonder it sounded like the noise of a spade!
Is this sound perhaps the elf-king's message?
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