HIORDIS. Ay, ay--a famous man is Sigurd--though Gunnar stands
above him.
DAGNY. Gunnar?
HIORDIS. One deed did Gunnar do that Sigurd shrank from. But let
that be! Tell me, when thou didst go a-viking with Sigurd, when thou
didst hear the sword-blades sing in the fierce war-game, when the
blood streamed red on the deck--came there not over thee an untameable
longing to plunge into the strife? Didst thou not don harness and
take up arms?
DAGNY. Never! How canst thou think it? I, a woman!
HIORDIS. A woman, a woman,--who knows what a woman may do!--But one
thing thou canst tell me, Dagny, for that thou surely knowest: when a
man clasps to his breast the woman he loves--is it true that her blood
burns, that her bosom throbs--that she swoons in a shuddering ecstasy?
DAGNY (blushing). Hiordis, how canst thou----!
HIORDIS. Come, tell me----!
DAGNY. Surely thou thyself hast known it.
HIORDIS. Ay once, and only once; it was that night when Gunnar sat
with me in my bower; he crushed me in his arms till his byrnie burst,
and then, then----!
DAGNY (exclaiming). What! Sigurd----!
HIORDIS. Sigurd? What of Sigurd? I spoke of Gunnar--that night when
he bore me away----