Morænen (1924) - full transcript
Play in 6 acts
by Laurids Skands
Directed by:
Wilhelm Sandberg
Cinematography:
Louis Larsen Christen Jørgensen
In the far away North, bounded by
the gloomy, rocky Moraine,
the first of the Brekanæs had settled.
It must have been
a gloomy heart that built a house
so much in tune with
its surroundings.
As hard and inflexible as his forefathers,
the bailiff, Thor Brekanæs,
is a fitting occupant
for the house on the Moraine.
(Peter Nielsen)
- Glowing sun, I hate you.
Set damn sun and let the darkness come.
Night is my only friend.
And she, his wife,
who has brought into the world
a child, not his own,
dreads the night and the darkness.
- Another night of eternal darkness,
and ceaseless echo of his footsteps.
Mother!
My poor little Vasil,
poor little Vasil!
May God lay his hand
over my little innocent boy!
- So you have taught the brat
to call me "father".
This cuckoo cub that
you threw in my nest!
- I just want
to be allowed to go!
The river is deep,
and not far away...
I'll show you the way once you
give birth to my child, not before!
- I was forced to marry you.
I have never loved you
as I don't love these mountains!
- I gave you what I value
above everything,
my name!
- The sin is mine.
No one shall know that
Vasil is not your son.
I know my way!
The shroud of night
enfolded the desolate valley,
where the Brekanæs house lies,
full of gloomy memories
of life-hating men and life-loving women.
That night Gunhild Brekanæs
prepares for her last journey.
- Forgive me, Father in Heaven,
You who know everything.
Forgive me, because I'm taking away Vasil
from this cold world, that knows no mercy!
- He was born in sin,
and he shall not be your burden.
I will carry him into Paradise,
pure and guiltless!
- You know it, you'll leave once
you'll give birth to the son
you carry beneath your heart.
I told you, not before!
- Give me Vasil.
He is mine - mine!
He is the proof of my disgrace,
and I must take him with me.
He carries my name!
- If you take vengeance
on my innocent child,
who has done nothing to you,
the day will come when
he will return evil for evil!
- If you'd just tell me now,
that you forgive me,
that you understand me...
If you do it now,
I will love you forever!
- I do not forgive,
I am a Brekanæs...
- ... and I tell you,
I shall bring up your innocent child
as a Brekanæs too,
and will teach him to despise the woman
who became his mother!
In the night a son
was born, Aslak Brekanæs -
and when the first rays of the morning sun
shone over the deep waters of the fjord,
they managed to kiss the rings,
which for a few seconds,
testified to where his mother
had found the rest she longed for.
After 25 short summers
and 25 long winters...
And during this time, Thor Brekanæs
continued to think of his wife,
only as a sinner.
His pain and hate have strengthened,
but he believes in God.
- In the name of Jesus we thank you, God,
for our daily bread...
- Good... That is right...
God first, and then father!
But it is he who sees God.
It is Aslak, Thor's son.
(Peter Malberg)
The terrors that clouded his birth,
are reflected in his pitiful existence...
- I have talked to God in the church.
when I heard the music
of his beautiful organ!
Her name was Thora,
and she was Thor's goddaughter,
an orphaned girl whom he had adopted.
(Karina Bell)
Swein Gudmundson,
son of the day laborer Gudmund.
Now he is an assistant to the bailiff
and he is in love with Thora.
(Sigurd Langberg)
- I am certain that I am not going
to live very much longer. And that is good!
- I want to see you married to Thora,
before I die!
- She is a girl
of dreams and idylls,
but you must make her forget them.
Speak to her now!
- Your father wants us
to marry soon, Thora!
- I'm so young,
Swein Gudmundson.
- We have been going about
together for nearly a year,
and you have never
allowed me to kiss you!
- I am so young...
- I shall never love you,
but perhaps one day
I shall hate you.
It's up to you!
- Poor boy, my poor boy.
You are happy in your madness.
You are her revenge!
And outside the house of gloom,
Thora's home...
- I am sorry, Thora...
I never meant to hurt you!
- You used to be so happy...
I shall go away from here...
Then you can be happy again!
I LOVE YOU
Poems of love and life
by Vasil Brekanæs
FOR MY MOTHER!
Everything can die and vanish,
disappear and fade away,
but in a child's memory
the mother lives on.
I will never be able to forget,
even now that I'm an adult,
the times I could hear a carillon
play in your heart.
I've felt all your joy and pain,
my dear mummy;
the blood of your heart
has become the blood of the child.
Like the redness of the sky
after the sun has set,
- dear mummy! - your picture
will always be with me.
- It's like stabbing me in the chest!
His mother is having her revenge!
Swein's father, Gudmund,
tenant farmer at Brekanæs.
(Charles Wilken)
He has been a faithful servant
to the Brekanæs',
and the autumn of his life was
centered upon his Bible and his son...
- This is my home, this is my place.
I should have been a herdsman like you!
- I love Thora,
but I should free her.
It's all the bailiff's fault!
I could kill him!
He sits for some time
with that letter in his hands,
he hesitates to open it,
as he knows it is Vasil's letter.
Dear Father!
I want to ask your forgiveness.
I am giving up my Law studies,
in order to write books.
I have obtained a bursary,
and I am leaving for home today.
Your son, Vasil.
On the following morning,
the coasting steamer arrived,
with Vasil Brekanæs on board.
It's been three years
since Vasil Brekanæs last saw
these mountains, this fjord.
(Emanuel Gregers)
He would have preferred to have
told Vasil everything and then turn him down,
but people would have known,
and he would be
associated with a scandal...
- Why Thora -
how you have grown,
and how beautiful you are!
- But that's no reason
not to say good morning!
- I'm so glad you have come home.
Everything is so gloomy
and oppressive here,
everyone here...
dig themselves down!
- Thora, how is it possible that such a flower
could bloom in a place like this?
- No one has ever spoken
to me like that before...
- Are those flowers for me?
- My dear little Thora...
- Don't kiss me, Vasil!
- Your father has made me promise
to marry Swein Gudmundson!
I was never allowed to write it to you!
- Do you like him?
- Don't worry, Thora....
I won't allow you to marry
Swein Gudmundson!
- Thora - I don't advise you to go
to Brekanaes with - him!
- I feel sorry for you,
Swein Gudmundson,
but I won't allow Thora
to be buried alive here with you!
It would be a cruelty -
for both of you.
Two brothers.
Why - Thora's ring disappeared,
and he never found it.
- Wait here...
Bailiff's orders...
- It's... Vasil.
- Vasil, my dear Vasil,
it hurts me to have to treat you
like a stranger in your own home
- Father!
- You have come uninvited!
- What do you want here at Brekanæs'?
- Did you receive my letter?
- It did cost me a great deal of money
to make you study to become a lawyer!
- You have forced me
to study Law,
but I won't allow myself
to be forced any more.
- In the future, I shall go my own way.
I feel no obligation.
- No obligation, no,
you are a true son of your mother!
- I don't remember my mother,
but I never felt that I had a father!
- He pulled out the ring
from Thora's finger.
He took her away from me!
- You may go,
wait until I call you!
- Don't touch it...
- Your father has forbidden it!
And while Thora tells Vasil
all that has happened at Brekanæs'...
- Why didn't you knock him down?
I will probably strike...
and I'll break the curse that lies
and weighs on the Brekanæs.
- There's father.
He's going down to the Morain!
- People say it's haunting.
I've even heard some screams
from down there...
- But now I know it's daddy
that goes down there at night!
- One evening when I thought
the whole house was asleep,
I heard screams coming
from the Moraine
and then I heard someone opening
the front door...
- I followed Aslak down to the Moraine...
- If only I could discover who
has brought this dishonour upon me -
Oh, if I only knew!
- We will break this curse!
Won't you play to me, Thora?
- I am so unused to being happy,
that I almost think
I sin when I laugh!
He does not know
that this is the song
his mother used to play when
she carried him under her heart...
...but those sounds
managed somehow
to touch the strings of his soul
and to chase the
darkness from his spirit.
- What do you want here?
- I will save Thora and Aslak from you!
- I will take them with me
out of this hell.
- And as I smash this harp,
that can only sing about lies,
so I will smash you!
- Don't cry, Thora...
Your life, your happiness,
I won't allow him to destroy them.
Towards evening...
the atmosphere at Brekanæs House
is like the threatening calm before a storm.
- The bailiff wishes
to speak to Mr. Vasil!
- It is my will that you remain here
and complete your legal studies
with Swein Gudmundson!
- I hate Law,
and will never be a lawyer!
- Then you must leave
this house tonight,
and at the next court session
I will proclaim that
you are no longer my son!
- I gladly leave this house,
this living tomb,
but I will take Thora with me!
- I called for the minister today.
He will read the banns
for Thora and Swein on Sunday!
- I hope to read something more
amusing - on your grave!
- I have broken with Father.
He destroyed my mother's life, and now
he wants to destroy ours as well,
but enough now!
- I told him I should
take you with me!
- What did the bailiff say?
- We still haven't had
our last word!
- I just wanted to tell you, Mr. Bailiff,
that on Sunday Thora and I
won't have the banns read!
- I'm not going to make her unhappy!
- You and Thora will inherit
Brekanæs House when I die!
And you'll have to be good to Aslak.
This is what I want!
- I'm not the right man for Thora.
I am the son of a labourer,
and I wish I had been a labourer myself.
I'll no longer be your slave!
- Is this how you thank me
for dragging you out of the gutter?
- I know I've fallen very low,
but not low enough
to shake Thor Brekanæs' hand!
- The two of us are
not done with each other!
Just like every time he is upset,
Thor goes to the moraine
there, in the cemetery
of his memories,
he can cry out
all his pain and hate.
His thoughts are of Thora...
and he realizes that
she means everything to him,
that she is more
than a foster sister...
- It has come so far that
I wish my father's death...
for Thora's sake!
Half an hour later,
Vasil is on his way up to the farm.
- Your father wants
to speak to you.
He's down at the moraine.
A few minutes pass by, and then...
- A scream from the Moraine!
Did you hear?
- Father is lying
in the Moraine - murdered!
- If the bailiff is dead,
then I am in authority.
You must come with me!
For a very long time old Gudmund
has also been a prison guard,
but it's been years since
he last used the cell keys...
And now, Swein sends for
the bailiff's soulless body...
And for the last time
he enters the old farm...
Thor Brekanæs, the bitter man,
bereft of life.
- Thora, the bailiff is dead!
- They killed him tonight...
in the Moraine!
She understands nothing... nothing.
But she hears distinctly
the working of a loom...
- Don't disturb me Thora.
I am weaving clothes for father.
He is cold.
That same night, the nearest
Judge is sent for...
That night, desperate
and shocked, Thora
watches over the Bailiff
on his deathbed until dawn -
unaware of what
happened to Vasil...
The judge.
(A. G. Osmund)
- Where is Vasil?
- He is under arrest...
on suspicion of murder!
- Go Swein, go!
The hated name
still sounded in his ear
as the trial began...
The stone that killed.
- You are accused
of the murder of your father,
the bailiff Thor Brekanæs.
Do you plead guilty?
- No!
- Will you give your testimony,
Gudmundson?
- I heard Vasil and
the bailiff quarrel,
and then I heard Vasil saying:
"I hope to read something
more amusing on your grave"!
- In the evening I met
the bailiff in the Moraine.
He asked me to send Vasil to him...
- Swein Gudmundson,
are you prepared to confirm
your statement by oath?
- You are sitting on father's chair,
while he is resting!
- And this is father's book,
about God.
Daddy has cried a lot over that book,
and Swein must not touch it!
- You can let Swein have the book,
God is not in it any more.
I shall take it to your father!
- Father!
- You won't feel cold any more.
I've woven a long,
long cloak for you tonight.
You won't feel cold any more!
- Thora must take father's book
from the stranger,
and Swein shall not touch it!
- Swein is downstairs,
holding father's book...
- They don't want to give it to me.
They took it away from me...
Through the open window
she heard the oath-form,
and she understood that now
it meant life or death to Vasil...
- I lied!
- The bailiff was already dead
when I saw him in the Moraine...
- So you understand,
that it is my duty to arrest you!
And old Gumlund is called upon
to fulfill a heartbreaking task...
- Why would you sit behind the bars?
- Father's book,
about God!
- Why are you crying?
Why is Vasil in the cell?
Why is everything so strange?
- You would not understand, Aslak...
- I have sent father to sleep,
just as the voices told me to!
- Did the voices tell you
to send father to sleep?
- And now I want to throw stones
to Swein too...
- It was Aslak who did it!
- Yes, maybe it was Aslak,
who was the culprit,
but how can we be sure?
...His mouth may have spoken,
but his words don't make sense.
- There are many birds
and many good stones.
There are many voices in the air.
- There are a lot of
deep beautiful tones...
- A lot of deep tones...
I must go to them...
- If only I could find
a way out of this darkness!
- Deep tones, he said,
deep tones...
- It is God himself, who has made
Aslak show us the way!
- There is one melody that makes Aslak
become like other people.
- I remember him telling me
one evening outside the church...
- Dear Thora, I am so miserable.
Now I can see myself for what I am.
It seemed as if mother came to me
through the tones of the organ.
And now she is gone again!
- You're here, Thora...
So many dark shadows in the air...
- I think we are justified
in opening the church for Aslak,
in the service of truth!
With the setting of the sun...
- The deep tones,
they hurt me so,
but you must go tell them
to come to me.
And so my mother will come!
- Father in Heaven,
forgive me,
if what I'm doing
for Aslak is a sin...
- Please speak to him
through the sacred song,
and lift the clouds
from his soul!
- Mother!
- Father! A voice told me -
it came from the fiord!
Daddy, did the stone hit you?
- You are bleeding, father!
You are bleeding!
- Father! I killed you!...
I killed you,
and the voice in the fjord was crying...
- I killed my father...!
- Don't cry dear Thora...
You played for me, and it was beautiful...
The voice from the fjord
was mummy's...
she's calling me,
and I long for her!
- It is as if a fountain trickled
behind my forehead
and I am so tired...
- Now father goes to mother...
they both smile and
they wave to me...
(I wished for it so much)
And now... the deep tones arrive...
- Goodbye, dear Thora...
And on the next day, when the
sorrowful duties of the two burials were over,
Vasil and Thora departed
from Brekanæs' house...
the farm of shadows
and disappointments...
They left behind them
all the dark and heavy memories,
and they were miles away,
as the night laid its cloak
over the desolate valley up north,
at the edges of life.
THE END
by Laurids Skands
Directed by:
Wilhelm Sandberg
Cinematography:
Louis Larsen Christen Jørgensen
In the far away North, bounded by
the gloomy, rocky Moraine,
the first of the Brekanæs had settled.
It must have been
a gloomy heart that built a house
so much in tune with
its surroundings.
As hard and inflexible as his forefathers,
the bailiff, Thor Brekanæs,
is a fitting occupant
for the house on the Moraine.
(Peter Nielsen)
- Glowing sun, I hate you.
Set damn sun and let the darkness come.
Night is my only friend.
And she, his wife,
who has brought into the world
a child, not his own,
dreads the night and the darkness.
- Another night of eternal darkness,
and ceaseless echo of his footsteps.
Mother!
My poor little Vasil,
poor little Vasil!
May God lay his hand
over my little innocent boy!
- So you have taught the brat
to call me "father".
This cuckoo cub that
you threw in my nest!
- I just want
to be allowed to go!
The river is deep,
and not far away...
I'll show you the way once you
give birth to my child, not before!
- I was forced to marry you.
I have never loved you
as I don't love these mountains!
- I gave you what I value
above everything,
my name!
- The sin is mine.
No one shall know that
Vasil is not your son.
I know my way!
The shroud of night
enfolded the desolate valley,
where the Brekanæs house lies,
full of gloomy memories
of life-hating men and life-loving women.
That night Gunhild Brekanæs
prepares for her last journey.
- Forgive me, Father in Heaven,
You who know everything.
Forgive me, because I'm taking away Vasil
from this cold world, that knows no mercy!
- He was born in sin,
and he shall not be your burden.
I will carry him into Paradise,
pure and guiltless!
- You know it, you'll leave once
you'll give birth to the son
you carry beneath your heart.
I told you, not before!
- Give me Vasil.
He is mine - mine!
He is the proof of my disgrace,
and I must take him with me.
He carries my name!
- If you take vengeance
on my innocent child,
who has done nothing to you,
the day will come when
he will return evil for evil!
- If you'd just tell me now,
that you forgive me,
that you understand me...
If you do it now,
I will love you forever!
- I do not forgive,
I am a Brekanæs...
- ... and I tell you,
I shall bring up your innocent child
as a Brekanæs too,
and will teach him to despise the woman
who became his mother!
In the night a son
was born, Aslak Brekanæs -
and when the first rays of the morning sun
shone over the deep waters of the fjord,
they managed to kiss the rings,
which for a few seconds,
testified to where his mother
had found the rest she longed for.
After 25 short summers
and 25 long winters...
And during this time, Thor Brekanæs
continued to think of his wife,
only as a sinner.
His pain and hate have strengthened,
but he believes in God.
- In the name of Jesus we thank you, God,
for our daily bread...
- Good... That is right...
God first, and then father!
But it is he who sees God.
It is Aslak, Thor's son.
(Peter Malberg)
The terrors that clouded his birth,
are reflected in his pitiful existence...
- I have talked to God in the church.
when I heard the music
of his beautiful organ!
Her name was Thora,
and she was Thor's goddaughter,
an orphaned girl whom he had adopted.
(Karina Bell)
Swein Gudmundson,
son of the day laborer Gudmund.
Now he is an assistant to the bailiff
and he is in love with Thora.
(Sigurd Langberg)
- I am certain that I am not going
to live very much longer. And that is good!
- I want to see you married to Thora,
before I die!
- She is a girl
of dreams and idylls,
but you must make her forget them.
Speak to her now!
- Your father wants us
to marry soon, Thora!
- I'm so young,
Swein Gudmundson.
- We have been going about
together for nearly a year,
and you have never
allowed me to kiss you!
- I am so young...
- I shall never love you,
but perhaps one day
I shall hate you.
It's up to you!
- Poor boy, my poor boy.
You are happy in your madness.
You are her revenge!
And outside the house of gloom,
Thora's home...
- I am sorry, Thora...
I never meant to hurt you!
- You used to be so happy...
I shall go away from here...
Then you can be happy again!
I LOVE YOU
Poems of love and life
by Vasil Brekanæs
FOR MY MOTHER!
Everything can die and vanish,
disappear and fade away,
but in a child's memory
the mother lives on.
I will never be able to forget,
even now that I'm an adult,
the times I could hear a carillon
play in your heart.
I've felt all your joy and pain,
my dear mummy;
the blood of your heart
has become the blood of the child.
Like the redness of the sky
after the sun has set,
- dear mummy! - your picture
will always be with me.
- It's like stabbing me in the chest!
His mother is having her revenge!
Swein's father, Gudmund,
tenant farmer at Brekanæs.
(Charles Wilken)
He has been a faithful servant
to the Brekanæs',
and the autumn of his life was
centered upon his Bible and his son...
- This is my home, this is my place.
I should have been a herdsman like you!
- I love Thora,
but I should free her.
It's all the bailiff's fault!
I could kill him!
He sits for some time
with that letter in his hands,
he hesitates to open it,
as he knows it is Vasil's letter.
Dear Father!
I want to ask your forgiveness.
I am giving up my Law studies,
in order to write books.
I have obtained a bursary,
and I am leaving for home today.
Your son, Vasil.
On the following morning,
the coasting steamer arrived,
with Vasil Brekanæs on board.
It's been three years
since Vasil Brekanæs last saw
these mountains, this fjord.
(Emanuel Gregers)
He would have preferred to have
told Vasil everything and then turn him down,
but people would have known,
and he would be
associated with a scandal...
- Why Thora -
how you have grown,
and how beautiful you are!
- But that's no reason
not to say good morning!
- I'm so glad you have come home.
Everything is so gloomy
and oppressive here,
everyone here...
dig themselves down!
- Thora, how is it possible that such a flower
could bloom in a place like this?
- No one has ever spoken
to me like that before...
- Are those flowers for me?
- My dear little Thora...
- Don't kiss me, Vasil!
- Your father has made me promise
to marry Swein Gudmundson!
I was never allowed to write it to you!
- Do you like him?
- Don't worry, Thora....
I won't allow you to marry
Swein Gudmundson!
- Thora - I don't advise you to go
to Brekanaes with - him!
- I feel sorry for you,
Swein Gudmundson,
but I won't allow Thora
to be buried alive here with you!
It would be a cruelty -
for both of you.
Two brothers.
Why - Thora's ring disappeared,
and he never found it.
- Wait here...
Bailiff's orders...
- It's... Vasil.
- Vasil, my dear Vasil,
it hurts me to have to treat you
like a stranger in your own home
- Father!
- You have come uninvited!
- What do you want here at Brekanæs'?
- Did you receive my letter?
- It did cost me a great deal of money
to make you study to become a lawyer!
- You have forced me
to study Law,
but I won't allow myself
to be forced any more.
- In the future, I shall go my own way.
I feel no obligation.
- No obligation, no,
you are a true son of your mother!
- I don't remember my mother,
but I never felt that I had a father!
- He pulled out the ring
from Thora's finger.
He took her away from me!
- You may go,
wait until I call you!
- Don't touch it...
- Your father has forbidden it!
And while Thora tells Vasil
all that has happened at Brekanæs'...
- Why didn't you knock him down?
I will probably strike...
and I'll break the curse that lies
and weighs on the Brekanæs.
- There's father.
He's going down to the Morain!
- People say it's haunting.
I've even heard some screams
from down there...
- But now I know it's daddy
that goes down there at night!
- One evening when I thought
the whole house was asleep,
I heard screams coming
from the Moraine
and then I heard someone opening
the front door...
- I followed Aslak down to the Moraine...
- If only I could discover who
has brought this dishonour upon me -
Oh, if I only knew!
- We will break this curse!
Won't you play to me, Thora?
- I am so unused to being happy,
that I almost think
I sin when I laugh!
He does not know
that this is the song
his mother used to play when
she carried him under her heart...
...but those sounds
managed somehow
to touch the strings of his soul
and to chase the
darkness from his spirit.
- What do you want here?
- I will save Thora and Aslak from you!
- I will take them with me
out of this hell.
- And as I smash this harp,
that can only sing about lies,
so I will smash you!
- Don't cry, Thora...
Your life, your happiness,
I won't allow him to destroy them.
Towards evening...
the atmosphere at Brekanæs House
is like the threatening calm before a storm.
- The bailiff wishes
to speak to Mr. Vasil!
- It is my will that you remain here
and complete your legal studies
with Swein Gudmundson!
- I hate Law,
and will never be a lawyer!
- Then you must leave
this house tonight,
and at the next court session
I will proclaim that
you are no longer my son!
- I gladly leave this house,
this living tomb,
but I will take Thora with me!
- I called for the minister today.
He will read the banns
for Thora and Swein on Sunday!
- I hope to read something more
amusing - on your grave!
- I have broken with Father.
He destroyed my mother's life, and now
he wants to destroy ours as well,
but enough now!
- I told him I should
take you with me!
- What did the bailiff say?
- We still haven't had
our last word!
- I just wanted to tell you, Mr. Bailiff,
that on Sunday Thora and I
won't have the banns read!
- I'm not going to make her unhappy!
- You and Thora will inherit
Brekanæs House when I die!
And you'll have to be good to Aslak.
This is what I want!
- I'm not the right man for Thora.
I am the son of a labourer,
and I wish I had been a labourer myself.
I'll no longer be your slave!
- Is this how you thank me
for dragging you out of the gutter?
- I know I've fallen very low,
but not low enough
to shake Thor Brekanæs' hand!
- The two of us are
not done with each other!
Just like every time he is upset,
Thor goes to the moraine
there, in the cemetery
of his memories,
he can cry out
all his pain and hate.
His thoughts are of Thora...
and he realizes that
she means everything to him,
that she is more
than a foster sister...
- It has come so far that
I wish my father's death...
for Thora's sake!
Half an hour later,
Vasil is on his way up to the farm.
- Your father wants
to speak to you.
He's down at the moraine.
A few minutes pass by, and then...
- A scream from the Moraine!
Did you hear?
- Father is lying
in the Moraine - murdered!
- If the bailiff is dead,
then I am in authority.
You must come with me!
For a very long time old Gudmund
has also been a prison guard,
but it's been years since
he last used the cell keys...
And now, Swein sends for
the bailiff's soulless body...
And for the last time
he enters the old farm...
Thor Brekanæs, the bitter man,
bereft of life.
- Thora, the bailiff is dead!
- They killed him tonight...
in the Moraine!
She understands nothing... nothing.
But she hears distinctly
the working of a loom...
- Don't disturb me Thora.
I am weaving clothes for father.
He is cold.
That same night, the nearest
Judge is sent for...
That night, desperate
and shocked, Thora
watches over the Bailiff
on his deathbed until dawn -
unaware of what
happened to Vasil...
The judge.
(A. G. Osmund)
- Where is Vasil?
- He is under arrest...
on suspicion of murder!
- Go Swein, go!
The hated name
still sounded in his ear
as the trial began...
The stone that killed.
- You are accused
of the murder of your father,
the bailiff Thor Brekanæs.
Do you plead guilty?
- No!
- Will you give your testimony,
Gudmundson?
- I heard Vasil and
the bailiff quarrel,
and then I heard Vasil saying:
"I hope to read something
more amusing on your grave"!
- In the evening I met
the bailiff in the Moraine.
He asked me to send Vasil to him...
- Swein Gudmundson,
are you prepared to confirm
your statement by oath?
- You are sitting on father's chair,
while he is resting!
- And this is father's book,
about God.
Daddy has cried a lot over that book,
and Swein must not touch it!
- You can let Swein have the book,
God is not in it any more.
I shall take it to your father!
- Father!
- You won't feel cold any more.
I've woven a long,
long cloak for you tonight.
You won't feel cold any more!
- Thora must take father's book
from the stranger,
and Swein shall not touch it!
- Swein is downstairs,
holding father's book...
- They don't want to give it to me.
They took it away from me...
Through the open window
she heard the oath-form,
and she understood that now
it meant life or death to Vasil...
- I lied!
- The bailiff was already dead
when I saw him in the Moraine...
- So you understand,
that it is my duty to arrest you!
And old Gumlund is called upon
to fulfill a heartbreaking task...
- Why would you sit behind the bars?
- Father's book,
about God!
- Why are you crying?
Why is Vasil in the cell?
Why is everything so strange?
- You would not understand, Aslak...
- I have sent father to sleep,
just as the voices told me to!
- Did the voices tell you
to send father to sleep?
- And now I want to throw stones
to Swein too...
- It was Aslak who did it!
- Yes, maybe it was Aslak,
who was the culprit,
but how can we be sure?
...His mouth may have spoken,
but his words don't make sense.
- There are many birds
and many good stones.
There are many voices in the air.
- There are a lot of
deep beautiful tones...
- A lot of deep tones...
I must go to them...
- If only I could find
a way out of this darkness!
- Deep tones, he said,
deep tones...
- It is God himself, who has made
Aslak show us the way!
- There is one melody that makes Aslak
become like other people.
- I remember him telling me
one evening outside the church...
- Dear Thora, I am so miserable.
Now I can see myself for what I am.
It seemed as if mother came to me
through the tones of the organ.
And now she is gone again!
- You're here, Thora...
So many dark shadows in the air...
- I think we are justified
in opening the church for Aslak,
in the service of truth!
With the setting of the sun...
- The deep tones,
they hurt me so,
but you must go tell them
to come to me.
And so my mother will come!
- Father in Heaven,
forgive me,
if what I'm doing
for Aslak is a sin...
- Please speak to him
through the sacred song,
and lift the clouds
from his soul!
- Mother!
- Father! A voice told me -
it came from the fiord!
Daddy, did the stone hit you?
- You are bleeding, father!
You are bleeding!
- Father! I killed you!...
I killed you,
and the voice in the fjord was crying...
- I killed my father...!
- Don't cry dear Thora...
You played for me, and it was beautiful...
The voice from the fjord
was mummy's...
she's calling me,
and I long for her!
- It is as if a fountain trickled
behind my forehead
and I am so tired...
- Now father goes to mother...
they both smile and
they wave to me...
(I wished for it so much)
And now... the deep tones arrive...
- Goodbye, dear Thora...
And on the next day, when the
sorrowful duties of the two burials were over,
Vasil and Thora departed
from Brekanæs' house...
the farm of shadows
and disappointments...
They left behind them
all the dark and heavy memories,
and they were miles away,
as the night laid its cloak
over the desolate valley up north,
at the edges of life.
THE END