thirsts for his
life, but also that she has sworn to spare him if any one were found
willing to give his life instead.

Act V.--Brand and his little troop file into the warrior-filled hall of
Kolbein. In vain they seek conciliation at any price with the chieftain,
who is enraged by the slaying of his friend Thorolf, and infuriated
beyond measure by the speeches of his implacable wife. Even Jorun's
offering her life for Brand's does not soften his heart; when, finally,
the prisoner-bishop's threat of excommunication subdues Kolbein with the
fear of the hereafter. Compensation is duly imposed upon the allies, and
peace once more rules in the harried land.

The subject of the above drama was suggested by two or three rather
meagre pages of the 'Islendingasaga' of Sturla Thordsson (ed. Vigfusson,
ch. 146). To my notion, the poet has succeeded admirably in
reproducing the cool coloring, the ironic-pessimistic attitude, that
uncompromisingly masculine sentiment we know so well in their refreshing
acerbity from the best sagas. Not the least meritorious thing in the
play, by the way, is the very slight insistence on Thorolf's relations
to Helga, notwithstanding its temptation to the author of a social drama
betraying strong influence of Ibsen; for the saga--it is to be borne in
mind--is the literature of revenge and ambition as ruling motives, love
having an incomparably smaller sphere allotted to it. Too much weight
laid on that relation would have been ruinous to the total conception of
the play.

In conformity to that conception are also the terse, pithy language
which allows us to surmise the unlimited possibilities hidden in the
saga literature, and the equally succinct manner of character drawing.

The most interesting figure in the drama is Brand, a Hamletic character
without a Hamlet's zest of retaliation--noble, generous, and beloved;
yet ever a loser, because never resolutely willing the means to an end.
As Thorolf avers scornfully, 'Brand lacks both the forethought _before_
battle, and that fire _in_ battle which wins the victory,' The reign
of lawlessness and bloodshed appalls him, to be sure; but he cannot
see that his own irresolution is one of the causes. 'He is sick in his
soul.' But 'peace'!--cries Broddi--'whenever was peace gotten in feuds,
excepting the battle be won or--lost.' And yet, by the irony of fate,
both his birth and his noble gifts make men look to Brand as Kolbein's
natural successor. The ti