ACT THREE (Even before the end of the interval we notice the VALKYRIES - women in armour carrying shields - mingling with the audience. By the time the bell rings we see also quite a number of the FALLEN - the heroes who have fallen in bloody battles. The VALKYRIES urge both the public and the FALLEN back into the theatre. The FALLEN begin their song while still in the foyer. In the theatre HUGIN & MUGIN obstruct the public as they try to return to their seats:'Just a moment! ' 'Wait here! ' 'It'll only be a few minutes! ' They also say:'Let the Fallen through! ' 'Stand to one side please! ' 'Gangway here please! ' The FALLEN - led by the VALKYRIES - pass the audience and take the stage. They sing as they go:) THE FALLEN The Fallen are we, heroes painted red, bloody and gored from the battle-field we fight on land and we fight at sea and we never never yield. The Fallen are we, heroes daubed in red, scarred by a thousand battles, bleeding chopped and cut until one day - we were dead! But if you thought that was the end, think again, praise be to Odin think again, my friend, Yes if you thought that was the end, think again, praise be to Odin think again, my friend. Odin's nessage came loud and clear - pick yourselves up, I need you here, so we crawl and stagger and stumble ignoring the fact we're dead, some of us short of a leg or two, some of us missing a head, it doesn't matter at all how badly we were slain, when we have Odin's promise to make us whole again. The Fallen are we, soldiers daubed in red, we're Odin's secret weapon, we're the living dead. (If necessary the song may be sung several times. And the Fallen may, to create an impression of number, parade in a loop around the audience) (At a given signal - midway through the second rendition of the song - HUGIN & MUGIN open large umbrellas. These are in garish 'holiday' colours, and the ravens now act as tourist-guides to the public, who are their 'tourist party' visiting Asgard. The ravens may also use cordless microphones to create an effect of alienation, so that echoes of their voices can be heard round the foyer and in the cloakroom) HUGIN Ladies and gentlemen…these are wild and warlike times. The people are drawing boundary lines between each other. All try to grab as much as they can for themselves. (The Fallen and the Valkyries continue to march past the audience and into the arena - but now only humming) MUNIN In larger and smaller groups they roam around Midgard, fighting over land and pasture, fighting over who shall own the woodlands and the sheltered beaches. Now is the time for what's Yours and what's Mine. HUGIN But when the sword and the axe have ended their song…when those left alive have hobbled off or sailed on their way…when all that remains are the corpses that litter the fields or float in the water like empty sacks… (Light change and music change ensure that there is no longer anything comic about the scene - the atmosphere now is ghostly, demonic) MUNIN (no pause) then it is not just the vultures and the ravens which circle the battlefields. HUGIN (flapping) Ca-aa-aaw! MUNIN (no pause) Something new has entered the world. A group of heavenly riders swoop down on the fallen. An army of women clad in chain-mail search among the dead bodies. Lift them. Turn them. The Valkyries. HUGIN They have been send by Odin, the god-king. Their task is to sort out the best, the bravest, the strongest. (for some time now we have been hearing the sounds of horses - hooves, snorting, whinnying) MUNIN The Valkyries pile the dead bodies in front of them on the backs of their horses. Then they take to the air again…cross Bifrost, the great rainbow bridge…and so back to Asgard, the great stronghold that looms like a mighty mountain at the centre of the world. (Light and sound change. The demonic atmosphere dispelled. Once again the stage is an ordinary, friendly place - and the ravens have a twinkle in their eyes) HUGIN This is the home of the gods. Those who call themselves the Aesir. MUNIN (extends a hand) Welcome. Step inside. (The ravens bid the audience join them on stage. Only now do we see it clearly. Valhalla has been built up as a sort of living, stylised tableau. The ravens allow the audience to wander round, touching and picking up things. Actors and audience mingle. We see all the ravens refer to - for example, the Fallen as they train for battle. But the first thing we see is a drunken cook - ANDRIMNER - pursuing a terrified pig - SAERIMNER - on and off the stage. This pursuit recurs at unexpected intervals which need not always be specified) HUGIN Odin himself receives the dead heroes. (We do not see Odin on stage) Half shall live in Valhalla - here on our left. The rest will be with Freya, in Folkvang. (Up on his toes and points off) That's over in …that direction. MUNIN Odin too is in charge of weapon drill. (Odin is still nowhere in sight) Each morning the Fallen put on their helmets and armour and assemble here on the field to fight…They stab and chop away at each other to their heart's content, laughing and joking the whole time. HUGIN As you can see for yourselves, there's a very good atmosphere here. (One warrior chops of another one's arm, and the blood gushes) At sword and axe play, spear and bow - that's when they're happiest. MUNIN But when it begins to get towards meal-time… (The cook Andrimner wheels in a huge pot on wheels. Steam rises from the top. The pig SAERIMNER is inside it, sweating and grunting in fear. ) ANDRIMNMER Come and get it! Come and get it! THE PIG SAERIMNER Yes, it's all very well for you! ANDRIMNER Grub's up! (Saerimner gives a long, unhappy grunt) HUGIN When it gets towards meal-time and the cook Andrimner calls them (indicates the fallen warriors) - then up they get, with their wounds all healed and their ripped off arms and legs all back in place again, and the whole army …(we see as he relates)…marches into Valhalla, into the great dining hall, where they eat and drink together like friends, every outstanding quarrel between them settled and forgotten. MUNIN The food is the same at every meal:roast pork! SAERIMNER (covers his eyes with one trotter) Roast pork! (the cook dips a large wooden ladle into the pot and tries the juice) Is that the only thing you can cook? ANDRIMNE There is nothing to compare with pork! (squashes the pig further down in the pan) SAERIMNER I'm dying! HUGIN Roast pork - every day! But what's really peculiar is that every day it's the same pig that gets roasted! SAERIMNER (his confused head emerges) Hmmm?? (the cook squashes him down again) MUNIN Because the thing about Saerimner is this, that even though Andrimner slaughters and cooks him every morning - SAERIMNER Slaughters! ? (He leaps out of the pot and runs off again) No axes here please! (the cook is after him again, waving a big meat-axe) MUNIN As I was saying:though the pig gets killed and cooked every morning, come evening you'll find him grunting happily away in his sty again as though nothing had happened. (the cook Andrimner enters again carrying a big sack over his shoulder. Empties the contents into the pan - a dismembered pig! All this while the Valkyries have been attending on the heroes, bringing mead to them, filling their glasses on request. The mead comes from HEIDRUN, a goat who stands on the roof of Valhalla chewing at leaves and twigs. Mead is pulled from her udders in powerful jets) HUGIN And we have more than enough mead! (pats the goat) THE GOAT HEIDRUN Baaaaaaaeeeee. Hick! (A horn blast, and ODIN enters. He has two wolves on a leash, both as tame as dogs. All those on stage turn towards the god-king and hail him) THE FALLEN (shouting in time to music) Ygg! HUGIN (explanatory - to the audience) The terrible. THE FALLEN Ha! HUGIN The high one. THE FALLEN Baleyg! HUGIN He of the burning gaze. THE FALLEN Herian! HUGIN Lord of battle. THE FALLEN Gagnrad! HUGIN He who decides the outcome of battles. THE FALLEN Valfather! HUGIN Father of the fallen. (It is evident that Odin enjoys all this. Suddenly his expression changes. He claps his hands. The music stops. All hold their breath) ODIN Clear the stage! Let us continue! (All set to at once to dismantle the scenery etc and carry things off. A couple of the Fallen try to carry off a young girl each from the audience - but Munin prevents them) MUNIN (shouting to the audience) Now would you please be kind enough to return to your seats! HUGIN As quickly and as quietly as possible, please! MUNIN Everyone back to their places! (The two ravens hurry the audience back to their seats. All this time, MIMIR'S HEAD has been standing on its column of stone in the middle of the stage. Now two Valkyries try to remove him - they think one of the Fallen has forgotten to take his head with him…) ODIN (intervenes) Stop! Leave that head where it is! THE TWO VALKYRIES (in unison) We're terribly sorry. (curtsey to Odin) We didn't know. Had no ideee- a! MIMIR'S HEAD (comes alive) That's alright. Perfectly okay. THE TWO VALKYRIES (in unison) We're terribly sorry. (curtsey to Mimir) MIMIR'S HEAD Just leave me in peace. (the two Valkyries run off. Light is dimmed on everything except Odin and Mimir) ODIN Is everything alright? MIMIR'S HEAD Things are never alright for someone who's head has been separated from his body! ODIN You are in a bad humour, my brother from Giant Land. MIMIR'S HEAD And all these warriors? These oxen on two feet? ODIN They're Heimdall's sons. He chose three times. Three women. All of them very different from each other. That's how the blood of gods and humans came to be mixed. That's how we built a new and stronger race. MIMIR'S HEAD That's how you built a new and stronger army. ODIN Which I need! MIMIR'S HEAD That's how you acquired an army of living dead. ODIN Did I have any choice? Has it not been prophesied that one day all the powers of darkness shall gather together and sweep across the earth like a storm? Has it not been prophesied that enemies shall invade Midgard - the world of the humans? And that evil shall one day try to claw away the stone walls of the Aesir's own stronghold Asgard? MIMIR'S HEAD (sighs) Odin, Odin… ODIN And I say to myself : suppose this were to happen today - can the Aesir alone raise an army strong enough to drive the enemy back? MIMIR'S HEAD (wrinkles his nose) But rotting corpses and dead men - ODIN (interrupts) Where else should I find soldiers but on a battlefield ! HEL (appearing suddenly on the other side of the stage) No, where else would you find them, you one-eyed old goat! (Laughs madly) (The stage is now cleared. Smoke rolls in from all sides. The lighting becomes ghostly, the music fateful. Odin wheels Mimir out) (Moaning, lost souls creep over the stage like sleep-walkers. HEL is adult now, a beautiful and demonic 'witch-queen'. One side of her face is coloured normally, the other is blue-black) HEL (no pause) I am Hel, she whom you once banished to the north and who made her home in the icy wastes. I am Hel, and my power grows and grows, for I have become the queen of the dead. Odin takes for himself the bravest who fall in battle or in swordfight, but the rest - the most - I take . They come to me, swarming like locusts! All those who lost their lives through sickness or old age hear my voice. I call to them, and no matter where they are they hear, they must listen and obey. From all over the world they come to me…through the deep and dark valleys…to the river Gioll. The bridge across to my kingdom is called the Giallarbru. It is covered in gold. (Lights down on her. Lights up on HYMIR & ANGERBODA. He is shaking her breasts - silently. She is wearing black, almost like a widow. Long black gloves and black hat with black veil) ANGERBODA (on Hel's last speech, almost as a continuation) But on the other hand…behind the high fences, and Hels huge gate …everything's grey and horrible and miserable. (irritated, to Hyme) Shake more, dolt! (back to her mood) Her hall is known as The Soaking Room. Her table is called Hunger, and her knife is called Hunger too. And Sickbed is the name of her bed. There are nine chambers in Hel's kingdom, each one colder and wetter than the one before. HYMIR Cold and wet? Well that's alright isn't it? ANGERBODA Dolt! HYMIR But…? ANGERBODA Can't you see I'm in mourning? Trym is dead! Can't you see these black clothes? HYMIR (stops shaking her;in genuine surprise) Yes, but that was ages ago! I never noticed that it had such a big effect on you at the time. And Angerboda, you and Trym - ANGERBODA (melodramatic) Trym and I were closer than anyone knew. I hardly knew myself how close we were! And now I have no one who can take his place. HYMIR (cautious and confused) Perhaps I might…. ? ANGERBODA You? Hymir? Oh, my sweet dolt! (hugs him in a crushing embrace) HYMIR But what…I mean:apart from shaking you, what else is there to… ANGERBODA (passionately) You must gather the whole of Jotunheim into a knotted fist! Hel and her army of zombies and rotting corpses shall be one fist. We - Jotunheim - shall be the other! (softly, like a cat) You shall help me to beat the gods senseless, Hymir. That is what I want you to do. HYMIR But is it really wise to join forces with Hel - with Death herself? ANGERBODA (harshly) Just do as I say. (lights out on Hymir and Angerboda. Lights up on Hel again. Smoke wheels and billows around her) HEL (without a pause) Just do as she says! (laughs madly) And death shall grow. My dominion grows greater with every day that passes. One day it shall encompass the whole world. I know that Odin …regrets not killing me while I was still a child. And now it's too late. Now there is no one who can harm me! And with every day that passes I grow stronger. (Lights up on the captive wolf Fenrir) FENRIR Sister! Save me! Freed me from these chains! HEL Soon, brother wolf! Not long to wait now. FENRIR Set me free! (lifts his head and howls like a real wolf) (light on the MIDGARD SERPENT whose huge head appears and begins to glide over the floor - an incredibly long, scaly body) HEL Jormungand! Greetings, brother serpent! MIDGARD SERPENT (hisses in reply -it sounds like a powerful wind) HEL Has the world ever known brothers and sisters like us? (laughs madly) (Blackout) (Music) BALDER (a shout in the dark) No! (Light on him. He sits up, wiping the sleep from his eyes) NANNA (his wife, enters)What is the matter ? BALDER I had a dream. NANNA Another one…(sits by him, he leans onto her) Balder, Balder, there there… BALDER I dreamt I saw the whole of Asgard awash with blood. I dreamt that the wall was a huge dam, and the blood rose higher and higher…and I knew that it would give at any moment! NANNA Balder…it was only a dream. BALDER But where do they come from, such dreams? And why do I have them? (Nanna strokes his hair) (Light on HUGIN & MUNIN) HUGIN (to the audience) No - who knows why it is all these strange pictures dance through Balder's head. MUNIN (to the audience) Balder … the one they call The Innocent…The Pure. The one who is always gentle and friendly. And almost as beautiful to look at as a young girl. HUGIN (to the audience) There were quite a few who were inclined to laugh at him. They called him the Weak, and the Cautious, because he never took much pleasure in arguing and fighting. He would rather be in peace - with everyone. MUNIN (to the audience) Odin would like to to preserve the world, and every living thing in it. But in the struggle against evil and treachery he has to put his faith in the sword and the spear. He knows that blue eyes have never yet persuaded a greedy enemy to abandon his plans. And for this reason Balder has never been a son after his own heart. (Light up on ODIN) ODIN (shouting) If you would have peace then prepare yourselves to make war! (THE FALLEN swarm onto the stage again and practise weapon drill. Odin wanders proudly among them. Corrects a foot position here, a sword feint there. At the same time LOKI, THOR, FREY & TYR enter from another part of the stage. They stand in silence and observe the training) LOKI (presently) I'm tired of humans, the living as well as the dead … FREY Don't even mention it! LOKI Sick and tired! TYR There's getting to be more and more of them every day! THOR (tugging at his beard) Perhaps it's getting to be a little too much of a good thing… LOKI A little?? I wish we could go back to the days before Valhalla was built. At least then you could have a decent feast here without bumping into humans all evening! (ODIN now drills the Fallen like a sergeant, and to cries of 'Hup two three four' marches the dead warriors off in two columns, following himself and saluting the four gods on his way out) LOKI (continuing) But even if we haven't got Asgard to ourselves any more perhaps we can persuade the Sea-Giant Aegir to hold a feast for us! His hall isn't far away. And they say no one brews better and stronger ale then he does… FREY But Odin doesn't want us to have anything to do with the Giants any more. He says it all the time… LOKI He's talking nonsense! That's unreasonable. And we're nothing but a bunch of cowardly lice if we daren't stand up to him ! THOR (hesitant) But…how do we know Aegir wants to… LOKI (smiles, nudges him in the back) But my dear chap - surely you can persuade him! TYR (to the audience) We went. We went to Aegir's island, to 'The Place That Never Freezes'. He's a powerful troll, Aegir. Fire is one of his brothers. Wind is another. But he's always been a friend to the gods, and he gave us a good reception. (AEGIR enters - a Neptune of the north. Starfish and crabs in his hair. Mermaids twist and shimmer beside him like a shoal of small fish) AEGIR Your suggestion is neither kelp nor seaweed! Surely you can find someone more suitable to host your party! LOKI Aegir, your feasting hall…your golden dining room at the bottom of the sea…it's famous throughout the worlds. Even the dwarves talk about it! AEGIR But my friends…times have changed. I don't know…everything is so difficult at the moment. FREY Difficult? AEGIR I don't know how the other Giants would feel about it. THOR The other giants? What has it got to do with them? AEGIR They don't approve of my friendship with …your sort. LOKI Buy you've always been a loyal friend to us. AEGIR (angrily) I am a loyal friend! TYR (urgently) It's too late to change sides now. AEGIR (even more angry) I have no intention of changing sides! LOKI (spreads his hands) So what's the problem? AEGIR (quietly) I don't want to… (looks at each one in turn) FREY You don't want to? (Aegir shakes his head. But Thor grabs him by the collar and holds him firmly, glowering at him) AEGIR (quickly and loudly) Alright! I will! I will! THOR (lets him go) I thought you might. AEGIR On one condition… LOKI Alright. On one condition. (the others nod) AEGIR Everyone knows that when Thor is really thirsty he is capable of drinking several wells dry - without assistance.