Olof

“ Olof was good-natured and gentle; he only put on his terrible airs out of vanity, so as to appear like a man. He began singing a Swedish song, both to amuse himself and to show his companion that he pronounced the mother-tongue more purely than the other members of the family. Remarking this, Christian determined to have a talk with him.
“Why,” said he, “did you not come with us when we went to the hunt? Have you never yet seen a bear erect?”
“Aunt would never let me,” replied the young lad, with a sigh.
“Aunt Karine?”
“There is no other at our house.” ”

“ Listen! Bind not the spirits with any fetters whatsoever! Forget not the great Whitsunday! Forget not your great goal: spiritual life and spiritual freedom! Listen not to the cry of death: "And behold, it is all good!" For then the millennium, the kingdom of liberty, will never arrive—and it is that which is now beginning. (Olof remains silent.) Does it make you dizzy?
Olof. You go too far, Gert.
Gert. The day shall come when they will call me papist. Aim at the sky, and you will hit the forest line ahead of you.
Olof. Turn back, Gert! You'll bring disaster on yourself and on the realm. ”

“ Mårten. As long as we are not suspended, we are doing our duty here by the King's authority, and not by the Pope's.
Olof. I shall cleanse the Church of the lord without regard to the will of King or Pope.
Mother. Will you plunge my soul into perdition, Olof? Will you let me die with a curse?
Olof. Calm yourself, mother! You are not going to die in a lie. Seek your God in prayer, He is not so far away as you believe.
Mårten. A man who won't save his own mother from the pangs of purgatory must be the Devil's prophet indeed. ”

“ Olof. Supposing Gert be right—what do you say, Lars?
Lars. I wasn't born to lead.
Olof. All are born to lead, but all are not willing to sacrifice the flesh.
Gert. Only he who has the courage to face scorn and ridicule can lead. For hatred is as nothing compared with the laughter that kills.
Olof. And if it should miscarry?
Gert. Dare to face that, too! You don't know that Thomas Münster has established a new spiritual kingdom at Muhlhausen. You don't know that all Europe is in revolt. ”

“ Gert. That's what Luther has done.
Olof. How can one man check a stream?
Gert. Guide it, you fool—for we are the stream. The old are stagnant mudpools, you don't need to check them, but don't let them rot away or dry up; give them an outlet, and they'll flow with the stream, too.
Olof. Yes, I understand you! You have bred a thought in my soul, but that thought must be strangled in its birth, or it will kill me.
Gert. Believe me, you will be a Daniel, and you will speak the truth unto princes, and they will conspire to take your life ”

“ Lars. You are tearing down and tearing down, Olof, so that soon there will be nothing left, and when people ask, "What do we get instead?" you always answer, "Not this," "Not that," but never once do you answer, "This."
Olof. Presumptuous man! Do you think faith can be given by one to another? Do you think that Luther has given us anything new? No! He has merely torn away the screens that had been placed around the light. The new that I want is doubt of the old, not because it is old, but because it is decaying. (Lars points toward their mother's body.) ”

“ Those were Olof's words—all that he found to say to her in return.
"Escape? No! All that has once happened sets its mark on us, and follows us like a shadow; it will overtake us some day wherever we may go—I have learned that at least, and learned it in a way that is not easy to forget." ”

“ We want a real mass, and not any new inventions of men.
Gert. It has to be in Latin, my dear Master Olof, or we can't understand what you say.
Townsman. It has to be in the sacred tongue—or anybody might say mass.
Olof. And so you shall! Everyone for himself, with God!
Crowd. A Luther! A Luther! Antichrist!
Townsman. Well, well, Master Olof, have you, too, so young and zealous, become tainted by the German devil? I am an old man, who has seen much of the world, and I mean well by you—Turn back while you are still young!—Do as we ask you and give us the old mass. ”

“ Lars. You are right to a certain extent.—Olof, you broke the laws of the Church during a time of lawlessness and unrest. What could be forgiven then must be punished now. Don't force the King to appear worse than he is. Don't let your scorn for the law and your wilfulness force him to punish a man to whom he acknowledges himself indebted.
Olof. Nothing is more wilful than his own rule, and he must learn to tolerate the same thing in others. ”

“ Once again it was the voice heard among the boulders that struck upon Christian’s ear, but it seemed, as it now chanted poetic words set to an agreeable and melodious air, far sweeter than before. The words were, perhaps, a modern song which the sibyl had understood and remembered exactly. However, it was in vain that Christian tried to catch the faintest glimpse of a human form. He could not even see the horse that was conducting him, or rather, to speak more correctly, which was no longer conducting him, for the sleigh was standing still, and Olof was not there. ”

“ He resolved then to get out on the other side of the sleigh, and he found himself on a steep road, which he explored for about twenty steps, still calling Olof with the greatest anxiety. [Pg 435] Could the child have rolled over a precipice during Christian’s brief slumber? At last he saw, gleaming through the fog, an imperceptible point of light, which came towards him, and soon he recognized Olof carrying a lighted lantern. ”

“ Olof knew all the plans of the Queen, and went to tell the Princess what had been done, whereupon Hadvor earnestly entreated her to tell her what to do.
‘First and foremost,’ said Olof, ‘you must get a wide cloak to wear over your other clothes, when you are put into the mound. The Giant’s ghost will walk after you are both left together in there, and he will have two dogs along with him. He will ask you to cut pieces out of his legs to give to the dogs, but that you must not promise to do unless he tells you where Hermod has gone to, and tells you how to find him. ”

“ Olof walks up with easy steps, but the blood is streaming down his face. The first to meet him is a girl, her face pale, her body trembling with emotion. She is standing by herself—the others are still far off. ”

“ Christian helped Olof to guide the horse cautiously to the shore of the lake, and there the lad, who did not seem at all alarmed by their adventures, asked him whether he would get into the sleigh again, and go on to the major’s bostoelle.
[Pg 436]
“No, no,” said Christian, “I must go to Stollborg. Must I not turn to the right?”
“No,” said Olof, “try to walk forward in a straight line, while you count three hundred steps. If you take two steps more and don’t come to the rock, you have gone wrong.” ”

“ Forgive me, Olof, if I talk childishly! I know that you are a man sent by the Lord, and I have felt the blessing with which your words are fraught. But you are more than that—you are a man, and you are my husband—or at least ought to be. You won't fall from your exalted place if you put aside your solemn speech now and then and let the clouds pass from your forehead. You are not too great, are you, to look at a flower or listen to a bird? I put the flowers on your table, Olof, in order that they might rest your eyes—and you ordered the maid to take them out because they gave you a headache. ”

“ Gert. You shall have my secret: deal with it to suit yourself. The King leaves for Malmö to-day, and the day after to-morrow, perchance, Stockholm may be in open revolt.
Olof. What are you talking about?
Gert. Do you know Rink and Knipperdollink?
Olof (alarmed) . The Anabaptists!
Gert. Yes. What's so startling in that? They are nothing but a couple of lubberly tradesmen. A furrier and a grocer, who deny the use of baptizing unconscious children, and who are simple-minded enough to oppose the forcing of irrational creatures into deliberate perjury. ”

“ From dust you have come, and to dust you shall return, even if your name was Sancta Clara da Spoleto and you ate only three ounces of bread a day and slept among the swine at night! (The nuns scream.)
Mårten. If you fear not what is holy, fear at least your temporal ruler. Look here! He has still so much respect left for divine things that he dreads the wrath of the saint. (He shows a document to Olof.)
Olof. Do you know what the Lord did with the king of the Assyrians when he permitted the worship of idols? He smote him and all his people. ”

“ Olof. Nothing can prevent me.
Mother. I have prayed to God that He would touch your heart—I'll tell you, but you mustn't speak of it to anybody. I am weak with age, and I couldn't trust my own knees, so I went to see a servant of the Lord and asked him, who is nearer to God, to say some prayers for your soul. He refused because you are under the ban. Oh, it's dreadful! May the Lord forgive me my sin! I bribed the pure conscience of that man with gold—with the Devil's own gold—just to save you! ”

“ Olof. Give thanks for God alone for having saved your soul, and don't think that all your sins have been expiated to-day. Try to find strength to live a life that will always be cursed. God has forgiven you—your fellow-men will never do so! (He takes her by the hand and leads her to the street door.)
[Enter Mårten through the doorway in the rear, followed by Olof's Mother and Christine, the daughter of Gert.]
Mårten. We're in the wrong place, I fear.
Mother (outraged at seeing Olof and the Harlot together) . Olof, Olof!
Christine. Who is that woman? She looks so unhappy. ”

“ Olof crossed his arms defiantly. "You know who I am well enough. And you're the men to talk of a girl's honour to me—you that hang about outside her window at night—a nice lot to protect her! Mark my words, the lot of you. I go where I please, if 'twas to a princess in a palace. And I'll go the way I went last night as long as I'm here in the place. And as sure as I stand here, if one of you shows his head outside that window, or dares to say a coarse word—ay, or so much as a look to hurt her, I'll thrash him till he can't stand on his feet." ”

“ Life does not waste tears over us!"
Olof strode briskly out toward a certain quarter of the town, a complex of narrow streets and little houses with stuffy rooms, where glasses are filled and emptied freely, and men sit with half-intoxicated women on their knees, sacrificing to insatiable idols. ”

“ Olof. Truth isn't sold by the yard.
Gustaf. 'Sdeath! (Changing tone.) Well, suit yourself!
Olof (kneeling) . Then I may say all that is in my mind?
Gustaf. You may.
Olof. Then, if I can only throw a single spark of doubt into the soul of this sleeping people, my life will not have been wasted.—It is to be a reformation, then?
Gustaf (after a pause) . Yes. (Pause.)
Olof (timidly) . And what is to become of the Anabaptists?
Gustaf. Need you ask? They must die.
Olof. Will Your Highness permit me one more question?
Gustaf. Tell me: what do those madmen want? ”

“ Olof and Lars. We have sworn!
Gert. This book is the result of my silent labors. On every page you will find a cry of distress, a sigh from thousands who have been blind enough to think it God's will that they should suffer the tyranny of one man—who have thought it their duty not even to hope for liberation. (Olof takes the volume and begins to read.) You shall hear complaints all the way from the primeval forests of Norrland down to the Sound. Out of the wreckage from the churches the King is building new castles for the nobility and new prisons for the people. ”

“ Olof and his wife Brita were devoted to their children. Olof was part owner of a mine at the town of Langsbaushyttan near which they lived. The children had a governess for a time, and father and mother taught them what they could, but the most of their days were spent playing in the thick pine woods along the shore of the little Lake Hytt which lay in front of their house. ”

“ Build a bit of a house, and maybe turn up a patch of ground or so."
"Build a house...?" repeated the other in surprise.
"Yes. You see, brother, each goes his own way," went on Olof heavily. "And I've a sort of feeling now that I can't live on anything out of the past. I must try and build up a life for myself, all anew. If I can do that, perhaps I may be able to go on living." ”

“ Olof. What is Your Highness' will?
Gustaf. Talk to those fanatics in Stockholm.
Olof. And then?
Gustaf. Oh, that's a long way off. I don't dare to think so far yet.—Let them preach. It can't hurt those sottish spirits to hear a new word, even if it be not all true. But there must be no violence; for then the sword will join in the game. Farewell, Olof! [Exit.]
Olof (alone) . So the Emperor won't be friends with the Pope!
(The two scholars, who have been waiting among the trees in the background, come forward.)
First Scholar. Shall we go on with the play, Master Olof? ”

“ Olof is right in admitting that he had gone too far; the scholar, Vilhelm, is right when, in the name of youth, he demands the evolution of a new truth; and Gert is right in calling Olof a renegade. The individual must always become a renegade—forced by the necessity of natural laws; by fatigue; by inability to develop indefinitely, as the brain ceases to grow about the age of forty-five; and by the claims of actual life, which demand that even a reformer must live as man, mate, head of a family, and citizen. ”