- click for larger image -LADY INGER.
Oh, Jesus Christ my son!
BJØRN.
Help! Help! My lady what ails you?
LADY INGER.
What ails me? I lack but another coffin, and a grave beside my child.
Transl. by Charles Archer.
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The widow Inger
Ottesdatter used to be an idealistic champion of Norwegian liberation from Danish rule.
Since then she has been married to a Danish nobleman and has given him three daughters;
the youngest still living at Østråt. One strange fateful night Østråt is visited by
Nils Lykke from Denmark, who comes to seek news of Count Sture, the leader of the Swedish
rebellion against the Danes. Then appears the young Nils Stenssøn, Count Sture's
messenger. He is unaware of his own true identity, but Lykke coaxes both the documents and
other information from him and discovers that Nils is Lady Inger's secret love child with
Count Sture. Nils Stenssøn has Swedish soldiers hot on his heels and asks for Lady
Inger's protection, intimating to her that he carries a secret (now that he knows he is
her son). Meanwhile, Nils Lykke has started a relationship with Eline, the daughter of
Lady Inger, but Lady Inger reveals Lykke to be the man for whose love Eline's sister Lucia
took her death. Lady Inger fears that Nils Stenssøn may become a threat to the fate of
her own son and orders his death. Only later, when a ring is found on the corpse, does she
realize that she has murdered her own son. |