Lady Inger Of Østråt BD14870_.GIF (420 bytes) 1857
Lady Inger Of Østråt
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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.

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.

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