Peer Gynt BD14870_.GIF (420 bytes) 1867
Peer Gynt
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From Act I

PEER.
Along the ridge we raced together,
Slicing through the wind and weather.
What a colt to ride – amazing!
As we started on our run
It was just like suns were blazing.

Peer Gynt
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From Act I

PEER.
Right then!

SOLVEIG.
Mum, says, don’t stray from here!

PEER.
Says mum? Says mum! Were you born last year?

Transl. by John Northam.

 Peer Gynt, the young son of a farmer, wishes to restore the lost family honour, but he is a dreamer and good-for-nothing with no desire to do hard work. After abducting a young girl on her wedding night, he is declared an outlaw and has to hide in the mountains. Here Solveig, a girl who loves him and is willing to share his outlaw life visits him. Peer welcomes her, but he is haunted both by his conscience and his restlessness. He leaves her to go abroad, and she promises to wait for him. Peer spends the years of his manhood abroad, goes from country to country and job to job, without finding a personal foothold, and without being true to anyone either in business or love. He returns home as an old man, destitute and unhappy. But Solveig, now also old, welcomes him with open arms. Peer’s sinful soul is redeemed by her love.
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