mild, without being meek. In her inmost self, however, she is
proud. When first this pride is touched, then hurt, and finally
the very woman in her is mortally wounded, it is at once
perceptible that she descends from the strong, wild women of olden
times. The wildness has become resolution, the pride has become
poise, the strength has remained unchanged. She plays with life
and death like the heroes of a thousand years ago. She faces death
without flinching, and despite all her goodness, her delicacy, her
kindly love for the old and the young, for the humble and the
poor, for animals and plants, at the bottom of her nature she is
heathen. In life's last moments, with death and revenge in mind,
she can still pretend, invent, dupe. Such profound and exquisite
womanhood, such inflexible masculine will, have hardly ever been
seen combined on the stage before.

GEORG BRANDES.






INTRODUCTION

Iceland has always been famous for the quality of her literature,
although nowadays but little of it comes to our shores. It is,
therefore, an especial pleasure to introduce the author of "Hadda
Padda."

Godmundur Kamban, son of a merchant of an old and well known