HENRIK HELLSTENIUS

Music theatre based on a text by Adalbert Stifter.

There was no snow in the whole valley, but the higher mountains that had been glistening with it for many weeks already were thoroughly covered. Toward the edge of the meadows there was a mountain brook over which led a high, narrow wooden bridge. The children walked over it and looked down.From the bridge, the children passed through the valleys in the hills and came closer and closer to the woods. When they had climbed up into the higher woodlands of the “neck,” the long furrows of the road were no longer soft, as had been the case in the valley, but were firm, not from dryness, but, as the children soon perceived, because they were frozen over.The first observation the children made when entering the woods was that the frozen ground appeared gray as though powdered with flour

“Is it snowing at home, too, I wonder?” asked Sanna.

“Of course,” answered the boy, “and it is growing colder, too…”

“and you will see that …“

“…the whole pond is frozen over by tomorrow.”

“Yes, Conrad,” said the girl

The wind predicted by grandmother did not come; on the contrary, the air was so still that not a branch or twig was moving. Both were overjoyed. They stepped upon the soft down, and looked for places where there was a thicker layer of it, in order to tread on them and make it appear as if they were wading in it already. They did not shake off the snow from their clothes. A great stillness had set in. There was nothing to be seen of any bird although some do flit to and fro through the forest in winter-time and the children on their way to Millsdorf had even heard some twitter. The whole forest seemed deserted. Meanwhile, as they had proceeded still farther, the snowfall had become so dense that they could see only the very nearest trees.

The wind predicted by grandmother still had not come, on the other hand, the snowfall gradually became so dense that not even the nearest trees were to be recognized, but stood there like misty sacks. The children went on. They drew up their shoulders and walked on. They walked on very fast, and still the road led upward. Finally the children came to a region where there were no more trees.

“I see no more trees,” said Sanna.

“Perhaps the road is so broad that we cannot see them on account of the snow,” answered the boy.

“Yes, Conrad,” said the girl.

After a while the boy remained standing and said:

“I don’t see any trees now myself, we must have got out of the woods, and also the road keeps on rising. Let us stand still a while and look about, perhaps we may see something.”

But they perceived nothing…….