- Töre: You see it, God, you see it. The innocent child's death and my revenge. You allowed it. I don't understand you. Yet now I beg your forgiveness. I know no other way to be reconciled with my own hands. I know no other way to live.
- Beggar: See the smoke trembling under the roof as if with fright? Yet when it gets out in the air, it has the whole sky to swirl about in. But it doesn't know that, so it huddles and trembles in the soot under the roof. It's the same with people. They quiver like a leaf in the storm, afraid of what they know and what they don't know.
- [subtitled version]
- Märeta: [calmly, on being offered for sale the fine dress of her missing daughter] I must ask my husband what a fitting reward would be for such a valuable garment.
- Töre: You saw it. God, You saw it. The death of an innocent child, and my vengeance. You allowed it to happen. I don't understand You. I don't understand You. Yet, I still ask your forgiveness. I know no other way to make peace with myself than with my own hands. I don't know any other way to live. I promise You, God, here, by the dead body of my only child, I promise that as penance for my sin, I shall build You a church. On this spot I shall build it. Of mortar and stone - and with these very hands.
- Töre: Heavenly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with Your host of angels, deliver us today from the devil's chokehold. God, grant that neither temptation, shame, nor danger befall thy servants this day. Amen.
- Beggar: Flying birds find something, sitting birds only find death. I have found both women and churches.
- Bridge Keeper: I hear what I want and see what I want. I hear what mankind whispers in secret and sees what they think no one sees. You can hear for your self, if you wills like me. Just listen!
- Ingeri: What is it that thunders outside?
- Bridge Keeper: Three dead men rode north.
- [laughs menacingly]
- Märeta: If you always get your way, you'll please the devil so much that the saints will punish you with boils.
- Beggar: You... shall cross a narrow plank, so narrow you can't find your footing. Below you roars a great river. It's black and wants to swallow you up. But you pass over it unharmed. Before you lies a chasm so deep you can't see the bottom. Hands grope for you, but they can't reach you. At last you stand before a mountain of terror. It spews fire like a furnace, and a vast abyss opens at its feet. A thousand colors blaze there: Copper and iron, blue vitriol and yellow sulfur. Flames dazzle and flash and lash at the rocks. And all about men leap and writhe, small as ants, for this is the furnace that swallows up murderers and evildoers. But at the very moment you think you're doomed, a hand shall grasp you and arm circle around you, and you'll be taken far away... where evil no longer has power over you.
- Märeta: Karin's not well today.
- Ingeri: She'll sleep through morning mass and then feel just fine.
- Märeta: I think she has a fever. Her skin was so warm.
- Ingeri: She certainly burned with fever at the dance last night.
- Frida: Watch your tongue!
- Märeta: I'm not afraid my daughter will walk in your filthy footsteps. You two have always been as different as the rose and the thorn. You've always pricked others and made them suffer!
- Töre: [jokingly] I'll ride into the mountains with this naughty girl, and I'll say, "I won't have such a daughter. Imprison her in the mountains for seven years until she's been tamed. Then I'll come and take her home again - maybe."
- Karin: What is it, Ingeri?
- Ingeri: I was in the barn last night. I saw you two.
- Karin: I wanted to speak to him about you, to see if there might be help for you and the child.
- Ingeri: He probably said if you offered him your mouth, there'd be help, and if you rolled with him in hay, there'd be even more!
- [Karin slaps Ingeri]
- Beggar: A day can start out beautifully yet end in misery. Rarely have I seen a morning so full of promise as this morning. The sun shone in all its fairness and made you forget winter's rages. My legs wanted to dance for joy, but before nightfall she lay dead. I saw the May Queen herself ride into the sun, but she never returned.
- Märeta: If you always get your way, you'll give the devil such joy that the saints will punish you with boils and toothaches.
- Karin: Why are you always talking about the devil? Father never does.
- Märeta: Because the devil seduces the innocent and seeks to destroy goodness before it can blossom.
- Karin: I always say my prayers, Mother.
- Karin: Get out my yellow silk shift, and my Sunday skirt and blue cape. Then I'll be happy, and you'll be happy, and Father as well. Mother, I'll ride to church with such dignity, and Blackie will raise his hooves gently, like in a pilgrim's procession. I'll look neither right nor left but straight ahead, thinking of the candles and of God's holy mother. The white stockings too, and the blue shoes with pearls.
- Karin: [singing] The little bird, he soars so high, And rides the wind on his wing, It is such work, such work to fly, And over high mountains to spring, The streams flow so merrily, And under the verdant trees, In Springtime's breeze...
- Beggar: [singing] So lovely an apple orchard I know, A maiden with virtues so dear, Her hair like spun gold does flow, Her eyes like the heavens so clear, The streams flow so merrily, All under the verdant trees, In Springtime's breeze...
- Karin: Does the baby hurt you, Ingeri? What's the matter?
- Ingeri: You'll learn for yourself one day.
- Karin: Then I'll be married, and mistress of my house with honor.
- Ingeri: We'll see about your honor when a man takes your waist or strokes your neck.
- Karin: No man will get me to bed without marriage.
- Ingeri: And if he meets you in the nature and pulls you down behind a bush?
- Karin: I'll fight my way free.
- Ingeri: But he's stronger than you.
- Frida: God is merciful, more merciful than you think. Say your prayers properly tonight, and don't forget them from now on.
- Thin Herdsman: My brother says the proud maiden has such white hands.
- Karin: [smiles] Because princesses needn't do the washing or make fires.
- Thin Herdsman: My brother says the proud maiden has such a pretty neck.
- Karin: [smiles] To make a princess's gold necklace shine all the brighter.
- Thin Herdsman: My brother says the proud maiden has such a narrow waist.
- Simon: If you're on your way to matins, you're too late. But better to bloom on the road than wither in church.
- Karin: I'm taking candles to church.
- Simon: I see. In the Holy Virgin's honor, you've bedecked and bejeweled yourself like a bride for her groom.
- Karin: No, because it's such nice weather, and because mother was against it.
- [last lines]
- The Virgin Spring: [singing] Oh Lord, receive my soul, And grant me everlasting peace, Grant me everlasting peace, At your side, O Lord.
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