OLD MAN IN THE TOWER. PEHR. LISA. FAIRY. ELF. RATS [NILLA AND NISSE]. BUTLER. ASSESSOR. PETITIONER. FIRST FRIEND. SECOND FRIEND. A WOMAN. PILLORY. STATUE. WAGONMAKER. SHOEMAKER. CHIROPODIST. STREET-PAVER. RELATIVE. BURGOMASTER. ONE OF THE PEOPLE. CHAMBERLAIN OF THE CALIPH. AMEER. COURT HISTORIAN. COURT MULLAH. GRAND VIZIER. POET LAUREATE. BRIDE. SINGER. DEATH. WISE MAN. SAINT BARTHOLOMEW. SAINT LAURENCE. BROOM. PALL. A VOICE. Townspeople, Dancers, Viziers, Courtiers, Court Attendants, etc.
ACT I.—Room in a Church Tower. ACT II.—[a] Forest—[b] Rich Man's Banquet Hall. ACT III.-Public Square and Town Hall. ACT IV.—[a] Caliph's Palace—[b] Seashore. ACT V.—Country Church [Interior]. TIME: Middle Ages.
Window shutters at back wide open, starlit sky is seen through windows. Background: Snow covered house-roofs; gable windows in the distance brilliantly illuminated. In room an old chair, a fire-pan and a picture of the Virgin, with a lighted candle before it. Room is divided by posts—two in centre thick enough to conceal an adult.
Chant, in unison, from the church below:
A Solis ortus cardine Et usque terrae limitem Christum canamus principem Natum Maria Virgini.
[Old Man comes up tower steps and enters carrying a rat-trap, a barley-sheaf and a dish of porridge, which he sets down on the floor.]
OLD MAN. Now the elf shall have his Christmas porridge. And this year he has earned it honestly—twice he awakened me when I fell asleep and forgot the tower shutters; once he rang the bell when fire broke loose. Merry Christmas,