The Juniper Tree Monologues

Margit and her older sister, Katla, flee their homeland after their mother is killed for practicing witchcraft. Needing a place to stay, Katla casts a spell over a young farmer named Jóhann which makes him fall in love with her.

Once there were two children whose mother was a bird. They flew away with her to the land of the birds, but she sent them back among people to take care of their father. But when they returned from the land of the birds, their father had found a new wife and did not know them. She closed their father's eyes to them and filled his hearing with her voice. She sent her laughter over the mountains and he followed. The children called after him, but he did not know their voices. And so they stayed behind, and they knew what the birds know.

She remembers how everything was. She was always telling me stories. Once there was a man who lived far away in the mountains.

Once there was a boy whose mother was a bird. She loved him very much, but she could not stay among people, and one day, she returned to the land of the birds. The boy's father grew used to her being gone, but her little son wept so much that finally she heard him from far away and flew back to comfort him. "I will take you with me," she said, "and teach you what I know. But you cannot stay among the birds and must return to take care of your father." And when the boy came back from the land of the birds, his father did not know him. His skin had changed and become feathers, and his fingers had turned into wings. And he knew what the birds know.

Out from here, out from there. Out to take you anywhere. Into iron, into stone, out from here away, begone.

Our Father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation; and deliver us from evil. Amen.