The two main protagonists share their names with those of the 1862 drama's Svanhild and Falk. The first scene is set in a country house belonging to lady Halm, the widow of a public servant. Falk, a poet, is performing a song for those gathered in a pavilion. Later, he encounters the young Svanhild alone, who is angry with Falk after witnessing him kill a starling in the backyard the day before. Falk justifies the killing by asserting that the bird had sung its verses for him, and that this inspired poetry in him that he intends to write the same evening. Thus, he decided that the bird had no further use of its life, and that he might as well end it. Falk then hands Svanhild a copy of the Völsunga saga, jokingly proclaiming it her family chronicle as Svanhildr is a character featured in the saga. He then recalls the method of Svanhildr's execution (trampled and torn apart by horses) and declares that Svanhild must be trod on, desecrated and crushed before being of use to anyone else, framing this as a "sacrifice to the world". He then asks her if she has the "courage" to be his muse for a summer of eroticism and poetry, and to devote her sacrifice to him and his poetry instead of the world or anyone else. Crazed, he continues to accost an increasingly-frightened Svanhild, imploring her to let him "learn her by heart" before the winter season, until she finally declines his advances as the other members of their social circle notice them and draw closer.
