Billed as 'a dramatic and musical fantasy' with songs to operatic and other music, the story concerns Merlin and Oberon who oversee the efforts of the Saxons to repel the Danish invaders - the Hamlet-quoting King Guthrum and his formidable queen, Hecla. However, their daughter, Hildegarde, loves Egbert, who is a Saxon. Alfred loves
Bertha, daughter of Dunulf the swineherd and burns cakes while they romance. Dunulf is captured by the Danes, but is saved by the Saxons, leading to a happy ending with weddings and reconciliation blessed by the fairies.
The libretto contains rhyming couplets and blank verse, as well as some topical and satiric references, including patent medicine, advertising and the press.
[Source:
Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
