UC.SB LIBRARY 
 
 X- 50 7.1 
 
 (7
 
 (7
 
 \
 
 FOLK AND FAIRY TALES. 
 
 BY 
 
 P. CHR. ASBJORNSEN. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 H. L. BR^EKSTAD, 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDMUND W. GOSSE. 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 
 714 BROADWAY,
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii xviii 
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE i 
 
 THE LADS WHO MET THE TROLLS IN THE HEDALE WOOD .... ig 
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES 25 
 
 THE LAD AND THE DEVIL 36 
 
 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND THE HOUSE 40 
 
 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST 45 
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART 52 
 
 THE PANCAKE 62 
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES 68 
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER 94 
 
 THE SEVEN FATHERS IN THE HOUSE 108 
 
 BRAVE OLD BRUIN in 
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES 114 
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVII 132 
 
 THE THREE BILLY GOATS WHO WENT UP INTO THE HILLS TO 
 
 GET FAT 141
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PETER GVNT J 45 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL 15 T 
 
 THE LAD AND THE NORTH WIND 162 
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES 1 68 
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING .... 180 
 
 PEIK 194 
 
 FOOLISH MEN AND SCOLDING WIVES 203 
 
 THE PARSON AND THE CLERK 206 
 
 THE GIANT AND JOHANNES BLESSOM 209 
 
 THE Box WITH THE FUNNY THING IN IT 214 
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON 215 
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON 227 
 
 ASHIEPATTLE WHO MADE THE PRINCESS TELL THE TRUTH AT LAST . 243 
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN 248 
 
 HANS WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH 269 
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST 277 
 
 THE WITCH 295 
 
 THE CHARCOAL BURNER , 308
 
 INTRODUCTION,
 
 7
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THREE names in the living literature of Norway may be 
 said to have escaped from the provinciality of a narrow home- 
 circle, and to have conquered a place for themselves in the 
 general European concert. Two of these, Ibsen and Bjornson, 
 are borne by professional poets ; the third is that of a mar. 
 of science whose irresistible bias towards literary style may be 
 said to have made a poet of him against his will. The 
 novelettes of Bjornson and the comedies of Ibsen belong to 
 the tradition of imaginative art, but the stories of Asbjornsen 
 a selection from which is here introduced to the English public, 
 in some sense inaugurated a new order in literature. Here in 
 England, where our poetical language has been repeatedly 
 renewed at the fresh wells of the vernacular, where Chaucer 
 and the Elizabethans, Butler, and Burns, and Dickens, each in 
 his own way, have constantly enriched our classical speech 
 with the bright idioms of the vulgar, we can scarcely realise 
 how startling a thing it is when a great writer first dares, in 
 a ripe literature, to write exactly as people commonly speak
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This is what the author of these tales has done in Dano- 
 Norwegian. He has cast to the winds the rules of composition, 
 the balance of clauses, the affected town-phrases, and all the 
 artificial forms hitherto deemed requisite in Danish prose, and 
 he has had the courage to note down the fine idiomatic speech 
 of the mountaineer in its native freshness. So much for the 
 outer form of these stories, a husk which our translation must 
 needs crush off and winnow away, but which adds, in a native 
 ear, much sweetness and strangeness to the narrative. 
 
 To understand the inner worth of the tales, we should know, 
 perhaps, something of their author's career. Education made 
 him a zoologist, but nature stepped in, and claimed him for 
 a poet ; he has dutifully stretched out a hand to the one 
 fostermother and to the other. Peter Christen Asbjornsen was 
 born at Christiania on the I5th of January, 1812. Of his life at 
 school his biographers have told us nothing, and yet there must 
 be something worth telling about it, for there, when a very 
 little boy, he met a child still younger than himself, with whom 
 he formed a close friendship that has lasted ever since, and has 
 left strong traces on his intellectual development. This friend 
 was the charming lyrical poet Jorgen Moe, now Bishop of 
 Christianssand. Before they were twenty years of age these 
 boys began to put down in writing the bogie-tales and old- 
 wives' fables which they had heard in the nursery, and as many 
 more as the folks around them would consent to recollect. 
 The pastime became a passion ; whenever they went out fishing
 
 cf^ I
 
 INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 or made a walking tour up into the mountains, the fondest 
 object of the journey was to coax a story out of every peasant 
 whom they met. Asbjornsen soon surpassed Moe in the width 
 of his experience ; his profession was one which took him 
 habitually from one end of the kingdom to the other, whereas 
 his friend, with a genius perhaps more naturally attuned than 
 his to the music of mountain and cascade, settled down as a 
 country parson into a narrower and more humdrum circle. 
 Yet it is Moe, and specially in that delightful study of his 
 entitled Blind Anne, who has given us the most complete and 
 vivid sketch of the mode in which the friends collected the 
 materials for their books. In 1838 Asbjornsen first made public 
 the results of his investigations, very shyly and timorously, in 
 a little publication for children, called Nor. Not until 1842 
 did the first authorised edition of Norwegian Folk and Fairy 
 Tales, collected by Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, 
 see the light at Christiania ; it gradually became widely suc- 
 cessful, and was followed in 1871 by a new selection, from the 
 pen of Asbjornsen alone. In the mean time, as early as 1845, 
 Asbjornsen had published his well-known volume of Huldre- 
 eventyr, or stories about the nymphs or sirens which haunt 
 the high, sparse woods and mountain dairies. Of these also a 
 second selection was printed in 1848. The present gathering of 
 tales, therefore, is a nosegay plucked from these four gardens 
 of the imagination, wild plots full of strange Alpine blossoms, 
 and perfumed with the wind from the pine-forest. 
 
 91 b
 
 xv iii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Until the generation now lately passed away, almost the 
 only mode in which the Norwegian peasant killed time in the 
 leisure moments between his daily labour and his religious 
 observances, was in listening to stories. It was the business 
 of old men and women who had reached the extreme limit of 
 their working powers, to retain and repeat these ancient legends 
 in prose and verse, and to recite or sing them when called upon 
 to do so. Such minstrels were held in great respect, and were 
 found in every parish. Moe has observed that there was a 
 certain distinction in the themes selected by the two sexes ; 
 from the old women there was required a grim or melancholy 
 class of story, while the old men were called upon for more 
 humorous tales and staves. Asbjornsen and Moe were only 
 just in time to preserve the stories from extinction ; in many 
 districts they had already ceased to exist, in others they 
 remained solely in the memories of a few very aged persons. 
 One or two valleys in Thelemarken, the Assynt of Norway, 
 that district at the back of Kongsberg where the scanty popu- 
 lation still shrinks from the transforming touch of modern life, 
 supplied the richest treasure in folk-lore ; wherever the explorers 
 could hear of belt-fights within the memory of man, there they 
 were sure of being on the edge of the more ancient civilization, 
 and safe to find the rare product they were seeking. On the 
 other hand, in modernised and Europeanised provinces like 
 Hardanger, where much intercourse by sea with strangers had 
 destroyed the antique isolation, the stories were less abundant,
 
 INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 less genuine, and less chaiacteristic. It was from minstrels at 
 bridal- feasts, from boatmen on the fjords, from old blind vaga- 
 bonds and the household paupers who form so strange a 
 feature of a Norse peasant community, that they obtained 
 most of their best stories ; and it is a significant fact that 
 almost all these professional reciters are now dead. Had 
 Asbjornsen and Moe neglected the duty of preserving the 
 ancient legends, they would now, in all probability, be lost 
 beyond the chance of restoration. 
 
 The stories must now be left to speak for themselves. Of 
 the wonderful links that comparative mythology has found in 
 them, chains that bind Norway in one brotherhood with Ireland 
 and Germany, with Wallachia and Hindustan, nothing needs 
 be said in a popular selection like the present. The stories 
 are charming as tales of primitive Norse life, and if mythologists 
 can find by dissecting them an undergrowth of ancient history, 
 that is an additional pleasure for them. It is difficult to doubt 
 that though Asbjornsen is himself a learned saw in this species 
 of science, it is mainly the tale that has delighted him, the 
 quaint wit, the savage pathos, the intimate and tender sympathy 
 with all that is wild and solitary in the nature of his fatherland. 
 And as a literary artist this is his highest praise, that he has 
 contrived to lay the peculiarities of Norwegian landscape 
 before his readers with a subtlety of touch such as no other 
 poet or proseman has achieved not by description so much as 
 by a series of those sympathetic and brilliant touches which
 
 xx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 make us forget the author, and fancy that we are walking in 
 the body through the country of his affection. In Asbjornsen's 
 tales the English reader will find, in its quintessence, the genius 
 and temper of the Norwegian peasant. 
 
 EDMUND W. GOSSE.
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 HE wind was whistling through the old lime and 
 maple trees opposite my windows, the snow was 
 sweeping down the street, and the sky was black as a December 
 sky can possibly be here in Christiania. I was in just as black 
 a mood. It was Christmas Eve, the first I was to spend away 
 from the cosy fireside of my home. I had lately received my 
 officer's commission, and had hoped that I should have gladdened 
 my aged parents with my presence during the holidays, and 
 had also hoped that I should be able to show myself in all my 
 glory and splendour to th? Sadies of our parish. But a fever had 
 brought me to the hospital, v/hich I had left only a week before, 
 and now I found myself in the much-extolled state of convalescence. 
 I had written home for a horse and sledge and my father's fur 
 coat, but my letter could scarcely reach our valley before the 
 day after Christmas, and the horse could not be in town before 
 New Year's Eve,
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 My comrades had all left town, and I knew no family with 
 whom I could make myself at home during the holidays. The two 
 old maids I lodged with were certainly very kind and friendly 
 people, and they had taken great care of me in the commencement 
 of my illness, but the peculiar ways and habits of these ladies were 
 too much of the old school to prove attractive to the fancies of 
 youth. Their thoughts dwelt mostly on the past, and when they, 
 as often might occur, related to me some stories of the town, its 
 people and its customs, these stories reminded me, not only by their 
 contents, but also by the simple unaffected way in which they were 
 rendered, of a past age. 
 
 The antiquated appearance of these ladies was also in the strictest 
 harmony with the house in which they lived. It was one of those 
 old houses in Custom-house Street, with deep windows, long dark 
 passages and staircases, gloomy rooms and garrets, where one could 
 not help thinking of ghosts and brownies ; in short, just such a house, 
 and perhaps it was the very one, which Mauritz Hansen has de- 
 scribed in his story, The Old Dame with the Hood. Their circle 
 of acquaintances was very limited; besides a married sister and 
 her children, no other visitors came there but a couple of tiresome 
 old ladies. The only relief to this kind of life was a pretty niece 
 and some merry little cousins of hers, who always made me tell 
 them fairy tales and stories. 
 
 I tried to divert myself in my loneliness and melancholy mood 
 by looking out at all the people who passed up and down the street 
 in the snow and wind with blue noses and half-shut eyes. It 
 amused me to see the bustle and the life in the apothecary's shop 
 across the street. The door was scarcely shut for a moment. 
 Servants and peasants streamed in and out, and commenced to 
 study the labels and directions when they came out in the street. 
 Some appeared to be able to make them out, but sometimes . a 
 lengthy study and a dubious shake of the head showed that the 
 solution was too difficult. It was growing dusk. I could not 
 distinguish the countenances any longer, but gazed across at the 
 old building. The apothecary's house, " The Swan," as it is still 
 called, stood there with its dark, reddish-brown walls, its pointed
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 gables and towers, with weathercocks and latticed windows, as a 
 monument of the architecture of the time of King Christian the 
 Fourth. The Swan looked then as now a most respectable and 
 sedate bird, with its gold ring around the neck, its spur-boots 
 and its wings stretched out as if ready to fly. I was about to 
 plunge myself into reflection on imprisoned birds, when I was 
 
 disturbed by noise and laughter proceeding from some children 
 in the adjoining room, and by a gentle, old-maidenish knock at 
 my door. 
 
 On my requesting the visitor to come in, the elder of my land- 
 ladies, Miss Mette, entered the room with a courtesy in the good 
 old style ; she inquired after my health, and invited rne without 
 i B .?
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 further ceremony to come and make myself at home with them 
 for the evening. " It isn't good for you, dear lieutenant, to sit thus 
 alone here in the dark," she added ; "will you not come in to us now 
 at once ? Old Mother Skau and my brother's little girls have come ; 
 they will perhaps amuse you a little. You are so fond of the dear 
 children." 
 
 I accepted the friendly invitation. As I entered the room, the 
 fire from the large square stove, where the logs were burning lustily, 
 threw a red, flickering light through the wide-open door over the 
 room, which was very deep, and furnished in the old style with 
 high-backed Russia leather chairs, and one of those settees which 
 were intended for farthingales and straight up-and-down positions. 
 The walls were adorned with oil paintings, portraits of stiff ladies 
 with powdered coiffures, of bewigged Oldenborgians and other 
 redoubtable persons in mail and armour or red coats. 
 
 " You must really excuse us, lieutenant, for not having lighted 
 the candles yet," said Miss Cicely, the younger sister, who was 
 generally called "Cilly," and who came towards me and dropped 
 a courtesy, exactly like her sister's ; " but the children do so like 
 to tumble about here before the fire in the dusk of the evening, 
 and Madam Skau does also enjoy a quiet little chat in the chimney 
 corner." 
 
 " Oh, chat me here and chat me there, there is nothing you like 
 yourself better than a little bit of gossip in the dusk of the evening, 
 Cilly, and then we are to get the blame of it," answered the old 
 asthmatic lady whom they called Mother Skau. 
 
 " Eh, good evening, sir," she said to me, as she drew herself up 
 to make the best of her own inflated bulky appearance, " come and 
 sit down here and tell me how it fares with you ; but, by my troth, 
 you are nothing but skin and bones ! " 
 
 I had to tell her all about my illness, and in return I had to 
 endure a very long and circumstantial account of her rheumatism 
 and her asthmatical ailments, which fortunately was interrupted 
 by the noisy arrival of the children from the kitchen, where they 
 had paid a visit to old Stine, a fixture in the house. 
 
 "Oh, auntie, do you know what Stine says?" cried a little
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 5 
 
 brown-eyed beauty ; " she says I shall go with her into the hayloft 
 to-night and give the brownie his Christmas porridge. But I 
 won't go, I am afraid of the brownies ! " 
 
 " Never mind, my dear, Stine says it only to get rid of you ; 
 she dare not go into the hayloft herself, the foolish old thing, in 
 the dark, for she knows well enough she was frightened once 
 by the brownies herself," said Miss Mette ; " but are you not going 
 to say good evening to the lieutenant, children ? " 
 
 " Oh, is that you, lieutenant ? I did not know you ! How pale 
 you are ! It is such a long time since I saw you," shouted the 
 children all at once as they flocked round me. " Now you must 
 tell us something awful jolly! It is 
 such a long time since you told us 
 anything. Oh, tell us about Buttercup, 
 dear Mr. Lieutenant, do tell us about 
 Buttercup arid Goldentooth ! " 
 
 I had to tell them about Buttercup 
 and the dog Goldentooth, but they would 
 not let me off till I gave them a couple 
 of stories into the bargain about the 
 brownies at Vager and at Bure, who stole 
 hay from each other and who met at last 
 with a load of hay on their backs, and 
 how they fought till they vanished in a 
 cloud of hay-dust. I had also to tell 
 
 the story of the brownie at Hesselberg, who teased the house- 
 dog till the farmer came out and threw him over the barn bridge. 
 The children clapped their hands in great joy and laughed heartily. 
 
 " It served him right, the naughty brownie," they shouted, 
 and asked for another story. 
 
 " No, no, children ! you bother the lieutenant too much," said 
 Miss Cicely, " Aunt Mette will tell you a story now." 
 
 " Yes, do auntie, do ! " was the general cry. 
 
 " I don't know exactly what I shall tell you," said Aunt Mette, 
 " but since we have commenced telling about the brownies, I 
 think I will tell you something about them too. You remember
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 of course old Kari Gausdal, who came here and baked bread and 
 who always had so many tales to tell you." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes ! " shouted the children. 
 
 "Well, old Kari told me, that she was in service at the orphan 
 asylum some years ago, and at that time it was still more dreary 
 and lonely in that part of the town than it is now. That asylum 
 is a dark and dismal place, I can tell you. Well, when Kari came 
 there she was cook, and a very smart and clever girl she was. She 
 had one day to get up very early in the morning to brew, when 
 the other servants said to her : ' You had better mind you don't 
 get up too early, and you mustn't put any fire under the copper 
 before two o'clock.' ' Why ? ' she asked. ' Don't you know there 
 is a brownie here ; and you ought to know that these people don't 
 like to be disturbed so early/ they said. ' and before two o'clock 
 you mustn't light the fire by any means.' * Is that all ? ' said Kari ; 
 she was anything but chicken-hearted. ' I have nothing to do with 
 that brownie of yours, but if he comes in my way, why, by my 
 faith, I will send him head over heeis through the door.' The 
 others warned her, but she did not care a bit, and next morning, 
 just as the clock struck one, she got up and lighted the fire 
 under the copper in the brew-house. But the fire went out every 
 moment. Somebody appeared to be throwing the logs about 
 on the hearth, but sho could not see who it was. She gathered 
 the logs together one time after the other, but it was of no 
 use and the chimney would not draw either. She got tired of 
 this at last, took a burning log and ran round the room with it, 
 swinging it high and low while she shouted: 'Be gone, be gone 
 whence you came ! If you think you can frighten me, you are 
 mistaken.' ' Curse you I ' somebody hissed in one of the darkest 
 corners, ' I have had seven souls in this house ; I thought I should 
 have got eight in all ! ' But from that time nobody saw or heard 
 the brownie in the asylum, said Kari Gausdal." 
 
 " I am getting so frightened," said one of the children ; "no, you 
 must tell us some more stories, lieutenant ; I never feel afraid when 
 you tell us anything, because you tell us such jolly tales." Another 
 proposed that I should tell them about the brownie who danced the
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 Hailing dance with the lassie. That was a tale I didn't care much 
 about, as there was some singing in it. But they would on no account 
 let me off, and I was going to clear my throat and prepare my exceed- 
 ingly inharmonious voice to sing the Hailing dance, which belongs 
 to the story, when the pretty niece whom I have already referred to 
 entered the room, to the great joy of the children and to my rescue. 
 
 " Well, my dear children, I will tell you the story, if you can get 
 Cousin Lizzie to sing the Hailing for you," said I, as she sat down, 
 "and then you'll dance to it yourselves, won't you ?" 
 
 Cousin Lizzie was besieged by the children, and had to promise 
 to do the singing, so I commenced my story : 
 
 " There was once upon a time I almost think it was in 
 Hallingdal a lassie who was sent up into the hay-loft with the 
 cream porridge for the brownie I cannot recollect if it was on 
 a Thursday or on a Christmas Eve, but I think it was a Christmas 
 Eve. Well, she thought it was a great pity to give the brownie 
 such a dainty dish, so she eat the porridge herself, and the melted 
 butter in the bargain, and went up into the hay-loft with plain oat- 
 meal porridge and sour milk, in a pig's trough instead. ' There, 
 that's good enough for you, Master Brownie/ she said. But no 
 sooner had she spoken the words, than the brownie stood right 
 before her, seized her round the waist, and danced about with her, 
 which he kept up till she lay gasping for breath, and when the 
 people came up into the hay-loft in the morning, she was more dead 
 than alive. But as long as they danced, the brownie sang (and 
 here Cousin 'Lizzie undertook his part, and sang to the tune of the 
 Hailing : 
 
 " And you have eaten the porridge for the brownie, 
 And you shall dance with the little brownie !" 
 
 " And have you eaten the porridge for the brownie ? 
 Then you shall dance with the little brownie !" 
 
 I assisted in keeping time by stamping on the floor with my feet, 
 while the children romped about the room in uproarious joy. 
 
 " I think you are turning the house upside down, children !" said 
 old Mother Skau ; " if you'll be quiet, I'll give you a story."
 
 8 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 The children were soon quiet, and Mother Skau commenced 
 as follows: 
 
 " You hear a great deal about brownies and fairies and such like 
 beings, but I don't believe there is much in it. I have neither seen 
 one nor the other, of course I have not been so very much about 
 in my lifetime, but I believe it is all nonsense. But old Stine out 
 in the kitchen there, she says she has seen the brownie. About 
 the time when I was confirmed, she was in service with my parents. 
 She came to us from a captain's, who had given up the sea. It was 
 a very quiet place. They never went anywhere, and nobody came 
 to see them. The captain only took a walk as far as the quay 
 every day. They always went to bed early. People said there 
 was a brownie in the house. Well, it so happened that Stine and 
 the cook were sitting in their room one evening, mending and 
 darning their things ; it was near bedtime, for the watchman had 
 already sung out " Ten o'clock," but somehow the darning and 
 the sewing went on very slowly indeed ; every moment "Jack Nap" 
 came and played his tricks upon them ! At one moment Stine was 
 nodding and nodding, and then came the cook's turn they could 
 not keep their eyes open ; they had been early up that morning to 
 wash clothes. But just as they were sitting thus, they heard a 
 terrible crash down stairs in the kitchen and Stine shouted : ' Lor' 
 bless and preserve us ! it must be the brownie.' She was so 
 frightened she dared scarcely move a foot, but at last the cook 
 plucked up courage and went down into the kitchen, closely 
 followed by Stine. When they opened the kitchen door, they 
 found all the crockery on the floor, but none of it broken, while the 
 brownie was standing on the big kitchen table with his red cap on 
 and hurling the one dish after the other on to the floor and laughing 
 in great glee. The cook had heard that the brownies could some- 
 times be tricked into moving to another house, when anybody 
 would tell them of a very quiet place, and as she long had been 
 wishing for an opportunity to play a trick upon this brownie, she 
 took courage and spoke to him her voice was a little shaky at 
 the time that he ought .to remove to the tinman's over the way, 
 where it was so very quiet and pleasant, because they always went
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 11 
 
 to bed at nine o'clock every evening ; which was true enough, as 
 the cook told Stine later, but then the master and all his apprentices 
 and journeymen were up every morning at three o'clock, and 
 hammered away and made a terrible noise all day. Since that day 
 they never saw the brownie any more at the captain's. He seemed 
 to feel quite at home at the tinman's, although they were hammering 
 and tapping away there all day, but people said that the gudewife put 
 a dish of porridge up in the garret for him every Thursday evening; 
 and it's no wonder that they got on well and became rich when 
 they had a brownie in the house. Stine believed he brought 
 things to them. Whether it was the brownie or not who really 
 helped them, I cannot say," said Mother Skau, in conclusion, and got 
 a fit of coughing and choking after the exertion of telling this, for 
 her, unusually long story. 
 
 When she had taken a pinch of snuff she felt better, and became 
 quite cheerful again, and began : 
 
 " My mother, who, by the by, was a truthful woman, told a story, 
 which happened here in the town one Christmas Eve. I know it 
 is true, for an untrue word never passed her lips." 
 
 " Let us hear it, Madam Skau," said I. 
 
 " Yes, tell, tell, Mother Skau," cried the children. 
 
 She coughed a little, took another pinch of snuff, and pro- 
 ceeded : 
 
 " When my mother still was in her teens, she used sometimes 
 to visit a widow whom she knew, and whose name was, dear me, 
 what was her name ? Madam, yes, Madame Evensen, of course. 
 She was a woman who had seen the best part of her life, 
 but whether she lived up in Mill Street, or down in the corner 
 by Little Church Hill, I cannot say for certain. Well, one Christ- 
 mas Eve, just like to-night, she thought she would go to the 
 morning service on the Christmas Day, for she was a great church- 
 goer, and so she left out some coffee with the girl before she went 
 to bed, that she might get a cup next morning she was sure 
 a cup of warm coffee would do her a great deal of good at that 
 early hour ! When she woke the moon was shining into the room, 
 but when she got up to look at the clock she found it had stopped
 
 12 
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 and that the fingers pointed to half-past eleven. She had no idea 
 what time it could be, so she went to the window and looked across 
 to the church. The light was streaming out through all the 
 windows. She must have overslept herself? She called the girl 
 and told her to get the coffee ready, while she dressed herself. So 
 she took her hymn-book and started for church. The street was 
 very quiet ; she did not meet a single person on her way to church. 
 
 When she came inside, she sat down in her customary seat in 
 one of the pews, but when she looked around her she thought that 
 the people were so pale and so strange, exactly as if they were all 
 dead. She did not know any of them, but there were several she 
 seemed to recollect having seen before, but when and where she had 
 seen them she could not call to mind. When the minister came 
 into the pulpit, she saw that he was not one of the ministers in the
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 13 
 
 town, but a tall pale man, whose face however she thought she 
 could recollect. He preached very nicely indeed, and there was 
 not the usual noisy coughing and hawking, which you always hear 
 at the morning services on a Christmas Day ; it was so quiet, 
 you could have heard a needle drop on the floor, in fact, it 
 was so quiet she began to feel quite uneasy and uncomfortable. 
 "When the singing commenced again, a female, who sat next 
 to her, leant towards her and whispered in her ear : ' Throw the 
 cloak loosely around you and go, because if you wait here till 
 the service is over they will make short work of you ! It is the dead 
 who are keeping service.' J> 
 
 " Oh, Mother Skau, I feel so frightened. I feel so frightened," 
 whimpered one of the children, and climbed up on a chair. 
 
 " Hush, hush, child," said Mother Skau ; " she got away from them 
 safe enough ; only listen ! When the widow heard the voice of the 
 person next to her, she turned round to look at her but what a 
 start she got ! She recognised her, it was her neighbour, who died 
 many years ago ; and when she looked around the church, she 
 remembered well that she had seen both the minister and several 
 of the congregation before, and that they had died long ago. This 
 sent quite a cold shiver through her, she became that frightened. 
 She threw the cloak loosely round her, as the female next to her 
 had said, and went out of the pew ; but she thought they all turned 
 round and stretched out their hands after her. Her legs shook 
 under her, till she thought she would sink down on the church floor. 
 When she came out on the steps, she felt that they had got hold of 
 her cloak ; she let it go and left it in their clutches, while she 
 hurried home as quickly as she could. When she came to the door 
 the clock struck one, and by the time she got inside she was nearly 
 half dead she was that frightened. In the morning, when the 
 people went to church, they found the cloak lying on the steps 
 but it was torn into a thousand pieces. My mother had often seen 
 the cloak before, and I think she saw one of the pieces also ; but 
 that doesn't matter it was a short, pink, woollen cloak with fur 
 lining and borders, such as was still in use in my childhood! They 
 are very rarely seen nowadays, but there are some old ladies in the
 
 14 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 town and down at the ' home ' whom I see with such cloaks in 
 church at Christmas time." 
 
 The children, who had expressed considerable fear and un- 
 easiness during the latter part of the story, declared they would 
 not hear any more such terrible stories. They had crept up 
 into the sofa and on the chairs, but still they thought they felt 
 somebody plucking at them from underneath the table. Suddenly 
 the lights were brought in, and we discovered then to our great 
 amusement that the children had put their legs on to the table. The 
 lights, the Christmas cake, the jellies, the tarts, and the wine soon 
 chased away the horrible ghost story and all fear from their minds, 
 revived everybody's spirits, and brought the conversation on to 
 their neighbours and the topics of the day. Finally our thoughts 
 took a flight towards something more substantial on the appearance 
 of the Christmas porridge and the roast ribs of pork. We broke up 
 early and parted with the best wishes for a Merry Christmas. I 
 passed however a very uneasy night. I do not know whether 
 it was the stories, the substantial supper, my weak condition, 
 or all these combined, which was the cause of it ; I tossed myself 
 hither and thither in my bed and got mixed up with brownies, 
 fairies, and ghosts the whole night. Finally I sailed through the 
 air towards the church, while some merry sledge bells were 
 ringing in my ears. The church was lighted up, and when I came 
 inside I saw it was our own church up in the valley. There were 
 nobody there but peasants in their red caps, soldiers in full 
 uniform, country lasses with their white head-dresses and red 
 cheeks. The minister was in the pulpit ; it was my grandfather, 
 who died when I was a little boy, But just as he was in the 
 middle of the sermon, he made a somersault he was known 
 as one of the smartest men in the parish right into the middle 
 of the church ; the surplice flew one way and the collar another. 
 " There lies the parson, and here am I," he said, with one of his 
 well known airs, "and now let us have a spring-dance!" In an 
 instant the whole congregation was in the midst of a wild dance ; 
 a big tall peasant came towards me and took me by the shoulder 
 and said : " You'll have to join us, my lad ! "
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 At this moment I awoke and felt some one pulling at my 
 shoulder. I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw the same 
 peasant whom I had seen in my dream leaning over me. There he 
 was with the red cap down over his ears, a big fur coat over his 
 arm, and a pair of big eyes looking fixedly at me. 
 
 "You must be dreaming," he said, "the perspiration is standing 
 in big drops on your forehead, and you were sleeping as heavily as 
 a bear in his lair ! God's peace and a merry Christmas to you, I 
 eay, and greetings to you from your father and all yours up in the 
 
 C
 
 1 8 AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 valley. Here's a. letter from your father, and the horse is waiting 
 for you out in the yard." 
 
 " But, good heavens, is that you, Thor ? " I shouted in great joy. 
 It was indeed my father's man, a splendid specimen of a 
 Norwegian peasant. " How in the world have you come here 
 already ? " 
 
 " Ah, that I can soon tell you," answered Thor. " I came with 
 your favourite, the bay mare. 1 had to take your father down to 
 Naes, and then he says to me, ' Thor/ says he, ' it isn't very far to 
 town from here. Just take the bay mare and run down and see 
 how the lieutenant is, and if he is well and can come with you, 
 you must bring .him back along with you/ says he." 
 
 When we left the town, it was daylight. The roads were in 
 splendid condition. The bay mare stretched out her old smart 
 legs and we arrived at length in sight of the dear old house. Thor 
 jumped off the sledge to undo the gate, and as we merrily drove up 
 to the door we were met by the boisterous welcome of old Rover, 
 who in his frantic joy at hearing my voice almost broke his chain 
 in trying to rush at me. 
 
 Such a Christmas as I spent that year I cannot recollect before 
 or since.
 
 THE LADS WHO MET THE TROLLS 1 IN 
 THE HEDALE WOOD. 
 
 ONCE upon a time in the olden days there lived a poor 
 old couple, tenants on a small farm up in Vaage in the 
 Gudbrandsdale. They had many children, and two of the sons, 
 who might be about half grown up, had always to tramp about 
 the parish begging. They knew therefore all the roads and 
 by-roads, and they knew also the short cut to Hedale. 
 
 They were one day going there, but as they had heard that some 
 falconers had built themselves a hut at McelaV they thought they 
 would just look in there at the same time and see the birds and 
 how they were caught, so they took the short cut over the 
 Longmoors. But it was so late in the autumn, that the dairy- 
 maids had gone away from the dairies on the mountains and 
 they could find neither shelter nor food anywhere. They had 
 
 1 The ogres of the Norwegian Fairy Tales. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 THE LADS WHO MET THE TROLLS IN THE HEDALE WOOD. 
 
 therefore to make their way for Hedale, but it was only a slight 
 path, so when the night set in they lost the track, and to make 
 matters worse they could not find the bird catchers' hut either. 
 Before they knew where they were, they were right in the thick of 
 Bjolstad wood. They knew they should not be able to get out of 
 the wood that night, so they commenced cutting boughs off the 
 pine trees, made a fire and built a hut of the branches, for they had 
 a hatchet with them. So they gathered heather and moss to make 
 a bed of. Shortly after they had lain down, they heard something 
 which sniffed and snuffed very loudly through the nose. The boys 
 put their ears to the ground and listened attentively to hear 
 whether it were wild beasts or a troll. Just then the sniffing 
 became louder and some one shouted, " I smell Christian blood 
 about here ! " 
 
 And they heard somebody walking so heavily that the ground 
 shook under their feet. They knew it was the trolls who were 
 about. " Lord help us ! what shall we do ? " said the youngest lad 
 to his brother. 
 
 " Oh, you had better stand under the fir tree, where you 
 are, and be ready to take our bags and make off, when you 
 see them coming ; I will look after the hatchet," said the elder 
 brother. 
 
 Just then they saw the trolls approaching ; they were so big and 
 tall that their heads reached as high as the tops of the fir trees, but 
 they had only one eye amongst the three of them, and this they 
 used in turn. They had a hole in their foreheads, in which 
 they put it and shifted it about with their hands. He who had 
 the eye went first ; the others followed behind and kept hold of 
 the first. 
 
 " Run away now," said the elder of the lads, " but don't run too 
 far, before you see what happens. Since they have got their eye 
 so high up, they can't see me very well, when I tackle them from 
 behind." 
 
 Well, the younger brother ran off and the trolls after him 
 In the meantime the eider brother got behind them and gave 
 the last troll a cut with the hatchet in the ankle. The troll gave
 
 THE LADS WHO MET THE TROLLS IN THE HEDALE WOOD. 23 
 
 a horrible shriek, which frightened and gave the first troll such 
 a start that the eye fell out of his forehead. But the lad was 
 not slow in picking it up. It was larger than two pint basins 
 put together, and it was so bright, that although the night was 
 pitch dark, he could see as clearly as by daylight, when he looked 
 through it. 
 
 When the trolls found that he had taken their eye from them 
 and that he had wounded one of them, they began to threaten him 
 with every kind of evil in existence, if he did not return them the 
 eye at once. 
 
 " I am not afraid of trolls or threats either," said the lad, " now 
 I have got three eyes all to myself and you three haven't got any." 
 
 " If we don't get our eye back this minute, we'll turn you into 
 stocks and stones," screeched the trolls. 
 
 But the lad thought there was no hurry ; he wasn't afraid of 
 witchcraft or their bragging words. If they didn't leave him alone, 
 he would cut away at them all three till they had to crawl along 
 the ground like snakes. 
 
 When the trolls heard this they became frightened, and began to 
 use more polite words. They begged him very nicely to give them 
 their eye back again and he should have both silver and gold and 
 everything he wished for. Well, the lad thought that was very 
 fair, but he wanted all the gold and silver first ; and so he said, if 
 one of them would go home and fetch as much gold and silver as 
 he and his brother could fill their bags with and give them two 
 good cross-bows of steel in the bargain, they should have their eye 
 again, but until they did this he would keep it. 
 
 The trolls screamed and wailed, and said that none of them 
 could go home when they hadn't any eye to see with, but one of 
 them began to bawl out for their old woman, for they also had a 
 gudewife among the three of them. After a while somebody up 
 in the mountains a good way off to the north answered. So the 
 trolls said that she must come with two steel cross-bows and two 
 buckets full of gold and silver, and before very long she was there, 
 I can tell you. When she heard what had happened, she also 
 commenced to threaten th^.m with witchcraft. But the trolls were
 
 24 ADS WHO MET THE TROLLS IN THE HEDALE WOOD. 
 
 afraid, and asked her to beware of the little wasp. She had better 
 mind or he might take her eye as well. So she threw down the 
 buckets with the gold and the silver and the cross-bows to them, 
 and made off towards the mountains with the trolls. But since 
 that time no one has heard that the trolls have been walking in the 
 Hedale wood sniffing for Christian blood.
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 
 
 ONE fine Saturday in November 1836, I found myself at the 
 house of my good friend, the Squire, in Nittedale. It was a 
 very long time since I had been there, but as he is not the sort 
 of man to receive an old friend with a new face, I had to stay 
 to dinner and to drink a cup of coffee afterwards, which was very
 
 26 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 
 
 acceptable after the long walk of fourteen miles from town. We 
 were just settling ourselves around the coffee-table, when several 
 friends from the parsonage arrived. According to the custom of 
 the house, punch was brought in ; the conversation became animated, 
 and we looked to our glasses so frequently, and I looked so often 
 into the dear blue eyes of the pretty daughter, that I almost 
 forgot the appointment I had on the following day to shoot with a 
 friend in Gjerdrum. 
 
 The sun stood already on the ridge of the mountains, and if I 
 wished to reach my destination before my friend went to bed, it was 
 of little use to think of taking the main road round by the church, 
 through the Midwood and over the moors, which at that time of year 
 was sure to be in very bad condition after the chilly November 
 weather we had had ; so I went instead up to Nystuen, the nearest 
 cottage under the hill, and got hold of Old Matthias, the hunter, 
 who at once was willing to go with me and show me the short cut 
 across the mountain. He only wanted "just a chew of 'baccy" 
 before he started. 
 
 It was a beautiful evening; on the western horizon gleamed still 
 the winterly evening sky. A slight degree of cold gave the air 
 that freshness which makes many of our November days so 
 delightful. A light mist rose from the little stream running close 
 by, and covered the trees with a silvery rime, which made their 
 branches glitter like crystal. 
 
 We were walking at a smart pace, and a sip from my pocket-flask 
 soon set my old friend's tongue going. 
 
 He talked about hunting and shooting, and told me how unfair it 
 was that Ole Gjortler, who really belonged to Gjerdrum parish, 
 should set his bird-traps on Solberg Common ; next I was treated 
 to the story about the nine bears which he was supposed to have 
 shot, about his trip to Hallingdale when the parson moved there, 
 and to a number of remarks, which were only too true, about the 
 careless way in which the Gjerdrum people looked after the public 
 pasture grounds, and much more which I cannot now remember. 
 When we came to Askevangen Dairy every trace of daylight had 
 disappeared ; the moon alone, which had just risen above the
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 27 
 
 horizon, threw her unsteady light between the tops of the trees. 
 As we passed the deserted mountain-dairy, we must have crossed 
 the fresh track of a hare, because the hounds became rather 
 uneasy in the couples. 
 
 '' Now it depends 'pon the ..trength of the couples," said Matthias, 
 who tried all he could to keep the dogs back, " because it isn't as it 
 should be about here ! " 
 
 " I think you are right there, Matthias," I said ; " it isn't as it 
 should bs, because it isn't light enough for shooting; else, were the 
 moon clear of the trees yonder, we would soon make it all right, and 
 the hounds would, as sure as I am here, treat you to the best music 
 for a sportsman's ear." 
 
 " That may be," he continued, and he looked cautiously back at 
 the dairy, " but they do say the huldre l is hereabouts at this 
 time." 
 
 " Ah, indeed, perhaps you have seen her yourself?" 
 " No, I have never seen her here," he said. 
 
 "But where did you see her then, Matthias ? " I asked curiously; 
 "for I see you believe that there are such beings as fairies and 
 brownies.'' 
 
 " Well, shouldn't I believe what there's written in the Scriptures ?" 
 he said. " Why, when the Lord banished the fallen angels, some of 
 them went down below there, of course," and he pointed signifi- 
 cantly downwards ; "but they who had not sinned overmuch, are up 
 in the a'r, under the ground, or in the sea. Besides I have myself 
 often heard them and seen them in the woods and glens 
 about here." 
 
 " You must tell me something about them," I asked ; " we have 
 nothing else to do while we walk along." 
 
 "If you care to listen to it, of course I shall tell you all I know," 
 he answered, and commenced his story. 
 
 "Well, the first time 1 came across the huldre, I was about 
 
 eight or nine years old, and it was somewhere up on the main 
 
 road between Bjerke and Mo. I had been on a message for my 
 
 father, and was walking home along the road, when 1 saw a tall, 
 
 1 The Norwegian Fairy of the Woods.
 
 28 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 
 
 fine lassie coming over the bogland on the right hand side of 
 the road. That part of the bog is very full of pits and pools. 
 I recollect her now as plainly as if she were before me this minute, 
 it was just as light as it is now ; she had on a brown skirt, and a 
 light handkerchief over her head, and she had a knitting in her left 
 hand. She was a pretty creature altogether. But she was walking 
 right across the bog, and didn't seem to mind the pits or the pools ; 
 she came along as if there were not any there at all. I looked 
 at her now and then, but when I had walked some distance and got 
 to a cutting in the road, which hid her from my view, I thought it 
 was wrong to let the lass go and trudge through the bog, and that 
 I ought to run up on the bank and shout to her that she had 
 gone astray from the road. Well, I did so, but there was nothing 
 to be seen but the moon, which was reflected from every pool on the 
 bog, and then I guessed it must have been the huldre I had seen." 
 
 Although I thought he had scarcely seen sufficient to satisfy 
 himself that this was the huldre, I kept my doubts to myself, as I 
 could see that any objections on my part would not shake his 
 belief, but only silence him. I asked him, therefore, if he had not 
 seen similar apparitions on other occasions. 
 
 "Yes, of course I have ; I have seen a great many things, and 
 I have heard many strange noises and sounds in woods and 
 glens," said Matthias ; " I have often heard talking, cursing, and 
 singing ; at other times I have heard such lovely music that I 
 cannot tell you how lovely it was. Well, once I went out bird- 
 calling ; it must have been in the end of August, because the 
 bilberries were ripe and the cranberries were just beginning to 
 redden. I was sitting by a path on a tussock between some 
 bushes, whence I could overlook the path and a little valley to 
 which it led down, and where nothing but ling and heather grew. 
 At the foot of the hill you could see the mouths of several dark 
 caverns. I heard a greyhen cackling among the ling ; I called and 
 thought, ' If I could get a sight of you now, it would be your last 
 cackle ; ' just then I heard something moving behind me on the path. 
 I looked round and saw an old man, but strange to say he appeared 
 to have three legs ; one of them hung and swung backwards and
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 29 
 
 forwards between the other two as he walked down the path ; but 
 he didn't walk exactly, he appeared to be gliding down the s'de 
 of the mountain, till he vanished in one of the darkest caves 
 down in the valley. I was not the only one who had seen him, 
 because directly afterwards a grey hen came creeping out from 
 behind a tussock, with her head on one side and her neck stretched 
 out, looking cautiously in the direction of the old man, but then, 
 you may guess, in another moment I had the gun up, and bang, 
 there she lay flapping her wings. 
 
 " So much for that ; but another time at home in Laskerud, it 
 wasn't very long after I had seen the huldre walking over the bog, 
 a Christmas eve, it was my brothers and I were at play on the 
 side of a hill, making snow-men and sliding down the slope on sledges. 
 They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you ! 
 Well, we were playing and running about as you know children can 
 do. My youngest brother was only four or five years old, but he 
 romped about and shouted and enjoyed himself thoroughly. It 
 was getting very late, when all of a sudden somebody in the hill 
 shouted : ' Go home now." But we did not go ; we thought it was 
 still very early. Before long, however, we heard another shout, 
 ' Go home at once now.' ' Just listen,' said my youngest brother, 
 he hadn't sense enough to know that he shouldn't take notice of 
 their shouting, ' they are shouting to us over in the hill to go home.' 
 We did not stop playing, however, but kept on slid : ng down the hill 
 on our sledges, when we suddenly heard a shout which made our 
 
 ears ring : ' If you don't go home this moment, I'll ' We 
 
 didn't hear any more, for we took to our heels and ran as fast as 
 our legs could carry us, and didn't stop till we were outside our 
 own door. " 
 
 " Some time after this, we were all grown up by that time, I 
 and my brother were coming home one Sunday morning, after having 
 been out all night fishing, when we all at once heard some hounds 
 giving tongue over in the Solberg Wood. It sounded fine, I can tell 
 you ! W 7 ell, I was tired and went in to lie down, but my brother 
 thought it was such a fine morning, that he would stay up and 
 listen to the dogs. All at once they ceased, so he went over there,
 
 30 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 
 
 thinking he might come across the track of the hare and start it 
 again. But when he came to a clearing in the wood, where the 
 trees had been cut down, he discovered right before him a big, fine 
 house, painted red, with the windows and the doors all askew. 
 He wondered what building this could be ; he had never seen it 
 before, and he thought he was well acquainted with those parts. 
 Before the house was a big bog, but he thought he would walk 
 across and have a look at the house. There were no people to be 
 seen. He thought he would go home and tell me about it and get 
 me to go with him." 
 
 " It was a great pity," said I, " that he didn't throw steel, or fire 
 his gun over the house, I suppose he had a gun with him, because 
 by the time you came back, I suppose it was all gone ? " 
 
 "You are right," said Matthias, "it was a pity he didn't fire 
 into it. Had I been there, I should have done so, but he lost his 
 senses entirely. But just listen, and you'll hear he fared worse 
 than you would expect. When he got half way across the bog, 
 he met such a lot of people that he had to elbow his way through 
 them. They were scantily clothed, and all were going north. But 
 he had scarcely pushed his way through the crowd, when they 
 turned round upon him and felled him to the ground, where he 
 was lying when my sisters came past on their way to bring the 
 cow home in the evening. There he was lying with both his 
 fists clenched and thrust into his face, which was quite black, and the 
 froth was foaming out of his mouth. They were terribly frightened, 
 you may guess, but they got him home at last, and laid him on a 
 bench, and then they fetched me. As soon as I saw him I guessed 
 what was the matter with him. I knew only of one way to get 
 him round. I took my gun down from the wall and" I fired it 
 lengthways over him, but although that's considered a good thing, he 
 didn't move any more than that beam there, which the Gjerdrum 
 people have placed across the road. He was as dead as a stone, 
 he was ! ' Oh, ho ! ' thought I, and loaded the gun again. 
 ' Come and give me a hand, lasses,' said I, 4 and let us put him 
 where you found him. It's no use trying here.' We did so, 
 and I fired again, and no mistake, he woke that time. If he
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 33 
 
 didn't jump up the moment I fired the gun over him, may I never 
 leave this spot alive ! He glared and stared about him so horribly, 
 that we were almost afraid of him. We took him home again, but 
 he was poorly, and was so queer and frightful-looking afterwards, 
 you would scarcely believe it. He would remain standing in one 
 place, staring right before him, as if his eyes would start out of his 
 head ; he wouldn't eat anything, and he would never speak to 
 anybody unless they spoke to him first. He was bewitched, 
 he was. But it began to wear off by and by, and it was only 
 hen he told us how it all happened. 
 
 " Those are the times I have seen such things," said Matthias. 
 
 " Have you never seen the brownie ? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes, of course I have," answered Matthias, speaking with the 
 greatest conviction ; " when I was at home with my parents at 
 Laskerud, where we had one in the house. I have only seen him 
 once. One fine moonlight evening after we youngsters were gone 
 to bed, my father went out to take a turn round the yard, when 
 he saw a lad sitting on the barn-bridge, dangling his legs and 
 looking up at the moon, just as if he did not see the old man. 
 'You had better go in and go to bed now, Matthias,' said my 
 father, for he thought it was me ; ' and don't sit there and stare at 
 the moon at this time of night ! ' But in the same moment the lad 
 vanished, and when my father came in and asked for me, he found 
 me a-bed, snoring hard." 
 
 " But it was about the time when I saw him myself, that I was 
 going to tell you. It was just about a year after I had been 
 confirmed, when I one Saturday afternoon had been to town with 
 a cartload of planks. I had had something to drink during the 
 day ; and as soon as I came home I lay down. Towards evening I 
 got up and had something to eat it wasn't much, because I still felt 
 giddy and queer in my head when my father said to me : ' You 
 had better give the horse his fodder before you go to bed again. 
 I suppose the others are out running after the lasses." 
 
 " I went into the stable first to see to the horse, and found him 
 neighing and waiting for his hay, so I went up into the hay-loft for 
 an armful, but as I put out my hands I caught hold pf something 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER s STORIES. 
 
 hairy, like the ears of a dog, and the next moment I saw two eyes, 
 red as fire, glaring at me out of the darkness. I thought it could 
 not be anything else but a dog, so I gave it a kick and sent it flying 
 into the barn below, where I heard it fall with a heavy thud. 
 When I had foddered the horse, I went into the barn and took 
 the handle of an old rake to chase the dosr out with. I looked 
 
 and searched, but there was no dog or any trace of it, although 
 there wasn't a hole big enough for a squirrel to escape through. 
 I went up into the hay-loft, but there was no dog there either, but 
 just as I was going out I fell, as if some one had struck the legs 
 right from under me, and I rolled head over heels down the barn- 
 bridge as I never had done before. When I got on my legs again.
 
 MATTHIAS THE HUNTER'S STORIES. 35 
 
 there was the brownie standing in the door, screaming with laughter 
 till his red cap shook." 
 
 In this manner Matthias kept on telling about fairies, huldres, 
 and brownies, till we came to Kulrudsaas, whence we could 
 see the large plains of Upper Romerike, spread out before us and 
 bathed in the clear moonlight ; to the north rose the Mistberg 
 mountain in a bluish mist, with a few patches of snow here and 
 there. Straight down before me were the Heni and Gjerdrum 
 churches. These were sufficient landmarks for me, and as I was 
 well-known in the district from having formerly shot over it, I 
 bade my guide farewell, and was fortunate enough to reach my 
 destination without being teazed by the brownies, or tempted 
 by the huldres. 
 
 D 2
 
 THE LAD AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a lad, who went along a road 
 cracking nuts. He happened to find one which was worm-eaten, 
 and shortly afterwards he met the devil. " Is it true," said the lad, 
 " what they say, that the devil can make himself as small as he 
 likes, and go through a pin-hole ? " " Yes, of course," answered the 
 devil. " Well, let me see you do it ; creep into this nut if you can," 
 said the lad. And the devil did it. But he had no sooner got 
 through the worm-hole, than the lad put a small peg in the hole. 
 " I have got you safe, now," he said, and put the nut in his pocket. 
 When he had walked some distance he came to a smithy. He went 
 in there and asked the smith if he would crack that nut for him. 
 "Yes, that's easily done," said the smith, and took the smallest
 
 THE LAD AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 39 
 
 hammer he had, laid the nut on the anvil, and gave it a blow, but it 
 didn't break. So he took a somewhat bigger hammer, but that 
 wasn't heavy enough either ; then he took a still bigger one, but 
 no, the nut would not break. This made the smith angry, and he 
 seized the big sledge-hammer. "I shall soon make bits of you," 
 he said, and he gave the nut such a blow that it went into a thousand 
 pieces, and sent half the roof of the smithy flying in the air. Such 
 a crash ! just as if the hut were tumbling together. 
 
 " I think the devil was in the nut," said the smith. 
 
 " So he was," said the lad.
 
 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND 
 THE HOUSE. 
 
 THERE was once upon a time a man who was always cross and 
 surly, and he was always telling his wife that she didn't do enough
 
 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND THE HOUSE. 41 
 
 of work in the house. So one evening in the hay-making time 
 he came home and began to scold and swear all over the house. 
 " Dear me, don't get into such a temper," said the gudewife ; " to- 
 
 morrow we will try and change our work. I'll go with the mowers 
 and mow the hay, and you can stop at home and mind the house." 
 Yes, the husband rather liked that, and he was quite willing for 
 his part. Early next morning the gudewife took a scythe on
 
 42 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND THE HOUSE. 
 
 her shoulder, and went out in the fields with the hay-mowers to 
 mow. But the man was to do the work in the house. 
 
 He thought he would churn the butter first of all, but when he 
 had churned a while, he became thirsty and went down into the 
 cellar to draw some beer. While he was busy filling the bowl, 
 he heard that the pig had got into the room above. Away he ran 
 up the cellar stairs with the tap in his hand, just to see the pig 
 didn't upset the churn, but when he saw that the pig had already 
 knocked the churn over, and stood there licking up the fine 
 cream, which was running over the floor, he got so furiously wild 
 that he forgot the beer-barrel and turned round on the pig. He 
 got hold of it in the doorway and gave it such a tremendous kick, 
 that it killed the poor pig on the spot. All at once he remembered 
 the tap he had in his hand, but when he went down into the cellar, 
 all th? beer had run out of the barrel. 
 
 He then went into the larder, and found cream enough to fill 
 the churn again, and so he commenced churning once more, for 
 butter he would have by dinner-time. When he had churned 
 some time he recollected that the cow, which they kept at 
 home, hadn't been let out of the cow-house, and hadn't had 
 a straw of hay or anything to drink, although it was late in the 
 day. He thought it was too far to take the cow to the field 
 where she generally grazed, so it struck him he would put her 
 on the roof; the cottage had a turf-roof, and there was a splendid 
 crop of grass growing there. The cottage lay close to a steep 
 little hill, and if he placed a plank between this and the roof, 
 he thought he could easily get the cow up there. But he could 
 not leave the churn very well, because the baby was crawling 
 about on the floor and he thought the child might easily upset it. 
 He took therefore the churn on his back and went out, but he 
 thought he had better water the cow first, before he put her 
 on the roof. So he took a bucket to get some water from the 
 well ; but as he stooped down to pull the bucket up, all the 
 cream ran out of the churn over his neck and down into the well. 
 It would soon be dinner-time, and still he hadn't got any butter, 
 so he thought he had better boil the porridge for dinner, and
 
 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND THE HOUSE. 43 
 
 hung a pot 
 with water over 
 the fire. When 
 he had done 
 this, he began 
 to feel afraid 
 that the cow 
 might fall off 
 the roof and 
 break her legs 
 or her neck, so 
 he went up on 
 the roof to tie 
 her up. The 
 one end of the 
 rope he tied 
 round the neck 
 of the cow, and 
 the other he let 
 down the chim- 
 ney and tied 
 round his leg 
 when he came 
 down, for the 
 water was boil- 
 ing already, 
 and he must 
 put the oatmeal 
 in and begin to 
 make the por- 
 ridge. While 
 he was stirring 
 it, the cow fell 
 off the roof 
 and dragged 
 the man up 
 
 5
 
 44 THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO MIND THE HOUSE. 
 
 the chimney by the rope which was tied to his leg ; there he stuck, 
 and the cow hung outside against the wall between heaven and earth, 
 for she could'neither get up nor down. The gudewife had waited 
 in seven lengths and seven breadths for her husband to come and 
 call the people home to dinner ; but she saw no sign of him, so 
 she thought at last she would wait no longer, but go home. 
 When she saw the cow hanging so awkwardly, she went at once 
 and cut the rope with her scythe, but at the same moment her 
 husband came down the chimney, and when the gudewife went 
 inside he was standing on his head in the porridge pot
 
 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 Bright, mid the skerries of the Western sea 
 
 An island rides upon the wave. Yet none 
 
 May know its beauty ; for if mortal ship 
 
 By chance should drift too near th' enchanted shore 
 
 A curtain of dark mist enshrouds the isle. 
 
 No eye can see its brightness, and no foot 
 
 May leave its print upon the golden fields. 
 
 'Tis but in fancy he who dwells ashore 
 
 May picture, in the longings of his dreams, 
 
 This fairy jewel of the Western sea. 
 
 WHEN the fishermen in the north of Norway come to land, they 
 often find straw stuck between the rudder and the stern-post, or 
 grain in the stomach of the fish. It is then said, that they have 
 sailed over Udrost or some of the other fairy-lands, about which so
 
 46 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 many legends are told in the north. These fairy-lands are only seen 
 by very pious people or by those who are gifted with second 
 sight, when in danger of their lives at sea, and they appear where 
 at other times no land is to be found. The supernatural people 
 who live here have farms and keep cattle, fish and own ships, like 
 other folks, but here the sun shines on greener pastures and richer 
 corn fields than -elsewhere in the north ; and fortunate, indeed, is he 
 who has landed on or even has seen one of these sunny isles ; " he 
 is a made man," say the people in the north. An old ballad, in 
 the style of Peder Dass, gives a full description of an island 
 off Traenen in Helgeland, called Sandflsesen, with rich fisheries 
 and abounding with game of all sorts. In the middle of the 
 Vestford a large flat land with rich corn fields also appears, 
 but it only rises high enough above the surface of the water 
 to leave the ears of the corn dry ; and outside Rost, off the 
 southern point of the Lofoten islands, a similar fairy land with 
 green hills and golden barley fields is spoken of, which is called 
 Udrost. The farmer on Udrost owns his fishing-smack just like 
 any other farmer in the north ; sometimes the fishermen see it 
 under full sails, and steering right down upon them, but just as 
 they expect to be run down, it disappears. 
 
 On Vsero, not far from Rost, lived once a poor fisherman, 
 whose name was Isaac. All he possessed was a boat and a 
 couple of goats, which his wife managed to keep alive on fish- 
 offal, and the few stray wisps of grass to be found on the neigh- 
 bouring cliffs ; but he had a whole cottage full of hungry 
 children. But still Isaac seemed always to be satisfied with 
 the lot Providence had ordained for him. His only complaint 
 was, that he could never be left in peace by his neighbour, 
 who was a well-to-do man, and fancied that he ought to have 
 everything better than such riff-raff as Isaac. He wanted,
 
 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 47 
 
 therefore, to get rid of Isaac that he might have the harbour in 
 front of Isaac's cottage. 
 
 One day when Isaac was out fishing a good many miles 
 out at sea a thick, dark fog came upon him, and before long 
 a tremendous gale broke loose, and raged with such a fury 
 that he had to throw all the fish overboard to lighten the boat 
 and so save his life. 
 
 Still it was no easy task to keep the boat afloat ; but he knew 
 well how to handle his little craft, and how to steer her among 
 
 the heavy seas, which every moment threatened to swamp her. 
 When he had been sailing at this rate for five or six hours, he 
 thought he ought soon to sight land somewhere. But hour after 
 hour passed and the storm and the thick fog got worse and worse. 
 Then it dawned upon him that he must be steering right out to 
 sea, or that the wind had shifted ; and at last he felt sure that 
 he must have guessed right, for he sailed and sailed, but saw 
 no sign of land. All of a sudden he heard a terrible scream ahead, 
 and he thought it must be the bogie singing his dirge. He 
 prayed for his wife and children, for he knew now that his last
 
 48 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 hour had come ; but whi-le he sat and prayed he caught sight 
 of something black, and as he came nearer he saw it was only three 
 cormorants sitting on a piece of drift-wood ; the next moment he 
 had sailed past them. So the time wore on, and he began to 
 feel so thirsty and so hungry and so tired that he did not for the 
 life of him know what to do. He sat half asleep with the tiller in 
 his hand, when all at once the boat grated against the beach and 
 ran aground. Isaac was not long in getting his eyes open. The 
 sun was breaking through the fog and shone upon a splendid 
 country ; the hills and the cliffs were green right to the top, with 
 meadows and cornfields on the slopes, and he thought he felt a 
 scent of flowers and grass which he never had felt before. 
 
 " The Lord be praised,' said Isaac to himself. " I am safe now; 
 this must be Udrost." Straight before him was a field of barley with 
 ears so large and full that he had never seen their like, and through 
 this field a narrow path led up to a green turf-roofed hut at the 
 other end of the cornfield. On the roof of the hut was a white 
 goat with gilt horns, grazing ; its udder was as large as the largest 
 cow's. Outside the hut sat a little old man on a wooden stool, 
 smoking a cutty-pipe. He was dressed in blue, and had a full 
 long beard which reached down to his waist. 
 
 " Welcome to Udrost, Isaac ! " said the old man. 
 
 " Thank you ! " answered Isaac. " You know me then ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I do," said the man. " You want to stop here to- 
 night, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Well, if I might I should like nothing better," said Isaac. 
 
 " It's rather awkward with those sons of mine," said the old 
 man ; " they don't like the smell of Christians. Have you not met 
 them ? " 
 
 " No, I have met nothing but three cormorants, which were 
 sitting on a bit of drift-wood screeching." 
 
 " Yes, those were my sons, those were," said the old man, as he 
 knocked the ashes out of his pipe. " You had better go inside in 
 the meantime. I suppose you are both hungry and thirsty ? " 
 
 " Thanks for your offer, my friend," said Isaac. But when the 
 man opened the door, he found it was such a fine and grand place
 
 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 49 
 
 inside, that he was quite taken aback. He had never seen any- 
 thing like it before. The table was covered with the most splendid 
 dishes, sea perch and sour cream, venison and cod-liver stew with 
 treacle and cheese, heaps of cakes, brandy, beer and mead, in fact, 
 everything that was good. Isaac ate and drank as much as he 
 was able, but still his plate never became empty, and although he 
 drank a good deal, his glass was always full. The old man did 
 not eat much, and he did not speak much either; but just as they 
 were sitting, they heard a scream and a great noise outside. 
 The old man went out, and soon came back with his three sons. 
 Isaac felt just a little queer when they came in, but the old man 
 must have been telling them to behave themselves, for they were 
 kind and pleasant enough. They said he must follow their custom 
 and sit down and drink with them, for Isaac was going to leave 
 the table ; he had been doing very well, he said. But he did 
 as they wished, and they drank glass after glass, and now and then 
 they took a pull at the beer and the mead. They became good 
 friends and got on very well together. Isaac must go fishing a 
 trip or two with them, they said, so that he could have something 
 to take home with him when he went away. 
 
 The first trip they made was in a terrible gale. One of the 
 sons was steering, the other held the sheet, and the third son 
 was 'midships, while Isaac bailed out the water with a big scoop 
 until the perspiration ran down his back in big drops. They 
 sailed as if they were stark mad ; they never took in a reef in the 
 sail, and when the seas filled the boat, they sailed her up on the 
 back of a wave till she stood nearly on end, the water rushing out 
 over her stern as out of a spout. Shortly the storm abated, and 
 they commenced to fish. The fish were so thickly packed, 
 that the lead could not reach the bottom. The young men 
 from Udrost hauled in one fish after another, and Isaac had 
 also plenty of bites, but he had brought his own fishing tackle 
 with him, and every time he got a fish as far as the gunwale 
 it got off; he did not catch as much as the tail of one. When 
 the boat was full, they sailed home to Udrost. The sons cut up 
 the fish, and cleaned them and hung them up across some poles to 
 
 E
 
 50 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 dry, but Isaac could only complain of his bad fortune to the old man, 
 who promised him better luck next time and gave him a couple of 
 fish-hooks. The next time they went out fishing Isaac caught 
 as much fish as the others, and when they came ashore and hung 
 up their fish, he had three long poles full for his share. 
 
 Isaac soon began to feel homesick, and when he was leaving the 
 old man made him a present of a new eight-oared boat, filled with 
 bags of flour, canvas, and other useful things, for which Isaac 
 tendered his best thanks. The old man told him to come back 
 again by the time the fishing smacks were about to start for their 
 yearly trips to Bergen, where he was going himself with a cargo, 
 and Isaac could go with him and sell his fish. Yes, Isaac would 
 be pleased to do that, and asked what course he was to steer when 
 he sailed for Udrost again. 
 
 " Straight after the cormorants, when they fly to sea," said the 
 man. " That's your right course, and a safe journey to you ! " 
 
 But when Isaac had shoved off from the shore and turned round 
 to give his friends a farewell look, Udrost was not to be seen any 
 more ; he saw only the open sea far and near. 
 
 When the time came for the smacks to start, Isaac arrived at 
 Udrost. But such a smack as the old man had Isaac had never 
 seen before ; it was two cables long, and the mate, who stood 
 forward on the look out, could not shout loud enough to make 
 himself heard by the man at the helm. They had therefore to 
 station another man amidships close to the mast, and he had to sing 
 out to the man at the helm, and even then he had to shout as 
 loud as he could to make himself heard. Isaac's share of the 
 cargo was stowed forward in the smack ; he took the fish down off 
 the poles himself, but he could not make out how it came to pass, 
 for as soon as he took the fish off the poles, they were full of 
 new fish again, and when they sailed, there was just as much 
 fish as when he came. When he came to Bergen, he sold his fish, 
 and got so much money, that he bought a new smack, with cargo 
 and everything that was wanted for a good outfit, just as the 
 old man had advised him to do. Late in the evening before he 
 was going to sail, the old man came on board to him and asked
 
 THE CORMORANTS OF UDROST. 
 
 him not to forget those whom his neighbour had left behind 
 him, when he was lost at sea, and then he prophesied Isaac 
 good luck with his smack. 
 
 " Everything on board is sound and good, and you may be sure 
 that all aloft will stand," said he, meaning that there would always 
 be one on board whom nobody could see, who at a pinch would put 
 his back to the mast and steady it. Isaac was always very 
 successful after that time. He knew well where his good luck came 
 from, and he never forgot to provide well for the man who kept 
 watch on board when the smack was laid up for the winter, and 
 every Christmas Eve there was such a glare of l ; ght from the smack 
 that it could be seen afar off, and then you could hear the sound 
 of fiddles and music, and laughter, and merriment, while there was 
 dancing going on in the cabin of the smack. 
 
 3e 
 
 E 2
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 
 
 THERE was once upon a 
 time a king who had seven 
 sons. He loved them all 
 so much that he could never 
 do without them all at once ; 
 one had always to be with him. When they were grown up, six of 
 them set out to woo. But the father kept the youngest son at 
 home, and for him the others were to bring back a princess to the 
 palace. The king gave the six the finest clothes you ever set your
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 55 
 
 eyes upon, and you could see the glitter of them a long way off, 
 and each had his own horse, which cost many, many hundred 
 dollars, and so they set out on the journey. 
 
 After having been to many royal palaces and seen all the 
 princesses there, they came at last to a king who had six daughters ; 
 such lovely princesses they had never seen, and so each of them 
 began wooing one of the six sisters, and when they had got them 
 for sweethearts, they set out for home again ; but they quite forgot 
 to bring a princess with them for Ashiepattle, 1 who was left 
 at home, so busy were they making love to their sweethearts. 
 
 When they had journeyed a good bit of the way, they passed 
 close to the side of a steep mountain, where there was a giant's 
 castle. As soon as the giant saw them, he came out and turned 
 them all, princes and princesses, into stone. But the king waited 
 and waited for his six sons, but no sons came. He was very sad, 
 and said that he should never be glad again. " Had you not been 
 left to me," he said to Ashiepattle, " I should not care to live any 
 longer. I am so sad because I have lost your brothers." " But I 
 have been thinking to ask for leave to set out and find them, 
 I have," said Ashiepattle. " No, I cannot let you go," said his 
 father ; " I shall lose you as well." But Ashiepattle would go, and 
 he begged and prayed till the king gave him leave to go. The 
 king had no other horse to give him but an old jade, for his 
 six brothers and their men had taken all the other horses, 
 but Ashiepattle did not mind that ; he mounted the shabby 
 old nag. 
 
 " Good-bye, father," said he to the king, " I shall come back, 
 sure enough, and who knows but I shall have my six brothers 
 with me as well," and off he started. 
 
 Well, when he had got a bit on his way, he came to a raven, 
 which was lying in the road flapping his wings, and was unable to 
 get out of his way, it was so famished. " Oh, dear friend, give me 
 something to eat, and I will help you in your utmost need," said 
 the raven. " Very little food have I," said the prince, " and you 
 
 1 The favourite hero of most Norwegian fairy tales is called "Askeladen," a 
 sort of a male " Cinderella," and is always the youngest son of the family.
 
 56 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 
 
 don't look as if you could help me much either, but a little I must 
 give you, for you want it badly, I see," and then he gave the raven 
 some of the food he had with him. When he had travelled some 
 distance further, he came to a stream. There he saw a big salmon, 
 which had got ashore and was dashing and knocking himself about 
 and could not get into the water again. " Oh, dear friend ! help 
 me into the water again," said the salmon to the prince, "and 
 I will help you in your utmost need." " I don't suppose it can be 
 much of a help you can give me," said the prince, " but it is a pity 
 you should lie there and very likely perish," so he shoved the fish 
 into the stream again. So he travelled a long, long way, till he met 
 a wolf, which was so famished that he was only able to drag 
 himself along the road. " Dear friend, give me your horse," said 
 tne wolf. " I am so hungry, I hear the wind whistling in my 
 empty stomach. I have had nothing to eat for two years." " No," 
 said Ashiepattle, " I can't do it ; first I came to a raven which I 
 had to give all my food to ; then I came to a salmon which I had 
 to help back into the water ; and now you want my horse. But 
 that is impossible, for then I should have nothing to ride upon." 
 "Yes, yes, my friend, but you must help me," said the wolf, "you 
 can ride on me instead ; I shall help you again in your utmost 
 need." "Well, the help you can give me will not be great ; but I 
 suppose you must have the horse then, since you are so needy," 
 said the prince. And when the wolf had finished the horse 
 Ashiepattle took the bridle and put the bit in the wolf's mouth 
 and the saddle on his back, and the wolf felt now so strong and 
 well after what he had had to eat, that he set off with the prince as 
 if he were nothing at all ; Ashiepattle had never ridden so fast before. 
 " When we get a little bit further I will show you a giant's 
 castle," said the wolf, and in a little while they came there. " See, 
 here is the giant's castle," said the wolf again, " and there you see 
 all your six brothers, whom the giant has turned into stone, and 
 there are their six brides. Over yonder is the door of the castle, and 
 you must go in there." " I dare not," said the prince, "the giant 
 will kill me." "Not at all," answered the wolf; "when you go 
 in there you will meet a princess. She will tell you what to do to
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 57 
 
 make an end of the giant. Only do as she tells you." Well, 
 Ashiepattle went into the castle, but to tell the truth he felt rather 
 afraid. When he got inside, he found the giant was out; but in 
 a chamber sat the princess, just as the wolf had said. Such a lovely 
 maiden Ashiepattle had never seen before. 
 
 " Good heavens ! what has brought you here ? " said the princess, 
 as soon as she saw him. " It's sure to be your death ; no one 
 can kill the giant who lives here, for he hasn't got any heart." 
 " But now when I am here, I suppose I had better try my 
 strength with him," said Ashiepattle, " and I must see if I can't 
 release my brothers who are standing outside here, turned into 
 stone, and I will try to save you as well." " Well, since you will 
 stop, we must try and do the best we can," said the princess. 
 " You must creep under the bed over there and listen well to what 
 he says when I speak with him, and be sure to lie as quiet as 
 you can." 
 
 So Ashiepattle crept under the bed, and no sooner had he done 
 so than the giant came home. " Ugh, what a smell of Christian 
 blood there is here," shouted the giant. "Yes, a magpie flew over 
 the house with a man's bone and let it fall down the chimney," 
 said the princess ; " I made haste to throw it out, but the smell 
 doesn't go away so soon." So the giant said no more about it, 
 and when evening came, they went to bed. When they had lain 
 a while, the princess said : " There is one thing I wanted so very 
 much to ask you about, if I only dared." " Well, what can that 
 be ? " asked the giant. " I should so like to know where your 
 heart is, since you don't carry it about you," said the princess. 
 " Oh, that's a thing you needn't know anything about," said the 
 giant, " but if you must know, it's under the stone slab in front of 
 the door." " Ah, ha ! we shall soon see if we can't find that," said 
 Ashiepattle to himself under the bed. 
 
 Next morning the giant got up very early and set out for the 
 wood, but no sooner was he out of sight than Ashiepattle and the 
 princess commenced looking for the heart under the door-slab, but 
 although they dug and searched all they could, they could not 
 find anything. " He has made a fool of me this time," said the
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 
 
 princess ; " but I must try him again." So she picked all the 
 prettiest flowers she could find and strewed them over the door- 
 slab, which they put in its right place again. When the time 
 came for the giant to return home, Ashiepattle crept under the 
 bed, and he had scarcely got well under before the giant came in. 
 " Ugh, what a smell of Christian blood there is here," screamed the 
 giant. " Yes, a magpie flew over the house and dropped a man's 
 bone down the chimney," said the princess ; " I made haste to 
 clear it away, but I suppose the smell hasn't gone away yet." 
 So the giant said no more about it, but in a little while he asked 
 who it was that had been strewing flowers around the door-slab. 
 " Why, I, of course," said the princess. " And what's the meaning 
 of it ? " asked the giant. " Well, you know I am so fond of you," 
 said the princess, " that I couldn't help doing it when I knew that 
 your heart was lying under there." " Ah, indeed," said the giant, 
 " but it isn't there after all." 
 
 When they had gone to bed in the evening, the princess asked 
 again where his heart was, because she was so very fond of him, 
 she said, that she would so like to know it. " Oh, it's over in the 
 cupboard on the wall there," said the giant. Ah, ha, thought both 
 Ashiepattle and the princess, we will soon try to find it. Next 
 morning the giant was early out of bed, and made for the wood 
 again, but the moment he was gone Ashiepattle and the princess 
 were looking in the cupboard for the heart, but they looked and 
 searched and found no heart. " Well, we must try once more," 
 said the princess. She hung flowers and garlands around the 
 cupboard, and when the evening came Ashiepattle crept under the 
 bed again. Shortly the giant came in. " Ugh, Ugh ! " he roared, 
 "what a smell of Christian blood there is here." "Yes, a magpie 
 flew past here just now, and dropped a man's bone down the 
 chimney," said the princess ; " I made haste to throw it out, but I 
 suppose that's what you still smell." When the giant heard this, 
 he said no more about it; but as soon as he saw the cupboard 
 decked out with flowers and garlands, he asked who it was that 
 had done that. It was the princess, of course. " But what's the 
 meaning of all this foolery ? " asked the giant. " Well, you know
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 
 
 59 
 
 how fond I am of you," said the princess ; " I couldn't help doing 
 it, when I knew your heart was there." " How can you be so 
 foolish to believe it ? " said the giant. " Well, how can I help be- 
 lieving it when you say so ? " answered the princess. " Oh, you are 
 a foolish creature," said the giant, 
 " you can never go where my heart 
 is ! " " Ah, well," said the prin- 
 cess, " but I should like to know 
 for all that where it is." So the 
 giant could not refuse to tell her 
 any longer, and he said : " Far, far 
 away in a lake lies an island, 
 on that island stands a church, 
 in that church there is a well, 
 in that well swims a duck, in that 
 duck there is an egg, and in the 
 egg well, there is my heart." 
 
 Early next morning, almost be- 
 fore the dawn of day, the giant 
 set out for the wood again. " Well, 
 I suppose I had better start as 
 well," said Ashiepattle ; " I wish 
 I only knew the way ! " He said 
 farewell to the princess for a time, 
 and when he came outside the 
 castle there was the wolf still wait- 
 ing for him. He told the wolf 
 what had happened inside, and 
 that he was now going to set out 
 for the well in the church, if he 
 only knew the way. The wolf 
 asked him to jump on his back, 
 he would try and find the way, 
 sure enough, he said, and away they went over hills and mountains, 
 over fields and valleys, while the wind whistled about them. When
 
 60 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 
 
 they had travelled many, many days, they came at last to the lake. 
 The prince did not know how he should get across it ; but the wolf 
 asked him only not to be afraid, and then he plunged into the 
 water with the prince on his back and swam across to the island. 
 When they came to the church, they found the key for the 
 church-door hanging high, high up on the steeple, and at first the 
 young prince did not know how to get hold of it. " You will have 
 to call the raven," said the wolf, which the prince did. The raven 
 came at once, and flew up for the key, and so the prince got inside 
 the church. When he came to the well, the duck was there sure 
 enough. It was swimming about just as the giant had said. He 
 commenced calling and calling, and at last he lured her up to him 
 and caught her. But just as he was lifting her out of the water, 
 the duck let the egg fall in the well ; and Ashiepattle didn't know 
 how to get it up again. " You had better call the salmon/' said 
 the wolf, which the prince did. The salmon came and fetched the 
 egg from the bottom of the well. The wolf then told him to 
 squeeze the egg, and as soon as Ashiepattle squeezed it, they 
 heard the giant screaming. " Squeeze it once more," said the wolf, 
 and when the prince did so, the giant screamed still more piteously, 
 and prayed so nicely and gently for himself ; he would do all the 
 prince wished, if he only wouldn't squeeze his heart to pieces. 
 " Tell him, that if he will give you back again alive your six 
 brothers and their brides, which he turned into stone, you will 
 spare his life," said the .wolf, and Ashiepattle did so. Yes, the 
 giant would do that at once, and he restored the six princes and 
 the six princesses to life. " Now, squeeze the egg to pieces," said 
 the wolf. Ashiepattle squeezed it flat between his hands, and the 
 giant burst. 
 
 So when Ashiepattle had got rid of the giant, he rode back 
 again on his friend, the wolf, to the giant's castle, and there stood 
 all his six brothers and their brides, all alive, and then Ashiepattle 
 went into the mountain for his own bride, and they all set out for 
 their home, the royal palace. The old king was pleased, I can 
 tell you, when all his seven sons came back, each with his bride.
 
 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART. 61 
 
 " But the loveliest of the princesses is Ashiepattle's bride after 
 all," said the king, "and he shall sit at the top of the table 
 with her. " 
 
 And then the wedding came off, and the king gave a grand 
 feast which lasted for many a day, and if they have not done 
 feasting by this, why they are still at it.
 
 THE PANCAKEo 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a good housewife, who had seven 
 hungry children. One day she was busy frying pancakes for 
 them, and this time she had used new milk in the making of 
 them. One was lying in the pan,, frizzling away ah ! so beautiful 
 and thick, it was a pleasure to look at it. The children were 
 standing round the fire, and the gcodman sat in the corner 
 and looked on, 
 
 " Oh, give me a bit of pancake, mother, I am so hungry ! " 
 said one child. 
 
 "Ah, do! dear mother," said the second. 
 
 " Ah, do ! dear, good mother," said the third. 
 
 " Ah, do ! dear, good, kind mother," said the fourth. 
 
 "Ah, do! dear, good, kind, nice mother," said the fifth. 
 
 " Ah, do ! dear, good, kind, nice, sweet mother," said the 
 sixth. 
 
 " Ah, do ! dear, good, kind, nice, sweet, darling mother," said 
 the seventh. And thus they were all begging for pancakes, the 
 one more prettily than the other, because they were so hungry, 
 and such good little children, 
 
 " Yes, children dear, wait a bit till it turns itself," she answered 
 she ought to have said " till I turn it " " and then you shall 
 all have pancakes, beautiful pancakes, made of new milk, only 
 look how thick and happy it lies there." 
 
 When the pancake heard this, it got frightened, and all of a 
 sudden, it turned itself and wanted to get out of the pan, 
 but it fell down in it again on the other side, and when it had
 
 THE PANCAKE. 65 
 
 been fried a little on that side too, it felt a little stronger in 
 the back, jumped out on the floor, and rolled away, like a wheel, 
 right through the door and down the road. 
 
 " Halloo ! " cried the goodwife, and away she ran after it, with 
 the frying-pan in one hand and the ladle in the other, as fast 
 as she could, and the children behind her, while the goodman 
 came limping after, last of all. 
 
 " Halloo, won't you stop ? Catch it, stop it. Halloo there ! " 
 they all screamed, the one louder than the other, trying to catch 
 it on the run, but the pancake rolled and rolled, and before 
 long, it was so far ahead, that they could not see it, for the 
 pancake was much smarter on its legs than any of them. 
 
 When it had rolled a time, it met a man. 
 
 " Good day, pancake ! " said the man. 
 
 " Well met, Manny Panny," said the pancake. 
 
 "Dear pancake," said the man, "don't roll so fast, but wait 
 a bit and let me eat you." 
 
 " When I have run away from Goody Poody and the goodman 
 and seven squalling children, I must run away from you too, 
 Manny Panny," said the pancake, and rolled on and on, till it 
 met a hen. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the hen. 
 
 " Good day, Henny Penny," said the pancake. 
 
 " My dear pancake, don't roll so fast, but wait a bit and let 
 me eat you," said the hen. 
 
 " When I have run away from Goody Poody and the goodman 
 apd seven squalling children, and from Manny Panny, I must 
 run away from you too, Henny Penny," said the pancake, and 
 rolled on like a wheel down the road. Then it met a cock. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the cock. 
 
 " Good day, Cocky Locky," said the pancake. 
 
 " My dear pancake, don't roll so fast, but wait a bit and let 
 me eat you," said the cock. 
 
 " When I have run away from Goody Poody and the goodman 
 and seven squalling children, from Manny Panny, and Henny 
 Penny, I must run away from you too, Cocky Locky," said the 
 
 F
 
 66 THE PANCAKE. 
 
 pancake, and rolled and rolled on as fast as it could. When it 
 had rolled a long time, it met a duck. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the duck. 
 
 " Good day. Ducky Lucky," said the pancake. 
 
 " My dear pancake, don't roll so fast, but wait a bit and let me 
 eat you," said the duck. 
 
 "When I have run away from Goody Poody and the good man 
 and sever squalling children, from Manny Panny, and Henny 
 Penny, and Cocky Locky, I must run away from you too, Ducky 
 Lucky," said the pancake, and with that it fell to rolling and 
 rolling as fast as ever it could. When it had rolled a long, long 
 time, it met a goose. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the goose, 
 
 " Good day, Goosey Poosey," said the pancake. 
 
 " My dear pancake, don't roll so fast, but wait a bit and let me 
 eat you," said the goose. 
 
 " When I have run away from Goody Poody and the goodman 
 and seven squalling children, and Manny Panny, and Henny 
 Penny, and Cocky Locky, and Ducky Lucky, I must run away 
 from you too, Goosey Poosey," said the pancake, and away it 
 rolled. So when it had rolled a long, very long time, it met a 
 gander. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the gander. 
 
 " Good day, Gander Pander," said the pancake. 
 
 " My dear pancake, don't roll so fast, but wait a bit and let me 
 eat you," said the gander. 
 
 " When I have run away from Goody Poody and the goodman 
 and seven squalling children, and from Manny Panny, and Henny 
 Penny, and Cocky Locky, and Ducky Lucky, and Goosey Poosey, 
 I must run away from you too, Gander Pander," said the pancake, 
 and rolled and rolled as fast as it could. When it had rolled on a 
 long, long time, it met a pig. 
 
 " Good day, pancake," said the pig. 
 
 " Good day, Piggy Wiggy," said the pancake, and began to roll 
 on faster than ever. 
 
 " Nay, wait a bit," said the pig, "you needn't be in such a hurry-
 
 THE PANCAKE. 67 
 
 scurry ; we two can walk quietly together and keep each other 
 company through the wood, because they say it isn't very safe 
 there." 
 
 The pancake thought there might be something in that, and so 
 they walked together through the wood ; but when they had gone 
 some distance, they came to a brook. 
 
 The pig was so fat it wasn't much trouble for him to swim across, 
 but the pancake couldn't get over. 
 
 " Sit on my snout," said the pig, " and I will ferry you over." 
 
 The pancake did so. 
 
 " Ouf, Ouf," grunted the pig, and swallowed the pancake in one 
 gulp, and as the pancake couldn't get any farther, well, you see 
 we can't go on with this story any farther, either. 
 
 F 2
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 EARLY in May this was long before the game laws had been 
 hatched we started on our way to Skjoersjohaug, according to 
 local tradition the place where we were most likely to see the 
 capercailzies and their play. 1 There were four of us, my friend 
 the captain, myself, an old sportsman from Sognedale, called Peter 
 Sandaker, and a smart boy, who had charge of two brace of 
 hounds. We were to try for a hare, as soon as our sport with the 
 capercailzies was over. Down in the valley spring had fairly set 
 in, but when we reached the top of the hill, we found snow still 
 lying on the ground and in deep drifts in the hollows. The 
 evening was still very warm, and the birds in the woods were 
 singing in praise of spring. When we came near the Ask Dairy, 2 
 where we intended to spend the night, we turned off into Skjoer- 
 sjohaug, a hill well known to every sportsman who has roamed 
 through these woods. We made for this hill for the purpose of 
 finding out where the capercailzies went to roost for the night. 
 When we reached the top of the hill we had a fine view before us. 
 The sun was about to set, and cast his golden beams across a 
 cloudless sky. The landscape before us was not of a friendly or 
 inviting character ; dark forests stretched interminably over the 
 
 1 In the pairing season the capercailzie cock stations himself in a fir-tree and 
 commences his love song, or "play," as it is termed in Norway, to attract the 
 hens about him. He begins his play with a call something resembling, Peller, 
 peller, peller, which he repeats at short intervals for about a minute ; he then 
 makes a sort of gobble in his throat, and finishes with snapping his beak. During 
 the latter part of his performance, his head is thrown up, his eyes are partially 
 closed, and his faculties much absorbed. This is the best time to approach him. 
 
 2 In the summer months the Norwegian farmers send their cattle up to their 
 mountain pastures, very often many miles from the farmhouses. Each farmer 
 has there his " sceter" or dairy, a small building where the milk is kept and the 
 butter and cheese are made, and where the dairy maid lives during these months. 
 For the rest of the year these dairies are deserted.
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 71 
 
 hills, which surrounded us on all sides as far as the eye could 
 reach ; the view was broken only by an ice-bound Jake here and 
 there amid the extensive bogs. 
 
 We had not been there long after sunset before we heard a 
 rushing sound which betrayed the flight of a heavy bird, flying to 
 roost in a neighbouring tree. 
 
 " That was no old bird," said the captain with the air of an 
 expert, when the bird remained silent after it had roosted. 
 
 Soon afterwards two other capercailzies came sweeping past and 
 settled on their roost, likewise in silence, but the next moment we 
 heard a fourth bird approaching with a still heavier stroke and a 
 still louder rush, and this one commenced snapping its beak as 
 soon as it had roosted. 
 
 " That fellow was not born yesterday. He is the cock of the 
 walk here," said Peter ; " I shouldn't wonder if it is our old friend 
 himself." 
 
 Three more birds came in, and as each took up his roosting 
 place, the old bird repeated his challenge by snapping his beak at 
 them. Two made no answer, but the third made the same sort of 
 snapping sound in reply. 
 
 " He's a stranger," exclaimed Peter, "he does not know the old 
 one ; if he did, he would have held his tongue. He'll be sorry for 
 it in the morning, believe me, when our old friend finds him out, 
 for he is not one to be played with, when he gets his temper up. 
 I once saw what a dressing he gave a silly chattering fool, that 
 answered his challenge some time before." 
 
 As he spoke, his open weather-beaten face assumed a curious 
 grinning expression, which was heightened by some remarkable 
 sarcastic folds and wrinkles, evidently called forth by the recollec- 
 tion of some mysterious story or another. According to the 
 description our captain had given me of Peter Sandaker once 
 when he had dropped behind on the march, he was particularly 
 good at telling tales and stories about goblin-birds, doubles, and 
 fairies, and had a special fancy for entering into the most minute 
 details, whenever he commenced telling about one or the other of 
 the eighteen bears he had killed in his time. He was very s'lent,
 
 72 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 however, about all those bears, which malicious tongues reported 
 he had missed, and which according to the same good authority 
 exceeded the number he had shot. 
 
 " But what sort of a fellow is this big, old bird, you are speaking 
 about ? " I asked. 
 
 " I'll tell you all about him," said the captain quickly, as we 
 started on our way for the dairy. He was apparently afraid that 
 this curt, ill-timed question of mine would, after the short ac- 
 quaintance I had with Peter, create a suspicion in his mind and 
 probably silence him altogether. " I'll tell you about him," con- 
 tinued the captain, " there is an old capercailzie cock on this pairing 
 ground, which has become the talk of the whole parish, a sort of 
 a goblin-bird in fact. The sportsmen about here call him the 
 ' bleater,' for instead of sitting quiet on his branch and playing, 
 he flies often about between the top of the fir-trees, bleating like a 
 goat. Not before this performance is over does he settle down to 
 play, and commence gobbling and snapping his beak. Well, that 
 kind of playing, there's little sense in, and nobody can come within 
 shot of him. He plays us, however, still oftener another trick, which 
 is still worse ; he sits quietly and plays, and he commences his 
 gobbling, but when he ought to begin his snapping, he flies to 
 another tree. If anybody by chance happens to hit him, the shot 
 has no effect. Our friend Peter here, has shot at him both with 
 salt and silver, but although the feathers flew out, he didn't seem 
 to take any more notice of the shot than if the charge had been a 
 blank one. The next morning he played away as fast as ever and 
 out of tune as usual." 
 
 " You might as well shoot at a stone," said Peter, with the 
 decisive tone of one fully convinced. " I came across him once," 
 he continued, " when he was playing down on the main road to 
 Skaug ; there he sat in the middle of the road with a lot of hens 
 around him, I counted seven, and there were more round about in 
 the wood, for I heard them clucking and calling behind every bush. 
 The hens on the ground ran around him, stretched out their necks, 
 trailed their wings along the ground and showed themselves off for 
 him, but he sat on the ground and preened his feathers, and made
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES.- 73 
 
 himself as fine and haughty as a Spanish count. All at once he 
 stuck his tail up and spread it out like a fan, swept the ground 
 with his wings, and jumped right up in the air as high as this. 
 Well, I didn't know it was that fellow, else I would have had a 
 shot at him at once, before he had time to make himself shot-proof, 
 but I thought it was great fun to watch him. But while he was in 
 the middle of the play, another cock, a big one, though not quite 
 as big as the old one, came sweeping down and wanted to join in 
 the play. Then came the real fun ! The old one stuck up his tail, 
 and his beard stuck out like the teeth in a carding-comb ; he 
 snapped and grated his beak, till he set my teeth on edge, and the 
 new comer, he answered the challenge. He was a bold one to be 
 sure. But then our old friend rushed at him, and when their beaks 
 and wings met, the crash sounded all over the wood. The next 
 moment they jumped up at each other and fought with their beaks, 
 their wings, and their claws, and they were so wicked that they 
 nearly lost all sense and feeling, and I thought I could almost walk 
 up and catch them both with my hands. But at last the old cock 
 got hold of the other by the nape of the neck and beat him and 
 knocked him about in such a way till I fancied I heard him squeak. 
 I couldn't help pitying the poor bird, who was being lugged about 
 by the top of his head in this way. The old one crushed him to 
 the ground and kept him under him till he almost came sliding out 
 over the hillside on top of him, close to where I was standing. 
 Then I put up my gun in an instant. There was a report, and the 
 strange bird lay dead on the spot, but the old one stuck to him 
 and kept pulling at him ; he did not even move his wings. Aha I 
 I thought, if you are so sure in your hold, you shall soon be mine ! 
 I loaded again and was just going to take aim at him, when he 
 gave himself a shake and flew straight up in the air. If he was 
 further than ten steps from me, may I never in my life shoot a 
 bird again. 
 
 " Another time I was up here and heard, just like to-night, 
 where he went to roost in an old fir-tree. I went out early in the 
 morning long before there was a bird awake in the woods. But 
 when he commenced playing, he did it properly that time. He
 
 74 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 played away till the tree shook ; he did not forget the gobbling 
 and snapping this time, nor did he stir from his place either. 
 When he commenced his performance for the fourth time I had 
 got within shot of him, he was sitting on one of the lower branches 
 close to the trunk of the tree. 
 
 " Now you are mine, thought I, for instead of a bullet I had 
 loaded with a silver sixpence, which I had cut up for the purpose. 
 But I made a mistake after all ; I had no sooner fired than he flew 
 straight away, as if nothing was the matter, although his feathers 
 flew out in a cloud. No, the bullet isn't made yet that will kill 
 that fellow." 
 
 "Anyhow, Peter, we will have another try at him to-morrow," 
 said the captain with a somewhat malicious expression. " We 
 know where he roosts at any rate." 
 
 " Well, if there were no other birds to be found in the woods, 
 one might perhaps take the trouble to run after him," answered 
 Peter in a somewhat angry tone. "But, dear me," he added 
 
 ironically, " if the captain will go after him, so , only I don't 
 
 intend to waste a grain of powder on him. I can only say," he 
 continued with an air of simplicity, "that such playing no one has 
 heard before. And such a bird ! Why, it's the most remarkable 
 bird you ever saw. He is not like other capercailzies at all ; he is 
 at least half as big again, and perhaps more." 
 
 "Yes, you are right, he is a tough old one, scarcely worth 
 powder and shot," said the captain ; " his flesh must be as tough 
 and bitter as the fir-twig he roosts on. I would, however, like to 
 see some one put a bullet through him to get an end to all these 
 pranks of his which he so often has played on us. I have been 
 after him several times, without being able to get within shot of 
 him during the play. Twice, however, have 1 had a shot at him, 
 but at such a long distance, that there was but little chance of my 
 hitting him. It is of course a most foolish thing twice to take a 
 long shot in a capercailzie wood, as you know," said the captain, 
 appealing to me ; " but the last time I had no choice, because 
 I heard that villainous Andreas stalking the bird at the same time. 
 He is really, as Peter says, a wonderful bird, this old capercailzie
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 75 
 
 cock ; but," he continued, and gave me a wink, which clearly 
 showed his intention of getting some more stories out of Peter, 
 " when we get to the dairy I shall tell you of an adventure I had 
 
 with a hare a goblin-hare it must have been, which was still more 
 remarkable and wonderful than our capercailzie." 
 
 We came soon to the deserted mountain-dairy where we found
 
 76 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 the boy had gone on before while we went up in the hill to listen 
 to the capercailzies. He had orders from the captain to air the 
 room and to make a good fire on the hearth. As soon as we had 
 put away our guns and game-bag and partaken of a good supper 
 provided out of the captain's bag, he commenced the story he had 
 promised us about the goblin-hare, assuming at the same time a 
 decorous air in speech and manner. 
 
 " When I was lieutenant, I was one summer encamped on Thoten, 
 where my regiment had to do their yearly drill. I had brought 
 my hounds with me, as I intended to have some shooting. I was 
 standing in the kitchen of my quarters one afternoon, getting 
 ready for the evening's sport, when a peasant came in. 
 
 " ' Are there any hares about here ? ' I asked. ' Well, there are 
 some left to be sure/ answered the peasant ; ' on the Sukkestad- 
 moor there is an old jack-hare, which many a hound and sportsman 
 have been after, but he is not so easily killed, it appears.' And 
 the worthy peasant shook his head somewhat mysteriously. 
 
 " ' Not easily killed ? That's all nonsense. I suppose there isn't 
 a hound worth having about here ? ' said I, and stroked my dogs, 
 which were pulling at the couples and wanted to get out. ' If my 
 hounds here once start him I think there will be little difficulty 
 in catching him.' 
 
 "'Ah, maybe! Quite possible,' said the peasant, and grinned 
 rather incredulously. 
 
 " I started straight for the Sukkestad-moor and had scarcely let 
 the hounds loose, before they found scent and were soon in full cry. 
 But there seemed to be little satisfaction got out of this run ; every 
 moment the hare squatted, and the hounds lost the scent time after 
 time. The next instant the hare was off again and things were 
 looking promising, when suddenly the hare hid himself in a bush 
 again. I ran from one place to another, and as it was not difficult 
 to get a shot at him, I fired several times, but only made miss after 
 miss. At last he settled in front of a clump of young fir-trees 
 about forty paces distant from me. I fired, and went quite con- 
 fidently to pick it up ; but when I came over to the pines there 
 was no sign of any hare ; I could see nothing but an old stick and
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 a rag. The day after I was busy cleaning my rifle when the 
 peasant came up to rne, 
 
 "'Well, what about the hare, lieutenant?' he asked with a sly 
 wink. 
 
 " I told him what had happened. 
 
 " ' Many have been after him, as I told you, but you must know 
 it's not an easy job to catch him/ he repeated with a great deal 
 of mystery. ' I see you are cleaning your gun, sir, but I should 
 say that's not of much use. It won't kill Puss any better for 
 that.' 
 
 "'But, goodness gracious, what can that hare be made of?' 
 I asked, ' Do you mean to say that powder and shot will not 
 take any effect on him ? ' 
 
 " ' I think it is as you say,' he answered. ' I may as well tell 
 you that the hare himself is possessed ; the one which you saw 
 yesterday is only his double; he himself plays no pranks like that. 
 But I'll give you a bit of advice ! Take a blindworm I'll find 
 you one and ram it into the barrel of your gun and then fire it, 
 after that you may try what powder and shot will do. ' 
 
 " I did as he said. He got me a live blindworm, which we forced 
 into the barrel of the gun ; I fired it against the barn wall, and 
 strange to say, there was nothing to be seen but a wet mark. 
 
 " Some days later I went up on the Sukkestad moor. It was very 
 early in the morning. The dogs were no sooner let loose, than the 
 hare was afoot. This time there was no stopping or casting, but 
 the hounds were soon in full cry, and after half-an-hour's run, the 
 hare came dancing down the moor towards me. I put up my gun 
 and fired ; he dropped down dead on the spot. He was a big old 
 rake, full of marks and scars, and he had only an ear and a half." 
 
 " I have also heard about a similar hare," said Peter, who had 
 listened to the captain's story with great attention. " He used to 
 knock about here in Holleia, and they said he was nearly black 
 A good many were after him and had a shot at him, but they never 
 had any luck, until this rascally Andreas came here. He shot it, 
 for he must put his nose in everywhere, you know. It was he we 
 saw the tracks of down by Rausand hill. He is a scamp, he is
 
 78 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 and it isn't difficult to find his tracks and signs of his reckless 
 shooting, for he can never wait, like other folks, till the birds have 
 had a good start at their play." 
 
 "I daresay," said the captain, and twirled his moustaches, -'it 
 isn't the first time he is shooting in preserved grounds. But tell 
 me, was it he who shot that goblin-hare down by Christiania, which 
 you told me about once ? " 
 
 " Oh, that hare ! No, that was a professional shot from those 
 parts called Brandte-Lars. You must know him, surely, since you 
 are from Christiania ? " said Peter, addressing himself to me. 
 
 No, I did not know him. 
 
 *' What ! you don't know him ? Why, he lives in a small cottage 
 under the hill just below Grcfsen. I met him once in Halland, 
 when he was out shooting with some swells from town. He is a 
 queer fellow, but a good shot. He never misses his hare, and 
 shoots flying just like the captain here. But about that hare the 
 captain spoke of. He told me all about that and much more." 
 
 " ' I was going out one day for old Simonsen in the Market- 
 place/ he said, ' to try and get him some game. We had three 
 hounds ; one of them called Rap, over which the evil spirits had 
 no power, because he was red, you must know ; the other two were 
 pretty decent hounds. Well, it was one morning early in the 
 spring,' said Lars, ' that I started for Linderudsceter, where I 
 slipped Rap, and he was soon in full cry and made the hillside 
 ring. I posted myself near a place where they had been burning 
 charcoal, and very soon the hare came running past, close to where 
 I was standing. I missed, and away they went again in full cry 
 after the hare. Before long he came past the same place again ; 
 he was quite black along the back I missed again. 
 
 " ' But how is all this ? " said I to myself. ' Won't the other dogs 
 acknowledge the scent too ? ' for it was only Rap who was after the 
 hare. ' No, this can't be a real hare ; but I must have another 
 look at him. Well, he came past for the third time, and I missed 
 him again, sure enough. Both the dogs were close by me, but they 
 didn't take the slightest notice of him. But then I took a charm 
 and put in the gun/ he said.
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 79 
 
 " How ! " I asked. 
 
 "You must tell him that, Peter," said the captain. 
 
 " Well, Lars wouldn't tell me at first," said Peter, " but after I 
 had given him a good dram and a roll of tobacco, he told me all 
 about it." 
 
 " ' You take the bark of the mountain ash and put it round the 
 break-off,' said Lars, ' and then you scrape three bits of a silver coin 
 which has come down in the family it must be one of the real good 
 old coins, one that has been out in the wars ; and then you scrape 
 three parings of the nail of your little finger in your left hand, and 
 then three barleycorns, if you have not got these handy, take three 
 breadcrumbs and put them all above the shot, and then you might 
 shoot the very devil with it/ he said. ' That's what I did the time 
 I was telling you about, and when the hare came past the fourth 
 time, he fell stone dead the moment I fired,' he said. ' He was a 
 dry little beast, and he was so old that he was nearly black all 
 over. Well, I took him and hung him up by his hind legs to a 
 gnarled birch to clean him, but would you believe me, he kept on 
 bleeding as if he were a young cow, and the dogs were licking up 
 the blood as it ran down the hill. I had to take him with me at last, 
 but somehow I could not find my way, and the blood kept on running 
 off the hare all the time. I came back twice to that gnarled birch- 
 tree, and I thought it was rather odd, as I ought to know my way 
 thereabouts as well as in my own parlour. But of course if you 
 first make a wrong start, you go wrong altogether. Well, thought 
 I, I had better let the dogs find the way, which I did, but when I 
 came past some rocks down there, I saw an old witch right in front 
 of some small birchwood with a cloth on her head, a leather jacket, 
 and black skirt ; she was leaning on a crutch-handled stick and 
 looked like a woman from the country. 
 
 1 ' I say, Lars,' said she. ' you have got many a hare in the moors 
 here and I have wished you well, so you might as well have left 
 alone that hare of mine. If you had not had that red dog of yours, 
 you wouldn't have got it either.' 
 
 ' ' I didn't say a word,' said Lars, ' but cut away over Moerre bog 
 up to Bamsebraaten, where I let the dogs loose. They were soon
 
 8o 
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 in full cry, Rap being the first, and as I stood and listened whether 
 the other two were going to join in, I heard them all three sure 
 enough, and then I knew it must be a real hare ; but when I heard 
 
 them bearing off for the Linderudsoeter again, I felt rather down in 
 the mouth. They had an awful long run, but when they came 
 round again, the hare came galloping like a young colt up to me ; 
 he was nearly as big as a small goat. I shot it, and then I went
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 81 
 
 southwards towards Alun lake. There the dogs got a new scent, 
 and off they went in full cry in the direction of Linderudsceter 
 again it appeared as if they must chase the hare round there. 
 At last they came back again, and I shot that hare also, and then I 
 had three in all. That'll do for to-day, my dear Lars, thought I, 
 and so I went home and hung the hares up in Simonsen's cellar. 
 But that little black thing bled for three days after, and filled 
 the cellar nearly half full of blood." 
 
 " You spoke just now about a goblin hare, who was seen here in 
 Holleia ; but are there not also some legends about all the riches, 
 gold and silver, which are to be found in the mountains here ? It 
 wouldn't be a bad thing to have some of it. Peter ? " said the 
 captain, who was trying to get a story out of him again. 
 
 " Oh, what would the captain want with that ? " said Peter, and 
 shook his head. " You have enough, I should say, sir, and perhaps 
 more than enough. It might be something for a poor fellow ; but 
 believe me, it isn't so easy to get hold of, I can tell you." 
 
 " It seems very strange to me however that you haven't tried 
 to get some of it," continued the captain. 
 
 " Ah, but how should that have happened ? " asked Peter. " To 
 lie about and dig in the hills, as old Joe Haugen did all over 
 Holleia, is not a thing I should care for." 
 
 " But there are other ways to find such riches," said the captain 
 mysteriously. " What do you say to making friends with the 
 fairies in the mountains ? You have, by rny faith, not been such 
 an ill-looking lad in your youth, Peter ! You could have made 
 your fortune, sure enough." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed Peter in a subdued tone, apparently 
 pleased with the captain's allusion to his good looks. " I 
 have never believed in such beings, for I have never seen a troll 
 or a huldre." 
 
 " But there lived once a fairy over in Holleia," said the captain. 
 
 " Oh, that's an old fairy tale. I have heard people talk about 
 it, to be sure, but I don't believe anything of it," answered Peter. 
 
 " Yes, but you must know something about it for all that, since 
 you have been knocking about on the moors here so long. You 
 
 G
 
 82 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 must tell us what you know. My friend here is mad after such 
 stories." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! Well, I don't mind ; but for my part I don't 
 believe a word of them," Peter assured us, and commenced : 
 
 " South of Holleia, there are two mountains they call them 
 the ' Big-peak ' and the ' Little-peak ' there where you are sitting 
 you can still see a little of the same range of mountains! There 
 are a great many old workings over there, and there is any 
 amount of gold and silver in those mountains, in fact, they say 
 there's no end to the riches there. But it is not an easy job to 
 get at them, for an old witch lives in those peaks. She owns it all, 
 and she broods on it like a dragon that's what they say, anyhow. 
 She is much richer than the king of Kongsberg, for once, when 
 the miners had dug out such a fearful lot of silver ore, the king 
 went into the mine and said to the people : 
 
 '"Well, I cannot stand this much longer! If you go on at 
 this rate I shall be a poor man. You will ruin me entirely. Why 
 don't you go over to my sister, Guri, in the Holleia-peaks ? She 
 is ten times richer than I.' " 
 
 " Guri must be a sister to the Egeberg king, then ? " I remarked. 
 
 "The Egeberg king! Who's he?" asked Peter. "He is from 
 Christiania, perhaps ? " 
 
 I told him the legend of the Egeberg king, and how he in 1814 
 had to move to his brother in Kongsberg, as he could not stand 
 all the noise and mining going on in his mountain. 
 
 "Ah well, he must be a brother to the witch I am speaking 
 about," added Peter in good faith. " I also have heard tell of one 
 who had to move because he couldn't stand the noise. But he 
 lived in these parts. Whether he was the husband of this Guri, 
 or somebody else, I don't know, but he was one of those who 
 lived in the mountain here and had a lot of riches. But this is 
 how it happened ! Just about the time they were beginning to 
 mine in the Skaugs moors, there lived a woman called Ronnau 
 Skaugen, over by the brook between Sognedale and Tyristrand. 
 One morning early, when she was standing by the brook rinsing 
 some clothes, she saw such a lot of silver things in the water
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 plates, dishes, spoons, ladles, and all sorts of fine things lying 
 at the bottom of the brook, glittering and shining in the sunshine. 
 
 When she saw all these riches, she almost lost her senses ; she ran 
 straight home for a tub to take them away in. But when she came 
 
 G 2
 
 84 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 back they were all gone, every one of them. There wasn't as much 
 as a silver sixpence left ; there was only the clear water which 
 glistened in the sun as it ran over the pebbles. Shortly afterwards 
 they began working the copper mines in the same neighbourhood, 
 and there was such a noise, firing and blasting, early and late, that 
 there was no peace at any time. Late one evening when Ronnau 
 had been down to the brook, she met a big man on a large black 
 horse. He had a whole row of carts after him loaded with all sorts 
 of household effects and furniture, and he had also some cows and 
 sheep with him. 
 
 " ' Good evening, Ronnau,' he said ; I am moving now.' 
 " ' So I see,' she answered ; ' but why are you leaving ? ' 
 " ' Oh, they are making such a noise in the mines here now, that 
 I feel as if my poor head were going to pieces. I can't stand it any 
 longer, so I am moving to my brother Tinn in Thelemarken. But 
 I say, Ronnau/ he asked suddenly, ' why did you want all my silver 
 things that time you saw them in the brook ? If you had been 
 satisfied with what you could have carried in your apron, you should 
 have had that.' 
 
 " Since that time," added Peter, " I have not heard of anybody 
 who has seen anything of this kind in our neighbourhood, either 
 because they have moved away from here or because they keep 
 themselves at home. Such witchcraft has no power now to show 
 itself, because the people don't believe in it any more." 
 
 "Yes, there is more truth in that than you think, my dear 
 friend," said the captain ; " people who know more than both you 
 and I, say the same. But for all that, you may still run the risk 
 of coming across some of them." 
 
 At the repeated requests of the captain, Peter continued to 
 divert us during the night with legends, tales, and stories about his 
 sporting adventures. Now and then the captain would treat us 
 to some of his own experiences on his hunting expeditions, which 
 generally contained some sarcastic reference to one or another of 
 the bears which Peter had missed, at which Peter always assumed 
 a curious grinning smile and scratched his ear. Sometimes he 
 would give me a sly wink with one of his eyes, which seemed to
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 85 
 
 say, " That was one for you, Peter Sandaker, put that in your pipe 
 and smoke it ! " 
 
 At midnight we lay down on a couple of benches in front of 
 the fire and refreshed ourselves with a short snooze. When we 
 awoke, Peter said it was time to make a start for the pairing- 
 ground of the capercailzies. It was a cold, sharp morning ; 
 there was a thin crust on the snow, so that it crackled beneath 
 our tread. The sky was, however, clear and blue, and a few white 
 clouds which were quietly drifting towards us from the south, 
 predicted an early end to the chilly night air. The moon stood 
 low on the horizon, and instead of lighting us on our nocturnal 
 expedition, it only threw a faint light on the distant hills and 
 the tops of the trees, while it created that mysterious twilight 
 between the tall fir trees which lengthens the shadows intermin- 
 ably, and calls forth ghostly figures between the trunks of the 
 trees, and makes the forest so mysterious, so deep and awe- 
 inspiring. 
 
 The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and 
 the solitude which reigned in the forest. 
 
 " There's the bird singing who is the first to wake up in the 
 morning," said Peter. " It won't be long now, before the whole 
 forest is alive and stirring ; we had better hurry on a bit." 
 
 " There's plenty of time, my dear Peter," said the captain ; 
 "the capercailzie plays best on the hill between here and the 
 Londals bog, and I don't think we shall have much of the play 
 this morning ; it is too cold." 
 
 " We shall have it much warmer towards the morning," answered 
 Peter rather positively ; " there is a southerly draught in the air, 
 and I think we shall have some fine play, as the nights have lately 
 been so chilly. When the sun rises we shall have some splendid 
 play. Only hear the woodcock, how he is roading ; he expects fine 
 weather. There is the snipe drumming also. We shall have it 
 fine !" he added, with an air of conviction. 
 
 We heard the peculiar note of the woodcock, which resembles 
 the repeated croaking of the frog, followed by a sharp hissing sound, 
 somewhat like the noisy chirping of the wagtail ; by the faint light
 
 86 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 of the setting moon we saw one shadow after the other of these 
 birds passing over the tops of the trees. We heard the unpleasant 
 braying of the snipe, now near to us, now far off, now high up 
 in the air, now right over our heads, and suddenly it seemed close 
 to our ears, now on all sides, still without our being able to catch 
 sight of the bird. But the shrill wild cry of the heron overpowered 
 the cries of all the other birds, whom it seemed to terrify ; they were 
 silent the moment they heard it, and a silence followed which made 
 the interruption doubly unpleasant. At this moment the woodlark 
 commenced his morning song with his clear ringing notes, which in 
 the darkness of the night reminded us of the bright approaching 
 dawn, and formed a cheerful contrast to the ghostly flight and un- 
 pleasant notes of the nocturnal birds. 
 
 " There goes the capercailzie bell, as the Swedes call this merry 
 little bird," said the captain. " As soon as he starts singing, the 
 capercailzie commences its morning hymn in its roosting-place. 
 Let us remain here a while ; we are not far away from the birds 
 that came to roost so late last night. By going nearer we 
 might easily frighten them away." 
 
 After having listened for a few minutes, we heard a capercailzie 
 playing a couple of hundred paces off. 
 
 " I almost think it is the fellow that came last and snapped his 
 beak," said Peter ; " I really wonder if he won't get a dressing. 
 The old one hasn't generally a short memory." 
 
 The captain gave me the choice of going in the direction where 
 we heard the bird playing, or of going more to the north where he 
 expected the younger birds were roosting. I chose the first, and 
 the captain went in a northerly direction. Peter and I quietly 
 approached the capercailzie, and carefully avoided making any 
 noise by treading on the snow or the dry crackling branches. 
 Every time we heard the bird commence the first part of his love- 
 song we stopped for a moment, but as soon as he had done the 
 gobble and began snapping his beak we advanced rapidly two or 
 three paces each time. When he went on with the first strain 
 again, and while he did the gobble, we remained of course motion- 
 less. When we in this manner had arrived within a distance of
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 forty or fifty paces from the tree where he was sitting, we heard 
 the flight of another bird, which settled down in the tree with a 
 great noise. The sound of clashing beaks and wings soon told us 
 
 that our old friend had paid the visit which Peter had predicted, 
 to the stranger, his rival, on the morning roost. During the fight, 
 we ran forward a few paces, but a heavy, rushing flight betokened 
 an easy victory, and the stranger flew away. All was- now quiet
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 for a time, but a hen was soon heard cackling, and immediately 
 the old capercailzie cock commenced playing ; he went through 
 the first part and did his gobble, but as soon as we moved a foot 
 to get nearer, he flew to another tree, where he commenced his 
 deceitful play anew. 
 
 " I thought as much," said Peter with some vexation. " Now he 
 is at it again ! It's no use whatever to stalk him ; one might as 
 well try to stalk the clouds. No, let us go more to the north ; 
 there are more birds thereabouts, and I dare say there is one 
 amongst them anyhow, who dares open his beak, although they 
 are all afraid of that beast there ! I wish Old Nick had him." 
 
 " Do you know where the old fellow plays at sunrise ? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes, of course I do," answered Peter ; " he plays in a fir tree on 
 a small knoll, just below here in the bog; but it is very difficult 
 to get a shot at him, because the tree is so very high." 
 
 " We will go there," said I ; " but since you think it advisable, 
 we will first go a little to the north." 
 
 We walked for some distance in this direction, but we did not 
 hear a single bird play. Peter wondered very much what could 
 have become of the birds, and came finally to the conclusion that 
 the fight had frightened them away, or given them such a scare 
 that they dared not open their mouths. 
 
 Just as the day was breaking we heard a report of a gun north 
 of Sandtjaern hill, where Peter told me the captain and he used 
 to have bear-bait set. This place was not far away from his 
 dairy on the mountains or from his home in Sognedale. Soon 
 afterwards we heard another report, which, like its predecessor, 
 Peter declared, came from the captain's gun. While we were 
 crossing the bog, on our way to the fir tree Peter had spoken of, 
 and whither he apparently went with little inclination, he broke 
 out afresh in lamentations over the bad sport we had had, and 
 kept on talking to himself in disjointed sentences, such as : " Only 
 a waste of powder, no, no, the captain is the right sort of man, 
 he is, he has got one, perhaps two, that wasn't Ander's shot at 
 all, that good-for-nothing gun of his, no, there is something 
 like a report in the captain's."
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 89 
 
 "Be comforted, Peter," said I, "perhaps we shall get the cock 
 of the walk here after all." 
 
 " You must know some queer trick or another then," answered 
 Peter ; " he is a sly, deep one, and he is shot-proof too, I can tell 
 you." 
 
 When we arrived at the knoll, after having crossed the frozen 
 bog, I took on account of the considerable distance at which the 
 bird would have to be shot at, if he, as we supposed, would settle 
 in the top of the fir tree the shot out of my gun, and loaded again 
 with a wire cartridge. 
 
 Peter looked at this operation, shook his head, and expressed 
 in the following words his want of confidence in it : 
 
 " And you think that will help ? " 
 
 " We shall see," I answered just as curtly. 
 
 The knoll on which we found ourselves appeared like a small 
 island in the big bog. On its summit towered aloft the fir tree 
 which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of wood- 
 peckers' holes. On the eastern side of the knoll was another fir 
 tree, which must have been just as majestic at one time, but was 
 now stooping forward over the bog ; the storms had broken its 
 top, and only a few of the lower, almost naked, branches were left, 
 which, like some brawny giant's arms, stretched themselves out 
 against the clear morning sky. The sun was rising ; it gilt the 
 hill tops and gradually threw its lustre over the dark pine torests 
 on the mountain slopes. But the Skjcersjo bog, which in a 
 southerly direction extended so far that the forest at its far end 
 could scarcely be distinguished in the blue hazy mist, was 
 still in the deepest shade. The woodcock, the snipe, and other 
 nocturnal birds were all gone to rest ; but the merry songsters of 
 the wood now filled the air with their jubilee; the nutcracker 
 began his monotonous clattering, the chaffinches and the wrens 
 sang high in the sky, the blackcock scolded and blustered 
 loudly, the thrush sang his mocking songs and libellous ditties 
 about everybody, but became occasionally a little sentimental 
 and warbled gently and bashfully some tender stanzas. On the 
 opposite side of the bog a capercailzie was playing in the top of a
 
 90 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 
 
 fir tree ; the hens were making themselves agreeable, and cackled 
 and snuffled their hoarse nasal sounds, which to the songbirds 
 would be as unattractive as an old lady's whisperings of girlish 
 love and soft words would be to us. 
 
 In the meantime we were hidden in a close juniper thicket on 
 the little knoll, and expected the capercailzie cock every moment ; 
 but our old friend tarried a long time in his harem. At last, just 
 as the sun was gilding the top of the fir tree, he came flying with a 
 heavy rushing sound, and settled, not in the tall fir tree above us, 
 but in the crestless fir, which was leaning over the bog. It was truly 
 a splendid bird a noble animal as it sat there against the sky on 
 the naked branch, with its shining, bright green breast glittering in 
 the sunlight A hen now came flying and settled in the tree above 
 our heads. At this moment the cock began to play ; he stuck out 
 his beard, trailed nis wings down by his legs, and made, with great 
 solemnity and wavelike motions of his neck, a few steps forward on 
 the branch, while he stuck up his tail and spread it out like a big 
 wheel. I was waiting with my finger on the trigger for the de- 
 cisive moment when he would spread out his wings for flight, and 
 thereby give me a much larger target, at which I at this long dis- 
 tance could make a surer shot. But while the hen continued her 
 cackle he finished his first play, and had commenced the gobble of 
 his second, when a twig cracked beneath my feet. The hen uttered 
 a sharp warning cry, but our old friend was in such an ecstasy, that 
 he took no notice of her well-meant warning, and was finishing his 
 love-song, when his faithful mistress flew straight at him, apparently 
 with the intention of pushing him off the branch. This recalled 
 him to his senses, and he spread his wings out to take flight ; but 
 my gun was up, and the mighty bird fell head foremost down on 
 the bog. It was an easy death ; he only flapped his wings once 
 or twice. 
 
 Peter ran and seized the bird. A look of surprise lighted up 
 his face, but this soon gave way to a pleased and admiring grin. 
 He shook his head and said : 
 
 " I shouldn't have believed it, even if the captain had told me 
 himself, for this is the right bird ; I know him by his bill such a
 
 A DAY WITH THE CAPERCAILZIES. 93 
 
 yellow, crooked, and thick beak has no other capercailzie hereabout. 
 Look how green he is on the breast, and how his feathers shine ! 
 And such a big heavy one!" exclaimed Peter, while he, with almost 
 childish joy, was weighing the bird in his hand. " I don't think I 
 am telling a lie when I say he weighs fifteen pounds. That was 
 a shot 1 But the captain will be glad ! Ho, ho, here we are ! " he 
 cried till it was re-echoed from all the hills around. The captain 
 soon made his appearance, followed by the boy and the hounds. 
 The captain and the boy carried each a capercailzie. 
 
 Peter lifted our prize triumphantly aloft and shouted, while they 
 yet were at some distance 
 
 " It is the old rascal, captain ! " 
 
 " What do you say ? " cried the captain, and came running 
 towards us. " Is it really the old one ? Now, that is a decent 
 day's work, which deserves a glass. Long live all republics of 
 birds ! Perish all tyrants ! " he exclaimed, as he took the bottle 
 and silver goblet out of his bag and drank to us. 
 
 " Was it not as I said, the captain would be pleased ?" said Peter 
 with a grin, as he winked with his eyes and took a good sup of the 
 goblet which was handed to him. " There will be different sport 
 about here now, when we have got rid of this devil of a bird." 
 
 After having exchanged accounts about our sport, the hounds 
 were let loose. They soon found scent, and away they went in 
 full cry. The echo repeated their baying over and over again 
 between the hills, and our hearts beat with rapture at this promising 
 sound of fine sport in the early sunny morning.
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there were five 
 women who were in a field reaping corn. 
 None of them had any children, but they 
 were all wishing for a child. All at once 
 they found a big goose egg, almost as 
 big as a man's head. 
 " I saw it first," said one. " I saw it just as soon as you did," 
 shouted another. " But I'll have it," screamed the third, " I saw 
 it first of all."
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 95 
 
 Thus they kept on quarrelling and fighting about the egg, and 
 they were very near tearing each other's hair. But at last they 
 agreed that it should belong to them all, and that they should sit 
 on it as the geese do and hatch a gosling. The first woman sat 
 on it for eight days, taking it very comfortably and doing nothing 
 at all, while the others had to work hard both for their own and 
 her living. One of the women began to make some insinuations 
 to her about this. 
 
 " Well, I suppose you didn't come out of the egg either before 
 you could chirp," said the woman who was on the egg. " But I 
 think there is something in this egg, for I fancy I can hear some one 
 inside grumbling every other 
 moment : ' Herring and soup ! 
 Porridge and milk ! ' You can 
 come and sit for eight days now, 
 and then we will sit and work 
 in turn, all of us." 
 
 So when the fifth in turn had 
 sat for eight days, she heard 
 plainly some one inside the egg 
 screeching for " Herring and 
 soup! Porridge and milk!" And 
 so she made a hole in it ; but 
 instead of a gosling out came a 
 
 baby, but it was awfully ugly, and had a big head and a tiny little 
 body. The first thing it screamed out for, as soon as it put its 
 head outside the egg, was " Herring and soup ! Porridge and milk!" 
 And so they called it " the greedy youngster." 
 
 Ugly as he was, they were fond of him at first ; but before long 
 he became so greedy that he ate up all the meat they had. When 
 they boiled a dish of soup or a pot of porridge which they thought 
 would be sufficient for all six, he finished it all by himself. So 
 they would not have him any longer. 
 
 " I have not had a decent meal since this changeling crept out 
 of the eggshell," said one of them, and when the youngster heard 
 that they were all of the same opinion, he said he was quite willing
 
 96 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 to go his way ; " if they did not want him, he was sure he did not 
 want them," and with that he left the place. 
 
 After a long time he came to a farm where the fields were 
 full of stones, and he went in and asked for a situation. They 
 wanted a labourer on the farm, and the farmer put him to pick 
 up stones from the field. Yes, the youngster went to work and 
 picked up the stones, some of which were so big that they would 
 make many cart-loads ; but whether they were big or small, he 
 put them all into his pocket. It did not take him long to finish 
 that job, so he wanted to know what he should do next. 
 
 " You will have to get all the stones out of the field," said 
 the farmer. " I suppose you can't be ready before you have 
 commenced ?" 
 
 But the youngster emptied his pockets and threw all the stones in 
 a heap. Then the farmer saw that he had finished the work, and 
 he thought he ought to look well after one who was so strong. He 
 must come in and get something to eat, he said. The youngster 
 thought so too, and he alone ate what was prepared both for master 
 and servants, and still he was only half satisfied. 
 
 " He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible 
 eater, to be sure," thought the farmer. " A man like him would 
 eat a poor farmer out of house and home before anybody knew a 
 word about it," he said. He had no more work for him ; it was 
 best for him to go to the king's palace. 
 
 The youngster set out for the palace, where he got a place at 
 once. There was plenty of food and plenty of work. He was to be 
 errand boy, and to help the girls to carry wood and water and do 
 other odd jobs. So he asked what he was to do first. 
 
 " You had better chop some wood in the meantime," they said. 
 Yes, he commenced to chop and cut wood till the splinters flew 
 about him. It was not long before he had chopped up everything 
 in the place, both fire-wood and t'mber, both rafters and beams, 
 and when he was ready with it, he came in and asked what he 
 was to do now. 
 
 " You can finish chopping the wood," they said. 
 
 " There is no more to chop," he answered.
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 97 
 
 That could not be possible, thought the overlooker, and had a 
 look into the wood-shed. But yes, the youngster had chopped up 
 everything ; he had even cut up the timber and planks in the 
 place. This was vexatious, the overlooker said ; and then he told 
 the youngster that he should not taste food until he had gone into 
 the forest and cut just as much timber as he had chopped up for 
 firewood. 
 
 The youngster went to the smithy and got the smith to help him 
 to make an axe of five hundredweight of iron, and then he set out 
 for the forest and began to make a regular clearance, not only of 
 the pine and the lofty fir trees, but of everything else which was to 
 be found in the king's forests, and in the neighbours' as well. He 
 did not stop to cut the branches or the tops off, but he left them 
 lying there as if a hurricane had blown them down. He put a 
 proper load on the sledge and put all the horses to it, but they 
 could not even move it ; so he took the horses by the heads to 
 give the sledge a start, but he pulled so hard that the horses' heads 
 came off. He then turned the horses out of the shafts and drew 
 the load himself. 
 
 When he came to the palace, the king and his overlooker were 
 standing in the hall to give him a scolding for having destroyed 
 the forest the overlooker had been there and seen what he had 
 been doing. But when the king saw the youngster dragging 
 half the forest after him, he got both angry and afraid ; but he 
 thought he had better be a little careful with him, since he was 
 strong. 
 
 " Well, you are a wonderful workman, to be sure," said the king ; 
 " but how much do you eat at a time, because I suppose you are 
 hungry now ? " 
 
 Oh, when he was to have a proper meal of porridge, it would 
 take twelve barrels of meal to make it, thought the youngster; but 
 when he had put that away, he could wait a while, of course, for 
 his next meal. 
 
 It took some time to boil such a dish of porridge, and meantime 
 he was to bring in a little firewood for the cook. He put a lot 
 of wood on a sledge, but when he was coming through the door 
 
 H
 
 98 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 with it, he was a little rough and careless again. The house got 
 almost out of shape, and all the joists creaked ; he was very near 
 dragging down the whole palace. When the porridge was nearly 
 ready, they sent him out to call the people home from the fields. He 
 shouted so that the mountains and hills around rang with echoes, 
 but the people did not come quick enough for him. He came to 
 blows with them, and killed twelve of them. 
 
 " You have killed twelve men," said the king ; " and you eat for 
 many times twelve ; but how many do you work for ? " 
 
 " For many times twelve as well," answered the youngster. 
 
 When he had finished his porridge, he was to go into the barn 
 to thrash. He took one of the rafters from the roof and made a 
 flail out of it, and when the roof was about to fall in, he took a big 
 pine tree with branches and all and put it up instead of the rafter. 
 So he went on thrashing the grain and the straw and the hay 
 all together. This was doing more damage than good, for the corn 
 and the chaff flew about together, and a cloud of dust arose over 
 the whole palace. 
 
 When he had nearly finished thrashing, enemies came into 
 the country, as a war was coming on. So the king told the 
 youngster that he should take men with him to go and meet 
 the enemy and fight them, for the king thought they would surely 
 kill him. 
 
 No, he would not have any men with him to be cut to pieces ; 
 he would fight by himself, answered the youngster. 
 
 " So much the better," thought the king ; " the sooner I shall 
 get rid of him ; but he must have a proper club." 
 
 They sent for the smith ; he forged a club which weighed a 
 hundredweight. "A very nice thing to crack nuts with," said the 
 youngster. So the smith made one of three hundredweight. " It 
 would do very well for hammering nails into boots," was the answer 
 Well, the smith could not make a bigger one with the men he had. 
 So the youngster set out for the smithy himself, and made a club 
 that weighed five tons, and it took a hundred men to turn it on 
 the anvil. " That one might do for lack of a better," thought the 
 youngster. He wanted next a bag with some provisions; they
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 99 
 
 had to make one out of fifteen oxhides, and they filled it with food, 
 and away he went down the hill with the bag on his back and the 
 club on his shoulder. 
 
 When he came so far that the enemy saw him, they sent a 
 soldier to ask him if he was going to fight them. 
 
 " Yes ; but wait a little till I have had something to eat," said 
 the youngster. He threw himself down on the grass and began to 
 eat with the big bag of food in front of him. 
 
 But the enemy would not wait, and commenced to fire at him at 
 once, till it rained and hailed around him with bullets. 
 
 " I don't mind these crowberries a bit," said the youngster, and 
 went on eating harder than ever. Neither lead nor iron took any 
 effect upon him, and his bag with food in front of him guarded 
 him against the bullets as if it were a rampart. 
 
 So they commenced throwing bomb-shells and firing cannons at 
 him. He only grinned a little every time he felt them. 
 
 " They don't hurt me a bit," he said. But just then he got a 
 bomb-shell right down his windpipe. 
 
 " Fy ! " he shouted, and spat it out again ; but then a chain-shot 
 made its way into his butter- can, and another carried away the 
 piece of food he held between his fingers. 
 
 That made him angry ; he got up and took his big club and 
 struck the ground with it, asking them if they wanted to take the 
 food out of his mouth, and what they meant by blowing crow- 
 berries at him with those pea-shooters of theirs. He then 
 struck the ground again till the hills and rocks rattled and 
 shook, and sent the enemy flying in the air like chaff. This 
 finished the war. 
 
 When he came home again, and asked for more work, the 
 king was taken quite aback, for he thought he should have got rid 
 of him in the war. He knew of nothing else but to send him on 
 a message to the devil. 
 
 " You had better go to the devil and ask him for my ground- 
 rent, "he said. The youngster took his bag on his back, and started 
 at once. He was not long in getting there, but the devil was gone 
 to court, and there was no one at home but his mother, and she 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 said that she had never heard talk of any ground-rent. He had 
 better call again another time. 
 
 " Yes, call again to-morrow is always the cry," he said ; but he 
 was not going to be made a fool of, he told her. He was there, and 
 there he would remain till he got the ground-rent. He had plenty 
 of time to wait. But when he had finished all the food in his bag, 
 the time hung heavy on his hands, and then he asked the old lady 
 for the ground-rent again. She had better pay it now, he said. 
 
 " No, she was going to do nothing of the sort," she said. Her 
 words were as firm as the old fir tree just outside the gates, which 
 was so big that fifteen men could scarcely span it. 
 
 But the youngster climbed right up in the top of it and twisted 
 and turned it as if it was a willow, and then he asked her if she 
 was going to pay the ground-rent now. 
 
 Yes, she dared not do anything else, and scraped together as 
 much money as he thought he could carry in his bag. He then 
 set out for home with the ground-rent, but as soon as he was 
 gone, the devil came home. When he heard that the youngster had 
 gone off with his bag full of money, he first of all gave his mother 
 a hiding, and then he started after him, thinking he would soon 
 overtake him. 
 
 He soon came up to him, for he had nothing to carry, and now 
 and then he used his wings; but the youngster had of course to keep 
 to the ground with his heavy bag. Just as the devil was at his 
 heels, he began to jump and run as fast as he could. He kept his 
 club behind him to keep the devil off, and thus they went along > 
 the youngster holding the handle and the devil trying to catch hold 
 of the other end of it, till they came to a deep valley. There the 
 youngster made a jump across from the top of one hill to the other, 
 and the devil was in such a hurry to follow him that he ran his 
 head against the club and fell down into the valley and broke his 
 leg, and there he lay. 
 
 " There is the ground-rent," said the youngster when he came to 
 the palace, and threw the bag with the money to the king with 
 such a crash that you could hear it all over the hall. 
 
 The king thanked him, and appeared to be well pleased, and
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 101 
 
 promised him good pay and leave of absence if he wished it, but 
 the youngster wanted only more work. 
 
 " What shall I do now ? he said. 
 
 As soon as the king had had time to consider, he told him that 
 he must go the hill-troll, who had taken his grandfather's sword. 
 The troll had a castle by the sea, where no one dared to go. 
 
 The youngster put some cartloads of food into his bag and set out 
 again. He travelled both long and far, over woods and hills and 
 wild moors, till he came to the big mountains where the troll, who 
 had taken the sword of the king's grandfather, was living. 
 
 But the troll seldom came out in the open air, and the moun- 
 tain was well closed, so the youngster was not man enough to get 
 inside. 
 
 So he joined a gang of quarrymen who were living at a farm on 
 top of the hill, and who were quarrying stones in the hills about 
 there. They had never had such help before, for he broke and 
 hammered away at the rocks till the mountain cracked, and big 
 stones of the size of a house rolled down the hill. But when he 
 rested to get his dinner, for which he was going to have one of the 
 cartloads in his bag, he found it was all eaten up. 
 
 " I have generally a good appetite myself," said the youngster ; 
 " but the one who has been here can do a trifle more than I, for he 
 has eaten all the bones as well." 
 
 Thus the first day passed ; and he fared no better the second. 
 On the third day he set out to break stones again, taking with him 
 the third load of food ; but he lay down behind the bag and pre- 
 tended to be asleep. All of a sudden, a troll with seven heads 
 came out of the mountain and began to eat his food. 
 
 " It's all ready for me here, and I will eat," said the troll. 
 
 " We will see about that," said the youngster, and hit the troll 
 with his club, so the heads rolled down the hill. 
 
 So he went into the mountain which the troll had come out of, 
 and in there stood a horse eating out of a barrel of glowing 
 cinders, and behind it stood a barrel of oats. 
 
 " Why don't you eat out of the barrel of oats ? " asked the 
 youngster.
 
 io2 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 " Because I cannot turn round," said the horse. 
 
 " But I will soon turn you round," said the youngster. 
 
 " Rather cut my head off," said the horse. 
 
 So he cut its head off, and the horse turned into a fine handsome 
 fellow. He said he had been bewitched, and taken into the moun- 
 tain and turned into a horse by the troll. He then helped the 
 youngster to find the sword, which the troll had hidden at the 
 bottom of the bed, and in the bed lay the old mother of the troll, 
 asleep and snoring hard. 
 
 So they set out for home by water, but when they had got some 
 distance out to sea the old mother came after them. As she 
 could not overtake them, she lay down and began to drink the sea, 
 and she drank till the water fell ; but she could not drink the sea 
 dry, and so she burst. 
 
 When they came to land, the youngster sent word that the king 
 must come and fetch the sword. He sent four horses, but no, 
 they could not move it ; he sent eight, and he sent twelve ; but the 
 sword remained where it was. They were not able to stir it from 
 the spot. But the youngster took it and carried it up to the palace 
 alone. 
 
 The king could not believe his eyes when he saw the youngster 
 back again. He appeared however to be pleased to see him, and 
 promised him land and riches. When the youngster wanted more 
 work, the king said he might set out for an enchanted castle he 
 had, where no one dared to live, and he would have to stop there 
 till he had built a bridge over the sound, so that people couhl 
 get across to the castle. 
 
 If he was able to do this he would reward him handsomely, yes, 
 he would even give him his daughter in marriage, said he. 
 
 " Well, I think I can do it," said the youngster. 
 
 No one had ever got away alive ; those who had got as far as 
 the castle, lay there killed and torn to pieces as small as barley, 
 and the king thought he should never see him any more if he 
 would go thither. 
 
 But the youngster started on his expedition ; he took with him 
 the bag of food, a crooked, twisted block of a fir tree, an axe, a
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 103 
 
 wedge, and some chips of the fir root, and the small pauper boy 
 at the palace. 
 
 When he came to the sound, he found the river full of ice, and 
 the current ran as strong as in a waterfall ; but he stuck his legs 
 to the bottom of the river and waded till he got safe across. 
 
 When he had warmed himself and had something to eat, he 
 wanted to go to sleep, but before long he heard such a terrible 
 noise, as if they were turning the castle upside down. The door 
 burst wide open, and he saw nothing but a gaping jaw extending 
 from the threshold up to the lintel. 
 
 " There is a mouthful for you," said the youngster, and threw the 
 pauper boy into the swallow ; " taste that ! But let me see now 
 who you are ! Perhaps you are an old acquaintance ? " 
 
 And so it was ; it was the devil who was about again. 
 
 They began to play cards, for the devil wanted to try and win 
 back some of the ground-rent which the youngster had got out of 
 his mother by threats, when he was sent by the king to collect it ; 
 but the youngster was always the fortunate one, for he put a cross 
 on the back of all the good cards, and when he had won all the 
 money which the devil had upon him, the devil had to pay him out 
 of the gold and silver which was in the castle. 
 
 Suddenly the fire went out, so they could not tell the one card 
 from the other. 
 
 " We must chop some wood now," said the youngster, who drove 
 the axe into the fir block, and forced the wedge in ; but the twisted, 
 knotty block would not split, although the youngster worked as 
 hard as he could with the axe. 
 
 "They say you are strong," he said to the devil ; "just spit on 
 your hands, stick your claws in, and tear away, and let me see what 
 you are made of." 
 
 The devil did so, and put both his fists into the split and pulled 
 as hard as he could, when the youngster suddenly struck the wedge 
 out, and the devil stuck fast in the block and the youngster let him 
 also have a taste of the butt end of his axe on his back. The 
 devil begged and prayed so nicely to be let loose, but the youngster 
 would not listen to anything of the kind unless he promised that
 
 104 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 he would never come there any more and create any disturbance. 
 He also had to promise that he would build a bridge over the 
 sound, so that people could pass over it at all times of the year, and 
 it should be ready when the ice was gone. 
 
 " They are very hard conditions," said the devil ; but there was 
 no other way out of it if the devil wanted to be set free, he 
 would have to promise it. He bargained, however, that he should 
 have the first soul that went across the bridge. That was to be 
 the toll. 
 
 Yes, he should have that, said the youngster. So the devil was 
 let loose, and he started home. But the youngster lay down to 
 sleep, and slept till far into the day. 
 
 When the king came to see if he was cut and chopped into 
 small pieces, he had to wade through all the money before he came 
 to his bedside. There was money in heaps and in bags wh'ch 
 reached far up the wall, and the youngster lay in bed asleep and 
 snoring hard. 
 
 " Lord help me and my daughter," said the king when he saw 
 that the youngster was alive. Well, all was good and well done, 
 that no one could deny; but there was no hurry talking of the 
 wedding before the bridge was ready. 
 
 One day the bridge stood ready, and the devil was there waiting 
 for the toll which he had bargained for. 
 
 The youngster wanted the king to go with him and try the 
 bridge, but the king had no mind to do it. So he mounted a 
 horse himself, and put the fat dairy-maid in the palace on the 
 pommel in front of him ; she looked almost like a big fir block, 
 and so he rode over the bridge, which thundered under the 
 horse's feet. 
 
 " Where is the toll ? Where have you got the soul ? " cried the 
 devil. 
 
 " Why, inside this fir-block," said the youngster ; " if you want 
 it you will have to spit in your hands and take it." 
 
 " No, many thanks ! if she does not come to me, I am sure I 
 sha'n't take her," said the devil. " You got me once into a pinch, 
 and I'll take care you don't get me into another," and with that he
 
 THE GREEDY YOUNGSTER. 
 
 107 
 
 flew straight home to his old mother, and since that time he has 
 never been heard or seen thereabouts. 
 
 The youngster went home to the palace and asked for the reward 
 the king had promised him, and when the king wanted to get out 
 of it, and would not stick to what he had promised, the youngster 
 said it was best he got a good bag of food ready for him, and he 
 would take his reward himself. 
 
 Yes, the king would see to that, and when the bag was ready 
 the youngster asked the king to come outside the door. The 
 youngster then gave the king such a kick, which sent him flying 
 up in the air. The bag he threw after him that he might not be 
 without food, and if he has not come down again by this, he is 
 floating about with his bag between heaven and earth to this 
 very day.
 
 THE SEVEN FATHERS IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 THERE was once upon a time a 
 man who was travelling about, and 
 he came at length to a big and fine 
 farm ; it was such a fine mansion that 
 it might well have been a little palace. 
 <f It would be a nice thing to get a 
 night's rest here," said the man to 
 himself, when he came inside the gate. 
 Close by stood an old man with grey 
 hair and beard, and chopped wood. 
 "Good evening, father," said the 
 traveller; "can I get lodgings here 
 to-night ? " " I am not the father in 
 the house," said the old man, "go into 
 the kitchen and speak to my father ! " 
 The traveller went into the kitchen ; there he met a man who was 
 still older, and he was lying on his knees in front of the hearth,
 
 THE SEVEN FATHERS IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 109 
 
 blowing into the fire. " Good evening, father ; can I get lodgings 
 here to-night ? " asked the traveller. " I am not the father in the 
 house," said the old man ; " but go in and speak to my father ; he 
 is sitting by the table in the parlour." So the traveller went into 
 the parlour and spoke 
 to him who was sitting 
 by the table ; he was 
 much older than the 
 other two, and he sat 
 there with chattering 
 teeth, shaking, and read- 
 ing in a big book, al- 
 most like a little child. 
 " Good evening, father ; 
 can you give me lodg- 
 ings here to-night? "said 
 the man. "I am not 
 the father in the house ; 
 but speak to my father 
 over there, he who sits 
 on the bench," said the 
 man who was sitting at 
 the table with chatter- 
 ing teeth, and shaking 
 and shivering. So the 
 traveller went to him 
 who was sitting on the 
 bench ; he was getting 
 a pipe of tobacco ready; 
 but he was so bent with 
 age, and his hands shook so much, that he was scarcely able to hold 
 the pipe. " Good evening, father," said the traveller again ; " can I 
 get lodgings here to-night ? " " I am not the father in the house," 
 said the old, bent-up man ; " but speak to my father, who is in the 
 bed over yonder. " The traveller went to the bed, and there lay an 
 old, old man, and the only th : ng about him that seemed to b~ alive 
 
 \
 
 110 
 
 THE SEVEN FATHERS IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 was a pair of big eyes. " Good evening, father ; can I get lodgings 
 here to-night ? " said the traveller. " I am not the father in the 
 house ; but speak to my father, who lies in the cradle yonder," 
 said the man with the big eyes. Yes, the traveller went to the 
 cradle ; there was a very old man lying, so shrivelled up, that he 
 was not larger than a baby, and one could not have told that there 
 was life in him if it had not been for a sound in his throat now and 
 then. " Good evening, father ; can I get lodgings here to-night ? " 
 said the man. It took some time before he got an answer, and still 
 longer before he had finished it ; he said, like the others, that he 
 
 was not the father in the house ; 
 " But speak to my father ; he is 
 hanging up in the horn against the 
 wall there." The traveller stared 
 round the walls, and at last he 
 caught sight of the horn ; but when 
 he looked for him who hung in it, 
 there was scarcely anything to be 
 seen but a lump of white ashes, 
 which had the appearance of a 
 man's face. Then he was so 
 frightened, that he cried aloud : 
 " Good evening, father ; will you 
 give me lodgings here to-night ? " 
 There was a sound like a little tom- 
 tit's chirping, but it was no more 
 
 than he was just able to understand that it meant, " Yes, my 
 child." And now a table came in which was covered with the 
 costliest dishes, with ale and brancly; and when he had eaten and 
 drunk, in came a good bed with reindeer skins, and the traveller 
 was very glad indeed that he at last had found the right father 
 in the house.
 
 BRAVE OLD BRUIN. 
 
 
 .- ,' -rvr ; 
 
 5 i 
 
 ONCE upon a time there \vas a farmer 
 who went up into the hills for a load 
 of leaves for his cattle in the winter. 
 When he came to the heap of leaves 
 he backed the horse and sledge close 
 to it and went to the other side to 
 throw the layers of leaves on to the 
 sledge. But under the heap there was 
 a bear, who had made his lair there for 
 the winter, and when he felt some one 
 stirring round about him, he made a 
 jump and came right out on to the 
 sledge. When the horse got wind of 
 Bruin he was frightened and ran off, as 
 if he had stolen both the bear and the sledge, and away they went 
 down the hill ten times as fast as they came up. Bruin has the 
 name of being a brave fellow, but this time I am afraid he felt 
 somewhat frightened as he sat there on the sledge. He stuck to it 
 as well as he could, but gave a timid look round nov and then to-
 
 ii2 BRAVE OLD BRUIN. 
 
 see if there were any place where he could throw himself off with 
 safety ; but he was not used to sledge-driving, and he thought he 
 had better not risk it. 
 
 When he had driven some distance he met a pedlar. 
 
 " Where is the sher.ff off to, to-day ? " said the pedlar ; " he must 
 have a long way and little time, since he is driving so fast." 
 
 But Bruin did not say a word, for he had more than enough to 
 do to hold on. In a little while he met a beggar-woman. She 
 greeted him, nodded her head, and begged for a penny in God's 
 name. Bruin said nothing, but stuck to the sledge, and away he 
 went as fast as ever. When he came a little further down the road 
 he met Reynard the Fox. 
 
 " Hallo, are you out taking a drive ? " shouted Reynard. " Wait 
 a bit ; let me sit behind, and be your postboy!" Bruin made no 
 reply, but held on to the sledge, and the horse ran as fast as his 
 legs would carry him. "All right!" shouted Reynard after him, 
 "if you won't take me with you I tell you this, that although you 
 drive like a travelling gent to-day, all in your furs, you'll hang to- 
 morrow with' your back bare ! " Bruin did not hear a word of what 
 Reynard said ; he never stopped a moment. But when the horse 
 came into the farmyard, he galloped right through the stable door 
 at such a speed, that he left both harness and sledge behind ; and 
 Bruin why he knocked his skull against the top of the door, and 
 there he lay, dead on the spot. 
 
 In the meantime the farmer went on turning over the one layer 
 of leaves after the other, till he thought he had loaded his sledge ; 
 but when he came round to tie the rope round the load, he saw 
 neither horse nor sledge. So he had to tramp along the road 
 looking for his horse. 
 
 In a while he met the pedlar. " Have you met any horse and 
 sledge?" said the farmer to the pedlar. "No," said the pedlar, 
 " but I met the sheriff down the road. He was in such a hurry, he 
 was surely going to serve a writ on some one." Shortly he met a 
 beggar-woman. " Have you seen any horse and sledge on the 
 road ? " he said to the beggar-woman. " No," said the beggar-woman, 
 " but I met the parson down below here ; he was surely going to
 
 BRAVE OLD BRUIN. 113 
 
 some sick person who was dying, for he travelled so fast, and he 
 was driving in a common sledge." In a while the farmer met the 
 fox, " Have you seen any horse and sledge ? " asked the farmer. 
 " Yes," answered Reynard, " but old Bruin sat on the sledge and 
 drove just as if he had stolen both horse and turn-out." "Bad 
 luck to him, the rascal ! " said the farmer. " I suppose he will 
 drive my horse to death." " If he does, take and skin him and 
 roast him on the cinders," said Reynard ; " but if you should get 
 your horse back again, you might give me a ride over the mountain 
 one day ; I have such a mind to try what it's like to have four 
 legs before me." "What will you give for the lift? "asked the 
 farmer. " Oh, anything you like, wet or dry," said the fox ; 
 "you'll always get as much out of me as of old Bruin, for he is 
 generally a rough fellow to deal with, when he goes a-driving and 
 sticks to the horse's back." " Well, yes ! you shall have a lift over 
 the mountain," said the farmer, " if you'll meet me here to-morrow 
 about this time." He guessed that Reynard was going to make a 
 fool of him and play off some of his tricks upon him ; so he took a 
 loaded gun with him in the sledge next day, and when Reynard 
 came, thinking to get the drive promised him for nothing, he got a 
 charge of shot in his body. The farmer flayed him as he had 
 the bear, and so he had both bear-skin and fox-skin.
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 REYNARD had been ringed and shot ; his funeral was celebrated 
 at the bailiff's, and in the evening the festivities wound up with a 
 dance. In consideration of the day's work, the acquired glory, and 
 the five miles' journey I had before me, we got permission to break 
 up soon after eleven, and the bailiff offered me in the bargain a 
 horse and sledge. It was an offer worthy of all honour ; but as the 
 road was twice as long as the way I had come on my snowshoes I 
 preferred this direct route, and with the fox and the gun on my 
 back, and the staff in my hand, I set out homewards. The snow 
 was in splendid condition for my mode of travelling ; there had 
 been a little sunshine during the day and the chill of the evening

 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 117 
 
 had formed a light crust on the deep snow ; the moon shone 
 brightly, and the stars were twinkling in the sky. 
 
 What more could I desire ? Away I went, down the hills, over 
 the fields, and through the woods, past the erect, silvery beech- 
 trees, the crowns of which formed lofty, sparkling domes of a white, 
 glistening tissue, under which the owls sat relating their terrible 
 stories in the peaceful night. The hare cried and complained of 
 the terrible February cold and the disgusting chatter of the owls ; 
 the fox was out on Icve-adventures, abused his rivals, and uttered 
 scoffing screams and howls. 
 
 I kept on the side of the parish road for some distance, and 
 then a person in a big fur-coat and driving in a sledge came up 
 with me. Seeing by the gun and the fox, which I carried on my 
 back, that I was a sportsman, he entered into conversation with me. 
 If I hurried down to the river, he said, I should be sure to fall in 
 with a pack of wolves, for just as he was driving up the hill close 
 to the sound, they started up the river on the ice. I thanked him 
 for the information, and made for the river, and came out at a 
 point where a pine wood stretched itself down to the river's edge, 
 and prevented a full view of the river. I saw no signs of the 
 wolves. I rushed, however, down the hill on my snow-shoes, 
 sweeping through the wood in the shadow of the pine-trees, with 
 the protruding alder branches continually slapping me in the face. 
 It was impossible for me to distinguish any object, as I sped on 
 with the swiftness of an arrow, and before I knew where I was I 
 had run against the stump of a tree. I lay with my head buried 
 in the snow, and with one of my snowshoes broken. 
 
 When I got on my feet, I felt such a pain in one of my legs that 
 I could scarcely stand. I crept about on my knees for some time 
 till I at last found my gun, which was buried in the snow. I had 
 scarcely lain down in wait near the bank of the river, before the 
 pack of wolves came leisurely along on the ice ; there were five of 
 them altogether. I waited with a sportsman's impatience ; when 
 they were about forty paces distant, I put my gun up and fired, 
 first one barrel, which missed fire, and then the other, which went 
 off; but the bullet hit the tops of the pine trees on the. other side
 
 n8 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 of the river, and the wolves set off at full speed with their tails 
 straight out behind them. 
 
 I rose rather annoyed ; the pain in my leg had grown more in- 
 tense ; but with the help of my gun as a stick, I dragged myself out 
 on the river to see whereabouts I really was. To my great joy I saw 
 a column of smoke ascending between the tops of the trees on the 
 opposite bank, and I also discovered a roof of a cottage amid the 
 pines. I knew the place now, it was Tuppenhaug, a small farm 
 held by a tenant on the estate where I lived at that time. With 
 great difficulty I crawled up the steep incline, which might have 
 been a couple of hundred paces in length, and had the satisfaction 
 to see the light from a big fire shining through the windows, I 
 limped towards the door, raised the latch, and entered the room, 
 just as I was, covered all over with snow. 
 
 " Bless me, who can that be ! " cried old Mother Bertha in a 
 great fright, and dropped a leg of dried mutton which she had on 
 her knee. She was sitting on a small stool in front of the fire, 
 cutting herself some slices off the mutton. 
 
 " Good evening, Bertha," I said ; " don't be afraid ! You know 
 me, I think ! " 
 
 " Ah, is it the student, who is out so late ? I really was fright- 
 ened ; you looked so white, with all that snow on you, and it's so 
 late," answered old Bertha, and rose from her seat. 
 
 I told her of my mishap, and asked her to call one of the lads 
 and send him up to the house for a horse and sledge. 
 
 " Well, it is, as I say, that the wolves take their revenge," she 
 muttered to herself. " They wouldn't believe it when they chased 
 and ringed them last year, and Peter broke his leg ; now he knows 
 that they take their revenge/' 
 
 " Some of the neighbours have been carting timber from the 
 river lately," she continued, as she went over to the bed in the 
 corner of the room, where the family lay sleeping and snoring in 
 chorus, " so there is a good road across the fields on the snow. 
 Here, Little Ola, get up and go for a horse for the student ! Don't 
 you hear, Ola!" 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " said Little Ola through his nose, and began putting
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 119 
 
 his clothes on. He enjoyed a good sleep too well to be so easily 
 disturbed. He never had done rubbing his eyes, gaping, gasping, 
 and asking silly questions, before he managed to extricate himself 
 from the entangled bed-clothes and specimens of humanity in the 
 bed, and got his trousers and jacket on, and before he could really 
 understand what he was to do. The promise of a sixpence seemed, 
 however, to impart some clearness to his comprehension and even 
 
 dispel his fear at the thought of passing the birch-tree on the 
 road where Ole Askerud hung himself. While this was going on 
 between the white-haired Ola and old Bertha, I took a survey of 
 the room and its contents looms, spinning wheels, chairs, brooms, 
 buckets and half-finished axe-handles, the hens on their perch be- 
 hind the door, the old musket under the roof, the long poles under 
 the rafters groaning under the weight of steaming stockings, and
 
 120 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 hundreds of other things, which I will not tire my readers by 
 enumerating. 
 
 When the boy at last was gone, old Bertha seated herself again 
 by the hearth. She was in her holiday dress, the one worn by old 
 people in her native district Hadeland, where she came from when 
 she moved to Romerike a blue jacket trimmed with braid, black 
 kiited skirt, and cap with ruffles and bows. Her sharp immovable 
 eyes with irregular pupils, her projecting chin, her broad nose, and 
 her yellow complexion gave Bertha's face a strange, Oriental, 
 almost witchlike appearance ; and this was not to be wondered at, 
 because she was considered the first wise woman for a good many 
 miles around. 
 
 I wondered that she still was up, and I asked if she expected 
 visitors, since she had her best clothes on. 
 
 " No, not that exactly," she answered, " but I have been up in 
 Ullensogn to see to a woman who suffered from a wasting disease, 
 and from that place I was fetched to a youngster who had the 
 rickets. I had to read and melt lead over that child. I have 
 only just returned home, although they drove me as far as the 
 innkeeper's." 
 
 " But if I recollect rightly, Bertha, you can cure sprains as 
 well ? " I asked, as seriously as possible. 
 
 "Oh yes, I think I can, for Siri, our neighbour, didn't get 
 well before I came to her, although the doctor and Mother Kari, 
 on the farm just below here, had been experimenting on her leg," 
 she said with a wicked expression; "and if you think it will do 
 any good," she continued, with a suspicious look, " I don't think it 
 would hurt your foot to read over a little brandy and put on it." 
 
 " Yes, do so, Bertha, read over the brandy and try it ; it's sure 
 to do me good," I said, hoping to become initiated into one or 
 other of the mysteries of the art of healing by magic. Bertha 
 fetched a square, bluish-looking flask, and a glass with a wooden 
 stem, from her flower-painted cupboard, poured out the brandy, put 
 the glass on the hearth by her side, buttoned up my snow socks, 
 and pulled my boot off. She then began making crosses over the 
 brandy and whispering into it, but as she was rather deaf herself,
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 121 
 
 she did not adjust her voice to my car, and so I heard the whole 
 formula : 
 
 " As I was riding through a gate, 
 My black horse chanced to get a sprain, 
 Flesh placed 'gainst flesh, and blood 'gainst blood 
 Have made my black horse well again." 
 
 Her voice now subsided to an inaudible whisper. The end of the 
 verse consisted of a repetition of the word " fy, " which she hurled 
 to the four corners of the world. 
 
 During the height of this incantation she had risen from her seat ; 
 now she sat down again by the hearth. The cold brandy, which 
 she now poured over my foot, had a pleasant cooling effect. 
 
 " I think it has already done me good, Bertha," said I ; " but 
 tell me, what was that you read over the brandy ? " 
 
 " No, I dare not tell you that, for you might tell the parson 
 and the doctor," she said with a sly grin, which apparently meant 
 that she did not care much for either of them; "and I had to 
 promise the one who taught it to me that I would not tell any 
 human being except my own kin. I have sworn to it with such a 
 frightful oath, that I hope I shall never utter anything so frightful 
 again." 
 
 " Well, there is no use asking you any more about that, Bertha," 
 said I, "but I suppose it's no secret, who taught you the art ? He 
 must have been a regular sorcerer." 
 
 " Yes, you are quite right there ; he was a regular sorcerer he 
 was my mother's own brother, Mads in Hurdale," she answered. 
 " He could read over and cure all sorts of ailments and sprains, 
 stop bleeding, melt lead, and tell of stolen goods ; and to tell the 
 truth, he knew also a little about witchcraft, and could afflict people 
 with evil. It was he who taught me ! But wise as he was, he could 
 not protect himself 'gainst witchcraft for all that ! " 
 
 " How?" I asked, "was he bewitched then? Was he possessed?" 
 
 " No, not exactly," answered Bertha. " But something happened 
 to him, and afterwards he seemed to be quite another man for 
 some time. He must have been spellbound by the huldre. You
 
 122 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 don't think it's true, I suppose," she said with a searching look ; 
 " but it was my mother's brother, as I told you, and I have heard 
 him tell it and swear to it over a hundred times." 
 
 " He lived at Knee, in Hurdale, and he was often up in the 
 mountain cutting wood and timber, and when he was up there, he 
 used to live there altogether ; he built himself a hut of pine 
 branches, and lighted a fire in front of it at night, and there he 
 used to sleep. He and two others were once living thus in the 
 forest. He had just felled a big tree, and sat resting himself on 
 it, when a ball of worsted came rolling down a bare part of the 
 rock right before his feet. He thought it was very strange ; he 
 was afraid to pick up the ball. It would have been a good thing 
 for him if he never had touched it. But he looked up the moun- 
 tain, as he wanted to see where it came from, and on the top 
 of a rock sat a lassie and sewed. She was so fair and so lovely 
 that the air seemed to shine round her. 
 
 "Bring me that ball of worsted," she said. He did so, and 
 remained standing near her and looking at hen He thought he 
 never should tire looking at her; she seemed so lovely to him. 
 But he had to take his axe at last and begin cutting trees again. 
 When he had been working away for some time, he looked up, 
 but then she was gone. He could not help thinking of her all 
 day ;*it seemed very strange to him, and he did not know what 
 to think about it. But when the evening came, and he and his 
 two comrades were going to bed, he wanted to lie between them ; 
 but there was not much help in that, I should say, for during 
 the night the huldre came and took him away with her. He 
 had to go, whether he liked or not. So they came into the moun- 
 tain, where he found everything so splendid that he had never seen 
 anything so grand before, and he never could describe it properly. 
 He was three days with the huldre. The third night he awoke 
 and found himself in bed between his two comrades again. They 
 thought he had been home for provisions, and he told them he had 
 done so. But he was not quite in his right senses afterwards ; just 
 as he was sitting down, he would jump up and run away ; he was 
 spellbound, I can tell you.
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 125 
 
 '* But a good while after that he was up in the wood busy cutting 
 up some materials for fencing. He was driving a wedge into a big 
 log, when, as he thought, his wife came up to him with his dinner. 
 It was cream porridge, floating in butter. She brought it in a pail, 
 which was so bright that it shone like silver. She sat down on the 
 log, while he put his axe aside and seated himself on a stump near 
 her ; but he then discovered that there was a cow's tail hanging 
 down into the cleft in the log. 
 
 " Now you may easily suppose that he did not touch the por- 
 ridge, but he sat laughing and playing with the wedge, until it 
 came out and the tail was nipped by the log, and at the same time 
 he wrote a sacred name on the pail. 
 
 " But the huldre took to her heels then, you may be sure ; she 
 jumped up in such a hurry that the tail came right off and stuck in 
 the log, and she was gone, he did not see what became of her. 
 The pail was only of bark, and there was nothing but dirt in it. 
 Since that time he scarcely ever dared to go out in the wood, for 
 he was afraid she would have her revenge upon him. 
 
 " But four or five years after that, a horse of his ran away from 
 the farm, and he had to go himself and look for it. All of a 
 sudden, while he was walking through the forest, he found himself 
 inside a hut with some people, but he never knew how he came 
 there. An ugly old hag was walking about the room tidying it 
 up, and in a corner sat a child, who might be about four years old. 
 The woman took the beer-tankard and went over to the child with 
 it and said : ' Go and give your father a drink ! ' He got so 
 frightened that he took to his heels, and since he has never seen 
 or heard of her or the youngster ; but he was always queer and 
 confused after that." 
 
 " Yes, but he must have been a fool, that Mads," I said, " he 
 couldn't have been much of a wise man, since he couldn't mind 
 himself better. But that about the ball of grey worsted was very 
 amusing." 
 
 Bertha thought so also, but such a wise man as Mads was could 
 not, however, be found for many miles around. While we were 
 sitting and chatting about this, I asked Bertha to bring me my
 
 126 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 game-bag, and when I had filled my pipe she gave me a lighted 
 piece of wood r.nd commenced a new story, which I had heard 
 she knew. 
 
 " One summer, long, long ago, the Melbustad people sent their 
 cattle up to their dairy in the Halland hills. But before long the 
 cattle began to be so restless that it was impossible to manage 
 them. They set one young lass after the other to watch them, but 
 there was no peace to be had till they got a young woman who 
 had just been engaged. The cattle suddenly became quiet, and it 
 was no trouble to look after them after that time. She was there 
 all by herself with the exception of a dog. She was sitting in the 
 dairy one afternoon, when her sweetheart, as she thought, came in 
 and sat alongside her, and began speaking about their wedding. 
 But she sat quite silent and made no answer, for she began to feel 
 so strange. By and by more people came in, and they began to 
 lay the table and put all sorts of dishes and silver plate on it. 
 The bridesmaids brought in the bridal crown, the silver ornaments, 
 and a fine wedding gown, which they put on her. They put the 
 crown on her head, as was usual at that time, and on her fingers 
 they put rings. 
 
 " She thought she knew the people who were there ; they were 
 farmers' wives, and some girls of her own age were there also. But 
 the dog must have noticed that there was something wrong. He 
 set off for Melbustad, and began whining and barking, and gave 
 them no peace till they showed signs to go back with him. 
 
 " Her sweetheart took his rifle and set out for the dairy ; when 
 he came to the slope in front of it, he saw a number of saddled 
 horses about the place. He stole up to the house and looked 
 through the door, which was ajar, and he saw all the people who 
 were sitting in the room. He soon guessed that it was all witch- 
 craft, and so he fired his gun over the roof of the dairy. The next 
 moment the door flew wide open, and a number of balls of worsted 
 the one bigger than the other, came rolling out of the door between 
 his legs. When he went in he found his sweetheart in her wedding- 
 dress, and with crown on ; all she wanted was a ring on her little 
 fincrer.
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 127 
 
 " ' But, good heavens, what does all this mean ? ' he asked, and 
 looked round. All the silver plate was yet on the table, but all the 
 fine dishes had turned to moss and mushrooms, dirt and toads, 
 frogs, and all such things. 
 
 " ' What's the meaning of all this ? ' he repeated. ' You are 
 sitting here dressed like a bride.' 
 
 " ' How can you ask such a question ? ' said she. ' You have 
 been sitting here and talking to me about the wedding all the 
 afternoon.' 
 
 " ' You are mistaken ; I only came this minute,' he said. ' But 
 it must have been some one who had taken my appearance.' 
 
 " She then began to come back to her senses ; but she was 
 not quite herself for some time afterwards. She told him that 
 she thought she had plainly seen him and their relations and 
 neighbours amorgst the people who were there. He took her 
 with him home at once, and that there should come no more 
 witchery to her, they were married there and then while she still 
 was dressed in the finery of the fairies. The crown and the 
 dress were hung up at Melbustad, and they say they are there to 
 this day." 
 
 " But I have heard that this happened in Valders, Bertha," 
 said I. 
 
 "No, this happened exactly as I told you in Halland," she 
 answered, " but when I was at home, I heard some one from Valders 
 speak of something which had taken place there, and which I'll 
 now tell you." 
 
 " On one of the farms in Valders there was a girl called Barbro, 
 and she was once up at a dairy. She was sitting one day at her 
 work when she suddenly heard some one shouting over in a hill : 
 
 " ' King Haaken, King Haaken ! ' 
 
 " ' Yes,' answered King Haakeu, till it sounded all over the hills. 
 
 " ' King Haaken, my son, will you get married ? ' it cried again in 
 the hill. 
 
 " ' Yes, that I will,' said King Haaken, ' if I can have Barbro in 
 the dairy over yonder ! ' 
 
 " ' Yes, yes, we'll see to that,' Barbro heard the voice in the hill
 
 128 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 answer, and she got so frightened that she did not know what to 
 do. 
 
 " Before long a lot of people came into the room, the one after the 
 other, carrying food and drink on silver dishes and in silver jugs, 
 wedding dress, with crown and brooches and such finery. They 
 commenced laying the table and some began dressing her for the 
 wedding. She felt, as if she could not resist them. 
 
 " This girl also had a sweetheart and he happened to be out 
 shooting on the mountain. But suddenly such a fear came over 
 him that he seemed as if he must go to the dairy. \\ hen he came 
 in sight of the house, he saw a number of black horses with old- 
 fashioned saddles and harness about, and he soon guessed what was 
 going on. He stole round to a small window and looked in, 
 when he saw the whole company ; King Haaken was the bride- 
 groom and the bride was ready dressed. 
 
 " ' I don't think there is anything else to be done now except to 
 turn her eyes,' said one of the bridesmaids. 
 
 " The lad thought it was high time to put a stop to it all, and he 
 took a silver-button, which had come down to him, put it in his 
 rifle and fired right at King Haaken, who fell. But the wedding- 
 guests rushed out taking the body of King Haaken with them. 
 The food had turned into moss, and toads, which jumped away 
 and hid themselves. The only things which were left were the 
 wedding dress and a silver dish and they are still to be seen at 
 the farm." 
 
 Mother Bertha told me many other stories till we heard the 
 noise of the sledge in the snow and the horses panting outside the 
 door. I put some coins into Bertha's hand for her advice and 
 attention, and in a quarter of an hour I was at home. 
 
 A bandage of vinegar and cold water soon put my foot right ; 
 but when Mother Bertha one day came into the kitchen and was 
 appropriating to herself all the honour of my rapid cure by her 
 art, the children could no longer restrain themselves. They 
 shouted into her ears the incantation verse which I had taught 
 them and asked her if she believed that a drop of brandy and her 
 nonsense could cure a sprain. This made her rather suspicious and
 
 MOTHER BERTHA'S STORIES. 
 
 although she told me many a wonderful story after that time I 
 never succeeded with all my cunning and persuasion in bringing 
 Bertha Tuppenhaug to lift a corner of that icy veil in which she 
 shrouded the mysteries of her incantations, lead melting, miraculous 
 cures, and healing by magic.
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 ONCE upon a time, in those days when the saints used to wander 
 about on earth, two of them came to a smith. He had made a 
 bargain with the devil that he should belong to him after seven 
 years, if he during that time was to be the master over all masters 
 in his profession. Both he and the devil had put their names to 
 this contract. So the smith wrote with great letters over the 
 smithy door : " Here lives the master over all masters." 
 
 When the two saints saw this, they went in to the smith, and 
 the elder asked him : " Who are you ? " " Read what there's 
 written over the door," answered the smith ; " but perhaps you
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 133 
 
 cannot read writing, so you had better wait till some one comes by 
 who can help you." Before the saint could answer him a man 
 came with his horse, which he asked the smith to shoe for him. 
 " Will you let me shoe it ? " asked the saint. " You may try," said 
 the smith ; " you cannot do it so badly but I shall be able to put it 
 right again." The saint went out and took one leg off the horse 
 and put it in the fire on the forge and made the shoe red hot ; he 
 then sharpened the points, clenched the nails, and put the leg back 
 in its place again. When he had done with that leg, he took the 
 other fore-leg, and did the same with it ; and when he had put 
 that in its place, he took the hind-legs, first the right and then the 
 left, put them in the fire, made the shoes red hot, sharpened the 
 points and clenched the nails, and then he put them on the horse 
 again. The smith stood and looked on all the while. " You are 
 not such a bad smith after all," he said. " Ah, you think so," said 
 the saint. 
 
 Just then the smith's mother came across to the smithy and 
 asked him to come home and eat his dinner; she was very old, 
 and had a crooked back and big wrinkles in her face, and she was 
 scarcely able to walk. 
 
 " Take notice of what you now will see," said the saint. He 
 took the woman, put her in the fire, and forged a young, lovely 
 maiden out of her. " I say what I said before," said the smith, 
 " you are not at all a bad smith. You will find over my door : 
 ' Here lives the master over all masters,' but for all that, I now see 
 that one learns as long as he lives" and with that he went home 
 and ate his dinner. 
 
 As soon as he came back to the smithy, a man came riding, who 
 wanted to have his horse shod. " I shall soon do that for you," 
 said the smith ; " I have just learned a new way to shoe horses, and 
 a very good one it is when the days are short ; " and so he com- 
 menced cutting and breaking away at the horse's legs, till he got 
 them all off " for I don't see the use of going forwards and back- 
 wards with one at a time," he said and put the legs in the fire as 
 he had seen the saint do. He put plenty of coals on, and let his
 
 134 T HE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 boy work the bellows smartly ; but it went as one might expect 
 the legs were burnt up, and the smith had to pay for the horse. 
 This was not exactly to his liking, but at that moment a poor old 
 woman, who went about begging, came past, and he thought if 
 one thing does not succeed another may. So he took the old 
 woman and put her in the fire, and although she cried and begged 
 for her life, it was of no use. "You don't know what is good for 
 you, although you are so old," said the smith; "I will make a 
 young woman of you in half a minute, and I shan't charge as much 
 as a penny for the job." 
 
 It fared no better with v^e poor old woman than with the horse's 
 legs. Just then the saints came round again to him. "That was 
 ill done," said the saint. " Oh, I don't think there are many who 
 will be asking after her," answered the smith ; " but it is a great 
 shame that the devil doesn't hold to what is written over the 
 door." " If you might have three wishes from me," said the saint, 
 "what would you wish for yourself?" "Try me," answered the 
 smith, "and you will get to know." 
 
 The saint then gave him three wishes. " First of all, I wish 
 that when I ask anybody to climb up in the pear-tree just outside 
 the smithy, he must sit there till I myself ask him to come down 
 again," said the smith. " Secondly, I wish that any one whom I 
 ask to sit down in the arm-chair in the smithy there, must remain 
 in it till I myself ask him to get up ; and, last of all, I wish that if I 
 ask anybody to creep into the steel-ring purse which I have in my 
 pocket, he must remain there till I give him leave to creep out 
 again." 
 
 " You have wished like a foolish man," said the other saint. 
 " First of all you should have wished for leave to get into paradise." 
 " I dared not ask for that," said the smith, and bade the saints 
 farewell. 
 
 Well, days came and days passed, and when the time was up, 
 the devil came to fetch the smith according to the agreement. 
 
 " Are you ready now ? " he said, as he put his nose in at the door 
 of the smithy. " Well, yes ; but I want to finish the head of this
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 135 
 
 nail first," said the smith ; "just climb up into the pear-tree and 
 take a pear. You must be both hungry and thirsty after your 
 journey." The devil thanked him for the kind offer, and climbed 
 up into the tree. 
 
 " Now that I think of it," said the smith, " I don't think I shall 
 get this head finished for the next four years, for this iron is so 
 terribly hard. You can't come down in that time, but you may sit 
 there and rest yourself." The devil begged and prayed that he 
 might get leave to come down again, but all in vain. At last he 
 had to promise that he would not come back till the four years 
 were out, and so the smith sa : d : " Well, on that condition you may 
 come down." 
 
 When the time was up, the devil came again to fetch the smith. 
 " You are ready now, I suppose ? " he said. " I think you have had 
 time to finish the head of that nail by this." " Yes, I have finished 
 the head, of course," answered the smith ; " but still you have come 
 a trifle too early, because I have not sharpened the point yet ; such 
 hard iron I have never in my life worked at before. While I 
 hammer down the point of the nail, you might as well sit down in 
 my arm-chair and rest yourself, for I suppose you are pretty tired." 
 
 The devil thanked him for his kindness, and sat down in the 
 arm-chair ; but he had no sooner sat down for a good rest, than 
 the smith said, that taking everything into consideration, he could 
 not get the point properly sharpened in less than four years. The 
 devil at first begged very prettily to be let out of the chair, and 
 after a time he grew angry and began to threaten ; but the smith 
 excused himself the best way he could, and said it was all the fault 
 of the iron, for it was really so terribly hard, and gave the devil 
 the consolation that he sat very comfortably in the arm-chair, 
 and that he in four years' time would let him out exactly to 
 the minute. There was no other help for it ; the devil had to 
 promise that he would not come to fetch the smith till the four 
 years were out, and so the smith said : " Well, on that condition 
 you may go," and away the devil went as fast as he could. 
 
 In four years' time the devil came again to fetch the smith.
 
 136 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 " You are ready now, of course ? " said the devil, as he put his nose 
 in at the door of the smithy. " Ready, quite ready," answered 
 the smith ; " we can start when you like. But there is one thing," 
 he continued, " which I have been standing here and thinking 
 about for a long time, to ask you about. Is it true, what they say, 
 that the devil can make himself as small as he likes ? " " Yes, of 
 course," answered the devil. " Ah, perhaps you could do me the 
 favour to creep into this s^eel-ring purse and see if there are any 
 holes at the bottom," said the smith ; " I am so afraid I shall lose 
 my money for the journey." "Oh, yes, with pleasure," said the 
 devil, and made himself small and crept into the purse. But he 
 had scarcely got inside when the smith closed the purse. 
 
 " It is safe and sound everywhere," said the devil inside the 
 purse. 
 
 " I am glad to hear you say that," answered the smith ; " but 
 it is better to be prudent beforehand than wise afterwards. I 
 think I will weld the joints a little better together, just for 
 safety's sake you know," and with that he put the purse in the 
 fire and made it red hot. 
 
 " Oh dear ! oh dear ! " cried the devil ; " are you mad ? Don't 
 you know I am inside the purse ? " 
 
 "Yes, but I can't help you," said the smith. "There's an old 
 saying, that 'one must strike while the iron is hot,'" and so he 
 took his big sledge-hammer, put the purse on the anvil, and 
 hammered away as hard as he could. 
 
 " Oh dear ! oh dear ! oh dear ! " screamed the devil inside the 
 purse. " Dear friend, do let me out and I shall never come back 
 again." 
 
 " Well, I think the joints are pretty well welded together now," 
 said the smith, " so now you may come out again." With this he 
 opened the purse, and the devil rushed away in such a hurry that 
 he did not even look behind him. 
 
 Some time after this, the smith began thinking that he had per- 
 haps done a foolish thing by making the devil his enemy. " For 
 suppose the saints above won't have me," he said, " I may run the
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 139 
 
 risk of being homelesss altogether, since I have fallen out with the 
 old man down below." He thought it would be as well to try and 
 get into one of the two places at once, better early than late ; and 
 so he took his sledge-hammer on his shoulder and started. When 
 he had gone some distance, he came to a place where the road 
 divides into two one leading to paradise, and the other to the 
 devil. Just at this point he overtook a tailor, who was hurrying 
 along with his smoothing-iron in his hand. " Good day," said the 
 smith, " where are you off to ? " " To paradise, if I can get in 
 there," answered the tailor; "and you?" "Well, I shan't have 
 the pleasure of your company for long then," answered the smith ; 
 " I have made up my mind to try the other place first, because I 
 happen to know the old man a little already." So they bade one 
 another " Farewell," and each went his way. 
 
 But the smith was a strong, powerful man, and he walked much 
 faster than the tailor, so it did not take him long to get to his 
 destination. He told the gatekeeper to go and tell his master that 
 there was some one outside who wished to speak with him. 
 
 " Go and ask who he is," said the devil to the gatekeeper, who 
 went out and asked the smith. 
 
 " Give your master my compliments, and tell him that it is the 
 smith who has- that purse which he knows of," said the smith , 
 "and just ask him kindly to let me in at once, for I have been 
 working in the smithy till dinner-time, and since I have walked all 
 the way." 
 
 When the devil heard this, he ordered the gatekeeper to lock all 
 the nine locks on the gate " and put on an extra padlock as well," 
 said the devil, " for if he comes inside, he will upset the place 
 altogether." " Well, there is no shelter to be got here, I see," said 
 the smith, when he heard them locking the gate more securely ; 
 " I had better try my luck in paradise." And with that he turned 
 round and went back till he reached the cross road. There he 
 followed the road which the tailor had taken. As he was rather 
 angry at having had to walk all the way to the devil's and back for 
 no good, he hurried on as fast as he could and reached the gate of
 
 140 
 
 THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL. 
 
 paradise just as St. Peter opened it a little, that the thin, skinny 
 tailor might slip in. The smith was still six or seven paces from 
 the gate. " I think it's best to make haste now," said the smith. 
 He took the sledge-hammer and hurled it into the opening of the 
 door just as the tailor got inside. 
 
 If the smith didn't get in through the opening that time, I don't 
 know what has become of him since.
 
 THE THREE BILLY-GOATS WHO WENT UP 
 INTO THE HILLS TO GET FAT. 
 
 THERE were once upon a time three Billy-goats, who were 
 going up into the hills to get fat. On the way there was a bridge 
 over a torrent which they had to cross. Under the bridge lived a 
 big> ugly troll, with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as 
 a rake-handle. 
 
 First of all came the youngest Billy-goat, and was going over 
 the bridge. Trip trap, trip trap, went the bridge. " Who is that
 
 142 THE THREE BILLY-GOATS. 
 
 tripping over my bridge ? " shouted the troll. " Oh ! it's only the 
 smallest Billy-goat ; I'm going up into the hills to get fat," said 
 the goat; he had such a small voice. " I'm coming to take you !" 
 said the troll. " Oh no ! please don't take me, for I am so little. 
 Wait a while till the next Billy-goat comes ; he is much bigger." 
 " Very well ! " said the troll. 
 
 In a little while came the next Billy-goat, and was going over 
 the bridge. Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap went the bridge. 
 "Who is that tripping over my bridge?" shouted the troll. "Oh, 
 it's only the second B:lly-goat; I'm going up into the hills to get 
 fat," said the goat ; he hadn't such a small voice as the first one. 
 " I'm coming to take you," said the troll. " Oh no ! please 
 don't take me, but wait till the big Billy-goat comes ; he is much 
 bigger." " Very well then ! " said the troll. 
 
 Just then came the big Billy-goat. Trip trap, trip trap, trip 
 trap went the bridge. He was so heavy that the bridge creaked 
 and groaned under him. " Who is that tramping over my bridge ? " 
 shouted the troll. " It's the big Billy-goat ! " said the goat ; he 
 had an awful hoarse voice. " I'm coming to take you," screamed 
 the troll. 
 
 " Come on, and blinded you shall reel 
 From my two spears, whose points are steel. 
 Like grain between two granite stones 
 I'll crush your marrow and your bones ! " 
 
 said the big Billy-goat, and flew straight at the troll and poked 
 his eyes out, crushed him, bones and all, to pieces, and pushed him 
 out into the torrent, and then he went up into the hills. There the 
 Billy-goats got so fat, that they were scarcely able to walk home 
 again, and if the fat hasn't gone off them, they are still as fat as 
 ever. And snip, snap, snout, here my tale is out.
 
 PETER GYNT. 
 
 IN the olden days there lived in Kvam a hunter, whose name was 
 Peter Gynt, and who was always roaming about in the mountains 
 after bears and elks, for in those days there were more forests on 
 the mountains than there are now, and consequently plenty of wild 
 beasts. One evening late in the autumn, long after the cattle had 
 left the mountains, Peter set out on one of his usual expeditions. 
 All the dairy-maids had also gone away, except the three girls at 
 the Vala dairy. When Peter came up towards Hovring, where he 
 intended to stay for the night in a deserted dairy, it was -so dark 
 that he could scarcely see an arm's length before him. The dogs
 
 146 PETER GYNT. 
 
 began barking violently, and it was altogether very dismal and 
 unpleasant. All of a sudden he ran against something, and when 
 he put his hand out, he felt it was cold and slippery and very 
 big. As he didn't think he had gone off the road, he had no 
 idea of what this something could be, but unpleasant it was at 
 any rate. 
 
 " Who is it ? " asked Peter, for he could now feel it was moving. 
 
 " Oh, it's Humpy," was the answer. 
 
 Peter was no wiser for this, but walked on one side for some 
 distance, thinking that so he would be able to pass the mysterious 
 presence. But he ran against something again, and when he put 
 his hand out he felt it was very big, cold, and slippery. 
 
 " Who is it ? " asked Peter Gynt. 
 
 "Oh, it's Humpy," was the answer again. 
 
 "Well, you'll have to let me pass, whether you are Humpy or 
 not," said Peter, for he guessed now that he was walking round in 
 a ring, and that the monster had circled itself round the dairy. 
 Just then the monster shifted itself a little, and Peter got past and 
 soon found the house. When he came inside he found it was 
 no lighter in there than outside. He was feeling his way about 
 along the wall to put his gun away and hang his bag up, but while 
 he was groping about in this way, he felt again something cold, 
 big, and slippery. 
 
 " Who is it ? " shouted Peter. 
 
 " Oh, it's the big Humpy," was the answer. Wherever he put 
 his hands out or tried to get past he ran against the monster. 
 
 " It's not very pleasant to be here, I am sure," thought Peter, 
 "since this Humpy is both outside and inside, but I'll try if I can't 
 shunt this intruder out of my way." 
 
 So he took his gun and went outside, feeling his way carefully, 
 till he found what he thought was the head of the monster, which 
 he felt sure was a monster troll. 
 
 " What are you, and who are you ? " asked Peter. 
 
 " Oh, I am the big Humpy from Etnedale," said the troll. Peter 
 did not lose a moment, but fired three shots right into the troll's 
 head.
 
 PETER GYNT. 147 
 
 " Fire another," said the troll. But Peter knew better ; if he 
 had fired another shot, the bullet would have rebounded against 
 himself. 
 
 Both Peter and the dogs then commenced dragging the troll out 
 of the house, so that they might come inside and make themselves 
 comfortable. Whilst he .was so employed he heard jeers and 
 laughter in the hills round about. 
 
 " Peter dragged a bit, but the doggies dragged more," said a 
 voice. 
 
 Next morning he went out stalking. When he came in between 
 the hills, he saw a lassie, who was calling some sheep up a hill-side. 
 But when he came up to the place, she was gone and the sheep 
 too, and he saw nothing but a pack of bears. 
 
 " Well, I never saw bears in a pack before," said Peter to him- 
 self. When he went nearer, they had all disappeared, except one. 
 
 " Look after your pig, 
 For Peter Gynt is out 
 Wit hhis gun so big," 
 
 shouted a voice over in the hill. 
 
 " Ah, he can't hurt my pig ; he hasn't washed himself to-day," 
 said another voice in the hill. Peter washed his hands with some 
 water he had with him. He fired, and shot the bear. Then he 
 heard more jeers and laughter in the hill. 
 
 ''You should have looked after your pig !" cried a voice. 
 
 " I forgot he carried water with him," answered another. 
 
 Peter skinned the bear and buried the carcase. On his way 
 home he met a fox. 
 
 " Look at my lamb ! How fat it is," said a voice in a hill. 
 
 " Look at Peter, he is lifting that gun of his," said another voice, 
 just as Peter put his gun up and shot the fox. He skinned the 
 fox also, and took the skin with him. When he came to the dairy, 
 he put both the head of the fox and the bear on the wall outside 
 the house, with their jaws wide open. So he lighted a fire and put 
 a pot on to boil some soup, but the chimney smoked so terribly 
 that he could scarcely keep his eyes open, and had therefore to 
 
 L 2
 
 148 PETER GYNT. 
 
 open a small window. Some time after a troll came and poked 
 his nose in ; the nose was so long that it reached across the room 
 to the fireplace. 
 
 " Here is a proper nose, if you like," said the troll. 
 
 " And here is proper soup ! You never tasted the like ; " and 
 with that he poured the boiling soup over the troll's nose. The 
 troll ran away wailing and crying, but in all the hills around they 
 were jeering and laughing, and the voices shouted : 
 
 " Nosey stew ! Nosey stew ! " 
 
 It was now quiet for some time. Shortly Peter heard a great 
 noise and bustle outside the house. He looked out, and saw a 
 big carriage drawn by bears. They were carting away the big 
 monster into the mountain. Suddenly a bucket of water was 
 thrown down the chimney ; the fire was put out, and Peter sat all 
 in the dark. Then a laughing and chuckling commenced in all 
 corners of the room, and a voice said : 
 
 " Now Peter is no better off than the girls at Vala." 
 
 So Peter made the fire again, shut up the dairy, and set off 
 for the Vala dairy, taking the dogs with him. When he had gone 
 some distance he saw such a glare of light in the direction of 
 the dairy that it seemed to him the house must be on fire. Just 
 then he came across some wolves. Some of these he shot, and 
 some his dogs killed. But when he came to the dairy it was all 
 dark there; there was no sign of any fire. There were three 
 strangers in the room amusing themselves with the dairy-maids, 
 and one outside the door. They were four hill-trolls, and their 
 names were Gust, Tron, Tjostol, and Rolf. Gust was standing 
 outside keeping watch, while the others were inside courting the 
 girls. Peter fired at Gust, but missed him. But the troll ran away 
 frightened, and when Peter came inside he found the trolls flirting 
 with the girls more desperately than ever. Two of them were 
 terribly frightened and were saying their prayers, but the third, 
 who was called Mad Kari, wasn't a bit afraid. They might come 
 there for all she cared ; she would like to see what sort of fellows 
 they were. But when the trolls found that Peter was in the room 
 they began whining, and told Rolf to get a light. And then the
 
 PETER GYNT. 149 
 
 dogs rushed at Tjostol and knocked him over on his back into the 
 burning embers of the fire, so the sparks flew about him. 
 
 "Did you see any of my snakes about, Peter?" asked Tron 
 that was what he called the wolves. 
 
 " I'll send you the same way as the snakes," said Peter, and fired 
 a shot at him, and then he killed Tjostol with the butt-end of his 
 rifle. Rolf had fled through the chimney. 
 
 So when he had cleared all the trolls out, the girls packed up 
 their things, and Peter accompanied them home. They dared not 
 stay any longer up on the hills. 
 
 Shortly before Christmas, Peter set out again on another expe- 
 dition. He had heard of a farm on Dovrefell which was invaded by 
 such a number of trolls every Christmas-eve that the people on the 
 farm had to move out, and get shelter at some of their neighbours. 
 He was anxious to go there, for he had a great fancy to come across 
 the trolls again. He dressed himself in some old ragged clothes, 
 and took a tame white bear, which he had, with him, as well as an 
 awl, some pitch, and twine. When he came to the farm he went in 
 and asked for lodgings. 
 
 " God help us ! " said the farmer ; " we can't give you any lodg- 
 ings. We have to clear out of the house ourselves soon and look 
 for lodgings, for every Christmas-eve we have the trolls here." 
 
 But Peter thought he should be able to clear the trolls out he 
 had done such a thing before ; and then he got leave to stay, and a 
 pig's skin into the bargain. The bear lay down behind the fire- 
 place, and Peter took out his awl, and pitch, and twine, and began 
 making a big, big shoe, which it took the whole pig's skin to make. 
 He put a strong rope in for laces, that he nr'ght pull the shoe tightly 
 together, and, finally, he armed himself with a couple of hand- 
 spikes. 
 
 Shortly he heard the trolls coming. They had a fiddler with 
 them, and some began dancing, while others fell to eating the 
 Christmas fare on the table some fried bacon, and some fried 
 frogs and toads, and other nasty things which they had brought 
 with them. During this some of the trolls found the shoe Peter 
 had made. They thought it must belong to a very big foot. They
 
 150 PETER GYNT. 
 
 all wanted to try it on at once, so they put a foot each into it ; but 
 Peter made haste and tightened the rope, took one of the hand- 
 spikes and fastened the rope round it, and got them at last 
 securely tied up in the shoe. 
 
 Just then the bear put his nose out from behind the fireplace, 
 where he was lying, and smelt they were frying something. 
 
 " Will you have a sausage, pussy ? " said one of the trolls, and 
 threw a hot frog right into the bear's jaw. 
 
 " Scratch them, pussy ! " said Peter 
 
 The bear got so angry that he rushed at the trolls and scratched 
 them all over, while Peter took the other handspike and hammered 
 away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. The trolls 
 had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with 
 all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that the trolls were 
 not heard of there for many years. 
 
 Some years afterwards, about Christmas-time, the farmer was 
 out in the forest cutting wood for the holidays, when a troll came 
 up to him and shouted 
 
 " Have you got that big pussy of yours, yet ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, she is at home behind the fireplace," said the farmer ; 
 " and she has got seven kittens all bigger and larger than herself." 
 
 " We'll never come to you any more, then," said the troll.
 
 ' ix^if^i - V "*f *r-, S f '\ \ <, ' 
 
 ' ""SBt, ." i^^E; * / V^ 4, \f X-^K ' '/' 
 
 i i^j^jC^^ite-T ''"' >i$3> /M -^ \ ' 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 WHEN the world goes against me, and it is very seldom it 
 forgets to do so whenever there is an opportunity, I have always 
 felt a relief in taking walks in the open air as an alleviation of 
 my portion of troubles and anxieties. What there was the matter 
 with me on this occasion I cannot now remember, but what I
 
 152 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 clearly recollect is, that one summer afternoon some years ago I 
 took my fishing-rod and strolled through the fields on the eastern 
 side of the Akers river, on my way to the outlet of the Maridale 
 lake. 
 
 The bright air, the scent of the new-mown hay, the fragrance of 
 the flowers, the singing of the birds, the walk and the fresh breezes 
 from the river, greatly revived my spirits. When I came to the 
 bridge by the outlet, the sun was sinking behind the ridge of the 
 hills, at one moment lighting up the evening clouds with all his 
 lustre, that they for a brief time might rejoice in their borrowed 
 splendour and reflect themselves in the clear waters of the lake, 
 and then for another brief moment breaking through the clouds 
 and sending forth a ray of light, which formed golden paths in the 
 dark pine-forests of the farther shore. After the hot day the 
 evening breeze carried a refreshing fragrance from the pine-trees, 
 and the distant expiring notes of the cuckoo's evening song dis- 
 posed the mind to sadness. My eyes followed mechanically the 
 drifting flies as they floated down the river with the stream. 
 
 But look 1 there rose a silvery fish ; the line ran whizzing off the 
 reel, and when I stopped it the rod stood bent into a hoop ; it must 
 be a trout of about two pounds ! There was now no time for going 
 into raptures about the fragrance of the pine-trees or the cuckoo's 
 notes ; I wanted all my presence of mind to land the fish. The 
 current was strong and the fish fought bravely, and as I had no 
 landing-net I had to pay out more line, and wind in again twice or 
 thrice, before I could bring him with the current into a small bay, 
 where he was successfully landed and found to be a fine purple- 
 spotted fish of the size I had supposed. 
 
 I went on trying for fish along the western bank down the river, 
 but only small trout rose at my flies, and a score was the total 
 catch. 
 
 When I came to the saw-mill at Braekke, the sky was overcast, 
 it was already growing dark, only above the level of the north- 
 western horizon there appeared a streak of light, which threw a 
 subdued glimmer on the tranquil surface of the mill-pond. I went 
 out on the timber boom and made a few casts, but with little
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 153 
 
 success. Not a breath of air was stirring, the winds seemed to 
 have gone to rest. My flies alone distuibed the placid waters. 
 
 A half-grown-up lad, who was standing behind me on the bank, 
 advised me to " troll with bait" a cluster of worms fastened to 
 the hook, which is dragged in jerks over the surface of the water 
 and offered to find the bait for me. I took his advice, and the 
 trial succeeded beyond expectation ; a trout of a pound weight 
 rose to the bait, and was not without some difficulty landed on the 
 inconvenient spot where I was standing. But with this the day's 
 
 sport seemed to be over ; no fish ruffkd the tranquil pond, the bats 
 alone, which shot backwards and forwards in the air, produced 
 sometimes, when they pounced down after the insects, trembling 
 ripples which quivered over the bright surface of the water. 
 
 Before me was the saw-mill; its interior was lighted up by a 
 blazing fire on the open hearth. The mill was in full work, but its 
 wheels, its saws and levers, no longer appeared to be guided or 
 directed by any human will or hand ; it seemed to be a mere toy 
 under the invisible power, and subject to the whim, of the mill
 
 154 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 goblin. Soon, however, human forms became visible. One of 
 these went out on the timber raft lying in the mill-pond, and with 
 an immense pitchfork guided the logs into the channel towards 
 the mill, setting the whole raft rocking with a wave-like motion ; 
 another rushed hurriedly about with an axe in his hand, shaping 
 and squaring the huge logs, while the loose chips and bits of bark 
 rushed into the roaring eddies below. From inside the mill there 
 came a whizzing, whirring, and clashing sound, and now and then a 
 bright saw-blade flashed in the air, as if in combat with the spirits 
 of the night, to cut the stumps and uneven ends off the logs. 
 
 Some cold gusts of a northerly wind coming down the course of 
 the river made me feel that I was wet and tired, and I decided 
 therefore on going into the saw-mill to get a little rest by the fire. 
 I called to the boy, who was still standing on the bank, to take 
 the fish-basket, which I had left behind, and follow me over the 
 barrier ; the slippery logs of which this was composed were rocking 
 up and down, and were engulfed in the water at every step I took. 
 
 By the hearth in the mill sat an old grey-bearded peasant, with 
 a red cap down over his ears, whose presence I did not at first 
 discern, as the shadow of the hearth hid him from me. When he 
 heard that I wished to rest and warm myself/ he at once prepared 
 a seat for me on a block by the fire. 
 
 " That's a splendid fish," said the old man as he took the last 
 trout I had caught in his hand; "and it's one of the golden ones 
 too ! It weighs almost two pounds. You have caught it in the 
 mill-pond here, I suppose ? " 
 
 On my assenting to this, the old man, who appeared to be an 
 ardent fisherman, told me of the large trout he caught in the 
 neighbourhood thirty years ago, when he came here from Gud- 
 brandsdale, and made the most heartrending complaints of the 
 decrease of fish and increase of saw-dust, just as Sir Humphry 
 Davy makes in his Salmonia. 
 
 " The fish are becoming more and more scarce," he said in a 
 voice that penetrated clearly to me through the noise in the mill ; 
 " such a trout as that, small as it is, is a rare thing to catch now, 
 but the saw-dust increases year by year. You cannot wonder that
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 155 
 
 the fish doesn't go into the river, for if he opens his mouth to get a 
 mouthful of clear water, he gets his gills choked with saw-dust and 
 shavings. Drat that saw-dust, although I shouldn't forget it is the 
 mill that feeds me and mine, but I get so wild when I think of the 
 big fellows I have landed here in days gone by." 
 
 The boy had in the meantime arrived with the basket, but he 
 seemed to be ill at ease amid the noise and commotion which pre- 
 vailed in the mill. He stepped cautiously over the boards, and in 
 his face was depicted fear and anxiety at the rush of the water 
 between the wheels underneath the floor where he was standing. 
 
 " This is an awful place to be in," he said. " I wish I was safe 
 at home again." 
 
 " Don't you belong to these parts ? " I asked. 
 
 " Where do you come from ? " asked the old man. 
 
 " Oh, I come from the Old Town," answered the lad, who all 
 the time kept himself as close to me as possible. " I have been 
 over to the clerk at Braekke with a letter for the bailiff ; and I am 
 so afraid to go alone in the dark." 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed of yourself, such a big lad as you 
 are," said the old man, but added in a comforting tone, " the moon 
 will be up shortly, and perhaps you may go in company with this 
 stranger here." 
 
 I promised the lad my company as far as the Beier bridge, which 
 .seemed to reassure him somewhat. In the meantime the saw was 
 stopped and two of the men began filing and sharpening the blades, 
 which produced such a piercing sound that it went through bone 
 and marrow. It is very often heard at night through the rush of 
 the waters as far as the town below. It seemed to have a very 
 unpleasant effect upon the nerves of the frightened lad. 
 
 " Ugh ! I dared not stay here a night for all the world ! " he 
 said, and stared around him, as if he expected to see a mill-goblin 
 rise through the floor, or a brownie in every corner. 
 
 "Well, I have been here many a night," said the old man, "and 
 little reward have I had for it." 
 
 "My mother has told me that there is witchcraft and all sorts of 
 evil spirits in these mills," remarked the lad, somewhat alarmed.
 
 156 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 " I can't say I have seen anything," said the old man. " The 
 water has, to be sure, been shut off and turned on at times, when I 
 have had a little nap in the mill during the night, and I have heard 
 noises in the back-shed, but I have never seen anything. Folks 
 don't believe in such beings nowadays," he continued, with an 
 inquiring look towards me, " and therefore they daren't show them- 
 selves. Folks are too sensible and too well read in our days." 
 
 " You are perhaps right there," I said, for I could perceive there 
 was a meaning in his look, and I preferred that he should tell me 
 some old stories rather than I should dispute his doubts or question 
 his belief that civilization was a terror to brownies and other 
 supernatural beings. " You are right to some extent in what you 
 say. In the olden days people had a stronger belief in all kinds 
 of witchery ; now they pretend not to believe in it, that they may 
 be looked upon as sensible and educated people, as you say. But 
 far up in the country, in the mountain districts, we still often hear 
 of fairies having been seen, of their spiriting people away into the 
 mountains, and such like. Now, I'll tell you a story," I continued, 
 that I might give him some encouragement to start one ; " I'll tell 
 you a story, which took place somewhere, but where and when I 
 cannot exactly remember. 
 
 " There was a man who had a flour-mill, close to a waterfall, and 
 there was a mill-goblin in that mill. Whether the man used to 
 give him Christmas cakes and beer, as they do in some places, I 
 don't know, but I should think he didn't, for every time he went to 
 grind his corn the goblin got hold of the tub-wheel and stopped 
 the mill, and he couldn't get any corn ground. The man knew 
 very well it was the goblin who had his hand in this, and one 
 evening when he went to the mill, he took a big pot full of pitch- 
 tar with him and put it on the fire. He turned the water on to the 
 wheel and the mill went for a while, but suddenly it stopped, as he 
 expected it would. He seized a long pole and struck at the mill- 
 goblin round about the wheel, but all in vain. At last he opened 
 the door which led out to the wheel, and there stood the mill-goblin 
 in the door, gaping. His jaw was so big that it reached from the 
 threshold up to the 1'ntel.
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 157 
 
 " ' Have you ever seen such a jaw ? ' said the goblin. 
 
 " The man ran for the pot and pitched the boiling tar into the 
 gaping jaw, and said, ' Have you ever felt anything so hot ? ' 
 
 "The goblin uttered a terrible shriek, and let go the wheel. He 
 has never been seen or heard there after that time, nor has the mill 
 been stopped since." 
 
 " Yes," said the boy, who had listened to my story with a mix- 
 ture of fear and curiosity ; " I have heard my grandmother tell that 
 story, and she used also to tell another about a mill-goblin some- 
 where up in the country, where no one could get anything ground 
 at the mill, it was so bewitched. But one evening came a beggar- 
 woman, who badly wanted to get a little corn ground, and she 
 asked if she could not get leave to stay there for the night and 
 do it. 
 
 " ' Oh, dear no ! ' said the owner of the mill ; ' you can't stay there 
 at night ; neither you nor the mill would have any peace for the 
 goblin.' But the beggar-woman wanted so badly to get her corn 
 ground, for she had not a spoonful of meal to make either soup or 
 porridge for the children at home. Well, at last she got leave to 
 go into the mill and grind her corn at night. When she came 
 there, she made a fire on the hearth, where a big pot of tar was 
 hanging. She started the mill, and sat down by the hearth with 
 her knitting. In a while a girl came into the mill and said ' Good 
 evening ' to her. 
 
 " ' Good evening,' answered the beggar-woman, and went on with 
 her knitting. 
 
 " But very soon the strange girl began raking the fire out over 
 the hearth, but the beggar-woman raked it together again. 
 
 " ' What's your name ? ' said the fairy, as you already will have 
 guessed that the strange girl was. 
 
 " ' My name is Self ! ' answered the beggar-woman. 
 
 " The girl thought that was a strange name, and began raking 
 the fire about again. This made the beggar-woman angry, and 
 she began scolding and raking the fire together. They were thus 
 employed for some time, when the beggar-woman, watching 
 her opportunity, upset the boiling tar over the girl, who began
 
 158 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 screaming and screeching, and as she ran out of the mill, she 
 cried : 
 
 " ' Father, father, Self has burnt me ! ' 
 
 "'Well, if you have burnt yourself, you have only yourself to 
 blame,' said a voice in the hill." 
 
 " It was a good thing for the v/oman it didn't fare worse with 
 her," said the old man with the grey beard ; " she might have been 
 burnt, both she and the mill, for where I come from I heard tell of 
 something similar, which happened there long ago. There was a 
 farmer who had a mill that was burnt down two Whitsun-nights in 
 succession. The third year he had a tailor staying with him before 
 Whitsuntide, making new clothes for the holidays. 
 
 " ' I wonder if anything will happen to the mill this year ? ' said 
 the farmer. ' Perhaps it will burn to-night too ! ' 
 
 " ' No fear of that,' said the tailor ; ' give me the key and I'll look 
 after the mill.' 
 
 " The farmer was well pleased with that, and when the evening 
 came the tailor got the key and went down into the mill. It was 
 almost empty, as it had only just been finished. He sat down in 
 the middle of the floor, took his chalk out and marked a large ring 
 around him, and round about this he wrote the Lord's Prayer, and 
 then he did not feel afraid even if Old Nick himself should come. 
 
 "Towards midnight the door flew suddenly open, and in rushed 
 such a number of black cats that the whole room swarmed with 
 them. They were not long in getting a pot on the fire, and then 
 they put more and more wood on, till the pot, which was full of 
 pitch-tar began to boil and sputter. 
 
 **' Ho, ho ! ' said the tailor to himself, ' that's the way you do it, 
 eh ? ' and no sooner had he spoken, than one of the cats put her 
 paw behind the pot and was about to upset it. 
 
 " ' Psht I cat ! You'll burn yourself,' said the tailor. 
 
 "' Psht ! cat ! You'll burn yourself! says the tailor to me,' said 
 the cat to the other cats, and away they ran from the fire, and 
 began jumping and dancing round the ring; but very soon the 
 cat stole over to the fire again with the intention of upsetting 
 the pot.
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 "Psht! cat! You'll burn yourself!' cried the tailor, and 
 frightened it away from the fire. 
 
 "'Psht! cat! You'll burn yourself! says the tailor to me,' said 
 the cat to the other cats ; and they all began to dance and jump 
 about, but the next moment they tried again to upset the pot. 
 
 '" Psht ! cat! You'll burn yourself!' shouted the tailor so 
 loudly, that he frightened them away. They scampered away 
 over the floor, the one over the other, and began jumping and 
 dancing as before. 
 
 " They then formed a circle outside the ring, and took to dancing 
 round it, quicker and quicker, till the tailor thought the mill was 
 going round too. The cats glared at him with such big, terrible 
 eyes, as if they were going to eat him. 
 
 " But while they were in the middle of the dance, the cat which 
 had been trying to upset the pot put her paw inside the ring as if 
 she wanted to get hold of the tailor. But when he saw this he 
 loosened his sheath-knife and held it ready. All at once the cat 
 thrust her paw inside the ring again, but the tailor was quick as 
 lightning and chopped the paw off. The cats set up .^a. terrible 
 howl, and away they rushed through the door as fast as they could.
 
 160 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 
 
 " But the tailor laid himself down in the ring and slept till the 
 sun shone far into the mill. Then he rose, locked up the mill, 
 and went up to the farm. 
 
 " When he came in both the farmer and his wife were still in 
 bed, for it was Whitsunday morning. 
 
 " ' Good morning,' said the tailor, and shook hands with the 
 farmer. 
 
 " ' Good morning,' said the farmer, who, as you may guess, was 
 both glad and surprised to see the tailor safe back again. 
 
 " ' Good morning, mother,' said the tailor, and offered the gude- 
 vvife his hand. 
 
 " ' Good morning,' said the wife ; but she was so pale, and looked 
 so queer and confused, and kept her right hand under the bed- 
 clothes. At last she offered the tailor her left hand. The tailor 
 then guessed how matters stood, but what he said to the husband, 
 and how it fared with the wife after that, I never heard." 
 
 " The farmer's wife must have been a witch then ? " asked the 
 lad, who had been listening intently. 
 
 " Yes, of course she was," said the old man. 
 
 We could scarcely hear each other's voices any longer ; the saw 
 was again hard at work and making a terrible noise. The moon 
 had now risen. I felt refreshed after the short rest, and bade the 
 old man farewell and started for town in company with the scared 
 lad, following the footpath below the Grefsen hill. A white mist 
 floated over the course of the river and the marshes in the valley 
 below. Above the smoky veil over the town rose Akerhus fort, 
 with its towers standing out in sharp relief against the mirror of 
 the fjord, beyond where the Noes point loomed as a black shadow. 
 
 The sky was almost cloudless. Scarcely any draught could be 
 noticed in the air. The light of the moon was blended with the 
 gloaming of the summer night and softened the outlines of the 
 landscape in the foreground, which lay before us. But the distant 
 fjord lay bathed in the bright and beaming moonlight, while the 
 Asker and Bcerum hills loomed high up in the sky and formed the 
 distant frame of the picture. 
 
 Refreshed by their cooling bath of evening dew, the violets and
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MILL. 161 
 
 other nocturnal flowers emitted a pleasant fragrance over the fields, 
 but from the bogs and the rivulets came up now and then damp, 
 penetrating gusts, that sent an icy chill through me. 
 
 " Ugh ! how it makes one shudder," cried my companion on such 
 occasions. He believed that these gusts were the breath of passing 
 spirits of the night, and thought he saw a witch or cat with glowing 
 eyes in every bush which the wind put in motion. 
 
 M
 
 THE LAD AND THE NORTH WIND. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was an old woman who had a son, and 
 as she was very weak and feeble, she sent her son across the yard 
 to the storehouse to fetch the meal for the porridge for dinner. 
 But when he got outside on the steps, the north wind came 
 rushing past, took the meal out of his bowl, and away it flew 
 through the air. 
 
 The lad went back to the storehouse to fetch more, but when he 
 came out on the steps the north wind came whistling past again, 
 and away went the meal ; and when the lad went back the third 
 time for the meal, the north wind played him the same trick over 
 again. The lad got angry at this, and thought it wasn't right of 
 the north wind to behave in this manner, so he made up his mind 
 to give the north wind a call, and ask him for his meal. 
 
 Well, the lad started off, but it was a long way, and he walked 
 and walked and came at last to the north wind. 
 
 " Good day," said the lad, " and thanks for calling to see me 
 yesterday." "Good day," answered the north wind, his voice 
 was hoarse and gruft, " no thanks required. What do you want ? " 
 " Oh," said the lad, " I was only going to ask you to be good 
 enough to let me have back that meal you took from me on the 
 steps, because we haven't much, and if you are going on in this 
 way, and take what little we have, we shall starve." " I haven't 
 got any meal," said the north wind, " but since you are so hard 
 up, you shall have a table-cloth, which will provide you with every- 
 thing you wish, if you only say, ' Cloth, spread yourself and serve 
 up all kinds of fine dishes ! ' *
 
 THE LAD AND THE NORTH WIND. 165 
 
 The lad was well satisfied with this. But as the way was so 
 long that he couldn't get home that night, he went into a roadside 
 inn, and when they were going to have supper, he put the cloth on 
 a table which stood in the corner, and said, " Cloth, spread your- 
 self, and serve up all kinds of fine dishes." 
 
 He had scarcely said these words before the cloth did as it was 
 told, and all in the room thought it was a very nice thing to have, 
 but no one liked it better than the innkeeper's wife. She thought 
 that would be the very thing for her. It would save her such a 
 lot of trouble in frying and boiling, laying the cloth, and putting 
 the things on the table, and so on. 
 
 So in the middle of the night, when all were asleep, she took 
 the cloth from the lad, and put another one in its stead, just like 
 the one he had got from the north wind, but her cloth couldn't, 
 of course, serve up as much as an oatmeal cake. 
 
 When the lad awoke, he took the cloth and set out on his 
 journey, and that day he got back to his mother. " Well," he 
 said, " I have been to the north wind, I have ! He is a decent 
 fellow, I think, because he gave me this cloth, and I have only 
 to say, ' Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of fine 
 dishes,' and then I get the best of everything I want to eat and 
 drink." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! I daresay," said the mother, " but I don't believe 
 it, till I see it." So the lad lost no time, but took a table, laid the 
 cloth on it, and said, " Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all 
 kinds of fine dishes," but the cloth didn't serve up so much as a 
 dry crust. 
 
 " Ah, well ! " said the lad, " there's no help for it, I must go to 
 the north wind again," and away he went. Towards evening, he 
 came to where the north wind lived. 
 
 " Good evening," said the lad. " Good evening," said the north 
 wind. " I want my rights for the meal you took from us," said 
 the lad, " for that cloth you gave me is not good for anything." 
 " I haven't any meal," said the north wind, " but here is a goat 
 for you, which makes only golden ducats, if you only say, ' Goat 
 of mine, make money !' '
 
 1 66 THE LAD AND THE NORTH WIND. 
 
 That pleased the lad, but as it was too late to get home that 
 day, he went into the same inn where he had been before. But 
 before he called for anything, he wanted to try the goat and see if 
 it was true what the north wind had said about it, and sure 
 enough the goat made only golden ducats. 
 
 But when the innkeeper saw what kind of goat the lad had, he 
 thought this was a goat worth having, so when the lad had fallen 
 asleep, he took another goat which couldn't make any golden 
 ducats, and put that in its place. 
 
 Next morning the lad started off home, and when he came in to 
 his mother, he said, " The north wind is a good fellow after all ; 
 this time he has given me a goat that makes only golden ducats, if 
 I only say, ' Goat of mine, make money ! ' ' 
 
 "Ah, to be sure !" said his mother, "that's all rubbish, and I 
 don't believe it till I see it." " Goat of mine, make money ! " 
 cried the lad, but not a shilling could the goat make. 
 
 So the lad went back again to the north wind, and said that 
 the goat wasn't worth anything, and he wasn't going to be done 
 out of his meal, not he ! 
 
 " Well," said the north wind, " I have nothing else to give you 
 but that old stick over there in the corner; but it is a good stick, 
 and if you only say, ' Stick of mine, lay on,' it lays on, till you 
 say, ' Stick of mine, leave off.' " 
 
 But it was a long way home, and the lad went into the old inn 
 where he had slept before ; and as he pretty well guessed how he 
 had lost the cloth and the goat, he lay down at once on the bench 
 and began snoring as if he were asleep. 
 
 The innkeeper, who thought that the stick must be good for 
 something also, looked for a stick like the one the lad had, 
 and was going to change the sticks while the lad was snoring 
 away, but just as the innkeeper was going to take the stick, the 
 lad cried out, " Stick of mine, lay on," and the stick commenced 
 beating the poor innkeeper, till he jumped over chairs and tables, 
 while he shouted and yelled : " Oh dear ! oh dear ! Tell the stick 
 to leave off, or else it will kill me ; you shall have both your cloth 
 and your goat back again ! "
 
 THE LAD AND THE NORTH WIND. 
 
 167 
 
 When the lad thought that the innkeeper had had enough, he 
 said, " Stick of mine, leave off ; " took his cloth and put it in his 
 pocket, and with the stick in his hand, and leading the goat by a 
 string, he started off home. And now, thought the lad, he had 
 been very well paid for the meal he had lost.
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 THERE was once upon a time a man who 
 f ave up his farm to his eldest son and heir, 
 but he had still three sons, and they were 
 called Peter, Paul, and Ashiepattle. They 
 stayed at home and would do no work of 
 any kind, for they had had too good times of it in their young 
 days, and now they thought they were too good for everything and 
 that nothing was good enough for them. 
 
 At last Peter had got to hear that the king wanted a youngster 
 to watch his hares, and so he told his father that he would go and 
 try for this situation, which he thought would just suit him, for he 
 would serve no less a man than the king, he said. His father 
 thought that there was no doubt some more suitable work to be 
 found for him, for he who should watch hares ought to be light and 
 smart, and no lazybones, and when the hares began to run and fly
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 169 
 
 about, there would be quite another dance than hanging about the 
 house all day doing nothing. Well, there was no help for it, Peter 
 would try it, and go he must ; so he took his bag on his back and 
 trudged down the hill. When he had gone a good long distance, 
 he met an old woman, who stood fixed w'th her nose in a big 
 block, and when he saw how she pulled and tugged to get loose 
 he began laughing with all his might. 
 
 " Don't stand there and grin," said the woman, "but come and 
 help an old woman ; I was going to chop up a little wood and 
 then I got my nose stuck in this block, and so I have been standing 
 and tugging and pulling away, and never tasted a mouthful for 
 a hundred years," she said. 
 
 But Peter only laughed more and more ; he thought it was great 
 fun, and said, that since she had been standing thus a hundred 
 years, she might hold out for another hundred years. 
 
 When he came to the king's palace, he got the place to look 
 after the hares at once. It was not a bad place to serve in there ; 
 he was to have good food and good wages, and the princess in the 
 bargain ; but if only one of the king's hares was lost, they were 
 to cut three red stripes out of his back, and throw him into the 
 snake-pit. 
 
 As long as Peter was in the fields near the palace, he managed 
 to keep all the hares in one flock, but as the day wore on and the 
 hares came into the wood, they began to scamper and fly about 
 the hills in all directions. Peter ran after them as fast as his legs 
 would carry him, but at last he had only one of the hares left, and 
 when this was gone, he was very near burst with running. And 
 so he saw no more of the hares. 
 
 Towards evening he began strolling homewards ; when he came 
 to the gate, he stopped there gaping and staring about for them, 
 but no hares came. When he came into the palace yard in the 
 evening the king was waiting for him with his knife ready, and cut 
 three red stripes out of his back, put pepper and salt into them, 
 and cast him into the snake-pit. 
 
 After some time Paul wanted to go to the king's palace and 
 watch the king's hares. His father told him what he had said to
 
 170 
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 his elder brother and more besides, but there was no help for it, he 
 must and would go. It fared, however, no better with him than 
 with Peter. The old woman stood there and tugged and pulled 
 away at her nose, which stuck in the block, but Paul only laughed 
 and thought it was great fun, and left her standing there. He got 
 the place at once, there was no difficulty about that ; but the hares 
 ran away from him amongst the hills, although he ran and rushed 
 about after them till he blew and panted like a sheepdog in the 
 sunshine. When he came back to the palace in the evening with- 
 out the hares, the king was waiting on the steps with the knife 
 in his hand, and cut three broad red stripes out of his back, 
 
 put pepper and salt into them, and then away to the snake-pit 
 with him. 
 
 Well, when some time had passed, Ashiepattle wanted to set 
 out for the king's palace and watch his hares. He told his father, 
 and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields 
 and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and 
 now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill. 
 
 The old man thought he no doubt could find some more suitable 
 work to do, but if he did not fare better, he could not fare worse 
 than his brothers. He that would watch the king's hares must not 
 drag himself along as if he was a lazybones with soles of lead to 
 his boots, or like a fly on a tar-brush, for when the hares began to 
 scamper about on the hill-sides it was quite another dance than 
 lying at home and catching fleas with mittens on. He that wanted 
 to get away from that work with a whole back would have to be
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 173 
 
 smart and light on his legs ; in fact he ought to fly about faster 
 than a piece of dried skin or a bird's wing. 
 
 Well, that might be, said Ashiepattle, but for all that he would 
 go to the palace and serve the king ; he couldn't think of serving 
 any man Jess than a king. He would look after the hares, he said ; 
 they couldn't be much worse than the goat and the calf he had to 
 mind at home. So Ashiepattle took his bag on his back and 
 trudged down the hill. 
 
 When he had gone a good bit of the way, he began to feel very 
 hungry, but just then he came up to the old woman, who was 
 standing with her nose in the block, tugging and pulling away at 
 it to get loose. 
 
 " Good day, old mother," said Ashiepattle ; " are you standing 
 there sharpening your nose, you poor old soul ? " 
 
 " I haven't heard anybody call me mother for a hundred years," 
 said the old woman ; " come and help me out of this, and give me 
 something to eat ; I haven't had food in my mouth all this time. 
 I'll be as good as a mother to you, if you do ! " 
 
 Well yes, he thought she would want both meat and drink in 
 that case, said Ashiepattle. 
 
 So he took the axe and split the block for her, and then she got 
 her nose out of the cleft. He sat down to eat and shared his food 
 with her, but the old woman had a splendid appetite, as you may 
 guess, and finished the best part of it. 
 
 When they had done, she gave Ashiepattle a whistle, and told 
 him how to use it. If he blew into the one end of it, everything 
 which he wished far away would be scattered to all sides, but if he 
 blew into the other end it would all come together again ; and if 
 the whistle were lost or was taken from him, he had only to wish 
 for it and it would come back to him. That is something like a 
 whistle, thought Ashiepattle. 
 
 When he came to the king's palace, he was taken into service at 
 once, as they made little or no difficulty about that. He was to 
 have both food and wages, and if he could look after the king's 
 hares, so none were lost, he should have the princess as well, but if 
 any got away, if it only were one of the youngest hares, they
 
 1/4 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 would cut three red stripes out of his back ; and the king seemed 
 to be so sure of this, that he went and sharpened his knife there 
 and then. 
 
 " Well, that's a small matter to look after these hares," thought 
 Ashiepattle, for when they were let out they were as tame as a 
 flock of sheep, and as long as they were in the fields about the 
 place they were all in a flock and followed him ; but when they 
 came up in the wood it was close upon noon, and the sun shone at 
 his best, and off went the hares scampering about the hills. 
 
 " Halloa ! " cried Ashiepattle, and blew into the one end of the 
 whistle ; " off you go ! " and away the hares ran to all sides ; not one 
 was to be seen. But when he came to an open place in the wood, 
 where they had been burning charcoal, he took his whistle and blew 
 into the other end of it, and before he could say a word there were 
 the hares, all in a row, just as if they had been a regiment of 
 soldiers on a drill-ground. Well, that is something like a whistle, 
 thought Ashiepattle ; and so he went to take a nap over on a sunny 
 hill-side, while the hares scampered about and looked after them- 
 selves till the evening came. He then blew them together 
 again, and came back to the palace with them just like a 
 flock of sheep. 
 
 The king and the queen and the princess too stood in the door 
 and wondered what sort of a youngster this was, who could look 
 after the hares so well and bring them home with him again. The 
 king counted them backwards and forwards, pointing to each with his 
 finger, but no, not as much as one of the young hares was missing. 
 
 " That is something like a lad," said the princess. 
 
 The next day he set out again for the wood with the hares, but 
 as he lay and took a rest amongst the strawberries, the housemaid 
 in the palace came up to him. They had sent her after him to 
 find out how it was that he managed to look after the king's hares 
 so well. 
 
 He took out his whistle and showed it to her ; he blew into the 
 one end of it and away flew the hares like the wind between the 
 hills, and when he blew into the other end, they came scampering 
 down the hill and stood in a row before him.
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 " What a pretty whistle," said the housemaid ; she would willingly 
 give a hundred dollars for it, if he would sell it. 
 
 " Well, yes," said Ashiepattle, " it is something like a whistle ; " 
 but it was not to be bought for money, but if she beside the 
 hundred dollars would give him a kiss for every dollar, she 
 should have it. 
 
 Yes, that she would willingly ; she would not mind giving him 
 two for every dollar and thank him for it besides. 
 
 So she got the whistle, but when she came back to the palace, the 
 whistle was gone, for Ashiepattle had wished for it back again ; and 
 when the evening set in, he came home with his hares just like 
 another flock of sheep. For all the king counted and pointed 
 and reckoned, he could not find as much as a hair of them 
 missing. 
 
 The third day when he was out with the hares, they sent the 
 princess after him to try and get the whistle from him. She made 
 herself as blithesome as a lark, and at last she offered him two 
 hundred dollars if he would sell her the whistle, and tell her how 
 she should manage to get it safe home with her. 
 
 " Well, yes, it is something like a whistle," said Ashiepattle ; and 
 it was not for sale, he said, but for all that he would do it for her 
 sake, if she would give him a hundred dollars and a kiss for each 
 dollar in the bargain. On those terms she could have the whistle, 
 and if she wanted to keep it, she must look well after it ; that was 
 her business. 
 
 "That was a very high price for a hare-whistle," thought the
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 princess, and she was rather shy about giving him the kisses, but 
 since they were out in the wood, where no one could see or hear it, 
 she would not mind giving him the kisses ; for the whistle she must 
 and would have, she said. 
 
 When Ashiepattle had got what he was to have, she got the 
 whistle, and so she went holding it tight and fingering it all the 
 way, but when she came to the palace and was about to show it to 
 the king, it disappeared between her ringers. 
 
 The next day the queen would go herself and try to get the 
 whistle from him ; she thought she would be sure to bring it back 
 with her. 
 
 She was rather close-fisted in money matters and offered him only 
 fifty dollars, but she had to raise her price till it rose to three 
 hundred. Ashiepattle said it was something like a whistle, and 
 it was really no bid at all for it, but for her sake he wouldn't
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 177 
 
 mind selling it to her, if she would give him three hundred dollars 
 and a smacking kiss for each dollar in the bargain. He got that, 
 and much more, for she was not so stingy in that respect. 
 
 When she had got the whistle, she tied it up well and put it 
 in a safe place ; but she fared no better than the others, for when 
 she was going to pull the whistle out it was gone, and in the even- 
 ing Ashiepattle came home driving the king's hares before him 
 like a tame flock of sheep. 
 
 " This is all stuff and nonsense," said the king ; " I shall have to 
 go myself, if we are to get this confounded whistle from him. I 
 see no other way out of it." So when Ashiepattle next day had 
 got into the wood with the hares, the king set out after him, and 
 found him on the same sunny hill-side where the women folk had 
 met him, and made the bargain with him. 
 
 Well, the king and Ashiepattle became good friends and got 
 on very well together, and Ashiepattle showed him the whistle and 
 blew both in the one and the other end. The king thought it 
 was a funny whistle, and would buy it by all means, even if he 
 should pay a thousand dollars for it. 
 
 " Yes, it is something like a pipe," said Ashiepattle, and it was 
 not to be had for money ; " but do you see that white horse down 
 yonder ? " he said, and pointed over in the wood. 
 
 " Yes, that's my own mare, Snowflake," said the king. He knew 
 that himself without anybody telling him. 
 
 " Well, if you will give me a thousand dollars and will kiss 
 that white mare down in the bog behind that big fir-tree you 
 shall have the whistle." 
 
 " Is it not to be had at any other price ? " said the king. 
 
 " No, it is not," said Ashiepattle. 
 
 " But I suppose I may put my silk handkerchief between ? " said 
 the king. 
 
 Yes, he might do that And so the king got the whistle, and 
 put it into his purse, and this he put into his pocket and buttoned 
 it well up, and set off on his way home. 
 
 But when he came to the palace, and was going to pull out the 
 whistle, he was no better off than the women folk ; he had not 
 
 N
 
 1 7 8 
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 the whistle any more than they. Ashiepattle came home driving 
 the flock of hares and there was not a hare missing. 
 
 The king was in a great rage at the way in which Ashiepattle 
 had made a fool of them all. There was no question about it ; 
 Ashiepattle must lose his life. The queen said the same ; it was 
 best to punish such a scamp right off. 
 
 But Ashiepattle thought it was neither right nor fair, for he had 
 done nothing but what they had told him to do, and besides, he 
 had only tried to save his back and life as well as he could. 
 
 So the king said he would pardon him if he could tell so many 
 lies that they filled the large brewing-vat and flowed over. If he 
 could do that he might keep his life. 
 
 Well, that was neither a long nor a difficult piece of work, said 
 Ashiepattle ; he thought he could master that job. So he began 
 telling them how he had fared from the very first ; he told them 
 about the old woman with her nose in the block and then he would 
 say : " I must get on faster with telling lies if the vat is to be full." 
 So he told them about the whistle he had got, and about the 
 housemaid who came to him, and wanted to buy it for a hundred 
 dollars, and about all the kisses she had to give him in the bargain. 
 Then he told them of the princess, how she came to him, and how 
 much she had to kiss him to get the whistle, when nobody saw 
 or heard it over in the wood " I must get on with these lies if 
 the vat is to be full," said Ashiepattle, so he told them about the 
 queen, how stingy she was with the money and how liberal she 
 was with kisses, that one could hear the smacks all over the
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE KING'S HARES. 
 
 179 
 
 wood " I must really get on with my lies if the vat is to be full," 
 said Ashiepattle. 
 
 " Well, I think it's pretty full," said the queen. 
 
 " Not at all," said the king. 
 
 At last Ashiepattle began to tell about the king, who came to 
 him, and about the white mare down in the bog, and if the king 
 wanted the whistle he he would have he would have to " I 
 beg your majesty's pardon, but I must put some lies together if 
 the vat is to be full and " 
 
 " Stop, lad, stop ! It is full ! " cried the king. " Don't you see 
 the vat is flowing over ?" 
 
 So the king and queen thought they could not do any better 
 than give him the princess and half the kingdom there was no 
 help for it. 
 
 "That was something like a whistle," said Ashiepattle. 
 
 N 2
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING, 
 
 
 I HAVE grown up by the sea 
 from my earliest childhood I have 
 wandered about between the skerries, 
 the breakers, and the cliffs. There are 
 smart sailors in my native place, and no 
 wonder, for they begin early. No 
 sooner have the children learnt to walk 
 than they, the first thing in the morning, 
 with nothing on but their shirt, must 
 climb up on the nearest rock or knoll 
 to have a look at the weather or the 
 sea ; if the weather is calm, they put 
 their finger into their mouths and hold 
 it up in the air to feel if there is any 
 air stirring, and whence it comes. As 
 soon as they can handle an oar they 
 are out in boats, and before long they 
 are playing with the dangers of the sea 
 among the breakers. In my youth I 
 used often to go to sea with a pilot 
 from those parts, one of the finest 
 seamen I have known. The happy 
 times I spent with him belong to my
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 181 
 
 dearest memories of the past. Free and happy as a bird I flew 
 over the billows, in the pilot's light yawl we cruised about among 
 the skerries shooting ducks, eider-ducks, and seals, in his deck- 
 boat we steered out far to sea trolling for mackerel, and when he 
 got a ship to pilot in, I sailed the boat home, sometimes alone, 
 sometimes in company with the pilot's boy. Since that time I 
 have always yearned for a sailor's life and the open sea. But 
 instead of losing myself in extolling the glory of a sailor's life 
 I will give you an account of a trip we made together when I, 
 some years ago, was on a visit at home. 
 
 We were to spend some days by the outermost skerries. We 
 had the deck-boat, and its crew consisted of Rasmus Olsen 
 this was the name of my old friend the pilot's boy, and 
 myself. 
 
 One morning in the early grey of the dawn we stood out to sea 
 to troll for mackerel. There was a light breeze off the land ; it 
 was scarcely strong enough to lift the heavy fog which lay over 
 the skerries and the naked cliffs, from which the scared sea-gulls 
 flew and hovered around us with their hoarse cry the sea- 
 swallows uttered their ringing " Tree, tree," and the oyster- 
 catchers their mocking " Click, click ! " which has caused so 
 many an unsuccessful sportsman to smile. A hazy, close atmos- 
 phere hung over the leaden sea ; an auk, a guillemot, an eider- 
 duck, or a tumbling porpoise enlivened now and then the 
 scene. 
 
 Rasmus sat in the after-hatch at the helm, while the boy was 
 now forward, now aft, as circumstances required. Rasmus was 
 a tall, powerful man, with a weather-beaten, furrowed face of a 
 good-natured expression. In his grey intelligent eye lay an 
 earnest searching look, which told that he was used to encounter 
 dangers, and look deeper into things than the smile about his 
 mouth and jesting words would denote. As he sat there with a 
 sou'wester down over his ears, in a long pilot coat, his figure 
 appeared in the misty morning air to assume quite supernatural 
 proportions, and you might almost imagine that you had one of 
 the old Vikings before you the Vikings, however, did not smoke
 
 1 82 MACKEREL TROLLING. 
 
 tobacco, wmch Rasmus Olsen did, and that to a considerable 
 extent. 
 
 " There isn't wind enough to capsize a tea-cup in a gutter," 
 said Rasmus, and shifted his chew of tobacco with a little black 
 chalk pipe, while he looked around him on all sides. " Last night, 
 at sunset, there were plenty of the most respectable wind-clouds, 
 but now there isn't a capful." 
 
 The pilot-boy, who was on the look-out forward, and was keeping 
 the boat from falling off by using the starboard oar, as the current 
 went in a westerly direction, answered that he thought " it went 
 a little easier forward." 
 
 " No fear ! " answered Rasmus ; " it isn't as if it were sundown. 
 We sha'n't get any wind before evening, my boy, but may be we 
 shall have more than we want for the mackerel." 
 
 The breeze, however, soon grew stronger, and we were able keep 
 our course without the assistance of the oars, and we slipped now 
 at a smart pace out to sea. The fog disappeared gradually, dis- 
 closing the blue line of the coast and the far outlying naked 
 skerries, while before us lay the ocean in its interminable extent, 
 blushing in the morning sun. The land wind still blew strongly, but 
 the higher the sun rose, the stronger grew the Seabreeze. The rising 
 fog lay like a white sheet over the land. We had by this time a 
 stiff mackerel breeze, and we were soon in the midst of the 
 mackerel shoals. 
 
 The lines were ordered out, and the fish, one after another, took 
 the bait till the whole line trembled ; amid violent sprawling and 
 struggling these silvery children of the sea were hauled in. But 
 our joy was, as usual, not of a very long duration. Later in the 
 forenoon the gale increased more and more ; the seas set in, and 
 the waves grew bigger and bigger ; at last the fishing-line stood 
 straight out behind, and the stone weights jumped along the tops 
 of the billows, while the seas notwithstanding the guiding hand 
 of the pilot sought to avoid them broke over our little nutshell, 
 and sent the spray high above mast and sail. We pulled in the 
 lines and gave up the fishing. The pilot-boy sat in the main 
 hatch dangling his legs and looking round in all directions from
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 183 
 
 old habit. Now and then he slipped down into the hold and 
 looked at his watch, which he had shut up in a large, red-painted 
 sea-chest. 
 
 " Yes, that chest and that watch ! " said Rasmus, with a smile 
 and a nod; "I should think he is fond of them and quite right, 
 too if it hadn't been for them he would now have been at the 
 bottom of the sea among the pebbles." 
 
 I asked him for an explanation and he began : " It was late in 
 October last year ; we had terrible weather, and it was with the 
 greatest difficulty I could keep at sea, but I stayed outside. The 
 lad was with me in the boat. I bore down upon a Dutchman at 
 last, and hailed him. I came safe on board, but I felt anything 
 but easy about the boat and the boy ; my thoughts were not 
 where they should be, for every moment I had to give the boat 
 and the boy a look, and at last I saw a sea strike the boat aft, 
 which gave it a send forward and under, and the next moment 
 he was gone. 
 
 " We could not have given him any help even if the skipper 
 would have done so ; the lad was too far away. I prayed by 
 myself, and thought I should never see him again. But the first 
 person I met when I came home was the boy ; he had come 
 home long before me. He pulled out his watch and showed it 
 to me and said, ' I have saved the watch, Captain, and it goes 
 too.' The Lord be praised, I thought, that you are saved ; I 
 suppose there will be a way for a boat again, although it cost me 
 two hundred and fifty dollars and bran new sails it had in the 
 bargain. How was the boy saved ? Yes, in this way ' yes, 
 you rascal,' he said to the lad, who sat grinning at him, and 
 swinging his legs still quicker backwards and forwards, 'he who 
 is born to be hanged will never be drowned, well, a brig came 
 sailing past at the time. Suddenly they heard a cry, one of the 
 crew ran forward, but they saw nothing, they never thought it 
 came from the water ; but all at once they heard the cry right 
 under the bow, and when the captain himself came forward and 
 looked over the ship's side, there sat the boy on the sea-chest, 
 holding his watch in the .one hand high above the seas; There
 
 1 84 MACKEREL TROLLING. 
 
 was only just sufficient time for the captain to give the man at 
 the helm a sign or they would have gone clean over him. They 
 hove to, threw him a rope, and hauled him up." 
 
 In the afternoon the wind fell and we began fishing again. We 
 caught a few fish, whiling away the time with all sorts of stories. 
 
 " Ah, well, well," said Rasmus, and shook his head as he lighted 
 a fresh pipe, " there is something brewing over there to the south ! 
 The wind we had was only an early puff! You'll see we shall 
 have our full allowance ! Even the fish know it ; they don't rise 
 to the bait any more and the birds are scared hear how they 
 wheeze and cry as they seek the land. There will be the right sort 
 of weather for witches and such-like to-night. But see! if he 
 
 doesn't tumble himself so close to us that I might " spit upon 
 
 him he was going to say, but at that moment I fired I had put 
 up my gun and aimed at a porpoise which was gambolling about 
 in the sea close to us. Being hit, he lashed the water so violently 
 with his tail that he sent a shower of spray over us as high as the 
 mast of our boat, and made us all wet through. 
 
 " That witch will not send us any bad weather, anyhow ! " I 
 said, when I saw the water coloured red from his blood. Soon 
 after he appeared again, blowing very hard, but the next moment 
 he turned over ; Rasmus was not slow in putting the boat-hook in 
 him and hauling him into the boat with my assistance. He was 
 much pleased at the prospect of the oil he would get from him, 
 turned the heavy creature from one side to the other, fondled him 
 like a baby, and assured me he was a "stunning fat sea-cub," which 
 should be welcomed at home for boot-grease and lamp-oil. 
 
 While we thus were joking about trolls and witches who cause 
 gales and bad weather, a very remarkable witch-story came to my 
 mind, which I believed I had heard Rasmus tell me in my childhood, 
 but my recollection of it was so faint, that I was not sure whether 
 I had heard it or dreamt it. I asked Rasmus if he had not told 
 me such a story about three witches. 
 
 " Ah, that one ! " he answered, and laughed ; " that's one of the 
 sort we call skipper's yarns nowadays, but in the olden days they 
 believed them like gospel. Old grandfather told it me when I was
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 185 
 
 a small boy, but whether it was his grandfather or great-grand- 
 father who was the cabin-boy I do not recollect. Anyhow, thus 
 runs the tale. 
 
 " He had been sailing with a skipper as boy the whole summer, 
 but when they were going out on a trip in the autumn, he got a 
 sullen fit and would not join the ship. The skipper rather liked 
 him, for although he was a young hand, he was very handy, and 
 knew his work well ; he was a big and strong lad, and was not 
 afraid to bend his back over a rope ; he was almost as useful as an 
 able seaman, and he was always in a merry, lively humour, and 
 kept up the spirits of all on board, so the skipper did not like the 
 idea of losing him. But the lad had no mind to spend the 
 autumn nights on salt water; however, he would stay on board till 
 the cargo was in and they were ready to sail. One Sunday, when the 
 crew had liberty ashore, and the skipper was gone to see a timber- 
 dealer about some planks and firewood for deck-cargo something 
 on his own account I suppose the boy was to keep on board and 
 look after the vessel. But I must not forget to tell you that the 
 lad was born on a Sunday, and had found a card with the four of 
 clubs ; therefore he was a seer, that is to say, he could see the 
 supernatural people, but they could not see him." 
 
 " We are going to have a nasty night," Rasmus interrupted 
 himself, as he rose from his seat and held his hand up to protect 
 his eyes against the ray of sunlight, which now fell across the 
 bright billows, to be able to see clearly in a southerly direction. 
 " See how it's working up ; we shall have thunder and lightning. 
 Best to go about in time ; there isn't a breath of air now ! We 
 are lying here in still water and drift about like a bag of hay ; but 
 we must take in a reef before it is on us. Come on, Jack ! " 
 
 While they were taking in the reef, I took the helm and watched 
 the weather. It was now clear and perfectly calm. The wind had 
 gone down, but our boat was rocking with the swell. Far to the 
 south, above the horizon, stood a dark bank of cloud ; we saw it 
 first like a narrow streak melting into sky and sea, but gradually it 
 had risen like a wall or a curtain, on which a border of heavy, 
 yellow, torn and twisted thunder-cloud soon appeared.' At some
 
 i86 
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 
 
 moments the curtain grew thinner ; it appeared as if some one was 
 
 walking behind it with a light. No flash was seen, but we heard a 
 
 distant faint rumble, which I at first believed was occasioned by 
 
 the sea. 
 
 " Well/' said Rasmus, when he had lighted his pipe and taken 
 
 the helm again, " the boy was, as I said, a seer, and all at once, as 
 
 he sat forward in the 
 forecastle, he heard 
 some one speaking in 
 the hold. He peeped 
 through a crevice, and 
 then he saw three coal- 
 black ravens sitting on 
 a cross-beam and talk- 
 ing about their hus- 
 bands, whom they were 
 all tired of and whom 
 they wished at the bot- 
 tom of the sea. It was 
 easy to understand that 
 they were witches, who 
 had turned themselves 
 into ravens. 
 
 " ' But are you sure 
 that nobody hears us ? ' 
 asked one of the ravens. 
 The boy knew by the 
 voice that it was the 
 skipper's wife. 
 
 " ' No, of course not,' 
 
 said the other two, who were the wives of the first and second 
 
 mate, ' there is not a living soul on board.' 
 
 " ' Well, then I'll tell you ; I know a good way to get rid of them,' 
 
 said the skipper's wife, and jumped closer to the other two; 'we 
 
 will make ourselves into three heavy seas, and strike the vessel 
 
 and sink it with all hands.'
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 187 
 
 " Yes, the others thought that was a capital way, and they 
 remained some time, and talked about the time and place. 
 
 " ' But I suppose no one hears us/ said the skipper's wife again. 
 
 " ' Well, you know that ! ' answered the other two. 
 
 "'You see, there is a remedy they can use against us, and if it 
 were used, it would be a serious thing for us, it would cost us 
 our lives.' 
 
 " ' What remedy is that, sister ? ' said one of the mates' wives. 
 
 " ' But are you sure that no one hears us ? I thought I saw some 
 smoke from the forecastle.' 
 
 " ' You know there isn't ! We have looked into every corner. 
 They forgot to put out the fire in the stove, that's the reason it 
 smokes,' said the mates' wives. ' Let's hear about the remedy ! ' 
 
 " ' If they buy three cords of birch logs,' said the witch, ' but 
 they must be exact measure and no bargaining about the price, 
 and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, 
 when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when 
 the second sea comes, and the third cord, piece by piece, when the 
 third sea comes, then it's all over with us.' 
 
 " ' Yes, that's true, sister, then it's all over with us, then it's all 
 over with us ! ' said the mates' wives ; ' but nobody knows it ; ' 
 they screeched and laughed aloud, and then they flew up through 
 the main hatch, and screeched and gobbled like ravens. 
 
 " When they were ready to sail, the boy would not for the life of 
 him go in the ship for all the skipper talked to him and promised 
 him ; there was no help for it, he would on no account go in the 
 ship. At last they asked him if he was afraid, since it was getting 
 so late in the autumn, and if he would rather sit in the chimney- 
 corner behind his mother's petticoats. 
 
 " ' No,' said the lad, he was not afraid ; he thought they never had 
 seen any sign of his being afraid, or using tricks as the land crabs 
 might do, and he would prove it to them, for now he would 
 go with them in the ship, but on the condition that they bought 
 three cords of birch logs, exactly measured, and that he was to 
 have the command of the ship, as if he was the skipper, on a certain 
 day. The skipper asked the meaning of this nonsense, and if by
 
 1 88 MACKEREL TROLLING. 
 
 ever had heard of a boy taking the command of a vessel. The 
 lad answered that might be and it was all the same to him ; if they 
 would not buy three cords of birch logs, and obey him, as if he 
 was the captain for one day only, of which he would tell them 
 beforehand, he would not set his foot on board any more, and 
 still less would he dirty his hands in pitch and tar on board 
 that ship. 
 
 "The skipper thought it was a very strange idea, and that 
 he was a strange lad altogether, but he agreed at last, because 
 he had set his heart on having the boy with him, and I suppose 
 he thought he could easily manage him when they got out 
 to sea. The mate was of the same opinion. ' Oh ! never mind ! 
 Let him take the command ! If we go to leeward we'll have to 
 give him a hand ! ' said the mate. So the birch logs were bought 
 and correctly measured, and no bargaining was made about the 
 price, and then they sailed. 
 
 " When the day arrived that the boy was to be skipper, the 
 weather was calm and fine, but he called all men to reef sails, so 
 the ship had scarcely any sail on her. It was just about the 
 time when the middle watch was over and the morning watch 
 was called. Both skipper and crew smiled and said : ' It's easy 
 to see who has command of the ship now ; why not furl the sails 
 altogether ? ' 
 
 " ' Not yet,' said the boy, ' but very shortly ! ' Suddenly a squall 
 burst on them, so violent that they thought the ship would have 
 capsized. If they had not reefed the sails there was no doubt 
 they would have foundered when the first squall struck the ship. 
 The lad ordered them to throw out the first cord of birch logs, but 
 piece by piece, only one at a time, never two, and they must not 
 touch the other two cords of wood. 
 
 " The crew was very smart in carrying out his orders now, and 
 they did not laugh any more at him, but threw the birch logs over- 
 board piece by piece. When the last piece went over the side 
 they heard a moaning like from one who is in the last pangs of 
 death, and the next moment the squall was over. 
 " ' The Lord be praised ! ' said the crew
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING, 191 
 
 " ' Well, I must say that you have saved both ship and cargo, and 
 I'll report it to the owners, and stand by it,' said the skipper. 
 
 " ' Oh yes, that's all very well, but we haven't done with it yet,' 
 said the lad, ' we shall have it worse directly,' and he ordered them 
 to furl every rag but the mizen. 
 
 " The second squall came still stronger than the first, and it 
 increased so much that the crew were in a great fright. Just as 
 it was blowing at its hardest the lad told them to throw the other 
 cord of logs overboard, which they did ; they threw piece by piece, 
 and took good care not to touch the third cord. When the last 
 piece of log went over the side they heard a deep groaning again, 
 and so the wind went down. 
 
 "'We have one bout left now, and that will be the worst,' said 
 the lad, and ordered every man to his post, while the ship only 
 went under bare poles. The last squall was worse than both the 
 preceding ones, the ship gave a lurch, so they thought it would 
 never right again ; the seas washed over deck and gunwale. 
 But the lad ordered them to throw overboard the last cord of logs, 
 piece by piece, and not two at a time. When the last log went 
 over the side they heard the moaning of one who dies a hard 
 death, and when the wind had gone down the sea was coloured by 
 blood as far as they could see. 
 
 " When all was over the captain and the mate said they would 
 write to their wives. 
 
 " 'You may as well leave that alone,' said the lad. 'You haven't 
 got any wives any more ! ' 
 
 " ' What nonsense is that, you young whelp ? Have we no 
 wives ? " said the captain. 
 
 " ' Have you finished them off, perhaps ? ' said the mate. 
 
 " ' Oh dear no, we have all had a hand in that,' answered 
 the boy ; and then he told them what he had heard and seen the 
 Sunday he was on board keeping watch, when the crew had liberty 
 ashore, and the skipper went to see the timber-dealer. 
 
 " W T hen they came home they heard that their wives had dis- 
 appeared the day before the storm, and they had never been seen 
 or heard of since."
 
 192 
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 
 
 During this and other stories which Rasmus related the evening 
 had set in. The storm was approaching slowly, and gradually 
 
 
 3rt-~.2;' v ~~-~ J " 
 
 covered the sky like a dark curtain ; some of the flashes of 
 lightning struck the sea, others wound themselves like snakes in
 
 MACKEREL TROLLING. 193 
 
 a horizontal direction across the sky and formed flaming fringes 
 round the rich folds of clouds in the curtain. At other times the 
 flashes made the whole curtain transparent like a veil. Still the 
 storm was at some distance ; the thunder rumbled faintly, and the 
 sea rolled as far as we could see in long bright waves, but they 
 appeared as if coloured by blood or wine, for the sun was setting 
 in red clouds, the colour of which was reflected in the sea. But it 
 was apparent that we could not escape the storm ; the seas in- 
 creased, the current carried us towards land, and only now and then 
 a gust of wind filled our sail. By the last glimmer of the day we 
 saw on the distant ridge of the horizon a black streak approaching 
 us, the nearer it came the plainer appeared the white fringe of foam 
 which came driving on before it. The storm and the dark night 
 were upon us. Like an arrow the boat sped on, and before long we 
 were by the outside skerries, where the sea-birds, disturbed at the 
 constant flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, wheezed and 
 screamed and flew about in swarms like white clouds. But their 
 screams sounded faint amongst the breakers. The islands and 
 skerries afforded us some shelter from the heavy seas, but further on 
 towards the shore, where the sea broke upon it, they grew again, 
 and by the light of the flashes of lightning we saw along the whole 
 coast high foaming breakers, the roaring of which thundered in our 
 ears. Rasmus kept a sharp look-out in this darkness, which 
 appeared almost impenetrable ; I could not distinguish anything 
 but the broad white fringe of foam, which we were approaching 
 with an alarming speed. Shortly I discerned a small dark point, 
 for which we steered, and in a few moments we passed among the 
 surf and breakers through the narrow sound by the Ullenhead, and 
 reached in safety the peaceful harbour, where the high cliffs 
 sheltered against storm and sea.
 
 PEIK. 
 
 THERE was once on a time a man and a woman ; they had a 
 son and a daughter who were twins, and they were so like each 
 other that you could not tell the one from the other, except by their 
 clothes. 
 
 The boy they called Peik. He was of little use on the farm 
 while the parents lived, for he did not care for anything else but 
 playing tricks upon people, and he was so full of tricks and pranks, 
 that no one was left in peace for him. But when the parents died 
 he grew worse and worse, he would not do anything ; he only did 
 his best to make an end of what there was left after them, and to 
 quarrel with everybody. The sister worked and toiled all she 
 could, but it was of little help, and so she told him how wrong it 
 was that he would not do anything useful, and asked him : 
 
 " What do you think we shall live upon, when you have finished 
 everything ? " 
 
 " Oh, I'll go and play a trick upon somebody," said Peik. 
 
 " Yes, you are always ready and willing when you are bent 
 upon that," said his sister. 
 
 " Well, I'll try my best," said Peik. 
 
 So when he had made an end of everything, and there was 
 nothing more in the house, he set out on his journey, and walked 
 and walked till he came to the king's palace. 
 
 The king was standing at the door, and when he saw the lad 
 he said : 
 
 " Where are you off to to-day, Peik ? " 
 
 " Oh, I am off to see if I cannot play a trick upon somebody," 
 said Peik.
 
 PEIK. 195 
 
 " Can't you play a trick upon me, then ? " said the king. 
 
 " No, I don't think I can, because I have left my trickery-sticks 
 at home," said Peik. 
 
 " Can't you go and fetch them ? " said the king ; " I should like 
 to see, if you are such a clever trickster as folks make you 
 out to be." 
 
 " I am not able to walk so far now," said Peik. 
 
 " I'll lend you a horse and saddle," said the king. 
 
 " I don't think I am able to ride either," said Peik. 
 
 " We'll lift you up," said the king, "and I suppose you'll be able 
 to stick on to the horse." 
 
 Well, Peik rubbed and scratched his head, as if he was going to 
 pull all his hair off, but he let himself be lifted on top of the horse 
 at last ; there he sat, and swung backwards and forwards and side- 
 ways as long as the king could see him, and the king laughed 
 till the tears came into his eyes, for he had never seen such a 
 sorry horseman before. But as soon as Peik came into the wood 
 behind the hill, where the king could see him no longer, he sat 
 straight and steady as if he was nailed to the horse and started off 
 as if he had stolen both horse and bridle, and when he came to 
 the town he sold them both. 
 
 In the meantime the king walked up and down and waited for 
 Peik. He longed to see him coming back with his trickery-sticks ; 
 he could not help laughing when he called to mind how pitiable 
 he looked, as he sat rolling to and fro on the horse like a haybag 
 which didn't know which sHe to fall off on ; but hours went and 
 hours came, and no Peik came. So the king guessed at last that 
 he had been played a trick, and done out of his horse and saddle 
 as well, although Peik did not have his trickery-sticks with him. 
 But then things took another turn, for the king got in a rage and 
 made up his mind to take Peik's life. 
 
 But Peik got to know the day when he was coming, and told his 
 sister to put the porridge-pot on the fire with some water in it. 
 But just before the king came in he took the pot off the fire and 
 put it on the chopping-block and began making the porridge on 
 the block. 
 
 O 2
 
 196 PEIK. 
 
 The king wondered at this, and was so taken up with the 
 wonderful pot that he forgot what he had come there for. 
 
 " What do you want for that pot ? " said he. 
 
 " I can't spare it very well," said Peik. 
 
 ' Why can't you spare it ? " said the king ; " I'll make it worth 
 your while to sell it." 
 
 " Well, it saves me both money and trouble, chopping and 
 carrying," said Peik. 
 
 "Nevermind, I'll give you a hundred dollars for it," said the 
 king ; " you did me out of horse and saddle the other day, and the 
 bridle too, but I'll let bygones be bygones, if I get the pot." 
 
 " Well, I suppose you must have it then," said Peik. 
 
 When the king came back to the palace he sent out invitations 
 to a great feast, but the meat was to be boiled in the new pot, which 
 was put in the middle of the floor. 
 
 The guests thought the king was out of his mind, and went about 
 nudging each other and laughing at him. But he walked round 
 the pot and cackled and chuckled to himself, saying all the time, 
 " All right, all right! wait a bit! it will boil directly;" but there 
 was no sign of any boiling. 
 
 So the king guessed that Peik had been playing a trick upon him 
 again, and he set out to kill him. 
 
 When the king came to his place Peik was standing by the barn 
 
 "Wouldn't it boil ? " he said. 
 
 " No, it would not," said the king ; " but now you shall suffer for 
 it," he said, and was going to get his knife ready. 
 
 " I believe you there," said Peik, " for you did not have the 
 block." 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder if you are telling a lie again," said 
 the king. 
 
 '' It's all for the want of the block," said Peik ; " the pot won't 
 boil without it." 
 
 Well, what was he going to have for it ? 
 
 " It was worth three hundred dollars at least, but for his sake it 
 should go for two," said Peik. 
 
 So the king got the block, and set off for home. He invited
 
 PEIK. 197 
 
 guests again to a feast and put the pot on the block in the middle 
 of the room. The guests thought the king was gone sheer mad, 
 and went about making game of him. He cackled and chuckled 
 round the pot, saying all the time, " Wait a bit, it will boil soon, 
 it will boil directly ; " but there was no more chance of its boiling 
 on the block than on the floor. 
 
 So the king guessed that he had been tricked by Peik that time 
 as well. He tore his hair, and would not rest till he set out to kill 
 him ; he should not spare him this time, whether he had got any- 
 thing to say for himself or not. 
 
 But Peik was prepared to receive him again. He killed a wether 
 and took the bladder and filled it with the blood of the slaughtered 
 animal. He then put the bladder in his sister's bosom and told her 
 what she should say when the king came. 
 
 " Where is Peik ? " shouted the king. He was in such a rage 
 that his voice trembled. 
 
 " He is so poorly, that he is not able to move," answered the 
 sister, " and so he thought he would try and get some sleep." 
 
 " You must wake him up ! " said the king. 
 
 No, she dared not do it ; he was so hasty. 
 
 " Well, I am still more hasty," said the king ; " and if you don't 
 
 wake him I'll " and with that he put his hand to his side for 
 
 his knife. 
 
 No, no ! she would rather wake him ; but Peik turned round in 
 his bed in great rage, pulled out his knife and stabbed her in the 
 bosom, but the knife hit only the bladder ; a stream of blood 
 gushed out, and she fell down on the floor as if she were 
 dead. 
 
 " What a villain you are, Peik," said the king, " you have stabbed 
 your own sister and that while the king stands by and looks 
 at it." 
 
 " Oh, there isn't much danger, as long as I have got breath in 
 my nostrils," said Peik, and took a ram's horn, which he began 
 blowing ; and when he had blown a wedding march on it he put 
 the horn to his sister's nostrils and blew life into her again and 
 she rose up as if nothing had been the matter with her.
 
 198 PEIK. 
 
 " Why, bless me, Peik ! Can you kill people and blow life into 
 them again ? " said the king. 
 
 " Well, yes, what would become of me if I couldn't?" said Peik. 
 "You see, I am so hasty, and I can't help killing every one who 
 comes near me and annoys me." 
 
 " I am also very hasty," said the king, " and I must have that 
 horn ; I'll give you a hundred dollars for it, and Til forgive you 
 besides for doing me out of the horse and cheating me on that pot 
 and block business, and all the rest." 
 
 Peik could not very well spare the horn, but for his sake he 
 should have it, and so the king got it, and set out home as fast as 
 he could. 
 
 He had no sooner come home before he must try the horn. 
 He began quarrelling and scolding the queen and his eldest 
 daughter, and they scolded him again, but before they knew a word 
 about it he pulled out his knife and stabbed them both, so they fell 
 down stone dead, and all who were in the room ran out ; they were 
 so afraid. 
 
 The king walked up and down the floor for some time and kept on 
 saying there was no danger so long as there was breath in his nostrils, 
 and a great deal more nonsense which had flowed out of Peik's 
 mouth. He then took the horn and began blowing, but although 
 he blew all he could that day and the day after as well, he could 
 not blow life into the bodies ; they were dead, and dead they 
 remained, both the queen ind his daughter, and so he had to bury 
 them, and to give a grand funeral in the bargain. 
 
 When this was done the king set out to settle with Peik and to 
 take his life, but Peik had everything prepared, for he knew the 
 king was coming, and he said to his sister : 
 
 "You must change clothes with me and be off! You may take 
 all we have with you." 
 
 Yes, she changed clothes with him, packed up her things, and 
 started off as fast as she could, while Peik sat all by himself in his 
 sister's clothes. 
 
 "Where is that Peik?" said the king, as he came in a great 
 rage through the door.
 
 PEIK. 199 
 
 " He's gone away," said he who sat in the sister's clothes. 
 
 " Well, had he been at home now he wouldn't have had long to 
 live," said the king ; " it's no use sparing the life of such a scamp." 
 
 " He knew your majesty was coming to punish him for having 
 played so many tricks upon you, and so he ran away and left me 
 behind here both without food or money," said Peik, trying to 
 appear like a shy bashful maiden. 
 
 " Come along with me to the palace, and you shall get enough 
 to live on ; there is little use in sitting in the cottage here and 
 starving," said the king. 
 
 Yes, he would willingly do that, and so the king took him and 
 let him learn everything, and kept him as one of his own daughters ; 
 in fact the king felt now as if he had all his three daughters again, 
 for Peik stitched and sewed and sung and played with them, and 
 was in their company early and late. 
 
 Some time afterwards a prince came to the palace to woo one 
 of the princesses. 
 
 " Yes, I have three daughters," said the king ; " you have only 
 to say which one you will have." 
 
 So the prince got leave to go up in their bower and get 
 acquainted with them. In the end he liked Peik best, and threw 
 a silk handkerchief into his lap, and so they began getting every- 
 thing ready for the wedding, and shortly the prince's relations 
 arrived at the palace, and the wedding festivities commenced in 
 earnest with feasting and drinking ; but on the wedding day, as 
 night was coming on, Peik dared not remain any longer, and he stole 
 out of the palace and ran across the fields ; and there was no bride 
 to be found. 
 
 And worse remains to be told, for the two princesses were 
 suddenly taken ill, and all the guests had to break up and take 
 their departure just as they were in the middle of all the fun and 
 feasting. 
 
 The king was both enraged and sorrowful at these misfortunes, 
 and began to wonder what could really be the cause of them. 
 
 So he mounted his horse and rode out, for he thought it was so 
 lonely to stay alone by himself at home ; but when he came out
 
 20O 
 
 PEIK. 
 
 in the fields he saw Peik sitting there on a stone, playing a 
 
 Jew's harp, 
 
 " Halloh ! are you sitting there, Peik ? " asked the king. 
 
 "Of course I am," said Peik, "I can't sit in two places at once." 
 
 "Well, you have played such vile tricks on rne time after 
 
 time," said the king, " that you will have to come with me and get 
 
 your deserts." 
 
 il Well, I suppose there's no help for it," said Peik, " so I may as 
 well jump into it as creep into it." 
 
 When they came to the palace the king gave orders to get 
 ready a barrel, which Peik was to be put in, and when it was 
 ready they carted it up on a high mountain, where he was to lie in 
 the barrel for three days to think on all that he had done before 
 they rolled the barrel down the mountain into the sea.
 
 PEIK. 201 
 
 On the third day a rich man came past as Peik lay in the barrel 
 singing 
 
 " To paradise, to paradise I am bound, 
 Safe in my barrel as it turns round and round." 
 
 When the man heard this, he asked Peik what he would take to 
 let him take his place. 
 
 " I ought to be well paid for that," said Peik, " for there isn't 
 such a chance every day to go straight to paradise " 
 
 The man was willing to give him all he possessed, and so he 
 knocked out the bottom of the barrel and crept into it instead 
 of Peik. 
 
 In the evening the king came to roll the barrel down the 
 mountain. 
 
 " A safe journey to you ! " said the king ; he thought it was 
 Peik who was in it. " You'll roll faster into the sea than if you 
 were drawn by the swiftest reindeer, and now there will be an end 
 both to you and your tricks." 
 
 Before the barrel was half way down the mountain there 
 wasn't a whole stave or bit of it left, nor of the man who was 
 inside. But when the king came home to the palace, Peik was 
 there before him He sat on the steps and played upon the Jew's 
 harp. 
 
 " What ! are you sitting here, Peik ? " said the king. 
 
 " Of course I am," said Peik. " I suppose I may have lodgings 
 and shelter for all my horses, my cattle and my money." 
 
 " Where did I roll you to, that you got all these riches ? " asked 
 the king. 
 
 " Oh, you rolled me into the sea," said Peik, " and when I came 
 to the bottom there was more than enough to take both of 
 horses and cattle, of gold and goods. They went about in flocks, 
 and the gold lay in heaps as big as houses. 
 
 " What will you take to roll me the same way ? " said the king. 
 
 " Oh, that sha'n't cost you much," said Peik. " Since you didn't 
 take anything of me, I won't take anything of you either."
 
 202 PEIK. 
 
 So he put the king into a barrel and rolled him down the moun- 
 tain ; and when he thus had got the king out of the way, he went 
 home to the palace and married the youngest princess and had a 
 grand wedding. Afterwards he ruled his land and kingdom well 
 and wisely, but he left off playing tricks upon people and he was 
 never spoken of as Peik any more, but as His Royal Majesty 
 the King !
 
 FOOLISH MEN AND SCOLDING WIVES. 
 
 THERE were once upon a time two women, who were always 
 quarrelling, as women will do, and one day when they had nothing 
 else to quarrel about, they began arguing about their husbands, as 
 to who was the most foolish. 
 
 The longer they argued the more angry they got, and at last 
 they were very near pulling each other's hair, for, as every one 
 knows, it is easier to begin a quarrel than to end it, and it's a bad 
 look-out if sense is wanting in such a predicament.
 
 204 FOOLISH MEN AND SCOLDING WIVES. 
 
 One of them said there was nothing which she could not get her 
 husband to believe, if she only said It, for he was as stupid as the 
 trolls, and believed anything. The other said that there was 
 nothing so silly that she could not get her husband to do, if she 
 only said it ought to be done, for he was so foolish and stupid that 
 you could not easily find his like. 
 
 " Well, let us try who can make the biggest fool of our hus- 
 bands, and then we'll see which one is the most stupid," they said 
 one day, and to this they both agreed. 
 
 When the husband of the first of these women came home from 
 the wood, his wife said : " Goodness gracious ! what ails you ? 
 You must be ill, you look as if you were dying." 
 
 " Want of something to eat and drink is all that ails me," said 
 the husband. 
 
 " But gracious goodness ! " screeched the woman, "you are look- 
 ing worse and worse every minute ! You look like a corpse ! You 
 must go to bed ! Dear, oh dear, this can never last long." And 
 in this way she went on, till she got her husband to believe that 
 he was on the point of dying, and she got him to go to bed, folded 
 his hands, and closed his eyes ; next she laid him out and put him 
 into a coffin, and that he might not be smothered while he was 
 there, she had some holes made in the boards, so he could bo^h 
 breathe and look out. 
 
 The other woman took a pair of carding-combs and began to 
 card, but she had no wool upon them. The man happened to 
 come in and see this foolish operation. " There is little help in 
 a spinning-wheel without yarn, but carding-combs without wool 
 is the height of woman's nonsense," said her husband. 
 
 " Without wool ? " said the woman, " why I have wool ! But 
 you don't see it, for it is of a very fine sort, I can tell you." When 
 she had done the carding, she brought out her spinning-wheel and 
 began spinning. "But this is foolish work," said the man ; "you 
 are sitting there spinning and spoiling your wheel all the time, 
 since you have got nothing on it ! " " Nothing on it ? " said the 
 woman, " but the thread is so fine, that it wants better eyes than 
 yours to see it," she said.
 
 FOOLISH MEN AND SCOLDING WIVES. 205 
 
 When she was ready with the spinning she took the yarn off the 
 wheel and sat up her loom and began weaving the cloth. She 
 then took it off her loom, pressed it and cut it out, and sewed new 
 clothes of it for her husband ; and when they were ready she hung 
 them up in the loft of the storehouse. The husband could see 
 neither the cloth nor the clothes, but he had got the belief into 
 his head that the cloth was so fine that he could not see, and so 
 he only said : " Well yes, if it is so fine, it's very fine indeed." 
 
 But one day his wife said to him : "You must go to the funeral 
 to-day; our neighbour, who died the other day, is going to be 
 buried to-day, and so you had better use your new clothes." Yes, 
 he would go to the funeral, and she helped him to put the clothes 
 on, for they were so fine, that he might easily tear them to pieces 
 if he put them on himself. When he came to his neighbour's farm 
 the funeral feast had already begun, and the guests had been 
 drinking hard ; their grief did not increase much you may depend, 
 when they saw the last arrival in his new clothes. 
 
 But when they set out for the churchyard, and the dead man 
 peeped out through the holes in his coffin, he burst out laughing 
 till the coffin shook. 
 
 "Well, well," he cried; "I can't help laughing when I see 
 Joe Southend walking stark naked at my funeral ! " 
 
 When the people heard this, they were not slow in taking the 
 lid off the coffin, and the man in the new clothes asked how it was 
 that the man whose funeral they had been feasting at was lying in 
 the coffin, talking and laughing ; " it would be more seemly if he 
 was crying and weeping." 
 
 "Well, tears never dug any one out of his grave yet," said the 
 other, and so the two husbands found out at last how their wives 
 had been plotting the whole thing against them. Then they went 
 home and did the most sensible thing wh : ch they ever had done in 
 their lives, and if there is anybody who likes to know what that 
 was he must go and ask the birch rod over the door.
 
 THE PARSON AND THE CLERK. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a parson, who was such a bully, 
 that he screamed out a long way off, when anybody carne driving 
 against him in the main road : " Out of the way, out of the way ! 
 Here comes the parson himself 1 " 
 
 One day, when he was driving along and carrying on in this way, 
 he met the king. " Out of my way, out of my way ! " he shouted, 
 ever so far off. But the king drove straight on and took no notice 
 of him, so that time the parson had to pull his horse on one side. 
 When the king came alongside him, he said : " To-morrow, you 
 will have to appear at the palace, and if you cannot answer the 
 three questions which I will ask you, you shall lose both your 
 gown and your collar, for your pride's sake." 
 
 That was something different to what the parson was used to. 
 He could bawl and shout and carry on terribly, but to bother his 
 brains with problems and answers was out of the question. So he 
 went to the clerk, who they said had a much smarter tongue than
 
 THE PARSON AND THE CLERK. 
 
 20; 
 
 the parson. He told the clerk he had no mind to go, " for a fool 
 can ask more than ten wise men can answer," said the parson, and 
 so he got the clerk to go instead. 
 
 Well, the clerk set out and came to the palace dressed in the 
 parson's gown and collar. The king received him at the door 
 
 with crown and sceptre, and was so fine that he glittered a long 
 way off. 
 
 " Oh, you are there, are you ?" asked the king. 
 
 Yes, he was there, sure enough. 
 
 " Now, tell me first," said the king, " how far is it from east 
 to west ? "
 
 2o8 THE PARSON AND THE CLERK. 
 
 " Why, a day's journey," said the clerk. 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " asked the king. 
 
 " Well, don't you see, the sun rises in the east and sets in the 
 west, and he does it easily enough in a day," said the clerk. 
 
 " Very well," said the king ; " but tell me now, what you think I 
 am worth, as I stand here before you." 
 
 " Well, our Lord was valued at thirty silver pieces, and I suppose 
 I cannot put you higher than twenty-nine," said the clerk. 
 
 " So, so ! " said the king, "since you are so very clever at every- 
 thing, tell me what it is I am thinking about just now ? " 
 
 " Why, you are surely thinking it is the parson who stands here 
 before you ; but so help me, if you don't think wrong, for I am 
 the clerk." 
 
 " Be off with you, go home, and you be the parson and let him 
 be clerk," said the king, and so it was.
 
 f-AWriJA 
 
 THE GIANT AND JOHANNES BLESSOM. 
 
 ABOVE Vaage parsonage rises a hill or small mountain, crowned 
 with tall and majestic pine-trees. It is called the " Jutulsberg," 
 or the giant's mountain, by the Vaage people. It is very steep and 
 is full of deep dark crevices. By a freak of nature a formation of 
 the rocks, somewhat resembling a large gateway, can be seen in 
 one of its most bare and weatherbeaten sides. If you stand on 
 the bridge over the wild Finne river, or on the further side of the 
 fields, and look up at the gate above the overhanging garlands and 
 luxuriant foliage of the weeping birch which grows out of the fissures 
 in the rock, and if, in addition, you call your imagination to your 
 assistance, the formation takes the appearance of a double gateway, 
 which at the top is joined in a gothic arch. 
 
 Old, white-stemmed birch trees stand as pillars at its sides, but 
 their lofty crowns do not reach up to where the arch begins. If 
 the gateway extended into the mountain the length of a church, 
 you could put Vaage church with roof and spire into it. It is 
 not an ordinary door or gate, it is the entrance to the giant's 
 
 P
 
 210 THE GIANT AND JOHANNES BLESSOM. 
 
 castle the giant's gate as it is called, under which the biggest 
 troll with fifteen heads can comfortably pass without bending 
 his neck. 
 
 If any one in the olden days, when there was more intercourse 
 between human beings and trolls, wanted to borrow anything from 
 the giant, or to speak with him on other business, it was customary 
 to throw a stone at the gate and say : " Open, Jutul ! " 
 
 One afternoon, a couple of years ago, I came on a visit to the 
 parsonage. The family had gone up to their mountain dairy and 
 there was no one at home but an old peasant, who, on being re- 
 quested to show me the way, went with me up to the giant's gate. 
 We knocked, but no one came to open it. It was not to be won- 
 dered at that the giant would not receive us, or that he at his 
 advanced age so seldom receives visitors, for if we were to judge by 
 the numerous marks of stones having been thrown at the gate, he 
 must have been exceedingly troubled with visits. 
 
 " One of the last who saw him," said my companion, " was 
 Johannes Blessom, the parson's neighbour. But I should think he 
 wished he never had seen him," he added. 
 
 " This Johannes Blessom was once down in Copenhagen about a 
 lawsuit for there was no justice to be had here in the country in 
 those days, and if any one wished for ' fair play ' there was no help 
 for it but to go down there. His father, who also had a lawsuit, 
 did the same thing before him. Well, it was a Christmas eve, 
 when Johannes had finished his business with the grand folks, and 
 was ready to start home ; he walked along the streets in a gloomy 
 mood, for he was longing to be at home up in the far north, and 
 knew there was no way of getting home till long after Christmas. 
 Suddenly a person, who by his dress appeared to be a peasant from 
 his own parish of Vaage, passed him in a great hurry. He was a 
 big, tall man, with large silver buttons as big as dollar pieces in 
 his white jacket. Johannes thought he knew him, but he walked 
 past him so quickly that he did not get a good sight of his face. 
 
 '"You are in a great hurry,' said Johannes. 
 
 " ' Yes, I have to make haste,' answered the stranger ; ' I have to- 
 be at Vaage to-night ! '
 
 THE GIANT AND JOHANNES BLESSOM. 213 
 
 " ' I wish I could get there as well/ said Johannes. 
 
 " 'Well, you can stand behind on my sledge,' said the stranger, 
 ' for I have a horse who does the mile in twelve strides.' 
 
 "Johannes thanked him for the offer, went with him to the stable, 
 and off they started. Johannes was only just able to stick on to 
 the sledge, for away they went like the wind through the air. He 
 could neither see earth nor sky. 
 
 "At one place they stopped to rest. Johannes could not tell 
 where it was, but just as they were starting again he saw a skull 
 on a pole. When they had travelled some distance Johannes began 
 to feel cold. 
 
 " ' Ugh ! I forgot one of my mittens where we rested,' said he ; 
 ' my fingers are freezing ! ' 
 
 " ' You'll have to stand it, Johannes Blessom,' said the stranger, 
 ' it isn't far to Vaage now. Where we rested was half-way ! ' 
 
 "The stranger stopped just before they came to the bridge over 
 the Finne river to put Johannes down. 
 
 " ' You are not far from home, now,' said he, ' and you must 
 promise me not to look behind you if you hear any rumble or see 
 any light around you.' 
 
 " Johannes promised this and thanked him for the lift. The 
 stranger proceeded on his way over the Finne bridge, and Johannes 
 walked up the hill-side to his farm. But all of a sudden he heard 
 a rumble in the giant's mountain, and the road in front of him was 
 suddenly lighted up, he thought he could have seen to pick up a 
 needle. He forgot what he had promised, and turned his head to 
 see what it was. The gate in the mountain was wide open and 
 there came a light from it as from many thousand candles. Right 
 in the middle of the gate he saw the giant himself, it was the 
 stranger he had been driving with. But from that day, Johannes 
 Blessom's head was all on one side, and so it remained as long as 
 he lived."
 
 THE BOX WITH THE FUNNY THING IN IT. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a little boy, who was walking along 
 a road. When he had gone some distance he found a box. 
 "There must be something funny in that box," he said to himself; 
 but although he twisted and turned it he was not able to get it 
 open. When he had walked some distance farther he found a 
 little key. He was tired, and sat down by the roadside. He thought 
 it would be great fun to see if the key fitted the box, for there was 
 a little keyhole in it. He took the little key out of his pocket ; 
 he blew first into the pipe of the key, and then he blew into the 
 keyhole ; he put the key into the keyhole and turned it round. 
 " Click," said the lock, and when he tried the lid the box was open. 
 But can you guess what there was in the box ? Why, it was a 
 calf's tail, and if the calf's tail had been longer this tale would have 
 been longer too.
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 THERE was once a poor, very poor widow, who had an only son. 
 She pulled through with the boy till he was confirmed ; but then 
 she told him that she could not feed him any longer ; he would 
 have to go out and earn his own bread. 
 
 The lad wandered out into the world, and when he had walked 
 a day or so he met a stranger. " Where are you going to ? " asked 
 the man. "I'm going out into the world to try and get some 
 work," said the lad. " Will you come into my service ? " asked 
 the man. " Well, why not ! just as well with you as with anybody 
 else," -answered the lad. " You will find it a very good place," 
 said the man ; " you are only going to keep me company and do 
 nothing else besides." 
 
 So the lad went with him home, and he got plenty of food and 
 drink, and had little or nothing to do ; but on the other hand he 
 never saw a living soul come near the man. 
 
 So one day the man said to him : " I'm going away for eight 
 days, and during that time you will be here all alone, but you must 
 not go into any of these four rooms here. If you do I will take 
 your life when I come back." No, said the lad, he should not go 
 into any of the rooms. 
 
 But when the man had been away three or four days the lad 
 could not help going into one of the rooms. He looked round, but 
 saw nothing but a shelf over the door, on which lay a brier twig. 
 Well, this is surely something to forbid my seeing, thought the boy. 
 
 When the eight days were gone the man returned. " You haven't 
 been into any of the rooms, I suppose ?" said he. "No, not at
 
 216 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 all," said the lad. " Well, we shall soon see," said the man, and 
 with that he went into the room where the lad had been. " But I 
 find you have been there after all," said the man, " and now you 
 shall lose your life." 
 
 The lad cried and begged for himself till he got off with his life; 
 but he got a good thrashing. When that was over they were as 
 good friends as ever. 
 
 Some time afterwards the man went away again ; he was going to 
 stay away for a fortnight this time, but first he told the lad that he 
 must not put a foot in any of the rooms where he had not already 
 been ; he might, however, go into that room where he had been. 
 
 Well, it happened just as the last time, only that the lad waited 
 eight days before he went into the second room. In this room he 
 saw nothing but a shelf over the door, and a piece of rock and a 
 water-jug on it. Well, that's something to be so afraid of, thought 
 the lad again. 
 
 When the man came back he asked the lad if he had been into 
 any of the rooms. No, not likely, the lad hadn't been there ! 
 " We shall soon see, 1 ' said the man, but when he saw that the lad 
 had been into one of the rooms after all, he said : " I shall spare 
 you no longer now ; you will lose your life this time ! " 
 
 But the lad cried and begged for himself again, and he got off 
 with a good thrashing again, but this time he got as much as he 
 could possibly stand. When he had got over the effects of the 
 thrashing he led the same comfortable life as before, and he and 
 the man were the best of friends again. 
 
 Some time after the man had to go on a journey again, and this 
 time he should be away for three weeks, and so he said to the lad 
 that if he went into the third room during his absence, he would 
 not have the slightest chance of escaping with his life. 
 
 When fourteen days had gone the lad could not help himself; 
 but stole into the third room ; he saw nothing in there except 
 a trap-door in the floor. When he lifted it up and looked down 
 into the room below he saw a big copper kettle which stood there 
 and boiled and bubbled ; but he saw no fire under it. 
 
 It would be great fun to feel if it is hot, thought the boy, and put
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 217 
 
 his finger into the kettle, but when he pulled it out again it was 
 gilded all over. The boy scraped and washed it, but the gilding 
 would not come off, so he tied a rag round it, and when the man 
 came home and asked what was the matter with his finger the lad 
 said that he had cut himself very badly. But the man tore off the 
 rag, and then he saw easily enough what really ailed the finger. 
 
 He was at first going to kill the lad ; but as he began crying and 
 praying for himself again, he gave him such a sound thrashing 
 instead that he had to keep his bed for three days, and then the 
 man took a jar down from the wall, and rubbed the lad with some 
 of its contents and he was as well as ever again. 
 
 Before long the man went away again, and was not coming 
 back for a month. But he told the lad that if he went into the 
 fourth room he must not have any hope of escaping with his life 
 that time. 
 
 For two or three weeks the lad managed to resist the temp- 
 tation, but then he couldn't help himself any longer, he must 
 and would go into that room, and so he did. There stood a big 
 black horse in a box by himself, and with a manger of glowing 
 cinders at his head, and a truss of hay at his tail. The lad 
 thought this was altogether wrong ; he changed them about and 
 put the truss of hay at the horse's head. 
 
 So the horse said : " Since you have such a good heart that you 
 let me have something to eat, I will save you from the troll, for 
 that's what the man is that you are with. But now you must go 
 up into the room just above here and take a suit of armour out of 
 those hanging there, and mind you do not take any of the bright 
 ones, but the most rusty you see. Take that one ! And 
 sword and saddle you must look out for yourself in the same 
 way." 
 
 The lad did as he was told, but it was very heavy work to carry 
 it all at once. When he came back the horse told him to take all 
 his clothes off and jump into the kettle which stood and boiled in 
 the room below, and to have a good dip there. 
 
 " I shall be an awful sight then," thought the lad, but he did 
 as the horse had told him. When he had finished his bath he
 
 218 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 became handsome and smart, and as red and white as blood 
 and milk, and much stronger than before. 
 
 "Do you feel any different?" asked the horse. "Yes," said 
 the lad. " Try if you can lift me," said the horse. Oh, yes, he 
 could do that ; and the sword, why, he swung it about his head as 
 if it were nothing at all. " Now, put the saddle on me," said the 
 horse, " and put the suit of armour on you, and then don't forget 
 the brier-twig, the piece of rock, the water-jug, and the jar of 
 ointment, and then we'll be off." 
 
 The lad had no sooner got on the horse than off they went at 
 such a rate that he couldn't tell how fast they got on. When he had 
 been riding for some time the horse said to him : " I think I hear 
 a rumbling of something ! Just look round ; can you see any- 
 thing ? " " Yes, there are a great, great many coming after us ; 
 at least a score," said the lad. " Well, that's the troll," said the 
 horse ; " he is coming after us with his imps." 
 
 They rode on for a while, until they who were coming after 
 them were close upon them. " Now throw your brier-twig over 
 your shoulder," said the horse, " but throw it a good distance be- 
 hind me !" The lad did so, and suddenly a big, close brier-wood 
 grew up behind them. So the lad rode a long, long way, while 
 the troll had to go home and fetch something to hew his way 
 through the wood. 
 
 But in a while the horse said again : " Look behind ! Can you 
 see anything now ? " " Yes, a great many," said the lad ; " as 
 many as would fill a church." " Ah ha ! that's the troll, he has 
 taken more with him this time. Throw the piece of rock you 
 have, but throw it far behind me ! " 
 
 As soon as the lad had done what the horse had said, a great 
 steep mountain rose behind him, and so the troll had to go home 
 and fetch something to mine his way through the mountain, and 
 while the troll was doing this the lad rode again some distance on 
 his way. But before long the horse asked him to look behind him 
 again, and then the lad saw a crowd like a big army in bright 
 armour, which glistened in the sun. " Ah ha ! " said the horse, 
 " that's the troll, now he has got all h ; s imps with him. Take the
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 221 
 
 water-jug and throw all the water out behind you, but mind you 
 do not spill any of it on me !" 
 
 The lad did as he was told, but for all the care he took, he 
 happened to spill a drop on the horse's flank. Well, the water he 
 threw behind him became a great lake, but on account of the 
 drop he spilled on the horse he found himself far out in the water, 
 but the horse swam safely to land with him. When the trolls 
 came to the lake they laid down to drink it dry, but they 
 drank till they burst. " Now we have got rid of them," said 
 the horse. 
 
 So when they had travelled a long, long time, they came to a 
 green plain in a wood. " Now you must take off your whole suit 
 of armour and only put your own ragged clothes on," said the 
 horse, " and then take the saddle off me and let me go ; but hang 
 all the things inside this big hollow lime-tree here. You must 
 then make yourself a wig of pine-moss and go up to the king's 
 palace, which is close by ; there you must ask for service. 
 Whenever you want me, only come and shake the bridle, and 
 I'll come to you." 
 
 Yes, the lad did as the horse had told him, and when he piu 
 the wig of moss on his head he became so ugly, and pale, and 
 miserable looking that no one would know him again. He then 
 went to the palace and asked first, if he could get some work in 
 the kitchen and carry water and wood for the cook ; but the cook 
 asked : " Why do you wear that ugly wig ? Take it off you ! I 
 won't have such a fright in here." "I can't do that," answered 
 the lad, " I am not all right in my head." " Do you think I will 
 have you here near the food, if that's the case ?" said the cook ; 
 " go down to the coachman ; you are better suited for cleaning 
 out the stable." 
 
 But when the coachman asked him to take off his wig and got 
 the same answer he would not have him either. " You had better 
 go to the gardener," he said ; " you are more fit for digging in the 
 garden." Yes, the gardener would take him, and gave him leave 
 to stay with him, but none of the other servants would sleep with 
 him, so he had to sleep by himself under the steps of the summer-
 
 222 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 house. It stood on posts, and a high staircase led up to it ; under 
 this he put some moss for a bed, and there he lay as well as he 
 could. 
 
 When he had been some time at the palace, it happened one 
 morning, just as the sun was rising, that the lad had taken off 
 his wig of moss and was washing himself; he then looked so 
 handsome that it was a pleasure to look at him. 
 
 The princess saw the lad from her window, and she thought that 
 she never had seen any one so handsome. She asked the gardener 
 why the lad slept out there under the steps. " Oh, none of his 
 fellow- servants will sleep with him," said the gardener. "Let him 
 come up and lie outside the door of my chamber," said the prin- 
 cess, " and then I suppose they will not think themselves too good 
 to sleep in the same room as he." 
 
 The gardener told the lad of it. " Do you think I'll do that ? " 
 said the lad ; " they would say that I was running after the 
 princess." "Yes, you are very likely to be suspected of that," 
 said the gardener, " you are so good-looking ! " " Well, if she 
 orders it so, I suppose I must go," said the lad. 
 
 When he was going up stairs in the evening he tramped and 
 stamped so terribly that they had to tell him to walk more softly, 
 that the king should not get to know it. So he lay down by the 
 door and began to snore. 
 
 The princess then said to her maid : "Just go quietly to him 
 and pull off his wig." The maid was just going to snatch it off 
 his head, when he took hold of it with both his hands and said that 
 she should not have it ; and with that he lay down again and 
 began snoring. The princess gave the maid a sign again, and that 
 time she snatched the wig off him, and there lay the lad so lovely 
 and red and white, just as the princess had seen him in the morning 
 sun. After that the lad slept every night outside the princess's 
 chamber. 
 
 But before long the king got to hear that the gardener's boy lay 
 outside the princess's chamber every night, and he was so enraged 
 at this that he almost took the lad's life. He did not do this, 
 however, but threw h i 'm into the prison tower. He shut up his
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 223 
 
 daughter in her chamber, and told her she should not have leave 
 to go out day or night. She cried and prayed for herself and the 
 lad, but all to no purpose. The king only got more vexed at it. 
 
 In a while a war broke out in the land, and the king had to take 
 up arms against another king, who wanted to take the kingdom 
 from him. When the lad heard this he asked the keeper to go to 
 the king and ask for a suit of armour and a sword and permission 
 to go to the war. All laughed when the keeper delivered his 
 message, and asked the king to give him some old rusty suit, that 
 they might have the fun of seeing this poor wretch going to fight 
 in the war. So the lad got permission and an old, wretched horse 
 
 in the bargain, who jogged along on three legs and dragged the 
 fourth after him. 
 
 So they all set out to meet the enemy ; but they had not got far 
 from the palace before the lad got stuck in a bog with his nag. 
 There he sat and kicked away and cried : " Gee up, gee up ! " to 
 his nag. All amused themselves at this sight, and laughed and 
 made game of the lad as they rode past. 
 
 But no sooner were they out of sight than the lad ran to the 
 lime-tree, put on his suit of armour, and shook the bridle. The 
 horse appeared at once, and said : " You do your best, and I will
 
 224 
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 do mine ! " When the lad came up the battle had already begun, 
 and the king was in a bad plight ; but the lad rushed into the 
 thick of the fight and put the enemy to flight. The king and his 
 people wondered much who it could be who had come to help 
 them ; but no one came so near him as to be able to talk to him, 
 and when the battle was over he was gone. When they rode 
 home, they found the lad still stuck in the bog, kicking away at 
 his three-legged nag, and they began laughing again. " Just look ! 
 there sits that fool still ! " they said. 
 
 The next day when they set out again, the lad was still sitting 
 there ; they laughed again and made game of him, but no sooner 
 had they ridden past him, before the lad ran to the lime-tree, and 
 all happened just as on the first day. Every one wondered who 
 this strange warrior could be that had helped the king. No one, 
 of course, guessed it could be the lad ! 
 
 When they were on their way home at night and saw the lad 
 still sitting there on his horse, they jeered at him again, and one of
 
 THE WIDOW'S SON. 225 
 
 them shot an arrow at him and hit him in the leg. He began to 
 cry and wail so pitiably, that the king threw his pocket-hand- 
 kerchief to him to tie round the wound. 
 
 The third morning when they set out, they found the lad still 
 on his nag in the bog. " Gee up, gee up ! " he was shouting to his 
 horse. " I am afraid he will be sitting there till he starves to 
 death," said one of the king's soldiers, as they rode past him, and 
 laughed at him till they were nearly falling off their horses. But 
 when they were gone, he ran again to the lime-tree, and came up 
 to the battle in the very nick of time. That day he killed the 
 king of the enemy, and so the war was all over. 
 
 When the battle was over, the king happened to discover his 
 handkerchief, which the strange warrior had tied round his 
 leg, and he had no difficulty then in guessing who he was. They 
 received him with great joy, and brought him with them to the 
 palace, and the princess, who saw him from her window, became 
 so glad, that no one could believe it, and she exclaimed joyfully : 
 " There comes my love." 
 
 He then took the pot of ointment and rubbed himself on the 
 leg, and afterwards he rubbed all the wounded, so that all were 
 well there and then. 
 
 So he married the princess, but on the very day when the 
 wedding took place, he went down into the stable to his horse, who 
 was standing there quite sullen and dejected ; his ears hung down, 
 and he would not eat anything. When the young king for he 
 was now made king, and had got half the kingdom spoke to him 
 and asked what was the matter with him, the horse said : " I have 
 now helped you through, and I do not care to live any longer. 
 You must take the sword and cut my head off." 
 
 " No, I will do nothing of the sort," said the young king ; " but 
 you shall have everything you want and do no more work." 
 "Well, if you don't do as I tell you," said the horse, "you had 
 better look out for your life, which is in my hands entirely." 
 So the king had to do what was asked of him ; but when he 
 lifted the sword and was about to strike, he felt so grieved that 
 he had to turn his face away, because he would not see the blow ; 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE WIDOW'S SON. 
 
 but no sooner had he cut the head off, than the loveliest prince 
 stood on the spot where the horse had stood. 
 
 " Where in al] the world did you come from ? " asked the king. 
 
 "It was I who was the horse," answerea the prince. "At one 
 time I was king in the land where the Jung came from that you 
 killed in the battle yesterday. It was he who turned me into a 
 horse and sold me to the troll. But now that he is killed, I shall 
 get my kingdom back again, and you and I will be neighbouring 
 kings ; but we will never make war on one another." 
 
 And no more they did ; they were friends as long as they lived, 
 and they used to go and visit each other very often.
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE 
 
 MOON. 
 
 THERE was once a poor tenant who 
 had many children, but very little food 
 or clothes to give them ; they were all 
 pretty children, but the prettiest was the 
 youngest daughter, who was so lovely 
 that there was almost too much of her 
 loveliness. 
 
 So one Thursday evening, late in the 
 autumn, when there was terrible weather 
 and it was dreadfully dark out of doors, 
 and it rained and blew as well till the 
 wall creaked, they were all sitting by the 
 hearth busy with something "or other. 
 All at once some one knocked three times 
 on the window-pane. The goodman 
 went out to see what was the matter ; 
 when he came outside he saw a great 
 big white bear. 
 
 " Good evening ! " said the white bear. 
 " Good evening! " said the man. " Will 
 you give me your youngest daughter, and 
 I will make you as rich as you now are 
 poor," said the bear. Yes-, the man 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 thought it would be very nice to be so rich, but he must speak 
 with his daughter first ; so he went in and told her that a great 
 white bear was outside, who promised that he would make them 
 rich if he could only get her. She said " No," and would not 
 agree to any such arrangement ; so the man went out and arranged 
 with the white bear that he should come again next Thursday 
 evening for an answer. In the meantime they talked her round, 
 and told her of all the riches they would come in possession of, 
 and how fine she herself would have it in her new home ; so at last 
 she gave in to their entreaties and began washing and mending her 
 few rags and made herself look as well as she could, and was at 
 last ready for the journey. Her baggage, of course, was not much 
 to speak of. 
 
 Next Thursday evening the white bear came to fetch her ; she 
 got up on his back with her bundle, and away they went. When 
 they had gone some distance the white bear said : " Are you 
 afraid?" No, she wasn't afraid. "Well, only hold tight by my 
 coat and there's no danger," said the bear. 
 
 And so she rode far, far away, and came at last to a big moun- 
 tain. The white bear knocked at it and a gate was opened, and 
 they came into a castle where there were a great many rooms all 
 lit up and gleaming with silver and gold, and amongst these was a 
 great hall, where a table stood ready laid ; in fact, all was so grand 
 and splendid that you would not believe it unless you saw it. So 
 the white bear gave her a silver bell, which she was to ring when- 
 ever there was anything she wanted, and her wishes would be 
 attended to at once. 
 
 Well, when she had eaten, it was getting late in the evening, 
 and she became sleepy after the journey, so she thought she would 
 like to go to bed. She rang the bell, and had scarcely touched it, 
 before she was in a room, where she found such a beautiful bed as 
 any one could wish for, with silken pillows and curtains, and gold 
 fringes ; everything else in the room was made of gold and silver. 
 But when she had gone to bed and put out the light, she heard 
 some one coming into the room and sitting down in the big arm- 
 chair near the bed. It was the white bear, who at night could
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 229 
 
 throw off his shape, and she could hear by his snoring as he sat 
 in the chair that he was now in the shape of a man ; but she never 
 saw him, because he always came after she had put out the light, 
 and in the morning before the day dawned he was gone. 
 
 Well, for a while everything went on happily, but then she began 
 to be silent and sorrowful, for she went about all day alone, 
 and no wonder she longed to be home with her parents and her 
 sisters and brothers again. When the white bear asked what 
 ailed her, she said she was so lonely there, she walked about all 
 alone, and longed for her home and her parents and brothers and 
 sisters, and that was the reason she was so sad. 
 
 "But you may visit them, if you like," said the white bear, "if 
 you will only promise me one thing. You must never talk alone 
 with your mother, but only when there are others in the room. 
 She will take you by the hand and try to lead you into a room to 
 speak with you all by yourself ; but you must not do this by any 
 means, or you will make us both unhappy, and bring misfortune 
 over us." 
 
 One Sunday the white bear came and told her that they were 
 now going to see her parents. Away they went, she sitting on his 
 back, and they travelled far and long ; at last they came to a 
 grand white farmhouse, where her sisters and brothers were running 
 about. Everything was so pretty that it was a pleasure to see it. 
 
 " Your parents are living there," said the bear ; " but mind you 
 don't forget what I have said, or you will make us both unhappy." 
 No, she would not forget it. When they came to the farm, the 
 bear turned round and went away. 
 
 There was such a joy when she came in to her parents that there 
 was no end to it. They said they did not know how to thank her 
 fully for what she had done for them. They had everything they 
 wanted, and everybody asked after her and wanted to know how 
 she was getting on, and where she "was living. She said that she 
 was very comfortable and had everything she 'wished for ; but what 
 she otherwise answered I don't know, but I believe they did not 
 ^et much out of her. 
 
 But one day after dinner it happened exactly as the white bear
 
 230 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 had said ; her mother wanted to speak with her alone in her 
 chamber. But she recollected what the bear had told her, and 
 would not go with her. " What we have got to talk about, we can 
 do at some other time," she said. But somehow or other her 
 mother talked her round at last, and so she had to tell her every- 
 thing. She told her how a man came into her room every night 
 as soon as she had put out the light, and how she never saw him, 
 for he was always gone before the day dawned. She was sorrowful 
 at this, for she thought she would so like to see him ; and in the 
 day time she walked about there all alone and felt very lonely 
 and sad. 
 
 " Oh, dear me ! " said her mother, " it may be a troll for all we 
 know ! But I will tell you how you can get a sight of him. You 
 shall have a piece of a candle from me, and this you must take with 
 you home in your bosom. When he is asleep, light that candle, 
 but take care not to drop any of the tallow on him." Yes, she took 
 the candle and hid it in her bosom, and in the evening the white 
 bear came and fetched her. 
 
 When they had gone some distance of the way the bear asked 
 her if everything hadn't happened as he had said. Yes, she 
 couldn't deny that. " Well, if you have listened to your mother's 
 advice you will make us both unhappy, and all will be over between 
 us," said the bear. No, that she hadn't ! 
 
 When she came home and had gone to bed, the same thing 
 occurred as before. Some one came into the room and sat in the 
 arm-chair by her bedside, but in the middle of the night when she 
 heard that he was asleep, she got up and struck a light, lit the 
 candle, and let the light fall on him. She then saw that he was the 
 loveliest prince any one could wish to see, and she fell at once in 
 love with him ; she thought that if she could not kiss him there and 
 then she would not be able to live. And so she did, but she 
 dropped three hot drops of tallow on him, and he woke up. 
 
 " What have you done ? " he said, " you have now made us both 
 unhappy for ever, for if you had only held out one year I should 
 have been saved. I have a stepmother who has bewitched me, 
 and I am now a white bear by day and a man by night. But now
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 233 
 
 all is over between us, and I must leave you and go back to her ; 
 she lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of the moon, 
 and in the same castle there is a princess with a nose two yards 
 long, and now I must marry her." 
 
 She wept and cried, b.it there was no help for it ; he must go and 
 leave her. So she asked him if she might not go with him. No, 
 that was impossible ! "But if you will tell me the way, I will try 
 and find you," she said. " I suppose I may have leave to do that ! " 
 Yes, she could do that, he said, but there was no road to that 
 place ; it lay east of the sun and west of the moon, and she could 
 never find her way there. 
 
 Next morning when she awoke, both the prince and the castle 
 were gone ; che lay on a little green field far in the middle of the 
 dark thick forest, and by her side lay the same bundle with her old 
 rags which she had brought with her from home. When she had 
 rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and wept till she was tired, she 
 set out on her way and walked for many, many a day, till she at 
 last came to a big mountain. 
 
 Close to it an old woman sat and played with a golden apple. 
 She asked her if she knew the way to the prince who lived with his 
 stepmother in a castle that lay east of the sun and west of the moon, 
 and who was going to marry a princess with a nose two yards long. 
 "How do you know him ?" asked the old woman, "perhaps it 
 was you who should have had him ? " Yes, it was she. " Ah, 
 indeed ! is that you ? " said the woman ; " well, all I know is that he 
 lives in that castle which lies cast of the sun and west of the moon, 
 and thither you will come late or never; but I will lend you my 
 horse, and on him you can ride to my neighbour, an old friend of 
 mine ; perhaps she can tell you. When you have got there, just 
 give my horse a blow with your whip under the left ear and ask 
 him to go home again ; and you had better take this golden apple 
 with you." 
 
 So she got up on the horse and rode a long, long time till she 
 at last came to a mountain, where an old woman was sitting with 
 a golden carding-comb. She asked her if she knew the way to the 
 castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon. She
 
 234 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 answered like the first old woman, that she didn't know anything 
 about it, but it was sure to be east of the sun and west of the moon, 
 " and thither you will come, early or late, but I will lend you my 
 horse as far as my neighbour ; perhaps she can tell you. When you 
 have got there, just give my horse a blow under the left ear and ask 
 him to go home again." And the old woman gave her the golden 
 carding-comb, which might come in useful for her. 
 
 The young girl got up on the horse and rode for a long, long 
 weary time, and came at last to a large mountain, where an old 
 woman was sitting and spinning on a golden spinning-wheel. She 
 asked her if she knew the way to the prince, and where the castle 
 was that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. And so came 
 the same question : " Perhaps it is you who should have had the 
 prince ? " Yes, it was ! But the old woman knew the way no 
 better than the other two. It was east of the sun and west of the 
 moon, she knew that, " and thither you will come, early or late," 
 she said, " but I will lend you my horse, and then I think you had 
 better ride to the east wind and ask him. Perhaps he is known 
 about those parts and can blow you there. When you have got 
 there, just touch the horse under the ear and he'll go home again." 
 And so she gave her the golden spinning-wheel. "You might 
 find use for it," said the old woman. 
 
 She rode on many days for a long weary time before she got to 
 the east wind, but after a long time she did reach it, and so she 
 asked him if he could tell her the way to the prince, who lived east 
 of the sun and west of the moon. Yes, he had heard tell of that 
 prince, said the east wind, and of the castle too, but he didn't know 
 the way thither, for he had never blown so far. " But if you like, 
 I'll go with you to my brother, the west wind. Perhaps he may 
 know it, for he is much stronger. Just get up on my back and I'll 
 carry you thither." 
 
 Yes, she did so, and away they went at a great speed. When 
 they got to the west wind, they went in to him, and the east wind 
 told him that his companion was the one who should have had the 
 prince who lived in the castle, which lay east of the sun and west 
 of the moon ; she was now on her way to find him again, and so he
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 237 
 
 had gone with her to hear if the west wind knew where that 
 castle was. " No, I have never blown so far," said the west wind, 
 " but if you like I'll go with you to the south wind, for he is much 
 stronger than any of us, and he has been far and wide ; perhaps 
 he may tell you. You had better sit up on my back and I'll carry 
 you thither." 
 
 Well, she got on his back, and off they started for the south wind ; 
 they weren't long on the way, I can tell you ! When they got 
 there, the west wind asked his brother if he could tell him the way 
 to that castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon. 
 His companion was the one who should have had the prince who 
 lived there. " Oh, indeed ! " said the south wind, " is that she ? 
 Well, I have been to many a nook and corner in my time, but so 
 far I have never blown. But if you like, I'll go with you to my 
 brother, the north wind ; he is the oldest and strongest of all of us, 
 and if he doesn't know where it is you will never be able to find 
 any one who can tell you. Just get up on my back and I'll carry 
 you thither." 
 
 Yes, she sat up on his back, and away they went at such a rate, 
 that the way didn't seem to be very long. 
 
 When they got to where the north wind lived he was so wild 
 and unruly that cold gusts were felt a long way off. " What do 
 you want ? " he shouted from far away, but still it made them 
 shiver all over. " Oh, you needn't be so very harsh," said the 
 south wind, "it's I, your own brother; and then I have got her 
 with me who should have had the prince who lives in that castle 
 which lies east of the sun and west of the moon, and she wants to 
 ask you if you have ever been there and if you can tell her the 
 way. She is so very anxious to find him again." "Well, yes, I do 
 know where it is," said the north wind ; " I once blew an aspen leaf 
 thither, but I was so tired that I wasn't able to blow for many 
 days after. But if you really intend going there and you are not 
 afraid to come with me, I will take you on my back and try if I 
 can blow you so far." Yes, she was willing; she must go thither, 
 if it were possible, one way or another, and she wasn't a bit afraid, 
 go how it would.
 
 2 3 8 
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 " Very well ! " said the north wind, "you must stop here to-night 
 then, for we must have a whole day before us and perhaps more, 
 
 if we are to reach it." 
 
 Early next morning 
 the north wind called her, 
 and then he blew him- 
 self out and made him- 
 self so big and strong 
 that he was terrible to 
 look at. Away they 
 went, high up through 
 the air at such a fearful 
 speed, as if they were 
 going to the end of the 
 world. There was such 
 a hurricane on land that 
 trees and houses were 
 blown down, and when 
 they came out on the big 
 sea ships were wrecked 
 by hundreds. And on- 
 wards they swept, so far, 
 far, that no one would 
 believe how far they went, 
 and still farther and far- 
 ther out to sea, till the 
 north wind got more 
 and more tired and so 
 knocked up that he was 
 scarcely able to give an- 
 other blow, and was sink- 
 ing and going down more 
 and more ; and at last 
 they were so low that 
 the tops of the billows touched their heels. 
 
 "Are you afraid?" said the north wind. "No," she said, she
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 239 
 
 wasn't a bit afraid. But they were not so very far from land 
 either, and the north wind had just sufficient strength left to reach 
 the shore and put her off just under the windows of the castle 
 which lay east of the sun and west of the moon ; but he was then 
 so tired and worn out that he had to rest for many days before he 
 could start on his way home again. 
 
 Next morning she sat down under the castle windows, and 
 began playing with the golden apple, and the first one she saw 
 was the princess with the long nose, whom the prince was going 
 to marry. 
 
 " What do you want for that golden apple of yours ? " she asked, 
 and opened the casement. " It is not for sale, neither for gold nor 
 money," said the girl. " If it isn't for sale for gold or money, what 
 do you want for it then ? " said the princess ; " I'll give you what 
 you ask ! " " Well, if I to-night may sit in the arm-chair by the 
 bedside of the prince who lives here, you shall have it," said the 
 girl who came with the north wind. Yes, she might do that, there 
 would be no difficulty about that. 
 
 So the princess got the golden apple ; but when the girl came up 
 into the prince's bedroom in the evening, he was fast asleep ; she 
 called him and shook him, and now and then she cried and wept ; 
 but no, she could not wake him up so that she might speak to him. 
 Next morning, as soon as the day dawned, the princess with the 
 long nose came and turned her out of the room. 
 
 Later in the day she sat down under the castle windows and 
 began carding with her golden carding-comb, and then the same thing 
 happened again. The princess asked her what she wanted for the 
 carding-comb, and she told her that it wasn't for sale neither for 
 gold nor money, but if she might get leave to sit in the arm-chair 
 by the prince's bedside that night, she should have it. But when 
 she came up into the bedroom she found him fast asleep again, 
 and for all she cried and shook him, for all she wept, he slept so 
 soundly that she could not get life into him ; and when the day 
 dawned in the early morning, in came the princess with the long 
 nose and turned her out of the room again. 
 
 So as the day wore on, she sat down under the castle windows
 
 240 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 and began spinning on the spinning-wheel, and that the princess 
 with the long nose wanted also to have. She opened the casement 
 and asked the girl what she wanted for it. The girl told her, as 
 she had done twice before, that it was not for sale either for gold or 
 money, but if she might sit in the arm-chair by the prince's bed- 
 side that night she should have it. Yes, she might do that. But 
 there were some Christian people who had been carried off and 
 were imprisoned in the room next to the prince's, and they had 
 heard that some woman had been in his room and wept and cried 
 and called his name two nights running, and this they told the 
 prince. 
 
 In the evening, when the princess came and brought him his 
 drink, he made appear as if he drank, but he threw it over his 
 shoulder, for he felt sure she had put a sleeping draught in his 
 drink. 
 
 So when the girl came into his room that night she found the 
 orince wide awake, and then she told him how she had come there. 
 'You have just come in time," said the prince, "for to-morrow I 
 was to be married to the princess ; but I won't have that Longnose, 
 and you are the only one that can save me. I will say that I shall 
 want to see what my bride can do, and if she is fit to be my 
 wife; then I will ask her to wash the shirt with the three tallow 
 stains on it. She will try, for she does not know that it is you 
 who dropped the tallow on the shirt ; but that can only be done by 
 Christian folks, and not by a pack of trolls like we have in this 
 place; and so I will say that I will not have anybody else for a 
 bride except the one who can wash the shirt clean, and I know 
 you can do that." And they felt very glad and happy, and 
 they went on talking all night about the joyful time in store 
 for them. 
 
 The next day, when the wedding was to take place, the prince 
 said: "I think I must see first what my bride can do !" " Yes, 
 quite so!" said the stepmother. "! have got a very fine shirt, 
 which I am going to use for my wedding shirt ; but there are three 
 tallow stains on it which I want washed out ; and I have made a 
 v ow that I will not take any other woman for a wife than the one
 
 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 241 
 
 who is able to do that ; if she cannot do that, she is not worth 
 having," said the prince. "Well, that was easy enough," said 
 the stepmother and agreed to this trial. Well, the princess 
 with the long nose set to washing the best she could, but the 
 more she washed the bigger grew the stains. "Why, you can- 
 not wash," said the old witch, her step-mother ; " let me try ! " 
 but no sooner did she take the shirt than it got still worse, 
 and the more she washed and rubbed the bigger and blacker the 
 stains grew. 
 
 So did the other trolls try their hands at washing, but the longer 
 
 they worked at it the dirtier the shirt grew, till at last it looked as 
 if it had been up the chimney. " Ah, you are not worth anything, 
 the whole lot of you ! " said the prince ; " there's a poor girl under 
 the window just outside here, and I am sure she can wash much 
 better than any of you. Come in, my girl ! " he shouted out to 
 her. Yes, she would come in. " Can you wash this shirt clean ? " 
 asked the prince. " Well, I don't know," she said, " but I will 
 try." 
 
 And no sooner had she taken the shirt and dipped it in the 
 water, than it was as white as the driven snow, if not whiter. 
 
 R
 
 242 EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. 
 
 " Yes, you shall be my wife," said the prince. But the old witch 
 flew into such a rage that she burst ; and the princess with the 
 long nose and all the trolls must have burst also, for I never heard 
 of them since. The prince and his bride then set free all the 
 people who had been carried off and imprisoned there, and so they 
 took as much gold and silver with them as they could carry, and 
 moved far away from the castle which lay east of the sun and 
 west cf the moon.
 
 ASHIEPATTLE WHO MADE THE PRINCESS 
 TELL THE TRUTH AT LAST. 
 
 THERE was once upon a time a king, who had a daughter, and 
 she was such an awful story-teller, that you couldn't find a greater 
 anywhere. So the king made known, that if any one could 
 outdo her in telling stories and make her tell the truth, he should 
 have her for a wife and half the kingdom in the bargain. 
 
 There were many who tried, for everybody would be glad to get 
 the princess and half the kingdom, but they all fared badly. 
 
 R 2
 
 244 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE PRINCESS. 
 
 Well, there were three brothers, who were also going to try their 
 luck, and the two elder set out first, but they fared no better than 
 all the others. So Ashiepattle thought he would try, and set out 
 for the palace. 
 
 He met the princess outside the cow-house. " Good day," said 
 h e> Good day," said she ; " I suppose you haven't got such a big 
 cow-house as we. When two boys stand, one at each end, and 
 blow their horns, they can't hear each other ! " " Oh, indeed," said 
 Ashiepattle, "ours is a great deal bigger! If a young calf starts 
 to go from one end of it to the other, he is a big bull by the time 
 he comes out." 
 
 " May be," said the princess ; " but then you haven't got so big 
 a bull as we have Look, there he is ! When two men sit, one 
 on each horn, they can't touch each other with a yard measure. " 
 " Why, that's nothing," said Ashiepattle ; " we have a bull so big, 
 that when two men sit, one on each horn, and blow their horns, 
 they can't hear each other. " 
 
 " Oh, indeed," said the princess, " but you haven't got so much 
 milk as we anyhow, for we milk our cows into great tubs and 
 empty them into great big coppers, and make such awful big 
 cheeses." 
 
 " Well, we milk into great big casks, which we cart into the 
 dairy, and put the milk into great brewing vats and make cheeses 
 as big as houses. Once we had a cream-coloured mare, which we 
 put into the vat to tread the cheese together, and she had her foal 
 with her, but one day she lost the foal in the cheese and we 
 couldn't find it. But after we had been eating the cheese for seven 
 years, we came across a great big cream-coloured horse who was 
 walking about in the cheese. I was going to drive that horse to 
 the mill one day and all of a sudden his back broke right off; but 
 I knew how to put that right. I took a pine-twig and stuck it in 
 his back, and he had no other back-bone as long as we had him. 
 But that twig grew and grew so tall, that I climbed right up to the 
 clouds by it, and when I got there I saw the north wind sitting 
 there spinning a rope of mutton broth. Suddenly the top of the 
 pine-tree broke ofif, and there I was. But the north wind let me
 
 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE PRINCESS. 
 
 247 
 
 down by one of the ropes, and I came right into a fox's hole ; and 
 who do you think were sittting there ? Why, my mother and your 
 father of course, both mending boots ; and all of a sudden my 
 mother -gave your father such a blow with an old boot, that the 
 scurf flew out of his hair ! " 
 
 " There you tell a lie," shouted the princess ; " my father never 
 was scurfy ! " 
 
 And so Ashiepattle won !
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 IT was a miserable evening ; outside it was snowing and blowing, 
 and in the squire's parlour the candle burned so dimly that you 
 could scarcely distinguish anything in the room but a clock-case 
 with some Chinese ornaments, a large mirror in an old-fashioned 
 frame, and a silver family tankard. The squire and I were the 
 only occupants of the room. I sat in a corner of the sofa with a 
 book in my hand, while the squire himself had taken a seat in the 
 other corner buried in the perusal of the manuscript of a political
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 249 
 
 treatise, which he had called : " Attempts at a few well-meant 
 patriotic utterances for the welfare of my country, by Anonymous," 
 as he called himself out of modesty. 
 
 To the profound study of this intellectual gold mine, many 
 shrewd opinions, as might easily be imagined, owed their birth. 
 That he himself, at least, was convinced of their excellence, the 
 cunning look in the grey blinking eyes which he directed towards 
 me left me no doubt ; there was, however, no want of " well-meant 
 
 /t Jc. 
 
 patriotic utterances " in his conversation, the quality of which can 
 best be judged by those who have had the opportunity of glancing 
 over the above-named treatise, or his large unprinted essay about 
 the tithes. But all this display of wisdom was lost upon me ; 
 I had it at my fingers' ends, having now heard it for the twenty- 
 third time. I am not endowed with the patience of an angel ; but 
 what could I do ? The retreat to my room was cut off, they had 
 been washing the floor for Sunday, and the room was no doubt 
 steaming with vapour from the damp boards. Having made a
 
 250 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 few vain attempts at engrossing my attention in my book, I was 
 obliged to let myself be carried away by the impetuous torrent of 
 the squire's eloquence. The squire was now on his hobby-horse, as 
 we say ; he had placed the old worn fur cap by his side on the sofa, 
 leaving his bald head and grey hairs exposed. He became more 
 and more excited ; he rose from the sofa, walked up and down the 
 floor with hurried steps and fought with his hands in the air, till 
 the light flickered hither and thither, while the sweeping tail of his 
 long grey home-spun coat described long circles every time he 
 swung himself round and raised himself on his longer leg, for, 
 like Tyrtaeus and Peter Solvold of our parish, he was afflicted 
 with a limp. His impassioned words buzzed about my ears like 
 cockchafers round the top of the lime-trees. He thundered away 
 about lawsuits and judgments in the High Court of Justice, about 
 disputes with the Court of Chancery, about clearing out the forests, 
 about luxury, the rule of the majority in the national assembly, 
 and the blowing up of the rocks in the Morkefos, about the corn 
 duty and the cultivation of the Joedern district, about industries 
 and centralisations, about the insufficiency of the currency, about 
 official aristocracy and all other " ocracies " in the world, from King 
 Nebuchadnezzar down to Peter Solvold's democracy. 
 
 It was impossible to endure the jargon and the affected pathos 
 of the squire any longer. Out in the kitchen one peal of laughter 
 succeeded another; Kristen, the smith on the farm, was the 
 spokesman out there he had evidently just finished a story, and 
 another hearty laugh echoed through the room. 
 
 " No, I must go out and hear what the smith is telling," I said, 
 interrupting the eloquent squire, aad made a dart for the kitchen, 
 leaving him behind in the room in company with the dimly burning 
 candle and his own disturbed reflections. 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense, and lying rigmaroles ! " he growled, as I 
 vanished through the door ; " it's a disgrace to see learned people 
 But well-meant patriotic words, no " I heard no more. 
 
 Light, life, and merriment prevailed in the lofty airy kitchen. A 
 great fire blazed on the large open hearth and lighted up the room 
 even in its farthest corners. By the side of the hearth presided the
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 251 
 
 squire's wife with her spinning-wheel. Although she, for many 
 years had waged continual war against rheumatism, her pleasant 
 face shone like the full moon from under the white head-gear, 
 while she had protected herself against any possible attack of the 
 enemy by a multiplicity of petticoats and jackets ; and as an outer 
 fortification she had put on a monster of a frieze cloak. Along the 
 edge of the hearth sat the children, and cracked nuts. Round 
 about them was a circle of girls and wives of the neighbouring 
 tenants ; " they trod the spinning-wheels with diligent feet, or 
 were using the scraping carding-combs," as an author has it. 
 In the passage outside the door, the threshers, who had done 
 their day's work, were stamping the snow off their feet before 
 they came in, their hair full of chaff. They sat down by 
 the big old-fashioned table, where the cook soon brought them 
 their supper, consisting of a large dish of thick porridge and a bowl 
 of milk. 
 
 The smith was leaning against the wall by the hearth ; he was 
 smoking a long cutty-pipe, and on his countenance, which bore 
 traces of smithy-soot, lay a dry, serious expression, which told he 
 had been telling some story, and that to his own satisfaction. 
 
 " Good evening, Kristen," said I ; " what are you telling that 
 creates such fun ? " 
 
 " Hee, hee, hee ! " screamed the youngsters, with great glee 
 depicted in their faces ; " Kristen has told us about the smith and 
 the devil, and then about the lad who got him into the nut, and 
 now he says he's going to tell us about Peter Sannum, whose horse 
 the fairies stopped on the Asmyr hill." 
 
 "Yes," began the smith, "that Peter belonged to one of the San- 
 num farms north of the church. He was a wise man, and he was 
 often fetched with sledge and horse to cure both man and beast, 
 just like old Mother Bertha Tuppenhaug here. But somehow or 
 other he could not have been clever enough, for the fairies tied him 
 up once in a field near his farm, where he had to stand the whole 
 night with his mouth all on one side ; and that time I was going to 
 tell you about he fared no better either. You see, this Peter could 
 never agree with people, he was just like ahem ! hem ! well yes,
 
 252 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 he was a regular disagreeable fellow, who had lawsuits with every- 
 body. Well, he had once a case before the Court of Appeal in 
 Christiania, and he had to be in court at ten o'clock in the morning. 
 He thought he had better start from home the evening before to 
 be in time, which he did ; but when he came to the Asmyr hill his 
 horse was stopped. There is something not quite right there- 
 abouts ; many years ago some one hung himself there, and there 
 are many who have heard music there, both on fiddles and clario- 
 nettes and flutes and other wind instruments. Yes, old Mother 
 Bertha could tell something about that ; she has heard it and she 
 says she never heard anything so beautiful, it was just like the 
 grand band which was over at the bailiff's in 1814. Isn't that 
 true, Bertha ? " asked the smith. 
 
 "Yes, every word of it, my lad," said Mother Bertha, who was 
 sitting near the hearth carding. 
 
 " Well, as I told you, the horse was stopped," continued the 
 smith, " and it would not move from the spot. For all he whipped 
 and shouted the horse only danced round in a ring, but he couldn't 
 get him to move either forward or backward. Hour passed after 
 hour, but there the horse stood and thus the whole night through. 
 He knew some one must be holding the horse, for although he 
 cursed and went on at an awful rate, he did not get a step farther. 
 Towards the morning, just in the grey dawn, he got off the horse 
 and went up to Ingebret Asmyr, and got him to bring a firebrand 
 with him, and when he had got in the saddle again, he asked 
 him to throw the firebrand over the horse. I should say he got 
 a start then ; away he went at full gallop ; Peter could scarcely 
 stick to the horse, and did not stop till he reached town . "but 
 then the horse was burst." 
 
 "I have heard of this before," said old Bertha, and left off 
 carding; "but I would never believe th it Peter Sannum didn't 
 know better than that : but since you, Kristen, say so, I suppose 
 I must believe it." 
 
 " Yes, you may," answered the smith ; " for I heard it from 
 Ingebret Asmyr himself, who carried the firebrand and threw it 
 over the horse for him."
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 253 
 
 " He should have looked down over the horse's head between 
 the ears, shouldn't he, Bertha ? " asked one of the boys. 
 
 " Yes, that he should," answered Bertha ; " for then he would 
 have seen who held the horse, and then they would have had to let 
 his horse go. I have heard that from one who knew more about 
 such things than anybody ; they called him 'Hans Cheerful ' at home 
 in Halland. In other parishes they called him, ' Hans Decency,' 
 for he always used the expression, 'everything with decency.' He 
 was taken into the mountain by the fairies, and had been with 
 them for many years, and at last they wanted him to marry their 
 daughter, who was always hanging about after him. But this he 
 wouldn't, and when he had been rung for from several churches, 1 the 
 fairies took him at last and threw him from a high knoll far out 
 into the parish. He thought himself he would have gone right out 
 into the fjord. From that time he became half-witted. He was then 
 put out on the parish, and went from farm to farm and told all sorts 
 of wonderful stories, but all of a sudden he would laugh and say : 
 
 " ' Hee, hee, hee ! Kari, Karina, I see you ! ' for the huldre 
 girl was always after him. While he was with the fairies, he 
 told us, he had always to go with them when they were out to 
 provide themselves with food and milk, for everything which the 
 sign of the cross had been made over they had no power to touch, 
 and then they said to Hans : ' You'll have to take this, for this has 
 been crossed,' and so he filled their bags with tremendous loads of 
 all sorts of food : but if it ever began to thunder, they used to run 
 away as fast as they could, so Hans could scarcely follow them. 
 He was generally in company with one called Vaatt, and he was so 
 strong, that he took both Hans and his load and carried them 
 under his arms when such weather came upon them suddenly. 
 Once they met the sheriff of Ringerike in a deep valley up in 
 Halland, and Vaatt took hold of the horse and stopped him, and 
 the sheriff shouted and whipped and pulled the poor horse about 
 till he was pitiful to look at. But the sheriffs boy got off the sledge 
 and looked over the horse's head between the ears, and then Vaatt 
 
 1 It was an old custom to ring the bells of the parish church if any one wai 
 supposed to have been carried off into the mountains by the fairies. *
 
 254 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 had to let go his hold, ' and I should say they went off then,' said 
 Hans, ' the boy had scarcely time to get on the sledge again, and 
 we burst out with such laughter, that the sheriff turned round and 
 looked behind ' " 
 
 " Yes," said a tenant from a distant part of the parish, " I have 
 heard something like that about a parson in Lier. He was once on 
 his way to an old woman, who was on her death-bed and who had 
 led a wicked life. When he got into the forest his horse was 
 stopped for him ; but he knew what to do, he was a smart fellow 
 that Lier parson, in one jump he was up on the back of the horse, 
 and looked over his head between his ears, and then he saw an 
 ugly old man, who was holding the reins. They say, it was old 
 Nick himself. 
 
 " ' Leave go, you sha'n't have her/ said the parson. He had to 
 leave go, but he gave the horse such a smart blow at the same 
 time, that the horse started off at such a pace that the sparks flew 
 about under his hoofs, and the boy could scarcely stick on to the 
 sledge. That time the parson came riding on horseback to a dying 
 parishioner." 
 
 " But I don't know how it will fare with the cows, ma'am," said 
 Mary, the dairymaid, who came toiling in with a pail of milk ; " I 
 do believe they'll starve. Just look here, ma'am, what little milk 
 we get." 
 
 " You must take hay from the stable, Mary," said the squire's 
 wife. 
 
 " Yes, I ought to try that ! " answered Mary ; " if I go there, the 
 men get as savage as wild geese." 
 
 " I'll give you a good piece of advice, Mary," said one of the boys 
 with a sly look. " You must boil cream-porridge and put it in the 
 stable-loft every Thursday night, and you will find that the brownie 
 helps you to carry hay to the cows, while the men are asleep." 
 
 " Well, yes, if there only were any brownie here, I would do it," 
 answered the old dairymaid quite innocently ; " but believe me, there 
 is no brownie on this farm ; why, our master and mistress don't 
 believe in such no, on Noes with the captain's, that time I served 
 there, there was the brownie sure enough ! "
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 255 
 
 " How do you know that, Mary ? " asked the squire's wife. " Did 
 you see him ? " 
 
 " See him ? yes, of course ; I've seen him, sure enough," answered 
 Mary. 
 
 " Oh, tell us, tell us all about it," shouted the boys. 
 
 " Well, yes ! I can do that," said the dairymaid and began : 
 
 " When I was in service at the captain's I told you of, the stable- 
 boy said to me one Saturday night : 
 
 " ' If you'll fodder the horses for me to-night, Mary, I'll do you a 
 good turn some day.' 
 
 " ' All right,' said I, ' I'll do that for you,' for he was going to see 
 his sweetheart, you know. 
 
 " So towards evening when the horses should have their fodder, 
 and I had given it to a co iple of them, I took an armful of hay to 
 give to the captain's own horse, he was always so fat and glossy, 
 you could almost see yourself in his shiny coat, but just as I was 
 going into the box to him, he fell right into my arms " 
 
 " Who, who ? the horse ? " asked the boys. 
 
 " No, of course not ! It was the brownie ; I got so frightened, 
 that I dropped the hay on the spot and ran away as fast as I could. 
 When Peter, the lad, came home, I said to him : ' I have foddered 
 the horses for you once, my dear Peter, but believe me, I sha'n't do 
 it again. The captain's horse didn't get as much as a straw, he 
 didn't ! ' and so I told him all about it. 
 
 " 'Ah, that didn't matter a bit,' said Peter, 'the captain's horse 
 has got some one that looks after him anyhow, he has ! ' ' 
 
 " What did the brownie look like, Mary ? " asked one of 
 the boys. 
 
 " Well, you see, I didn't see him exactly ? " she said, " it was so 
 dark I couldn't see a hand before me, but I felt him as plainly 
 as now, when I touch you ; he was hairy, and didn't his eyes 
 glisten ? " 
 
 " Oh, it was only a cat ! " objected another of the boys. 
 
 " Cat ? " said Mary with the greatest contempt, " why, I felt every 
 one of his fingers ; he had only four, and they were hairy all over ! 
 If that wasn't the brownie, may I never leave this spot alive ! "
 
 256 
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 " Of course, that must have been the brownie sure enough," said 
 the smith ; " for he hasn't got any thumbs, and he's hairy on his 
 fists I've never shaken hands with him, but I've heard say so ; 
 and we all know he minds the horses, and is about the best stable- 
 
 boy you could have. There are a great many he is very useful to ; 
 but it's not only he that may be useful to the farmers, for up in 
 Ullensaker," he said, as he began a new story, " there was a man 
 who once found the fairies just as useful to him as the brownie is to 
 others. He lived on Rogli farm, and knew well enough that the
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 259 
 
 huldre was there, for once when he was going to town it was in the 
 spring just as the snow was melting away on the roads and had got 
 as far as Skjoellebcek and had watered his horses, he met a herd of 
 red cows, so big and fat that it was a pleasure to look at them, and 
 after them came several cartloads of tubs and buckets and all sorts 
 of things, with fine fat horses for the carts ; but in front went 
 a fine lassie with a snow-white milking pail in her hand. 
 
 " ' But where are you going to, this time of the year ? ' asKed the 
 Rogli man, surprised. 
 
 " ' Oh, we are going to the Rogli pastures in Ullensaker,' 
 answered she who went in front ; ' there is plenty of grass there.' 
 
 "He thought it was rather strange that they were going to graze 
 on his pastures, but no one else but he either saw or heard any- 
 thing of them. He asked several whom he met on the road, but 
 no one had seen any cattle. 
 
 " At home on his farm several strange things nappened too, some- 
 times. If he did any work after sunset it was always destroyed 
 during the night, and at last he had to give up working after the 
 sun had set. 
 
 " But now I must tell you about that time I told you they did 
 him a good turn. One autumn he was walking about in his fields, 
 feeling if his crop of barley was dry ; it was very late in the autumn 
 and he thought it wasn't quite dry enough to cart it in yet, but 
 then he heard a voice over in a hill saying quite plainly : ' You 
 had better cart in your crops ! To-morrow it '11 be snowing ! ' 
 And he began carting as fast as he could, and carted till long past 
 midnight, till he got his crop in ; but the next morning the snow 
 lay shoe-deep in the fields." 
 
 " But it is not always that the fairies are so good," said one of 
 the boys. " What about the huldre who stole the wedding fare at 
 Eldstad, and left her cup behind her ? " 
 
 "Yes, I'll tell you all about that," said the smith, who eagerly 
 took this hint to begin a new story. 
 
 " There was once a wedding at Eldstad in Ullensaker, but as 
 they hadn't any oven on the farm, they had to send the joints to 
 the neighbouring farm, where they had an oven, to get them 
 
 S 2
 
 2<5o AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 roasted. In the evening, the boy on the farm, where the wedding 
 took place, was to fetch them. As he was driving over one of the 
 moors, he plainly heard a voice shouting 
 
 " ' If you are going to Eldstad, 
 Just tell our Deld, from her sire, 
 That Dild fell in the fire.' 
 
 " The boy was frightened, and drove so fast that the wind 
 whistled in his nostrils, for the weather was cold, and the roads 
 were in a splendid condition. He heard the voice calling after him 
 several times, so he remembered the words well. He came safely 
 home with his load, and went into a room, where the servants were 
 helping themselves to something to eat at the end of a big table, 
 as they found time to get a few mouthfuls. 
 
 " ' Holloa, lad ! has Old Nick brought you here already, or 
 haven't you gone for the joints yet ? ' asked one of the people 
 belonging to the house. 
 
 " 'Yes, of course I have,' said the lad ; 'there you see the joints 
 coming in through the door. But I drove as fast as the horse 
 could gallop, for when I came over the moor I heard a voice 
 shouting after me 
 
 " ' " If you are going to Eldstad, 
 Just tell our Deld, from her sire, 
 That Dild fell in the fire." ' 
 
 " ' Oh, that's my child,' shouted a voice from amongst the guests 
 in the next room, and in an instant a woman rushed out as if she 
 had lost her senses. She ran against one after the other, and 
 nearly knocked them over, but suddenly her hat fell off, and it 
 was then evident that it was a huldre; she had been stealing 
 both meat and bacon, butter and cake, beer and brandy, and 
 all that was good. But she became so upset on hearing about 
 the youngster, that she left behind her a silver cup in the beer 
 bowl, and didn't notice that her hat had fallen off. They took both 
 the cup and the hat and kept them at Eldstad ; and the hat had 
 this property, that whoever put it on was invisible to every other
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 261 
 
 mortal, except to such as were gifted with second sight ; but whether 
 the hat is there still, I cannot say for certain, for 1 have not seen 
 it, nor have I had it on either." 
 
 " Yes, these huldres are very smart at thieving, I have always 
 heard that," said old Bertha Tuppenhaug, " but particularly in the 
 summer time when the cattle are up in the mountains. It's 
 regular holiday time for both huldres and other fairies then, for 
 while the dairymaids go about thinking of their sweethearts, they 
 forget to make crosses over the milk and cream and their food, 
 and then the fairies can take what they like. It isn't often they 
 are seen, but it does happen now and then, as it happened once at 
 the Neberg dairy up here. 
 
 " There were some wood-cutters up there at work, and as they 
 were going towards the dairy for supper, they heard a voice over in 
 the forest shouting to them : 
 
 " ' Tell Kilde, both her sonnies fell in the soup-kettle and burnt 
 themselves/ 
 
 " When the wood-cutters came to the dairy they told the girls o 
 
 this, and said : ' As we were going home to supper, just as we had 
 
 shouldered our axes, we heard some one shouting over in the forest : 
 
 " ' " Tell Kilde, both her sonnies fell in the soup-kettle and burnt 
 
 themselves." ' 
 
 " ' Oh, they're my children/ some one shouted in the pantry, and 
 suddenly a huldre rushed out with a milk-pail in her hand, which 
 she dropped as she ran, splashing the milk all about the room." 
 
 " Ah, well ! you hear so many tales," said the smith with a 
 sneer, as if he had his doubts about the truth of this story ; it was, 
 however, perfectly evident that the remark was made out of vexation 
 at being interrupted, when he had once fairly started with his 
 own stories. No one in the whole parish was richer than he in a 
 stock of the most wonderful stories and tales about the huldres and 
 fairies ; and his belief in these supernatural beings was on a par 
 with the credulity of the most superstitious. " You hear so many 
 things," he continued, " you cannot believe them all. But what has 
 happened to your own kith and kin you are bound to believe ! Now, 
 I'll tell you something that happened to my father-in-law ; he was a
 
 262 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 most serious and credible man, so what he said you may depend 
 upon was true. His name was Joe, and he lived at Skroperud in 
 Ullensaker. He built himself a new house there, and he had two or 
 three fat cows and a horse, the like of which was not to be found in 
 the whole parish ; the horse was often used as post-horse between Mo 
 and Trogstad, and Joe didn't seem to care much how the beast was 
 used, for fat he was and fat he remained. Joe \vas a hunter, and a 
 fiddler as well. He was often about in the parish playing, but at home 
 it was impossible to get him to touch the fiddle ; even if the room was 
 full of lads and lasses he refused to play. But one evening some 
 lads from the neighbouring farm came to see him, and they brought 
 some brandy with them in their pocket-flasks. They treated Joe, 
 and when they had made him tipsy, more lads came in, and 
 although he refused to play at first, eventually he took down the 
 fiddle. But after he had played for some time he put it away, for 
 he knew that the fairies were not far off, and that they didn't like 
 the noise and disturbance. But the lads persuaded him to play 
 again ; and thus it happened two or three times that he put the 
 fiddle away, and that the lads coaxed him to play again. At last he 
 hung his fiddle up on the wall, and swore he wouldn't play another 
 stroke that night, and with that he turned them all out, lads and 
 lasses I He was just going to bed, and was standing in his shirt- 
 sleeves by the hearth lighting his pipe for the night with a brand, 
 when a large party of old and young people came in and filled the 
 whole room. 
 
 " ' Now, are you there again ? ' said Joe. He thought at first 
 they were the same as had been there dancing, but when he saw 
 they were strangers he felt a little frightened, took his daughters, 
 who were already in bed, and threw them out on the floor he was 
 a big strong man and asked : ' What people are these ? Do you 
 know them ? ' 
 
 " The lasses were sleepy, and didn't know what to answer. So 
 he took his gun down from the wall and turned round towards the 
 people who had come in, and threatened them with the butt end of 
 his rifle. ' If you don't get out of this quickly, I'll turn you out in 
 such a way that you won't know whether you are standing on your
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 263 
 
 heads or your heels ! ' Away they rushed, yelling out of the door, 
 the one on top of the other, and he fancied they all looked like a 
 lot of grey balls of worsted rolling out through the door. But 
 when Joe had put his gun away and come over to the hearth to 
 light his pipe again, he found an old man sitting on the stool by 
 the fire, he had such a long beard, that it reached down to his 
 knees, it must have been a yard long, and he also had a pipe, 
 which he was trying to light with a fire-brand like Joe, one 
 moment it was alight and the next it went out. 
 
 "'And you/ said Joe, 'do you belong to the same gang of 
 tramps, you too ? Where do you come from ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh, I don't live far away, I can tell you,' said the man, ' and I 
 would advise you to take more care and not make such a noise and 
 disturbance after this, or I'll make you a poor man.' 
 
 " ' So,' said Joe, ' where do you live then ? ' 
 
 " ' I live close by, under the corn-drying room,' said the man ; 
 ' and if we hadn't been living there, it would have been gone long 
 ago, for you have been firing over much now and then, and it has 
 been hot enough there I can tell you ; but the whole building is 
 not so strong, but that it'll fall in a heap if I touch it with my 
 finger. Now you know it, so you had better mind after this ! ' 
 
 " There was no more dancing and playing to be heard at Skroperud 
 after that ; Joe parted with his fiddle, and they could never get him 
 to touch another since." 
 
 During the latter part of this story, the squire had been making 
 a commotion in the parlour ; cupboard doors were opened and 
 shut ; we heard the keys rattle, and we knew he was busy locking 
 up the silver plate and other portable property, from the silver 
 tankard down to the leaden tobacco-box. Just as the smith had 
 finished his story, the squire opened the door and popped in his 
 head with his cap on one side. 
 
 " So you are at your cock and bull stories and lies again ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Lies ? " said the smith very much offended, " I have never told 
 lies, sir ! And this story is true enough, for I am married to one o 
 the daughters. My wife, Dorthe, she was lying in bed and saw the
 
 264 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 old man with the beard. These girls were a little queer, to be sure, 
 almost half-witted, but that came from their having seen fairies," he 
 added, with an indignant look at the squire. 
 
 " Half-witted ? " said the squire, " yes, I should think so ; and 
 that 's what you are too, when you are not tipsy, and then you are 
 raving mad. Come, boys ! Go to bed, and don't sit here and listen 
 to such rubbish and nonsense." 
 
 " I don't think that's kindly spoken on your part, sir," answerea 
 the smith, with an air of superiority ; " the last time I heard rubbish 
 and nonsense spoken, was when you made the speech on the Neberg 
 hill the last Anniversary of our Independence." 
 
 " Confounded rubbish ! " muttered the squire, as he came trudging 
 through the kitchen with the candle in one hand and a bundle of 
 Acts and some newspapers under his arm. 
 
 " Oh, wait a bit, sir," said the smith, evidently with the intention 
 of teazing the squire, " and let the boys stay a little longer too. 
 You might like to hear a trifle also. It doesn't do you good to be 
 always reading in the law books either. I '11 tell you about a dra- 
 goon who was married to a huldre. I know it's true, for I've heard it 
 of old Bertha, and she's from the very parish where it happened. " 
 
 The squire banged the door after him angrily, and we heard him 
 tramping up the stairs. 
 
 " Well, well, since the squire won't listen, I'll tell it to you, my 
 lads," said the smith, addressing the boys, on whom all grandfatherly 
 authority was lost when the smith promised to tell tales. 
 
 " Many years ago," he began, " there lived a wealthy old couple 
 on a farm in Halland. They had a son, who was a dragoon, and a 
 fine big fellow he was. They had a dairy up in the mountains, but 
 it wasn't like the dairies you generally see, it was a nice and well- 
 built dairy, with a regular chimney and roof and windows too. 
 They stayed there all the summer, but when they left in the autumn, 
 some woodcutters, or hunters, or fishermen, or such people who knock 
 about in the mountains at that time, had noticed that the huldre 
 people moved in there with the cattle. And amongst them was a 
 lass, who was so lovely that they had never seen her like. 
 
 " The son had often heard people speak of this, and one autumn
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 265 
 
 when they had left the dairy he dressed himself in full uniform, put 
 the dragoon-saddle on his horse, and the pistols in the holsters, and 
 off he started. When he came in sight of the dairy, it was all 
 ablaze with light, and he guessed then that the huldre people had 
 come already. So he tied his horse to the stump of a pine-tree, 
 took one of the pistols with him, and stole quietly up to the window 
 and looked in. In the room sat an old man and an old woman, 
 who were so crooked and so wrinkled with age, and so dreadfully 
 ugly, that he had never seen anything so hideous in his life ; but 
 then there was a lass who was so lovely that he thought he could 
 not live if he did not make her his own. They had all cow's tails, 
 the lovely lass as well. He could see that they had only lately 
 arrived, for the room appeared to have been very lately put in 
 order. The lass was busy washing the ugly old man, while the 
 woman was lighting a fire under the big cheese-kettle on the 
 hearth. 
 
 " All of a sudden the dragoon pushed the door open, and fired 
 his pistol right over the head of the lassie, which sent her rolling 
 over on to the floor. But at the same moment she turned just as 
 ugly as she had been beautiful before, and her nose grew as long 
 as the pistol. 
 
 " ' You can take her now ; she is yours now ! ' said the old man. 
 But the dragoon was almost spell-bound ; he remained standing on 
 the same spot and could not move a step either forwards or back- 
 wards. The old man began to wash the lass, and she looked a little 
 better after that, the nose decreased to about half the size, and the 
 ugly cow's tail was tied up, but it would be a sin to say she was 
 anything like pretty. 
 
 " ' She is yours now, my brave dragoon ! Put her in front of you 
 on the pommel of the saddle, and ride through the parish with her 
 and celebrate your wedding. For us two, you can prepare some- 
 thing in the small chamber in the wash-house, for we don't care to 
 mix with the other wedding-guests,' said the old ugly one, who 
 was the father of the lass ; ' but when the loving cup is passing 
 round you may as well look in on us.' 
 
 " He dared not do otherwise ; he took the lassie with him on the
 
 266 Ax EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 pommel of the saddle and made preparations lor the wedding. 
 But before they went to church, the bride asked one of the brides- 
 maids to stand close behind, that no one should see the cow's tail 
 fall off when the parson put his hand on her head. 
 
 " So the wedding was celebrated, and when the loving cup was 
 passing round, the bridegroom went across to the chamber, where 
 a table had been laid for the old huldrefolks. He did not notice 
 anything there that time, but when the guests had departed and he 
 went in to see to the old folks again they were gone, but he found 
 such a lot of gold and silver which they must have left behind, that 
 he had never seen so much treasure before. 
 
 " So everything went comfortably for a long time ; and whenever 
 they had any friends with them, the wife got something ready for 
 the old couple in the little chamber, who always left so much 
 money behind them that the young people did not know what to 
 do with it. But the huldre wife was ugly and remained ugly, and 
 the young husband began to get tired of her, and I believe he was 
 unkind to her now and then, and even attempted to strike her. 
 
 " One day late in the autumn he was going to town, but the early 
 frost had set in and the roads were slippery, so he had to get his 
 horse shod first. He went to the smithy, for he was a clever 
 smith himself, but whichever way he twisted and turned the iron, 
 the shoes were either too large or too small, and he could not get 
 them to fit. He had only that horse at home on the farm, so he 
 had no choice but to work away at the shoeing. But dinner 
 time came, and the afternoon wore on, and still the horse was 
 unshod. 
 
 " ' Will you never get those shoes ready ? ' asked his wife. ' You 
 are not much of a husband of late, and I think you are still less a 
 smith. I see no help for it but to go myself to the smithy and shoe 
 your horse. If I make the shoe too big you can make it smaller, 
 and if I make it too small you can make it bigger.' She went into 
 the smithy, and the first thing she did was to take the shoe in her 
 hands and pull the iron out straight. 
 
 "' Look here,' she said, 'this is the way you are to do it !' So 
 she bent the shoe together as if it were of lead. ' Now hold his
 
 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 267 
 
 foot up/ she said, and the shoe fitted exactly ; the best smith 
 could not have done it better. 
 
 " ' You seem to be very strong in your fingers/ said her husband, 
 as he looked at her. 
 
 " ' Do you think so ? ' she said. ' How do you think it would 
 have fared with me, if you had been as strong in your fingers ? 
 But I care for you too much to use my strength against yours.' 
 J< From that day he was most kind and good to her." 
 "Well, I think we have had enough for to-night," said the
 
 268 AN EVENING IN THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN. 
 
 squire's wife, when the smith had finished this story, and got up 
 from her comfortable seat. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose we must be going, since the old man has gone 
 to roost," said the smith, and bade the children " Good night ; " 
 but he had to promise them to tell more the next evening, having 
 made the condition that he was to have a " quarter of tobacco." 
 
 Next afternoon, when I went into the smithy, I found the smith 
 chewing very hard, which was always the case when he had been 
 drinking. 
 
 In the evening he went to some of the neighbouring farms to 
 get more drink. When I saw him again some days afterwards, he 
 was gloomy and chary of words. He would not tell any stories, 
 although the boys promised him both tobacco and brandy. The 
 girls whispered, that the fairies had got hold of him and knocked 
 him over in the Asmyr hill. A carter had found him lying there 
 early in the morning, and then he spoke incoherenly.
 
 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a king, who had a daughter, and she 
 was so lovely that the reports of her beauty went far and wide ; but 
 she was so melancholy, that she never laughed, and besides she was 
 so grand and proud that she said " No " to all who came to woo 
 her she would not have any of them, were they ever so fine, whether 
 they were princes or noblemen. 
 
 The king was tired of this whim of hers long ago, and thought 
 she ought to get married like other people ; there was nothing she 
 need wait for, she was old enough and she would not be any richer 
 either, for she was to have half the kingdom, which she inherited 
 after her mother. 
 
 So he made known every Sunday after the service, from the steps 
 outside the church, that he that could make his daughter laugh 
 should have both her and half the kingdom. But if there were any 
 one who tried and could not make her laugh, he would have three 
 red stripes cut out of his back and salt rubbed into them and, sad 
 to relate, there were many sore backs in that kingdom. Lovers 
 from south and from north, from east and from west came to try 
 their luck they thought it was an easy thing to make a princess 
 laugh. They were a queer lot altogether, but for all their cleverness 
 and for all the tricks and pranks they played, the princess was just 
 as serious and immovable as ever. 
 
 But close to the palace lived a man who had three sons, and they 
 had also heard that the king had made known that he who could 
 make the princess laugh should have her and half the kingdom. 
 
 The eldest of the brothers wanted to try first, and away he went :
 
 270 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 
 
 and when he came to the palace, he told the king he wouldn't mind 
 trying to make the princess laugh. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! that's all very well," said the king ; " but I am afraid 
 it's of very little use, my man. There have been many here to try 
 their luck, but my daughter is just as sad, and I am afraid it is 
 no good trying. I do not like to see any more suffer on that 
 account." 
 
 But the lad thought he would try anyhow. It couldn't be such 
 a difficult thing to make a princess laugh at him, for had not every- 
 body, both grand and simple, laughed so many a time at him 
 when he served as soldier and went through his drill under 
 Sergeant Nils. 
 
 So he went out on the terrace outside the princess's windows and 
 began drilling just as if Sergeant Nils himself were there. But all 
 in vain ! The princess sat just as serious and immovable as before, 
 and so they took him and cut three broad, red stripes out of his 
 back and sent him home. 
 
 He had no sooner arrived home, than his second brother wanted 
 to set out and try his luck. He was a schoolmaster, and a funny 
 figure he was altogether. He had one leg shorter than the other, 
 and limped terribly when he walked. One moment he was no 
 bigger than a boy, but the next moment when he raised himself up 
 on his long leg he was as big and tall as a giant and besides he 
 was great at preaching. 
 
 When he came to the palace, and said that he wanted to make 
 the princess laugh, the king thought that it was not so unlikely that 
 he might ; " but I pity you, if you don't succeed," said the king, 
 " for we cut the stripes broader and broader for every one that 
 tries." 
 
 So the schoolmaster went out on the terrace, and took his place 
 outside the princess's window, where he began preaching and 
 chanting, imitating seven of the parsons, and reading and singing 
 just like seven of the clerks whom they had had in the parish. 
 
 The king laughed at the schoolmaster till he was obliged to hold 
 on to the door-post, and the princess was just on the point of 
 smiling, but suddenly she was as sad and immovable as ever, and
 
 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 271 
 
 so it fared no better with Paul the schoolmaster than with Peter 
 the soldier for Peter and Paul were their names, you must know t 
 
 So they took Paul and cut three red stripes out of his back, put 
 salt into them, and sent him home again. 
 
 Well, the youngest brother thought he would have a try next. 
 His name was Hans. But the brothers laughed and made fun of 
 him, and showed him their sore backs. Besides, the father would 
 not give him leave to go, for he said it was no use his trying, who 
 had so little sense ; all he could do was to sit in a corner on the 
 hearth, like a cat, rooting about in the ashes and cutting chips. 
 But Hans would not give in he begged and prayed so long, till 
 they got tired of his whimpering, and so he got leave to go to the 
 king's palace and try his luck. 
 
 When he arrived at the palace, he did not say he had come to 
 try to make the princess laugh, but asked if he could get a situa- 
 tion there. No, they had no situation for him ; but Hans was not 
 so easily put off ; they might want one to carry wood and water 
 for the kitchen maid in such a big place as that, he said. Yes, the 
 king thought so too, and to get rid of the lad he gave him leave to 
 remain there and carry wood and water for the kitchenmaid. 
 
 One day, when he was going to fetch water from the brook, he 
 saw a big fish in the water just under an old root of a fir-tree, 
 which the current had carried all the soil away from. He put his 
 bucket quietly under the fish and caught it. As he was going 
 home to the palace, he met an old woman leading a golden goose. 
 
 " Good day, grandmother ! " said Hans. " That's a fine bird you 
 have got there ; and such splendid feathers too ! he shines .a long 
 way off. If one had such feathers, one needn't be chopping 
 firewood." 
 
 The woman thought just as much of the fish which Hans had in 
 the bucket, and said if Hans would give her the fish he should 
 have the golden goose ; and this goose was such, that if any one 
 touched it he would be sticking fast to it if he only said : " If 
 you'll come along, then hang on." 
 
 Yes, Hans would willingly exchange on those terms. " A bird 
 is as good as a fish any day," he said to himself. " If it is as you
 
 2/2 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 
 
 say, I might use it instead of a fish-hook," he said to the woman, 
 and felt greatly pleased with the possession of the goose. 
 
 He had not gone far before he met another old woman. When 
 she saw the splendid golden goose, she must go and stroke it. She 
 made herself so friendly and spoke so nicely to Hans, and asked 
 him to let her stroke that lovely golden goose of his. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " said Hans, " but you mus'n't pluck off any of its 
 feathers ! " 
 
 Just as she stroked the bird, Hans said : " If you'll come along, 
 then hang on ! " 
 
 The woman pulled and tore, but she had to hang on, whether 
 she would or no, and Hans walked on, as if he only had the goose 
 with him. 
 
 When he had gone some distance, he met a man who had a 
 spite against the woman for a trick she had played upon him. 
 When he saw that she fought so hard to get free and seemed to 
 hang on so fast, he thought he might safely venture to pay her off 
 for the grudge he owed her, and so he gave her a kick. 
 
 " If you'll come along, then hang on ! " said Hans, and the man 
 had to hang on and limp along on one leg, whether he would or 
 no ; and when he tried to tear himself loose, he made it still worse 
 for himself, for he was very nearly falling on his back whenever he 
 struggled to get free. 
 
 So on they went till they came in the neighbourhood of the 
 palace. There they met the king's smith ; he was on his way to 
 the smithy, and had a large pair of tongs in his hand. This smith 
 was a merry fellow, and was always full of mad pranks and tricks, 
 and when he saw this procession coming jumping and limping 
 along, he began laughing till he was bent in two, but suddenly 
 he said : 
 
 " This must be a new flock of geese for the princess ; but 
 who can tell which is goose and which is gander ? I suppose 
 it must be the gander toddling on in front. Goosey, goosey ! " 
 he called, and pretended to be strewing corn out of his hands as 
 when feeding geese. 
 
 But they did not stop. The woman and the man only
 
 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 275 
 
 looked in great rage at the smith for making game of them. 
 So said the smith : " It would be great fun to see if I could 
 stop the whole flock, many as they are!" He was a strong 
 man, and seized the old man with his tongs from behind in 
 his trousers, and the man shouted and struggled hard, but 
 Hans said : 
 
 " If you'll come along, then hang on ! " 
 
 And so the smith had to hang on too. He bent his back 
 and stuck his heels in the ground when they went up a hill and 
 tried to get away, but it was of no use ; he stuck on to the 
 other as if he had been screwed fast in the great vice in the 
 smithy, and whether he liked it or not, he had to dance along 
 with the others. 
 
 When they came near the palace, the farm-dog ran against them 
 and barked at them, as if they were a gang of tramps, and when 
 the princess came to look out of her window to see what was the 
 matter, and saw this procession, she burst out laughing. But 
 Hans was not satisfied with that. " Just wait a bit, and she will 
 laugh still louder very soon," he said, and made a tour round the 
 palace with his followers. 
 
 When they came past the kitchen, the door was open and the 
 cook was just boiling porridge, but when she saw Hans and his 
 train after him, she rushed out of the door with the porridge- 
 stick in one hand and a big ladle full of boiling porridge in the 
 other, and she laughed till her sides shook ; but when she saw 
 the smith there as well she thought she would have burst with 
 laughter. When she had had a regular good laugh, she looked 
 at the golden goose again and thought it was so lovely that she 
 must stroke it. 
 
 " Hans, Hans ! " she cried, and ran after him with the ladle in her 
 hand ; "just let me stroke that lovely bird of yours." 
 
 " Rather let her stroke me ! " said the smith. 
 
 11 Very well," said Hans. 
 
 But when the cock heard this, she got very angry. "What 
 is it you say ! " she cried, and gave the smith a smack with 
 the ladle. 
 
 T 2
 
 2/6 HANS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS LAUGH. 
 
 "If you'll come along, then hang on!" said Hans, and so she 
 stuck fast to the others too, and for all her scolding and all her 
 tearing and pulling, she had to limp along with them. 
 
 And when they came past the princess's window again, she was 
 still there waiting for them, but when she saw that they had got 
 hold of the cook too, with the ladle and porridge-stick, she laughed 
 till the king had to hold her up. So Hans got the princess and 
 half the kingdom, and they had a wedding which was heard of far 
 and wide.
 
 A SUMMER 
 
 NIGHT IN A 
 FOREST. 
 
 NORWEGIAN 
 
 The evening shadows now unfold 
 
 Their curtain o'er the lonely wold ; 
 
 The night wind sighs with dreary moan, 
 
 And whispers over stock and stone. 
 
 Tramp, Tramp ! the trolls come trooping, hark ! 
 
 Across the moor to the deep woods dark. 
 
 GEIJER. 
 
 WHEN I was a boy about fourteen years old I came one Satur- 
 day afternoon in the middle of the summer to Upper Lyse, the 
 last farm in Sorkedale. I had frequently walked or driven over 
 the main road between Christiania and Ringerike, and I had now, 
 after having been at home on a short visit, taken the road past 
 Bokstad to Lyse for a change, with the intention of making a short 
 cut through the north part of the Krog-wood. 
 
 I found all the doors of the farmhouse wide open, but I looked 
 in vain in the parlour, in the kitchen, and in the barn, for a human 
 being whom I could ask for a drink and who could give me some 
 direction about the road.
 
 278 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 There was no one at home but a black cat, who was sitting quite 
 content and purring on the hearth, and a dazzling white cock, who 
 was walking up and down the passage breasting himself and crowing 
 incessantly, as much as to say : " Now I am the cock of the walk ! " 
 The swallows, which had been tempted here in great numbers on 
 account of the quantity of insects to be found in proximity to the 
 wood, and had established themselves in the barn and under the 
 eaves, were gambolling, circling, and twittering fearlessly about in 
 the sunshine. 
 
 Tired with the heat and my walk, I threw myself down on the 
 grass in the shadow of the house, where I lay half-asleep enjoying 
 a quiet rest, when I was startled by an unpleasant clamour, the 
 jarring voice of a woman, who was trying by alternately scolding 
 and using pet names to pacify a litter of grunting pigs on the farm. 
 By following the sound I came upon a bare-footed old woman with 
 a yellow dried-up countenance, who was bending down over the 
 pigs' trough, busy filling it with food, for which the noisy little 
 creatures were fighting, tearing, pushing, and yelling, with expec- 
 tation and delight. 
 
 On my questioning her about the road, she answered me by 
 asking me another question, while she, without raising herself up, 
 turned her head half away from her pets to stare at me. 
 
 " Where might you come from ? " 
 
 When she had got a satisfactory answer to this, she continued, 
 while she repeatedly addressed herself to the young pigs : 
 
 " Ah, so ! you are at school at the parson's, eh ! hush, hush ! 
 
 little piggies then ! The road to Stubdale, do you say ? 
 
 Just look at that one now ! Will you let the others get something 
 as well, you rascal ! Hush, hush ! Be quiet, will you ! Oh, poor 
 
 fellow, did I kick you then ? Yes, yes, I'll tell you the road 
 
 directly, it's it's straight on through the wood till you come to 
 the b'g water-wheel ! " 
 
 As this direction seemed to me to be rather vague for a road of 
 about fourteen miles length through a forest, I asked her if I could 
 not hire a lad who knew the road, to go with me. 
 
 " No, bless you ! Is it likely ? " she said, as she left the
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 279 
 
 piggery and came out on the slope before the farm. " They are 
 so busy now with the haymaking, that they've scarcely time to eat. 
 But it's straight through the wood, and I'll explain it to you right 
 enough, as if you saw the road before you. First you go up the 
 crag and all the hills over yonder, and when you have got up on the 
 heights, you have the straight road right before you to Heggelie 
 You have the river on your left hand all the way, and if you don't 
 see it, you'll hear it. But just about Heggelie there is a lot of 
 twistings and turnings, and now and then the road is lost altogether 
 for some distance if one is a stranger there, it's not an easy thing 
 to find one's way, but you are sure to find it as far as Heggelie, for 
 that's close to the lake. Afterwards you go along the lake, till you 
 come to the dam across a small tarn, just like a bridge, as they call 
 it ; bear away to the left there, and then turn off to the right, and 
 you have the road straight before you to Stubdale in Aasa." 
 
 Although this direction was not quite satisfactory, particularly as 
 it was the first time I had started on an excursion off the mainroad, 
 I set out confidently and soon all hesitation vanished. From the 
 heights a view was now and then obtained between the lofty pine 
 and fir-trees of the valley below with its smiling fields and varie- 
 gated woods of birch and alder trees, between which the river 
 wound like a narrow silvery streak. The red-painted farm-houses, 
 peculiar to Norway, lay picturesquely scattered on the higher points 
 of the undulating valley, where men and women were busy hay- 
 making. From some chimneys rose columns of blue smoke, which 
 appeared quite light against the dark background of thickly studded 
 pine forests on the mountain slopes. 
 
 Over the whole landscape lay a repose and a peace so perfect 
 that no one could have suspected the close proximity of the capital. 
 When I had advanced some distance into the forest, I heard the 
 notes of the bugle and the distant baying of hounds in full cry, 
 which gradually ceased, till nothing but a faint echo of the bugle 
 reached my ear. I now heard the roar of the river, which rushed 
 wildly past at some distance on my left, but as I advanced the 
 road seemed gradually to approach it, and soon the valley in some 
 parts grew narrower and narrower, till I at last found myself at the
 
 23o A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 bottom of a deep, gloomy gorge, the greatest part of which was 
 taken up by the river. But the road left the river again ; there 
 were certainly twistings and turnings, as the old woman had said, 
 for at one moment it wound hither and the next thither, and at 
 some places it was almost imperceptible. Now it went up a steep 
 incline, and when I had passed the brow of the hill, I saw between 
 the fir-trees a couple of twinkling tarns before me, and on the margin 
 of one of these a dairy on a verdant slope, bathed in the golden 
 light of the evening sun. In the shady retreat under the hill grew 
 clusters of luxuriant ferns ; the wild French willow stood proudly with 
 its lofty crest of red and gorgeous flowers between the pebbles, but 
 the sedate monk's hood lifted its head still higher and looked 
 gloomily and wickedly down on it, while it nodded and kept time 
 to the cuckoo's song, as if it were counting how many days it had 
 to live. On the verdant slope and down by the edge of the water, 
 the bird-cherry and the mountain ash displayed their flowery garb 
 of summer. They sent a pleasant and refreshing fragrance far 
 around, and shook sorrowfully the leaves of their white flowers over 
 the reflected picture of the landscape in the mirror of the lake, 
 which on all sides was surrounded by pine trees and mossy cliffs. 
 
 There was no one at home in the dairy. All doors were locked, 
 I knocked everywhere, but no answer, no information as to 
 the road. I sat down on a rock and waited a while, but no one 
 appeared. The evening was setting in; I thought I could not stay 
 there any longer, and started again. It was still darker in the 
 forest, but shortly I came to a timber-dam across a bit of river 
 between two tarns. I supposed this was the place where I "should 
 bear off first to the left, and then to the right." I went across, but 
 on the other side of the dam there were only as it appeared to me 
 flat, smooth, damp rocks and no trace of a road ; on the opposite 
 side, the right side of the dam, there was a well-trodden path. I 
 examined both sides several times, and although it appeared to be 
 contrary to the direction I had received, I decided on choosing the 
 broader road or path, which was continued on the right hand side 
 of the water. As long as it followed the course of the dark tarn, 
 the road was good and passable, but suddenly it turned off in a
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 281 
 
 direction which, according to my ideas, was the very opposite of the 
 one I should take, and lost itself in a confused net of paths and 
 cattle-tracks amid the darkness of the forest. Inexpressibly tired 
 of this anxious intricate search I threw myself down on the soft 
 moss to rest for a while, but the fatigue conquered the fears of the 
 lonely forest, and I cannot now tell how long I dozed. On hearing 
 a wild cry, the echo of which still resounded in my ears when I 
 awoke, I jumped to my feet. I felt comforted by the song of the 
 redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as 
 I heard the merry notes of the thrush. 
 
 The sky was overcast and the darkness of the forest had in- 
 creased considerably. A fine rain was falling, which imparted 
 renewed life to the plants and trees and filled the air with a fresh, 
 aromatic fragrance ; it also seemed to call to life all the nocturnal 
 sounds and notes of the forest Among the tops of the fir-trees 
 above me, I heard a hollow, metallic sound, like the croaking 
 of the frog and a penetrating whistling and piping. Round 
 about me was a buzzing sound, as if from a hundred spinning- 
 wheels, but the most terrible of all these sounds was, that 
 they at one time seemed close to your ear, and in another 
 moment far away ; now they were interrupted by frolicsome, wild 
 cries and a flapping of wings, now by distant cries of distress, 
 on which a sudden silence followed again. I was seized by an 
 indescribable fear ; these sounds sent a chill through me, and my 
 terror was increased by the darkness between the trees, where all 
 objects appeared distorted, moving and alive, stretching forth 
 thousands of hands and arms after the stray wanderer. All the 
 fairy tales of my childhood were conjured up before my startled 
 imagination, and appeared to be realised in the forms which sur- 
 rounded me ; I saw the whole forest filled with trolls, elves, and 
 sporting dwarfs. In thoughtless and breathless fear I rushed 
 forward to avoid this host of demons, but while flying thus still 
 more frightful and distorted shapes appeared, and I fancied I felt 
 their hands clutching me. Suddenly I heard the heavy tread of 
 some one, who moved over the crackling branches of the underwood. 
 I saw, or fancied I saw, a dark shape, which approached me with
 
 282 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 a pair of eyes shining like glowing stars. My hair stood on an 
 end ; I believed my fate was inevitably sealed, and shouted almost 
 unconsciously as if to give myself new courage : 
 
 " If there's anybody there, tell me the way to Stubdale ! " 
 A deep growl was the answer I received, and the bear, for such it 
 was, walked quickly away in the same direction whence he had 
 come. I stood for some time and listened to his heavy steps and 
 the crackling of the branches under his feet. I mumbled to 
 myself: " I wish it was daylight and that I had a gun with me, 
 and you should have had a bullet, Master Bruin, for frighten' 
 me thus ! " 
 
 With this wish and childish threat all fear and thoughts of 
 danger vanished, and I walked on again quite composed, on the 
 soft mossy ground. There was now no sign of either road or path ; 
 but it grew lighter between the trees in front of me, the forest 
 became more open, and I found myself on the slope leading down 
 to the shores of a large lake, surrounded on all sides by pine 
 forests, which on the distant shores vanished under the misty veil 
 of the night. 
 
 By the red glimmering of the northern sky, which was reflected 
 in the dark surface of the lake, over which the bats fluttered and 
 circled, while large birds higher up in the air shot swiftly across 
 with that croaking and penetrating whistle which not long ago had 
 appeared so terrible to me, I found I had gone in a north-easterly 
 direction instead of to the west. 
 
 While I was meditating whether I should remain here till the 
 sun rose, or try to find my way "back to the dam, I discovered to 
 my inexpressible joy on this side of the lake a glimpse of a fire 
 between the trees. I ran towards it, but I soon discovered that it 
 was farther off than it at first appeared to be, because, after having 
 walked about a mile, I found myself still separated from it by a 
 deep valley. 
 
 When after considerable trouble I had forced my way through 
 the chaos of fallen trees, which the wind had torn up in this 
 exposed wild region, and had ascended the other steep hill-side, I 
 had still a good distance to walk across an open wooded heath,
 
 .
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 285 
 
 where the firs stood in rows like lofty pillars and where the ground 
 resounded under my steps. 
 
 On the outskirt of this wood trickled a small brook, where the 
 alder and the pine trees again sought to maintain their place, and 
 on a small plot on the slope on the other side of a brook burned a 
 great log-fire, which threw its red light far in between the trees. 
 In front of the fire sat a dark figure, which, on account of its position 
 between me and the blazing fire, appeared to me to be of super- 
 natural proportions. The old stories about robbers and thieves in 
 this forest came suddenly back to me, and I was on the point of 
 running away when my eyes caught sight of a hut, made out of 
 fir-branches, close to the fire, and two other men. who sat outside 
 it, and the many axes, which were fixed into the stump of a 
 felled tree, and it became evident to me that they were wood- 
 cutters. 
 
 The dark figure, an old man, was speaking, I saw him move 
 his lips ; he held a short pipe in his hand, which he only put to his 
 mouth now and then to keep it alight by these occasional pulls. 
 When I approached the group, the story had either come to an end 
 or he had been interrupted, he stooped forward, put some glowing 
 embers in his pipe, smoked incessantly and appeared to be atten- 
 tively listening to what a fourth person, who had just arrived, had 
 to say. This person, who apparently also belonged to the party, 
 was carrying a bucket of water from the brook. His hair was red, 
 and he was dressed in a long jersey jacket, and had more the ap- 
 pearance of a tramp than a wood-cutter. He looked as if he had 
 been frightened by something or other. 
 
 The old man had now turned round towards him, and as I had 
 crossed the brook and was approaching the party from the side, I 
 could now see the old man plainly in the full glare of the fire. He 
 was a short man with a long hooked nose. A blue skull-cap with 
 a red border scarcely covered his head of bristly grey hair, and a 
 short-bodied but long Ringerike coat of dark grey frieze with worn 
 velvet borders served to make the roundness and crookedness of 
 his back still more conspicuous. 
 
 The new-comer appeared to be speaking about a bear.
 
 286 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 'Well, who would believe it?" said the old man, "what did he 
 want there ? It must have been some other noise you heard, for 
 there doesn't grow anything on the dry heath hereabout which he 
 would be after. No, not Bruin, not he," he added ; " I almost think 
 you are telling lies, Peter ! There's an old saying, that red hair 
 and firs don't thrive in good soil," he continued half aloud. " If 
 it had been down in the bear's den or in Stygdale, where Knut and 
 I both heard him and saw him the other day but here ? No, no ! 
 he doesn't come so near the fire, he doesn't ! You have been 
 frightening yourself! " 
 
 " Frightening myself? _ Oh, dear no ! Didn't I hear him moving 
 and crushing through the underwood, my canny Thor Lerberg ? " 
 answered the other, somewhat offended and chagrined at the old 
 man's doubts and taunts. 
 
 " Well, well, my boy," continued Thor in his former tone, " I 
 suppose it was something bigger than a squirrel anyhow ! " 
 
 I now stepped forward, and said it must have been me that he 
 had heard, and told them how I had lost my way, and the fright I 
 had undergone, and how hungry and tired I was. I asked where- 
 abouts I was now, and if one of them would show me the way to 
 Stubdale. 
 
 My appearance created considerable surprise to the party, which 
 however was not so much apparent in their words, as in the atten- 
 tion with which they regarded me and heard my story. The old 
 man, whose name I had heard was Thor Lerberg, seemed particu- 
 larly interested in it ; and as it appeared that he was accustomed to 
 thinking aloud, I could, on hearing some of the remarks which 
 he now and then mumbled to himself, participate in his reflections, 
 thus : 
 
 " No, no, that was the wrong way ! He should have gone over 
 the dam there Stubdale way he went wrong altogether he is 
 too young he isn't used to the woods ah, that was the woodcock 
 and the goatsucker yes, yes ! it sounds strange to him, that 
 hasn't heard him oh, yes ! the loon does shriek dreadfully par- 
 ticularly when there's fine rain ah, ah ! yes, that must have been 
 the bear he met he is a brave boy after all ! "
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 287 
 
 " Yes ! " I said boldly, and gave vent to my awakening youthful 
 courage in about the same words as the man who once came across 
 a bear asleep on a sunny hill side : " If it had been daylight, and if 
 I had been a hunter and had a loaded gun with me, and if I could 
 have made it go off, why, by my faith, the bear should have lain 
 dead on the spot, he should." 
 
 " Yes, of course, hah, hah, hah !" laughed old Thor, and chuckled 
 till the others joined in the laughter ; " of course he would have lain 
 dead on the spot, that's plain ! hah, hah, hah !" 
 
 " But you are now by Storflaaten, the biggest lake in the forest 
 here," he said, addressing himself to me, when I had finished my 
 story ; " towards morning we'll help you on your way, for we have 
 got a boat, and when you have got across the water you haven't 
 far to go to Stubdale then. But I suppose you would like to rest 
 yourself a little now, and get something to eat ! I have nothing 
 but some peas-pudding and rancid bacon, and may be you are not 
 used to that kind of food ; but if you are hungry, perhaps you 
 would like some fish ? I have been out fishing, and fine fish I got 
 too, yes, in the lake I mean ! " 
 
 I thanked him for his offer, and he told one of his companions to 
 take a " regular good 'un " off the string and roast it in the glowing 
 embers of the fire. 
 
 In the meantime the old man asked a number of questions about 
 myself, and by the time I had answered all these the fish was 
 ready, and I began my meal with great appetite. He now asked 
 one of his companions to tell us something about what he once said 
 had happened to his father, when he was out cutting timber. 
 
 "Well, that's very soon told," answered the lad, a strapping 
 young fellow of a smart, undaunted appearance, and not much 
 over the twenties. " Father was then working for the squire in 
 Ask, and was cutting timber up in the squire's forest ; he used to 
 sleep at a cottage further down the valley, at Helge Myra's place, 
 you knew Helge, didn't you Thor ? Well, one day he had been 
 taking too long a nap after dinner, such a heavy sleep came over 
 him, and when he awoke the sun was already setting behind the 
 hills. But he would finish his day's work before he left off, and he
 
 288 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 began cutting away till the splinters flew about him in all directions, 
 but it grew darker and darker ; there was still a small pine left, 
 which he was determined to have down, but no sooner had he given 
 it the first cut, than the axe head flew off the handle. He set about 
 looking for it and found it at last in a hollow. But suddenly he 
 thought he heard some one calling him by name ; he could not 
 make out who it could be, for Helge Myra could not have any 
 business thereabouts, and no one else lived there for miles around. 
 He listened again, but did not hear anything, so he thought he 
 might have been mistaken. He began cutting again, but all at 
 once the axe-head flew off the handle again. He found it this time 
 also after a long search, but when he was going to cut the tree on 
 the north side of its stem, he heard plainly a voice shouting in the 
 mountain : 
 
 " ' Halvor, Halvor ! Early you come and late you go,' ' but as 
 
 soon as I heard that/ said my father, ' I felt as if I had lost the use 
 of my legs and I could scarcely get the axe out of the stem of the 
 pine tree, but when I did take to my legs I didn't stop until I came 
 to Helge's cottage.' " 
 
 "Yes, I have heard that story before," said old Thor, "but that 
 wasn't the one I meant ; it was about the time he was at the 
 wedding at the dairy on Kile hill." 
 
 " Oh, that time ! " answered the indefatigable lad ; " that was in 
 the spring, just before Easter 1815, when father lived at Oppen- 
 Eie the snow wasn't gone yet, but he had to set out for the forest 
 to cut and drag home some wood. He went up in the Helling hill, 
 where he found a withered fir, which he commenced cutting down 
 at once. While cutting away at it, he thought he saw withered firs 
 all around him, but while he was staring and wondering at this, up 
 came a procession of eleven horses, all of a mouse-grey colour ; 
 it appeared to him to be a wedding-party. 
 
 " What people are these, who are coming this way over the 
 hill ? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh, we are from Osthalla," says one of them, " we are going 
 to the Veien dairy to keep the wedding ; the one who drives in 
 front is the parson, next are the bride and bridegroom, and I am
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 291 
 
 his father-in-law. You had better stand behind on my sledge and 
 come along.' 
 
 " When they had travelled some distance, the father-in-law said : 
 ' Will you take these two bags with you and go to the Veien farm 
 and get two barrels of potatoes in them by the time we go home ? ' 
 
 " My father promised to do this. They came soon to a place 
 which he thought he knew, and so it was. It was just north 
 of the Kill hill, where the old dairy stood ; but there was no dairy 
 there then, but a great fine building, and here they all entered. 
 Some one met them on the steps to give the guests a glass of 
 welcome, and they gave father a glass also, but he said, ' No, 
 thanks ! ' he would not have anything he said, for he had only his old 
 clothes on, and would not intrude on such fine folks. ' Never mind 
 this man/ said one of them, ' take a horse and see him on his 
 way home,' which they did ; they put him in a sledge with a 
 mouse-grey horse before it, and one of them sat up and drove the 
 horse. When they got as far as the little valley north of Oppen- 
 hagen where the land-slip took place he thought he sat between 
 the ears of a bucket ; but shortly this vanished also, and it was only 
 then he really came to himself again. He began looking for his 
 axe, and found it sticking in the same withered fir-tree he had 
 begun to cut down. When he came home, he was so confused and 
 queer, that he could not tell now many days he had been away ; 
 bui he was only away from the morning to the evening, and for 
 some time afterwards he was not himself " 
 
 " Yes, many a queer thing happens hereabout," said old Thor ; 
 " and I for my part have also seen a little well, witchcraft I mean, 
 and if you like to sit up a little longer, I'll tell you what has 
 happened to me, in this here forest, I mean." 
 
 Yes, they would all like to hear it ; to-morrow was Sunday, and 
 it didn't much matter if they went to bed late. 
 
 " Well, it might be about ten or twelve years ago," he answered, " I 
 was burning charcoal over in the Kampenhaug forest. In the winter 
 I had two horses there to cart the coals to the Baerum works. One 
 day I happened to stop too long at the works, for I met some old 
 friends from Ringerike there, and we had a good talk about one 
 
 U 2
 
 292 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 thing or another, and a little drop to drink too, yes, brandy I 
 mean and so I did not come back to the kiln before ten o'clock in 
 the evening. I made a fire, so I could see loading the sledges, 
 for it was terribly dark, and I had to get the carts loaded in the 
 evening, for I had to be off at three o'clock next morning, if I was 
 to get to the works and back again the same day while it was light, 
 back to the kiln I mean. When I had got the fire to burn up, I 
 began loading the sledges. But just as I was turning round to the 
 fire again a drift of snow came sweeping down upon it and put it 
 out entirely, the fire I mean. So I thought to myself : ' Why, 
 bless me, the old witch in the hill here is vexed to-night, because I 
 come home so late and disturb her.' I struck a light and made a 
 new fire. But, strange to say, the shovel would not drop all the coals 
 into the basket, more than half went over the sides. At last I 
 got the sledges loaded, and I was going to put the ropes round 
 them, but will you believe me, every one of them broke, the one 
 after the other, the ropes I mean. So I had to get new ropes, 
 and at last got the sledges ready, gave the horses their fodder, and 
 went to bed. But do you think I awoke at three ? No, not till 
 long after the sun had risen, and still I felt heavy and queer, both 
 in my head and my body. Well, I had something to eat and went 
 then to look to the horses, but the shed was empty and the horses 
 were gone. I got rather out of temper at this, and I am afraid I 
 swore a little into the bargain, but I thought I had better try 
 and find some tracks of them. During the night there had fallen a 
 little fresh snow, and I could see they had not gone off in the 
 direction of the valley or the works. I found, however, the track 
 of two horses and of a couple of broad large feet in a northerly 
 direction ; I followed these for two or three miles, when the tracks 
 parted, and the foot-marks vanished altogether, one horse 'had gone to 
 the east, and the other to the west, and after following up one first for 
 five or six miles, I came upon him at last. I had to take him home 
 to the hut and tie him up, before I could start looking for the other 
 horse. By the time I got hold of him it was near upon noon, and so 
 there was no use going to the works that day. But I promised I should 
 never disturb the old witch any more, in the evening I mean.
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 293 
 
 " But these promises are strange things sometimes, if you keep a 
 promise to Christmas you are pretty sure to break it before next 
 Michaelmas. The year after I made a trip to Christiania late in 
 the autumn, the roads were in a fearful bad condition and it was 
 already very late in the afternoon before I left town, but I wanted 
 to get home that night. I was on horseback and took the road by 
 Bokstad, which is the shortest, as you know, to Ausfjerdingen 
 I mean. The weather was wet and ugly, and it was beginning to 
 grow dark when I started. But when I came over the bridge by 
 Heggelie I saw a man coming towards me, he wasn't very tall, but 
 terribly big ; he was as broad as a barn-door across his shoulders, and 
 his hands were nearly a foot across the knuckles. He carried a leather 
 bag in one hand, and seemed to be talking to himself. When I came 
 nearer to him, his eyes glistened like burning cinders, and they 
 \vere as big as saucers. His hair stood out like bristles, and his 
 beard was no better ; I thought he was a terrible, ugly brute, and 
 I prayed for myself the little I could, and just as 1 came to the 
 end, down he sank, in the ground I mean. 
 
 " I rode on, humming an old psalm, but suddenly I met him again 
 coming down a hill ; his eyes and his hair and beard too sparkled 
 with fire this time. I began praying again, and had no sooner 
 finished than he was gone. But I had scarcely ridden a mile, before 
 I met him once more as I was crossing a small bridge. His eyes 
 flashed like lightning and sparks flew out of his hair and beard, 
 and so he shook his bag, till you could see blue and yellow and red 
 tongues of fire shooting out of it. But then I lost my temper right 
 out, and instead of praying I swore at him, and he vanished on the 
 spot. But as I rode on, I began to be afraid that I should meet 
 this brute again, so when I came to Lovlie I knocked at the door, 
 and asked for lodgings till daylight, but do you think they would 
 let me in ? No. I could travel by day, like other folks, they sa : d, 
 and then I needn't ask for lodgings ! So I guessed the old brute 
 had been there before me and frightened them, and I had to set out 
 again. But then I started another old psalm, till the mountains rang 
 with it, and I came at last safe to Stubdale, where I got lodgings 
 but it was almost morning then."
 
 294 
 
 A SUMMER NIGHT IN A NORWEGIAN FOREST. 
 
 The manner rn which he told these stories was, like his speech, 
 slow and expressive, and he had the custom of repeating single 
 words, or part of his sentences at the end of these, or adding one or 
 another superfluous explanation. He generally applied these remarks 
 after one of his many exertions to keep his pipe alight, and they 
 had such a comical effect on me, that I had great difficulty to 
 refrain from laughing outright. I was in a merry mood after having 
 safely got through my nocturnal expedition, and to this I must 
 ascribe the fact that his stories did not make the impression upon 
 me which, after what I had gone through, might have been 
 expected. 
 
 The dawn of the day was now appearing, and old Thor told one 
 of his companions to row me across the lake, and put me on my 
 right road.
 
 e^& 
 
 THE WITCH. 
 
 ON a hill, some distance from the main road in the middle of 
 Gudbrandsdale, some years ago stood a cottage. Perhaps it is 
 there still. It was mild April weather, the snow was melting, the 
 brooks rushed wildly down the mountain sides, the fields were 
 nearly bare, the thrushes were scolding each other in the woods, all 
 the groves resounded with the twittering of birds, in short there 
 was every sign of an early spring. 
 
 In the mighty birch tree and lofty mountain ash, which stretched 
 out their naked branches over the roof of the cottage in the glittering 
 sunlight, some busy tomtits whisked about, while a chaffinch, who 
 had perched himself in the top of the birch tree, sung out at the top 
 of his voice.
 
 296 THE WITCH. 
 
 Inside in the smoky room with the raftered ceiling, it was dark 
 and dismal. A middle-aged peasant woman of a very common and 
 unintellectual appearance was busy blowing into a blaze some 
 branches and sticks of wood under the coffee-kettle on the open 
 hearth. Having at last succeeded in this, she raised herself up, 
 rubbed the smoke and the ashes out of her smarting eyes, and 
 said : 
 
 " People say there's no use in this lead-melting, for the child 
 hasn't got the wasting sickness ; they say it's a changeling. There 
 was a fell-maker here the other day and he said the same, for when 
 he was a youngster, he had seen a changeling in Ringerike some- 
 where, and that one was as soft in its body and as loose about its 
 joints as this one." 
 
 While she spoke, her simple face had assumed an expression of 
 anxiety, which showed what impression the fell-maker's words had 
 made upon her superstitious mind. 
 
 She addressed her words to a big bony woman, whose age might 
 be about sixty. She was unusually tall, but when she was sitting, 
 she appeared to be of low stature, and this peculiarity she had to 
 thank for the nickname of" Longlegs," which the people had added 
 to her name of Gubjor. In the gang of tramps with whom she 
 used to roam about, she had other names. Grey hairs straggled 
 out from under her head-gear, which surrounded a dark face with 
 bushy eyebrows and a long knotted nose. The original unintel- 
 lectual expression of her face, which was clearly indicated by a low 
 forehead and great breadth between the cheekbones, contrasted 
 greatly with the unmistakable cunning in her small sparkling 
 eyes. Her dress betokened her as a straggler from some northern 
 district; her whole appearance denoted that if she were not a 
 witch, she was at least a tramp, who would be now impudent and 
 audacious, now humble and cringing, according to circumstances. 
 
 While the peasant woman was speaking and attending to the 
 coffee-kettle, Gubjor was keeping in motion a hanging cradle in 
 which lay a child of a sickly appearance, by giving it now and then 
 a push with her hand. She replied to the peasant woman in a calm 
 tone of superiority, although her sparkling eyes and the quivering
 
 THE WITCH. 297 
 
 muscles round her mouth showed that she was not satisfied with 
 the statement of the fell-maker. 
 
 " Folks will talk so much about things they don't understand, my 
 dear Marit," she said ; " they talk fast and loose, and, as for the fell- 
 maker, he may understand sheep's skin well enough, but sickness 
 and changelings he knows nothing about, I say and maintain ! 
 I should think I ought to know something about changelings, for I 
 have seen enough of them. That changeling he spoke about must 
 have been Brit's from Froen, for I recollect she had a changeling ; 
 she got it soon after she was married, she had a very good and 
 nice child, but it was changed for a troll's brat as ill-tempered 
 and unruly as if it belonged to the fiend himself. He would never 
 speak a word, only eat and cry, and she hadn't the heart to strike 
 it or illtreat the youngster either ; but somebody taught her a 
 charm to make him speak, and then she found out what kind of 
 a brat he really was. She got hold of him one day and began to 
 thrash him soundly and called him all sorts of names, when 
 suddenly the door flew open and somebody, whom of course she 
 couldn't see, rushed into the room, tore the changeling away from 
 her, and threw her own child on to the floor with such violence 
 that it began to cry. Or perhaps it was the changeling that Siri 
 Stromhugget had ? That was an old-fashioned, dried-up youngster, 
 and I don't think he had any joints at all, but he was no more 
 like your child here than this old cap of mine ! I recollect her 
 youngster well enough too. I served at the parish clerk's at that 
 time, when I saw it more than once, and I also recollect how she 
 got rid of it. There was a great deal of talk about it at the time, 
 for Siri, as you know, came from this parish. When she was quite 
 young, she served at Kvam ; after that she moved to Stromhugget, 
 where she was married to Ola, the son there. Soon after her 
 first child was born, a strange woman came into the room and took 
 the child from the bed and put another in its place. Siri, who was 
 ill in bed, tried to get up and get her child back, she struggled 
 with all her might, but she could not move from the spot, she 
 was spell-bound and quite powerless. She was going to call her 
 aunt, who was in the next room, but she could not open her
 
 298 THE WITCH. 
 
 mouth, and she was just as frightened as if they had been going 
 to take her life. It was easy enough to see that the child was 
 a changeling, for it wasn't like other children at all it screamed 
 and cried, as if a knife stuck in it, and it wheezed and hit about 
 with its arms like a huldre-cat, and was as ugly as sin. It was 
 always eating, and poor Siri didn't for the life of her know how to 
 get rid of it. But at last she heard of a woman who knew 
 something about these things, and she told her to take the 
 youngster and flog him with a proper rod three Thursday evenings 
 in succession. Yes, she did so, and the third Thursday evening a 
 woman came flying over the barn-roof, and threw a child away 
 from her and took up the changeling. But as she rushed off she 
 struck Siri across the fingers; and she carries the marks to this day, 
 and I have seen them with my own eyes," added Gubjor, as a 
 further proof of the truth of her story. " No, this child is no more 
 a changeling than I am ; and how could it happen, that they could 
 change yours after all the trouble you have taken to prevent it ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Well, no! that's what I cannot make out either," said the mother 
 quite innocently, "for I've had castor in the cradle, I have crossed 
 him, and I put a silver brooch in his shirt, and I stuck a knife in the 
 beam over the door, so I don't know how they could have managed 
 to change him." 
 
 " Well then, they can't have had any power over him either. I 
 know all about that, I should think," began Gubjor again, " for in 
 a parish close to Christiania I once knew a woman who had a child, 
 which she was so very careful about, she made crosses over it and 
 used castor and everything else she had heard of, for there was plenty 
 of witchcraft thereabout, I can tell you ; but one night, as she lay in 
 bed, with the child by her side near the edge of the bed, her 
 husband, who was lying near the wall, awoke suddenly and saw 
 such a red glare all over the room, just like when one stirs the fire, 
 and sure enough, there was some one stirring the fire too, for when 
 he looked towards the fireplace, he saw an old man sitting there 
 raking the fire together. He was an ugly brute, uglier than I can 
 describe, and he had a long grey beard. When he had got the
 
 THE WITCH. 
 
 299 
 
 fire to give a good light, he began stretching his arms out for the 
 child, but he could not move from the stool he sat on. His arms 
 grew longer and longer, till they reached half way across the room, 
 
 but he didn't stir from the fire, and couldn't reach the child. He 
 sat thus for some time, while the husband was so frightened that he 
 didn't know what to do. He then heard some one moving outside 
 the window.
 
 THE WITCH. 
 
 " ' I say, Peter, why don't you come ? ' asked a voice outside. 
 
 ""Hold your tongue, woman!' said the old man, who was 
 sitting by the fire, 'they have been crossing and fiddling over 
 this youngster, so I can't get it.' 
 
 " ' Well, you might come back, so we can be off/ said the voice 
 again. It was the old man's wife, who was waiting outside to 
 receive the youngster. 
 
 " But just look at this fine little boy ! " said the sorceress with 
 affected kindness, as she took the child, who had just woke up, and 
 vigorously resisted the strange woman's caresses and began crying 
 at the apparently coaxing, but really repulsive, expression of the 
 woman ; " he is as white as snow and pure as an angel ; he is rather 
 weak about the joints, that he is, but to say he is a changeling, 
 that's a mistake, I say. No, it's wasting sickness," she added, as 
 she turned round to the mother with a lofty air of conviction ; " it's 
 wasting sickness ! " 
 
 " Hush, I fancy I heard some one knocking outside. Mercy on me, 
 if it's my husband who has come back ! " said Marit, terrified at being 
 surprised by her husband in company with the sorceress over a cup 
 of coffee. She ran to the door and looked out, but there was 
 nobody there but a brindled cat, which sat on the steps licking her 
 paws after a hunt in the neighbouring bush, and a woodpecker, 
 which was pecking away at the sunburnt logs of the cottage wall, 
 trying to wake up the drowsy insects from their winter sleep in the 
 holes and crevices in the timber, and turning his head every 
 moment, as if he was looking for some one, but it was only an April 
 shower he was expecting. 
 
 "Is there anybody there?" asked Gubjor. On receiving an 
 answer in the negative, she continued : "Well, we had better leave 
 the door open, so we can have the benefit of the sun and see 
 when your husband comes home, for I suppose he's coming that 
 way.' ' 
 
 " He went with his sledge to get a load of leaves for the goats," 
 answered Marit ; " but I'm so afraid he'll be finding us out. Last 
 time when he heard that you had been here, he was that wild that 
 I didn't know what to say. He said he would give me money to
 
 THE WITCH. 301 
 
 go to the doctor with, for he won't hear of any such goings on, or 
 any magic curing ; for he is well read, and doesn't believe in the 
 fairies any longer, since he went about with that schoolmaster of 
 ours." 
 
 " To the doctor's ? Bah ! " said the sorceress, and spat upon the 
 floor. " Yes, I would advise anybody to go to that stuck-up grandee 
 with this wee bit of a body. If one doesn't come with gold and 
 fine presents," she continued, with an affected air of superior know- 
 ledge, " he bites and worries you as if you were dogs, and not 
 people. Why, what happened that time Gjertrud Kostibakken 
 lay with the last gasp of breath in her body ? He wouldn't go to 
 a tramp, for he was at a Christmas party at the magistrates', nor 
 did he go either till he was threatened both with bishop and judge ; 
 and he might have saved himself the trouble, for when he came to 
 the door the poor woman was dead. No ! to go to the doctor's 
 with a childlike this, suffering with wasting sickness, is madman's 
 work ! But, dear me ! " she said with a sneer, "you may go to him 
 for what I care, but if he can help you as much as this , may I 
 never be able to cure another in my life. They don't know any- 
 thing about this wasting sickness, bless you ! There's nothing about 
 it in their books, and they don't know of any remedy for it ! and 
 they know that well enough too, that's the reason they don't give 
 any powders or drugs and such nasty stuff for it. No, there's no 
 other remedy but lead-melting, but they don't know anything 
 about that." 
 
 " Let's put the ladle on, mother," she began in a different tone, 
 " it's getting on towards noon. If we have melted twice, we'll 
 have to melt the third time as well, or we don't know what might 
 happen. The child has the wasting sickness, but there are nine sorts 
 of that disease in the world, as I've told you already, and you 
 saw yourself he had both the goblin-spell and the water-spell, for 
 the first Thursday the lead showed a man with two big horns and 
 a tail. That was the goblin-spell. Last time it was a mermaid, you 
 saw it as plainly as if it had been drawn. That was the water-spell. 
 But now Thursday has come round again, and the question is what 
 will it show now? The third time is the most important, you must
 
 302 THE WITCH. 
 
 know. There, take the child," she said, as she gave it to its mother. 
 " Let me finish this drop of coffee, and I'll set to at once." 
 
 When the coffee was drunk, and the cup was put away with many 
 thanks and blessings, she went demurely to the hearth, and pulled 
 out a snuff-horn. 
 
 " Since last Thursday," she said, " I've been in seven parishes 
 and scraped lead off the frames of church-windows at midnight, 
 for I used the last of my lead last Thursday. It's trying both to 
 mind and body," she mumbled to herself, while she shook out from 
 the snuff-horn some of the lead, which, according to her statement, 
 she had collected under so many difficulties. 
 
 " I suppose you have brought some water from a brook running 
 north at midnight ? " she inquired further. 
 
 " Yes. I was down by the mill-stream last night ; it's the only 
 stream running north for a long way round," answered the peasant 
 woman, as she brought out a carefully closed pail, from which she 
 poured the water into a large beer-bowl. Across this was placed 
 a thin oatmeal cake, through which a hole was made with a 
 darning needle. When the lead was melted, Gubjor went to the 
 door, looked up at the sun, took the ladle and poured the melted 
 lead slowly through the hole into the water, while she mumbled 
 some words over it which seemed to be to this effect : 
 
 " I conjure for sickness, I conjure for pain- 
 I conjure it off, and I call it again 
 I conjure the weather, the wind, and the rain ! 
 I have spells for the north, I have charms for the west, 
 And the south and the east must obey my behest 
 I conjure in water, I conjure on land, 
 I conjure in rocks, and I conjure in sand 
 I conjure pain into the alder-tree root 
 I conjure disease into tiny foal's foot 
 Where the flame of Gehenna comes bellowing forth, 
 Or where the charmed waters flow on to the north, 
 There, there shall pain wither, consumed by my spell, 
 And with the poor babe all shall henceforth be well ! "
 
 THE WITCH. 303 
 
 As was only natural, the boiling lead hissed and spluttered as it 
 was poured into the water. 
 
 " Just listen to the wickedness of it, it must come out now," 
 said the sorceress Do the peasant woman, who with a mixed feeling 
 of fear and awe, stood listening with the child in her arms. When 
 the oatmeal cake was taken off the bowl, a couple of figures formed 
 by the melted lead were seen in the water. The sorceress regarded 
 them for some time, with her head on one side ; she then began 
 nodding it and said : 
 
 " Corpse-spell, corpse-spell ! first goblin-spell, then water-spell, 
 and now corpse-spell. One of them would have been enough ! " 
 she added, shaking her head. " Yes, I now see how it all has 
 happened," she continued aloud, and turned round to the mistress 
 of the house. " First, you travelled through a wood and past a hill 
 while the trolls were out, there you blessed the child. You then 
 crossed a river, and there you also blessed the child ; but when you 
 came past the churchyard, it was before the cock crowed, you 
 forgot to bless the child, and there it caught the corpse-spell." 
 
 " Bless me, how do you know that ? " exclaimed Marit with 
 great surprise. " Every word you say is true. When we left the 
 dairy last summer on our way home, it was rather late before we 
 started, as some of the sheep got astray from us, and it was growing 
 dark by the time we got down into the valley, once I thought I 
 saw the glimmer of a light over in the forest and I heard something 
 like a gate being opened in the Vesaet hill, they say there are 
 fairies there and then I blessed the child. When we crossed the 
 river, I heard a terrible cry, and I blessed the child again, the 
 others said it was only the loon, which screamed for bad weather." 
 
 " Yes, that would have been sufficient, if there was nothing else 
 but the loon," said Gubjor ; "when it screams at a new-born babe, 
 that child is bewitched." 
 
 " Yes, I have also heard that," said the mother ; " but when we 
 came past the churchyard, it was just past midnight then the bull 
 got unruly and we had such trouble to keep the cattle together, that 
 I forgot to bless the child there." 
 
 " That's where the child caught it then, you may be sure, for the
 
 304 THE WITCH. 
 
 corpse-spell comes from the churchyard. Just look yourself in the 
 bowl here : there stands a coffin and there is a church steeple, and 
 in the coffin lies a corpse, spreading out its fingers," said the sorceress 
 with great importance, as she explained these mystic figures of the 
 melted lead. 
 
 " Humph, but there is a remedy ! " she mumbled to herself again, 
 but sufficiently loud to be heard by the other. 
 
 " What remedy is that ? " asked the mother, both glad and 
 curious. 
 
 " There's a remedy, it does try one, but never mind," said 
 Gubjor ; " I shall make a dummy baby, which I shall bury in the 
 churchyard, and then the dead will believe they have got the child, 
 take my word, they won't know but what it is the real baby ! 
 But we must have some family silver to go with it ! Have you 
 got any ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have a couple of old silver coins, which were given me 
 when I was baptized, and I didn't want to touch them ; but if life 
 
 depends upon it " said the anxious mother, and she began at 
 
 once searching in an old chest. 
 
 "Yes, one I shall put in the hill, the other in water, the 
 third I shall bury in consecrated ground, where the disease was 
 caught. I must have three in all," said the sorceress, " and some 
 old rags to make a dummy of." 
 
 She got what she asked for. A big doll was soon made up in the 
 shape of a wrapped-up baby. The sorceress rose from her seat, 
 took the dummy baby and her stick, and said : 
 
 " I'm going now to the churchyard to bury it. The third Thurs- 
 day from to-day I shall be back again, then we'll see ! If there 
 is going to be life, you can see yourself in the pupils of the child's 
 eye, but if he is going to die you'll see something black and nothing 
 else. And now I must be off to Joramo. I haven't been there for 
 a long time ; but they sent word to me to come and see a 
 youngster who has got the troll-spell. But that's an easy matter ! 
 I'll push him under a piece of turf the contrary way to which the 
 sun goes, and then he'll be a man again." 
 
 " Dear me, dear me ! " said the peasant woman admiringly,
 
 THE WITCH. 305 
 
 " Joramo ! Why, that's in Lesje ! Bless me, are you going such 
 a long way ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is a long way off ! I was bred and born there," said 
 Gubjor; " I have travelled much, but gathered little, since I was 
 there. It was better times for Gubjor then," she added with a sigh, 
 as she sat down on the settle. " But in Joramo there was once a 
 changeling," she continued, as some legend from olden times came 
 into her mind on recalling some of the memories of her childhood. 
 " My aunt's great grandmother who lived at Joramo had a change- 
 ling. I never saw it, for both she and the child was gone long before 
 I was born, but my mother often spoke about it. The child looked 
 like an old man with a weather-beaten face, his eyes were as red 
 as fire, and glowed like an owl's eyes in the dark. He had a head 
 as long as a horse's head and as round as a cabbage ; the legs were 
 as thin as a sheep's, and his body looked like last year's dried 
 mutton. He was always crying and howling, and if he got hold 
 of anything, he threw it right into his mother's face. He was 
 always hungry, like the parish dog, everything he saw he must 
 have, and he very nearly ate them out of house and home. The older 
 he grew, the worse he grew, and there was no end to his howling 
 and wailing. They could never make him speak a word, although 
 he was old enough, in short, he was a perfect worry night and 
 day. They tried for advice here and there and everywhere, and the 
 poor woman was told to try this and that and everything. She 
 hadn't the heart to thrash him till she was sure he really was a 
 changeling, but then somebody told her how she could find it out. 
 She was to say that the king was coming, and then she was to make 
 a big fire on the hearth and break an egg in two. Half of the 
 shell she was to put over the fire, and then a long pole down the 
 chimney into the shell. Well, she did that ; but when the change- 
 ling saw this, he sat upright in the cradle and stared at it. The 
 woman went out of the room, but peeped in through the keyhole. 
 He then crept out of the cradle on his hands, but his legs stuck 
 in the cradle, and he stretched himself out, till he was so long 
 that he reached right across the floor to the hearth. 
 
 " ' Well, well,' he said, ' I am now as old as seven generations of
 
 306 
 
 THE WITCH. 
 
 trees in the Lesjewood, but I have never seen such a big porridge 
 stick in such a little porridge pot as that on Joramo.' 
 
 " When the woman saw and heard this, she knew well enough it 
 was a changeling, and when she came in, he crawled back into the 
 cradle like a worm. She then began to be hard on him, and on the 
 
 Thursday evening she took him out behind the cowhouse and gave 
 him a sound thrashing. She thought she heard some one whining 
 and crying near her. The second Thursday night she served him 
 in the same way, but when she thought he had had enough, she
 
 THE WITCH. 307 
 
 heard a voice speaking close to her, and she thought she could 
 recognise the voice of her own child : 
 
 " ' Every time you hit that Tjostul, the people in the hill hit me.' 
 
 " The third Thursday evening she gave the changeling a thrashing 
 again, and suddenly a woman, carrying a youngster, came rushing 
 up to her, as if she had burnt herself. 
 
 " ' Give me Tjostul back again, there's your own brat ! ' she 
 said, as she threw the child at the woman, who stretched out her 
 hands to receive it ; she got hold of one leg, which she held in her 
 hand, but the rest of the child she never saw, so violent had the 
 troll's wife thrown it from her." 
 
 During this story the mistress of the house began to show 
 unmistakable signs of uneasiness, and towards its end they became 
 so apparent, that even the story- teller, who seemed to be fully taken 
 up by her narrative, also noticed them. 
 
 " What's the matter ? " said the witch. " Oh, I see ! it's your 
 husband that's coming," she continued, as she looked out through 
 the open door, and added in a grave tone : " There's no room here 
 for Gubjor any longer ; but don't you be afraid, mother ; I'll go 
 round by the churchyard, and then he won't see me." 
 
 X 1
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 
 
 THERE was once upon a time a charcoal-burner who had a son, 
 and he was also a charcoal-burner. When the father died, the son 
 got married, but he would not do any work, and he neglected also 
 to look after his kilns, and very soon no one would have him to 
 burn charcoal any more for them. 
 
 But one day he had got a kiln of charcoal ready burnt, and he set 
 out for town with some loads of it and sold them. When he had 
 done his business, he loitered down some of the streets and looked
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 309 
 
 about him. On his way home he fell in with some neighbours and 
 other people from the same parish, and he talked and bragged to 
 them about all that he had seen in town. 
 
 The most remarkable thing he saw, he said, was the great 
 number of parsons he met, and all the people in the streets took 
 off their hats to them. "I wish I was a parson," he said, "perhaps 
 the people would take off their hats to me too ; now, they don't 
 appear to see me at all." 
 
 " Well, your clothes are black enough, anyhow," said his neigh- 
 bours ; " but now that we are on the way, we may as well call in 
 at the sale at the old parson's, and get a glass with the others, 
 and you can buy yourself a gown and ruff 1 at the same time." 
 
 Yes, he did so, and when he came home he hadn't a penny 
 left. 
 
 " I suppose you have brought both money and good manners 
 home with you from town this time ? " said his wife. 
 
 " Good manners ! yes, I should think so," said the charcoal-burner. 
 "Just look here ! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and 
 the ruff! " 
 
 " Yes, very likely ! " said his wife ; " strong beer makes big words, 
 it appears ! You don't care how things go ! " 
 
 " You shouldn't boast or bother about the coals you are burning, 
 till they are ready," answered the husband. 
 
 But one day a great many people, dressed like parsons, passed 
 the charcoal-burner's house on their way to the palace, and it was 
 plain to see that something was going to take place there, so 
 the charcoal-burner thought he would go as well, and put on the old 
 parson's clothes. His wife thought it would be wiser of him to stay 
 at home, for even if he got the chance to hold a horse for some 
 grand person, she was afraid the sixpence he got for it would vanish 
 down his throat, which usually was the case. " Yes, everybody talks 
 about the drink, but no one about the thirst, do they, mother ? " 
 said the husband ; "the more one drinks, the more one thirsts," and 
 with that he started for the palace. All the strangers were invited 
 to come into the presence of the king, and the charcoal-burner 
 
 1 The Norwegian clergy wear a long black gown and an Elizabethan ruff.
 
 310 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 
 
 entered with the others. The king then told them that he had lost 
 his most costly ring, and he felt sure it had been stolen. He had 
 therefore called together all the learned clergy in the country, to 
 hear if any of them could tell him who the thief was. And the 
 king promised that he would handsomely reward the one who could 
 tell him about it, if he was a curate, he should get a living ; if 
 he was a rector, he should be made a dean ; if Yie was a dean, he 
 should be made a. bishop ; and if he was a bishop, he should be the 
 first man after the king. So the king went from one to the other, 
 and asked them all if they could tell him who the thief was, and 
 when he came to the charcoal burner, he said : " Who are you ? " 
 
 " I am the wise parson and the true prophet," said the charcoal- 
 burner. 
 
 " Then you can tell me who has taken my ring ? " said the king. 
 
 " Well, it isn't beyond sense and reason, that what has happened 
 in the dark might be brought to light," said the charcoal-burner ; 
 " but it isn't every year that the salmon plays in the fir-tops. I 
 have now been studying and working for seven years to get bread 
 for myself and my family, but I haven't got a living yet, so if 
 the thief is to be found, I must have plenty of time and paper, 
 for I must write and reckon early and late." 
 
 Yes, he should have as much time and paper as he wished, if 
 he only could find the thief. 
 
 So he got a room to himself in the palace, and before long they 
 found out that Jie must know something more than writing a 
 sermon, for he used so much paper that it lay about in heaps ; 
 but there wasn't one who could make out a word of all he had 
 written, for it was only pothooks and marks like a crow's toes. 
 But the time wore on, and he could not find any trace of the 
 thief. 
 
 So the king got tired of waiting, and told him that if he couldn't 
 find the thief in three days, he should lose his life. 
 
 " Ah, but he that rules must not be hasty, but wait till his temper 
 cools," said the charcoal-burner. " One can't begin and rake out 
 the coals, till they are thoroughly burnt and the fire has gone out." 
 
 Put the king stuck to what he said, and the charcoal-burner felt
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 311 
 
 his life wasn't worth much. Now it so happened, that it was 
 three of the king's servants who waited upon him day by day 
 in turn that had stolen the ring between them. 
 
 So one day, when one of the servants came into his room and 
 cleared away the table after supper, and was just about leaving 
 the room, the charcoal-burner heaved a deep sigh and looked after 
 him and said : 
 
 " There goes the first of them " ; but he only meant the first of 
 the three days he still had to live. " This parson knows all about 
 it," said the servant, when he got his comrades by themselves, 
 and told them that the parson had said, " that he was the first of 
 them." 
 
 The second servant, who was to wait upon him the next day, 
 was to notice what he would say then, and sure enough, as he 
 was going out after having cleared the table, the charcoal-burner 
 gazed steadily at him, sighed and said : " There goes the second 
 of them." So the third servant was to observe what happened 
 the third day; it got worse and worse he thought, for when 
 the servant came to the door and was going out with all the plates 
 and dishes, the charcoal-burner folded his hands and said : " There 
 goes the third of them," and then he sighed as if his heart would 
 break. 
 
 The servant came breathlessly out to his comrades and told them 
 it was clear enough that the parson knew all about it, and so they 
 went into his room and fell on their knees before him, and prayed 
 and begged of him, that he would not tell it was they who had 
 taken the ring ; they would give him a hundred dollars each, if he 
 only would not bring them into trouble. 
 
 He promised faithfully, that no one should get into trouble if he 
 got the money, the ring, and a lump of porridge. He put the ring 
 into the porridge, and told one of them to give it to the biggest 
 pig belonging to the king. 
 
 Next morning the king came ; it was easy to see he would not 
 be played with ; he would know all about the thief. 
 
 " Well, I have written and reckoned far and wide," said the char- 
 coal-burner, " but I find it's not a man who has stolen the ring."
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 
 
 " Pooh ! who is it then ? " said the king. " Oh, it's that big pig 
 which belongs to your majesty," said the charcoal-burner. 
 
 Well, they brought out the pig and killed it, and, sure enough, the 
 ring was found inside it. So the charcoal-burner got a living, and 
 the king was so pleased that he gave him a farm and horse and 
 a hundred dollars in the bargain. It did not take the charcoal- 
 burner long to move, and the first Sunday after he had settled in 
 
 his parish he was go : ng to church to read his first sermon. But 
 before he started he had to get some breakfast, and so he put the 
 sermon on the bread plate ; but he made a mistake and took the 
 sermon instead of the bread, and dipped it into the soup, and when 
 he felt it was so tough to chew, he gave it all to his dog, and the 
 dog made short work of it and swallowed it all. 
 
 When he found out his mistake, he was at a loss what to do. 
 But he had to go to church, for his congregation was waiting for 
 him ; and when he came there, he went straight up into the pulpit
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 313 
 
 He put on such a grand air while he was getting ready for the 
 sermon, that all thought he must be a very fine preacher. But 
 when he did begin, it wasn't so very fine after all. 
 
 " The words, my dear brethren, which you were going to hear 
 this day, have gone to the dogs ; but come again, some other 
 Sunday, my dear parishioners, and you shall hear something else ! 
 And thus endeth this sermon ! " 
 
 Well, all the people thought he was a queer parson, for they 
 had never heard such a sermon ; but then they thought he might 
 improve, and if not why, they would know how to deal with him. 
 Next Sunday the church was so crowded by people who wanted 
 to hear the new parson, that there was scarcely room for them all 
 in the church. As soon as the parson arrived, he went straight up 
 into the pulpit, and then he stood for some time without saying a 
 word, but all at once he made a start and cried out : " I say, old 
 mother Berit, why do you sit so far back in the church ? " " Oh, 
 my boots are in such a bad state, your reverence!" said she. 
 " But you could have got an old pig's skin and made yourself a new 
 pair of boots, and then you could have come to the front like 
 other decent people. Besides, I wish you would all consider which 
 way you are going, for I see that some of you, when you are 
 coming to church, come from the north, and others come from the 
 south, and the same when you leave church ; but I suppose you 
 stop and gossip on the way, and then they wonder at home 
 what has become of you. Yea ! who knows what will become of 
 us all ? And then I have to give notice, that the old parson's 
 widow has lost her black mare. She had fetlocks round her 
 hoofs, and a long mane, and more of this kind which I sha'n't 
 mention in this place. And then I have a big hole in my old 
 breeches pocket, which I know, but you don't ! But whether any 
 of you have a piece of some stuff, which would suit the hole, 
 neither you nor I know." 
 
 Some of the people were well satisfied with the sermon, and 
 believed that he in time would make a good parson, but most of 
 them thought it was really too bad ; and when the dean came round 
 on one of his visits, they complained to him of the parson and
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 
 
 said that such sermons were never heard before, and one of them 
 happened to recollect the last one about the old widow's mare and 
 repeated it all to the dean. 
 
 " That was a very good sermon," said the dean ; " he spoke very- 
 likely in parables and impressed upon you to seek the light and to 
 shun the darkness and its deeds, when he spoke about those 
 who were walking on the broad or the narrow road ; and par- 
 ticularly do I consider his notice about the old widow's mare a 
 splendid parable as to how it will fare with us all in the end. The 
 breeches pocket with the hole in it referred to his wants, and the 
 piece of stuff was the offerings and gifts he expected from his 
 congregation," said the dean. 
 
 " Yes, we thought as much," they said ; " it was all about his 
 offerings, sure enough ! " 
 
 And so the dean said that he thought the parish had got 
 such a good, sensible parson, that they should not complain of him, 
 and the end was, that they got no other parson ; but as time wore 
 on he got worse instead of better, and so they complained to 
 the bishop. 
 
 Well, after a long time the bishop came round on a visitation, 
 but the charcoal-burner had been in the church the day before 
 without anybody knowing of it, and had sawed the pulpit in 
 several places, so it only hung together when one walked up the 
 steps carefully. 
 
 So when the congregation had assembled, and the parson was to 
 preach before the bishop, he stole quietly up the steps and began 
 his sermon in his usual style, but after having gone on for some 
 time he spoke up, threw up his arms, and cried out : 
 
 " If there is any one here, who has any evil deed or thought 
 in his mind, it were better he left this place, for to-day, this very 
 day, there will be a fall, the like of which has not taken place 
 since the creation of the world ; " and with that he struck the 
 pulpit with his hands, and down tumbled both pulpit and 
 parson with such a crash, that the congregation took to their 
 heels and ran out of the church, as if the day of judgment had 
 come.
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 315 
 
 So the bishop told the people that he wondered that the con- 
 gregation could complain of a parson, who was so gifted and had 
 such wisdom, that he could prophesy things that were to come. 
 He thought he ought at least to be dean, and it was not long 
 before he was made one. There was no help for it ; they had to 
 put up with him. 
 
 Now it so happened, that the king and queen in that country 
 had no children, but when the king heard that he was to have one 
 he was curious to know whether he was to get a son and heir to 
 his broad lands and acres, or if he only would get a princess. So 
 all the learned men in the land were called to the palace to say 
 which it would be. But as none of them were able to do this, 
 both the king and the bishop happened to think of the new 
 dean, and it did not take long till they had him brought 
 before them and began questioning him. No, he could not tell, 
 he said, for it wasn't easy to guess what no one could know 
 anything about. 
 
 " Well, well ! " said the king, " I don't care whether you know it 
 or not ; but you are the wise parson and the true prophet, who can 
 foretell things to come, and if you won't tell me, you'll lose both 
 your gown and your ruff! But never mind, I'll give you a trial 
 first," and so he took the biggest silver tankard he had and went 
 down to the sea shore with the parson. " Can you tell me now, 
 what I have got in this tankard ? " said the king ; " and if so, you 
 cancel! me the other thing I asked you as well," and he held the 
 lid of the tankard tight. The charcoal-burner wrung his hands in 
 despair and cried : " Oh, you unfortunate crawling crab of this 
 earth, what have you now in return for all your toil and trouble ! " 
 " Ah, there you see ! You did know it after all ! " said the king, 
 for he had put a crab in the tankard. 
 
 So the charcoal-burner had to go back to the palace, where he 
 was shown into the queen's drawing-room. He took a chair and 
 sat down in the middle of the room, while the queen walked up and 
 down the floor. 
 
 " One should never make a stall for the unborn calf, and never 
 quarrel about the baby's name before it is born," said the charcoal-
 
 THE CHARCOAL-BURNER. 
 
 burner, " but I never saw anything like this before ; when the 
 queen comes towards me, I fancy it will be a prince, and when she 
 walks away from me, it seems to me as if it will be a princess." 
 It turned out in time to be twins, and so the charcoal-burner had 
 made a lucky hit that time also. And thus for telling what no 
 one could know anything about he got loads of money, and he 
 became next man to the king. Snip, snap, snout, that man 
 knew what he was about.
 
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