THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT
From the Library of
Henry Goldman, Ph.D.
1886-1972
TUP] FAIRY MYTHOLOGY,
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
Romance anfc Superstition of batious (Countries |
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY,
Author of the Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy ; Histories of Greece, itoauk
England, and India, The Crusaders, &c., &c.
Another sort there be, that will
be talking of the Fairies still ;
Nor never can they have their fill,
As they were wedded to them
DBiTTOF.
A NFW KDITION, REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED
LONDON:
GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN,
AND NEW YORK.
1892.
MJWDOBI
FROM STEREOTYPE PLATES BY WILLIAM CLOWES AKD sous, LCMITED,
STAMFORD STKRET AND CHARING CBOBS.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE.
FRANCIS EARL OF ELLESMERE,
IN TESTIMOKY OF
ESTEEM AND RESPECT FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUE,
LITERARY TASTE, TALENT, AND ACQUIREMENTS,
AND PATRONAGE OP LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.
Cfjts Folume is 3nscribeti
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
A PEEP ACE is to a book what a prologue is to a play a
usual, often agreeable, but by no means necessary precursor.
It may therefore be altered or omitted at pleasure. I have
at times exercised this right, and this is the third I have
written for the present work.
In the first, after briefly stating what had given occasion
to it, I gave the germs of the theory which I afterwards de-
veloped in the Tales and Popular Fictions. The second
contained the following paragraph :
" I never heard of any one who read it that was not
pleased with it. It was translated into German as soon as
it appeared, and was very favourably received. Goethe
thought well of it. Dr. Jacob Grimm perhaps the first
authority on these matters in Europe wrote me a letter
commending it, and assuring me that even to him it offered
something new ; and I was one Christmas most agreeably
surprised by the receipt of a letter from Vienna, from the
celebrated orientalist, Jos Von Hammer, informing me that
it had been the companion of a journey he had lately made
to his native province of Styria, and had afforded much
pleasure and information to himself and to some ladies of
high rank and cultivated minds in that country. The
initials at the end of the preface, he said, led him to suppose
>f . Mas a work of mine. So far for the Continent. In this
iv PREFACE.
country, when I mention the name of Robert. Southey as
that of one who has more than once expressed his decided
approbation of this performance, I am sure I shall have
said quite enough to satisfy any one that the work is not
devoid of merit."
I could now add many names of distinguished persons
who have been pleased with this work and its pendent, the
Tales and Popular Fictions. I shall only mention that
of the late Mr. Douce, who, very shortly before his death,
on the occasion of the publication of this last work, called
on me to assure me that " it was many, many years indeed,
since he had read a book which had yielded him so much
delight."
The contents of the work which gave such pleasure to
this learned antiquary are as follows:
I. Introduction Similarity of Arts and Customs Similarity of
Names Origin of the Work Imitation Casual Coincidence
Milton Dante. IL The Thousand and One Nights Bedowcen
Audience around a Story-teller Cleomades and Claremond
Enchanted Horses Peter of Provence and the fair Maguelone.
III. The Pleasant Nights The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple,
and theBeautiful Green Bird The Three Little Birds Lactantius
Ulysses and Sindbad. IV. The Shah-Nameh Roostem and
Soohrab Conloch s>d Cuchullin Macpherson's Ossian Irish
Antiquities. V. The Pentamerone Tale of the Serpent Hindoo
Legend. VI. Jack the Giant-killer The Brave Tailoring Thor's
Journey to Utgard Ameen of Isfahan and the Ghool The Lion
and the Goat The Lion and the Ass. VIL Whittington and his
Cat Danish Legends Italian Stories Persian Legend. VIIL
The Edda Sigurd and Brynhilda Volund Helgi Holger
Danske Ogier le Dauois Toko William Tell. IX. Peruonto
Peter the Fool Emelyan the Fool Conclusion. Appendix.
Never, I am convinced, did any one enter on a literary
career with more reluctance than I did when I found it to
be my only resource fortune being gone, ill health and
delicacy of constitution excluding me from the learned pro-
PREFACE v
feasions, want of interest from every thing else. As I
journeyed to the metropolis, I might have sung with the
page whom Don Quixote met going a-soldiering :
A la guerra me lleva mi necesidad,
Si tuviera dineros no fuera en verdad
for of all arts and professions in this country, that of literature
is the least respected and the worst remunerated. There is
something actually degrading in the expression " an author
by trade," which I have seen used e,ven of Southey, and that
by one who did not mean to disparage him in the slightest
degree. My advice to those who may read these pages is to
shun literature, if not already blest with competence.
One of 11 iy earliest literary Mends in London was T.
Crofton Croker, who was then engaged in collecting mate-
rials for the Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland. He
of course applied to his friends for aid and information ; and
I, having most leisure, and, I may add, most knowledge, was
able to give him the greatest amount of assistance. My
inquiries on the subject led to the writing of the present
vork, which was succeeded by the Mythology of Ancient
Greece and Italy, and the Tales and Popular Fictions ; so
that, in effect, if Mr. Croker had not planned the Fairy
Legends, these works, be their value what it may, would
in all probability never have been written.
Writing and reading about Fairies some may deem to be
the mark of a trifling turn of mind. On this subject 1
have given my ideas in the Conclusion ; here I will only
remind such critics, that as soon as this work was com-
pleted, I commenced, and wrote in the space of a few weeks,
my Outlines of History ; and whatever the faults of that
work may be, no one has ever reckoned among them want
of vigour in either thought or expression. It was also
necessary, in order to write this work and its pendent, to
be able to read, perhaps, as many as eighteen or twenty
VI PREFACB.
different languages, dialects, and modes of orthography, and to
employ different styles both in prose and verse. At all events,
even if it were trifling, dulce est desipere in loco; and I shall
never forget the happy hours it caused me, especially those
spent over the black-letter pages of the French romances of
chivalry, in the old reading-room of the British Museum.
Many years have elapsed since this work was first pub-
lished. In that period much new matter has appeared in
various works, especially in the valuable Deutsche Mytho-
logie of Dr. Grimm. Hence it will be found to be greatly
enlarged, particularly in the sections of England and France.
I have also inserted much which want of space obliged me
to omit in the former edition. In its present form, 1 am
presumptuous enough to expect that it may live for many
years, and be an authority on the subject of popular lore.
The active industry of the Grimms, of Thiele, and others,
had collected the popular traditions of various countries.
I came then and gathered in the harvest, leaving little, I
apprehend, but gleanings for future writers on this subject.
The legends will probably fade fast away from the popular
memory ; it is not likely that any one will relate those which
I have given over again ; and it therefore seems more pro-
bable that this volume may in future be reprinted, with notes
and additions. For human nature will ever remain un_
changed ; the love of gain and of material enjoyments, omni-
potent as it appears to be at present, will never totally ex-
tinguish the higher and purer aspirations of mind ; and there
will always be those, however limited in number, who will
desire to know how the former dwellers of earth thought,
felt, and acted. For these mythology, as connected with
religion and history, will always have attractions.
October, 1850.
Whatever errors have been discovered are corrected in
this impression.
January, 1870.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION, *K
Origin of the Belief in Fairies ...... 1
Origin of the Word Fairy ... .... 4
ORIENTAL ROMANCE.
PERSIAN ROMANCE . . . . . , . . .14
The Peri- Wife .... .... 20
ARABIAN ROMANCE ......... 24
MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE.
FAIRY-LAND 44
SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE 55
EDDAS AND SAGAS .... 60
THE ALFAR 64
THE DUERGAR .... 66
Loki and the Dwarf ........ 68
Thorston and the Dwar . 70
The Dwarf-Sword Tirnng 72
SCANDINAVIA.
ELVES 78
Sir Olof in the Elve-Dance 82
The Elf-Woman and Sir Olof 84
The Young Swain and the Elves So
Svend Faelling and the Elle-Maid 88
The Elle-Maids 89
MaidVaj 89
The Elle-Maid near Ebeltoft 90
Hans Puntleder ......... 91
DWARFS OR TROLLS 94
SirThynne 97
Proud Margaret 103
The Troll Wife 108
The Altar-Cup in Aagerup . . . . . . .109
Origin of Tiis Lake Ill
A Farmer tricks a Troll 113
Skotte in the Fire 113
The Legend of Bodedys . . . . . . .115
Kallundborg Church 116
The Hill-Man invited to the Christening .... 118
The Troll turned Cat 120
Kirsten's-Hill 121
The Troll-Labour 122
The Hill-Smith 123
The Girl at the Troll-Dance 12
The Changeling 12;
viii COKTEMM.
tm
The Tile-Stove jumping over the Brook . . . . 127
Departure of the Trolls from Vendsyssel . . . .127
Svend Faelling 128
The Dwarfs' Banquet 130
NIBSES 139
The Nis removing ........ 140
The Penitent Nis 141
The Nis and the Boy 142
The Nis stealing Corn 143
The Nis and the Mare 144
The Nis riding 145
The Nisses in Vosborg ....... 146
NECKS, MERMEN. AND MERMAIDS 147
The Power of the Harp 150
Duke Magnus and the Mermaid 154
ORTHERN ISLANDS.
ICELAND 157
FEROES 162
SHETLAND 164
Gioga'sSon . . 167
The Mermaid Wife 169
ORKNEYS 171
ISLE OF RCGEN 174
Adventures of John Dietrich 178
The Little Glass Shoe 194
The Wonderful Plough 197
The Lost Bell 200
The Black Dwarfs of Granitz 204
GERMANY.
DWARFS . 216
The Hill-Man at the Dance 217
The Dwarf's Feast 218
The Friendly Dwarfs 220
Wedding-Feast of the Little People 220
Smith Riechert 221
Dwarfs stealing Corn 222
Journey of Dwarfs over the Mountain 223
The Dwarfs borrowing Bread ...... 226
Th, Changeling 7
The Dwarf-Husband 232
Inee of Rantum 232
THE "\A ILD- WOMEN 234
The Oldenburg Horn 237
KOBOLDS 239
Hinzelmann 240
Hpdeken ..... 255
King Goldemar 256
The Heinzelmanchen 257
NIXES 258
The Peasant and the Waterman .... 259
The Water-Smith 260
CONTENTS. IX
Page
The Working Waterman ... . 261
The Nix-Labour . ... . . 261
SWITZERLAND.
DWARFS ........... 264
Gertrude and Rosy ........ 266
The Chamois-Hunter . 271
The Dwarfs on the Tree . ... 273
Curiosity punished ........ 273
The Rejected Gift ... 275
The Wonderful Little Pouch . ... 276
Aid and Punishment . . . ... 277
The Dwarf in search of Lodging . ... 278
GREAT BRITAIN.
ENGLAND.
The Green Children 281
The Fairy-Banquet 283
The Fairy-Horn 284
The Fortunes 285
The Grant 286
The Luck of Eden Hall 292
The Fairy-Fair . . 294
The Fairies' Caldron 295
The Cauld Lad of Hilton 296
The Pixy-Labour 301
Pixy-Vengeance . 303
Pixy-Gratitude 304
The Fairy-Thieves 305
The Boggart 307
Addlers and Menters 308
The Fary-Nurseling 310
The Fary-Labour 311
Ainsel 313
Puck 314
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS.
The Fairies' Nurse 353
The Fairy-Rade 354
The Changeling 355
Departure of the Fairies 356
The Brownie 357
CELTS AND CYMRY.
IRELAND.
Clever Tom and the Leprechaun 373
The Leprechaun in the Garden 376
The Three Leprechauns ....... 379
The Little Shoe 382
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS.
The Fairy's Inquiry 385
The Young Man in the Shian 38 J
The two Fiddlers 387
The Fairy-Labour 383
X CONTENTS.
Fu
The Fairy borrowing Oatmeal ..... 389
The Fairy-Gift ......... 389
The Stolen Ox ......... 390
The Stolen Lady ......... 391
The Changeling ......... 393
The Wounded Seal ........ 394
The Brownies ......... 395
TheUrisk ..... .... 396
ISLE OF MAN.
The Fairy-Chapman ........ 398
The Fairy-Banquet ........ 399
The Fairies' Christening ....... 400
The Fairy-Whipping ........ 400
The Fairy-Hunt ......... 401
The Fiddler and the Fairy ....... 402
The Phynnodderee ........ 402
WALES.
Tale of Elidurus ........ 404
The Tylwyth Teg ......... 408
The Spirit of the Van ....... 409
Rhys at the Fairy-Dance ....... 415
GittoBach ......... 416
The Fairies banished ........ 417
BRITTANY.
LaiD'Ywenec ......... 422
Lord Nann and the Kerrigan ....... 433
The Dance and Song of the Korred ..... 438
SOUTHERN EUROPE.
GBEECK ......... . 443
ITALY ........... 447
SPAIN ........... 456
The Daughter of Peter de Cabinam ..... 456
Origin of the House of Haro ...... 458
La Infantina .......... 459
Pepito el Corcovado ........ 461
FRANCE.
Legend of Melusina ..... ... 480
EASTERN EUROPE.
FINNS ........... 487
SLAVES ........... 490
Vilas ........... 492
Deer and Vila ......... 493
AFRICANS,
AFRICANS ...... . . . 4S5
JEWS ........... 497
The Broken Oaths ........ 498
The Moohel ...... ... 506
TheMazik-Ass ..... ... 510
APPENDIX ..... .513
INDEX . s . 557
THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY
INTRODUCTION.
In oldfe dayes of the King Artour,
Of which that Bretons spoken gret honotir,
All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ;
The elf*qrene with hir jolie companie
Danced full oft in many a grenfe mede.
CHAUCER.
ORIGIN OF THE BELIEF IN FAIRIES.
ACCOBDING to a well-known law of our nature, effects
suggest causes ; and another law, perhaps equally general,
impels us to ascribe to the actual and efficient cause the
attribute of intelligence. The mind of the deepest philoso-
pher is thus acted upon equally with that of the peasant or
the savage ; the only difference lies in the nature of the
intelligent cause at which they respectively stop. The one
pursues the chain of cause and effect, and traces out its
various links till he arrives at the great intelligent cause of
all, however he may designate him ; the other, when unusual
phenomena excite his attention, ascribes their production to
the immediate agency of some of the inferior beings recog-
nised by his legendary creed.
The action of this latter principle must forcibly strike the
irtinds of those who disdain not to bestow a portion of their
attention on the popular legends and traditions of different
^ IKTBODUCTIOir.
countries. Every extraordinary appearance is found to have
its extraordinary cause assigned ; a cause always connected
with the history or religion, ancient or modern, of the
country, and not unfrequently varying with a change of
faith.*
The noises and eruptions of ^Etna and Stromboli were, in
ancient times, ascribed to Typhon or Vulcan, and at this day
the popular belief connects them with the infernal regions.
The sounds resembling the clanking of chains, hammering of
iron, and blowing of bellows, once to be heard in the island
of Barrie, were made by the fiends whom Merlin had set to
work to frame the wall of brass to surround Caermarthen.t
The marks which natural causes have impressed on the solid
and unyielding granite rock were produced, according to the
popular creed, by the contact of the hero, the saint, or the
god: masses of stone, resembling domestic implements in
form, were the toys, or the corresponding implements of the
heroes and giants of old. Grecian imagination ascribed to
the galaxy or milky way an origin in the teeming breast of
the queen of heaven: marks appeared in the petals of
flowers on the occasion of a youth's or a hero's untimely
death : the rose derived its present hue from the blood of
Venus, as she hurried barefoot through the woods and lawns;
while the professors of Islam, less fancifully, refer the origin
of this flower to the moisture that exuded from the sacred
person of their prophet. Under a purer form of religion,
the cruciform stripes which mark the back and shoulders of
* The mark on Adam's Peak in Ceylon is, by the Buddhists, ascribed to
Buddha ; by the Mohammedans, to Adam. It reminds one of the story of
the lady and the vicar, viewing the moon through a telescope ; they saw in it,
as they thought, two figures inclined toward each other : " Methinks," sayg
the lady, " they are two fond lovers, meeting to pour forth their vows by earth-
light." " Not at all," says the vicar, taking his turn at the glass ; " they are
the steeples of two neighbouring churches."
t Faerie Queene, III. c. iii. st. 8, 9, 10, 11. Dray ton, Poly-Olbion, Song
VI. We fear, however, that there is only poetic authority for this belief.
Mr. Todd merely quotes Warton, who says that Spenser borrowed it from
Giraldus Cambrensis, who picked it up among the romantic traditions propa-
gated by the Welsh bards. The reader will be, perhaps, surprised to hear
that Giraldus says nothing of the demons. He mentions the sounds, and endea-
vours to explain them by natural causes. Hollingshed indeed (1. i. c. 24.)
aye, " whereof the superstitious sort do gather many toys."
OF THE BELIEF IN FAIEIES. 3
the patient ass first appeared, according to the popukr
tradition, when the Son of God condescended to enter the
Holy City, mounted on that animal ; and a fish only to be
found in ':he sea * stills bears the impress of the finger and
thumb of the apostle, who drew him out of the waters
of Lake Tiberias to take the tribute-money that lay in his
mouth. The repetition of the voice among the hills is, in
Norway and Sweden, ascribed to the Dwarfs mocking the
human speaker, while the more elegant fancy of Greece gave
birth to Echo, a nymph who pined for love, and who still
fondly repeats the accents that she hears. The magic
scenery occasionally presented on the waters of the Straits
of Messina is produced by the power of the Fata Morgana ;
the gossamers that float through the haze of an autumnal
morning, are woven by the ingenious dwarfs ; the verdant
circlets in the mead are traced beneath the light steps of the
dancing elves ; and St. Cuthbert forges and fashions the
beads that bear his name, and lie scattered along the shore
of Lindisfarne.f
In accordance with these laws, we find in most countries
a popular belief in different classes of beings distinct from
men, and from the higher orders of divinities. These beings
are usually believed to inhabit, in the caverns of earth, or
the depths of the waters, a region of their own. They gene-
rally excel mankind in power and in knowledge, and like
them are subject to the inevitable laws of death, though
after a more prolonged period of existence.
How these classes were first called into existence it is not
easy to say ; but if, as some assert, all the ancient systems
of heathen religion were devised by philosophers for the
instruction of rude tribes by appeals to their senses, \va
might suppose that the minds which peopled the skies with
their thousands and tens of thousands of divinities gave
birth also to the inhabitants of the field and flood, and that
the numerous tales of their exploits and adventures are the
production of poetic fiction or rude invention. It may
The Haddock.
+ For a well-chosen collection of examples, see the very learned and philo-
tophical preface of the late Mr. Price to his edition of Warton's History of
English Poetry, p. 28 et seq.
2
4 IBTBODUCTIOX.
further be observed, that not unfrequently a change of reli-
gious faith has invested with dark and malignant attributes
beings once the obiocts of love, confidence, and veneration.*
It is not our intention in the following pages to treat of
the awful or lovely deities of Olympus, Valhalla, or Meru.
Our subject is less aspiring; and we confine ourselves to
those beings who are our fellow-inhabitants of earth, whose
manners we aim to describe, and whose deeds we propose to
record. "We write of FAIBIES, PATS, ELVES, aut olio quo
nomine gaudent.
ORIGIN OF THE WORD FAIRY.
Like every other word in extensive use, whose derivation
is not historically certain, the word Fairy has obtained
various and opposite etymons. Meyric Casaubon, and
those who like him deduce everything from a classic source,
however unlikely, derive Fairy from ^rjp, a Homeric name of
the Centaurs ;f or think that fee, whence Fairy, is the last
syllable of nympha. Sir W. Ouseley derives it from the
Hebrew INS (peer), to adorn; Skinner, from the Anglo-
Saxon papan, to fare, to go ; others from Feres, companions,
or think that Fairy-folk is quasi Fair-folk. Finally, it has
been queried if it be not Celtic. J
But no theory is so plausible, or is supported by such
names, as that which deduces the English Fairy from the
Persian Peri. It is said that the Paynim foe, whom the
warriors of the Cross encountered in Palestine, spoke only
Arabic ; the alphabet of which language, it is well known, pos-
sesses no p, and therefore organically substitutes any in such
foreign words as contain the former letter ; consequently Peri
became, in the mouth of an Arab, Feri, whence the crusaders
and pilgrims, who carried back to Europe the marvellous
* In the Middle Ages the gods of the heathens were all held to be devils.
f 1 *^p is the Ionic form of 0ty>, and is nearly related to the German thier,
Least, animal. The Scandinavian dyr, and the Anglo-Saxon beori, have the
tome signification ; and it is curious to observe the restricted sense which this
l:it lias gotten in the English deer.
J Preface to Warton, p. 44 ; and Breton philologists furnish us with an
etymon ; not, indeed, of Fairy, but of Fada. " Fada, fata, etc.," says M. de
Cambry (Monumens Celtiques), "come from the Breton mat or mad, in con-
r.ruction fat, good ; whence the English, maid"
OHIO IN OF THE WORD FAIEY.
tales of Asia, introduced into the West the Arabo-Persian
word Fairy. It is further added, that the Morgain or Mor-
gana, so celebrated in old romance, is Merjan Peri, equally
celebrated all over the East.
All that is wanting to this so very plausible theory is
something like proof, and some slight agreement with the
ordinary rules of etymology. Had Feerie, or Fairy, origi-
nally signified the individual in the French and English, the
only languages in which the word occurs, we might feel dis-
posed to acquiesce in it. But they do not : and even if they
did, how should we deduce from them the Italian Fata, and
the Spanish Fada or Hada, (words which unquestionably
stand for the same imaginary being,) unless on the principle
by which Menage must have deduced Lutin from Lemur
the first letter being the same in both? As to the fair
Merjan Peri (D'Herbelot calls her Merjan Banou*), we fancy
a little too much importance has been attached to her. Her
name, as far as we can learn, only occurs in the Caherman
Nameh, a Turkish romance, though perhaps translated from
the Persian.
The foregoing etymologies, it is to be observed, are all the
conjectures of English scholars ; for the English is the only
language in which the name of the individual, Fairy, has the
canine letter to afford any foundation for them.
Leaving, then, these sports of fancy, we will discuss the
true origin of the words used in the Romanic languages to
express the being which we name Fairy of Romance. These
are Faee, Fee, French ; Fada, Proven9al (whence Hada,
Spanish) ; and Fata, Italian.
The root is evidently, we think, the Latin fatum. In the
fourth century of our aera we find this word made plural,
and even feminine, and used as the equivalent of Parcae.
On the reverse of a gold medal of the Emperor Diocletian
are three female figures, with the legend Fatis victricibus ;
a cippus, found at Valencia in Spain, has on one of its sides
* D'Herbelot litre Mergian says, " C'est du norn de cette Fee que nos
anciens remans ont forme celui de More/ante la Deconnue." He here con-
founds Morgana with Urganda, and he has been followed in his mistake.
D'Herbelot also thinks it possi ble that Feerie may come from Peri ; but he
regards the common derivation from Fata as much more probable. Cambrian
etymologists, by the way, say that Morgain is Mor Gwyun, the White Maid.
6
Fatis Q. Fdbius ex voto, and on the other, three female
figures, with the attributes of the Moerae or Parcse.* In
this last place the gender is uncertain, but the figures
would lead us to suppose it feminine. On the other hand,
Ausoniusf has tres Charites, tria Fata; and ProcopiusJ
names a building at the Eoman Forum rd rpia fdra, adding
ovru) ydp 'Pwftaiot rdf /xo7pac vevopiKaffi KaXi'iv. The Fatae
or Fata, then, being persons, and their name coinciding so
exactly with the modern terms, and it being observed that
the Mcerae were, at the birth of Meleager, just as the Fees
were at that of Ogier le Danois, and other heroes of
romance and tale, their identity has been at once asserted,
and this is now, we believe, the most prevalent theory. To
this it may be added, that in G-ervase of Tilbury, and other
writers of the thirteenth century, the Fada or Fee seems to
be regarded as a being different from human kind.
On the other hand, in a passage presently to be quoted
from a celebrated old romance, we shall meet a definition of
the word Fee, which expressly asserts that such a being was
nothing more than a woman skilled in magic ; and such, on
examination, we shall find to have been all the Fees of the
romances of chivalry and of the popular tales ; in effect, that
fee is a participle, and the words dame or femme is to be
understood.
In the middle ages there was in use a Latin veTb,fatare,\\
derived fromfatum or fata, and signifying to enchant. This
* These two instances are given by Mdlle. Amelie Bosquet (La Nonnandie
Romanesque, etc. p. 91.) from Dom Martin, Rel. des Gaulois, ii. ch. 23
and 24.
f Gryphus ternarii nntiuri. J De Belj. Got. i. 25.
See below, France. It is also remarked that in some of the tales of
the Pentamerone, the number of the Fate is three ; but to this it may be
replied, that in Italy every thing took a classic tinge, and that the Fate of those
tales are only Maghe ; so in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso we meet with
La Fata Urganda. In Spain and France the number would rather seem to
have been seven. Cervantes speaks of " los siete castillos do las siete fadas ; "
in the Rom. de la lufantina it is said, "siete fadas me fadaron, en brazos dc
una ama inia," and the Fees are seven in La Belle au Bois dormant. In the
romance, however, of Guillaume au Court-nez, the Fees who carry the sleeping
Renoart out of the boat are three in number. See Grimm Deutsche My thologie,
p. 383.
|| A MS. of the 13th century, quoted by Grimm (ut sup. p. 405), thtu
relates the origin of Aquisgrani (Ahc la Chapelle) : Aquisgrani iicitur Ays, ct
OBI GIN OF THE WOED FAIET. 7
verb was adopted by the Italian, Provei^al* and Spanish
languages ; in French it became, according to the analogy
of that tongue, faer, feer. Of this verb the past participle
\$fae,fe; hence in the romances we continually meet with
les chevaliers faes, les dames /bees, Oberon la fae, le cheval
etoit fae, la clef etait fe, and such like. We have further,
we think, demonstrated f that it was the practice of the Latin
language to elide accented syllables, especially in the past
participle of verbs of the first conjugation, and that this
practice had been transmitted to the Italian, whence fatato-a
would formfato-a, and una donna fatata might thus become
unafata. Whether the same was the case in the Proven9al
we cannot affirm, as our knowledge of that dialect is very
slight ; but, judging from analogy, we would say it was, for
in Spanish Hadada and Hada are synonymous. In the
Neapolitan Pentamerone Fata and Maga are the same, and
a Fata sends the heroine of it to a sister of hers, pure fatata.
Ariosto says of Medea
E perche per virtu d' erbe e d'incanti
Delle Fate una ed immortal fatta era.
/ Cinque Canti, ii. 106.
The same poet, however, elsewhere says
Queste che or Fate e dagli antichi foro
Gia dette Ninfe e Dee con piu bel nome. Ibid. i. 9.
and,
Nascemmo ad un punto che d'ogni altro male
Siamo capaci fuorche della morte. Orl. Fur. xliii. 48.
dicitur eo, quod Karolus tenebat ibi quandam mulierem fatatam,s\\e quandam
fatam, quae alio nomine nimpha vel dea vel adriades (1. dryas) appellatur,
et ad hanc consuetudinem habebat, et earn cognoscebat ; et ita erat, quod
ipso accedente ad earn vivebat ipsa, ipso Karolo recedente moriebatur. Contigit
dum quadam vice ad ipsam accessisset ut cum ea delectaretur, radius soil's
intravit os ejus, et tune Karolus vidit granum auri lingue ejus affixum, quod
fecit abscindi et contingenti (1. in continenti) mortua est, nee postea revixit.
* " Aissim fadaro tres serors
En aquella ora qu' ieu ui natz
Que totz temps fos enamoratz." Folquet de Romans.
(Thus three sisters fated, in the hour that I was born, that I should be ai
til times in love.)
" Aissi fuy de nueitz fadatz sobr' un puegau." Guilh. de Poitou.
(Thus was I fated by night on a bill.) Grimm, ut sup. p. 383.
f See our Virgil, Excurs. ix.
8 INTBODUCT101T.
which last, however, is not decisive. Bojardo also calls the
water-nymphs Fate ; and our old translators of the Classics
named them fairies. From all this can only, we apprehend,
be collected, that the ideas of the Italian poets, and others,
were somewhat vague on the subject.
From the verb faer, feer, to enchant, illude, the French
made a substantive faerie, f eerie,* illusion, enchantment, the
meaning of which was afterwards extended, particularly after
it had been adopted into the English language.
We find the word Faerie, in fact, to be employed in four
different senses, which we will now arrange and exemplify.
1. Illusion, enchantment.
Plusieurs parlent de Guenart,
Du Loup, de 1'Asne, de Renart,
De faeries et de songes,
Do phantosmes et de mensonges.
Gul. Giar. ap. I>ucange.
Where we must observe, as Sir Walter Scott seems not to
have been aware of it, that the four last substantives
bear the same relation to each other as those in the two
first verses do.
Me bifel a ferly
Of faerie, me thought.
Vision of Piers Plowman, v. 11.
Maius that sit with so benigne a chere,
Hire to behold it seemed faerie.
Chaucer, Marchante's Tale.
It (the horse of brass) was of faerie, as the peple semed,
Diversd folk diversely han demed. Squiers Tale.
The Emperor said on high,
Certes it is a faerie,
Or elles a vanite. Emare.
With phantasme and faerie,
Thus she blerede his eye. Libeaus Discount.
The God of her has made an end,
And fro this worldes faerie
Hath taken her into companie. Gower, Constance.
* Following the analogy of the Gotho-Cerman tongues, zaulerei, Germ.
trylleri, Dan. trolkri, Swed. illusion, enchantment. The Italian word it
fattucchieria.
ORIGIN OF THE WORD FAIRY. 9
Mr. Kitson professes not to understand the meaning of
faerie in this last passage. Mr. Bitson should, as Sir Hugh
Evans says, have ' prayed his pible petter ;' where, among
other things that might have been of service to him, he
would have learned that ' man walketh in a vain shew,' that
' all is vanity] and that ' the fashion of this world passeth
away ;' and then he would have found no difficulty in com-
prehending the pious language of ' moral Gower,' in his
allusion to the transitory and deceptive vanities of the
World.
2. From the sense of illusion simply, the transition was
easy to that of the land of illusions, the abode of the Faes,
who produced them ; and Faerie next came to signify the
country of the Fays. Analogy also was here aiding; for
as a Nonnerie was a place inhabited by Nonnes, a Jewerie a
place inhabited by Jews, so a Faerie was naturally a place
inhabited by Fays. Its termination, too, corresponded with
a usual one in the names of countries : Tartarie, for instance,
and ' the regne of Feminie.'
Here beside an elfish knight
Hath taken my lord in fight,
And hath him led with him away
Into the Faerie, sir, parmafay. Sir Guy.
La puissance qu'il avoit sur toutes faeries du monde.
Huon de Bordeaux.
En effect, s'il me falloit retourner en faerie, je ne S9auroye ou prendre
mon chemin. Ogier le Dannoys.
. That Gawain with his olde curtesie,
Though he were come agen out of faerie.
Squier's Tale.
He (Arthur) is a king y-crowned in Faerie,
With sceptre and pall, and with his regalty
Shalle resort, as lord and sovereigne,
Out of Faerie, and reigne in Bretaine,
And repair again the oulde Rounde Table.
Lydgate, Fall of Princes, bk. viii. c. 24.
3. From the country the appellation passed to the inhabi-
tants in their collective capacity, and the Faerie now signified
the people of Fairy-land.*
* Here too there is perhaps an analogy with cavali-y, infantry, sguierie,
and similar collective terms.
10 INTRODUCTION.
Of the fourth kind of Spritis called the Phairie.
K. James, Demonologie, 1. 8.
Full often time he, Pluto, and his quene
Proserpina, and alle hir faerie,
Disporten hem, and maken melodie
About that well. Marchante's Tale.
The feasts that underground the Faerie did him make,
And there how he enjoyed the Lady of the Lake.
Drayton, Poly-Olb., Song IV.
4. Lastly, the word came to signify the individual denizen
of Fairy-land, and was equally applied to the full-sized fairy
knights and ladies of romance, and to the pygmy elves that
haunt the woods and dells. At what precise period it got
this its last, and subsequently most usual sense, we are
unable to say positively ; but it was probably posterior to
Chaucer, in whom it never occurs, and certainly anterior
to Spenser, to whom, however, it seems chiefly indebted for
its future general currency.* It was employed during the
sixteenth century t for the Fays of romance, and also,
especially by translators, for the Elves, as corresponding to
the Latin Nympha.
They vxdieved that king Arthur was not dead, but carried awaie by
the Fairies into some pleasant place, where he should remaine for a
time, and then returne again and reign in as great authority as ever.
Hollingshed, bk. v. c. 14. Printed 1577.
Semicaper Pan
Nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore nymphse.
Ovid, Met. xiv. 520.
The halfe-goate Pan that howre
Possessed it, but heretofore it was the Paries' bower. Gelding, 1567
* The Faerie Queene was published some years before the Midsummer
Night's Dream. Warton (Obs. on the Faerie Queene) observes : " It appears
from Marston's Satires, printed 1598, that the Faerie Queene occasioned
many publications in which Fairies were the principal actors.
Go buy some ballad of the FAERY KING. Ad Lectorem.
Out steps some Faery with quick motion,
And tells him wonders of some flowerie vale
Awakes, straight rubs his eyes, and prints his tale.
B. III. Sat. 6."
( It is in this century that we first meet with Fmry as a dissyllable, and
with a plural. It is then used in its fourth and last sense.
ORIGIN OF THE WOBD FAIET. 11
Hjec nemora indigenae fauni nymphseque tenebant,
Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata.
Virgil, jEneis, viii. 314.
With nymphis and faunis apoun every side,
Qwhilk Farefolkis or than Elfis clepen we.
Gawin Dowglas.
The woods (quoth he) sometime both fauns and nymphs, and gods of
ground,
And Fairy-queens did keep, and under them a nation rough.
Phaer, 1562.
Inter Hamadryadas celeberrima Nonacrinas
Nai'as una fait. Ovid, Met. 1. i. 690.
Of all the nymphes of Nonacris and Fairie ferre and neere,
In beautie and in personage this ladie had no peere.
Golding.
Pan ibi dum teneris jactat sua cannina nymphis.
Ov. Ib. xi. 153.
There Pan among the Fairie-elves, that daunced round togither.
Golding.
Solaque Naiadum celeri non nota Diana?. Ov. Ib. iv. 304.
Of all the water-fayries, she alonely was unknowne
To swift Diana. Golding.
Nymphis latura coronas. Ov. Ib. ix. 337.
Was to the fairies of the lake fresh garlands for to bear.
Golding.
Thus we have endeavoured to trace out the origin, and
mark the progress of the word Fairy, through its varying
significations, and trust that the subject will now appear
placed in a clear and intelligible light.
After the appearance of the Faerie Queene, all distinctions
were confounded, the name and attributes of the real Fays
or Fairies of romance were completely transferred to the
little beings who, according to the popular belief, made ' the
green sour ringlets whereof the ewe not bites.' The change
thus operated by the poets established itself firmly among
the people ; a strong proof, if this idea be correct, of the
power of the poetry of a nation in altering the phraseology
of even the lowest classes* of its society.
* The Fata Morgana of the Straits of Messina is an example ; for the name
of Morgana, whencesoever derived, was probably brought into Italy ty the
poets.
12 INTRODUCTION.
Shakspeare must be regarded as a principal agent in this
revolution ; yet even he uses Fairy once in the proper sense
of Fay; a sense it seems to have nearly lost, till it waa
again brought into use by the translators of the French
Contes des Fees in the last century.
To this great Fairy 1 11 commend thy acts.
Antony and Cleopatra, act iv. sc. 8.
And Milton speaks
Of Faery damsels met in forests wide
By knights of Logres or of Lyones,
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellinore.
Yet he elsewhere mentions the
Faery elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain some belated peasant sees.
Finally, Randolph, in his Amyntas, employs it, for perhaps
the last time, in its second sense, Fairy-land :
I do think
There will be of Jocastus' brood in Fairy.
Act L sc. 3.
We must not here omit to mention that the Germans,
along with the French romances, early adopted the name of
the Fees. They called them Feen and Feinen.* In the
Tristram of Gottfried von Strazburg we are told that Duke
Gylan had a syren-like little dog,
Dez wart dem Herzoge gesandt 'Twas sent unto the duke, parde,
Uz Avalun, der Feinen land, From Avalun, the Fays' countrie,
Von einer Gottinne. V. 1673. By a gentle goddess.
In the old German romance of Isotte and Blanscheflur,
the hunter who sees Isotte asleep says, I doubt
Dez sie menschlich sei, If she human be,
Sie ist schoner derm eine Feine. She is fairer than a Fay.
Von Fleische noch von Beine Of flesh or bone, I say,
Kunte nit gewerden Never could have birth
So schones auf der erden. A thing so fair on earth.
Dobenek, des deutschen Mittelalter* und Volksglauhen. Berlin, 1818.
INTBO-DUCTIOIT. 13
Our subject naturally divides itself into two principal
branches, corresponding to the different classes of beings to
which the name Fairy has been applied. The first, beings
of the human race, but endowed with powers beyond those
usually allotted to men, whom we shall term FATS, or
FAIBIES OP BOMANCE. The second, those little beings of
the popular creeds, whose descent we propose to trace from
the cunning and ingenious Duergar or dwarfs of northern
mythology, and whom we shall denominate ELVES or
POPTTLAB FAIBIES.
It cannot be expected that our classifications should vie in
accuracy and determinateness with those of natural science.
The human imagination, of which these beings are the off-
spring, works not, at least that we can discover, like nature,
by fixed and invariable laws ; and it would be hard indeed to
exact from the Fairy historian the rigid distinction of classes
and orders which we expect from the botanist or chemist.
The various species so run into and are confounded with one
another ; the actions and attributes of one kind are so fre-
quently ascribed to another, that scarcely have we begun to
erect our system, when we find the foundation crumbling
under our feet. Indeed it could not well be otherwise, when
we recollect that all these beings once formed parts of ancient
and exploded systems of religion, and that it is chiefly in the
traditions of the peasantry that their memorial has been
preserved.
We will now proceed to consider the Fairies of romance i
and as they are indebted, though not for their name, yet
perhaps for some of their attributes, to the Peries of Persia,
we will commence with that country. We will thence pursue
our course through Arabia, till we arrive at the middle-age
romance of Europe, and the gorgeous realms of Fairy-land ;
and thence, casting a glance at the Faerie Queene, advance
to the mountains and forests of the Korth, there to trace the
origin of the light-hearted, night-tripping elves.
ORIENTAL ROMANCE.*
y Joue
ji J^xl
SADEK.
All human beings must in beauty yield
To you ; a PERI I have ne'er beheld.
PERSIAN ROMANCE.
THE pure and simple religion of ancient Persia, originating,
it is said, with a pastoral and hunting race among the lofty
hills of Aderbijan, or, as others think, in the elevated plains
of Bactria, in a region where light appears in all its splen-
dour, took as its fundamental principle the opposition between
light and darkness, and viewed that opposition as a conflict.
Light was happiness ; and the people of Iran, the land 01
light, were the favourites of Heaven ; while those of Turan,
the gloomy region beyond the mountains to the north, were
its enemies. In the realms of supernal light sits enthroned
Ormuzd, the first-born of beings ; around him are the six
Amshaspands, the twenty-eight Izeds, and the countless
myriads of Ferohers.f In the opposite kingdom of darkness
* See D'Herbelot, Richardson's Dissertation, Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies,
Wahl in the Mines de 1'Orient, Lane, Thousand and One Nights, Forbes,
Hatim TaY, etc., etc.
+ Onnuzd employed himself for three thousand years in making the heavens
and their celestial inhabitants, the Ferohers, which are the angels and the
unembodied souls of all intelligent beings. All nature is filled with Ferohers,
or guardian angels, who watch over its various departments, and are occupied
in performing their various tasks for the benefit of mankind. Erslcine on the
Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis, in the Transaction* of the Literary
Society of Bombay, vol. ii. p. 318. The Feroher bears in fact a very strong
resemblance to the Genius of the ancient Roman religion : gee our Mythology
of Greece and Italy
PERSIAN EOMANCE. 15
Aherman is supreme, and his throne is encompassed by the
six Arch-Deevs, and the numerous hosts of inferior Deevs.
Between these rival powers ceaseless warfare prevails ; but
at the end the prince of darkness will be subdued, and
peace and happiness prevail beneath the righteous sway of
Ormuzd.
From this sublime system of religion probably arose the
Peri-* or Fairy-system of modern Persia ; and thus what was
once taught by sages, and believed by monarchs, has shared
the fate of everything human, and has sunk from its pristine
rank to become the material and the machinery of poets and
romancers. The wars waged by the fanatical successors of
the Prophet, in which literature was confounded with ido-
latry, have deprived us of the means of judging of this system
in its perfect form ; and in what has been written respecting
the Peries and their country since Persia has received the
law of Mohammed, the admixture of the tenets and ideas of
Islam is evidently perceptible. If, however, Orientalists be
right in their interpretation of the name of Artaxerxes'
queen, Parisatis, as Pari-zadehf (Peri-born), the Peri must
be coeval with the religion of Zoroaster.
The Peries and Deevs of the modern Persians answer to
the good and evil Jinn of the Arabs, of whose origin and
nature we shall presently give an account. The same
Suleymans ruled over them as over the Jinn, and both alike
were punished for disobedience. It is difficult to say which
is the original ; but when we recollect in how much higher a
state of culture the Persians were than the Arabs, and how
well this view accords with their ancient system of religion,
we shall feel inclined to believe that the Arabs were the
borrowers, and that by mingling with the Persian system
ideas derived from the Jews, that one was formed by them
which is now the common property of all Moslems.
In like manner we regard the mountains of Kaf, the abode
alike of Jinn and of Peries and Deevs, as having belonged
originally to Persian geography. The fullest account of it
* This word is pronounced Perry or rather Parry.
"1* 8t) ; i fr) Hence it follows that the very plausible idea tf tb.. Pcii
> *TV
having bsen the same with the Feroher cannot be correct.
16 OB1ESTAL 011 ASCII.
appears in the Persian romance of Hatim Tai,* the hero of
which often visited its regions. From this it would seem
that this mountain-range was regarded as, like that of the
ancient Greek cosmology, surrounding the flat circular earth
"like a ring, or rather like the bulwarks of a ship, outside of
which flowed the ocean ; while some Arab authorities make
it to lie beyond, and to enclose the ocean as well as the
earth.f It is said to be composed of green chrysolite, the
reflection of which gives its greenish tint to the sky.
According to some, its height is two thousand English miles.
Jinnestan is the common appellation of the whole of this
ideal region. Its respective empires were divided into many
"kingdoms, containing numerous provinces and cities. Thus
in the Peri-realms we meet with the luxuriant province of
Shad-u-kam (Pleasure and Delight), with its magnificent
capital Juherabad (Jewel-city}, whose two kings solicited the
aid of Caherman against the Deevs,J and also the stately
Amberabad (Amber-city), and others equally splendid. The
metropolis of che Deev-empire is named Ahermanabad (Aher-
mari's city) ; and imagination has lavished its stores in the
description of the enchanted castle, palace, and gallery of the
Deev monarch, Arzshenk.
The Deevs and Peries wage incessant war with each other.
Like mankind, they are subject to death, but afte" n much
longer period of existence ; and, though far superior to man
in power, they partake of his sentiments and passions.
We are told that when the Deevs in their wars make
prisoners of the Peries, they shut them up in iron cages, and
hang them froii- the tops of the highest trees, exposed to
every gaze and to every chilling blast. Here their com-
panions visit them, and bring them the choicest odours to feed
on ; for the ethereal Peri Lives on perfume, which has more-
over the property of repelling the cruel Deevs, whose
malignant nature is impatient of fragrance.
When the Peries are unable to withstand their foes, they
* Translated by Mr. Duncan Forbes. It is to be regretted that he hoi
employed the terms Fairies and Demons instead of Peries and Deevs.
f See Lane, Thousand and One Nights, i. p. 21, seq.
t The Caherman Nameh is a romance in Turkish. Cahermao was tha
father of Sim, the grandfather of the celebrated Roostem.
It is 1:1 the Caherman Nameh that this circums'ance occurs-
PEBSIAX EOMASCE. 17
solicit the aid of some mortal hero. Enchanted arms and
talismans enable him to cope with the gigantic Deevs, and
he is conveyed to Jinnestan on the back of some strange
and wonderful animal. His adventures in that country
usually furnish a wide field for poetry and romance to
expatiate in.
The most celebrated adventurer in Jinnestan was Tah-
muras, surnamed Deev-bend (Deev-binder),* one of the
ancient kings of Persia. The Peries sent him a splendid
embassy, and the Deevs, who dreaded him, despatched an-
other. Tahmuras, in doubt how to act, consults the won-
derful bird Seemurgh,t who speaks all languages, and whose
knowledge embraces futurity. She advises him to aid the
Peries, warns him of the dangers he has to encounter, and
discloses his proper line of action. She further offers to
* <jJL) Ot) The Tahmuras Nameh is also in Turkish. It and th
Caherman Nameh are probably translations from the Persian. As far as
we are aware, Richardson is the only orientalist who mentions these two
romances.
f- c .Ajmt I* signifies ' thirty birds,' and is thought to be toe v: c>
the Arabs. The poet Sadee, to express the bounty of the Ajmigntv savg
.4} .x-JU,
His liberal board he spreadeth out so wide,
On Kaf the Seemurgh is with food supplied.
The Seemurgh probably belongs to the original mythology of Persia, for sh
appears in the early part of the Shah Nanieh. When Zal was corn to Sam
Neriman, his hair proved to be white. The father regarding this as a proor o
Deev origin, resolved to expose him, and sent him for that purpose to Mount
Elburz. Here the poor babe lay crying and sucking his fingers till he was
found by the Seemurgh, who abode on the summit of Klburz, as sne was
looking for food for her young ones. But God put pity into her heart, and sne
took him to her nest and reared him with her young. As he grew up, the
caravans that passed by, spread the fame of his beauty and his strength, and a
vision having informed Sam that he was his son, he set out for Elburz to claim
him from the Seemurgh.. It was with grief that Zal quitted the materna.
nest. The Seemurgh, when parting with her foster-son, gave him one of her
feathers, >* bade him, whenever he should be in trouble or danger, to cast it
into the fire, and he would have proof of her power; and she charged him at
he same time stiictly never to forget his nurse.
C
18 ORIENTAL 11OMAHCE.
convey him to Jinnestan, and plucks some feathers from her
breast, with which the Persian monarch adorns his helmet.
Mounted on the Seemurgh, and bracing on his arm tha
potent buckler of Jan-ibn-Jan,* Tahmuras crosses the abysa
impassable to unaided mortality. The vizier Iinlan, who
had headed the Deev embassy, deserting his original friends,
had gone over to Tahmuras, and through the magic arts of
the Deev, and his own daring valour, the Persian hero defeata
the Deev-king Arzshenk. He next vanquishes a Deev still
more fierce, named Demrush, who dwelt in a gloomy cavern,
surrounded by piles of wealth plundered from the neigh-
bouring realms of Persia and India. Here Tahmuras finds
a fair captive, the Peri Merjan,t whom Demrush had carried
off, and whom her brothers, Dal Peri and Milan Shah Peri,
had long sought in vain. He chains the Deev in the centre
of the mountain, and at the suit of Merjan hastens to attack
another powerful Deev named Houndkonz ; but here, alas !
fortune deserts him, and, maugre his talismans and enchanted
arms, the gallant Tahmuras falls beneath his foe.
The great Deev-bend, or conqueror of Deevs, of the
Shah-NamehJ is the illustrious Roostem. In the third of his
Seven Tables or adventures, on his way to relieve the Shah
Ky-Caoos, whom the artifice of a Deev had led to Mazenderan,
where he was in danger of perishing, he encounters in the
dark of the night a Deev named Asdeev, who stole on him
in a dragon's form as he slept. Twice the hero's steed,
Beksh, awoke him, but each time the Deev vanished, and
Eoostem was near slaying his good steed for giving him a
false alarm. The third time he saw the Deev and slew him
after a fearful combat. He then pursued his way to the
cleft in the mountain in which abode the great Deev Sefeed,
or "White Deev. The seventh Table brought him to where
lay an army of the Deev Sefeed' s Deevs, commanded by
Arzshenk, whose head he struck off, and put his troops to
flight. At length he reached the gloomy cavern of the Deev
* See Arabian Romance.
f- ..il*-.* a pearl. Life, soul also, according to Wilkins.
* Ferdousee's great heroic poem. It is remarkable that the Peries are very
rarely spoken of in this poem. They merely appear in it with the birds and
beasts amoug the subjects of the first Iranian monarchs.
PEBSIAN ROMANCE. 19
Sefeed himself, whom he found asleep, and scorning the
advantage he awoke him, and after a terrific combat
deprived him also of life.
Many years after, when Ky-Khosroo sat on the throne,
a wild ass of huge size, his skin like the sun, and a black
stripe along his back, appeared among the royal herds and
destroyed the horses. It was supposed to be the Deev
Akvan,who was known to haunt an adjacent spring. Eoostem
wenjt in quest of him ; on the fourth day he found him and
cast his noose at him, but the Deev vanished. He
re-appeared ; the hero shot at him, but he became again
invisible. Eoostem then let Eeksh graze, and laid him to
sleep by the fount. As he slept, Akvan came and flew up
into the air with him ; and when he awoke, he gave him his
choice of being let fall on the mountains or the sea.
Eoostem secretly chose the latter, and to obtain it he pre-
tended to have heard that he who was drowned never entered
paradise. Akvan thereupon let him fall into the sea, from
which he escaped, and returning to the fount, he there met
and slew the Deev. Eoostem' s last encounter with Deevs
was with Akvan' s son, Berkhyas, and his army, when he
went to deliver Peshen from the dry well in which he was
confined by Afrasiab. He slew him and two-thirds of his
troops. Berkhyas is described as being a mountain in size,
his face black, his body covered with hair, his neck like that
of a dragon, two boar's tussks from his mouth, his eyes wells
of blood, his hair bristling like needles, his height 140 ells,
his breadth 17, pigeons nestling in his snaky locks. Akvan
had had a head like an elephant.
In the Hindoo-Persian Bahar Danush (Garden of Know-
ledge) of Yudyet-ullah, written in India A.D. 1650,* we find
the following tale of the Peries, which has a surprisi
resemblance to European legends hereafter to be noticed.f
* Chap. xx. translation of Jonathan Scott, I79i>.
f See below, Shetland.
20 OEIEJSTAL ROMANCE.
THE son of a merchant in a city of Hindostan, having
been driven from his father's house on account of his
undutifu] conduct, assumed the garb of a Kalenderee or
wandering Derweesh, and left his native town. On the first
day of his travels, being overcome with fatigue before he
reached any place of rest, he went off the high road and sat
down at the foot of a tree by a piece of water : while he sat
there, he saw at sunset four doves alight from a tree on
the edge of the pond, and resuming their natural form (for
they were Peries) take off their clothes and amuse them-
selves by bathing in the water. He immediately advanced
softly, took up their garments, without being seen, and con-
cealed them in the hollow of a tree, behind which he placed
himself. The Peries when they came out of the water and
missed their clothes were distressed beyond measure. They
ran about on all sides looking for them, but in vain. At
length, finding the young man and judging that he had
possessed himself of them, they implored him to restore
them. He would only consent on one condition, which was
that one of them should become his wife. The Peries
asserted that such a union was impossible between them
whose bodies were formed of fire and a mortal who was
composed of clay and water ; but he persisted, and selected
the one which was the youngest and handsomest. They
were at last obliged to consent, and having endeavoured
to console their sister, who shed copious floods of tears
at the idea of parting with them and spending her days
with one of the sons of Adam ; and having received their
garments, they took leave of her and flew away.
The young merchant then led home his fair bride and
clad her magnificently ; but he took care to bury her Peri-
raiment in a secret place, that she might not be able to
leave him. He made every effort to gain her affections, and
at length succeeded in his object " she placed her foot in
PEESIAN BOMAUCE. 21
the path of regard, and her head on the carpet of affection."
She bore him children, and gradually began to take pleasure
in the society of his female relatives and neighbours. AH
doubts of her affection now vanished from his mind, and he
became assured of her love and attachment.
At the end of ten years the merchant became embarrassed
in his circumstances, and he found it necessary to under-
take a long voyage. He committed the Peri to the care
of an aged matron in whom he had the greatest confidence,
and to whom he revealed the secret of her real nature, and
showed the spot where he had concealed her raiment. He
then " placed the foot of departure in the stirrup of travel,"
and set out on his journey. The Peri was now overwhelmed
with sorrow for his absence, or for some more secret cause,
and continually uttered expressions of regret. The old
woman sought to console her, assuring her that " the dark
night of absence would soon come to an end, and the
bright dawn of interview gleam from the horizon of divine
bounty." One day when the Peri had bathed, and was dry-
ing her amber-scented tresses with a corner of her veil, the
old woman burst out into expressions of admiration at her
dazzling beauty. "Ah, nurse," replied she, "though you
think my present charms great, yet had you seen me in my
native raiment, you would have witnessed what beauty and
grace the Divine Creator has bestowed upon Peries ; for
know that we are among the most finished portraits on the
tablets of existence. If then thou desirest to behold the
skill of the divine artist, and admire the wonders of cre-
ation, bring the robes which my husband has kept concealed,
that I may wear them for an instant, and show thee my
native beauty, the like of which no human eye, but my lord's,
hath gazed upon."
The simple woman assented, and fetched the robes and
presented them to the Peri. She put them on, and then,
like a bird escaped from the cage, spread her wings, and,
crying Farewell, soared to the sky and was seen no more.
When the merchant returned from his voyage " and found
no signs of the rose of enjoyment on the tree oi hope, but
the lamp of bliss extinguished in the chamber of felicity, he
became as one Peri-stricken,* a recluse in the cell of mad-
* i. e. possessed, insane. It is like tlie wfi<f>6\ijirros of the Greeks.
22 OB1ENTAL BOMANCE.
ness. Banished from the path of understanding, he remained
lost to all the bounties of fortune and the useful purposes
of life."
The Peri has been styled " the fairest creation of poetical
imagination." No description can equal the beauty of the
female Peri,* and the highest compliment a Persian poet
can pay a lady is to liken her to one of these lovely aerial
beings.t Thus Sadee, in the lines prefixed to this section,
declares that only the beauty of a Peri can be compared
with that of the fair one Le addresses ; and more lately, Aboo
Taleeb Khan says to Lady Elgin, as he is translated by
M. von Hammer,J
The sun, the moon, the Penes, and mankind,
Compared with you, do far remain behind ;
For sun and moon have never form so mild,
The Peries have, but roam in deserts wild.
Sir ~W. Ouseley is at a loss what to compare them to.
They do not, he thinks, resemble the Angels, the Cherubim
and Seraphim of the Hebrews, the Daemons of the Platonists,
or the Genii of th? Romans ; neither do they accord with
the Houri of the Arabs. Still less do they agree with the
Fairies of Shakspeare ; for though fond of fragrance, and
* It must be recollected that the Peries are of both sexes: we have just
spoken of Peri Icings, and of the brothers of Merjan.
f In the Shah Nameh it is said of Prince Siyawush, that when he was born
he was bright as a Peri. We find the poets everywhere comparing female
beauty to that of supetior beings. The Greeks and Romans compared a lovely
woman to Venus, Diana, or the nymphs ; the Persians to a Peri : the ancient
Scandinavians would say she was Frith sem Alfkone, "fair as an Alf-woman;"
and an Anglo-Saxon poet says of Judith that she was Elf-sheen, or fair as at
Elf. In the Lay of Gugemer it is said,
Dedenz la Dame unt trovee
Ki de biaute resanbloit Fie.
The same expression occurs in Meon (3, 412) ; and in the Romant de la ROM
we meet, jure que plus belle est que fee (10, 425). In the Pentamerone it ii
said of a king's son, lo quale essenno bello comme a no fato.
J Mines de 1'Orient, vol. iii. p. 40. To make his version completely
English, M. von Hammer uses the word Fairies ; we have ventured t
change it.
PERSIAN ROMANCE. 23
living on that sweet essential food, we never find them
employed in
Killing cankers in the musk-rose buds,
or obliged
To serve the fairy queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
Neither is their stature ever represented so diminutive as to
make key-holes pervious to their flight, or the bells of
flowers their habitations. But Milton's sublime idea of a
'faery vision,' he thinks, corresponds more nearly with
what the Persian poets have conceived of the Peries.
Their port was more than human, as they stood ;
I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element
That in the colours of the rainbow live
And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awestruck,
And as I pass'd I worshipp'd. Comw.
"I can venture to affirm," concludes Sir William gallantly,
"that he will entertain a pretty just idea of a Persian Peri,
who shall fix his eyes on the charms of a beloved and beauti-
ful mistress."
If poetic imagination exhausted itself in pourtraying the
beauty of the Peries, it was no less strenuous in heaping
attributes of deformity on the Deevs. They may well vie in
ugliness with the devils of our forefathers. " At Lahore, in
the Mogul's palace," says William Finch, "are pictures ot
Dews, or Dives, intermixed in most ugly shapes, with long
horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long
tails, with such horrible difformity and deformity, that I
wonder the poor women are not frightened therewith."*
Such then is the Peri-system of the Mohammedan
Persians, in which the influence of Islam is clearly percep-
tible, the very names of their fabled country and its kings
being Arabic. Had we it as it was before the Arabs forced
their law on Persia, we should doubtless find it more con^
sistent in all its parts, more light, fanciful, and etherial.
* In Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. i., quoted by Sir W. Ouseley.
24 OEI3KTAL HOMATfCB.
ARABIAN ROMANCE.
THE Prophet is the centre round which every thing con-
nected with Arabia revolves. The period preceding his
birth is regarded and designated as the times of ignorance,
and our knowledge of the ancient Arabian mythology com-
prises little more than he has been pleased to transmit to
us. The Arabs, however, appear at no period of their
history to have been a people addicted to fanciful invention.
Their minds are acute and logical, and their poetry is that
of the heart rather than of the fancy. They dwell with
fondness on the joys and pains of love, and with enthusiasm
describe the courage and daring deeds of warriors, or in
moving strains pour forth, the plaintive elegy ; but for the
description of gorgeous palaces and fragrant gardens, or for
the wonders of magic, they are indebted chiefly to their
Persian neighbours.*
What classes of beings the popular creed may have
recognised before the establishment of Islam we have no
means of ascertaining.f The Suspended Poems, and Antar,
give us little or no information ; we only know that the
tales of Persia were current among them, and were listened
to with such avidity as to rouse the indignation of the
Prophet. We must, therefore, quit the tents of the
Bedoween, and the valleys of ' Araby the Blest,' and accom-
pany the khaleefehs to their magnificent capital on the Tigris,
whence emanated all that has thrown such a halo of splen-
dour around the genius and language of Arabia. It is in.
this seat of empire that we must look to meet with the
origin of the marvels of Arabian literature.
Transplanted to a rich and fertile coil, the sons of the
* Compare Antar and the Suspended Poems (translated by Sir W. Jones)
with the later Arabic works. Antar, though written by Asmai the court-poet
d" Haroon-er-Rasheed, gives the manners and ideas of the Arabs of the Desert.
f The Jinn are mentioned in the Kuran and also in Antar.
ABABIV2? BOMAUCE. 25
desert speedily abandoned their former simple mode of life ;
and the court of Bagdad equalled or surpassed in magnifi-
cence any thing that the East has ever -witnessed. Genius,
whatever its direction, was encouraged and rewarded, and
the musician and the story-teller shared with the astronomer
and historian the favour of the munificent khaleefehs. The
tales which had aoused the leisure of the Shahpoors and
Tezdejirds were not disdained by the Haroons and Alrnan-
soors. The expert narrators altered them so as to accord
with the new faith. And it was thus, probably, that the
delightful Thousand and One Nights * were gradually pro-
duced and modified.
As the Genii or Jinn f are prominent actors in these
tales, where they take the place of the Persian Peries and
Deevs, we will here give some account of them.
According to Arabian writers, there is a species of beings
named Jinn or Jan (Jinnee m., Jinniyeh f. sing.), which
were created and occupied the earth several thousand years
before Adam. A tradition from the Prophet says that they
were formed of " smokeless fire," i.e. the fire of the wind
Simoom. They were governed by a succession of forty, or,
as others say, seventy-two rnonarchs ; named Suleyman, the
last of whom, called Jan-ibn-Jan, built the Pyramids of
Egypt. Prophets were sent from time to time to instruct
and admonish them ; but on their continued disobedience,
an army of angels appeared, who drove them from the earth
to the regions of the islands, making many prisoners, and
slaughtering many more. Among the prisoners, was a
young Jinnee, named 'Azazeel, or El-Harith (afterwards
called Iblees, from his despair}, who grew up among the
angels, and became at last their chief. When Adam was
created, God commanded the angels to worship him ; and
they all obeyed except Iblees, who, for his disobedience, was
turned into a Sheytan or Devil, and he became the father
of the Sheytans.J
* See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 37, seq. Lane, Thousand and One
Nights, passim.
f Genius and Jinn, like Fairy and Peri, is a curious coincidence. The
Arabian Jinnee bears no resemblance whatever to the Roman Genius.
" When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and they worshiped
except Iblees (who) was of the Jinn." Kuran. chap, xviii. v. 48. Worship
26 ORIENTAL BOMAJfCB.
The Jinn are not immortal ; they are to survive mankind,
but to die before the general resurrection. Even at present
many of them are slain by other Jinn, or by men ; but
chiefly by shooting-stars hurled at them from Heaven. The
fire of which they were created, circulates in their veins
instead of blood, and when they receive a mortal wound, it
bursts forth and consumes them to ashes. They eat and
drink, and propagate their species. Sometimes they unite
with human beings, and the offspring partakes of the
nature of both parents. Some of the Jinn are obedient to
the will of Grod, and believers in the Prophet, answering to
the Peries of the Persians ; others are like the Deevs,
disobedient and malignant. Both kinds are divided into
communities, and ruled over by princes. They have the
power to make themselves visible and invisible at pleasure.
They can assume the form of various animals, especially
those of serpents, cats, and dogs. "When they appear in
the human form, that of the good Jinnee is usually of great
beauty ; that of the evil one, of hideous deformity, and
sometimes of gigantic size.
When the Zoba'ah, a whirlwind that raises the sand in
the form of a pillar of tremendous height, is seen sweeping
over the desert, the Arabs, who believe it to be caused by
the flight of an evil Jinnee, cry, Iron ! Iron ! {Hadeed !
Hadeed /) or Iron ! thou unlucky one ! (Hadeed ! yd
meshoom /) of which metal the Jinn are believed to have a
great dread. Or else they cry, God is most great ! (Allahu
akbar /) They do the same when they see a water-spout at
sea ; for they assign the same cause to its origin.*
The chief abode of the Jinn of both kinds is the Moun-
tains of Kaf, already described. But they also are dispersed
through the earth, and they occasionally take up their resi-
dence in baths, wells, latrina?, ovens, and ruined houses.f
is here prostration. The reply of Iblees was, " Thou hast created me of fire,
and hast created Itim of earth." Jb. vii. 11; xxxviii. 77.
* It was the belief of the Irish peasantry, that whirlwinds of dust on the
roads were raised by the Fairies, who were then on a journey. On such
occasions, unlike the Arabs, they used to raise their hats and say, " God speed
you, gentlemen !" For the power of iron, see Scandinavia.
+ The Arabs when they povir water on the ground, let down a bucket into
a well, enter a bath, etc., say, "Permission!" (Destoor .') or, Poravlssion, ye
blessed ! (Deatoor, yd mid>drakeen /)
AEABIAN EOMANCE. 27
They also frequent the sea and rivers, cross-roads, and
market-places. They ascend at times to the confines of the
lowest heaven, and by listening there to the conversation of
the angels, they obtain some knowledge of futurity, which
they impart to those men who, by means of talismans or
magic arts, have been able to reduce them to obedience.*
The following are anecdotes of the Jinn, given by
historians of eminence.f
It is related, says El-Kasweenee, by a certain narrator of
traditions, that he descended into a valley with his sheep,
and a wolf carried off a ewe from among them ; and he
arose and raised his voice, and cried, " O inhabitant of the
valley!" whereupon he heard a voice saying, " O wolf,
restore him his sheep ! " and the wolf came with the ewe
and left her, and departed.
Ben Shohnah relates, that in the year 456 of the Hejra,
in the reign of Kaiem, the twenty-sixth khaleefeh of the
house of Abbas, a report was raised in Bagdad, which imme-
diately spread throughout the whole province of Irak, that
some Turks being out hunting saw in the desert a black
tent, beneath which there was a number of people of both
sexes, who were beating their cheeks, and uttering loud
cries, as is the custom in the East when any one is dead.
Amidst their cries they heard these words The great Icing
of the Jinn is dead, woe to this country ! and then there
came out a great troop of women, followed by a number of
other rabble, who proceeded to a neighbouring cemetery,
still beating themselves in token of grief and mourning.
The celebrated historian Ebn Athir relates, that when he
was at Mosul on the Tigris, in the year 600 of the Hejra,
there was in that country an epidemic disease of the throat ;
and it was said that a woman, of the race of the Jinn,
having lost her son, all those who did not condole with her
on account of his death were attacked with that disease ; so
that to be cured of it men and women assembled, and with
all their strength cried out, G mother of AnJcood, excuse us I
AnJcood is dead, and we did not mind it !
* For the preceding account of the Jinn, -we are -wholly indebted to Lane'
Valuable translation of the Thousand and One Nights, i. 30, seq.
f The first is given by Lane, the other two by D'Herbolot.
MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE.
Ecco qnel che le carte empion di sogui,
Lancilotto, Tristano e gli altri errand,
Onde conven che il volgo errante agogni.
PETEABCA.
will now endeavour to trace romantic and marvellous
fiction to any individual source. An extensive survey of the
regions of fancy and their productions will incline us rather
to consider the mental powers of man as having an uniform
operation under every sky, and under every form of political
existence, and to acknowledge that identity of invention is
not more to be wondered at than identity of action. It is
strange how limited the powers of the imagination are.
Without due consideration of the subject, it might be
imagined that her stores of materials and powers of com-
bination are boundless ; yet reflection, however slight, will
convince us that here also ' there is nothing new, ' and
charges of plagiarism will in the majority of cases be justly
suspected to be devoid of foundation. The finest poetical
expressions and similes of occidental literature meet us
when we turn our attention to the East, and a striking
analogy pervades the tales and fictions of every region.
The reason is, the materials presented to the inventive facul-
ties are scanty. The power of combination is therefore
limited to a narrow compass, and similar combinations must
hence frequently occur.
Yet still there is a high degree of probability in the
supposition of the luxuriant fictions of the East having
through Spain and Syria operated on European fancy. The
poetry and romance of the middle ages are notoriously
richer in detail, and more gorgeous in invention, than the
MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE. 29
more correct and chaste strains of Greece anc Latium ; the
island of Calypso, for example, is in beauty and variety left
far behind by the retreats of the fairies of romance.
Whence arises this difference ? No doubt
When ancient chivalry display 'd
The pomp of her heroic games,
And crested knights and tissued dames
Assembled at the clarion's call,
In some proud castle's high-arch'd hall,
that a degree of pomp and splendour met the eye of the
minstrel and romancer on which the bards of the simple
republics of ancient times had never gazed, and this might
account for the difference between the poetry of ancient and
of middle-age Europe. Yet, notwithstanding, we discover
such an Orientalism in the latter as would induce us to
acquiesce in the hypothesis of the fictions and the manner
of the East having been early transmitted to the "West ;
and it is highly probable that along with more splendid
habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous
stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction. The
tales of Arabia were undoubtedly known in Europe from a
very early period. The romance of Cleomades and Clare-
monde, which was written in the thirteenth century,* not
merely resembles, bat actually is the story of the Enchanted
Horse in the Thousand and One Nights. Another tale in
the same collection, The two Sisters who envied their
younger Sister, may be found in Straparola, and is also
a popular story in Germany ; and in the Pentamerone and
other collections of tales published loLjg before the appear-
ance of M. Galland's translation of the Eastern ones,
numerous traces of an oriental origin may be discerned.
The principal routes they came by may also be easily
shown. The necessities of commerce and the pilgrimage to
Mecca occasioned a constant intercourse between the
Moors of Spain and their fellow-sectaries of the East ;
and the Venetians, who were the owners of Candia, carried
on an extensive trade with Syria and Egypt. It is worthy
of notice, that the Notti Piacevoli of Straparola were first
* On the subjects mentioned in this paragraph, see Ti.les and Popular
Fictions, chap. ii. and ...
30 MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE.
published in Venice, and that Basil e, the author of the
Pentamerone, spent his youth in Candia, and was afterwards
a long time at Venice. Lastly, pilgrims were notorious
narrators of marvels, and each, as he visited the Holy
Land, was anxious to store . his memory with those riches,
the diffusal of which procured him attention and hospitality
at home.
AVe think, therefore, that European romance may be
indebted, though not for the name, yet for some of the attri-
butes and exploits of its fairies to Asia. This is more espe-
cially the case with the romances composed or turned into
prose in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries ;
for in the earlier ones the Fairy Mythology is much more
sparingly introduced.
But beside the classic and oriental prototypes of its fairies,
romance may have had an additional one in the original
mythology of the Celtic tribes, of which a being very nearly
allied to the fay of romance appears to have formed a part.
Such were the damoiselles who bestowed their favours upon
Lanval and Graelent. This subject shall, however, be more
fully considered under the head of Brittany.
Romances of chivalry, it is well known, may be divided
into three principal classes ; those of Arthur and his Round
Table, of Charlemagne and his Paladins, and those of Amadis
and Palmerin, and their descendants and kindred. In the
first, with the exception of Isaie le Triste, which appears to
be a work of the fifteenth century, the fairies appear but
seldom ; the second exhibits them in all their brilliancy and
power ; in the third, which all belong to the literature of
Spain, the name at least does not occur, but the enchantress
Urganda la Desconecida seems equal in power to La Dame
du Lac, in the romance of Lancelot du Lac.*
Among the incidents of the fine old romance just alluded
to,f is narrated the death of King Ban, occasioned by grief
at the sight of his castle taken and in flames through the
treachery of his seneschal. His afflicted queen had left her
* In the Amadigi of B. Tasso, she is La Fata Urganda.
f 1 Lancelot is regarded as probably the earliest prose romance of chivalry.
It was first printed in 1494. The metrical romance called La Charrette, of
which Lancelot is the hero, -was begun by Chrestien de Troyes, who died in
1 191, and finished by Geoffrey de Lignjr. We may here observe that almost
MIDDLE-AGE BOJIAXCE. 31
ftew-bom infant on the margin of a lake, while she went to
Boothe the last moments of the expiring monarch. On her
return, she finds her babe in the arms of a beautiful lady.
She entreats her pathetically to restore the orphan babe ;
but, without heeding her entreaties, or even uttering a single
word, she moves to the edge of the lake, into which she
plunges and disappears with the child. The lady was the
celebrated Dame du Lac : the child was Lancelot, afterwards
styled Du Lac. The name of the lady was Yivienne, and
she had dwelt " en la marche de la petite Bretaigne." Merlin
the demon-born, the renowned enchanter, became enamoured
of her, and taught her a portion of his art; and the ill-return
she made is well known in the annals of female treachery.*
In consequence of the knowledge thus acquired she became
a fairy ; for the author informs us that " the damsel who
carried Lancelot to the lake was a fay, and in those times all
those women were called fays who had to do with enchant-
ments and charms and there were many of them then,
principally in Great Britain and knew the power and
virtues of words, of stones, and of herbs, by which they were
kept in youth and in beauty, and in great riches, as they
devised." t
The lake was afeerie, an illusion raised by the art which
the devil had taught Merlin, and Merlin the lady. The
all the French romances of chivalry were written originally in verse in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, principally by Chrestien de Troves and Huon
de Villeneuvc. The prose romances in general were made from them in tl e
fifteenth century.
* For while it was in hand, by loving of an elf,
For all his wondrous skill was cozened of himself:
For walking with his Fay, her to the rock he brought,
In which he oft before his nigromancies wrought.
And going in thereat, his magics to have shown,
She stopt the cavern's mouth with an enchanted stone,
Whose cunning strongly crossed, amazed while he did stand,
She captive him conveyed unto the Fairy-land.
Dray ton, 7Wy-0#>. Song IV. See above, p. 2.
f La damoiselle qui Lancelot porta au lac estoit une/ee, et en cellui temps
estoient appellees fees toutes celles qui sentremeloient denchanteuients et de
charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principallement en la Grand Bretaigne,
ct savoient la force et la vertu des parolles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoi
elles estoient en jeuuesse, et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses, comment
elle divisoient.
32 MIDDLE-AGE
romance says : " The lady who reared him conversed only in
the forest, and dwelt on the summit of a hill, which was
much lower than that on which King Ban had died. In this
place, where it seemed that the wood was large and deep, the
lady had many fair houses, and very rich ; and in the plain
beneath there was a gentle little river well-stored with fish ;
and this place was so secret and so concealed, that right
difficult was it for any one to find, for the semblance of the
said lake covered it so that it could not be perceived." *
When her young protege had gone through his course of
knightly education, she took him to King Arthur's court,
and presented him there ; and his subsequent history is well
known.
In the romance of Maugis d'Aygremont et de Vivian
son Frere, when Tapinel and the female slave had stolen the
two children of Duke Bevis of Aygremont, the former sold
to the wife of Sorgalant the child which he had taken, whose
name was Esclarmonde, and who was about fifteen years of
age, and was " plus belle et plus blanche qu'une fee." The
slave having laid herself to rest under a white-thorn (aube-
spine), was devoured by a lion and a leopard, who killed one
another in their dispute for the infant. " And the babe lay
under the thorn, and cried loudly, during which it came to
pass that Oriande la Fee, who abode at Eosefleur with four
other fays, came straight to this thorn ; for every time she
passed by there she used to repose under that white-thorn.
She got down, and hearing the child cry, she came that way
and looked at him, and said, ' By the god in whom we be-
lieve, this child here is lying badly (mal gist), and this shall
be his name ; ' and from that time he was always called
Maugis."
Oriande la Fee brought the child home with her and her
* La dame qui le nourissoit ne conversoit que en forest, et estoit au plain
de ung tertre plus bus assez que celui ou le roy Ban estoit mort : en ce lieu
ou il sembloit que le bois fust grant et parfont (profond) avoit la dame moult
de belles maisons et moult riches; et au plain dessoubs y avoit une gente
petite riviere moult plantureuse de poissons ; et estoit ce lieu si cele et secret
que bien difficille estoit a homme de le trouver, car la semblance du dit lac le
couvroit si que il nc pouvoit estre apperceu. And farther, La damoiselle
uestoit mie seulle, mais y avoit grande compaignie de chevaliers et de dame*
et danioisrlles.
MIDDLE-AGE EOMAKCS. 33
damsels ; and having examined him, and found, by a precious
ring that was in his ear, that he was of noble lineage, " she
prayed our Lord that he would be pleased of his grace to
make known his origin (nation)." When she had finished
her prayer, she sent for her nephew Espiet, " who was a
dwarf, and was not more than three feet high, and had his
hair yellow as fine gild, and looked like a child of seven
years, but he was more than a hundred ; and he was one of
the falsest knaves in the world, and knew every kind of
enchantment." Espiet informed her whose child he was ;
and Oriande, having prayed to our Lord to preserve the
child, took him with her to her castle of Eosefleur, where
she had him baptised and named Maugis. She and her
damsels reared him with great tenderness ; and when he was
old enough she put him under the care of her brother
Baudris, " who knew all the arts of magic and necromancy,
and was of the age of a hundred years ; " and he taught what
he knew to Maugis.
"When Maugis was grown a man, the Eay Oriande clad
him in arms, and he became her ami ; and she loved him " de
si grand amour qu'elle doute fort qu'il ne se departe d'avecques
elle."
Maugis shortly afterwards achieved the adventure of gain-
ing the enchanted horse Bayard, in the isle of Boucaut. Of
Bayard it is said, when Maugis spoke to him, " Bayard estoit
feye, si entendoit aussi bien Maugis comme s'il (Bayard)
eust parle." On his return from the island, Maugis con-
quers and slays the Saracen admiral Anthenor, who had
come to win the lands and castle of Oriande, and gains tha
sword Elamberge (Eloberge), which, together with Bayard,
he afterwards gave to his cousin Eenaud.
In Perceforest, Sebille la Dame du Lac, whose castle was
surrounded by a river on which lay so dense a fog that no
one could see across the water, though not called so, was
evidently a fay. The fortnight that Alexander the Great
and Floridas abode with her, to be cured of their wounds,
seemed to them but as one night. During that night, " la
dame demoura enceinte du roy dung filz, dont de ce lignage
le roi Artus." *
* Vol. L ch. 42.
34 MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE.
In the same romance * we are told that " en lysle de
Zellande jadis fut demourante une face qui estoit appellee
Morgane." This Morgane was very intimate with "ung
esperit (named Zephir) qui repairoit es lieux acquatiques,
niais jamais nestoit veu que de nuyt." Zephir had been in
the habit of repairing to Morgane la Face from her youth
up, " car elle estoit malicieuse et subtille et tousjours avoit
moult desire a aucunement S9avoir des enchantemens et de8
conjurations." He had committed to her charge the young
Passelyon and his cousin Bennucq, to be brought up, and
Passelyon was detected in an intrigue with the young Mor-
gane, daughter of the fay. The various adventures of this
amorous youth form one of the most interesting portions of
the romance.
In Tristan de Leonois,f king Meliadus, the father of
Tristan, is drawn to a chase par mal engin et negromance of
a fairy who was in love with him, and carries him off, and
from whose thraldom he was only released by the power of
the great enchanter Merlin.
In Parthenopex of Blois,J the beautiful fairy Melior,
whose magic bark carries the knight to her secret island, is
daughter to the emperor of Greece.
In no romance whatever is the fairy machinery more
pleasingly displayed than in Sir Launfal, a metrical romance,
composed by Thomas Chestre, in the reign of Henry VI.
Before, however, we give the analysis of this poem, which
will be followed by that of another, and by our own imita-
tions of this kind of verse, we will take leave to offer some
observations on a subject that seems to us to be in general
Vol. iii. ch. 31.
+ Tristan was written in terse by Chrestien de Troyes. The prose romance
was first printed in 1489.
+ Parthenopex was written in French in the twelfth century, according
to Le Grand ; in the thirteenth, according to Roquefort.
Composed for to call it, with Ellis, Ritson, and others, a translation,
would be absurd. How Ellis, who had at least read Le Grand's and Way'i
Fabliaux, could say of Chestre, that he " seems to have given a faithful aa
well as spirited version of this old Breton story," is surprising. It is in fact
no translation, but a poem on the adventures of Sir Launfal, founded chiefly
on the Lais de Lanval and de Graelent, in Marie de France, with considerable
nH it ion s of Chestre's own invention, or derived from other sources. TheM
Lais will be considered under Brittany.
MIDDLE-AGE EOMATTCE. 35
but little understood, namely, the structure of our old
English verse, and the proper mode of reading it.
Our forefathers, like their Gotho- German kindred, regu-
lated their verse by the number of accents, not of syllables.
The foot, therefore, as we term it, might consist of one, two,
three, or even four syllables, provided it had only one
strongly marked accent. Further, the accent of a word
might be varied, chiefly by throwing it on the last syllable,
as nature for nature, honour for honour, etc. (the Italians,
by the way, throw it back when two accents come into
collision, as, II Pastor Fido*) ; they also sounded what the
French call the feminine e of their words, as, In olde dayes
of the King Artour ; and so well known seems this practice
to have been, that the copyists did not always write this 0,
relying on the skill of the reader to supply it.f There was
only one restriction, namely, that it was never to come
before a vowel, unless where there was a pause. In this
way the poetry of the middle ages was just as regular as
that of the present day ; and Chaucer, when properly read,
is fully as harmonious as Pope. But the editors of our
ancient poems, with the exception of Tyrwtitt, seem to
have been ignorant or regardless of this principle ; and in
the Canterbury Tales alone is the verse properly arranged.
We will now proceed to the analysis of the romance of
Sir Launfal.
Sir Launfal was one of the knights of Arthur, who loved him
well, and made him his steward. But when Arthur married
the beautiful but frail Gwennere, daughter of Eyon, king of
Ireland, Launfal and other virtuous knights manifested
their dissatisfaction when she came to court. The queen
was aware of this, and, at the first entertainment given by
the king,
The queen yaf (gave) giftes for the nones,
Gold and silver, precious stones,
Her courtesy to kythe (show) :
Everiche knight she yaf broche other (or) ring,
But Sir Launfal she yaf no thing,
That grieved him many a sythe (time).
* Thus we ourselves say the Princess Royal, extreme need, etc. This, by
t'.e way, is the cause why the Greeks put a grave and not an acute accent on
words accented on the last syllable, to show that it is easily moveable.
+ As this seems to be one of the lost arts, we will here and elsewhere mark
the feminine e and the change of accent. D 2
36 MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE.
Launfal, under the feigned pretext of the illness of his
father, takes leave of the king, and retires to Karlyoun,
where he lives in great poverty. Having obtained the loan
of a horse, one holyday, he rode into a fair forest, where,
overcome by the heat, he lay down under the shade of a
tree, and meditated on his wretched state. In this situation
he is attracted by the approach of two fair damsels splendidly
arrayed.
Their faces were white as snow on down,
Their rode * was red, their eyne were brown ;
I saw never none swiche.
That one bare of gold a basin,
That other a towel white and fine,
Of silk that was good and riche ;
Their kercheves were wele skire (clear)
Amid (striped) with riche golde wire
Launfal began to siche
They come to him over the hoth (heath),
He was cartels, and against them goeth,
And greet them mildeliche.
They greet him courteously in return, and invite him to
visit their mistress, whose pavilion is at hand. Sir Launfal
complies with the invitation, and they proceed to where the
pavilion lies. Nothing could exceed this pavilion in magni-
ficence. It was surmounted by an erne or eagle, adorned
with precious stones so rich, that the poet declares, and we
believe, that neither Alexander nor Arthur possessed " none
swiche jewel."
He founde in the paviloun
The kinges daughter of Oliroun,
Dame Tryamour that hight ;
Her father was king of Faerie,
Of occientef fer and nigh,
A man of mickle might
The beauty of dame Tryamour was beyond conception.
For heat her cloathes down she dede
Almoste to her girdle stede (place),
Than lay she uncover't ;
She was as white as lily in May,
Or snow that snoweth in winter's day :
He seigh (saw) never none so pert (lively).
Rode complexion ; from red.
t Occient Occident or ocean? The Gascon peasantry cal he By
Biscay LaMer & Occient. The Spaniards say Mar Oceano.
MIDDLE-AGE EOMAUCE- 37
The rede rose, when she is new,
Against her rode was naught of hew
I dare well say in cert ;
Her haire shone as golde wire :
May no man rede her attire,
Ne naught well think in hert (heart).
This lovely dame bestows her heart on Sir Launfal, on
condition of his fidelity As marks of her affection, she
gives him a never-failing purse and many other valuable
presents, and dismisses him next morning with the assur-
ance, that whenever he wished to see her, his wish would be
gratified on withdrawing into a private room, where she
would instantly be with him. This information is accom-
panied with a charge of profound secrecy on the subject of
their loves.
The knight returns to court, and astonishes every one by
his riches and his munificence. He continues happy in the
love of the fair Tryamour, until an untoward adventure
interrupts his bliss. One day the queen beholds him
dancing, with other knights, before her tower, and, inspired
with a sudden affection, makes amorous advances to the
knight. These passages of love are received on his part
with an indignant repulse, accompanied by a declaration
more enthusiastic than politic or courteous, that his heart
Avas given to a dame, the foulest of whose maidens surpassed
the queen in beauty. The offence thus given naturally
effected an entire conversion in the queen's sentiments ;
and, when Arthur returned from hunting, like Potiphar's
wife, she charges Launfal with attempting her honour.
The charge is credited, and the unhappy knight condemned
to be burned alive, unless he shall, against a certain day,
produce that peerless beauty. The fatal day arrives; the
queen is urgent for the execution of the sentence, when ten
fair damsels, splendidly arrayed, and mounted on white
palfreys, are descried advancing toward the palace. They
announce the approach of their mistress, who soon appears,
and by her beauty justifies the assertion of her knight.
Sir Launfal is instantly set at liberty, and, vaulting on the
courser his mistress had bestowed on him, and which was
held at hand by his squire, he follows her out of the town.
The lady rode down Cardevile,
Fer into a jolif ile,
38 MIDDLE-AGE BOMANCE.
Oliroun that hight ; *
Every year upon a certain day,
Men may heare Launfales steede neighe,
And him see with sight.
He that will there axsy (ask) justes
To keep his armes fro the rustes,
In turnement other (or) fight,
Dar (need) he never further gon ;
There he may find justes anon,
With Sir Launfal the knight.
Thus Launfal, withouten fable,
That noble knight of the rounde table,
Was taken into the faerie ;
Since saw him in this land no man,
Ne no more of him tell I ne can,
For soothe, without lie.f
No romance is of more importance to the present sub-
ject than the charming Huon de Bordeaux.J Generally
known, as the story should be, through Wieland's poem and
Mr. Sotheby's translation, we trust that we shall be excused
for giving some passages from the original French romance,
as Le petit roy Oberon appears to form a kind of connecting
link between the fairies of romance and the Elves or Dwarfs
of the Teutonic nations. When we come to Germany it
will be our endeavour to show how the older part of Huon
de Bordeaux has been taken from the story of Otnit in the
Heldenbuch, where the dwarf king Elberich performs
* It is strange to find the English poet changing the Avalon of the Lai de
Lauval into the well-known island of Oleron. It is rather strange too, that
Mr. Ritson, who has a note on " Oliroun," did not notice this.
t The Lai ends thus :
Od (awe) li sen vait en Avalun,
Ceo nus recuntent le Bretun ;
En une isle que mut est beaus,
La fut ravi li dameiseaus,
Nul humme nen ot plus parler,
Ne jeo nen sai avant cunter.
In Graelent it is said that the horse of the knight used to return annually ta
the river where he lost his master. The rest is Thomas Chestre's own, taken
probably from the well-known story in Gervase of Tilbury.
J Huon, Hue, or Hullin (for he is called by these three names in the
poetic romance) is, there can be little doubt, the same person with Yon king
of Bordeaux in the Quatre Filz Aymon, another composition of Huon de
Villeneuve, and with Lo Re Ivone, prince or duke of Guienne in Bojardo
and Ariosto. See the Orl. Inn. 1. L c. iv. st. 46. I Cinque Canti,c. v. BL 42
MIDDLE-AGE KOilANCE. 39
nearly the same services to Otnit that Oberon does to
Huon, and that, in fact, the name Oberon is only Elberich
slightly altered.*
. Huon, our readers must know, encounters in Syria an old
follower of his family named Gerasmes ; and \vhen consult-
ing with him on the way to Babylon he is informed by him
that there are two roads to that city, the one long and safe,
the other short and dangerous, leading through a wood,
" which is sixteen leagues long, but is so full of Fairie and
strange things that few people pass there without being lost
or stopt, because therewithin dwelleth a king, Oberon the
Fay. He is but three feet in height ; he is all humpy ; but
he hath an angelic face ; there is no mortal man who should
see him who would not take pleasure in looking at him, he
hath so fair a face. ]Vow you will hardly have entered the
wood, if you are minded to pass that way, when he will find
how to speak to you, but of a surety if you speak to him,
you are lost for evermore, without ever returning ; nor will
it lie in you, for if you pass through the wood, whether
straightforwards or across it, you will always find him before
you, and it will be impossible for you to escape at all without
speaking to him, for his words are so pleasant to hear, that
there is no living man who can escape him. And if so be
that he should see that you are nowise inclined to speak to
him, he will be passing wroth with you. For before you
have left the wood he will cause it so to rain on you, to blow,
to hail, and to make such right marvellous storms, thunder
and lightning, that you will think the world is going to end.
Then you will think that you see a great flowing river before
you, wondrously black and deep ; but know, sire, that right
easily will you be able to go through it without wetting the
feet of your horse, for it is nothing but a phantom and
enchantments that the dwarf will make for you, because he
wishes to have you with him, and if it so be that you keep
* Otnit was supposed to have been written by Wolfram von Eschembach,
in tbe early part of the thirteenth century. It is possibly much older. Huon
de Bordeaux was, it is said, written in French verse by Huon de Villeneuve,
some time in the same century. It does not appear in the list of Huon da
Villeneuve's works given by Mons. de Roquefort. At the end of the proco
romance we are told that it was written at the desire of Charles seigneur de
Rochefort, and completed on the 29th of January, 1454.
40 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAXCE.
firm to your resolve, not to speak to him, you will be suiely
able to escape," etc.*
Huon for some time followed the sage advice of Grerasmea,
and avoided Oberon le faye. The storms of rain and thunder
came on as predicted, the magic horn set them all dancing,
and at last the knight determined to await and accost the
dwarf.
" The Dwarf Fay came riding through the wood, and waa
clad in a robe so exceeding fine and rich, that it would be a
marvel to relate it for the great and marvellous riches that
were upon it ; for so much was there of precious stones, that
the great lustre that .they cast was like unto the sun when
he shineth full clear. And therewithal he bare a right fair
bow in his fist, so rich that no one could value it, so fine it
was; and the arrow that he bare was of such sort and
manner, that there was no beast in the world that he wished
to have, that it did not stop at that arrow. He had at
his neck a rich horn, which was hung by two rich strings of
fine gold."t
* Qui a de long seizes lieues, mais tant est plain de faerie et chose estrange
que peu de gens y passent qui n'y soient perdus ou arrestez, pour ce que la
dedans demeure un roi, Oberon le faye. II n'a que trois piedg de hauteur ;
il est tout bossu ; mais il a un visage angelique ; il n'est homme mortel que
le voye que plaisir ne prengne a le regarder tant a beau visage. Ja si tost ne
serez entrez au bois se par la voulez passer qu'il ne trouve maniere de parler
a vous, si ainsi que a luy parliez perdu estus a tousjours sans jamais plus
reveuir ; ne il ne sera en vous, car se par le bois passez, soil de long ou de
travers, vous le trouverez tousjours au devant de vous, et vous sera im-
possible que eschappiez nullement que ne parliez a luy, car ses parolles sent
tant plaisantes a ouyr qu'il n'est homme mortel qui de luy se puisse eschapper.
Et se chose ect qu'il voye que nullement ne vueillez parler a luy, il sera moult
trouble envers vous. Car avant que du bois soyez parti vous fera pleuvoir,
ventrer, gresiller, et faire si tres-mervueilleux orages, tonnerres, et esclairs,
que advis vous sera que le monde doive finir. Puis vous sera advis que par
devant vous verrez une grande riviere courante, noire et parfonde a grand
merveilles ; mais sachez, sire, que bien y pourrez aller sans mouiller les pieds
de vostre cheval, car ce n'est que fantosme et enchantemens que le nain vous
fera pour vous cuider avoir avec lui, et se chose est que bien tenez propos en
TOUS de non parler a luy, bien pourrez eschapper, etc.
f- Le Nain Fee s'en vint chevauchant par le bois, et estoit vestu d'une robbe
si tres-belle et riche, que merveilles sera ce racompter pour la grand et mer-
veilleuse richesse que dessus estoit, car tant y avoit de pierres precieuses, que
la grand clarte qu'elles jettoient estoit pareille au soldi quant il luit bien
clair. Et avec ce portoit un moult bel arc en son poing, tant nclie jne on ne
le sauroit estimer tant estoit beau. Et la fleche qu'il portoit est it de telle
MIDDLE-AGE BOMANCE. 41
This horn was wrought by four Fairies, who had endowed
it with its marvellous properties.
Oberon, on bringing Huon to speech, informed him that
he was the son of Julius Caesar, and the lady of the Hidden
Island, afterwards called Cephalonia. This lady's first love
had been Florimont of Albania, a charming young prince,
but being obliged to part from him, she married, and had a
son named Neptanebus, afterwards King of Egypt, who
begot Alexander the Great, who afterwards put him to
death. Seven hundred years later, Caesar, on his way to
Thessaly, was entertained in Cephalonia by the lady of the
isle, and he loved her, for she told him he would defeat
Pompey, and he became the father of Oberon. Many a
noble prince and noble fairy were at the birth, but one Fairy
was unhappily not invited, and the gift she gave was that he
should not grow after his third year, but repenting, she gave
him to be the most beautiful of nature's works. Other
Fairies gave him the gift of penetrating the thoughts of
men, and of transporting himself and others from place to
place by a wish ; and the faculty, by like easy means, of
raising and removing castles, palaces, gardens, banquets, and
such like. He further informed the knight, that he was
king and lord of Mommur ; and that when he should leave
this world his seat was prepared in Paradise for Oberon,
like his prototype Elberich, was a veritable Christian.
When after a variety of adventures Oberon comes to Bor-
deaux to the aid of Huon, and effects a reconciliation
between him and Charlemagne, he tells Huon that the time
is at hand that he should leave this world and take the seat
prepared for him in Paradise, " en faerie ne veux plus de-
meurer." He directs him to appear before him within four
years in his city of Mommur, where he will crown him as his
successor.
Here the story properly ends, but an addition of consider-
able magnitude has been made by a later hand, in which the
story is carried on.
Many are the perils which Huon encounters before the
period appointed by Oberon arrives. At length, however, he
sorte et maniere, qu'il n'estoit beste an monde qu'il vousist souhaiter qu i
icelle Heche elle ne s'arrestast. II avoit a son cc a uu riche cor, lequel estoit
pendu a deux riches attaches de fin or.
42 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAI?C*.
and the fair Esclairmonde (the Eezia of "Wieland) come to
Moinmiir. Here, in despite of Arthur (who, with his sister
Morgue la face and a large train, arrives at court, and seta
himself in opposition to the will of the monarch, but is
reduced to order by Oberon's threat of turning him into a
Luyton de Mer*), Huon is crowned king of all Faerie " tant
du pais des Luytons comme des autres choses secretes reser-
vees dire aux hommes." Arthur gets the kingdom of
Bouquant, and that which Sybilla held of Oberon, and all
the Faeries that were in the plains of Tartary. The good
king Oberon then gave Huon his last instructions, recom-
mending his officers and servants to him, and charging him
to build an abbey before the city, in the mead which the
dwarf had loved, and there to bury him. Then, falling
asleep in death, a glorious troop of angels, scattering odours
as they flew, conveyed his soul to Paradise.
Isaie le Triste is probably one of the latest romances,
certainly posterior to Huon de Bordeaux, for the witty but
deformed dwarf Tronc, who is so important a personage in
it, is, we are told, Oberon, whom Destiny compelled to spend
a certain period in that form. And we shall, as we have
promised, prove Oberon to be the handsome dwarf-king
Elberich. In Isaie the Faery ladies approach to the Fees
of Perrault, and Madame D'Aulnoy. Here, as at the birth
of Oberon and of Ogier le Danois, they interest themselves
for the new-born child, and bestow their gifts upon it. The
description in this romance of the manner in which the old
hermit sees them occupied about the infant Isaie is very
pleasing. It was most probably Fairies of this kind, and not
the diminutive Elves, that Milton had in view when writing
these lines :
Good luck betide thee, con, for, at thy birth,
The Faery ladies danced upon the hearth.
Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And, sweetly singing round about thy bed,
Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head.
* This sort of transformation appears to have been a usual mode of punish-
ing in a Fairy land. It may have come from Circe, hut the Thousand and
One Nights is full of such transformations. For luyton or lutin, see below,
France.
MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE. 4S
The description of the Vergier des Fees in Isaie le Triste,
and of the beautiful valley in which it was situated, may
rival in richness and luxuriancy similar descriptions in
Spenser and the Italian poets.*
We have now, we trust, abundantly proved our position
of the Fairies of romance being, at least at the commence-
ment, only ' human mortals,' endowed with superhuman
powers, though we may perceive that, as the knowledge of
Oriental fiction increased, the Fairies began more and more
to assume the character of a distinct species. Our position
will acquire additional strength when in the course of our
inquiry we arrive at France and Italy.
Closely connected with the Fairies is the place of their
abode, the region to which they convey the mortals whom
they love, ' the happy lond of Faery.'
We are only acquainted with this romance through Mr. Duulop's analym.
FAIRY LAND.
There, renewed the vital spring,
Again he reigns a mighty king
And many a fair and fragrant clime,
Blooming in immortal prime,
By gales of Eden ever fanned,
Owns the monarch's high command.
T. WABTOW.
all nations the mixture of joy and pain, of exqui-
site delight and intense misery in the present state, has led
the imagination to the conception of regions of unmixed bliss
destined for the repose of the good after the toils of this life,
and of climes where happiness prevails, the abode of beings
superior to man. The imagination of the Hindoo paints his
Swergas as ' profuse of bliss,' and all the joys of sense are
collected into the Paradise of the Mussulman. The Persian
lavished the riches of his fancy in raising the Cities of
Jewels and of Amber that adorn the realms of Jinnestan ;
the romancer erected castles and palaces filled with knights
and ladies in Avalon and in the land of Faerie ; while the
Hellenic bards, unused to pomp and glare, filled the Elysian
Fields and the Island of the Blest with tepid gales and
brilliant flowers. We shall quote without apology two
beautiful passages from Homer and Pindar, that our readers
may at one view satisfy themselves of the essential difference
between classic and romantic imagination.
In Homer, Proteus tells Menelaus that, because he had
had the honour of being the son-in-law of Zeus, he should
not die in "horse-feeding Argos."
But thee the ever-living gods will send
Unto the Elysian plain and distant bounds
Of Earth, where dwelleth fair-hair'd Rhadamanthui.
There life is easiest unto men ; no snow,
TAIftY LAND. 45
Or wintry storm, jr rain, at any time,
Is there ; but evermore the Ocean sends
Soft-breathirig airs of Zephyr to refresh
The habitants. Od. iv. 563.
This passage is finely imitated by Pindar, an: connected
with that noble tone of pensive morality, so akin to the
Oriental spirit, and by which the ' Dircsean Swan' is dis-
tinguished from all his fellows.
They speed their way
To Kronos' palace, where around
The Island of the Blest, the airs
Of Ocean breathe, and golden flowers
Blaze ; some on land
From shining trees, and other kinds
The water feeds. Of these
Garlands and bracelets round their arms they bind,
Beneath the righteous sway
Of Khadamanthus 01. ii. 126.
Lucretius has transferred these fortunate fields to the
superior regions, to form the abode of his faineans, gods ;
and Virgil has placed them, with additional poetic splendour,
in the bosom of the earth.
"Widely different from these calm and peaceful abodes of
parted warriors are the Faeries of the minstrels and roman-
cers. In their eyes, and in those of their auditors, nothing
was beautiful or good divested of the pomp and pride of
chivalry ; and chivalry has, accordingly, entered deeply into
the composition of their pictures of these ideal realms.
The Peeries of romance may be divided into three kinds
Avalon, placed in the ocean, like the Island of the Blest ;
those that, like the palace of Pari Banou, are within the
earth ; and, lastly, those that, like Oberon's domains, are
situate ' in wilderness among the holtis hairy.'
Of the castle and isle of Avalon,* the abode of Arthur and
Oberon, and Morgue la faye, the fullest description is to be
* Avalon was perhaps the Island of the Blest, of Celtic mythology, ana
then the abode of the Fees, through the Breton Kerrigan. Writers, however,
seem to be unanimous in regarding it and Glastonbury as the same place,
called an isle, it is stated, as being made nearly such by the " river's embrace-
46 FAIET LA1TD.
seen in the romance of Ogier le Danois, from which, as we
know no sure quarter but the work itself to refer to for the
part connected with the present subject, we will make some
extracts.*
At the birth of Ogier several Fairies attended, who
bestowed on him various gifts. Among them was Morgue
la Faye, who gave him that he should be her lover and friend.
Accordingly, when Ogier had long distinguished himself in
love and war, and had attained his hundredth year, the
affectionate Morgue thought it was time to withdraw him
from the toils and dangers of mortal life, and transport him
to the joys and the repose of the castle of Avalon. In pur-
suance of this design, Ogier and king Caraheu are attacked
by a storm on their return from Jerusalem, and their vessels
separated. The bark on which Ogier was " floated along the
sea till it came near the castle of loadstone, which is called
the 3astle of Avalon, which is not far on this side of the
terrestrial paradise, whither were rapt in a flame of fire
Enock and Helias ; and where was Morgue la Faye, who at
his birth had endowed him with great gifts, noble and
virtuous."t
The vessel is wrecked against the rock ; the provisions
are divided among the crew, and it is agreed that every man,
as his stock failed, should be thrown into the sea. Ogier' s
stock holds out longest, and he remains alone. He is nearly
reduced to despair, when a voice from heaven cries to him :
" God commandeth thee that, as soon as it is night, thou go
unto a castle that thou wilt see shining, and pass from bark to
bark till thou be in an isle which thou wilt find. And
when thou wilt be in that isle thou wilt find a little path,
and of what thou mayest see within be not dismayed at any-
thing. And then Ogier looked, but he saw nothing." J
"When night came, Ogier recommended himself to Grod,
ment." It was named Avalon, we are told, from the British word Aval, an
apple, as it abounded with orchards ; and Ynys gwydrin ; Saxon Glarrn-ey,
glassy isle ; Latin, Glastonia, from the green hue of the water surrounding it,
* See Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. ix., for a further account of Ogier.
f- Tant nagea en iner qu'il arriva pres du chastel daymant quon nomme le
chastcau davallon, qui nest gueres deca paradis terrestre la ou furent ravis en
une raye de feu Enoc et Helye, et la ou estoit Morgue la faye, qui a sa nais-
ance lui avoit donne de grands dons, nobles et vertueux.
Dieu te mantle que si tott que sera nuit que tu ailles en ung chasteau que
FAIRY LAJTD. 47
and seeing the castle of loadstone all resplendent with light,
he went from one to the other of the vessels that were
wrecked there, and so got into the island where it was. On
arriving at the gate he found it guarded by two fierce lions.
He slew them and entered ; and making his way into a hal^
found a horse sitting at a table richly supplied. The cour-
teous animal treats him with the utmost respect, and the
starving hero makes a hearty supper. The horse then pre-
vails on him to get on his back, and carries him into a
splendid chamber, where Ogier sleeps that night. The
name of this horse is Papillon, " who was a Luiton, and
had been a great prince, but king Arthur conquered him, so
he was condemned to be three hundred years a horse with-
out speaking one single word, but after the three hundred
years he was to have the crown of joy which they wore in
Faerie." *
Next morning he cannot find Papillon, but on opening a
door he meets a huge serpent, whom he also slays, and
follows a little path which leads him into an orchard " tant
bel et tant plaisant, que cestoit w.ng petit paradis a veoir."
He plucks an apple from one of the trees and eats it, but is
immediately affected by such violent sickness as to be put
in fear of speedy death. He prepares himself for his fate,
regretting " le bon pays de France, le roi Charlemaigne . . .
et principallement la bonne royne dangleterre, sa bonne
espouse et vraie amie, ma dame Clarice, qui tant estoit belle
et noble." While in this dolorous state, happening to turn
to the east, he perceived " une moult belle dame, toute
vestue de blanc, si bien et si richement aornee que cestoit
ung grant triumphe que de la veoir."
Ogier, thinking it is the Virgin Mary, commences an Ave;
but the lady tells him she is Morgue la Faye, who at his
birth had kissed him, and retained him for her loyal amoureux,
though forgotten by him. She places then on his finger a
tu verras luire, et passe de bateau en bateau tant que tu soies en une isle que
tu trouveras. Et quand tu seras en lisle tu trouveras une petite sente, et de
chose que tu voies leans ne tesbahis de rien. Et adonc Ogier regarda mais il
ne vit rien.
* Lequel estoit luiton, et avoit este ung grant prince ; mais le roi Artus le
conquist, si fust condampne a estre trois cens ans cheval sans parler ung tou
seul mot ; mais apres les trois cens ans, il devoit avoir la couronne de joye d
laquclle ils usoient en faerie.
48
ring, which removes all infirmity, and Ogier, a hundred
years old, returns to the vigour and beauty of thirty. She
now leads him to the castle of Avalon, where were her
brother king Arthur, and Auberon, and Mallonbron, " ung
luiton de mer."
"And when Morgue drew near to the said castle of
Avalon, the Fays came to meet Ogier, singing the most
melodiously that ever could be heard, so he entered into the
hall to solace himself completely. There he saw several
Fay ladies adorned and all crowned with crowns most
sumptuously made, and very rich, and evermore they sung,
danced, and led a right joyous life, without thinking of
any evil thing whatever, but of taking their mundane
pleasures."* Morgue here introduces the knight to Arthur,
and she places on his head a crown rich and splendid beyond
estimation, but which has the Lethean quality, that whoso
wears it,
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain ;
for Ogier instantly forgot country and friends. He had no
thought whatever " ni de la dame Clarice, qui tant estoit belle
et noble," nor of Guy on his brother, nor of his nephew
Gauthier, " ne de creature vivante." His days now rolled
on in never-ceasing pleasure. " Such joyous pastime did
the Fay ladies make for him, that there is no creature in
this world who could imagine or think it, for to hear them
sing so sweetly it seemed to him actually that he was in
Paradise ; so the time passed from day to day, from week
to week, in such sort that a year did not last a month
to him."f
* Et quand Morgue approcha du dit chasteau, les Faes vindrent au devant
dogier, chantant le plus melodieusement quon scauroit jamais ouir, si entra
dedans la salle pour se deduire totallement. Adonc vist plusieurs dames Faces
aournees et toutes courronnees de courounes tressomptueusement faictes, et
moult riches, et tout jour cbantoicnt, dansoient, et menoient vie tresjoyeuse,
gang penser a nulle quelconque meschante chose, fors prandre leurs mondaioa
plaisirs.
+ Tant de joyeulx passctemps lui faisoient les dames Faees, quil nest
creature en ce monde quil le sceust imaginer ne penser, car les ouir si doulce-
ment chanter il lui sembloit proprement quil fut en Paradis, si passoit temp*
de jour en jour, de sepmaine en sepmaine, tellement que ung an ne lui duroit
oas ung moit.
TAIKT LAITl). 49
But Avalou was still on earth, and therefore its bliss Tas
not unmixed. One day Arthur took Ogier aside, and
informed him that Capalus, king of the Luitons, incessantly
attacked the castle of Faerie with design to eject king
Arthur from its dominion, and was accustomed to penetrate
to the basse court, calling on Arthur to come out and
engage him. Ogier asked permission to encounter this
formidable personage, which Arthur willingly granted. No
sooner, however, did Capalus see Ogier than he surrendered
to him ; and the knight had the satisfaction of leading him
into the castle, and reconciling him to its inhabitants.
Two hundred years passed away in these delights, and
seemed to Ogier but twenty: Charlemagne and all his
lineage had failed, and even the race of Ogier was extinct,
when the Paynims invaded France and Italy in vast numbers;
and Morgue no longer thought herself justified in withhold-
ing Ogier from the defence of the faith. Accordingly, she
one day took the Lethean crown from off his head : imme-
diately all his old ideas rushed on his mind, and inflamed
him with an ardent desire to revisit his country. The Fairy
gave him a brand which was to be preserved from burning,
for so long as it was unconsumed, so long should his life
extend. She adds to her gift the horse Papillon and his
comrade Benoist. " And when they were both mounted, all
the ladies of the castle came to take leave of Ogier, by the
command of king Arthur and of Morgue la Faye, and they
sounded an aubade of instruments, the most melodious thing
to hear that ever was listened to ; then, when the aubade
was finished, they sung with the voice so melodiously, that
it was a thing so melodious that it seemed actually to Ogier
that he was in Paradise. Again, when that was over, they
sung with the instruments in such sweet concordance that
it seemed rather to be a thins divine than mortal."* The
* Et quand ils furent tous deux monies, toutes les dames du chasteau
vindrent a la departie dogier, par le commandement du roi Artus et de
Morgue la fae, et sonnerent une aubade dinstrumeiis, la plus melodieuse chose
a ouir que on entendit janiais ; puis, 1'aubade aehevec, chantcrent de gorge si
melodieusement que cestoit une cliose si melodieuse que il sembloit propre-
ment a Ogier quil estoit en Paradis. De rechief, cela fini, ils chanterent
avecques les instrumens par si doulce concordance quil sembloit mieulx chose
divine que humtine.
E
50 FAIRY LAND.
knight then took leave of all, and a cloud, enveloping hin,
and his companion, raised them, and set them down by a fair
fountain near Montpellier. Ogier displays his ancient
prowess, routs the infidels, and on the death of the king is
on the point of espousing the queen, when Morgue appears
and takes him back to Avalon. Since then Ogier has never
reappeared in this world.
Nowhere is a Faerie of the second kind so fully and
circumstantially described as in the beautiful romance of
Orfeo and Heurodis. There are, indeed, copious extracts
from this poem in Sir Walter Scott's Essay on the Fairies
of Popular Superstition ; and we have no excuse to offer
for repeating what is to be found in a work so universally
diffused as the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, but that
it is of absolute necessity for our purpose, and that romantic
poetry is rarely unwelcome.
Orfeo and Heurodis were king and queen of Winchester.
The queen happening one day to sleep under an ymp* tree
in the palace orchard, surrounded by her attendants, had a
dream, which she thus relates to the king :
As I lay this undertide (afternoon)
To sleep under the orchard-side,
There came to me two faire knightes
Well arrayed alle rightes,
And bade me come without letting
To speake with their lord the king ;
And I answer'd with wordes bolde
That I lie durste ne I nolde :
Fast again they can (did) drive,
Then came their kinge all so blive (quick)
With a thousand knights and mo,
And with ladies fifty also,
And riden all on snow-white steedes,
And also white were then- weedes.
I sey (saw) never sith I was borne
So faire knightes me by forne.
The kiiige had a crown on his head,
It was not silver ne gold red ;
* Imp tree is a grafted tree. Sir W. Scott queries if it be not a tree con-
secrated to the imps or fiends. Had imp that sense BO early ? A grafted tree
had |>erhaps the game relation to the Fairies that the linden in Germany and
the North had to the dwarfs.
FAIRY LATTD. 51
All it was of precious stone,
As bright as sun forsooth it shone.
All so soon he to me came,
Wold I, nold I he me name (took),
And made me with him ride
On a white palfrey by his side,
And brought me in to his palis,
Right well ydight over all ywis.
He shewed me castels and toures,
Meadows, rivers, fields and flowres,
And hid forests everiche one,
And sith he brought me again home.
The fairy-king orders her, under a dreadful penalty, to
await him next morning under the ymp tree. Her husband
and ten hundred knights stand in arms round the tree to
protect her,
And yet amidde's them full right
The queene was away y-twight (snatched) ;
With Faery forth y-nome (taken) ;
Men wist never where she was become.
Orfeo in despair abandons his throne, and retires to the
wilderness, where he solaces himself with his harp, charming
with his melody the wild beasts, the inhabitants of the spot.
Often while here,
He mighte see him besides
Oft in hot undertides
The king of Faery with his rout
Come to hunt him all about,
With dim cry and blowing,
And houndes also with him barking.
Ac (yet) no beastd they no nome,
Ne never he nist whither they be come ;
And other while he might them see
As a great hoste by him te.*
Well atourned ten hundred knightes
Each well y-armed to his rightes,
Of countenance stout and fierce,
With many displayed banners,
And each his sword y-drawe hold ;
Ac never he niste whither they wold.
And otherwhile he seigh (saw) other thing,
Knightes and levedis (ladies) come dauncing
* Te or tew (Drayton, Poly-Olb. xxv.) is to draw, to march ; from A. Si
te<5jan, trujan, ceon (Germ, zieneri), whence tug, team.
3
52 FAIET LAXD.
In quaint attire guisely,
Quiet pace and softely.
Tabours and trumpes gede (went) him by,
And alle manere niinstracy.
And on a day he seigh him beside
Sixty levedis on horse ride,
Gentil and jolif as brid on ris (bird on branch),
Nought o (one) man amonges hem ther nis,
And each a faucoun on hond bare,
And riden on hauken by o river.
Of game they found well good haunt,
Mallardes, heron, and cormeraunt.
The fowles of the water ariseth,
Each faucoun them well deviseth,
Each faucoun his preye slough * (slew).
Among the ladies he recognises his lost queen, and h
determines to follow them, and attempt her rescue.
In at a roche (rock) the levedis rideth,
And he after and nought abideth.
When he was in the roche y-go
Well three miles other (or) mo,
He came into a fair countray
As bright soonne summers day,
Smooth and plain and alle grene,
Hill ne dale nas none y-seen.
Amiddle the lond a castel he seigh,
Rich and real and wonder high.
Alle the utmoste wall
Was clear and shine of cristal.
An hundred towers there were about,
Deguiselich and batailed stout.
The buttras come out of the ditch,
Of rede gold y-arched rich.
The bousour was anowed all
Of each manere diverse animal,
Within there were wide wones
All of precious stones.
The worste pillar to behold
Was all of burnished gold.
All that lond was ever light,
For when it should be therk (dark) and night,
* Beanie probably knew nothing of Orfeo and Heurodis, and the Fairy
Vision in the Minstrel (a dream that would never have occurred to any
ruinstrel) was derived from the Flower and the Leaf, Dryden's, not Chaucer's,
for the personages in the latter are not called Fairies. In neither are
thev Elves.
FAIRY LA> T D. 63
The riche stones lighte gonue (yield*)
Bright as doth at nonne the sonne,
No man may tell ne think in thought
The riche work that there was wrought.
Orfeo makes his way into this palace, and so charms the
king with his minstrelsy, that he gives him back his wife.
They return to Winchester, and there reign, in peace and
happiness.
Another instance of this kind of Feerie may be seen in
Thomas the Bymer, but, restricted by our limits, we must
omit it, and pass to the last kind.
Sir Thopas was written to ridicule the romancers; its
incidents must therefore accord with theirs, and the Feerie
in it in fact resembles those in Huon de Bordeaux. It has
the farther merit of having suggested incidents to Spenser,
and perhaps of having given the idea of a queen regnante of
Fairy Land. Sir Thopas is chaste as Graelent.
Full many a maide bright in bour
They mourned for him par amour ;
When hem were bete to slepe ;
But he was chaste and no lechour,
And sweet as is the bramble flour
That bereth the red hepe.
He was therefore a suitable object for the love of a gentle
elf-queen. So Sir Thopas one day " pricketh through a faire
forest" till he is weary, and he then lies down to sleep on
the grass, where he dreams of an elf-queen, and awakes,
declaring
An elf-queen wol I love, y wis.
All other women I forsake,
And to an elf-queen I me take
By dale and eke by down.
He determines to set out in quest of her.
Into his sadel he clombe anon.
And pricked over style and stone,
An elf-quene for to espie ;
Till he so long had ridden and gone,
That he found in a privee wone
The countree of Faerie,+
* G'onnen, Germ.
The " countrie of Faerie," situated in a " privee wone," plainly accord*
54 FAIET LAIO.
Wherein he soughte north and south.
And oft he spied with his mouth
In many a forest wilde ;
For in that countree n'as there none
That to him dorst ride or gon,
Neither wif ne childe.
The " gret giaunt " Sire Oliphaunt, however, informs
that
Here is the quene of Faerie,
With harpe and pipe and simphonie,
Dwelling in this place.
Owing to the fastidiousness of "mine hoste," we are
unable to learn how Sir Thopas fared with the elf-queen,
and we have probably lost a copious description of Fairy
Land.
From the glimmering of the morning star of English
poetry, the transition is natural to its meridian splendour,
the reign of Elizabeth, and we will now make a few remarks
on the poem of Spenser.
rather with the Feeries of Huon de Bordeaux than with A valon, or the regioa
into which Dame Heurodia was taken.
SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE.
A braver lady never Iript on land,
Except the ever-living Faerie Queene,
"Whose virtues by her swain so written been
That time shall call her high enhanced story,
In his rare song, the Muse's chiefest glory.
BBOVTH.
DTJBING the sixteenth century the study of classical litera-
ture, which opened a new field to imagination, and gave it a
new impulse, was eagerly and vigorously pursued. A classic
ardour was widely and extensively diffused. The composi-
tions of that age incessantly imitate and allude to the
beauties and incidents of the writings of ancient Greece
and Eome.
Tet amid this diffusion of classic taste and knowledge,
romance had by no means lost its influence. The black-
letter pages of Lancelot du Lac, Perceforest, Mort d' Arthur,
and the other romances of chivalry, were still listened to
with solemn attention, when on winter-evenings the family
of the good old knight or baroii ' crowded round the ample
fire,' to hear them made vocal, and probably no small degree
of credence was given to the wonders they recorded. The
passion for allegory, too, remained unabated. Fine moral
webs were woven from the fragile threads of the Innamorato
and the Furioso ; and even Tasso was obliged, in compliance
with the reigning taste, to extract an allegory from his
divine poem ; which Fairfax, when translating the Jerusalem,
was careful to preserve. Spenser, therefore, when desirous
of consecrating his genius to the celebration of the glories
of the maiden reign, and the valiant warriors and grave
statesmen who adorned it, had hh materials ready pre-
pared. Fairy-land, as described by the romancers, gave him
56 SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE.
a scene ; the knights and dames with whom it sras peopled,
actors ; and its court, its manners, and iisages, a facility of
transferring thither whatever real events might suit his
design.
It is not easy to say positively to what romance the poet
was chiefly indebted for his Faery-land. We might, perhaps,
venture to conjecture that his principal authority was Huon
de Bordeaux, which had been translated some time before by
Lord Berners, and from which it is most likely that Shakes-
peare took his Oberon, who was thus removed from the
realms of romance, and brought back among his real kindred,
the dwarfs or elves. Spenser, it is evident, was acquainted
with this romance, for he says of Sir Guyon,
He was an elfin born of noble state
And mickle worship in his native land ;
Well could he tourney and in lists debate,
And knighthood took of good Sir Jfuon's hand,
When with King Oberon he came to Fairy-land.
B. ii. c. 1. st. vL
And here, if such a thing were to be heeded, the poet
commits an anachronism in making Sir Huon, who slew the
son of Charlemagne, a contemporary of Arthur.
Where " this delightful land of Faery" lies, it were as idle
to seek as for Oberon' s realm of Mommur, the island of
Calypso, or the kingdom of Lilliput. Though it shadow
forth England, it is distinct from it; for Cleopolis excels
Troynovant in greatness and splendour, and Elfin, the first
Fairy king, ruled over India and America. To the curious
the poet says,
Of Faery-lond yet if he more inquire,
By certain signes here sett in sondrie place,
He may it fynd, ne let him then admyre,
But yield his sence to be too blunt and bace,
That no'te without an hound fine footing trace.
The idea of making a queen sole regnante of Fairy-land
was the necessary result of the plan of making " the fayrest
princesse under sky" view her "owne realmes in lond of
faery." Yet there may have been sage authority for this
settlement of the fairy throne. Some old romancers may
have spoken only of a queen ; and the gallant Sir Thopas
SPENSEB'S FAEBIE QUEENE. 57
does not seem to apprehend that he is in pursuit of the
wedded wife of another. This doughty champion's dream
was evidently the original of Arthur's.
Forwearied with my sportes, I did alight
From loftie steede, and downe to sleepe me layd ;
The verdant grass my couch did goodly dight,
And pillow was my helmett fayre displayd ;
Whiles every sence the humour sweet embay d,
Me seemed by my side a royall mayd
Her dainty limbes full softly down did lay,
So faire a creature yet saw never sunny day.
Most goodly glee and lovely blandishment
She to me made, and badd me love her deare,
For dearly, sure, her love was to me bent,
As, when iust time expired, should appeare :
But whether dreames delude, or true it were,
Was never hart so ravisht with delight,
Ne living man such wordes did never heare
As she to me delivered all that night,
And at her parting said, she queen of Faries hight.
*****
From that day forth I cast in carefull mynd
To seek her out with labor and long tyne,
And never vow to rest till her I fynd
N"yne months I seek in vain, yet n'ill that vow unbynd.
B. i. c. 9. st. xiii., xiv., xv.
The names given by Spenser to these beings are Faya
(Fees), Farys or Fairies, Elfes and Elfins, of which last-
words the former had been already employed by Chaucer,
and in one passage it is difficult to say what class of beings
is intended. Spenser's account of the origin of his Fairies
is evidently mere invention, as nothing in the least resem-
bling it is to be found in any preceding writer. It bears,
indeed, some slight and distant analogy to that of the origin
of the inhabitants of Jinnestan, as narrated by the Orientals.
According to the usual practice of Spenser, it is mixed up
with the fables of antiquity.
Prometheus did create
A man of many parts from beasts deryved ;
That man so made he called Elfe, to weet,
Quick,* the first author of all Elfin kynd,
Who, wandring through the world with wearie feet,
* That is, elfe is alive.
58 SPENSER'S FAEKIK QUEENE,
Did in the gardins of Adonis fynd
A goodly creature, whom he deemed in mynd
To be no earthly wight, but either spright
Or angell, the authour of all woman-kynd ;
Therefore a Fay he her according hight,
Of whom all Faryes spring, and fetch their lignage right.
Of these a mighty people shortly grew,
And puissant kings, which all the world warrayd,
And to themselves all nations did subdue.
B. ii. c. 9. st. Ixx., IxxL, Ixxii.
Sir "Walter Scott remarks with justice (though his memory
played him somewhat false on the occasion), that " the
stealing of the Red Cross Knight while a child, is the only
incident in the poem which approaches to the popular cha-
racter of the Fairy." It is not exactly the only incident;
but the only other, that of Arthegal, is a precisely parallel
one:
He wonneth in the land of Fayeree,
Yet is no Fary born, ne sib at all
To Elfes, but sprung of seed terrestriall,
And whyleome by false Faries stolne away,
Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall :
Ne other to himself is knowne this day,
But that he by an Elfe was gotten of a Fay.
B. iii. c. 3. st. xxvL
Sir "Walter has been duly animadverted on for this dan-
gerous error by the erudite Mr. Todd. It would be as little
becoming as politic in us, treading, as we do, on ground
where error ever hovers around us, to make any remark.
Freedom from misconception and mistake, unfortunately,
forms no privilege of our nature.
We must here observe, that Spenser was extremely inju-
dicious in his selection of the circumstances by which he
endeavoured to confound the two classes of Fairies. It was
Siite incongruous to style . the progeny of the subjects of
loriane a " base elfin brood," or themselves " false Fairies,"
especially when we recollect that such a being as Belphrebe
whose
whole creation did her shew
Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime,
That is ingenerate in fleshly slime,
was born of a Fairie.
SPENSEB'S FAEEIE QTJEEXE. 59
Our poet seems to have forgotten himself also in the
Legend of Sir Calidore ; for though the knight is a Faerie
himself, and though such we are to suppose were all the
native inhabitants of Faerie-land, yet to the " gentle flood '
that tumbled down from Mount Acidale,
ne mote the ruder clown
Thereto approach ne filth mote therein drown ;
But Nymphs and Faenes on the banks did sit
In the woods shade which did the waters crown.
B. vi. c. 10. st. vii.
And a little farther, when Calidore gazes on the " hundred
naked maidens lily white," that danced around the Graces,
lie wist not
Whether it were the train of beauty's queen,
Or Nymphs or Faeries, or enchanted show,
With which his eyes mote have deluded been. St. xvii.
The popular Elves, who dance their circlets on the green,
were evidently here in Spenser's mind.*
It is now, we think, if not certain, at least highly probable,
that the Fairy-land and the Fairies of Spenser are those of
romance, to which the term Fairy properly belongs, and that
it is without just reason that the title of his poem has been
styled a misnomer.^ After the appearance of his Faerie
Queene, all distinction between the different species was
rapidly lost, and Fairies became the established name of the
popular Elves.
Here, then, we will take our leave of the potent ladies of
romance, and join the Elves of the popular creed, tracing
their descent from the Duergar of northern mythology, till
we meet them enlivening the cottage fireside with the tales
of their pranks and gambols.
* These Fairies thus coupled with Nymphs remind us of the Fairies of the
old translators. Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, however, had united
them before, as
Nor elvish ghosts nor ghastly owls do flee,
But friendly Faeries met with many Graces,
And light-foot Nymphs. JEg. 6.
+ " Spenser's Fairy Queen, which is one of the grossest misnomers in
romance or history, bears no features of the Fairy nation." Gifford, note on
B. Jonson, vol. ii. p. 202.
EDDAS AND SAGAS.
En sang om stralende Valhalla,
Om Gudar och Gudinnar alia.
TEGNEI.
A song of Vallhall's bright abodes,
Of all the goddesses and gods.
THE ancient religion of Scandinavia, and probably of the
whole Gotho- German race, consisted, like all other systems
devised by man, in personifications of the various powers of
nature and faculties of mind. Of this system in its fulness
and perfection we possess no record. It is only from the
poems of the elder or poetic Edda,* from the narratives of
the later or prose Edda and the various Sagas or histories
written in the Icelandic language,t that we can obtain any
knowledge of it.
The poetic or Ssemund's Edda was, as is generally believed,
collected about the end of the eleventh or beginning of the
twelfth century by an Icelander named Saemund, and styled
Hinns Proda, or The Wise. It consists of a number of
mythological and historical songs, the production of the
ancient Scalds or poets, all, or the greater part, composed
before the introduction of Christianity into the north. The
measure of these venerable songs is alliterative rime, and
they present not unfrequently poetic beauties of a high and
striking character. J
* Edda signifies grandmother. Some regard it as the feminine of othr, or
odr, wisdom.
f- This language is so called because still spoken in Iceland. Its proper
name is the Norrsena Tunga (northern tongue). It was the common language
of the whole North.
See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. is.
EDDAS AND SAGAS. 61
The prose Edda is supposed to have been compiled in the
thirteenth century by Snorro Sturlesou, the celebrated his-
torian of Norway. It is a history of the gods and their
actions formed from the songs of the poetic Edda, and from
other ancient poems, several stanzas of which are incorpo-
rated in it. Beside the preface and conclusion, it consists
of two principal parts, the first consisting of the Gylfa-
ginning (Gylfa's Deception), or Hars Lygi (Heir's i. e. Odin's
Fiction), and the Braga-rsedur (Brayas Narrative), each of
which is divided into several Daemi-sagas or Illustrative
Stories; and the second named the Kenniiigar or list of poetic
names and periphrases.*
The Gylfa-ginning narrates that Gylfa king of Sweden,
struck with the wisdom and power of the -3ser,f as Odin
and his followers were called, journeyed in the likeness of
an old man, and under the assumed name of Ganglar, to
Asgard their chief residence, to inquire into and fathom their
wisdom. Aware of his design, the ^ser by their magic art
caused to arise before him a lofty and splendid palace, roofed
with golden shields. At the gate he found a man who was
throwing up and catching swords, seven of which were in
the air at one time. This man inquires the name of the
stranger, whom he leads into the palace, where Granglar sees
a number of persons drinking and playing, and three thrones,
each set higher than the other. On the thrones sat Har
(Hiff7i), Jafnhar (JEqual-higli), and Thridi (Third). Ganglar
asks if there is any one there wise and learned. Har replies
that he will not depart in safety if he knows more than
they.J Ganglar then commences his interrogations, which
embrace a variety of recondite subjects, and extend from the
creation to the end of all things. To each he receives a
satisfactory reply. At the last reply Ganglar hears a loud
* It was first published by Resenius in 1665.
"I" By the JEser are understood the Asiatics, who with Odin brought their
arts and religion into Scandinavia. This derivation of the word, however, is
rather dubious. Though possibly the population and religion of Scatdinavia
came originally from Asia there seems to be no reason whatever for putting
any faith in the legend of Odin. It is not unlikely that the name of their
gods, .ffiser, gave birth to the whole theory. It is remarkable that the ancient
Etrurians also should have called the gods -flEsar.
J So the lotunn or Giant Vaf'tlirudnir to Odin in the Vafthrudnisma!.
Strophe vii.
62 EDDAS AND SAGAS.
rush and noise : the magic illusion suddenly vanishes, and he
finds himself alone on an extensive plain.
The Braga-raedur is the discourse of Braga to -2Egir, the
god of the sea, at the banquet of the Immortals. This part
contains many tales of gods and heroes old, whose adventures
had been sung by Skalds, of high renown and lofty genius.
Though both the Eddas were compiled by Christians, there
appears to be very little reason for suspecting the compilers
of having falsified or interpolated the mythology of their
forefathers. Ssemund's Edda may be regarded as an Antho-
logy of ancient Scandinavian poetry ; and the author of the
prose Edda (who it is plain did not always understand the
true meaning of the tales he related) wrote it as a northern
Pantheon and Gradus ad Parnassum, to supply poets with
incidents, ornaments, and epithets. Fortunately they did so,
or impenetrable darkness had involved the ancient religion
of the Gothic stock !
Beside the Eddas, much information is to be derived from
the various Sagas or northern histories. These Sagas, at
times transmitting true historical events, at other times con-
taining the wildest fictions of romance, preserve much valu-
able mythic lore, and the Tnglinga, Volsunga, Hervarar, and
other Sagas, will furnish many important traits of northern
mythology.
It is not intended here to attempt sounding the depths
of Eddaic mythology, a subject so obscure, and concerning
which so many and various opinions occur in the works of
those who have occupied themselves with it. Suffice it to
observe that it goes back to the most remote ages, and that
two essential parts of it are the Alfar (Alfs or Elves) and
the Duergar (Dwarfs), two classes of beings whose names con-
tinue to the present day in all the languages of the nations
descended from the Gotho- German race.
" Our heathen forefathers," says Thorlacius,* " believed,
like the Pythagoreans, and the farther back in antiquity the
more firmly, that the whole world was filled with spirits of
various kinds, to whom they ascribed in general the same
nature and properties as the Greeks did to their Daemons.
These were divided into the Celestial and the Terrestrial,
* Thorlacius, Noget om Thor og bans Hammer. <n the Skandinavisk
Museum for iU03.
EDDAS AND SAGAS. 63
from their places of abode. The former were, according to
the ideas of those times, of a good and elevated nature, and
of a friendly disposition toward men, whence they also
received the name of White or Light Alfs or Spirits. The
latter, on the contrary, who were classified after their abodea
in air, sea, and earth, were not regarded in so favourable
a light. It was believed that they, particularly the land ones,
the daipovfs inixdovioi of the Greeks, constantly and on all oc-
casions sought to torment or injure mankind, and that they
had their dwelling partly on the earth in great thick woods,
whence came the name Skovtrolde* (Wood Trolls), or in
other desert and lonely places, partly in and under the
ground, or in rocks and hills ; these last were called Bjerg-
Trolde (Hill Trolls) : to the first, on account of their diffe-
rent nature, was given the name of Dverge (Dwarfs), and
Alve, whence the word Ellefolk, which is still in the Danish
language. These Daemons, particularly the underground
ones, were called Svartalfar, that is Black Spirits, and inas-
much as they did mischief, Trolls."
This very nearly coincides with what is to be found in the
Edda, except that there would appear to be some foundation
for a distinction between the Dwarfs and the Dark Alfs.f
* Thorlacius, ut supra, says the thundering Thor was regarded as particu-
larly inimical to the Skovtiolds, against whom he continually employed his
mighty weapon. He thinks that the Bidental of the Romans, and the rites
connected with it, seem to suppose a similar superstition, and that in the well-
known passage of Horace,
Tu parum castis inimica mittes
Fulmina lucis,
the words parum castis lucis rc*y mean groves or parts of woods, the haunt
of unclean spirits or Skovtrolds, tatyri lascivi et salaces. The word Trold
will be explained below.
+ The Dark Alfs were probably different from the Duergar, yet the lan-
guage of the prose Edda is in some places such as to lead to a confusion of
them. The following passage, however, seems to be decisive :
Nir, Dvergar
Ok Dock-A'lfar.
Hrafna-Galdr Othins, xxiv. 7.
Ghosts, Dwarfs
And Dark Alfs.
Yet the Scandinavian literati appear unanimous in regarding them as the same.
Grimm, however, agrees with us in viewing the Ddck-Alfar as distinct from
the Duergar. As the abode of these last is named Svart&lfaheimr, he thinks
that the Svartalfar and the Duergar were the same. Deutsche Mythologie,
p. 413, seg. See below, Isle of Rugen,
64 THE ALFAB.
THE ALFAB.
Ther ro meth Alfnm.
BETNHILDAR QCIDA
Those are with tlie Alfs.
Ix the prose Edda, Ganglar inquires what other cities be-
side that in which the Nornir dwelt were by the Urdar
fount, under the Ash Yggdrasil.* Har replies,
" There are many fair cities there. There is the city which
is called Alf-heim, where dwelleth the people that is called
Liosalfar {Light Alfs). But the Dockalfar (Dark Alfa}
dwell below under ground, and are unlike them in appearance,
and still more unlike in actions. The Liosalfar are whiter
than the sun in appearance, but the Dockalfar are blacker
than pitch. "f
The Nornir, the Parcae, or Destinies of Scandinavian
mythology, are closely connected with the Alfar.
" Many fair cities are there in Heaven," says Har, " and
the divine protection is over all. There standeth a city
under the ash near the spring, and out of its halls came three
maids, who are thus named, Udr, Verthaudi, Skulld (Past,
Present, Future). These maids shape the life of man. We
call them Nornir. But there are many Nornir ; those who
come to each child that is born, to shape its life, are of the
race of the gods ; but others are of the race of the Alfs ; and
the third of the race of dwarfs. As is here expressed,
Sundry children deem I
The Nornir to be the same
Race they have not.
Some are of JEser-kin,
Some are of Alf-kin,
Some are the daughters of Dualin." (i.e. of the Dwarfs.)
* The ash-tree, Yggdrasil, is the symbol of the universe, the Urdar-fount
is the fount of light and heat, which invigorates and sustains it. A good
representation of this myth is given in Mr. Bohn's edition of Mallet's " Northern
Antiquities," which the reader is recommended to consult.
f- This Grimm (ut sup.) regards as an error of the writer, who confounded
tbe Dock and the Svartdlfar.
F/DDAS AXD SAOAS. 65
" Then," said Ganglar, " if the Nornir direct the future des-
tiny of men, they shape it very unequally. Some have a good
life and rich, but some have little wealth and praise, some
long life, some short." " The good Noruir, and well de-
scended," says Har, "shape a good life; but as to those
who meet with misfortune, it is caused by the malignant
-ik -r ) i O
J> ormr.
These Xornir bear a remarkable resemblance to the classi-
cal Parcse and to the fairies of romance. They are all alike
represented as assisting at the birth of eminent personages,
as bestowing gifts either good or evil, and as foretelling the
future fortune of the being that has just entered on exist-
ence.* This attribute of the fairies may have been derived
from either the north or the south, but certainly these did
not borrow from each other.
Of the origin of the word Alf nothing satisfactory is to be
found. Some think it is akin to the Latin albus, white ;
others, to alpes, Alps, mountains. There is also supposed to
be some mysterious connexion between it and the word Elf,
or Elv, signifying water in the northern languages ; an ana-
logy which has been thought to correspond with that between
the Latin Nympha and Lympha. Both relations, however,
are perhaps rather fanciful than just. Of the derivation of
Alf, as just observed, we know nothing certain,! and the
original meaning of Xympha would appear to be a new-
married woman,;]; and thence a marriageable young woman ;
and it was applied to the supposed inhabitants of the moun-
tains, seas, aiid streams, on the same principle that the
northern nations gave them the appellation of men and
women, that is, from their imagined resemblance to the
human form.
Whatever its origin, the word Alf has continued till the
present day in all the Teutonic languages. The Danes have
Elv, pi. Elve ; the Swedes, Elf pi. Elfoar m. Elfvor f. ; and
the words Elf-dans and Elf-blcest, together with Olof and
other proper names, are derived from them. The Germans
call the nightmare Alp; and in their old poems we meet
* See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 274.
} The analogy of Deev, and other words of like import, might lead to tha
supposition of Spirit being the primary meaning of Alf.
J See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 248, second edition.
r
66 THE DUERGAB.
with Elbe and Elbinne, and Elbisch occurs in them in the
bad sense of elvish of Chaucer and our old romancers ; and a
number of proper names, such as Alprecht, Alphart, Alpine,
Alpwin,* were formed from it, undoubtedly before it got its
present ill sense.f In the Anglo-Saxon, ./Elf or ^Elpen, with
its feminine and plural, frequently occurs. The Oreas, Naias,
and Hamodryas of the Greeks and Eomans are rendered
in an Anglo-Saxon glossary by GOunc-aelpen, rsfi-aelpeu,
and pelb-aelfen.J ^Elp is a component part of the proper
names ^Elfred and jJElfric ; and the author of the poem of
Judith says that his heroine was ^Elp-pcine (Elf-sheen),
bright or fair as an elf. But of the character and acts of the
elfs no traditions have been preserved in Anglo-Saxon litera-
ture. In the English language, Elf, Elves, and their deriva-
tives are to be found in every period, from its first formation
down to this present time.
THE DUEEGAE.
By ek fur jorth nethan,
A ek, undir stein, stath.
ALVIB-MAL.
I dwell the earth beneath,
I possess, under the stone, my seat.
THESE diminutive beings, dwelling in rocks and hills, and
distinguished for their skill in metallurgy, seem to be pecu-
liar to the Gotho-German mythology. Perhaps the most
probable account of them is, that they are personifications of
* After the introduction of Christianity, Engel, angel, was employed for
Alp in most proper names, as Engelrich, Engelhart, etc.
f See MM. Grimm's learned Introduction to their translation of the Irish
Fairy Legends, and the Deutsche Mythologie of J. Grimm.
J MM. Grimm suppose with a good deal of probability, that these are
compounds formed to render the Greek ones, and are not expressive of a belief
in analogous classes of spirits.
Some think, but with little reason, thej- were originally a part of th
Finnish mythology, and were adopted into the Gothic gyatem
EDDAS AND SAAS. 07
the subterraneous powers of nature ; for it may be again
observed, that all the parts of every ancient mythology are
but personified powers, attributes, and moral qualities. The
Edda thus describes their origin :
" Then the gods sat on their seats, and held a council, and
called to mind how the Duergar had become animated in the
clay below in the earth, like maggots in flesh. The Duergar
had been first created, and had taken life in Tmir's * flesh,
and were maggots in it, and by the will of the gods they
became partakers of human knowledge, and had the likeness
of men, and yet they abode in the ground and in stones.
Modsogner was the first of them, and then Dyrin."
The Duergar are described as being of low stature, with
short legs and long arms, reaching almost down to the ground
when they stand erect.f They are skilful and expert work-
men in gold, silver, iron, and the other metals. They form
many wonderful and extraordinary things for the -Sser, and
for mortal heroes, and the arms and armour that come from
their forges are not to be paralleled. Tet the gift must be
spontaneously bestowed, for misfortune attends those ex-
torted from them by violence. +
In illustration of their character we bring forward the
following narratives from the Edda and Sagas. The homely
garb in which they are habited, will not, it is hoped, be dis-
pleasing to readers of taste. We give as exact a copy as we
are able of the originals in all their rudeness. The tales are
old, their date unknown, and they therefore demand respect.
Yet it is difficult to suppress a smile at finding such familiar,
nay almost vulgar terms applied to the great supernal
powers of nature, as occur in the following tale from the
Edda.
* The giant Ymir is a personification of Chaos, the undigested primal matter.
The sons of Borr (other personifications) slew him. Out of him they Conned
the woil ; his blood made the sea, his flesh the laud, his bones the mountains;
rocks sin cliffs were his teeth, jaws, and broken pieces of bones ; his skull
formed t ie heavens.
f- On mund Andreas in notis ad Volnspd.
J Th t they are not insensible to kindness one of the succeeding tales
will sli_-i .
Tin- habitual reader of the northern and German writers, or evei, nin old
Engli -h ones, will observe with Minirise his gradually diminished rout for
man) < juvssions now beconu .:iltr;>r ll< will find Inmselt' im;i >lj
falling ii ;o the habit of rep:' 'ln-m in tin- linlit "f 'lirir pristine
OS THE DUE&ttAJl.
Eofct an& tijr Stoarf.
LOKI, the son of Laufeiar, had out of mischief cut off all the
hair of Sif. When Thor found this out he seized Loki', and
would have broken every bone in his body, only that he
swore to get the Suartalfar to make for Sif hair of gold,
which would grow like any other hair.
Loki then went to the Dwarfs that are called the sons of
Ivallda. They first made the hair, which as soon as it was
put on the head grew like natural hair ; then the ship
Skidbladni,* which always had the wind with it, wherever it
would sail ; and, thirdly, the spear Gugner, which always
hit in battle.
Then Loki laid his head against the dwarf Brock, that his
brother Eitri could not forge three such valuable things as
these were. They went to the forge ; Eitri set the swine-
skin (bellows) to the fire, and bid his brother Brock to blow,
and not to quit the fire till he should have taken out the
things he had put into it.
And when he was gone out of the forge, and that Brock
was blowing, there came a fly and settled upon his hand,
and bit him ; but he blew without stopping till the smith
took the work out of the fire ; and it was a boar, and its
bristles were of gold.
He then put gold into the fire, and bid him not to stop
blowing till he came back. He went away, and then the fly
came and settled on his neck, and bit him more severely
than before ; but he blew on till the smith came back and
took out of the fire the gold-ring which is called Drupner.f
Then he put iron into the fire, and bid him blow, and said
* Skidbladni, like Par! Banou's tent, could expand and contract as required.
It would carry all the JEser and their arms, and when not in use it could bo
taken asunder and put in a purse. "A (food ship," says Ganglar, " is Skid-
dlailni, but great art must Lave been employed in making it." Mythologist*
lay i: is the clouds. + f. < . The Dripper.
EDDAS ANJ) 8AQAS. GP
that if he stopped blowing all the work would be lost. Thn
fly now settled between his eyes, and bit so hard that the
blood ran into his eyes, so that he could not see ; so when
the bellows were down he caught at the fly in all haste, and
tore off its wings ; but then came the smith, and said that
all that was in the fire had nearly been spoiled. He then
took out of the fire the hammer Miolner,* gave all the things
to his brother Brock, and bade him go with them to Asgard
and settle the wager.
Loki also produced his jewels, and they took Odin, Thor,
and Prey, for judges. Then Loki gave to Odin the spear
Ghigner, and to Thor the hair that Sif was to have, and to
Frey Skidbladni, and told their virtues as they have been
already related. Brock took out his jewels, and gave to Odin
the ring, and said that every ninth night there would drop
from it eight other rings as valuable as itself. To Frey he
gave the boar, and said that he would run through air and
water, by night and by day, better than any horse, and that
never was there night so dark that the way by which he
went would not be light from his hide. He gave the hammer
to Thor, and said that it would never fail to hit a Troll, and
that at whatever he threw it it would never miss it ; and that
he could never fling it so far that it would not of itself return
to his hand ; and when he chose, it would become so small
that he might put it into his pocket. But the fault of the
hammer was that its handle was too short.
Their judgment was, that the hammer was the best, and
that the Dwarf had won the wager. Then Loki prayed hard
not to lose his head, but the Dwarf said that could not be.
"Catch me then," said Loki; and when he went to catch
him he was far away, for Loki had shoes with which he could
run through air and water. Then the Dwarf prayed Thor to
catch him, and Thor did so. The Dwarf now went to cut
off his head, but Loki said he was to have the head only, and
not the neck. Then the Dwarf took a knife and a thong,
and went to sew up his mouth ; but the knife was bad, so the
Dwarf wished that his brother's awl were there ; and as soon
as he wished it it was there, and he sewed his lips together.t
* f. e. The Bruiser or Crusher, from Myla, to bruise or crush. Lfttlethi
Fancy know of the high connexions of their phrase Mill.
J" Edda Resenii, Daemisaga 59.
70 THE DUERGAB.
Northern mythologists thus explain this very ancient
fable. Sif is the earth, and the wife of Thor, the heaven or
atmosphere ; her hair is the trees, bushes, and plants, that
adorn the surface of the earth. Loki is the Fire-God, that
delights in mischief, bene servit, male imperat. When by
immoderate heat he has burned off the hair of Sif, her hus-
band compels him so by temperate heat to warm the mois-
ture of the earth, that its former products may spring up
more beautiful than ever. The boar is given to Freyr, to
whom and his sister Freya, as the gods of animal and
vegetable fecundity, the northern people offered that animal,
as the Italian people did, to the earth. Loki's bringing the
gifts from the under-ground people seems to indicate a belief
that metals were prepared by subterranean fire, and perhaps
the forging of Thor's hammer, the mythic emblem of
thunder, by a terrestrial demon, on a subterranean anvil,
may suggest that the natural cause of thunder is to be
sought in the earth.
anto rtje Qtonrf.
WHEN spring came, Thorston made ready his ship, and put
twenty-four men on board of her. When they came to
Vinland, they ran her into a harbour, and every day he went
on shore to amuse himself.
He came one day to an open part of the wood, where he
saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a Dwarf, who
was horridly ugly, and was looking up over his head with his
mouth wide open ; and it appeared to Thorston that it ran
from ear to ear, and that the lower jaw came down to his
knees. Thorston asked him, why he was acting so foolishly.
" Do not be surprised, my good lad," replied the Dwarf;
" do you not see that great dragon that is flying up there ?
He has taken off my son, and I believe that it is Odin him-
self that has sent the monster to do it. But I shall burst
and die if I lose my son." Then Thorston shot at the
dragon, and hit him under one of the wings, so that he feU
EDDAS AND SAGAS, 71
dead to the earth ; butThorston caught the Dwarf's child in
the air, and brought him to his father.
The Dwarf was exceeding glad, and was more rejoiced than
any one could tell ; and he said, " A great benefit have I to
reward you for, who are the deliverer of my son ; and now
choose your recompense in gold and silver." " Cure your
son," said Thorston, " but I am not used to take rewards for
my services." " It were not becoming," said the Dwarf,
" if I did not reward you ; and let not my shirt of sheeps'-
wool, which I will give you, appear a contemptible gift, for
you will never be tired when swimming, or get a wound, if
you wear it next your skin."
Thorston took the shirt and put it on, and it fitted him
well, though it had appeared too short for the Dwarf. The
Dwarf now took a gold ring out of his purse and gave it to
Thorston, and bid him to take good care of it, telling him
that he never should want for money while he kept that ring.
He next took a black stone and gave it to Thorston, and said,
" If you hide this stone in the palm of your hand no one will
see you. I have not many more things to offer you, or that
would be of any value to you ; I will, however, give you a
fire-stone for your amusement."
He then took the stone out of his purse, and with a steel
point. The stone was triangular, white on one side and red
on the other, and a yellow border ran round it. The Dwan
then said, " If you prick the stone with the point in the
white side, there will come on such a hail-storm that no one
will be able to look at it ; but if you want to stop this shower,
you have only to prick on the yellow part, and there will
come so much sunshine that the whole will melt away. But
if you should like to prick the red side, then there will come
out of it such fire, with sparks and crackling, that no one will
be able to look at it. You may also get whatever you will
by means of this point and stone, and they will come 01
themselves back to your hand when you call them. I can
now give you no more such gifts."
Thorston then thanked the Dwarf for his presents, and
returned to his men, and it was better for him to have made
this voyage than to have stayed at home.*
* Thoreton'g Saga, c. 3, in the KUmpa Dater.
72 THE DUEHGAB.
Che 0toarf=toortJ Cirfing.
STJAFOBLAMI, the second in descent from Odin, was king
over G-ardarike (Russia). One day he rode a-hunting, and
sought long after a hart, but could not find one the whole
day. When the sun was setting he found himself immersed
so deep in the forest that he knew not where he was. There
lay a hill on his right hand, and before it he saw two Dwarfs ;
he drew his sword agains ', them, and cut off their retreat by
getting between them and the rock. They proffered him
ransom for their lives, and he asked them then their names,
and one of them was called Dyren, and the other Dualin.
He knew then that they were the most ingenious and expert
of all the Dwarfs, and he therefore imposed on them that
they should forge him a sword, the best that they could
form ; its hilt should be of gold, and its belt of the same
metal. He moreover enjoined, that the sword should never
miss a blow, and should never rust ; and should cut through
iron and stone, as through a garment ; and should be always
victorious in war and in single combat for him who bare
it. These were the conditions on which he gave them
their lives.
On the appointed day he returned, and the Dwarfs came
forth and delivered him the sword ; and when Dualin stood
in the door he said, " This sword shall be the bane of a man
every time it is drawn ; and with it shall be done three of the
greatest atrocities. It shall also be thy bane." Then Sua-
torlami struck at the Dwarf so, that the blade of the sword
penetrated into the solid rock. Thus Suaforlami became
possessed of this sword, and he called it Tirfing, and he bare
it in war and in single combat, and he slew with it the Giant
Thiasse, and took his daughter Fridur.
Suaforlami was shortly after slain by the Berserker*
The Berserker* were warriors who used to be inflamed with such rage
.Tid fury at the thoughts of combats as to bite their shields, run through fire,
EDDAS AND SAGAS. 73
Andgriift, who then became master of the sword. When
the twelve sons of Andgrim were to fight with Hialmar
Jind Oddur for Ingaborg, the beautiful daughter of King
Inges, Angantyr bore the dangerous Tirfing ; but all the
brethren were slain in the combat, and were buried with
their arms.
Angantyr left an only daughter, Hervor, who, when she
grew up, dressed herself in man's attire, and took the name
of Hervardar, and joined a party of Vikinger, or Pirates.
Knowing that Tirfing lay buried with her father, she deter-
mined to awaken the dead, and obtain the charmed blade ;
and perhaps nothing in northern poetry equals in interest
and sublimity the description of her landing alone in the
evening on the island of Sams, where her father and uncles
lay in their sepulchral mounds, and at night ascending to the
tombs, that were enveloped in flame,* and by force of en-
treaty obtaining from the reluctant Angantyr the formidable
Tirfing.
Hervor proceeded to the court of King Gudmund, and
there one day, as she was playing at tables with the king,
one of the servants chanced to take up and draw Tirfing,
which shone like a sunbeam. But Tirfing was never to see
the light but for the bane of man, and Hervor, by a sudden
impulse, sprang from her seat, snatched the sword and struck
oif the head of the unfortunate man. Hervor, after this,
returned to the house of her grandfather, Jarl Biartmar,
where she resumed her female attire, and was married to
Haufud, the son of King Gudmund. She bare him two sons,
Angantyr and Heidreker ; the former of a mild and gentle
disposition, the latter violent and fierce. Haufud would not
permit Heidreker to remain at his court ; and as he was
departing, his mother, with other gifts, presented him Tirfing.
His brother accompanied him out of the castle. Before they
swallow burning coals, and perform such like mad feats. " Whether the
avidity for fighting or the ferocity of their nature," says Suxo, " brought thit
madness on them, is uncertain."
* The northern nations believed that the tombs of their heroes emitted a
kind of lambent flame, which was always visible in the night, and served to
guard the ashes of the dead ; they called it Hauga Elldr, or The Sepulchral
Fire. It vas supposed more particularly to surround such tombs as contained
hidden treasures. Bartholin, dc Cwtttmpt. a Dan. Morte, p. 275.
74 THE DUERGAB.
partei, Heidreker drew out his sword to look at and admire
it ; but scarcely did the rays of light Ml on the magic blade,
when the Berserker rage came on its owner, and he slew his
gentle brother.
After this he joined a body of ViMnger, and became so
distinguished, that King Harold, for the aid he lent him,
gave him his daughter Helga in marriage. But it was the
destiny of Tirfing to commit crime, and Harold fell by the
hand of his son-in-law. Heidreker was afterwards in Russia,
and the son of the king was his foster-son. One day, as they
were out hunting, Heidreker and his foster-son happened to
be separated from the rest of the party, when a wild boar
appeared before them ; Heidreker ran at him with his spear,
but the beast caught it in his mouth and broke it across.
He then alighted and drew Tirfing., and killed the boar ; but
on looking around, he could see no one but his foster-son,
and Tirfing could only be appeased with warm human blood,
and he slew the unfortunate youth. Finally, King Heidreker
was murdered in his bed by his Scottish slaves, who carried
off Tirfing ; but his son Angantyr, who succeeded him, dis-
covered and put them to death, and recovered the magic
blade. In battle against the Huns he afterwards made great
slaughter ; but among the slain was found his own brother
Laudur. And so ends the history of the Dwarf-sword
Tirfing.*
Like Alf, the word Duergr has retained its place in the
Teutonic languages. Dvergt is the term still used in the
north; the Germans have Zwerg, and we Dwarf, J which,
however, is never synonymous with Fairy, as Elf is. Ihre
* Hervarar Saga passim. The Tirfing Saga would b its more proper
appellation. In poetic and romantic interest it exceeds all the northern
f In Swedish Dverg also signifies a spider.
J In the old Swedish metrical history of Alexander, the word Duerf occur*.
The progress in the English word is as follows : Anglo-Saxon bt>eopj ; thence
dwerlce ;
A maid that is a niessingere
And a dwerke me brought here,
Her to do socour.
Lylcnus Disconiu.
ltly, dwarf, at in old Swedish.
EDDAS AND SAGAS. 75
rejects all the etymons proposed for it, such, for example, as
that of G-udmund Andreae, 8io\. tpyov ; and with abundant
reason.
Some have thought that by the Dwarfs were to be under-
stood the Finns, the original inhabitants of the country, who
were driven to the mountains by the Scandinavians, and who
probably excelled the new-comers in the art of working their
mines and manufacturing their produce. Thorlacius, on the
contrary, thinks that it was Odin and his followers, who came
from the country of the Chalybes, that brought the metal-
lurgic arts into Scandinavia.
Perhaps the simplest account of the origin of the Dwarfs
is, that when, in the spirit of all ancient religions, the sub-
terranean powers of nature were to be personified, the authors
of the system, from observing that people of small stature
usually excel in craft and ingenuity, took occasion to repre-
sent the beings who formed crystals and purified metals
within the bowels of the earth as of diminutive size, which
also corresponded better with the power assigned them of
slipping through the fissures and interstices of rocks and
stones. Similar observations led to the representation of
the wild and awful powers of brute nature under the form of
huge gianta.
SCANDINAVIA.
D* vare syv og hundrede Trolde,
De vare baade grumme og lede,
De vilde gjore Bonden et Gjoosterie,
Med hannem baade drikke og sede.
ELINK AF VILLENSZOV.
There were seven and a hundred Trolls,
They were both ugly and grim,
A visit they would the farmer make,
Both eat and drink with him.
UNDEE the name of Scandinavia are included the kingdoms
of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which once had a common
religion and a common language. Their religion is still one,
and their languages differ but little ; we therefore feel that
we may safely treat of their Fairy Mythology together.
Our principal authorities are the collection of Danish
popular traditions, published by Mr. Thiele,* the select
Danish ballads of Nyerup and Eahbek,f and the Swedish
ballads of Geijer and Afzelius.J As most of the principal
Danish ballads treating of Elves, etc., have been already trans-
lated by Dr. Jamieson, we will not insert them here ; but
translate, instead, the corresponding Swedish ones, which are
in general of greater simplicity, and often contain additional
traits of popular belief. As we prefer fidelity to polish, the
reader must not be offended at antique modes of expressioc
and imperfect rimes. Our rimes we can, however, safely
say shall be at least as perfect as those of our originals.
These ballads, none of which are later than the fifteenth
* Danske Folkesagn, 4 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 181822.
f- Udvalgde Danske Viser fra Middelaldaren, 5 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 1812.
Svenska Folk- Visor frSn Forntiden, 3 vols. 8 TO. Stockholm, 1814 16.
We have not seen the late collection of Arvidsson named Svenska Fornsange:,
in 3 vols. 8vo.
SCAXDIWA.VIA. 77
century, are written in a strain of the most artless simplicity;
not the slightest attempt at ornament is to be discerned in
them ; the same ideas and expressions continually recur ;
and the rimes are the most careless imaginable, often a mere
assonnance in vowels or consonants ; sometimes not possess-
ing even that slight similarity of sound. Every Visa or
ballad has its single or double Omquaed * or burden, which,
like a running accompaniment in music, frequently falls in
with the most happy effect ; sometimes recalling former joys
or sorrows ; sometimes, by the continual mention of some
attribute of one of the seasons, especially the summer, keep-
ing up in the mind of the reader or hearers the forms of
external nature.
It is singular to observe the strong resemblance between
the Scandinavian ballads and those of England and Scotland,
not merely in manner but in subject. The Scottish ballad
first mentioned below is an instance ; it is to be met with in
England, in the Feroes, in Denmark, and in Sweden, with
very slight differences. Greyer observes, that the two last
stanzas of ' William and Margaret,' in Percy's Reliques,
are nearly word for word the same as the two last in the
Swedish ballad of ' Kosa Lilla,' t and in the corresponding
* The reader will find a beautiful instance of a double Omquaed in the
Scottish ballad of the Cruel Sister.
There were two sisters sat in a bower,
Binnorie o Binnorie
There came a knight to be their wooer
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.
And iu the Cruel Brother,
There were three ladies played at the ba',
With a heigh ho and a lily gay ;
There came a knight and played o'er them a',
As the primrose spreads so sweetly.
The second and fourth lines are repeated in every stanza,
f These are the Swedish verses :
Det vaxte upp Liljor p begge deres graf,
Med aran och med dygd
De vaxte tilsamman med alia sina blad.
J vinnen v'dl, J vinnen v'dl bade rosr och liljor,
Det vaxte upp Rnsor ur bada deras mui',
Med aran och med dygd
De vaxte tilsammans i faareste lund.
J vinnen v'dl, J vinnen v'dl bade rcsor t. ^h liljor.
78 ELVES.
Danish one. This might perhaps lead to the supposition of
many of these ballads having come down from the time when
the connexion was so intimate between this country and
Scandinavia.
We will divide the Scandinavian objects of popular belief
into four classes : 1. The Elves ; 2. The Dwarfs, or Trolls,
as they are usually called ; 3. The Nisses ; and 4. The Necks,
Mermen, and Mermaids.*
ELVES.
Sag, kannar du Elfvornas glada slagt ?
De bygga ved flodernas rand;
De spinna af mSnsken sin hogtidsdragt,
Med liljehvit spelande hand.
STAONELIUS.
Say, knowest thou the Elves' gay and joyous race ?
The banks of streams are their home;
They spin of the moonshine their holiday-dress,
With their Illy-white hands frolicsome.
THE Alfar still live in the memory and traditions of the
peasantry of Scandinavia. They also, to a certain extent,
retain their distinction into White and Black. The former,
or the Good Elves, dwell in the air, dance on the grass,
or sit in the leaves of trees ; the latter, or Evil Elves, are
regarded as an underground people, who frequently inflict
sickness or injury on mankind ; for which there is a par-
ticular kind of doctors called Kloka mim,^ to be met with
in all parts of the country.
* Some readers may wish to know the proper mode of pronouncing such
Danish and Swedish words as occur in the following legends. For their satis-
faction we give the following information. J is pronounced as our y ; when
it comes between a consonant and a vowel, it is very short, like the y that is
expressed, but not written, in many English words after c and g : thus Icjar is
pronounced very nearly as care : o sounds like the German o, or French eu :
d after another consonant is rarely sounded, Trold is pronounced Troll : oa,
which the Swedes write tf, as o in more, tore. Aarhuus is pronounced
Ore-hoos.
f That is, Wise People or Conjurors. They answer to the Fairy-women of
Ireland.
SCANDINAVIA. 79
The Elves are believed to have their kings, and to celebrate
their weddings and banquets, just the same as the dwellers
above ground. There is an interesting intermediate class of
them in popular tradition called the Hill-people (Hdgfolk),
who are believed to dwell in caves and small hills : when they
show themselves they have a handsome human form. The com-
mon people seem to connect with them a deep feeling of melan-
choly, as if bewailing a half-quenched hope of redemption.*
There are only a few old persons now who can tell any
thing more about them than of the sweet singing that may
occasionally on summer nights be heard out of their hills,
when one stands still and listens, or, as it is expressed in
the ballads, "lays his ear to the Elve-hill" (logger sift or a
till Elfvehogg ) : but no one must be so cruel as, by the
slightest word, to destroy their hopes of salvation, for then
the spritely music will be turned into weeping and
lamentation.f
The Norwegians call the Elves Huldrafolk, and their
music Huldraslaat : it is in the minor key, and of a dull
and mournful sound. The mountaineers sometimes play it,
and pretend they have learned it by Listening to the under-
ground people among the hills and rocks. There is also a
tune called the Elf-king's tune, which several of the good
fiddlers know right well, but never venture to play, for as
soon as it begins both old and young, and even inanimate
objects, are impelled to dance, and the player cannot stop
unless he can play the air backwards, or that some one comes
behind him and cuts the strings of his fiddle. J
The Little underground Elves, who are believed to dwell
* Afzelius is of opinion that this notion respecting the Hill-people is
derived from the time of the introduction of Christianity into the north, and
expresses the sympathy of the first converts with their forefathers, who had
died without a knowledge of the Redeemer, and lay hurled in heathen earth,
and whose unhappy spirits were doomed to wander about these lower regions,
or sigh within their mounds till the great day of redemption.
f 1 "About fifteen years ago," says Odman (Bahuslan, p. 80), "people
used to hear, out of the hill under Garun, in the parish of Tanum, the playing,
as it were, of the very best musicians. Any one there who had a fiddle, and
wished to play, was taught in an instant, provided they promised them salva-
tion ; but whoever did not do so, might hear them within, in the hill, breaking
their violins to pieces, and weeping bitterly." See Grimm. Deut. Myth. 45L
J Aradt, Reise nach Schwcden, iv. 241.
80 SCANDINAVIA.
under the houses of mankind, are described as sportive and
mischievous, and as imitating all the actions of men. They
are said to love cleanliness about the house and place, and to
reward such servants as are neat and cleanly.
There was one time, it is said, a servant girl, who was for
her cleanly, tidy habits, greatly beloved by the Elves, par-
ticularly as she was careful to carry away all dirt and foul
water to a distance from the house, and they once invited
her to a wedding. Every thing was conducted in the greatest
order, and they made her a present of some chips, which she
took good-humouredly and put into her pocket. But when
the bride-pair was coming there was a straw unluckily lying
in the way, the bridegroom got cleverly over it, but the poor
bride fell on her face. At the sight of this the girl could
not restrain herself, but burst out a-laughing, and that
instant the whole vanished from her sight. Next day, to her
utter amazement, she found that what she had taken to be
nothing but chips, were so many pieces of pure gold.*
A dairy-maid at a place called Skibshuset (the Ship-house),
in O dense, was not so fortunate. A colony of Elves had taken
up their abode under the floor of the cowhouse, or it is more
likely, were there before it was made a cowhouse. However,
the dirt and filth that the cattle made annoyed them beyond
measure, and they gave the dairy-maid to understand that
if she did not remove the cows, she would have reason to
repent it. She gave little heed to their representations ;
and it was not very long till they set her up on top of the
hay-rick, and killed all the cows. It is said that they were
seen on the same night removing in a great hurry from the
cowhouse down to the meadow, and that they went in little
coaches ; and their king was in the first coach, which was
far more stately and magnificent than the rest. They have
ever since lived in the meadow.f
* Svenska Folk-Visor, vol. iii. p. 159. There is a similar legend in
Germany. A servant, one time, seeing one of the little ones very hard-set to
carry a single grain of wheat, burst out laughing at him. In a rage, he
threw it on the ground, and it proved to he the purest gold. But he and his
comrades quitted the house, and it speedily went to decay. Strack. Beschr. v.
Eilsen, p. 124, ap. Grimm, Introd., etc., p. 90.
+ Thiele, vol. iv. p. 22. They are called Trolls in the original. As they
had a king, we think they must have been Klvcs. The Dwarfs have long since
abolished monarchy.
ELTT8. Si
The Elves are extremely fond of dancing in the meadows,
where they form those circles of a livelier green which from
them are called Elf-dance (Elfdans). AVhen the country
people see in the morning stripes along the dewy grass in
the woods and meadows, they say the Elves hare been
dancing there. If any one should at midnight get within
their circle, they become visible to him, and they may then
illude him. It is not every one that can see the Elves ; and
one person may see them dancing while another perceives
nothing. Sunday children, as they are called, i. e. those
born on Sunday, are remarkable for possessing this property
of seeing Elves and similar beings. The Elves, however, have
the power to bestow this gift on whomsoever they please.
People also used to speak of Elf-books which they gave to
those whom they loved, and which enabled them to foretell
future events.
The Elves often sit in little stones that are of a circular
form, and are called Elf-mills (Elf-quarnor) ; the sound of
their voice is said to be sweet and soft like the air.*
The Danish peasantry give the following account of their
Ellefolk or Elve-people.
The Elle-people live in the Elle-moors. The appearance
of the man is that of an old man with a low-crowned hat on
his head; the Elle-woman is young and of a fair and
attractive countenance, but behind she is hollow like a
dough-trough. Young men should be especially on their
guard against her, for it is very difficult to resist her ; and
she has, moreover, a stringed instrument, wiiich, when she
plays on it, quite ravishes their hearts. The man may be
often seen near the Elle-moors, bathing himself in the sun-
beams, but if any one comes too near him, he opens his
mouth wide and breathes upon them, and his breath produces
sickness and pestilence. But the women are most frequently
to be seen by moonshine ; then they dance their rounds in
the high grass so lightly and so gracefully, that they seldom
meet a denial when they offer their hand to a rash young
man. It is also necessary to watch cattle, that they may
not graze in any place where the Elle-people have been for
* The greater part of what precedes has been taken from Afzelius ; n tl.e
Sver^ka Visor, vol. iii.
o
82 SCANDINAVIA.
if any animal come to a place where the Elle-people have
spit, or done what is worse, it is attacked by some grievous
disease which can only be cured by giving it to eat a hand-
ful of St. John's wort, which had been pulled at twelve
o'clock on St. John's night. It might also happen that they
might sustain some injury by mixing with the Elle-people's
cattle, which are very large, and of a blue colour, and which
may sometimes be seen in the fields licking up the dew, on
which they live. But the farmer has an easy remedy against
this evil ; for he has only to go to the Elle-hill when he is
turning out his cattle and to say, " Thou little Troll ! may I
graze my cows on thy hill ?" And if he is not prohibited,
he may set his mind at rest.*
The following ballads and tales will fully justify what has
been said respecting the tone of melancholy connected with
the subject of the Elves.f
ittr <9Iof in
SIB Olof he rode out at early day,
And so came he unto an Elve-dance gay.
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
The Elve-father reached out his white hand free,
" Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
" O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
* Thiele, iv. 26.
f In the distinction which we have made between the Elves and Dwarf*
we find that we are justified by the popular creed of the Norwegians. Fajc,
p. 49, op. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 412.
ELVES. 88
And the Elve-mother reached out her white hand free,
" Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
" O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
And the Elve-sister reached out her white hand free,
" Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
" O nought I will, and nought I may,
To-morrow will be my wedding-day."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
And the bride she spake with her bride-maids so,
" What may it mean that the bells thus go ?"
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
" 'Tis the custom of this our isle," they replied ;
" Each young swain ringeth home his bride."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
" And the truth from you to conceal I fear,
Sir Olof is dead, and lies on his bier."
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
And on the morrow, ere light was the day,
In Sir Olof's house three corpses lay.
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.
It was Sir Olof, his bonny bride,
And eke his mother, of sorrow she died.
The dance it goes well,
So well in the grove.*
* Svenska Visor, iii. 158, aa sung in Upland and East Gothland.
a 2
SCANDINAVIA.
(Tljc e?If=itlDmaii autJ jHr
SIE Olof rideth out ere dawn,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
Bright day him came on.
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-greeu.
Sir Olof rides by Borgya,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
Meets a dance of Elves so gay.
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
There danceth Elf and Elve-maid,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
Elve-king's daughter, with her flying hair.
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
Elve-king's daughter reacheth her hand free,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" Come here, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me.**
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" Nought I tread the dance with thee,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" My bride hath that forbidden me."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" Nought I will and nought I may,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" To-morrow is my wedding-day."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-greeu.
ELYES. 86
" Wilt tliou not tread the dance with me f "
Breaketli day, falleth rime ;
" An evil shall I fix on thee."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
Sir Olof turned his horse therefrom,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
Sickness and plague follow him home.
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
Sir Olof to his mother's rode,
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
Out before him his mother stood.
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" Welcome, welcome, my dear son,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" Why is thy rosy cheek so wan ?"
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" My colt was swift and I tardy,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" I knocked against a green oak-tree."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" My dear sister, prepare my bed,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" My dear brother, take my horse to the mead.* 1
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" My dear mother, brush my hair,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
** My dear father, make me a bier."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
SCAXDEfAYIA.
My dear son, that do not say,**
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
To-morrow is thy wedding-day."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.
" Be it when it will betide,"
Breaketh day, falleth rime ;
" I ne'er shall come unto my bride."
Sir Olof cometh home,
When the wood it is leaf-green.*
gating jrtu.it'n airtr tlj
I WAS a handsome young swain,
And to the court should ride.
I rode out in the evening-hour ;
In the rosy grove I to sleep me laid.
Since I her first saw.
I laid me under a lind so green,
My eyes they sunk in sleep ;
There came two maidens going along,
They fain would with me speak.
Since I her first saw.
The one she tapped me on my cheek,
The other whispered in my ear :
" Stand up, handsome young swain,
If thou list of love to hear."
Since I her first saw.
* Svenska Visor, iii. 1 65, from a MS. in the Royal Library. This and
the preceding one are variations of the Danish Ballad of Elveskud, which has
been translated by Dr. Jamieson (Popular Ballads, i. 219), and by Lewis in
the Tales of Wonder. The Swedish editors give a third variation from East
Gothland. A comparison of the two ballads with each other, and with the
Danish one, will enable the reader to judge of the modifications a subject
undergoes in different parts of a country.
87
They led then forth a maiden,
Whose hair like gold did shine :
" Stand up, handsome young swain,
If thou to joy incline."
Since 1 her first saw.
The third began a song to sing,
"With good will she did so ;
Thereat stood the rapid stream,
Which before was wont to flow.
Since I her first saw.
Thereat stood the rapid stream,
Which before was wont to flow ;
And the hind all with her hair so brown,
Forgot whither she should go.
Since I her first saw.
I got me up from off" the ground,
And leaned my sword upon ;
The Elve-women danced in and out,
All had they the Elve fashion.
Since I her first saw.
Had not fortune been to me so good,
That the cock his wings clapped then,
I had slept within the hill that night,
All with the Elve-women.
Since I her first saw.*
Svenska Visor, iii. p. 1 70. This is the Elveshoj of the Danish ballads,
translated by Jamieson (i. 225), and by Lewis. In the different Swedish varia-
tions, they are Hafsfruen, i. e. Mermaids, who attempt to seduce young men to
their love by the offer of costly presents.
A Danish legend (Thiele, i. 22) relates that a poor man, who was working
near Gillesbjerg, a haunted hill, lay down on it to rest himself in the middle
of the day. Suddenly there appeared before him a beautiful maiden, with a
gold cup in her hand. She made signs to him to come near, but when the
man in his fright made the sign of the cross, she was obliged to turn round
and then he nw her back that it was hollow.
8ft SCANDINAVIA.
SVEND FUELLING was, while a little boy, at service in
Sjeller-wood-house in Framley ; and it one time happened
that he had to ride of a message to Ristrup. It was evening
before he got near home, and as he came by the hill of
Borum Es, he saw the Elle-maids, who were dancing without
ceasing round and round his horse. Then one of the Elle-
maids stept up to him, and reached him a drinking cup,
bidding him at the same time to drink. Svend took the
cup, but as he was dubious of the nature of the contents, he
flung it out over his shoulder, where it fell on the horse's back,
and singed oif all the hair. While he had the horn fast in
his hand, he gave his horse the spurs and rode off full speed.
The Elle-maid pursued him till he came to Trigebrand's
mill, and rode through the running water, over which she
could not follow him. She then earnestly conjured Svend
to give her back the horn, promising him in exchange twelve
men's strength. On this condition he gave back the horn,
and got what she had promised him ; but it very frequently
put him to great inconvenience, for he found that along
with it he had gotten an appetite for twelve.*
* Thiele, ii. 67. Framley is in Jutland. Svend (i. e. Swain) Falling is a
celebrated character in Danish tradition ; he is regarded as a second Holgei
Danske, and he is the hero of two of the Kjempe Viser. In Sweden he is
named Sven Farling or Foiling. Grimm has shown that he and Sigurd are
the same person. Deutsche Mythologie, p. 345. In the Nibelungen Lied
(st. 345) Sifret (Sigurd) gets the strength of twelve men by wearing the
tamkappe of the dwarf Albrich. Another tradition, presently to be men-
tioned, says it was from a Dwarf he got his strength, for aiding him in battle
against another Dwarf. It is added, that when Svend came home in the
evening, after his adventure with the Elle-maids, the people were drinking
their Yule-beer, and they sent him down for a fresh supply. Svend went
without saying anything, and returned with a barrel in each hand and one
under each arm.
ELVES. 89
TIIEHI lived a man in Aasum, near Odense, who, as lie wag
coiriug home one night from Seden, passed by a hill that
was standing on red pillars, and underneath there was
dancing and great festivity. He hurried on past the hill as
fast as he could, never venturing to cast his eyes that way.
But as he went along, two fair maidens came to meet him,
with beautiful hair floating over their shoulders, and one of
them held a cup in her hand, which she reached out to him
that he might drink of it. The other then asked him if he
would come again, at which he laughed, and answered, Tes.
But when he got home he became strangely affected in his
mind, was never at ease in himself, and was continually
saying that he had promised to go back. And when they
watched him closely to prevent his doing so, he at last lost
his senses, and died shortly after.*
iHattr
THERE was once a wedding and a great entertainment at
(Esterha3singe. The party did not break up till morning,
and the guests took their departure with a great deal of
noise and bustle. While they were putting their horses to
their carriages, previous to setting out home, they stood
talking about their respective bridal-presents. And while
they were talking loudly, and with the utmost earnestness,
there came from a neighbouring moor a maiden clad in
green, with plaited rushes on her head ; she went up to the
man who was loudest, and bragging most of his present, and
said to him : " What wilt thou give to maid VSP ? " The
* Thiele, iii. 43. Odense is in Funen.
90
man, who was elevated with all the ale and brandy he haJ
been drinking, snatched up a whip, and replied : " Ten cuts
of my whip;" and that very moment he dropt down dead
on the ground.*
war (btltalt.
A FARMER'S boy was keeping cows not far from Ebeltoft.
There came to him a very fair and pretty girl, and she
asked him if he was hungry or thirsty. But when he per-
ceived that she guarded with the greatest solicitude against
his getting a sight of her back, he immediately suspected
that she must be an EHe-maid, for the Elle-people are hollow
behind. He accordingly would give no heed to her, and
endeavoured to get away from her ; but when she perceived
this, she offered him her breast that he should suck her.
And so great was the enchantment that accompanied this
action, that he was unable to resist it. But when he had
done as she desired him, he had no longer any command of
himself, so that she had now no difficulty in enticing him
with her.
He was three days away, during which time his father and
mother went home, and were in great affliction, for they
were well assured that he must have been enticed away.
But on the fourth day his father saw him a long way off
coming home, and he desired his wife to set a pan of meat
on the fire as quick as possible. The son then came in at
the door, and sat down at the table without saying a word.
The father, too, remained quite silent, as if every thing was
as it ought to be. His mother then set the meat before
him, and his father bid him eat, but he let the food lie
untouched, and said that he knew now where he could get
much better food. The father then became highly enraged,
took a good large switch, and once more ordered him to take
* Thicle, i. 109. (communicated). Such legends, aa Mr. Thicie learned
directly from the mouths of the peasantry, he terms oral ; those he procurer
from his friends, communicated. (Esterhesinge, the scene of this legend, is in
the island of Kunen.
ELVES. 91
Lis food. The boy was then obliged to eat, and as soon as he
had tasted the flesh he ate it up greedily, and instantly
fell into a deep sleep. He slept for as many days as the
enchantment had lasted, but he never after recovered the
use of his reason.*
THEBE are three hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in
Funen, which are to this day called the Dance-hills, from
the following occurrence. A lad named Hans was at service
in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the
hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great
dancing and much merriment underneath. He ' was so
enchanted with the beauty and magnificence of what he saw,
that he could not restrain his curiosity, but was in a strange
and wonderful manner attracted nearer and nearer, till at
last the fairest of all the fair maidens that were there came
up to him and gave him a kiss. From that moment he lost
all command of himself, and became so violent, that he used
to tear to pieces all the clothes that were put on him, so
that at last they were obliged to make him a dress of sole-
leather, which he could not pull off him ; and ever after he
went by the name of Hans Puntleder, i. e. Sole-leather, t
According to Danish tradition, the Elle-kings, under the
denomination of Promontory-kings, (Klintekonger), keep
watch and ward over the country. Whenever war, or any
other misfortune, threatens to come on the land, there may
be seen, on the promontory, complete armies, drawn up in
array to defend the country.
One of these kings resides at Moen, on the spot which
fctill bears the name of King's-hill (Kongsbjerg). His queen
* Thiele, i. 118. (communicated). F.heltoft is a village in North Jutland.
f- Thiele, iv. 32. From the circumstances, it would appear that these were
Elves and not Dwarfs ; hut one cannot be positive in these mattvn.
92 5CANDI5fATIA.
is the most beautifu- 3f beings, and she dwells at the Queen's
Chair (Dronningstolen) . This king is a great friend of the
king of Stevns, and they are both at enmity with Crap, the
promontory-king of Rtigen, who must keep at a distance,
and look out over the sea to watch their approach.
Another tradition, however, says, that there is but one
king, who rules over the headlands of Moen, Stevns, and
Riigen. He has a magnificent chariot, which is drawn by
four black horses. In this he drives over the sea, from one
promontory to another. At such times the sea grows black,
and is in great commotion, and the loud snorting and neigh-
big of his horses may be distinctly heard.*
It was once believed that no mortal monarch dare come
to Stevns ; for the Elle-king would not permit him to cross
the stream that bounds it. But Christian IV. passed it
without opposition, and since his time several Danish
monarchs have been there.
At Skjelskor, in Zealand, reigns another of these jealous
promontorial sovereigns, named king Tolv (Twelve). He will
not suffer a mortal prince to pass the bridge of Kjelskor.
Wo, too, betide the watchman who should venture to cry
twelve o'clock in the village, he might chance to find himself
transported to the village of Borre or to the Windmills.
Old people that have eyes for such things, declare they
frequently see Kong Tolv rolling himself on the grass in the
sunshine. On New-year's night he takes from one smith's
forge or another nine new shoes for his horses ; they must
be always left ready for him, and with them the necessary
complement of nails.
The Elle-king of Bornholmt lets himself be occasionally
heard with fife and drum, especially when war is at hand ; he
may then be seen in the fields with his soldiers. This king
will not suffer an earthly monarch to pass more than three
nights on his isle.
In the popular creed there is some strange connexion
between the Elves and the trees. They not only frequent
them, but they make an interchange of form with them. In
* Moen and Stevns are in Zealand. As Riigen does not belong to the
Danish monarchy, the former tradition is probably the more correct one. Yet
the latter may be the original one.
t Bornholm is a holm, or small island, adjacent to Zealand.
LLVES 93
the church-yard of Store Heddinge,* in Zealand, there are
the remains of an oak wood. These, say the common people,
are the Elle-king's soldiers ; by day they are trees, by night
valiant warriors. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same
island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people,
and goes about all alive. It has no leaves upon it, yet it
would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the under-
ground-people frequently hold their meetings under its
branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing
in a farm-yard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight
about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the
children when they are alone.
It was, perhaps, these elder-trees that gave origin to the
notion. In Danish Hyld or Hyl a word not far removed
from Elle is Elder, and the peasantry believe that in or
under the elder-tree dwells a being called Hyldemoer (Elder-
mother), or Hyldequinde (Elder-woman), with her ministrani
spirits.t A Danish peasant, if he wanted to take any part
of an elder-tree, used previously to say, three times " O,
Hyldemoer, Hyldemoer ! let me take some of thy elder, and
I will let thee take something of mine in return." If this
was omitted he would be severely punished. They tell of a
man who cut down an elder-tree, but he soon after died sud-
denly. It is, moreover, not prudent to have any furniture
made of elder-wood. A child was once put to lie in a cradle
made of this wood, but Hyldemoer came and pulled it by
the legs, and gave it no rest till it was put to sleep else-
where. Old David Monrad relates, that a shepherd, one
night, heard his three children crying, and when he inquired
the cause, they said some one had been sucking them. Their
breasts were found to be swelled, and they were removed to
another room, where they were quiet. The reason is said
to have been that that room was floored with elder.
The linden or lime tree is the favourite haunt of the
Elves and cognate beings ; and it is not safe to be near it
after sun set. J
* The Elle-king of Stevns has his bedchamber in the wall of this church.
f- This is evidently the Frau Holle of the Germans.
J The preceding particulars are all derived from M. Thiele's work.
SCAITDIIfATIA.
Ther bygde folk i the barg,
Quinnor och man, for mycken dnerf.
HIST. ALEX. MAO. Suedice.
Within the hUls folk did won,
Women and men, dwarfs many a one.
THE more usual appellation of the Dwarfs is Troll or Trold,*
a word originally significant of any evil spirit,f giant mon-
ster, magician,;}; or evil person ; but now in a good measure
divested of its ill senses, for the Trolls are not in general
regarded as noxious or malignant beings.
The Trolls are represented as dwelling inside of hills,
mounds, and hillocks whence they are also called Hill-
people (BjergfolK) sometimes in single families, sometimes
in societies. In the ballads they are described as having
kings over them, but never so in the popular legend.
Their character seems gradually to have sunk down to the
level of the peasantry, in proportion as the belief in them
was consigned to the same class. They are regarded as
There is no etymon of this word. It is to be found in both the Icelandic
and the Finnish languages ; whether the latter borrowed or communicated it is
uncertain. Ihre derives the name of the celebrated waterfall of Trollhaeta,
near G6.Ter.lurg, from Troll, and Haute Lapponice, an abyss. It therefore
answers to the Irish Povl-a-Pkooka. See Ireland.
+ In the following lines quoted in the Heimskringla, it would seem to
signify the Dii Manes.
Tha gaf hann Trescegg Trollum,
Torf-Einarr drap Scurfo.
Then gave he Trescegg to the Trolls,
Turf-Einarr slew Scurfo.
* The ancient Gothic nation was called Troll by their Vandal neighbour*
(Junii Batavia, c. 27) ; according to Sir J. Malcolm, the Tartars call the
Chinese Deevs. It was formerly believed, says Ihre, that the noble family of
Troll, in Sweden, derived their name from having killed a Troll, that it,
probably, a Dwarf.
DWAEFB OB TBOLLS. 95
extremely rich for when, on great occasions of festivity,
they have their hills raised up on red pillars, people that have
chanced to be passing by have seen them shoving large
chests full of money to and fro, and opening and clapping
down the lids of them. Their hill-dwellings are very mag-
nificent inside. " They live," said one of Mr. Arndt's guides,
" in fine houses of gold and crystal. My father saw them
once in the night, when the hill was open on St. John's
night. They were dancing and drinking, and it seemed to
him as if they were making signs to him to go to them, but
his horse snorted, and carried him away, whether he would
or no. There is a great number of them in the Guldberg
(GoldhilP), and they have brought into it all the gold and
silver that people buried in the great Eussian war."*
They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and
borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse
with mankind. But they have a sad propensity to thieving,
not only stealing provisions, but even women and children.
They marry, have children, bake and brew, just as the
peasant himself does. A farmer one day met a hill-man and
his wife, and a whole squad of stumpy little children, in his
fields ;t and people used often to see the children of the man
who lived in the hill of Kund, in Jutland, climbing up the
hill, and rolling down after one another, with shouts of
laughter.
The Trolls have a great dislike to noise, probably from a
recollection of the time when Thor used to be flinging his
hammer after them ; so that the hanging of bells in the
churches has driven them almost all out of the country. The
people of Ebeltoft were once sadly plagued by them, as they
plundered their pantries in a most unconscionable manner; so
* Arndt, Reise nach Schweden, yol. iii. p. 8.
+ Like our Fairies the Trolls are sometimes of marvellously snull aimen-
*>ns : in the Danish ballad of Eline af Villenskov we read
Det da mtldte den mindste Trold,
Han var ikke sti'rre end en my)-e,
Her er kommet en Christen mand,
Den maa jag visseligen styre.
Out then spake the tinyest Troll,
No bigger than an emmet was he,
Hither is come a Christian man,
And manage him will I suit-lie.
96 SCANDINAVIA.
they consulted a very wise and pious man ; and his advice
was, that they sho\ild hang a bell in the steeple of the 'hurcn.
They did so, and they were soon eased of the Trolls.*
These beings have some very extraordinary and useful
properties ; they can, for instance, go about invisibly, t or
turn themselves into any shape ; they can foresee future
events; they can confer prosperity, or the contrary, on a
family ; they can bestow bodily strength on any one ; and,
in short, perform numerous feats beyond the power of man.
Of personal beauty they have not much to boast: the
Ebeltoft Dwarfs, mentioned above, were often seen, and they
had immoderate humps on their backs, and long crooked
noses. They were dressed in gray jackets,J and they wore
pointed red caps. Old people in Zealand say, that when the
Trolls were in the country, they used to go from their hill to
the village of Gudmandstrup through the Stone-meadow,
and that people, when passing that way, used to meet great
tall men in long black clothes. Some have foolishly spoken
to them, and wished them good evening, but they never got
any other answer than that the Trolls hurried past them,
saying, Mi ! mi ! mi ! mi !
Thanks to the industry of Mr. Thiele, who has been inde-
fatigable in collecting the traditions of his native country,
we are furnished with ample accounts of the Trolls ; and the
following legends will fully illustrate what we have written
concerning them.
We commence with the Swedish ballads of the Hill-
kings, as in dignity and antiquity they take precedence of
the legends.
* Tliiele, i. 36.
f- For this they seem to be indebted to their hat or cap. Eske Brok being
one day in the fields, knocked off, without knowing it, the hat of a Dwarf
who instantly became visible, and had, in order to recover it, to grant him
every thing he asked. Thiele iii. 49. This hat answers to the Tarnkappe or
Hel-kaplein of the German Dwaifs ; who also become visible when their capi
re struck off.
In the Danish ballad of Eline af Villenskov the hero is called Trolden
grade, the Gray Trold, probably from the colour of his habiliments.
We deem it needless in future to refer to volume and page of Mr. Thiele'l
work. Those acquainted with the original will easily find the legend*.
IWA.RFS OK TEOLLfl. 07
r Cfjrmtte.
A.TSD it was the knight Sir Thynne,
He was a knight so grave ;
Whether he were on foot or on horse,
He was a knight so brave.*
And it was the knight Sir Thynne
Went the hart and the hind to shoot,
So he saw Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,
At the green linden's foot.
And it was TJlva, the little Dwarf's daughter,
Unto her handmaid she cried,
" Gro fetch my gold harp hither to me,
Sir Thynne I '11 draw to my side."
The first stroke on her gold harp she struck,
So sweetly she made it ring,
The wild beasts in the wood and field
They forgot whither they would spring.
The next stroke on her gold harp she struck,
So sweetly she made it ring,
The little gray hawk that sat on the bough,
He spread out both his wings.
The third stroke on her gold harp she struck,
So sweetly she made it ring,
The little fish that went in the stream,
He forgot whither he would swim.
* We have ventured to omit the Omqused. 1 styrcn tail de Runnel
(Manage well the runes !) The final e in Thynne is marked merely to hJ, ; -
wite that it i to be sounded.
II
98 SCAJTDTNAVIA.
Then flowered the mead, then leafed all,
'Twas caused by the runic lay ;*
Sir Thynne he struck his spurs in his horse,
He no longer could hold him away.
And it was the knight Sir Thynne,
From his horse he springs hastily,
So goeth he to Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,
All under the green linden tree.
u Here you sit, my maiden fair,
A rose all lilies above ;
See you can never a mortal man
Who will not seek your love."
" Be silent, be silent, now Sir Thynne,
"With your proffers of love, I pray ;
For I am betrothed unto a hill-king,
A king all the Dwarfs obey.
" My true love he sitteth the hill within,
And at gold tables plays merrily ;
My father he setteth his champions in ring,
And in iron arrayeth them he.
" My mother she sitteth the hill within,
And gold in the chest doth lay ;
And I stole out for a little while,
Upon my gold harp to play."
And it was the knight Sir Thynne,
He patted her cheek rosie :
" "Why wilt thou not give a kinder reply ;
Thou dearest of maidens, to me ? "
* Raneslag, literally Rune-stroke. Runes originally signified letters, and
then songs. They were of two kinds, Maalrunor (Speech-runes), and Troll-
runor (Magic-rwnes). These last were again divided into Skaderunor
(Mischief-runes) and Hjelprunor (Help-runes), of each of which there were
five kinds. See Verelius' notes to the Hervarar Saga, cap. 7.
The power of music over all nature is a subject of frequent recurrence in
northern poetry. Here all the wild animals are entranced by the magic tones
of the harp ; the meads flower, the trees put forth leaves ; the knight, though
grave and silent, is attracted, and even if inclined to stay away, be cannot
restrain his horse.
DWARFS OB TROLLS. 99
u I can give you no kinder reply :
I may not myself that allow ;
I am betrothed to a hill-king,
And to him I must keep my vow."
And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife,
She at the hill-door looked out,
And there she saw how the knight Sir Thynne,
Lay at the green linden's foot.
And it was Thora, the little Dwarfs wife,
She was vest and angry, Grod wot :
" What hast thou here in the grove to do ?
Little business, I trow, thou hast got.
" 'Twere better for thee in the hill to be,
And gold in the chest to lay,
Than here to sit in the rosy grove,*
And on thy gold harp to play.
" And 'twere better for thee in the hill to be,
And thy bride-dress finish sewing,
Than sit under the lind, and with runic lay
A Christian man's heart to thee win."
And it was Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,
She goeth in at the hill-door :
And after her goeth the knight Sir Thynne,
Clothed in scarlet and fur.
And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife,
Forth a red-gold chair she drew :
Then she cast Sir Thynne into a sleep
"Until that the cock he crew.
And it was Thora, the little Dwarfs wife,
The five rune-books she took out ;
So she loosed him fully out of the runes,
Her daughter had bound him about.
Botenddund. The word Lund signifies any kind of grove, thicket, &.
100 SCANDINAVIA.
" And hear thou me, Sir Thynue,
From the runes thou now art tree ;
This to thee I will soothly say,
My daughter shall never win thee.
" And I was born of Christian kind,
And to the hill stolen in ;
My sister dwelleth in Iseland,*
And wears a gold crown so fine.
" And there she wears her crown of gold,
And beareth of queen the name ;
Her daughter was stolen away from her,
Thereof there goeth great fame.
" Her daughter was stolen away from her,
And to Berner-land brought in ;
And there now dwelleth the maiden free,
She is called Lady Hermolin.
" And never can she into the dance go,
But seven women follow her ;
And never can she on the gold-harp play,
If the queen herself is not there.
'* The king he hath a sister's son,
He hopeth the crown to possess,
For him they intend the maiden free,
For her little happiness.
' And this for my honour will I dq
And out of good- will moreover,
To thee will I give the maiden free,
And part her from that lover."
Then she gave unto him a dress so new,
With gold and pearls bedight ;
Every seam on the dress it was
With precious stones all bright.
* Not the island of Iceland, but a district in Norway of that name. By
Berner-land, Geijer thinks is meant the land of Bern ( Verona), the country
of Dietrich, so celebrated in German romance
DWARFS OR TROLLS. 101
Then she gave unto him a horse so good,
And therewith a new sell ;
" And never shalt thou the way inquire,
Thy horse will find it well."
And it was TJlva, the little Dwarf's daughter,
She would show her good- will to the knight ;
So she gave unto him a spear so new,
And therewith a good sword so bright.
" And never shalt thou fight a fight,
Where thou shalt not the victory gain ;
And never shalt thou sail on a sea
Where thou shalt not the land attain."
And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife,
She wine in a glass for him poured :
" Ride away, ride away, now Sir Thynne,
Before the return of my lord."
And it was the knight Sir Thynne,
He rideth under the green hill side,
There then met him the hill-kings two.
As slow to the hill they ride.
" Well met ! Good day, now Sir Thynne !
Thy horse can well with thee pace ;
Whither directed is thy course ?
Since thou'rt bound to a distant place."
" Travel shall I and woo ;
Plight me shall I a flower ;
Try shall I my sword so good,
To my weal or my woe in the stour."
" Eide in peace, ride la peace, away, Sir Thynue,
From us thou hast nought to fear ;
They are coming, the champions from Iseland,
Who with thee long to break a spear."
And it was the knight Sir Thynne,
He rideth under the green hill side ;
There met him seven Bernisk champions,
Thev bid him to halt and abide.
102 8CAITDINAVIA..
" And whether shall we fight to-dar,
For the red gold and the silver ;
Or shall we fight together to-day,
For both our true loves fair ? "
And it was the king's sister's son,
He was of mood so hasty ;
" Of silver and gold I have enow,
If thou wilt credit me."
" But hast thou not a fair true love^
Who is called Lady Hermolin ?
For her it is we shall fight to-day,
If she shall he mine or thine.
The first charge they together rode,
They were two champions so tall ;
He cut at the king's sister's son,
That his head to the ground did fall.
Back then rode the champions six,
And dressed themselves in fur ;
Then went into the lofty hall,
The aged king before.
And it was then the aged king,
He tore his gray hairs in woe.
" Te must avenge my sister's son's deatn:
I will sables and martins bestow. ' *
Back then rode the champions six,
They thought the reward to gain,
But they remained halt and limbless :
By loss one doth wit obtain.
And he slew wolves and bears,
All before the high chamber ;
Then taketh he out the maiden free
"Who so long had languished there.
' Sabel och Mdrd. These furs are always mentioned in the uorthf m
ballads, as the royi.1 rewards of distinguished actions.
DWARFS OB TBOLL8. 103
And now hath Lady Hennolin
Escaped from all harm ;
Now sleeps she sweet full many a sleep,
On brave Sir Thynne's arm.
And now has brave Sir Thynne
Escaped all sorrow and tine ;
Now sleeps he sweet full many a sleep,
Beside Lady Hennolin,
Most thanketh he Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter
Who him with the runes had bound,
For were he not come inside of the hill,
The lady he never had found.*
PBOTJD Margaret' sf father of wealth had store,
Time with me goes slow.
And he was a king seven kingdoms o'er,
But that grief is heavy I know.J
To her came wooing good earls two,
Time with me goes slow,
But neither of them would she hearken unto,
But that grief is heavy I know.
* This fine ancient Visa was taken down from recitation in West Gothland.
The corresponding Danish one of Herr Tonne is much later.
f- Niebuhr, speaking of the Celsi Ramnes, says, w With us the salutation of
blood relations was Willkommen stolze Vetter (Welcome, proud cousins)-
and in the Danish ballads, proud (stolt) is a noble appellation of a maiden."
Romische Geschichte, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 316.
It may be added, that in English, proud and the synonymous term itout
(titolz, stolt) had also the sense of noble, high-born.
Do now your devoir, yonge knightes proud,
Knighft Tale.
Up stood the queen and ladies stout.
Launfal.
$ Men jag vet at targe tir twng.
104 SCANDINAVIA.
To her came wooing princes five,
Time with me goes slow.
Yet not one of them would the maiden have,
But that grief is heavy I know.
To her came wooing kings then seven,
Time with me goes slow.
But unto none her hand has she given,
But that grief is heavy I know.
And the hill-king asked his mother to read,
Time with me goes slow.
How to win proud Margaret he might speed,
But that grief is heavy I know.
" And say how much thou wilt give unto me,"
Time with me goes slow.
" That herself may into the hill come to thee r"'
But that grief is heavy I know.
" Thee will I give the ruddiest gold,"
Time with me goes slow.
" And thy chests full of money as they can hold,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
One Sunday morning it fell out so,
Time with me goes slow.
Proud Margaret unto the church should go,
But that grief is heavy I know.
And all as she goes, and all as she stays,
Time with me goes slow.
All the nearer she comes where the high hill lay,
But that grief is heavy I know.
So she goeth around the hill compassing,
Time with me goes slow.
So there openeth a door, and thereat goes she in,
But that grief is heavy I know.
Proud Margaret stept in at the door of the hill,
Time with me goes slow.
And the hill-king salutes her with eyes joyful,
But that grief is heavy I know.
DWAEFS OB TEOLLS. 105
So he took the maiden upon his knee,
Time with me goes slow.
And took the gold rings and therewith her wed he,
But that grief is heavy I know.
So he took the maiden his arms between,
Time with me goes slow.
He gave her a gold crown and the name of queen,
But that grief is heavy I know.
So she was in the hill for eight round years,
Time with me goes slow.
There bare she two sons and a daughter so fair,
But that grief is heavy I know.
When she had been full eight years there,
Time with me goes slow.
She wished to go home to her mother so dear,
But that grief is heavy I know.
And the hill-king spake to his footpagos twain,
Time with me goes slow.
" Put ye the gray pacers now unto the wain,"*
But that grief is heavy I know.
And Margaret out at the hill-door stept,
Time with me goes slow.
And her little children they thereat wept,
But that grief is heavy I know.
And the hill-king her in his arms has ta'en,
Time with me goes slow.
So he lifteth her into the gilded wain,
But that grief is heavy I know.
" And hear now thou footpage what I unto thee say,"
Time with me goes slow.
" Thou now shalt drive her to her mother's straightway,''
But that grief is heavy I know.
* Wain, our readers hardly need be informed, originally signified any kind
of carriage : see Faerie Queene, passim. It is the Aug. Sax. J?a:n, and not
* sontraction of wagyon.
306 SCANDINAVIA.
Proud Margaret stept in o'er the door-sill,
Time with me goes slow.
And her mother saluteth her with eyes joyful,
But that grief is heavy I know.
" And where hast thou so long stayed ? "
Time with me goes slow.
" I have been in the flowery meads,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
" What veil is that thou wearest on thy hair ? "
Time with me goes slow.
" Such as women and mothers use to wear,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
" Well may I wear a veil on my head,"
Time with me goes slow.
" Me hath the hill-king both wooed and wed,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
" In the hill have I been these eight round years,"
Time with me goes slow.
" There have I two sons and a daughter so fair,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
" There have I two sons and a daughter so fair,"
Time with me goes slow.
" The loveliest maiden the world doth bear,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
" And hear thou, proud Margaret, what I say unto thee,"
Time with me goes slow.
" Can I go with thee home thy children to see ?"
But that grief is heavy I know.
And the hill-king stept now in at the door,
Time with me goes slow.
And Margaret thereat fell down on the floor,
But that grief is heavy I know.
" And stayest thou now here complaining of me,"
Time with me goes slow,-
" Camest thou not of thyself into the hill to me ?"
But that grief is heavy I know.
DWABFS OB TROLLS. 107
* And stayest tbou now here and thy fate dost deplore ? "
Time with me goes slow.
" Camest thou not of thyself in at my door ?"
But that grief is heavy I know.
The hill-king struck her on the cheek rosie,
Time with me goes slow.
"And pack to the hill to thy children wee,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
The hill-king struck her with a twisted root,
Time with me goes slow.
" And pack to the hill without any dispute,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
And the hill-king her in his arms has ta'en,
Time with me goes slow.
And lifted her into the gilded wain,
But that grief is heavy I know.
"And hear thou my footpage what I unto tnee say,"
Time with me goes slow.
" Thou now shalt drive her to my dwelling straightway,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
Proud Margaret stept in at the hill door,
Time with me goes slow.
And her little children rejoiced therefore,
But that grief is heavy I know.
"It is not worth while rejoicing for me,"
Time with me goes slow.
" Christ grant that I never a mother had been,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
The one brought out a gilded chair,
Time with me goes slow.
" rest you, my sorrow-bound mother, there,"
But that grief is heavy I know.
The one brought out a filled up horn,
Time with me goes slow.
The other put therein a gilded corn,
But that grief is heavy I know.
108 SCANDINAVIA.
The first driiik she drank out of the horn,
Time with me goes slow.
She forgot straightway both heaven and earth,
But that grief is heavy I know.
The second drink she drank out of the horn,
Time with me goes slow.
She forgot straightway both God and his word,
But that grief is heavy I know.
The third drink she drank out of the horn,
Time with me goes slow.
She forgot straightway both sister and brother,
But that grief is heavy I know.
She forgot straightway both sister and brother,
Time with me goes slow.
But she never forgot her sorrow-bound mother,
But that grief is heavy I know.*
THE grandfather of Reor, who dwelt at Fuglekarr (i.e.
Bird-marsh), in the parish of Svartsborg (Black-castle),
lived close to a hill, and one time, in the broad daylight, he
saw sitting there on a stone a comely maiden. He wished
to intercept her, and for this purpose he threw steel between
her and the hill ; whereupon her father laughed within the
hill, and opening the hill-door asked him if he would have
his dauglfter. He replied in the affirmative and as she was
stark naked he took some of his own clothes and covered
her with them, and he afterwards had her christened. As
he was going away, her father said to him, " When you are
going to have your wedding (brollup) you must provide
twelve barrels of beer and bake a heap of bread and the
flesh of four oxen, and drive to the barrow or hill where I
keep, and when the bridal gifts are to be bestowed, depend
on it I will give mine." This also came to pass ; for when
* From Vennland and Upland.
DWARJfS OB TEOLL8. 109
others were giving he raised the cover of the cart and cast
into it so large a bag of money that the body of it nearly
broke, saying at the same time: "This is my gift!" He
said, moreover, " When you want to have your wife's portion
(hemmagifta)* you must drive to the hill with four horses,
and get your share. When he came there afterwards at his
desire he got copper-pots, the one larger than the other till
the largest pot of all was filled with the smaller ones. He
also gave him other things,t which were helmets, of that
colour and fashion which are large and thick, and which
are still remaining in the country, being preserved at the
parsonage of Tanum. This man Reor's father surnamed
I Foglekarsten, had a number of children by this wife of his,
whom he fetched out of the hill, among whom was the afore-
said Eeor. Olaf Stenson also in Stora Bijk, who died last
year, was Keor's sister's son.J
attar*Cup in
BETWEEN the villages of Marup and Aagerup in Zealand,
there is said to have lain a great castle, the ruins of which
are still to be seen near the strand. Tradition relates that
a great treasure is concealed among them, and that a dragon
there watches over three kings' ransoms. Here, too, people
frequently happen to get a sight of the underground folk,
especially about festival-times, for then they have dancing
and great jollity going on down on the strand.
One Christmas-eve, a farmer's servant in the village of
* This we suppose to be the meaning of hemmagifta, as it is that of
hemgift, the only word approaching to it that we have met in our dictionary.
+ Brandcreatwr, a word of which we cannot ascertain the exact meaning
We doubt greatly if the following hielmeta be helmets.
Grimm (Deut. Mythol. p. 435) has extracted this legend from th e
Bahuslan of Odman, who, as he observes, and as we may sec, relates it quite
seriously, and with the real names of pel-sons. It is we believe the only
legend of the union of a man with one of the hill-folk.
" Three kings' ransoms" is a common maximum with a Danish peasant
when speaking of treasure.
110 SCANDINAVIA.
Aagerup went to his master and asked him if he might
take a horse and ride down to look at the Troll-meeting.
The farmer not only gave him leave but desired him to take
the best horse in the stable ; so he mounted and rode away
down to the strand. "When he was come to the place he
stopped his horse, and stood for some time looking at the
company who were assembled in great numbers. And while
he was wondering to see how well and how gaily the little
dwarfs danced, up came a Troll to him, and invited him to
dismount, and take a share in their dancing and merriment.
Another Troll came jumping up, took his horse by the
bridle, and held him while the man got off, and went down
and danced away merrily with them the whole night long.
When it was drawing near day he returned them his very
best thanks for his entertainment, and mounted his horse to
return home to Aagerup. They now gave him an invitation
to come again on New-year's night, as they were then to
have great festivity ; and a maiden who held a gold cup iu
her hand invited him to drink the stirrup-cup. He took the
cup ; but, as he had some suspicion of them, he, while he
made as if he was raising the cup to his mouth, threw the
drink out over his shoulder, so that it fell on the horse's
back, and it immediately singed off all the hair. He then
clapped spurs to his horse's sides, and rode away with the
cup in his hand over a ploughed field.
The Tiolls instantly gave chase all in a body ; but being
hard set to get over the deep furrows, they shouted out,
without ceasing,
" Ride on the lay,
And not on the clay."*
He, however, never minded them, but kept to the ploughed
field. However, when he drew near the village he was forced
to ride out on the level road, and the Trolls now gained on
him every minute. In his distress he prayed unto God, and
he made a vow that if he should be delivered he would
bestow the cup on the church.
He was now riding along just by the wall of the church-
yard, and he hastily flung the cup over it, that it at least
might be secure. He then pushed on at full speed, and at
* ' Rid paa del Bolde,
Og ikke paa dot Knold*. -
DWA.BF3 OB TBOLLS. Ill
last got into the village ; and just as they were on the point
of catching hold of the horse, he sprung in through the
farmer's gate, and the man clapt to the wicket after him. He
was now safe ; but the Trolls were so enraged, that, taking
up a huge great stone, they flung it with such force against
the gate, that it knocked four planks out of it.
There are no traces now remaining of that house, but the
stone is still lying in the middle of the village of Aagerup.
The cup was presented to the church, and the man got in
return the best farm-house on the lands of Eriksholm.*
Origin at CiuS llaftr.
A TBOLL had once taken up his abode near the village of
Kund, in the high bank on which the church now stands ;
but when the people about there had become pious, and
went constantly to church, the Troll was dreadfully annoyed
by their almost incessant ringing of bells in the steeple of
the church. He was at last obliged, in consequence of it, to
take his departure ; for nothing has more contributed to the
emigration of the Troll-folk out of the country than the
increasing piety of the people, and their taking to bell-
ringing. The Troll of Kund accordingly quitted the country,
and went over to Funen, where he lived for some time in
peace and quiet.
Now it chanced that a man who had lately settled in the
town of Kund, coming to Funen on business, met on the
road with this same Troll : " Where do you live ? " said the
* Oral. This is an adventure common to many countries. The church of
Vigersted in Zealand has a cup obtained in the same way. The man, in this
case, took refuge in the church, and was there besieged by the Trolls till
morning. The bridge of Hagbro in Jutland got its name from a similar event.
When the man rode off with the silver jug from the beautiful maiden who
presented it to him, an old crone set off in pursuit of him with such velocity,
that she would surely have caught him, but that providentially he came to a
running water. The pursuer, however, like Nannie with Tarn o' Slianter,
aught the horse's hind leg, but was only able to keep one of tie coilrt f hit
hoe : hence the bridge was called Hagbro, i. e. Cock Bn 4ge.
112 SCANDINAVIA.
Troll 'i him. Now there was nothing \vhatever about the
Troll unlike a man, so he answered him, as was the truth,
" I am from the town of Kund." " So ?" said the Troll. " ]
don't know you, then ! And yet I think I know every man
in Kund. "Will you, however," continued he, "just be so
kind to take a letter from me back with you to Kund?"
The man said, of course, he had no objection. The Troll
then thrust the letter into his pocket, and charged him
strictly not to take it out till he came to Kund church, and
then to throw it over the churchyard wall, and the person
for whom it was intended would get it.
The Troll then went away in great haste, and with him
the letter went entirely out of the man's mind. But when
he was come back to Zealand he sat down by the meadow
where Tiis Lake now is, and suddenly recollected the Troll's
letter. He felt a great desire to look at it at least. So he
took it out of his pocket, and sat a while with it in his hands,
when suddenly there began to dribble a little water out of
the seal. The letter now unfolded itself, and the water came
out faster and faster, and it was with the utmost difficulty
that the poor man was enabled to save his life ; for the mali-
cious Troll had enclosed an entire lake in the letter. The
Troll, it is plain, had thought to avenge himself on Kund
church by destroying it in this manner ; but God ordered it
so that the lake chanced to run out in the great meadow
where it now flows.*
* Oral. Tiis Lake is in Zealand. It is the general belief of the peasantry
that there are now very few Trolls in the country, for the ringing of bells has
driven them all away, they, like the Stille-folk of the Germans, delighting in
quiet and silence. It is said that a farmer having found a Troll sitting very
disconsolate on a stone near Tiis Lake, and taking him at first for a decent
Christian man, accosted him with " Well ! where are you going, friend ? "
" Ah !" said he, in a melancholy tone, " I am going off out of the country.
I canno-, live here any longer, they keep such eternal ringing and dinging!"
"There is a high hill," says Kalm (Resr>, &c. p. 136), "near Botna in
Sweden, in which formerly dwelt a Troll. When they got up bells in Botna
Lurch, and lie heard the ringing of them, he is related to have said :
" Det ar set godt i det Botnaberg at bo,
Vore ikke den leda Bj'dlltko."
u Pleasant it were in Botnahill to dwell,
Were it not for the sound of that plaguey bell."
DWAH1S OE TROLLS. 113
<& JTarntcr trtdtsi a CroIT.
A FARMER, on whose ground there was a little hill, resolved
not to let it lie idle, so he began at one end to plough it up.
The hill-man, w r ho lived in it, came to him and asked him
how he dared to plough on the roof of his house. The
farmer assured him that he did not know that it was the
roof of his house, but at the same time represented to him
that it was at present equally unprofitable to them both to
let such a piece of land lie idle. He therefore took the
opportunity of proposing to him that he should plough, sow,
and reap it every year on these terms : that they should take
it year and year about, and the hill-man to have one year
what grew over the ground, and the farmer what grew in
the ground ; and the next year the farmer to have what was
over, and the hill-man what was under.
The agreement was made accordingly ; but the crafty
farmer took care to sow carrots and corn year and year
about, and he gave the hill-man the tops of the carrots and
the roots of the corn for his share, with which he was well
content. They thus lived for a long time on extremely good
'erms with each other.*
in fi)t Jftre.
NEAR Grudmanstrup, in the district of Odd, is a hill called
tijulehoi (Hollotv-hilF) . The hill-folk that dwell in this
n ount are well known in all the villages round, and no one
ever omits making a cross on his beer-barrels, for the
Trolls are in the habit of slipping down from Hjulehoi to
steal beer.
One evening late a fanner was passing by the hill, and he
* This story is told by Rabelais with his characteristic humour and ex-
travagance. As there are no Trolls in France, it is the devil who is deceived
in the French version. A legend similar to this is told of the district of
Lujhman in Afghaoistan (Masson, Narrative, etc., iii. 297) ; but there it
was the Shaitan (Satan) that cheated the fanners. The legends are surslf
independent fictions.
I
114 SCAKDINAYIA.
saw that it was raised up on red pillars, and that under-
neath there was music and dancing and a splendid Troll
banquet. The man stood a long time gazing on their
festivity ; but while he was standing there, deeply absorbed in
admiration of what he saw, all of a sudden the dancing
stopped, and the music ceased, and he heard a Troll cry out,
in a tone of the utmost anguish, " Skotte is fallen into the
fire ! Come and help him up !" The hill then sank, and all
the merriment was at an end.
Meanwhile the farmer's wife was at home all alone, and
while she was sitting and spinning her tow, she never
noticed a Troll who had crept through the window into the
next room, and was at the beer-barrel drawing off the liquor
into his copper kettle. The room-door was standing open, and
the Troll kept a steady eye on the woman. The husband
now came into the house full of wonder at what he had seen
and heard. " Hark ye, dame," he began, " listen now till 1
tell you what has happened to me!" The Troll redoubled
his attention. "As 1 came just now by Hjulehcii," con-
tinued he, " I saw a great Troll-banquet there, but while
they were in the very middle of their glee they shouted out
within in the hill, ' Skotte is fallen into the fire ; come and
help him up ! ' '
At hearing this, the Troll, who was standing beside the
beer-barrel, was so frightened, that he let the tap run and
the kettle of beer fall on the ground, and tumbled himself
out of the window as quickly as might be. The people of
the house hearing all this noise instantly guessed what had
been going on inside ; and when they went in they saw the
beer all running about, and found the copper kettle lying on
the floor. This they seized, and kept in lieu of the beer that
had been spilled ; and the same kettle is said to have been a
long time to be seen in the villages round about there.*
* Oral. Gudmanslrup is in Zealand. In Ourbe, a little island close to
Zealand, there is a hill whence the Trolls used to come down anil supply
themselves with provisions out of the farmers' pantries. Niel Jensen, who
lived close to the hill, finding that they were making, as he thought, over free
with his provisions, took the liberty of putting a lock on the door through
which they had access. But he had better have left it alone, for his daughter
grew stone blind, and never recovered her sight till the lock was removed.
Resenii Allot, i. 10. There is a in.ilar story in Grimm's Deutsche Sugen,
i. p. 55.
UWAEFS OE TEOLLS.
Clje lUsctrtr of
THEEE is a hill called Bodedys close to the road in the neigh-
bourhood of Lynge, that is near Soroe. Not far from it
lived an old farmer, whose only son was used to take long
journeys on business. His father had for a long time heard
no tidings of him, and the old man became convinced that
his son was dead. This caused him much affliction, as was
natural for an old man like him, and thus some time passed
oter.
One evening as he was coming with a loaded cart by
Bodedys, the hill opened, and the Troll came out and desired
him to drive his cart into it. The poor man was, to be sure,
greatly amazed at this, but well knowing how little it would
avail him to refuse to comply with the Troll's request, he
turned about his horses, and drove his cart straight into the
hill. The Troll now began to deal with him for his goods,
and finally bought and paid him honestly for his entire cargo.
When he had finished the unloading of his vehicle, and was
about to drive again out of the hill, the Troll said to him,
" If you will now only keep a silent tongue in your head
about all that has happened to you, I shall from this time
out have an eye to your interest; and if you come here
again to-morrow morning, it maybe you shall get your son."
The farmer did not well know at first what to say to all this ;
but as he was, however, of opinion that the Troll was able to
perform what he had promised, he was greatly rejoiced, and
failed not to come at the appointed time to Bodedys.
He sat there waiting a long time, and at last he fell asleep,
and when he awoke from his slumber, behold ! there was his
son lying by his side. Both father and son found it difficult to
explain how this had come to pass. The son related how he
had been thrown into prison, and had there suffered great
hardship and distress ; but that one night, while he was
lying asleep in his cell, there came a man to him, who said,
" Do you still love your father ? ' ' And when he had answered
1 2
110 SCANDINAVIA.
that he surely did, his chains fell off and the wall barst open.
"While he was telling this he chanced to put his hand up to
his neck, and he found that he had brought a piece of the
iron chain away with him. They both were for some time
mute through excess of wonder; and they then arose and
went straightway to Lynge, where they hung up the piece of
the chain in the church, as a memorial of the wonderful
event that had occurred.*
WHEN Esbern Snare was about building a church in
Kallundborg, he saw clearly that his means were not fully
adequate to the task. But a Troll came to him and oifere'd
his services ; and Esbern Snare made an agreement with him
on these conditions, that he should be able to tell the Troll's
name when the church was finished ; or in case he could not,
that he should give him his heart and his eyes.
The work now went on rapidly, and the Troll set the
church on stone pillars ; but when all was nearly done, and
there was only half a pillar wanting in the church, Esbern
began to get frightened, for the name of the Troll was yet
unknown to him.
One day he was going about the fields all alone, and in
great anxiety on account of the perilous state he was in ;
when, tired, and depressed, by reason of his exceeding grief
and affliction, he laid him down on Ulshoi bank to rest him-
self a while. While he was lying there, he heard a Troll-
woman within the hill saying th'ese words :
" Lie still, baby mine !
To-morrow cometh Fin,
Father thine,
And giveth thee Esbern Snare's eyes and heart to play with."t
This legend it oral,
f Tie stille, barn min I
Imorgen kommer Fin,
Fa'er din,
Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares olne og hjerte at legc med.
BWAKFS OE TBOLLS. ll>
When Esbern heard this, he recovered his spirits, and
went back to the church. The Troll was just then coming
with the half-pillar that was wanting for the church ; but
when Esbern saw him, he hailed him by his name, and called
him " Fin." The Troll was so enraged at this, that he went
off with the half-pillar through the air, and this is the reason
that the church has but three pillars and a half.*
The same is told of a far greater than Esbern Snare. As
St. Olaf, the royal apostle of the North, was one day going
over hill and dale, thinking how he could contrive to build a
splendid church without distressing his people by taxation,
he was met by a man of a strange appearance, who asking
him what he was thinking about, Olaf told him, and the
Troll, or rather Giant (Jdtte), for such he was, undertook to
do it within a certain time, stipulating, for his reward, the
sun and moon, or else St. Olaf himself. Olaf agreed, but
gave such a plan for the church as it seemed to be impossible
ever could be executed. It was to be so large that seven
priests could preach in it at the same time without disturbing
each other ; the columns and other ornaments both within
and without should be of hard flintstone, and so forth. It
soon, however, was finished, all but the roof and pinnacle.
Olaf, now grown uneasy, rambled once more over hill and
dale, when he chanced to hear a child crying within a hill,
and a giantess, its mother, saying to it, " Hush, hush ! Thy
father, Wind-and- Weather, will come home in the morning,
and bring with him the sun and moon, or else St. Olaf him-
self." Olaf was overjoyed, for the power of evil beings
ceases when their name is known. He returned home, where
he saw every thing completed pinnacle and all. He im-
mediately cried out, " Wind-and- Weather, you 've set the
* Oral. Kallundborg is in Zealand. Mr. Thiele says he saw four pillars
at the church. The same story is told of the cathedral of Lund in Funen,
which was built by the Troll Finn at the desire of St. Laurentius.
Of Esbern Snare, Holberg says, " The common people tell wonderful stories
of him, and how the devil carried him off; which, with other things, will serve
to prove that he was an able man."
The German story of Rumpelstilzchen (Kinder and Haus-Marchen, No.
55) is similar to this legend. MM. Grimm, in their not* on this storr, notice
the unexpected manner in which, in the Thousand and One Day*, or Persiau
Tales, the princess Turandot learns the name of Calaf.
118 SCANDINAVIA.
pinnacle crooked ! " * Instantly the Giant fell witn a great
crash from the ridge of the roof, and broke into a thousand
pieces, which were all flintstone.f
inbttrtr to t
THE hill-people are excessively frightened during thunder.
AVhen, therefore, they see bad weather coming on, they lose
no time in getting to the shelter of their hills. This terror
is also the cause of their not being able to endure the
beating of a drum, as they take it to be the rolling of
thunder. It is therefore a good receipt for banishing them
to beat a drum every day in the neighbourhood of their
hills ; for they immediately pack up and depart to some more
quiet residence.
A farmer lived once in great friendship and unanimity
with a hill-man, whose hill was on his lands. One time when
his wife was lying-in, it gave him some degree of perplexity
to think that he could not well avoid inviting the hill-man
to the christening, which might not improbably bring him
into bad repute with the priest and the other people of the
village. He was going about pondering deeply, but in vain,
how he might get out of this dilemma, when it came into his
head to ask the advice of the boy that kept his pigs, who was
a great head-piece, and had often helped him before. The
Pig-boy instantly undertook to arrange the matter with the
ill-man in such a manner that he should not only stay away
without being offended, but moreover give a good christening-
present.
Wind och Veder I
Du har salt spiran spedar I
Other* saj it was
Blaster I s'dtt spiran vaster I
Blester ! set the pinnacle westwards ! ,
Or,
Sl'dt f satt spiran r'dtt I
Slatt ! set the pinnacle straight !
f Afcelius Sago-hafder, iii. 83. Grimm, Deut Mythol. p. 515.
i;
DWARFS OB TEOLLS. 119
Accordingly, when it was night he took a sack on his
shoulder, went to the hill-man's hill, knocked, and was ad-
mitted. He delivered his message, giving his master's
compliments, and requesting the honour of his company at
the christening. The hill-man thanked him, and said, "I
think it is but right that I should give you a christening-
gift." With these words he opened his money-chests, hid-
ding the boy to hold up his sack while he poured money into
it. "Is there enough now?" said he, when he had put a
good quantity into it. " Many give more, few give less,"
replied the boy.
The hill-man then fell again to filling the sack, and again
asked, " Is there enough now ?" The boy lifted up the sack
a little off the ground to try if he was able to carry any
more, and then answered, " It is about what most people
give." Upon this the hill-man emptied the whole chest into
the bag, and once more asked, "Is there enough now?'"
The guardian of the pigs saw that there was as much in
it now as ever he was able to carry, so he made answer, " No
one gives more, most people give less."
" Come, now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is
to be at the christening ?" " Ah," said the boy, " we are to
have a great parcel of strangers and great people. First
and foremost, we are to have three priests and a bishop ! "
" Hem !" muttered the hill-man ; " however, these gentlemen
usually look only after the eating and drinking : they will
never take any notice of me. Well, who else ? " " Then
we have asked St. Peter and St. Paul." " Hem ! hem ! how-
ever, there will be a by-place for me behind the stove. Well,
and then ? " " Then our Lady herself is coming ! " " Hem !
hem ! hem ! however, guests of such high rank come late
and go away early. But tell me, my lad, what sort of music
is it you are to have ?" " Music ! " said the boy, " why, we
are to have drums." " Drums ! " repeated he, quite terrified ;
" no, no, thank you, I shall stay at home in that case. Give
my best respects to your master, and I thank him for the
invitation, but I cannot come. I did but once go out to
take a little walk, and some people beginning to beat a drum,
I hurried home, and was just got to my door when they
flung the drum-stick after me and broke one of my shins. I
have been lame of that leg ever since, and I shall take good
L20 SCANDINATIA.
care in future to avoid that sort of music." So saying, he
helped the boy to put the sack on his back, once more
charging him to give his best respects to the farmer.*
CroII turncfc Cat
ABOUT a quarter of a mile from Soroe lies Pedersborg, and
a little farther on is the town of Lyng. Just between these
towns is a hill called Brondhoi (Spring-hill), said to be
inhabited by the Troll-people.
There goes a story that there was once among these Troll-
people of Brondhoi an old crossgrained curmudgeon of a
Troll, whom the rest nick-named Knurremurre (Humble-
grumble), because he was evermore the cause of noise and
uproar within the hill. This Knurremurre having discovered
what he thought to be too great a degree of intimacy between
his young wife and a young Troll of the society, took this in
such ill part, that he vowed vengeance, swearing he would
have the life of the young one. The hitter, accordingly,
thought it would be his best course to be off out of the hili
till better times ; so, turning himself into a noble tortoise-
shell tom-cat, he one fine morning quitted his old residence,
and journeyed down to the neighbouring town of Lyng,
where he established himself in the house of an honest poor
man named Plat.
Here he lived for a long time comfortable and easy, with
nothing to annoy him, and was as happy as any tom-cat or
Troll crossed in love well could be. He got every day plenty
of milk and good groutef to eat, and lay the whole day long
at his ease in a warm arm-chair behind the stove.
Plat happened one evening to come home rather late, and
as he entered the room the cat was sitting in his usual place,
* This event happened in Jutland. The Troll's dread of thunder seems
to be founded in the mythologic narr.itivcs of Thor's enmity to the
Trolls.
t Groute, Danish Orod, is a species of food like furmety, made of shelled
oats or barley. It is boiled and eaten -with milk or butter.
OB TBOLLS. 121
scraping meal-groute out of a pot, and licking the pot itself
carefully. " Harkye, dame," said Plat, as he came in at the
door, " till I tell you what happened to me on the road. Just
as I was coming past Brondhoi, there came out a Troll, and
he called out to me, and said,
" Harkye Plat,
Tell your cat,
That Knurremurre is dead."*
The moment the cat heard these words, he tumbled the
pot down on the floor, sprang out of the chair, and stood up
on his hind-legs. Then, as he hurried out of the door, he
cried out with exultation, " What ! is Knurremurre dead ?
Then I may go home as fast as I please." And so saying he
scampered off to the hill, to the amazement of honest Plat ;
and it is likely lost no time in making his advances to the
young widow.f
THERE is a hill on the lands of Skjelverod, near Eingsted,
called Kirsten's-hill (Sirstens Sjerg). In it there lived a
Hill-troll whose name was Skynd, who had from time to
time stolen no less than three wives from a man in the
village of Englerup.
It was late one evening when this man was nding home
from Eingsted, and his way lay by the hill. When he
came there he saw a great crowd of Hill-folk who were
dancing round it, and had great merriment among them.
But on looking a little closer, what should he recognise but
all his three wives among them! Now as Kirsten, the
* Hor du Plat,
Siig til din Kat,
A t Knurremurre er dod.
f- The scene of this story is in Zealand. The same is related of a hill
called Ornehbi in the same island. The writer has heard it in Ireland, but
they were cats who addressed the man as he passed by the churchyard where
they were assembled.
122 8CA.NDINAYIA.
second of them, had been his favourite, and dearer to him
than either of the others, he called out to her, and named
her name. Troll Skynd then came up to the man, and
asked him why he presumed to call Kirsten. The man told
him briefly how she had been his favourite and best beloved
wife, and entreated of him, with many tears and much
lamentation, to let him have her home with him again.
The Troll consented at last to grant the husband's request,
with, however, the condition, that he should never hurry
(likynde) her.
For a long time the husband strictly kept the condition ;
but one day, when the woman was above in the loft, getting
something, and it happened that she delayed a long time, he
called out, Make haste, Kirsten, make haste, (Skynde dig
Kirsten) and scarcely had he spoken the words, when the
woman was gone, compelled to return to the hill, which has
ever since been called Kirsten's Bjerg.*
CroIMLaiour.
" IK the year 1660, when I and my wife had gone to my
farm (Jaboderne), which is three quarters of a mile from
Bagunda parsonage, and we were sitting there and talking a
while, late in the evening, there came a little man in at the
door, who begged of my wife to go and aid his wife, who was
just then in the pains of labour. The fellow was of small
size, of a dark complexion, and dressed in old grey clothes.
My wife and I sat a while, and wondered at the man ; for
we were aware that he was a Troll, and we had heard tell
that such like, called by the peasantry Vettar (spirits),
always used to keep in the farmhouses, when people
left them in harvest-time. But when he had urged his
request four or five times, and we thought on what evil the
country folk say that they have at times suffered from the
Vettar, when they have chanced to swear at them, or with
* Thi legend wa orally related to Mr. Tbiele.
DWAEFS OE TEOLLS. 123
uncivil words bid them go to holl, I took the resolution to
read some prayers over my wile, and to bless her, and bid
her in God's name go with him. She took in haste some old
linen with her, and went along with him, and I remained
sitting there. When she returned, she told me, that when
she went with the man out at the gate, it seemed to her as
if she was carried for a time along in the wind, and so she
came to a room, on one side of which was a little dark
chamber, in which his wife lay in bed in great agony. My
wife went up to her, and, after a little while, aided her till
she brought forth the child after the same manner as other
human beings. The man then otfered her food, and when
she refused it, he thanked her, and accompanied her out,
and then she was carried along, in the same way in the
wind, and after a while came again to the gate, just at ten
o'clock. Meanwhile, a quantity of old pieces and clippings
of silver were laid on a shelf, in the sitting-room, and my
wife found them next day, when she was putting the room
in order. It is to be supposed that they were laid there by
the Vettr. That it in truth so happened, I witness, by
inscribing my name. Eagunda, the 12th of April, 1671.
" PET. KAHM."*
BIOBX MAETIKSSON went out shooting, one day, with a
gamekeeper, on the wooded hill of Ormkulla. They there
found a hill-smith (bergsmed) lying fast asleep. Biorn
directed the gamekeeper to secure him, but he refused,
saying " Pray to God to protect you ! The hill-smith will
fling you down to the bottom of the hill." He was, however,
bold and determined, and he went up and seized the sleep-
ing hill-smith, who gave a cry, and implored him to let him
go, as he had a wife and seven little children. He said he
would also do any iron work that should be required; it
* Hulpher, Satnlingcn om Jamtland. Westeras, 1775. p. 210 ap. Grimm,
Deut. Mythol., p. 425.
124 SCANDINAVIA.
would only be necessary to leave iron and steel on the side
of the hill, and the work would be found lying finished in
the same place. Biorn asked him for whom he worked ; he
replied, " For my companions." When Biorn would not
let him go, he said, " If I had my mist-cap (udtlehit) you
should not carry me away. But if you do not let me go,
not one of your posterity will attain to the importance
which you possess, but continually decline ;" which certainly
came to pass. Biorn would not, however, let him go, but
brought him captive to Bahus. On the third day, however,
he effected his escape out of the place in which he was
confined.*
The following legend is related in Denmark :
On the lands of Nyegaard lie three large hills, one of
which is the abode of a Troll, who is by trade a blacksmith.
If any one is passing that hill by night, he will see the fire
issuing from the top, and going in again at the side. Should
you wish to have any piece of iron-work executed in a
masterly manner, you nave only to go to the hill, and saying
aloud what you want to have made, leave there the iron and
a silver shilling. On revisiting the hill next morning, you
will find the shilling gone, and the required piece of work
lying there finished, and ready for use.f
<StrI at tf)e
A GIEL, belonging to a village in the isle of Funen, went out,
one evening, into the fields, and as she was passing by a
small hill, she saw that it was raised upon red pillars, and a
* Oilman* Bahusl&n, op. Grimm. Deut. Mythol. p. 426. Odman also
tells of a man who, as he was going along one day with his dog, came on a
hill-smith at his work, using a stone as an anvil. He had on him a light grey
coat and a. black woollen hat. The dog began to bark at him, but he put oh
so menacing an attitude that they both deemed it advisable to go away.
f- Tliiele, iv. 120. In both these legends we find the tradition of the
artistic skill of the Duergar and of Volundr still retained by the peawntry :
ec Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 270.
DWAttFS OB TROLLS. 125
Troll-banquet going on beneath it. She was invited in, and
such was the gaiety and festivity that prevailed, that she
never perceived the flight of time. At length, however, she
took her departure, after having spent, as she thought, a
few hours among the joyous hill-people. But when she
came to the village she no longer found it the place she had
left. All was changed ; and when she entered the house in
which she had lived with her family, she learned that her
father and mother had long been dead, and the house had
come into the hands of strangers. She now perceived
that for every hour that she had been among the Trolls,
a year had elapsed in the external world. The effect on her
mind was such that she lost her reason, which she never
after recovered.*
THEEE lived once, near Tiis lake, two lonely people, who
were sadly plagued with a changeling, given them by the
underground-people instead of their own child, which had
not been baptised in time. This changeling behaved in a
very strange and uncommon manner, for when there was no
one in the place, he was in great spirits, ran up the walls like
a cat, sat under the roof, and shouted and bawled away lustily;
but sat dozing at the end of the table when any one was in
the room with him. He was able to eat as much as anv
four, and never cared what it was that was set before him ;
but though he regarded not the quality of his food, in quan-
tity he was never satisfied, and gave excessive annoyance to
every one in the house.
* Thiele, iv. 21. In Otmar's Volksagen, there is a German legend of
Peter Klaus, who slept a sleep of twenty years in the bowling green of the
Kyffhauser, from which Washington Irving made his Ripp van YVinkle. We
shall also find it in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the IrUh legend of
Clough na Cuddy, so extremely well told by Mr. C. Crokei (to which, by the
way, we contributed a Latin song), in the notes to which further information
will be found. The Seven Sleepers seems to be the original.
126 SCANDIKAVIA..
When they had tried for a long time in vain how they
could best get rid of him, since there was no living in the
house with him, a smart girl pledged herself that she would
banish him from the house. She accordingly, while he was
out in the fields, took a pig and killed it, and put it, hide,
hair, and all, into a black pudding, and set it before him
when he came home. He began, as was his custom, to
gobble it up, but when he had eaten for some time, he began
to relax a little in his efforts, and at hist he sat quite still,
with his knife in his hand, looking at the pudding.
At length, after sitting for some time in this manner, he
began " A pudding with hide ! and a pudding with hair !
a pudding with eyes ! and a pudding with legs in it !
Well, three times have I seen a young wood by Tiis lake,
but never yet did I see such a pudding ! The devil himself
may stay here now for me ! " So saying, he ran oft' with him-
self, and never more came back again.*
Another changeling was got rid of in the following
manner. The mother, suspecting it to be such from its
refusing food, and being so ill-thriven, heated the oven as
hot as possible. The maid, as instructed, asked her why
she did it. "To burn my child in it to death," was the
reply. When the question had been put and answered
three times, she placed the child on the peel, and was shov-
ing it into the oven, when the Troll-woman came in a great
fright with the real child, and took away her own, saying.
" There 's your child for you. I have treated it better than
you treated mine," and in truth it was fat and hearty.
* Oral. See the Young Piper and the Brewery of Egg-shells in the Irish
Fairy Legends, with the notes. The same story is also to be found in Ger-
many where the object is to wake the changeling laugh. The mother breaks
an egg in two and sets water down to boil in each half shell. The imp then
cries out : " Well ! I 'na as old as the Westerwald, but never before saw I any
one cooking in egg-shells," and burst out laughing at it. Instantly the true
child was returned. Kinder and Haus-Marchen, iii. 39. Grose also tells the
story in his Provincial Glossary. The mother there breaks a dozen of eggs and
sets the shells before the child, who says, " I was seven years old when I came
to nurse, and I have lived four since, and yet I never saw so many milkpans."
See also Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and below, Wales, Brittany,
France.
DWABFS OB TBOLL8. 127
jumping otirr tT)c Jkonfc.
NEAB Hellested, in Zealand, lived a man, who from time to
time remarked that he was continually plundered. All his
suspicions fell on the Troll-folk, who lived in the neighbour-
ing hill of Ildshoi (Fire-hill), and once hid himself to try
and get a sight of the thief. He had waited there but a very
short time when he saw, as he thought, his tile-stove jump-
ing across the brook. The good farmer was all astonishment
at this strange sight, and he shouted out " Hurra ! there 's
a jump for a tile-stove!" At this exclamation the Troll,
who was wading through the water with the stove on his
head, was so frightened that he threw it down, and ran off
as hard as he could to Ildshoi. But in the place where the
stove fell, the ground got the shape of it, and the place is
called Krogbek (Hook-brook), and it was this that gave rise
to the common saying, " That was a jump for a tile-stove! "
" Det var et Spring af en Leerovn ! " *
ONE evening, after sunset, there came a strange man to the
ferry of Sund. He engaged all the ferry-boats there to go
backwards and forwards the whole night long between that
place and Vendsyssel, without the people's knowing what
lading they had. He told them that they should take their
freight on board half a mile to the east of Sund, near the
alehouse at the bridge of Lange.
At the appointed time the man was at that place, and the
ferrymen, though unable to see anything, perceived very
clearly that the boats sunk deeper and deeper, so that they
easily concluded that they had gotten a very heavy freight on
board. The ferry-boats passed in this manner to and fro
* This legend is taken from Resenn Atlas, i. 36.
128 8CAKDINA.VIA.
the whole night long; and though they got every trip a
fresh cargo, the strange man never left them, but staid to
Have everything regulated by his directions.
When 'morning was breaking they received the payment
they had agreed for, and they then ventured to inquire what
it waa they had been bringing over, but on that head their
employer would give them no satisfaction.
But there happened to be among the ferrymen a smart
fellow who knew more about these matters than the others.
He jumped on shore, took the clay from under his right foot,
and put it into his cap, and when he had set it on his head
he perceived that all the sand-hills east of Aalborg were
completely covered with, little Troll-people, who had all
pointed red caps on their heads. Ever since that time there
nave been no Dwarfs seen in Vendsyssel.*
SVEND FJSLLINO was a valiant champion. He was born in
Eaelling, and was a long time at service in Aakjaer house,
Aarhuus, and as the roads were at that time greatly infested
by Trolls and underground-people, who bore great enmity to
all Christians, Svend undertook the office of letter-carrier.
As he was one time going along the road, he saw
approaching him the Troll of Jels-hill, on the lands of Holm.
The Troll came up to him, begging him to stand his friend
in a combat with the Troll of Borum-es-hill. When Svend
Faelling had promised to do so, saying that he thought him-
self strong and active enough for the encounter, the Troll
reached him a heavy iron bar, and bade him show his strength
on that. But not all Svend' s efforts availed to lift it :
whereupon the Troll handed him a horn, telling him to drink
out of it. No sooner had he drunk a little out of it than his
strength increased. He was now able to lift the bar, which,
* Vendsyssel and Aalborg are both in North Jutland. The story is told bj
the feirymen to travellers : see Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 68.
DWABFS OB TROLLS. 129
when he had drunk again, became stLl lighter ; but when
again renewing his draught he emptied the horn, he was
able to swing the bar with ease, and he then learned from
the Troll that he had now gotten the strength of twelve
men. He then promised to prepare himself for combat with
the Troll of Bergmond. As a token he was told that he
should meet on the road a black ox and a red ox, and that
he should fall with all his might on the black ox, and drive
him from the red one.
This all came to pass just as he was told, and he found,
after his work was done, that the black ox was the Troll from
Borum-es-hill, and the red ox was the Troll himself of Jels-
hill, who, as a reward for the assistance he had given him,
allowed him to retain for his own use the twelve men's
strength with which he had endowed him. This grant
was, however, on this condition that if ever he should
reveal the secret of his strength, he should be punished by
getting the appetite of twelve.
The fame of the prodigious strength of Svend soon spread
through the country, as he distinguished himself by various
exploits, such, for instance, as throwing a dairy-maid, who
had offended him, up on the gable of the house, and similar
feats. So when this report came to the ears of his master,
he had Svend called before him, and inquired of him whence
his great strength came. Svend recollected the words of his
friend the Troll, so he told him if he would promise him as
much food as would satisfy twelve men, he would tell him.
The master promised, and Svend told his story ; but the
word of the Troll was accomplished, for from that day forth
Svend ate and drank as much as any twelve.*
* See above p. 89. According to what Mr. Thiele was told in Zealand,
Svend Falling must have been of prodigious size, for there is a hill near Steen-
etrup on which he used to sit while he washed his feet and hands in the sea,
about half a quarter of a mile distant. The people of Holmstrup dressed a
dinner for him, and brought it to him in large brewing vessels, much as the
good people of Lilliput did with Gulliver. This reminds us of Holger Danske,
who once wanted a new suit of clothes. Twelve tailors were employed : they
set ladders to his back and shoulders, as was done to Gulliver, and they mea-
sured away ; but the man that was highest on the right side ladder chanced, as
he was cutting a mark in the measure, to clip Holger's ear. Holger, forgetting
what it was, hastily put up his hand to his head, caught the poor tailor, and
crushed him to death between his fingers.
13C SCANDINAVIA.
QU.i.trf.5' lianqtirl.
A NOBWEQIAX TALK.*
THEEB lived in Norway, not far from the city of Drontheim,
a powerful man, who was blessed \nth all the goods of
fortune. A part of the surrounding country was his pro-
perty ; numerous herds fed on his pastures, and a great
retinue and a crowd of servants adorned his mansion. He
had an only daughter, called Aslog, t the fame of whose
beauty spread far and wide. The greatest men of the
country sought her, but all were alike unsuccessful in their
suit, and he who had come full of confidence and joy, rode
away home silent and melancholy. Her father, who thought
his daughter delayed her choice only to select, forbore to
interfere, and exulted in her prudence. But when, at
length, the richest and noblest had tried their fortune with
as little success as the rest, he grew angry, and called his
daughter, and said to her, " Hitherto I have left you to your
free choice, but since I see that you reject all without any
distinction, and the very best of your suitors seem not good
enough for you, I will keep measures no longer with you.
What ! shall my family be extinct, and my inheritance pass
away into the hands of strangers ? I will break your
stubborn spirit. I give you now till the festival of the great
Winter-night ; make your choice by that time, or prepare to
accept him whom I shall fix on."
* This tale was taken from oral recitation by Dr. Grimm, and inserted in
Banff's Marchenalmanach for 1827. Dr. Grimm's fidelity to tradition is too
well known to leave any doubt of its genuineness.
f- Aslog {Light of the Aser) is the name of the lovely daughter of Sigurd
and Brynhilda, who became the wife of Ragnar Lodbrok. How beautiful and
romantic is the account in the Volsunga Saga of old Heimer taking her, when
an infant, and carrying her about with him in his harp, to save her from those
who sought her life as the last of Sigurd's race ; his retiring to remote streams
and waterfalls to wash her, and his stilling her cries by the music of hi*
harp!
DWAttFS OB TROLLS ] 31
Aslog loved a youth called Orm, handsome as lie was
brave and noble. She loved him with her whole soul, and
she would sooner die than bestow her hand on another. But
Orm was poor, and poverty compelled him to serve in the
mansion of her father. Aslog' s partiality for him was kept
a secret ; for her father's pride of power and wealth waa
such that he would never have given his consent to an union
with so humble a man.
When Aslog saw the darkness of his countenance, and
heard his angry words, she turned pale as death, for she
knew his temper, and doubted not but that he would put
his threats into execution. Without uttering a word in
reply, she retired to her silent chamber, and thought deeply
but in vain how to avert the dark storm that hung over her.
The great festival approached nearer and nearer, and her
anguish increased every day.
At last the lovers resolved on flight. " I know," says
Orm, " a secure place where we may remain undiscovered
until we find an opportunity of quitting the country." At
night, when all were asleep, Orm led the trembling Aslog
over the snow and ice-fields away to the mountains. The
moon and the stars sparkling still brighter in the cold
winter's night lighted them on their way. They had under
their arms a few articles of dress and some skins of animals,
which were all they could carry. They ascended the moun-
tains the whole night long till they reached a lonely spot
inclosed with lofty rocks. Here Orm conducted the weary
Aslog into a cave, the low and narrow entrance to which was
hardly perceptible, but it soon enlarged to a great hall,
reaching deep into the mountain. He kindled a fire, and
they now, reposing on their skins, sat in the deepest solitude
far away from all the world.
Orm was the first who had discovered this cave, which is
shown to this very day, and as no one knew any thing of it,
they were safe from the pursuit of Aslog' s father. They
passed the whole winter in this retirement. Orm used to
go a hunting, and Aslog stayed at home in the cave, minded
the fire, and prepared the necessary food. Frequently did
she mount the points of the rocks, but her eyes wandered
as far as they could reach only over glittering snow-fields.
The spring now came on the woods were green the
K2
132 SCANDINAVIA.
meads put on their various colours, and Aslog could but
rarely and with circumspection venture to leave the cave.
One evening Orm came in with the intelligence that he
had recognised her father's servants in the distance, and
that he could hardly have been unobserved by them, whose
eyes were as good as his own. " They will surround this
place," continued he, " and never rest till they have found us;
we must quit our retreat, then, without a moment's delay."
They accordingly descended on the other side of the
mountain, and reached the strand, where they fortunately
found a boat. Orm shoved off, and the boat drove into the
open sea. They had escaped their pursuers, but they were
now exposed to dangers of another kind : whither should
they turn themselves ? They could not venture to land, for
Aslog' s father was lord of the whole coast, and they would
infallibly fall into his hands. Nothing then remained for
them but to commit their bark to the wind and waves. They
drove along the entire night. At break of day the coast had
disappeared, and they saw nothing but the sky above, the
sea beneath, and the waves that rose and fell. They had
not brought one morsel of food with them, and thirst and
hunger began now to torment them. Three days did they
toss about in this state of misery, and Aslog, faint and
exhausted, saw nothing but certain death before her.
At length, on the evening of the third day, they disco-
r ered an island of tolerable magnitude, and surrounded by
a number of smaller ones. Orm immediately steered for
it, but just as he came near it there suddenly rose a
violent wind, and the sea rolled every moment higher and
higher against him. He turned about with a view of
approaching it on another side, but with no better success ;
his vessel, as oft as it approached the island, was driven
back as if by an invisible power. "Lord God! " cried he,
and blessed himself and looked on poor Aslog, who seemed
to be dying of weakness before his eyes. But scarcely had
the exclamation passed his lips when the storm ceased,
the waves subsided, and the vessel came to the shore,
without encountering any hindrance. Orm jumped out
on the beach ; some mussels that he found on the strand
strengthened and revived the exhausted Aslog, so that she
was soon able to leave the boat.
DWARF S OE TROLLS. 133
The island was overgrown with low dwarf shrubs, and
seemed to be uninhabited ; but when they had gotten about
to the middle of it, they discovered a house reaching but a
little above the ground, and appearing to be half under the
surface of the earth. In the hope of meeting human beings
and assistance, the wanderers approached ii. They listened
if they could hear any noise, but the most perfect silence
reigned there. Orm at length opened the door, and with
his companion walked in ; but what was their surprise, to
find everything regulated and arranged as if for inhabitants,
yet not a single living creature visible. The fire was burn-
ing on the hearth, in the middle of the room, and a pot
with fish hung on it apparently only waiting for some one to
take it up and eat it. The beds were made and ready to
receive their wearied tenants. Orm and Aslog stood for
some time dubious, and looked on with a certain degree of
awe, but at last, overcome by hunger, they took up the food
and ate. When they had satisfied their appetites, and still
in the last beams of the setting sun, which now streamed
over the island far and wide, discovered no human being,
they gave way to weariness, and laid themselves in the beds
to which they had been so long strangers.
They had expected to be awakened in the night by the
owners of the house on their return home, but their
expectation was not fulfilled ; they slept undisturbed till the
morning sun shone in upon them. No one appeared on any
of the following days, and it seemed as if some invisible
power had made ready the house for their reception. They
spent the whole summer in perfect happiness they were,
to be sure, solitary, yet they did not miss mankind. The
wild birds' eggs, and the fish they caught, yielded them
provisions in abundance.
"When autumn came, Aslog brought forth a son. In the
midst of their joy at his appearance, they were surprised by
a wonderful apparition. The door opened on a sudden, and
an old woman stepped in. She had on her a handsome blue
dress : there was something proud, but at the same time
something strange and surprising in her appearance.
"Do not be afraid," said she, "at my unexpected appear-
ance I am the owner of this house, and I thank you for
the clean and neat state in which you have kept it, and for
Id4 BOAS.D1ITAVT.4.
the good order in which I find everything with you.
I would willingly have come sooner, but I had no power to
do so till this little heathen (pointing to the new born-babe)
was come to the light. Now I have free access. Only
fetch no priest from the main-land to christen it, or I must
depart again. If you will in this matter comply with my
wishes, you may not only continue to live here, but all the
good that ever you can wish for I will do you. Whatever
you take in hand shall prosper ; good luck shall follow you
wherever you go. But break this condition, and depend
upon it that misfortune after misfortune will come on you,
and even on this child will I avenge myself. If you want
anything, or are in danger, you have only to pronounce my
name three times and I will appear and lend you assistance.
I am of the race of the old Giants, and my name is Guru.
But beware of uttering in my presence the name of him
whom no Giant may hear of, and never venture to make the
sign of the cross, or to cut it on beam or board in the house.
You may dwell in this house the whole year long, only be
so good as to give it up to me on Yule evening, when the
sun is at the lowest, as then we celebrate our great festival,
and then only are we permitted to be merry. At least, if
you should not be willing to go out of the house, keep
yourselves up in the loft as quiet as possible the whole
day long, and as you value your lives do not look down into
the room until midnight is past. After that you may take
possession of everything again."
When the old woman had thus spoken she vanished, and
Aslog and Orm, now at ease respecting their situation, lived
without any disturbance contented and happy. Orm never
made a cast of his net without getting a plentiful draught ;
he never shot an arrow from his bow that it was not sure to
hit ; in short, whatever they took in hand, were it ever so
trifling, evidently prospered.
When Christmas came, they cleaned up the house in the
best manner, set everything in order, kindled a fire on the
hearth, and as the twilight approached, they went up to the
loft, where they remained quite still and quiet. At length
it grew dark ; they thought they heard a sound of whizzing
and snorting in the air, such as the swans use to make in
the winter time. There was a hole in the roof over the fire-
DWAKFS OE TBOLLS. 135
place which might be opened and shut either to let in the
light from above, or to afford a free passage for the smoke.
Orm lifted up the lid, which was covered with a skin, and
put out his head. But what a wonderful sight then presented
itself to his eyes ! The little islands around were all lit up
with countless blue lights, which moved about without
ceasing, jumped up and down, then skipped down to the
shore, assembled together, and came nearer and nearer to
the large island where Orm and Aslog lived. At last they
reached it, and arranged themselves in a circle around a large
stone not far from the shore, and which Orm well knew.
But what was his surprise, when he saw that the stone had
now completely assumed the form of a man, though of a
monstrous and gigantic one ! He could clearly perceive that
the little blue lights were borne by Dwarfs, whose pale clay-
coloured faces, with their huge noses and red eyes, disfigured
too by birds' bills and owls' eyes, were supported by mis-
shapen bodies ; and they tottered and wabbled about here
and there, so that they seemed to be at the same time merry
and in pain. Suddenly, the circle opened ; the little ones
retired on each side, and Gruru, who was now much enlarged
and of as immense a size as the stone, advanced with gigantic
steps. She threw both her arms round the stone image,
which immediately began to receive life and motion. As
soon as the first symptom of motion showed itself, the little
ones began, with wonderful capers and grimaces, a song, or
to speak more properly, a howl, with which the whole island
resounded and seemed to tremble at the noise. Orm, quite
terrified, drew in his head, and he and Aslog remained in
the dark, so still, that they hardly ventured to draw their
breath.
The procession moved on toward the house, as might be
clearly perceived by the nearer approach of the shouting and
crying. They were now all come in, and, light and active,
the Dwarfs jumped about on the benches ; and heavy and
loud sounded at intervals the steps of the giants. Orm and
his wife heard them covering the table, and the clattering
of the plates, and the shouts of joy with which they cele-
brated their banquet. When it was over and it drew near
to midnight, they began to dance to that ravishing fairy-air
which charms the mind into such sweet confusion, and
136 SCANDINAVIA.
which some have heard in the rooky glens, and learned b/
listening to the underground musicians. As soon as Aslog
caught the sound of this air, she felt an irresistible longing
to see the dance. Nor was Orm able to keep her back.
"Let me look," said she, "or my heart will burst." She
took her child and placed herself at the extreme end of the
loft, whence, without being observed, she could see all that
passed. Long did she gaze, without taking off her eyes for
an instant, on the dance, on the bold and wonderful springs
of the little creatures who seemed to float in the air, and not
so much as to touch the ground, while the ravishing melody
of the elves filled her whole soul. The child meanwhile,
which lay in her arms, grew sleepy and drew its breath
heavily, and without ever thinking on the promise she had
given the old woman, she made, as is usual, the sign of the
cross over the mouth of the child, and said, " Christ bless
you, my babe ! "
The instant she had spoken the word there was raised a
horrible piercing cry. The spirits tumbled heads over heels
out at the door with terrible crushing and crowding, their
lights went out, and in a few minutes the whole house waa
clear of them, and left desolate. Orm and Aslog frightened
to death, hid themselves in the most retired nook in the
house. They did not venture to stir till daybreak, and not
till the sun shone through the hole in the roof down on the
fire-place did they feel courage enough to descend from the
loft.
The table remained still covered as the underground-
people had left it ; all their vessels, which were of silver, and
manufactured in the most beautiful manner, were upon it.
In the middle of the room, there stood upon the ground a
huge copper vessel half full of sweet mead, and by the side
of it, a drinking-horn of pure gold. In the corner lay against
the wall a stringed instrument, not unlike a dulcimer, which,
as people believe, the Giantesses used to play on. They
gazed on what was before them, full of admiration, but with-
out venturing to lay their hands on anything : but great
and fearful was their amazement, when, on turning about,
they saw sitting at the table an immense figure, which Orm
instantly recognised as the Giant whom Guru had animated
by her embrace. He was now a cold and hard stone. While
BWAKFS OR TROLLS 137
they were standing gazing on it, Guru herself entered the
room in her giant-form. She wept so bitterly, that her tears
trickled down on the ground. It was long ere her sobbing
permitted her to utter a single word : at last she spoke :
" Great affliction have you brought on me, and henceforth
I must weep while I live ; yet as I know that you have not
done this with evil intentions, I forgive you, though it were
a trifle for me to crush the whole house like an egg-shell
over your heads."
"Alas!" cried she, " my husband, whom I love more
than myself, there he sits, petrified for ever ; never again
will he open his eyes ! Three hundred years lived I with
my father on the island of Kunnan, happy in the innocence
of youth, as the fairest among the Giant-maidens. Mighty
heroes sued for my hand ; the sea around that island is still
filled with the rocky fragments which they hurled against
each other in their combats. Andfind won the victory, and
I plighted myself to him. But ere I was married came the
detestable Odin into the country, who overcame my father,
and drove us all from the island. My father and sisters fled
to the mountains, and since that time my eyes have beheld
them no more. Andfind and I saved ourselves on this
island, where we for a long time lived in peace and quiet,
and thought it would never be interrupted. But destiny,
which no one escapes, had determined it otherwise. Oluf *
came from Britain. They called him the Holy, and Andfind
instantly found that his voyage would be inauspicious to the
giants. When he heard how Oluf's ship rushed through
the waves, he went down to the strand and blew the sea
against him with all his strength. The waves swelled up
like mountains. But Oluf was still more mighty than he ;
his ship flew unchecked through the billows like an arrow
from a bow; He steered direct for our island. When the
ship was so near that Andfind thought he could reach it
with his hands, he grasped at the forepart with his right
hand, and was about to drag it down to the bottom, as he
had often done with other ships. But Oluf, the terrible
Oluf, stepped forward, and crossing his hands over each
other, he cried with a loud voice, ' Stand there as a stone,
* This is Saint Oluf or Olave, the warlike apostle of the North.
138 SCAJTDIIfAYIA.
till the last day,' and in the same instant my unhappy hus-
band became a mass of rock. The ship sailed on unimpeded,
and ran direct against the mountain, which it cut through,
and separated from it the little island which lies out
yonder.*
" Ever since my happiness has been annihilated, and
lonely and melancholy have I passed my life. On Yule-eve
alone can petrified Giants receive back their life for the
space of seven hours, if one of their race embraces them, and
is, at the same time, willing to sacrifice a hundred years of
their own life. But seldom does a Giant do that. I loved
my husband too well not to bring him back cheerfully to
life every time that I could do it, even at the highest price,
and never would I reckon how often I had done it, that I
might not know when the time came when I myself should
share his fate, and at the moment that I threw my arms
around him become one with him. But alas ! even this
comfort is taken from me ; I can never more by any embrace
awake him, since he has heard the name which I dare not
utter ; and never again will he see the light until the dawn
of the last day shall bring it.
" I now go hence ! You will never again behold me ! All
that is here in the house I give you ! My dulcimer alone
will I keep ! But let no one venture to fix his habitation on
the little islands that lie around here ! There dwell the little
underground ones whom you saw at the festival, and I will
protect them as long as I live !"
With these words Guru vanished. The next spring Onn
took the golden horn and the silver ware to Drontheim,
* A legend similar to this is told of Saint Oluf in various parts of Scandi-
navia. The following is an example : As he was sailing by the high strand-
hills in Hornsherred, in which a giantess abode, she cried out to him,
Saint Oluf with the red beard hear !
My cellar-wall thou'rt sailing too near!
Oluf was incensed, and instead of guiding the ship through the rocks, he
turned it toward the hill, replying :
Hearken thou witch with thy spindle and rock !
There shall thou sit and be a stone-block !
and scarcely had he spoken when the hill burst and the giantess was turned
into stone. She is still seen sitting on the east side with her rock and spindle;
out of tin- opposite mass sprang a Loly well. Grimm. Deutsche Mytholf jpe,
p. 516.
HISSES. 139
where no one knew him. The value of these precious metals
was so great, that he was able to purchase everything requi-
site for a wealthy man. He laded his ship with his purchases,
and returned back to the island, where he spent many years
in unalloyed happiness, and Aslog's father was soon reconciled
to his wealthy son-in-law.
The stone image remained sitting in the house ; no human
power was able to move it. So hard was the stone, that
hammer and axe flew in pieces without making the slightest
impression upon it. The Giant sat there till a holy man
came to the island, who with one single word removed him
back to his former station, where he stands to this hour.
The copper vessel, which the underground people left behind
them, was preserved as a memorial upon the island, which
bears the name of House Island to the present day.
NISSES.*
Og Trolde, Hexer, Nisser i hver Vraae.
FINN MAGNUSEK
And Witches, Trolls, and Nisses in each nook.
THE Nis is the same being that is called Kobold in Germany,
Brownie in Scotland, and whom we shall meet in various
other places under different appellations. He is in Denmark
and Norway also called Nisse god-dreng (JVisse good lad),
and in Sweden Tomtgubbe (Old Man of the Jlowe), or
briefly Tomte.
He is evidently of the Dwarf family, as he resembles them
in appearance, and, like them, has the command of money,
and the same dislike to noise and tumult. He is of the size
of a year-old child, but has the face of an old man. Hia
* Nisse, Grimm thinks (Deut. Mythol. p. 472) is Niels, Nielsen, i. e.
Nicolaus, Niclas, a common name in Germany and the North, which is also
contracted to Klas, Claas.
140 SCANDINAVIA.
usual dress is grey, with a pointed red cap ; but on Michael-
mas-day he wears a round hat like those of the peasants.
No farm-house goes on well unless there is a Nis in it,
and well is it for the maids and the men when they are in
favour with him. They may go to their beds and give them-
selves no trouble about their work, and yet in the morning
the maids will find the kitchen swept up, and water brought
in, and the men will find the horses in the stable well cleaned
and curried, and perhaps a supply of corn cribbed for them
from the neighbours' barns. But he punishes them for any
irregularity that takes place.
The Nisses of Norway, we are told, are fond of the moon-
light, and in the winter time they may be seen jumping over
the yard, or driving in sledges. They are also skilled in
music and dancing, and will, it is said, give instructions on
the fiddle for a grey sheep, like the Swedish Stromkarl.*
Every church, too, has its Nis, who looks to order, and
chastises those who misbehave themselves. He is called the
Kirkegrim.
IT is very difficult, they say, to get rid of a Nis when one
wishes it. A man who lived in a house in which a Nis
carried his pranks to great lengths resolved to quit the
tenement, and leave him there alone. Several cart-loads of
furniture and other articles were already gone, and the man
was come to take away the last, which consisted chiefly of
empty tubs, barrels, and things of that sort. The load was
now all ready, and the man had just bidden farewell to his
house and to the Nis, hoping for comfort in his new habita-
tion, when happening, from some cause or other, to go to
the back of the cart, there he saw the Nis sitting in one of
* \7ilse ap Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 479, who thinks he may have con-
founded the Nis with the Nock.
+ The places mentioned in the following stories are all in Jutland. It if
remarkable that we seem to have scarcely any Nis stories from Sweden.
NISSES. 141
the tubs in the cart, plainly with the intention of going
along with him wherever he went. The good man was sur-
prised and disconcerted beyond measure at seeing that all
his labour was to no purpose ; but the Nis began to laugh
heartily, popped his head up out of the tub, and cried to the
bewildered farmer, " Ha ! we 're moving to-day, you see."*
IT is related of a Ms, who had established himself in a
house in Jutland, that he used every evening, after the maid
was gone to bed, to go into the kitchen to take his groute,
which they used to leave for him in a wooden bowl.
One evening he sat down as usual to eat his supper with
a good appetite, drew over the bowl to him, and was just
beginning, as he thought, to make a comfortable meal, when
he found that the maid had forgotten to put any butter into
it for him. At this he fell into a furious rage, got up in the
height of his passion, and went out into the cow-house, and
twisted the neck of the best cow that was in it. But as he
felt himself still very hungry, he stole back again to the
kitchen to take some of the groute, such as it was, and when
he had eaten a little of it he perceived that there was butter in
it, but that it had sunk to the bottom under the groute. He
was now so vexed at his injustice toward the maid, that, to
make good the damage he had done, he went back to the
cow-house and set a chest full of money by the side of the
dead cow, where the family found it next morning, and by
means of it got into flourishing circumstances.
* This story is current in Germany, England, and Ireland. In the German
story the farmer set fire to his barn to burn the Kobold in it. As he was
driving off, he turned round to look at the blaze, and, to his no small morti-
fication, saw the Kobold behind him in the cart, crying " It was tira* for us t
come out it was time for us to come out ! "
SCA^DIWATIA.
ffje
THEBE was a Nis in a house in Jutland ; he every evening
got his groute at the regular time, and he, in return, used to
help hoth the men and the maids, and looked to the interest
of the master of the house in every respect.
There came one time an arch mischievous boy to live at
service in this house, and his great delight was, whenever he
got an opportunity, to give the Nis all the annoyance in his
power. One evening, late, when everything was quiet in the
place, the Nis took his little wooden dish, and was just going
to eat his supper, when he perceived t'hat the hoy had put
the butter at the bottom, and concealed it, in hopes that he
might eat the groute first, and then find the butter when all
the groute was gone. He accordingly set about thinking
how he might repay the boy in kind ; so, after pondering a
little, he went up to the loft, where the man and the boy
were lying asleep in the same bed. When he had taken the
bed-clothes off them, and saw the little boy by the side of
the tall man, he said, " Short and long don't match ;" and
with this word he took the boy by the legs and dragged him
down to the man's legs. He then went up to the head of
the bed, and "Short and long don't match," said he again,
and then he dragged the boy up once more. When, do what
he would, he could not succeed in making the boy as long as
the man, he still persisted in dragging him up and down in
the bed, and continued at this work the whole night long,
till it was broad daylight.
By this time he was well tired, so he crept up on the
window-stool, and sat with his legs hanging down into the
yard. But the house-dog for all dogs have a great enmity
to the Nis as soon as he saw him, began to bark at him,
which afforded such amusement to Nis, as the dog could not
get up to him, that he put down first one leg and then the
other to him, and teazed him, and kept saying, " Look at my
little leg ! look at my little leg !" In the meantime the boy
HISSES. 143
had wakened, and had stolen up close behind him, and while
Nis was least thinking of it, and was going on with his
" Look at my little leg!" the boy tumbled him down into
the yard to the dog, crying out at the same time, " Look at
the whole of him now ! "
tornm.
THE BE lived a man at Thyrsting, in Jutland, who had a Nis
in his barn. This Nis used to attend to the cattle, and at
night he would steal fodder for them from the neighbours,
so that this farmer had the best fed and most thriving cattle
in the country.
One time the boy went along with the Nis to Fugleriis to
steal corn. The Nis took as much as he thought he could
well carry, but the boy was more covetous, and said, " Oh,
take more; sure we can rest now and then?" "Best!"
said the Nis ; " rest ! and what is rest ?" " Do what I tell
you," replied the boy ; " take more, and we shall find rest
when we get out of this." The Nis then took more, and
they went away with it. But when they were come to the
lands of Thyrsting, the Nis grew tired, and then the boy
said to him, " Here now is rest ;" and they both sat down on
the side of a little hill. " If I had known," said the Nis, as
they were sitting there, " if I had known that rest was so
good, I 'd have carried off all that was in the barn."
Tt happened some time after that the boy and the Nis
were no longer friends, and as the Nis was sitting one day
in the granary-window, with his legs hanging out into the
yard, the boy ran at him and tumbled him back into the
granary. But the Nis took his satisfaction of him that very
same night ; for when the boy was gone to bed, he titole
down to where he was lying, and carried him naked as he
was out into the yard, and then laid two pieces of wood
across the well, and put him lying on them, expecting that,
when he awoke, he would fall from the fright down into the
well and be drowned. But he was disappointed, for the joy
came off without
SCANDINAVIA..
THEBE was a man who lived in the town of Tirup, who had
a very handsome white mare. This mare had for many
years gone, like an heirloom, from father to son, because
there was a Nis attached to her, which brought luck to
the place.
This Nis was so fond of the mare, that he could hardly
endure to let them put her to any kind of work, and he used
to come himself every night and feed her of the best ; and
as for this purpose he usually brought a superfluity of corn,
both threshed and in the straw, from the neighbours' barns,
all the rest of the cattle enjoyed the advantage of it, and they
were all kept in exceeding good case.
It happened at last that the farm-house passed into the
hands of a new owner, who refused to put any faith in what
they told him about the mare, so the luck speedily left the
place, and went after the mare to his poor neighbour who
had bought her ; and within five days after his purchase, the
poor farmer who had bought the mare began to find his
circumstances gradually improving, while the income of the
other, day after day, fell away and diminished at such a rate,
that he was hard set to make both ends meet.
If now the man who had gotten the mare had only known
how to be quiet, and enjoy the good times that were come
Xn him, he and his children, and his children's children
r him, would have been in nourishing circumstances till
this very day. But when he saw the quantity of corn that
came every night to his barn, he could not resist his desire
to get a sight of the Nis. So he concealed himself one
evening, at nightfall, in the stable ; and as soon as it was
midnight, he saw how the Nis came from his neighbour's
barn and brought a sackful of corn with him. It was now
unavoidable that the Nis should get a sight of the man who
was watching ; so he, with evident marks of grief, gave the
mare her food for the last time, cleaned, and dressed her to
145
the best of his abilities, and when he had done, turned round
to where the man was lying and bid him farewell.
From that day forward the circumstances of both the
neighbours were on an equality, for each now kept his own.
THEEE was t Nis in a farm-house, who was for ever torment-
ing the ma: is, and playing all manner of roguish tricks on
them, and t tey in return were continually planning how to
be even with him. There came one time to the farm-house a
Juttish drover and put up there for the night. Among his
cattle, there was one very large Juttish ox ; and when Nis
saw him in the stable he took a prodigious fancy to get up
and ride on his back. He accordingly mounted the ox, and
immediately began to torment the beast in such a manner
that he broke loose from his halter and ran out into the
vard with the Nis on his back. Poor Nis was now terrified
in earnest, and began to shout and bawl most lustily. His
cries awakened the maids, but instead of coming to his
assistance they laughed at him till they were ready to break
their hearts. And when the ox ran against a piece of timber,
so that the unfortunate Nis had his hood all torn by it, the
maids shouted out and called him " Lame leg, Lame leg,"
and he riade off with himself in most miserable plight. But
the Nia did not forget it to the maids ; for the following
Sunday when they were going to the dance, he contrived,
unknown to them, to smut their faces all over, so that when
they gc t up to dance, every one that was there burst out a
laughir g at them.
146 8CA1TDINA.VIA.
fhssrs' tit
THEEE was once an exceeding great number of Nisses in
Jutland. Those in Vosborg in particular were treated with
so much liberality, that they were careful and solicitous
beyond measure for their master's interest. They got every
evening in their sweet-groute a large lump of butter, and in
return for this, they once showed great zeal and gratitude.
One very severe winter, a lonely house in which there
were six calves was so completely covered by the snow, that
for the space of fourteen days no one could get into it.
When the snow was gone, the people naturally thought that
the calves were all dead of hunger ; but far from it, they
found them all in excellent condition ; the place cleaned up,
and the cribs full of beautiful corn, so that it was quite
evident the Nisses had attended to them.
But the Nis, though thus grateful when well treated, is
sure to avenge himself when any one does anything to annoy
and vex him. As a Nis was one day amusing himself by
running on the loft over the cow-house, one of the boards
gave way and his leg went through. The boy happened to
be in the cow-house when this happened, and when he saw
the Nis's leg hanging down, he took up a dung fork, and
gave him with it a smart rap on the leg. At noon, when
the people were sitting round the table in the hall, the boy
sat continually laughing to himself. The bailiff asked him
what he was laughing at ; and the boy replied, " Oh ! a got
such a blow at Nis to-day, and a gave him such a hell of a
rap with my fork, when he put his leg down through the
loft." " No," cried Nis, outside of the window, " it was not
one, but three blows you gave me, for there were three
prongs on the fork ; but I shall pay you for it, my lad."
Next night, while the boy was lying fast asieep, Nis came
and took him up and brought him out into the yard, then
flung him over the house, and was so expeditious in getting
to the other side of the house, that he caught him before he
NECKS, MEBMEN, AND MEKMAIDS. 147
came to the ground, and instantly pitched him over again,
and kept going on with this sport till the boy had been
eight times backwards and forwards over the roof, and the
ninth time he let him fall into a great pool of water, and
then set up such a shout of laughter at him, that it wakened
up all the people that were in the place.
In Sweden the Tomte is sometimes seen at noon, in sum-
mer, slowly and stealthily dragging a straw or an ear of
corn. A farmer, seeing him thus engaged, laughed, and
said, " What difference does it make if you bring away that
or nothing ? " The Tomte in displeasure left his farm, and
went to that of his neighbour ; and with him went all pro-
sperity from him who had made light of him, and passed
over to the other farmer. Any one who treated the indus-
trious Tonrte with respect, and set store by the smallest
straw, became rich, and neatness and regularity prevailed in
his household *
NECKS. MEKMEN, AND MEEMAIDS.
Ei Necken mer i flodens vagor quader,
Och ingen Hafsfru bleker sina klader
Paa boljans rygg i milda solars glans.
STAGNELIUS.
The Neck no more upon the river sings,
And no Mermaid to bleach her linen flings
Upon the waves in the mild solar ray.
IT is a prevalent opinion in the North that all the various
beings of the popular creed were once worsted in a conflict
with superior powers, and condemned to remain till dooms-
day in certain assigned abodes. The Dwarfs, or Hill (Berg)
trolls, were appointed the hills ; the Elves the groves and
* Afeelius, Sago Hafdar., ii. 169. On Christmas-morning, he says, the
peasantry gives the Tomte, his wages, i. e. a piece of grey cloth, tobacca, and
a shovelful of clay.
L 2
148 BCAKD1KATIA.
leafy trees; the Hill-people (llogfolk*) the caves and
caverns ; the Mermen, Mermaids, and Necks, the sea, lakes,
and rivers ; the Eiver-man (Stromkarl) the small waterfalls.
Both the Catholic and Protestant clergy have endeavoured
to excite an aversion to these beings, but in vain. They
are regarded as possessing considerable power over man and
nature, and it is believed that though now unhappy, they
will be eventually saved, or faa forlossning (get salvation),
as it is expressed.
The NECK (in Danish Nokkef) is the river-spirit. The
ideas respecting him are various. Sometimes he is repre-
sented as sitting, of summer nights, on the surface of the
water, like a pretty little boy, with golden hair hanging in
ringlets, and a red cap on his head ; sometimes as above the
water, like a handsome young man, but beneath like a horse; J
at other times, as an old man with a long beard, out oi
which he wrings the water as he sits on the cliffs. In this
last form, Odin, according to the Icelandic sagas, has some-
times revealed himself.
The Neck is very severe against any haughty maiden who
makes an ill return to the love of her wooer ; but should he
himself fall in love with a maid of human kind, he is the
most polite and attentive suitor in the world.
Though he is thus severe only against those who deserve
it, yet country people when they are upon the water use
certain precautions against his power. Metals, particularly
steel, are believed " to bind the Neck" (binda Necken) ;
and when going on the open sea, they usually put a knife
* Berg signifies a larger eminence, mountain, hill ; Hog, a height, hillock.
The Hog-folk are Elves and musicians.
( The Danish peasantry in Wonnius' time described the Nokke (Nikke)
as a monster with a human head, that dwells both in fresh and salt water.
When any one was drowned, they said, Nokken tog ham bort (the Nokke
took him away) ; and when any drowned person was found with the nose red,
they said the Nikke has sucked him : Nikken har suet ham. Magnusen,
Eddalaere. Denmark being a country without any streams of magnitude, we
meet in the Danske Folkesagn no legends of the Nokke ; and in ballads, such
as " The Power of the Harp," what in Sweden is ascribed to the Neck, is in
Denmark imputed to the Havmand or Merman.
$ The Neck is also believed to appear in the form of a complete horse, and
can be made to work at the plough, If a bridle of a particular description be
employed. Kalm't Vestgotha Beta,
MERMEN, AND MEBMAIDS. 149
in tlie bottom of the boat, or set a uail in a reed. In Norway
the following charm is considered effectual against the
Neck :
Nyk, nyk, naal i vatn !
Jomfru Maria kastet staal i vatn 1
Pu sok, ak flyt !
Neck, neck, nail in water !
The virgin Mary casteth steel in water !
Do you sink, I flit !
The Neck is a great musician. He sits on the water ana
plays on his gold harp, the harmony of which operates on
all nature. To learn music of him, a person must present
him with a black lamb, and also promise him resurrection
and redemption.
The following story is told in all parts of Sweden :
" Two boys were one time playing near a river that ran
by their father's house. The Neck rose and sat on the
surface of the water, and played on his harp ; but one of
the children said to him, ' What is the use, Neck, of your
sitting there and playing ? you will never be saved.' The
Neck then began to weep bitterly, flung away his harp, and
sank down to the bottom. The children went home, and
told the whole story to their father, who was the parish
priest. He said they were wrong to say so to the Neck,
and desired them to go immediately back to the river, and
console him with the promise of salvation. They did so :
and when they came down to the river the Neck was sitting
on the water, weeping and lamenting. They then said to
him, ' Neck, do not grieve so ; our father says that your
Redeemer liveth also.' The Neck then took his harp and
played most sweetly, until long after the sun was gone down."
This legend is also found in Denmark, but in a less
agreeable form. A clergyman, it is said, was journeying one
night to Roeskilde in Zealand. His way led by a hill in
which there was music and dancing and great merriment
going forward. Some dwarfs jumped suddenly out of it,
stopped the carriage, and asked him whither he was going.
He replied to the synod of the church. They asked him if
he thought they could be saved. To that, he replied, he
could not give an immediate answer. They then begged
150
that he would give them a reply by next year. "When he
next passed, and they made the same demand, he replied,
" No, you are all damned." Scarcely had he spoken the
word, when the whole hill appeared in flames.
In another form of this legend, a priest says to the Neck,
"Sooner will this cane which I hold in my hand grow
green flowers than thou shalt attain salvation." The Neck
in grief flung away his harp and wept, and the priest rode
on. But soon his cane began to put forth leaves and
blossoms, and he then went back to communicate the glad
tidings to the Neck who now joyously played on all the
entire night.*
of
LITTLE Kerstin she weeps in her bower all tic day;
Sir Peter in his courtyard is playing so gay.
My heart's own dear !
Tell me wherefore you grieve ?
" Grieve you for saddle, or grieve you for steed ?
Or grieve you for that I have you wed ?"
My heart's, &c.
" And grieve do I not for saddle or for steec! :
And grieve do I not for that I have you wed.
My heart's, &c.
" Much more do I grieve for my fair gold hair,
Which in the blue waves shall be stained to-day.
My heart's, &c.
" Much more do I grieve for Eingfalla flood,
In which have been drowned my two sisters proud.
My heart's, &c.
" It was laid out for me in my infancy,
That my wedding-day should prove heavy to me."
My heart's, &c.
* Afzelius, Sago-hafdar,ii. 156.
NECKS, MEBMEN, AND MEBMAIDS.
" And I shall make them the horse round shoe,
He shall not stumble on his four gold shoes.
My heart's, &c.
" Twelve of my courtiers shall before thee ride,
Twelve of my courtiers upon each side."
My heart's, &c.
But when they were come to Ringfalla wood,
There sported a hart with gilded horns proud.
My heart's, &c.
And all the courtiers after the hart are gone ;
Little Kerstin, she must proceed alone.
My heart's, &c.
And when on Eingfalla bridge she goes,
Her steed he stumbled on his four gold shoes.
My heart's, &c.
Four gold shoes, and thirty gold nails,
And the maiden into the swift stream falls.
My heart's, &c.
Sir Peter he spake to his footpage so
" Thou must for my gold harp instantly go."
My heart's, &c.
The first stroke on his gold harp he gave
The foul ugly Neck sat and laughed on the wavo.
My heart's, &c.
The second time the gold harp he swept,
The foul ugly Neck on the wave sat and wept.
My heart's, &c.
The third stroke on the gold harp rang,
Little Kerstin reached up her snow-white arm.
My heart's, &c.*
* Det tredje slag p& gullharpan klang,
Liten Kerstin r'dckta upp sin snohvita arm.
Min hjerteliga Icar !
J s'dgen mig hvarfor J sorjen t
152 SCAJTDIIfATIA.
He played the bark from off the high trees ;
He played Little Kerstin back on his knees.
My heart's, &c.
And the Neck he out of the waves came there,
And a proud maiden on each arm he bare.
My heart's own dear !
Tell me wherefore you grieve ?*
The STEOMKABL, called in Norway Grim or Fosse-Grimf
(Waterfall- Grim) is a musical genius like the Neck. Like
him too, when properly propitiated, he communicates his
art. The sacrifice also is a black lamb,J which the offerer
must present with averted head, and on Thursday evening.
If it is poor the pupil gets no further than to the tuning of
the instruments ; if it is fat the Stromkarl seizes the votary
by the right hand, and swings it backwards and forward's
till the blood runs out at the finger-ends. The aspirant ia
then enabled to play in such a masterly manner that the
trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music.
The Havmand, or Merman, is described as of a handsome
form, with green or black hair and beard. He dwells either
in the bottom of the sea, or in the cliffs and hills near the
sea shore, and is regarded as rather a good and beneficent
kind of being. 1 1
The Havfrue, or Mermaid, is represented in the popular
tradition sometimes as a good, at other times as an evil and
treacherous being. She is beautiful in her appearance.
* As sung in West Gothland and Vermland.
Fosse is the North of England force.
J Or a white kid, Faye ap. Grimm, Deut Mythol., p. 461.
The Stromkarl has eleven different measures, to ten of which alone
people may dance ; the eleventh belongs to the night spirit his host If any
one plays it, tables and benches, cans and cups, old men and women, blind
and lame, even the children in the cradle, begin to dance. Arndt. ut sup.,
see above p. 80.
|| In the Danske Viser and Folkesagn there are a few stories of Mermen,
such as Rosmer Havmand and Marstig's Daughter, both translated by Dr.
Jamieson, and Agnete and the Merman, which resembles Proud Margaret. It
was natural, says Afzelius, that what in Sweden was related of a Hill King,
should, in Denmark, be ascribed to a Merman.
NECKS, MERMEN, ATTD MERMAIDS. 153
Fishermen sometimes see her in the bright summer's sun,
when a thin mist hangs over the sea, sitting on the surface
of the water, and combing her long golden hair with a
golden comb, or driving up her snow-white cattle to feed on
the strands and small islands. At other times she conies as
a beautiful maiden, chilled and shivering with the cold of
the night, to the fires the fishers have kindled, hoping by
this means to entice them to her love.* Her appearance
prognosticates both storm and ill success in their fishing.
People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not found,
are believed to be taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids.
These beings are also supposed to have the power of fore-
telling future events. A Mermaid, we are told, prophesied
the birth of Christian IV. of Denmark, and
En Havfrue op af Vandet steg,
Og spaade Heir Sinklar ilde.
SINCLAB'S VISA.
A mermaid from the water rose,
And spaed Sir Sinclar ill.
Fortune-telling has been in all countries a gift of the sea-
people. "We need hardly mention the prophecies of Nereus
and Proteus.
A girl one time fell into the power of a Havfrue and
passed fifteen years in her submarine abode without ever
seeing the sun. At length her brother went down in quest
of her, and succeeded in bringing her back to the upper
world. The Havfrue waited for seven years expecting her
return, but when she did not come back, she struck the
water with her staff and made it boil up and cried
Hade jag trott att du varit sa falsk,
SS ekulle jag kreckt dig din tiufvehals !
Had I but known thee so false to be,
Thy thieving neck I 'd have cracked for thee.+
The appearance of the Wood-woman (Skogsfru) or Eire-woman, is
equally unlucky for hunters. She also approaches the fires, and seeks to
seduce ycung men.
t Arvidsson, ii. 320, ap. Grimm, p. 463.
154 SCANDINAVIA,
fi)t
DUKE MAGNUS looked out through the castle window,
How the stream ran so rapidly ;
And there he saw how upon the stream sat
A woman most fair and lovelie,
Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me,
I pray you still so freely ;
Say me not nay, but yes, yes !
" O, to you I will give a travelling ship,
The best that a knight would guide ;
It goeth as well on water as on firm land,
And through the fields all so wide.
Duke Magnus, &c.
" 0, to you will I give a courser gray,
The best that a knight would ride ;
He goeth as well on water as on firm land,
And through the groves all so wide."
Duke Magnus, &c.
" 0, how should I plight me to you ?
I never any quiet get ;
I serve the king and my native land,
But with woman I match me not yet."
Duke Magnus, &c.
" To you will I give as much of gold
As for more than your life will endure ;
And of pearls and precious stones handful* ;
And all shall be so pure."
Duke Magnus, &c.
" O gladly would I plight me to thee,
If thou wert of Christian kind ;
But now thou art a vile sea-troll,
My love thou canst never win."
Duke Magnus, &c.
KECKS, MEEMEN, AKD MEBMAIDS. 155
" Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, bethink thee well,
And answer not so haughtily ;
For if thou wilt not plight thee to ine,
Thou shalt ever crazy be."
Duke Magnus, &c.
" I am a king's son so good,
How can I let you gain me ?
You dwell not on land, but in the flood,
Which would not with me agree."
Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me,
I offer you still so freely ;
Say me not nay, but yes, yes ! *
* This is ballad from Smaland. Magnus was the youngest son of
Gustavus Vass He died out of his mind. It is well known that insanity
pervaded the T&sa family for centuries.
NORTHERN ISLANDS.
liar Necken sin Harpa i Glasborgen slar,
Och Hafsfruar kamma sitt grbnskande bar,
Och bleka den skinande driigten.
STAGUBLICB
The Neck here his harp in the glass-castle play*.
And Mermaidens comh out their green hair always,
And bleach here their shining white clothes.
UNDER the title of Northern Islands we include all those
lying in the ocean to the north of Scotland, to wit Iceland,
the Feroes, Shetland, and the Orkneys.
These islands were all peopled from Norway and Denmark
during the ninth century. Till that time many of them,
particularly Iceland and the Feroes, though, perhaps, occa-
sionally visited by stray Vikings, or by ships driven out
of their course by tempests, had lain waste and desert from
the creation, the abode alone of wild beasts and birds.
But at that period the proud nobles of Norway and
Denmark, who scorned to be the vassals of Harold Fair-
hair and Gorm the Old, the founders of the Norwegian and
Danish monarchies, set forth in quest of new settlements,
where, at a distance from these haughty potentates, they
might live in the full enjoyment of their beloved indepen-
dence. Followed by numerous vassals, they embarked on
the wide Atlantic. A portion fixed themselves on the
distant shores of Iceland ; others took possession of the
vacant Feroes ; and more dispossessed the Peti and Papae,
the ancient inhabitants of Shetland and the Orkneys, and
seized on their country.
As the Scandinavians were at that time still worshipers
of Thor and Odin, the belief in Alfs and Dwarfs accom-
ICELAND. 157
panied them to their new abodes, and there, as else*
where, survived the introduction of Christianity. "We no\r
proceed to examine the vestiges of the old religion still tc
be traced.
ICELAND.
Hvad mon da ei
Og her lyksalig leves kan ? Jeg troer
Det mueligt, som for i Heden-Old
For raske Skander mueligt det var,
Paa denne kolde 6e.
ISLANDSKE LANDLEVNET.
What ! cannot one
Here, too, live happy? I believe it now
As possible, as in the heathen age,
For the bold Scandinavians it was,
On this cold isle.
IT is in vain that we look into the works of travellers for
information on the subject of popular belief in Iceland.
Their attention was too much occupied by Geysers, volca-
noes, agriculture, and religion, to allow them to devote any
part of it to this, in their eyes, unimportant subject. So
that, were it not for some short but curious notices given by
natives of the island, we should be quite ignorant of the
fate of the subordinate classes of the old religion in Iceland.
Torfseus, who wrote in the latter end of the seventeenth
century, gives, in his preface to his edition of Hrolf Krakas
Saga, the opinion of a venerable Icelandic pastor, named
Einar Gudmund, respecting the Dwarfs. This opinion
Torfaeus heard when a boy from the lips of the old man.
" I believe, and am fully persuaded," said he, "that this
people are the creatures of God, consisting of a body and
a rational spirit ; that they are of both sexes ; marry, and
have children ; and that all human acts take place among
them as with us : that they are possessed of cattle, and of
many other kinds of property ; have poverty and riches,
weeping and laughter, sleep and wake, and have all other
158 NORTHERN ISLA.KDS.
affections belonging to human nature ; and that they enjoy
a longer or a shorter term of life according to the will and
pleasure of God. Their power of having children," he adds,
" appears from this, that some of their women have had
children by men, and were very anxious to have their
offspring dipped in the sacred font, and initiated into
Christianity ; but they, in general, sought in vain. Thorkatla
Mari, the wife of Kari, was pregnant by a Hill-man, but she
did not bring the child Aresus into the world, as appears
from the poems made on this fatal occasion.
" There was formerly on the lands of Haga a nobleman
named Sigvard Fostre, who had to do with a Hill-woman.
He promised her faithfully that he would take care to have
the child received into the bosom of the church. In due
time the woman came with her child and laid it on the
churchyard wall, and along with it a gilded cup and a holy
robe (presents she intended making to the church for the
baptism of her child), and then retired a little way. The
pastor inquired who acknowledged himself the father of the
child. Sigvard, perhaps, out of shame, did not venture to
acknowledge himself. The clerk now asked him if it should
be baptised or not. Sigvard said ' No,' lest by assenting he
should be proved to be the father. The infant then was
left where it was, untouched and unbaptised. The mother,
filled with rage, snatched up her babe and the cup, but left
the vestment, the remains of which may still be seen in
Haga. That woman foretold and inflicted a singular
disease on Sigvard and his posterity till the ninth genera-
tion, and several of his descendants are to this day afflicted
with it. Andrew Grudmund (from which I am the seventh
in descent) had an affair of the same kind. He also refused
to have the child baptised, and he and his posterity have
suffered a remarkable disease, of which very many of them
have died ; but some, by the interposition of good men,
have escaped the deserved punishment."
The fullest account we have of the Icelandic Elves or
Dwarfs is contained in the following passage of the
Ecclesiastical History of Iceland of the learned Finnus
Johannseus.
" As we have not as yet," says he, M spoken a single word
about the very ancient, and I know not whether more
ICELAND. 159
ridiculous or perverse, persuasion of our forefathers about
eemigods, this seems the proper place for saying a few
words about this so celebrated figment, as it was chiefly in
this period it attained its acme, and it was believed as a true
and necessary article of faith, that there are genii or semi-
gods, called in our language Alfa and Alfa-folk.
" Authors vary respecting their essence and origin. Some
hold that they have been created by God immediately and
without the intervention of parents, like some kinds of
spirits : others maintain that they are sprung from Adam,
but before the creation of Eve :* lastly, some refer them to
another race of men, or to a stock of prse- Adamites. Some
bestow on them not merely a human body, but an immortal
soul: others assign them merely mortal breath (spiritum)
instead of a soul, whence a certain blockhead,t in an essay
written by him respecting them, calls them our half-kija
(half-fyn).
" According to the old wives' tales that are related about
this race of genii who inhabit Iceland and its vicinity, they
have a political form of government modelled after the
same pattern as that which the inhabitants themselves are
under. Two viceroys rule over them, who in turn every
second year, attended by some of the subjects, sail to Nor-
way, to present themselves before the monarch of the whole
* This was plainly a theory of the monks. It greatly resembles the Rab-
binical account of the origin of the Mazckeen, which the reader will meet
in the sequel.
Some Icelanders of the present day say, that one day, when Eve was
washing her children at the running water, God suddenly called her. She was
frightened, and thrust aside such of them as were not clean. God asked her
if all her children were there, and she said, Yes ; but got for answer, that
what she tried to hide from God should be hidden from man. These children
became instantly invisible and distinct from the rest. Before the flood came
on, God put them into a cave and closed up the entrance. From them are
descended all the underground-people. Magnussen, Eddalcere.
f- This was one Janus Gudmund, who wrote several treatises on this and
similar subjects, particularly one " De Alfis et Alfheimum," which the learned
bishop characterises as a work " nullius pretii, et meras nugas continens."
We might, if we were to see it, be of a different opinion. Of Janus Gudmund
Brynj Svenonius thus expresses himself to Wormius : Janus Gudmundius,
cere dirutus verius quam rude donatus, sibi et aliis inutilii i angult
tonsenwt. Worm., Epist., 970.
160 KOETHER3I ISLANDS.
race, who resides there, and to give him a true report con-
cerning the fidelity, good conduct, and obedience of the
subjects ; and those who accompany them are to accuse the
government or viceroys if they have transgressed the bounds
of justice or of good morals. If these are convicted of
crime or injustice, they are forthwith stript of their office,
and others are appointed in their place.
" This nation is reported to cultivate justice and equity
above all other virtues, and hence, though they are very
potent, especially with words and imprecations, they very
rarely, unless provoked or injured, do any mischief to man ;
but when irritated they avenge themselves on their enemies
with dreadful curses and punishments.
" The new-born infants of Christians are, before baptism,
believed to be exposed to great peril of being stolen by
them, and their own, which they foresee likely to be feeble in
mind, in body, in beauty, or other gifts, being substituted
for them. These supposititious children of the semigods are
called Umskiptingar ; whence nurses and midwives were
strictly enjoined to watch constantly, and to hold the infant
firmly in their arms, till it had had the benefit of baptism,
lest they should furnish any opportunity for such a change.
Hence it comes, that the vulgar use to call fools, deformed
people, and those who act rudely and uncivilly, JJmskiptinga
eins off Jiann sie ko minnaf Alfum, i.e. changelings, and come
of the Alfs.
" They use rocks, hills, and even the seas, for their habita-
tions, which withinside are neat, and all their domestic
utensils extremely clean and orderly. They sometimes
invite men home, and take especial delight in the converse
of Christians, some of whom have had intercourse with their
daughters or sisters, who are no less wanton than beautiful,
and have had children by them, who must by all means be
washed in holy water, that they may receive an immortal
soul, and one that can be saved. Nay, they have not been
ashamed to feign that certain women of them have been
joined in lawful marriage with men, and continued for a
long time with them, happily at first, but, for the most part,
with an ill or tragical conclusion.
" Their cuttle, if not very numerous, are at least very pro-
fitable They are invisible as their owners are, unless wnen
ICELAITD. 163
it pleases them to .appear, which usually takes place when the
weather is serene and the sun shining very bright ; for as
they do not see the sun within their dwellings, they frequently
walk out in the sunshine that they may be cheered by his
radiance.* Hence, even the coffins of dead kings and nobles,
such as are the oblong stones which are to be seen here and
there, in wildernesses and rough places, always lie in the open
air and exposed to the sun.
" They change their abodes and habitations occasionally
like mankind ; this they do on new-year's night ; whence
certain dreamers and mountebanks usod on that night to
watch in the roads, that, by the means of various forms of
conjurations appointed for that purpose, they might extort
from them as they passed along the knowledge of future
events.f But people in general, who were not acquainted
with such things, especially the heads of families, used on
this evening strictly to charge their children and servants
to be sure to be serious and modest in their actions and
language, lest their invisible guests, and mayhap future
neighbours, should be aggrieved or any way offended.
Hence, when going to bed they did not shut the outer doors
of their houses, nor even the door of the sitting-room, but
having kindled a light, and laid out a table, they desired the
invisible personages who had arrived, or were to arrive, to
partake, if it was their pleasure, of the food that was laid out
for them ; and hoped that if it pleased them to dwell within
the limits of their lands, they would live safe and sound,
and be propitious to them. As this superstitious belief
is extremely ancient, so it long continued in full vigour,
and was held by some even within the memory of our
father s."J
* The Icelandic dwarfs, it would appear, wore red clothes. In Nial's Saga
(p. 70), a person gaily dressed (i litklasdum) is jocularly called Red-elf
(raud-alfr).
t There was a book of prophecies called the Kruckspd, or Prophecy of
Kruck, a man who was said to have lived in the 15th century. It treated of
the change of religion and other matters said to have been revealed to him by
the Dwarfs. J'ohannseus says it was forged by Brynjalf Svenonius in or about
the year 1660.
Finni Johannsei Historia Ecclesiastica Islandise, torn. ii.p. 368. Havnie,
1774. We believe we might safely add, is held at the present day, for the
luperstition is no more extinct in Iceland than elsewhere.
H
',62
XOETHEHN ISLANDS.
The Icelandic Neck, Kelpie, or Water-Spirit, is called
Nickur, Ninnir, and Hnikiir, one of the Eddaic names of
Odin. He appears always in the form of a fine apple-grey
horse on the sea-shore ; but he may be distinguished from
ordinary horses by the circumstance of his hoofs being
reversed. If any one is so foolish as to mount him, he
gallops off, and plunges into the sea with his burden. He
can, however, be caught in a particular manner, tamed, and
made to work.*
The Icelanders have the same notions respecting the seals
which we shall find in the Feroes and Shetland. It is a
common opinion with them that King Pharaoh and his army
were changed into these animals.
FEROES.
Sjurur tonk te& besta svor
Sum Dvorgurin heji smuja.
QVOBFINS THAATTUB.
Sigurd took the very best sword
That the Dwarfs had ever smithed.
THE people of the Feroes believe in the same classes of beings
as the inhabitants of the countries whence their ancestors
came.
They call the Trolls Underground-people, Hollow-men,
Foddenskkmaend, and Huldefolk. These Trolls used fre-
quently to carry people into their hills, and detain them
there. Among several other instances, Debesf gives the
following one of this practice :
" Whilst Mr. Taale was priest in Osteroe, it happened
* Svenska Visor, iii. 128. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 458. At Bahus, in
Sweden, a clever man contrived to throw on him an ingeniously made bridle
BO that he could not get away, and he ploughed all his land with him. One
time the bridle fell off and the Neck, like a flash of fire, sprang into the lake
and dragged the harrow down with him. Grimm, ut sup., see p. 148.
t Fseroae et Faeroa reserata. Ix>nd. 1676*
FEEOES. 103
that one of his hearers was carried away and returned again.
At last the said young man being to be married, and every
thing prepared, and the priest being arrived the Saturday
before at the parish, the bridegroom was carried away";
wherefore they sent folks to look after him, but he could
not be found. The priest desired his friends to have good
courage, and that he would come again ; which he did at
last, and related that the spirit that led him away was in the
shape of a most beautiful woman, and very richly dressed,
who desired him to forsake her whom he was now to marry,
and consider how ugly his mistress was in comparison of her,
and what fine apparel she had. He said also that he saw the
men that sought after him, and that they went close by him
but could not see him, and that he heard their calling, ana
yet could not answer them ; but that when he would not be
persuaded he was again left at liberty."
The people of the Feroes call the Nisses or Brownies
Niagruisar, and describe them as little creatures with red
caps on their heads, that bring luck to any place where they
take up their abode.
It is the belief of the people of these islands that every
ninth-night the seals put off their skins and assume the
human form, and dance and sport about on the land. After
some time, they resume their skins and return to the water.
The following adventure, it is said, once occurred : *
" A man happening to pass by where a female seal was
disporting herself in the form of a woman, found her skin,
and took and hid it. When she could not find her skin to
creep into, she was forced to remain in the human form ; and
as she was fair to look upon, that same man took her to wife,
had children by her, and lived right happily with her. After
a long time, the wife found the skin that had been stolen,
and could not resist the temptation to creep into it, and so
she became a seal again, and returned to the sea."
The Neck called Nikar is also an object of popular faith in
the Feroes. He inhabits the streams and lakes, and takes a
delight in drowning people.
* Thkle, in. SI, from the MS. Travels of Svaboe in the Feroe*
it a
164) HOBTHEEK ISLANDS.
SHETLAND.
Well, since we are welcome to Yule,
Up wl "t Lightfoot, link it awa', boys !
Send for a fiddler, play up Foula reel,
The Shaalds will pay for a', boys.
SHETLAND SONG.
DE. HIBBEET'S valuable work on the Shetland Islands *
fortunately enables us to give a tolerably complete account
of the fairy system of these islands.
The Shetlanders, he informs us, believe in two kinds of
Trows, as they call the Scandinavian Trolls, those of the land
and those of the sea.
The former, whom, like the Scots, they also term the guid
folk and guid neighbours, they conceive to inhabit the interior
of green hills. Persons who have been brought into their
habitations have been dazzled with the splendour of what
they saw there. All the interior walls are adorned with gold
and silver, and the domestic utensils resemble the strange
things that are found sometimes lying on the hills. These
persons have always entered the hill on one side and gone out
at the other.
They marry and have children, like their northern kindred.
A woman of the island of Yell, who died not long since, at
the advanced age of more than a hundred years, said, that
she once met some fairy children, accompanied by a little
dog, playing like other boys and girls, on the top of a hill.
Another time she happened one night to raise herself up in
the bed, when she saw a little boy with a white nightcap on
his head, sitting at the fire. She asked him who he was.
" I am Trippa's son," said he. When she heard this, she
instantly sained, i. e. blessed herself, and Trippa's son
vanished.
* Description of the Shetland Island*. Edinburgh, 1822.
SHETLAND. ] 65
Saining is the grand protection against them ; a Shetlander
always sains himself when passing by their hills.
The Trows are of a diminutive stature, and they are
usually dressed in gay green garments. "VVTien travelling
from one place to another they may be seen mounted on
bulrushes, and riding through the air. If a person should
happen to meet them when on these journeys, he should, if
he has not a bible in his pocket, draw a circle round him on
the ground, and in God's name forbid their approach. They
then generally disappear.*
They are fond of music and dancing, and it is their dancing
that forms the fairy rings. A Shetlander lying awake in bed
before day one morning, heard the noise of a party of Trows
passing by his door. They were preceded by a piper, who
was playing away lustily. The man happened to have a good
ear for music, so he picked up the tune he heard played, and
used often after to repeat it for his friends under the name
of the Fairy-tune.
The Trows are not free from disease, but they are pos-
sessed of infallible remedies, which they sometimes bestow
on their favourites. A man in the island of Unst had an
earthen pot that contained an ointment of marvellous power.
This he said he got from the hills, and, like the widow's
cruise, its contents never failed.
They have all the picking and stealing propensities of the
Scandinavian Trolls. The dairy-maid sometimes detects a
Trow-woman secretly milking the cows in the byre. She
sains herself, and the thief takes to flight so precipitately as
to leave behind her a copper pan of a form never seen before
When they want beef or mutton on any festal occasion,
they betake themselves to the Shetlanders' scatholds or town-
maUs, and with elf-arrows bring down their game. On these
occasions they delude the eyes of the owner with the appear-
ance of something exactly resembling the animal whom they
have carried off, and by its apparent violent death by some
accident. It is on this account that the flesh of such ani-
mals as have met a sudden or violent death is regarded as
improper food.
A Shetlander, who is probably still alive, affirmed that he
* Edmonton's View, &c., of Zetland Island*. Kdin. 1809.
166 NORTHEEN ISLANDS.
was once taken into a bill by tbe Trows. Here one of tbe
first objects that met his view was one of his own cows, that
was brought in to furnish materials for a banquet. He
regarded himself as being in rather a ticklish situation if it
were not for the protection of the Trow-women, by whose
favour he had been admitted within the hill. On returning
home, he learned, to his great surprise, that at the very
moment he saw the cow brought into the hill, others had
seen her falling over the rocks.
Lying-in- worn en and " unchristened bairns " they regard
as lawful prize. The former they employ as wet-nurses, the
latter they of course rear up as their own. Nothing will
induce parents to show any attention to a child that they
suspect of being a changeling. But there are persons who
undertake to enter the hills and regain the lost child.
A tailor, not long since, related the following story. He
was employed to work at a farm-house where there was a
child that was an idiot, and who was supposed to have been
left there by the Trows instead of some proper child, whom
they had taken into the hills. One night, after he had
retired to his bed, leaving the idiot asleep by the fire, he was
suddenly waked out of his sleep by the sound of music, and
on looking about him he saw the whole room full of fairies,
who were dancing away their rounds most joyously. Sud-
denly the idiot jumped up and joined in the dance, and
showed such a degree of acquaintance with the various steps
and movements as plainly testified that it must have been a
long time since he first went under the hands of the dancing-
master. The tailor looked on for some time with admiration,
but at last he grew alarmed and sained himself. On hearing
this, the Trows all fled in the utmost disorder, but one of
them, a woman, was so incensed at this interruption of their
revels, that as she went out she touched the big toe of the
tailor, and he lost the power of ever after moving it.*
In these cases of paralysis they believe that the Trows
have taken away the sound member and left a log behind.
They even sometimes sear the part, and from the want of
sensation in it boast of the correctness of this opinion.f
* We need hardly to remind the reader that in what precedes Dr. Hibbert
If to be regarded as the narrator in 1822.
t Edmonston, ut sup>U.
CHETLAKD. 167
"With respect to the Sea-Trows, it is the belief of the Shet-
landers that they inhabit a region of their own at the bottom
of the sea.* They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and
live in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine
productions. When they visit the upper world on occasions
of business or curiosity, they are obliged to enter the skin of
some animal capable of respiring in the water. One of the
shapes they assume is that of what is commonly called a
merman or mermaid, human from the waist upwards, termi-
nating below in the tail of a fish. But their most favourite
vehicle is the skin of the larger seal or Haaf fish, for as this
animal is amphibious they can land on some rock, and there
cast off their sea-dress and assume their own shape, and amuse
themselves as they will in the upper world. They must,
however, take especial care of their skins, as each has but one,
and if that should be lost, the owner can never re-descend,
but must become an inhabitant of the supramarine world.
The following Shetland tales will illustrate this :
A BOAT'S-CREW landed one time upon one of the stacks t
with the intention of attacking the seals. They had consi-
derable success ; stunned several of them, and while they lay
stupefied, stripped them of their skins, with the fat attached
to them. They left the naked carcases lying on the rocks,
and were about to get into their boat with their spoils and
return to Papa Stour, whence they had come. But just as
they were embarking, there rose such a tremendous swell
that they saw there was not a moment to be lost, and every
one flew as quickly as he could to get on board the boat.
They were all successful but one man, who had imprudently
loitered behind. His companions were very unwilling to
leave him on the skerries, perhaps to perish, but the surge
* Dr. Hibbert says he could get but little satisfaction from the Shetland*!*
respecting this submarine country.
f Stacks or skerries are bare rocks out in the sea.
168 NORTHERN ISLANDS.
increased so fast, that after many unsuccessful attempts to
bring the boat in close to the stacks, they were obliged to
depart, and leave the unfortunate man to his fate.
A dark stormy night came on, the sea dashed most furi-
ously against the rocks, and the poor deserted Shetlander
saw no prospect before him but that of dying of the cold and
hunger, or of being washed into the sea by the breakers,
which now threatened every moment to run over the stack.
At length he perceived several of the seals, who had
escaped from the boatmen, approaching the skerry. When
they landed they stripped off their seal-skin dresses and
appeared in their proper forms of Sea-Trows. Their first
object was to endeavour to recover their friends, who lay
stunned and skinless. When they had succeeded in bring-
ing them to themselves, they also resumed their proper
form, and appeared in the shape of the sub-marine people.
But in mournful tones, wildly accompanied by the raging
storm, they lamented the loss of their sea- vestures, the want
of which would for ever prevent them from returning to
their native abodes beneath the deep waters of the Atlantic.
Most of all did they lament for Ollavitinus, the son of
Gioga, who, stripped of his seal-skin, must abide for ever in
the upper world.
Their song was at length broken off by their perceiving
the unfortunate boatman, who, with shivering limbs and
despairing looks, was gazing on the furious waves that now
dashed over the stack. Gioga, when she saw him, instantly
conceived the design of rendering the perilous situation of
the man of advantage to her son. She went up to him, and
mildly addressed him, proposing to carry him on her back
through the sea to Papa Stour, on condition of his getting
ner the seal-skin of her son.
The bargain was soon made, and Gioga equipped herself
in her phocine garb ; but when the Shetlander gazed on the
stormy sea he was to ride through, his courage nearly failed
him, and he begged of the old lady to have the kindness to
allow him to cut a few holes in her shoulders and flanks,
that he might obtain a better fastening for his hands between
the skin and the flesh.
This, too, her maternal tenderness induced Gioga to
consent to. The man, having prepared everything, now
SHETLAND 169
mounted, and she plunged into the waves with him, gallantly
ploughed the deep, and landed him safe and sound at Acres
Gio, in Papa Stour. He thence set out for Skeo, at Hamna
Voe, where the skin was, and honourably fulfilled his agree-
ment by restoring to Grioga the means of bringing back her
son to his dear native land.
ON a fine summer's evening, an inhabitant of Unst happened
to be walking along the sandy margin of a voe.* The moon
was risen, and by her .light he discerned at some distance
before him a number of the sea-people, who were dancing
with great vigour on the smooth sand. Near them he saw
lying on the ground several seal-skins.
As the man approached the dancers, all gave over their
merriment, and flew like lightning to secure their garments;
then clothing themselves, plunged in the form of seals into the
sea. But the Shetlander, on coming up to the spot where
they had been, and casting his eyes down on the ground,
saw that they had left one skin behind them, which was
lying just at his feet. He snatched it up, carried it swiftly
away, and placed it in security.
On returning to the shore, he met the fairest maiden that
eye ever gazed upon : she was walking backwards and for-
wards, lamenting in most piteous tones the loss of her seal-
skin robe, without which she never could hope to rejoin her
family and friends below the waters, but must remain an
unwilling inhabitant of the region enlightened by the sun.
The man approached and endeavoured to console her, but
she would not be comforted. She implored him in the most
moving accents to restore her dress ; but the view of her
lovely face, more beautiful in tears, had steeled his heart.
He represented to her the impossibility of her return, and
* A voe is a small bay.
170 NOETHEBN ISLANDS
that her friends would soon give her up ; and finally, made
an offer to her of his heart, hand, and fortune.
The sea-maiden, finding she had no alternative, at length
consented to become his wife. They were married, and lived
together for many years, during which time they had several
children, who retained no vestiges of their marine origin,
saving a thin web between their fingers, and a bend of their
hands, resembling that of the fore paws of a seal ; distinc-
tions which characterise the descendants of the family to the
present day.
The Shetlander's love for his beautiful wife was unbounded,
but she made but a cold return to his affection. Often would
she steal out alone and hasten down to the lonely strand,
and there at a given signal, a seal of large size would make
his appearance, and they would converse for hours together
in an unknown language ; and she would return home from
this meeting pensive and melancholy.
Thus glided away years, and her hopes of leaving the
upper world had nearly vanished, when it chanced one day,
that one of the children, playing behind a stack of corn,
found a seal-skin. Delighted with his prize, he ran with
breathless eagerness to display it before his mother. Her
eyes glistened with delight at the view of it ; for in it she
saw her own dress, the loss of which had cost her so many
tears. She now regarded herself as completely emancipated
from thraldom ; and in idea she was already with her friends
beneath the waves. One thing alone was a drawback on her
raptures. She loved her children, and she was now about to
leave them for ever. Yet they weighed not against the
pleasures she had in prospect : so after kissing and embracing
them several times, she took up the skin, went out, and
proceeded down to the beach.
In a few minutes after the husband came in, and the
children told him what had occurred. The truth instantly
flashed across his mind, and he hurried down to the shore
with all the speed that love and anxiety could give. But he
only arrived in time to see his wife take the form of a seal,
and from the ledge of a rock plunge into the sea.
The large seal, with whom she used to hold her conversa-
tions, immediately joined her, and congratulated her on her
escape, and they quitted the shore together. But ere she
OBENETS. 171
went she turned round to her husband, who stood in mute
despair on the rock, and whose misery excited feelings of
compassion in her breast. "Farewell," said she to him,
" and may all good fortune attend you. I loved you well
while I was with you, but I always loved my first husband
better."*
The water-spirit is in Shetland called Shoopiltee ; he
appears in the form of a pretty little horse, and endeavours
to entice persons to ride on him, and then gallops with them
into the sea.
OEKNETS.
Harold was born where restless seas
Howl round the storm-swept Orcades.
SCOTT.
OF the Orcadian Fairies we have very little information.
Brandt merely tells us, they were, in his time, frequently
Been in several of the isles dancing and making merry ; so
that we may fairly conclude they differed little from their
Scottish and Shetland neighbours. One thing he adds,
which is of some importance, that they were frequently seen
in armour.
Brownie seems to have been the principal Orkney Fairy,
where he possessed a degree of importance rather beyond
what was allotted to him in the neighbouring realm of Scot-
land.
" Not above forty or fifty years ago," says Brand, " almost
every family had a Brownie, or evil spirit, so called, which
served them, to whom they gave a sacrifice for its service ;
as, when they churned their milk, they took a part thereof
and sprinkled every corner of the house with it for Brownie's
* See below, Germany.
t Description of Orkney, Zetland, &c. Eain. 1 703.
172 NOBTHEBN ISLANDS.
use ; likewise, when they brewed, they had a stone which
they called Brownie's stone, wherein there was a little hole,
into which they poured some wort for a sacrifice to Brownie.
My informer, a minister of the country, told me that he had
conversed with an old man, who, when young, used to brew
and sometimes read upon his bible ; to whom an old woman
in the house said that Brownie was displeased with that book
he read upon, which, if he continued to do, they would get
no more service of Brownie. But he being better instructed
from that book which was Brownie's eyesore, and the object
of his wrath, when he brewed, he would not suffer any sacri-
fice to be given to Brownie ; whereupon, the first and second
brewings were spilt and for no use, though the wort wrought
well, yet in a little time it left off working and grew cold ;
but of the third browst or brewing, he had ale very good,
though he would not give any sacrifice to Brownie, with
whom afterwards they were no more troubled. I had also
from the same informer, that a lady in TJnst, now deceased,
told him that when she first took up house, she refused to
give a sacrifice to Brownie, upon which, the first and second
brewings misgave, but the third was good; and Brownie,
not being regarded and rewarded as formerly he had been,
abandoned his wonted service : which cleareth the Scripture,
' Eesist the devil and he will flee from you.' They also had
stacks of corn which they called Brownie's stacks, which,
though they were not bound with straw ropes, or any way
fenced as other stacks use to be, yet the greatest storm of
wind was not able to blow anything off them."
A very important personage once, we are told, inhabited
the Orkneys in the character of Brownie.
" Luridan," says Reginald Scot, " a familiar of this kind,
did for many years inhabit the island of Pomonia, the largest
of the Orkades in Scotland, supplying the place of man-
servant and maid-servant with wonderful diligence to those
families whom he did haunt, sweeping their rooms and
washing their dishes, and making then* fires before any were
up in the morning. This Luridan affirmed, that he was the
genius Astral of that island; that his place or residence in
the days of Solomon and David was at Jerusalem ; that then
he was called by the Jews Belelah ; after that, he remained
long in the dominion of Wales, instructing their bards in
ORKNEYS. l r /3
British poesy and prophecies, being called "Wrthin, "Wadd,
Elgin; ' and now,' said he, ' I have removed hither, and, alas !
my continuance is but short, for in seventy years I must resign
my place to Balkin, lord of the Northern Mountains.'
" Many wonderful and incredible things did he also relate
of this Balkin, affirming that he was shaped like a satyr, and
fed upon the air, having wife and children to the number of
twelve thousand, which were the brood of the Northern
"Fairies, inhabiting Southerland and Catenes, with the adja-
cent islands. And that these were the companies of spirits
that hold continual wars with the fiery spirits in the moun-
tain Heckla, that vomits fire in Islandia. That their speech
was ancient Irish, and their dwelling the caverns of the
rocks and mountains, which relation is recorded in the
antiquities of Pomonia."*
Concerning Luridan, we are farther informed from the
Book of Vanagastus, the Norwegian, that it is his nature to
be always at enmity with fire ; that he wages war with the
fiery spirits of Hecla ; and that in this contest they do often
anticipate and destroy one another, killing and crushing
when they meet in mighty and violent troops in the air
upon the sea. And at such times, many of the fiery spirits
are destroyed when the enemy hath brought them off the
mountains to fight upon the water. On the contrary, when
the battle is upon the mountain itself, the spirits of the air
are often worsted, and then great moanings and doleful
noises are heard in Iceland, and Russia, and Norway, for
many days after, t
The Water-spirit called Tangie, from Tang, the sea-weed
with which he is covered, appears sometimes as a little
horse, other times as a man.
Reg. Scot. Discoverie of Witchcraft, b. 2. c. 4. Loco. 1665.
f Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. ;. 367
ISLE OF RUGEN.
Des Tagscheins Blendung driickt,
Nur Finstemisfi begliickt ;
Drum hausen wir so gern
Tief in des Erdballs Kern.
MATTHISSOK.
Day's dazzling light annoys
Us, darkness only joys ;
We therefore love to dwell
Deep underneath earth's shell.
WE now return to the Baltic, to the Isle of Eiigen, once a
chief seat of the Vendish religion ; but its priests were
massacred by the Scandinavians, and all traces of their
system effaced. Its fairy mythology now agrees with that
of its Gothic neighbours, and Mr. Arndt,* a native of the
island, has enabled us to give the following tolerably full
account of it :
The inhabitants of Eiigen believe in three kinds of
Dwarfs, or underground people, the White, the Brown, and
the Black ; so named from the colour of their several habi-
liments.f
The White are the most delicate and beautiful of all, and
are of an innocent and gentle disposition. During the
winter, when the face of nature is cold, raw, and cheerless,
they remain still and quiet in their hills, solely engaged in
the fashioning of the finest works in silver and gold, of too
delicate a texture for mortal eyes to discern. Thus they
pass the winter ; but no sooner does the spring return than
they abandon their recesses, and live through all the
* Arndt, Miirchen und Jugenderinnerungen. Berlin, 1818.
f See above p. 96.
ISLE OF EUGEN. 175
summer above ground, in sunshine and starlight, in uninter-
rupted revelry and enjoyment. The moment the trees and
flowers begin to sprout and bud in the early days of spring,
they emerge from their hills, ana get among the stalks and
branches, and thence to the blossoms and flowers, where
they sit and gaze around them. In the night, when mortals
sleep, the White Dwarfs come forth, and dance their joyous
roundels in the green grass, about the hills, and brooks, and
springs, making the sweetest and most delicate music, bewil-
dering travellers, who hear and wonder at the strains of the
invisible musicians. They may, if they will, go out by day,
but never in company ; these daylight rambles being allowed
them only when alone and under some assumed form.
They therefore frequently fly about in the shape of party-
coloured little birds, or butterflies, or snow-white doves,
showing kindness and benevolence to the good who merit
their favour.
The Brown Dwarfs, the next in order, are less than
eighteen inches high. They wear little brown coats and
jackets, and a brown cap on their head, with a little silver
bell in it. Some of them wear black shoes with red strings
in them ; in general, however, they wear fine glass ones ;
at their dances none of them wear any other. They are
very handsome in their persons, with clear light-coloured
eyes, and small and most beautiful hands and feet. They
are on the whole of a cheerful, good-natured disposition,
mingled with some roguish traits. Like the White Dwarfs,
they are great artists in gold and silver, working so curi-
ously as to astonish those who happen to see their perform-
ances. At night they come out of their hills and dance by
the light of the moon and stars. They also glide invisibly
into people's houses, their caps rendering them impercep-
tible by all who have not similar caps. They are said to
play all kinds of tricks, to change the children in the cradles,
and take them away. This charge is perhaps unfounded,
but certainly, children who fall into their hands must serve
them for fifty years. They possess an unlimited power of
transformation, and can pass through the smallest keyholes.
Frequently they bring with them presents for children, or
lay gold rings and ducats, and the like, in their way, and
often are invisibly present, and save them from the perils of
176 ISLE OF
fire and water. They plague and annoy lazy men-servanta
and untidy maids with frightful dreams ; oppress them as
the nightmare ; bite them as fleas ; and scratch and tear
them like cats and dogs ; and often in the night frighten,
in the shape of owls, thieves and lovers, or, like Will-'o-the-
wisps, lead them astray into bogs and marshes, and perhaps
up to those who are in pursuit of them.
The Black Dwarfs wear black jackets and caps, are not
handsome like the others, but on the contrary are horridly
ugly, with weeping eyes, like blacksmiths and colliers. They
are most expert workmen, especially in steel, to which they
can give a degree at once of hardness and flexibility which
no human smith can imitate ; for the swords they make will
bend like rushes, and are as hard as diamonds. In old times
arms and armour made by them were in great request : shirts
of mail manufactured by them were as fine as cobwebs, and
yet no bullet would penetrate them, and no helm or corslet
could resist the swords they fashioned ; but all these things
are now gone out of use.
These Dwarfs are of a malicious, ill disposition, and
delight in doing mischief to mankind ; they are unsocial, and
there are seldom more than two or three of them seen toge-
ther ; they keep mostly in their hills, and seldom come out
in the daytime, nor do they ever go far from home.
People say that in the summer they are fond of sitting under
the elder trees, the smell of which is very grateful to them,
and that any one that wants anything of them must go there
and call them. Some say they have no music and dancing,
only howling and whimpering ; and that when a screaming
is heard in the woods and marshes, like that of crying chil-
dren, and a mewing and screeching like that of a multitude
of cats or owls, the sounds proceed from their midnight
assemblies, and are made by the vociferous Dwarfs.
The principal residence of the two first classes of the
underground-people in Riigen is what are called the Nine-
hills, near Eambin. These hills lie on the west point of the
island, about a quarter of a mile from the village of Eambin
in the open country. They are small mounds, or Giants'
graves (Hunengraber), as such are called, and are the sub-
ject of many a tale and legend among the people. The
account of their origin is as follows :
ISLE OF ESOEW. 177
" A long, long time age there lived in Eiigen a mighty
Giant named Balderich. He was vexed that the country
was an island, and that he had always to wade through the
sea when he wanted to go to Pomerania and the main land.
He accordingly got an immense apron made, and he tied it
round his waist and filled it with earth, for he wanted to
make a dam of earth for himself from the island to the main-
land. As he was going with his load over Rodenkirchen, a
hole tore in the apron, and the clay that fell out formed the
Nine-hills. He stopped the hole and went on ; but when he
he had gotten to Gustau, another hole tore in the apron,
and thirteen little hills fell out. He proceeded to the sea with
what he had now remaining, and pouring the earth into the
waters, formed the hook of Prosnitz, and the pretty little
peninsula of Drigge. But there still remained a small space
between E-iigen and Pomerania, which so incensed the Giant
that he fell down in a fit and died, from which unfortunate
accident his dam was never finished." *
A Giant-maiden commenced a similar operation on the
Pomeranian side "in order," said she, " that I may be able
to go over the bit of water without wetting my little slip-
pers." So she filled her apron with sand and hurried down
to the sea-side. But there was a hole in the apron and just
behind Sagard a part of the sand ran out and formed a little
bill named Dubbleworth. "Ah!" said she, "now my
mother will scold me." She stopped the hole with her
hand and ran on as fast as she could. But her mother
looked over the wood and cried, " You nasty child, what are
you about ? Come here and you shall get a good whip-
ping." The daughter in a fright let go the apron, and all
the sand ran out and formed the barren hills near Litzow.t
The Dwarfs took up their abode in the Nine-hills. The
A Danish legend (Thiele, i. 79) tells the same of the sand-lulls of
Nestved in Zealand. A Troll who dwelt near it wished to destroy it, and for
that purpose he went down to the sea-shore and filled his wallet with sand and
threw it on his hack. Fortunately there was a hole in the wallet, and so
many sand-hills fell out of it, that when he came to Nestved there only
remained enough to form one hill more. Another Troll, to punish a fanner
filled one of his gloves with sand, which sufficed to cover his victim's house
completely. With what remained in the fingers he formed a row of hillork
near it. t Grimm, Deut. Myth., p. 502.
178 ISLE OF EUGEN.
White ones own two of them, and the Brown ones seven,
for there are no Black ones there. These dwell chiefly on
the coast-hills, along the shore between the Ahlbeck and
Monchgut, where they hold their assemblies, and plunder
the ships that are wrecked on the coast.
The Neck is called in Eiigen Nickel. Some fishers once
launched their boat on a lonely lake. Next day when they
came they saw it in a high beech-tree. " Who the devil has
put the boat in the tree ?" cried one. A voice replied, but
they saw no one, " 'Twas no devil at all, but I and my
brother Nickel." *
The following stories Mr. Arndt, who, as we have
observed, is a native of Eiigen, says he heard in his boyhood
from Hinrich Vieck, the Statthalter or Bailiff of Grabitz,
who abounded in these legends ; " so that it is, properly
speaking," says he, " Hinrich Yieck, and not I, that relates."
We therefore see no reason to doubt of their genuineness,
though they may be a little embellished.t
STtibrnturrs at $af)n Qtrtrtrlj.
THERE once lived in Rambin an honest, industrious man,
named James Dietrich. He had several children, all of a
good disposition, especially the youngest, whose name was
John. John Dietrich was a handsome, smart boy, diligent
at school, and obedient at home. His great passion was for
hearing stories, and whenever he met any one who was well
stored, he never let them go till he had heard them all.
When John was about eight years old he was sent to
spend a summer with his uncle, a farmer in Kodenkirchen.
* Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, i. p. 70.
t Grimm also appears to regard them as genuine.
ISLE OF BUQEN. j.79
Here John naa to Keep cows with other boys, and they used
to drive them to graze about the Nine-hills. There -was an
old cowherd, one Klas (i. e. Nick) Starkwolt, who used fre-
quently to join the boys, and then they would sit down
together and tell stories. Klas abounded in these, and he
became John Dietrich's dearest friend. In particular, he
knew a number of stories of the Nine-hills and the under-
groundpeople in the old times, when the Giants disappeared
from the country, and the little ones came into the hills.
These tales John swallowed so eagerly that he thought of
nothing else, and was for ever talking of golden cups, and
crowns, and glass shoes, and pockets full of ducats, and gold
rings, and diamond coronets, and snow-white brides, and
such like. Old Klas used often to shake his head at him and
say, " John ! John ! what are you about ? The spade and
sithe will be your sceptre and crown, and your bride will
wear a garland of rosemary and a gown of striped drill."
Still John almost longed to get into the Nine-hills ; for Klas
had told him that any one who by luck or cunning should
get the cap of one of the little ones might go down with
safety, and, instead of their making a servant of him, he
would be their master. The person whose cap he got would
be his servant, and obey all his commands.*
St. John's day, when the days are longest and the nights
shortest, was now come. Old and young kept the holiday,
had all sorts of piays, and told all kinds of stories. John
could now no longer contain himself, but the day after the
festival he slipt away to the Nine-hills, and when it grew
dark laid himself down on the top of the highest of them,
where Klas had told him the undergroundpeople had their
principal dance-place. John lay quite still from ten till
twelve at night. At last it struck twelve. Immediately
there was a ringing and a singing in the hills, and then a
whispering and a lisping and a whiz and a buzz all about
him ; for the little people were now some whirling round and
round in the dance, and others sporting and tumbling about
* The population of Lusatia (Lausatz) is like that of Pomerania and
Riigen, Vendish. Hence, perhaps, it is that in the Lusatian tale of the Fairy-
abbath, we meet with caps with bells, and a descent into the interior of a
mountain in a kind of boat as in this tale : "Wilcomm, Sagen und Marcheu
UB der Oberlausitz. Hanov. 1843. Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1844.
K2
180 ISLE OF
in the moonshine, and playing a thousand merry pranks and
tricks. He felt a secret dread come over him at this whis-
pering and buzzing, for he could see nothing of them, as the
caps they wore made them invisible ; but he lay quite still,
with his face in the grass and his eyes fast shut, snoring a
little, just as if he was asleep. Yet now and then he ven-
tured to open his eyes a little and peep out, but not the
slightest trace of them could he see, though it was bright
moonlight.
It was not long before three of the underground-people
came jumping up to where he was lying ; but they took no
heed of him, and flung their brown caps up into the air, and
caught them from one another. At length one snatched the
cap out of the hand of another and flung it away. It flew
direct, and fell upon John's head. The moment he felt it
he caught hold of it, and, standing up, bid farewell to sleep.
He swung his cap about for joy, and made the little silver
bell of it tingle, and then set it upon his head, and won-
derful \ that instant he saw the countless and merry swarm
of the little people.
The three little men came slily up to him, and thought by
their nimbleness to get back the cap ; but he held his prize
fast, and they saw clearly that nothing was to be done in
this way with him ; for in size and strength John was a
giant in comparison of these little fellows, who hardly came
up to his knee. The owner of the cap now caine up very
humbly to the finder, and begged, in as supplicating a tone
as if his life depended upon it, that he would give him back
his cap. But " No," said John, " you sly little rogue, you '11
get the cap no more. That 's not the sort of thing that one
gives away for buttered cake : I should be in a nice way with
you if I had not something of yours ; but now you have no
power over me, but must do what I please. And I will go
down with you, and see how you live below, and you shall
be my servant. Nay, no grumbling, you know you must. I
know that just as well as you do, for Klas Starkwolt told it
to me often and often."
The little man looked as if he had not heard or understood
one word of all this ; he began all his crying and whining
OT er again, and wept, and screamed, and howled most pite-
oueiy for his little cap. But John cut the matter short by
ISLE OF BCGEJT. 181
saying to him, "Have done; you are my servant, and 1
intend to take a trip with you." So he gave up, especially
as the others told him that there was no remedy.
John now flung away his old hat, and put on the cap, and
set it firm on his head, lest it should slip off or fly away, for
all his power lay in the cap. He lost no time in trying its
virtue?, and commanded his new servant to fetch him food
and drink. And the servant ran away like the wind, and in
a second was there again with bottles of wine, and bread,
and rich fruits. So John ate and drank, and looked on at
the sports and the dancing of the little ones, and it pleased
him right well, and he behaved himself stoutly and wisely,
as if he was a born master.
"When the cock had now crowed for the third time, and
the little larks had made their first twirl in the sky, and the
infant light appeared in solitary white streaks in the east,
then it went hush, hush, hush, through the bushes, and
flowers, and stalks ; and the hills rang again, and opened up,
and the little men went down. John gave close attention to
everything, and found that it was exactly as he had been
told. And behold ! on the top of the hill, where they had
just been dancing, and where all was full of grass and flowers,
as people see it by day, there rose of a sudden, when the
retreat was sounded, a bright glass point. Whoever wanted
to go in stepped upon this ; it opened, and he glided gently
in, the glass closing again after him ; and when they had all
entered it vanished, and there was no farther trace of it to
be seen. Those who descended through the glass point sank
quite gently into a wide silver tun, which held them all, and
could have easily harboured a thousand such little people.
John and his man went down into such a one along with
several others, all of whom screamed out and prayed him not
to tread on them, for if his weight came on them they were
dead men. He was, however, careful, and acted in a very
friendly way toward them. Several tuns of this kind went
up and" down after each other, until all were in. They hung
by long silver chains, which were drawn and held below.
In his descent John was amazed at the wonderful bril-
liancy of the walls between which the tun glided down.
They were all, as it were, beset with pearls and diamonds,
glittering and sparkling brightly, and below him he heard
182 ISLE OF
the most beautiful music tinkling at a distance, so that he
did not know what was become of him, and from excess of
pleasure he fell fast asleep.
He slept a long time, and when he awoke he found himself
in the most beautiful bed that could be, such as he had never
seen the like of in his father's house, and it was in the pret-
tiest little chamber in the world, and his servant was beside
him with a fan to keep away the flies and gnats. He had
hardly opened his eyes when his little servant brought him a
basin and towel, and held him the nicest new clothes of brown
silk to put on, most beautifully made ; with these was a pair
of new black shoes with red ribbons, such as John had never
beheld in Eambin or in Bodenkirchen either. There were
also there several pairs of beautiful shining glass shoes, such
as are only used on great occasions. John was, we may well
suppose, delighted to have such clothes to wear, and he put
them upon him joyfully. His servant then flew like light-
ning and returned with a fine breakfast of wine and milk,
and beautiful white bread and fruits, and such other things
as little boys are fond of. He now perceived, every moment,
more and more, that Klas Starkwolt, the old cowherd, knew
what he was talking about, for the splendour and magnifi-
cence he saw here surpassed anything he had ever dreamt of.
His servant, too, was the most obedient one possible : a nod
or a sign was enough for him, for he was as wise as a bee, as
all these little people are by nature.
John's bed-chamber was all covered with emeralds and
other precious stones, and in the ceiling was a diamond as
big as a nine-pin bowl, that gave light to the whole chamber.
In this place they have neither sun, nor moon, nor stars to
give them light ; neither do they use lamps or candles of any
kind ; but they live in the midst of precious stones, and have
the purest of gold and silver in abundance, and the skill to
make it light both by day and by night, though, indeed, pro-
perly speaking, as there is no sun here, there is no distinc-
tion of day and night, and they reckon only by weeks. They
set the brightest and clearest precious stones in their dwell-
ings, and in the ways and passages leading under the ground,
and in the places where they have their large halls, and
their dances and feasts, where they sparkle so as to make it
eternal day.
ISLE OF BCGEK. 183
When John had finished his breakfast, his servant opened
a little door in the wall, where was a closet with the most
beautiful silver and gold cups and dishes and other vessels,
and baskets filled with ducats, and boxes of jewels and pre-
cious stones. There were also charming pictures, and the
most delightful story-books he had seen in the whole course
of his life.
John spent the morning looking at these things ; and,
when it was mid-day, a bell rang, and his servant said, " Will
you dine alone, sir, or with the large company ? " " With
the large company, to be sure," replied John. So his servant
led him out. John, however, saw nothing but solitary halls,
lighted up with precious stones, and here and there little men
and women, who appeared to him to glide out of the clefts
and fissures of the rocks. Wondering what it was the bells
rang for, he said to his servant, " But where is the company?"
And scarcely had he spoken when the hall they were in
opened out to a great extent, and a canopy set with diamonds
and precious stones was drawn over it. At the same moment
he saw an immense throng of nicely-dressed little men and
women pouring in through several open doors : the floor
opened in several places, and tables, covered with the most
beautiful ware, and the most luscious meats, and fruits, and
ines, placed themselves beside each other, and the chairs
arranged themselves along the tables, and then the men and
women took their seats.
The principal persons now came forward, bowed to John,
and led him to their table, where they placed him among
their most beautiful maidens, a distinction which pleased
John well. The party, too, was very merry, for the under-
ground people are extremely lively and cheerful, and can
never stay long quiet. Then the most charming music
sounded over their heads ; and beautiful birds, flying about,
sung most sweetly ; and these were not real birds but artifi-
cial ones, which the little men make so ingeniously that they
can fly about and sing like natural ones.
The servants, of both sexes, who waited at table, and
handed about the gold cups, and the silver and crystal baskets
with fruit, were children belonging to this world, whom some
casualty or other had thrown among the undergroundpeople,
and who, having come down without securing any pledge,
184 ISLE OF EC0EK.
were fallen into the power of the little ones. These were
differently clad from them. The boys and girls were dressed
in snow-white coats and jackets, and wore glass shoes, so fine
that their steps could never be heard, with blue caps on their
heads, and silver belts round their waists.
John at first pitied them, seeing how they were forced to
run about and wait on the little people ; but as they looked
cheerful and happy, and were handsomely dressed, and had
such rosy cheeks, he said to himself, " After all, they are not
so badly off, and I was myself much worse when I had to be
running after the cows and bullocks. To be sure, I am now
a master here, and they are servants ; but there is no help
for it : why were they so foolish as to let themselves be taken
and not get some pledge beforehand ? At any rate, the time
must come when they shall be set at liberty, and they will
certainly not be longer than fifty years here." With these
thoughts he consoled himself, and sported and played away
with his little play-fellows, and ate, and drank, and made his
servant and the others tell him stories, for he would know
every thing exactly.
They sat at table about two hours ; the principal per-
son then rang a little bell, and the tables and chairs all
vanished in a whiff, leaving the company all on their feet.
The birds now struck up a most lively air, and the little
people danced their rounds most merrily. When they were
done, the joyous sets jumped, and leaped, and whirled them-
selves round and round, as if the world was grown dizzy.
And the pretty little girls that sat next John caught hold of
him and whirled him about ; and, without making any resist-
ance, he danced round and round with them for two good
hours. Every afternoon while he remained there, he used to
dance thus merrily with them ; and, to the last hour of his
life, he used to speak of it with the greatest glee. His lan-
guage was that the joys of heaven, and the songs and music
of the angels, which the righteous hoped to enjoy there, might
be excessively beautiful, but that he could "conceive nothing
to equal the music and the dancing under the earth, the beau-
tiful and lively little men, the wonderful birds in the branches,
and the tinkling silver bells on their caps. " No one," said
he, " who has not seen a^I heard it, can form any idea what-
crer of it."
ISLE OF EtGEK. 185
"When the music and dancing were over, it might be about
four o'clock. The little people then disappeared, and went
each about their work or their pleasure. After supper they
sported and danced in the same way ; and at midnight, espe-
cially on starlight nights, they slipped out of their hills to
dance in the open air. John used then, like a good boy, to
say his prayers and go to sleep, a duty he never negle'cted
either in the evening or in the morning.
For the first week that John was in the glass-hill, he only
went from his chamber to the great hall and back again.
After the first week, however, he began to walk about, making
his servant show and explain everything to him. He found
that there were in that place the most beautiful walks, in
which he might ramble along for miles, in all directions, with-
out ever finding an end of them, so immensely large was the
hill th.q t the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed
but a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it.
It was extraordinary that, between the meads and fields,
which were thick sown with hills, and lakes, and islands,
and ornamented with trees and flowers in the greatest
variety, there ran, as it were, small lanes, through which,
as through crystal rocks, one was obliged to pass to come to
any new place ; and the single meads and fields were often a
mile long, and the flowers were so brilliant and so fragrant,
and the song of the numerous birds so sweet, that John had
never seen anything on earth at all like it. There was a
breeze, and yet one did not feel the wind ; it was quite clear
and bright, and yet there was no heat ; the waves were dash-
ing, still there was no danger ; and the most beautiful little
barks and canoes came, like white swans, when one wanted
to cross the water, and went backwards and forwards of
themselves. Whence all this came no one knew, nor could
his servant tell anything about it ; but one thing John saw
plainly, which was, that the large carbuncles and diamonds
that were set in the roof and walls gave light instead of the
sun, moon, and stars.
These lovely meads and plains were, for the most part,
quite lonesome. Few of the undergroundpeople were to be
seen upon them, and those that were, just glided across them,
as if in the greatest hurry. It very rarely happened that
any of them danced out here in the open air ; sometimes
186 ISLE Or
about three of them did so ; at the most half a doen : John
never saw a greater number together. The meads were
never cheerful, except when the corps of servants, of whom
there might be some hundreds, were let out to walk. This,
however, happened but twice a-week, for they were mostly
kept employed in the great hall and adjoining apartments,
or at school.
For John soon found they had schools there also ; he had
been there about ten months, when one day he saw some-
thing snow-white gliding into a rock, and disappearing.
" What ! " said he to his servant, " are there some of you too
that wear white, like the servants ? " He was informed that
there were; but they were few in number, and never ap-
peared at the large tables or the dances, except once a year,
on the birthday of the great Hill-king, who dwelt many
thousand miles below in the great deep. These were the
oldest men among them, some of them many thousand years
old, who knew all things, and could tell of the beginning of
the world, and were called the Wise. They lived all alone,
and only left their chambers to instruct the underground
children and the attendants of both sexes, for whom there
was a great school.
John was greatly pleased with this intelligence, and he
determined to take advantage of it : so next morning he
made his servant conduct him to the school, and was so well
pleased with it that he never missed a day going there.
They were taught there reading, writing, and accounts, to
compose and relate histories and stories, and many elegant
kinds of work ; so that many came out of the hills, both men
and women, very prudent and knowing people, in conse-
quence of what they were taught there. The biggest, and
those of best capacity, received instruction in natural science
and astronomy, and in poetry and riddle-making, arts highly
esteemed by the little people. John was very diligent, and
soon became extremely clever at painting and drawing ; he
wrought, too, most ingeniously in gold, and silver, and
stones, and in verse and riddle-making he had no fellow.
John had spent many a happy year here without ever
thinking of the upper world, or of those he had left behind,
BO pleasantly passed the time so many an agreeable play-
fellow he had among the children.
ISLE OF BC&EN. 187
Of all his playfellows there was none of whom he was sc
fond as of a little fair-haired girl, named Elizabeth Krabbin-
She was from his own village, and was the daughter oi
Frederick Krabbe, the minister of Eambin. She was but
four years old when she was taken away, and John had often
heard tell of her. She was not, however, stolen by the little
people, but came into their power in this manner. One day
in summer, she, with other children, ran out into the fields :
in their rambles they went to the Nine-hills, where little
Elizabeth fell asleep, and was forgotten by the rest. At
night, when she awoke, she found herself under the ground
among the little people. It was not merely because she was
from his own village that John was so fond of Elizabeth, but
she was a most beautiful child, with clear blue eyes and
ringlets of fair hair, and a most angelic smile.
Time flew away unperceived: John was now eighteen,
and Elizabeth sixteen. Their childish fondness had become
love, and the little people were pleased to see it, thinking
that by means of her they might get John to renounce his
power, and become their servant ; for they were fond of him,
and would willingly have had him to wait upon them ; for
the love of dominion is their vice. But they were mistaken.
John had learned too much from his servant to be caught in
that way.
John's chief delight was in walking about alone with
Elizabeth; for he now knew every place so well that he
could dispense with the attendance of his servant. In these
rambles he was always gay and lively, but his companion was
frequently sad and melancholy, thinking on the land above,
where men lived, and where the sun, moon, and stars, tthine.
Now it happened in one of their walks, that as they talked
of their love, and it was after midnight, they passed under
the place where the tops of the glass-hills used to open and
let the undergroundpeople in and out. As they went along
they heard of a sudden the crowing of several cocks above.
At this sound, which she had not heard for twelve years,
little Elizabeth felt her heart so affected that she could
contain herself no longer, but throwing her arms about
John's neck, she bathed his cheeks with her tears. At
length she spake
" Dearest John," said she, " everything down here is very
188 ISLE OF EDGES'.
beautiful, and the little people are kind, and do nothing to
injure me, but still I have always been uneasy, nor ever
felt any pleasure till I began to love you ; and yet that is
not pure pleasure, for this is not a right way of living, such
as it should be for human beings. Every night I dream of
my dear father and mother, and of our church-yard, where
the people stand so piously at the church-door waiting for
my father, and I could weep tears of blood that I cannot go
into the church with them, and worship God as a human
being should ; for this is no Christian life we lead down
here, but a delusive half heathen one. And only think, dear
John, that we can never marry, as there is no priest to join
us. Do, then, plan some way for us to leave this place ; for
I cannot tell you how I long to get once more to my father,
and among pious Christians."
John, too, had not been unaffected by the crowing of the
cocks, and he felt what he had never felt here before,
a longing after the land where the sun shines, and he
replied,
" Dear Elizabeth, all you say is true, and I now feel that
it is a sin for Christians to stay here ; and it seems to me
as if our Lord said to us in that cry of the cocks, ' Come up,
ye Christian children, out of those abodes of illusion and
magic ; come to the light of the stars, and act as children
of fight.' I now feel that it was a great sin for me to come
down here, but I trust I shall be forgiven on account of my
youth ; for I was a child and knew not what I did. But
now I will not stay a day longer. They cannot keep me
here."
At these last words, Elizabeth turned pale, for she recol-
lected that she was a servant, and must serve her fifty years.
" And what will it avail me," cried she, " that I shall con-
tinue young and be but as of twenty years when I go out,
for my father and mother will be dead, and all my com-
panions will be old and gray ; and you, dearest John, will be
old and gray also," cried she, throwing herself on his bosom.
John was thunderstruck at this, for it had never before
occurred to him ; he, however, comforted her as well as he
could, and declared he would never leave the place without
her. He spent the whole night in forming various plans ;
at last he fixed on one, and in the morning he despatched
ISLE OF ECaEW. 189
ais servant to summon to his apartment six of the principu.
of the little people. When they came, Johr thus mildly
addressed them :
" My friends, you know how I came here, not as a
prisoner or servant, but as a lord and master over one of
you, and consequently, over all. You have now for the
ten years I have been with you treated me with respect and
attention, and for that I am your debtor. But you are still
more my debtors, for I might have given you every sort
of annoyance and vexation, and you must have submitted
to it. I have, however, not done so, but have behaved as
your equal, and have sported and played with you rather
than ruled over you. I now have one request to make.
There is a girl among your servants whom I love, Elizabeth
Krabbin, of Rambin, where I was born. Give her to me,
and let us depart. For I will return to where the sun
shines and the plough goes through the land. I ask to take
nothing with me but her, and the ornaments and furniture
of my chamber."
He spoke in a determined tone, and they hesitated and
cast their eyes to the ground ; at last the oldest of them
replied :
" Sir, you ask what we cannot grant. It is a fixed law,
that no servant shall leave this place before the appointed
time. Were we to break through this law, our whole sub-
terranean empire would fall. Anything else you desire, for
we love and respect you, but we cannot give up Elizabeth."
"You can and you shall give her up," cried John in a
rage ; " go think of it till to-morrow. Return here at this
hour. I will show you whether or not I can triumph over
your hypocritical and cunning stratagems."
The six retired. Next morning, on their return, John
addressed them in the kindest manner, but to no purpose ;
they persisted in their refusal. He gave them till the
next day, threatening them severely in case of their still
proving refractory.
Next day, when the six little people appeared before
him, John looked at them sternly, and made no return to
their salutations, but said to them shortly, " Yes, or No ? "
And they answered with one voice, "No." He then
ordered his servant to summon twenty- four more of the
190 ISLE OF BUGEN.
principal persons with their wives and children. When
they came, they were in all five hundred, men, women, and
children. John ordered them forthwith to go and fetch
pickaxes, spades, and bars, which they did in a second.
He now led them out to a rock in one of the fields, and
ordered them to fall to work at blasting, hewing, and
dragging stones. They toiled patiently, and made as if it
were only sport to them. From morning till night their
task-master made them labour without ceasing, standing
over them constantly, to prevent their resting. Still their
obstinacy was inflexible ; and at the end of some weeks
his pity for them was so great, that he was obliged to
give over.
He now thought of a new species of punishment for
them. He ordered them to appear before him next morning,
each provided with a new whip. They obeyed, and John
commanded them to strip and lash one another till the blood
should run down on the ground, and he stood looking on as
grim and cruel as an eastern tyrant. Still the little people
cut and slashed themselves, and mocked at John, and
refused to comply with his wishes. This he did for three or
four days.
Several other courses did he try, but all in vain; his
temper was too gentle to struggle with their obstinacy, and
he began now to despair of ever accomplishing his dearest
wish. He began even to hate the little people whom he was
before so fond of; he kept away from their banquets and
dances, and associated alone with Elizabeth, and ate and
drank quite solitary in his chamber. In short, he became
almost a perfect hermit, and sank into moodiness and
melancholy.
While in this temper, as he was taking a solitary walk in
the evening, and, to divert his melancholy, was flinging the
stones that lay in his path against each other, he happened
to break a tolerably large one, and out of it jumped a toad.
The moment John saw the ugly animal, he caught him up in
ecstasy, and put him into his pocket and ran home, crying,
" Now I have her ! I have my Elizabeth ! Now you shall
get it, you little mischievous rascals!" And on getting
home he put the toad into a costly silver casket, as if it was
the greatest treasure.
ISLE OF BUGEN. 191
To account for John's joy you must know that Klaa
Starkwolt had often told him that the underground people
could not endure any ill smell, and that the sight or even
the smell of a toad made them faint and suffer the most
dreadful tortures, and that by means of stench and these
odious ugly animals, one could compel them to anything.
Hence there are no bad smells to be found in the whole
glass empire, and a toad is a thing unheard of there ; this
toad must therefore have been inclosed in the stone from
the creation, as it were for the sake of John and Elizabeth.
Resolved to try the effect of his toad, John took the
casket under his arm and went out, and on the way he met
two of the little people in a lonesome place. The moment
he approached them they fell to the ground, and whimpered
and howled most lamentably, as long as he was near them.
Satisfied now of his power, he next morning summoned
the fifty principal persons, with their wives and children, to
his apartment. When they came, he addressed them,
reminding them once again of his kindness and gentleness
toward them, and of the good terms on which they had
hitherto lived. He reproached them with their ingratitude
in refusing him the only favour he had ever asked of them,
but firmly declared he would not give way to their obstinacy.
"Wherefore," said he, "for the last time, think for a
minute, and if you then say No, you shall feel that pain
which is to you and your children the most terrible of
all pains."
They did not take long to deliberate, but unanimously
replied " No ;" and they thought to themselves what new
scheme has the youth hit on, with which he thinks to
frighten wise ones like us, and they smiled as they said No.
Their smiling enraged John above all, and he ran back a few
hundred paces, to where he had laid the casket with the
toad, under a bush.
He was hardly come within a hundred paces of them when
they all fell to the ground as if struck with a thunderbolt,
and began to howl and whimper, and to writhe, as if
suffering the most excruciating pain. They stretched out
their hands, and cried, " Have mercy ! have mercy ! we fee]
you have a toad, and there is no escape for us. Take the
odious beast away, and we will do all you require." He let
192 ISLE OF
them kick a few seconds longer, and then took the toad
away. They then stood up and felt no more pain. John
let all depart but the six chief persons, to whom he said :
" This night between twelve and one Elizabeth and I will
depart. Load then for me three waggons, with gold, and
silver, and precious stones. I might, you know, take all that
is in the hill, and you deserve it, but I will be merciful.
Farther, you must put all the furniture of my chamber in
two waggons, and get ready for me the handsomest travel-
ling-carriage that is in the hill, with six black horses.
Moreover, you must set at liberty all the servants who have
been so long here that on earth they would be twenty years
old and upwards, and you must give them as much silver
and gold as will make them rich for life, and make a law
that no one shall be detained here longer than his twentieth
year."
The six took the oath, and went away quite melancholy,
and John buried his toad deep in the ground. The little
people laboured hard and prepared everything. At midnight
everything was out of the hill, and John and Elizabeth got
into the silver tun, and were drawn up.
It was then one o'clock, and it was midsummer, the very
time that twelve years before John had gone down into the
hill. Music sounded around them, and they saw the glass
hill open, and the rays of the light of heaven shine on them
after so many years ; and when they got out they saw the
first streaks of dawn already in the east. Crowds of the
undergroundpeople were around them busied about the
waggons. John bid them a last farewell, waved his brown
cap three times in the air, and then flung it among them.
And at the same moment he ceased to see them ; he beheld
nothing but a green hill, and the well-known bushes and
fields, and heard the church clock of Rambin strike two.
When all was still, save a few larks, who were tuning their
morning songs, they all fell on their knees and worshiped
God, resolving henceforth to lead a pious and a Christian
life.
When the sun rose, John arranged the procession, and
they set out for Rambin. Every well-known object that
they saw awaked pleasing recollections in the bosom of John
and his bride ; and as they passed by Eodenkirchen, John
ISLE OF RUGEN 193
recognised, among the people that gazed at and followed
them, his old friend Klas Starkwolt, the cowherd, and his
dog Speed. It was about four in the morning when they
entered Rambin, and they halted in the middle of the village,
about twenty paces from the house where John was born.
The whole village poured out to gaze on these Asiatic
princes, for such the old sexton, who had in his youth been
at Moscow and Constantinople, said they were. There
John saw his father and mother, and his brother Andrew,
and his sister Trine. The old minister, Krabbe, stood there
too, in his black slippers and white night cap, gaping and
staring with the rest.
John discovered himself to his parents, and Elizabeth to
hers, and the wedding-day was soon fixed, and such a wed-
ding was never seen before or since in the island of Riigen ;
for John sent to Stralsund and Greifswald for whole boat-
loads of wine, and sugar, and coffee, and whole herds of
oxen, sheep, and pigs were driven to the wedding. The
quantity of harts, and roes, and hares that were shot on the
occasion, it were vain to attempt to tell, or to count the fish
that was caught. There was not a musician in Riigen and
Pomerania that was not engaged, for John was immensely
rich, and he wished to display his wealth.
John did not neglect his old friend Klas Starkwolt, the
cowherd. He gave him enough to make him comfortable
the rest of his days, and insisted on his coming and staying
with him as often and as long as he wished.
After his marriage, John made a progress through the
country with his beautiful Elizabeth, and they purchased
towns, and villages, and lands, until he became master of
nearly half Riigen, and a very considerable count in the
country. His father, old James Dietrich, was made a noble-
man, and his brothers and sisters gentlemen and ladies for
what cannot money do ?
John and his wife spent their days in doing acts of piety
and charity. They built several churches, and they had the
blessing of every one that knew them, and died universally
lamented. It was Count John Dietrich that built and
richly endowed the present church of Rambin. He built it
on the site of his father's house, and presented to it several
of the cups and plates made by the underground people, and
194 ISLE OF
his own and Elizabeth's glass shoes, in memory of what had
befallen them in their youth. But they were all taken away
in the time of the great Charles the Twelfth of Sweden,
when the Eussians came on the island, and the Cossacks
plundered even the churches, and took away everything.
ILtttlr (Trias's'
A PEASANT, named John Wilde, who lived in Eodenkirchen,
found one time a glass shoe on one of the hills where the
little people used to dance. He clapped it instantly into
his pocket and ran away with it, keeping his hand as close
on his pocket as if he had a dove in it ; for he knew that he
had found a treasure which the underground people must
redeem at any price.
Others say that John Wilde lay in ambush one night
for the underground people, and gained an opportunity of
pulling oft' one of their shoes, by stretching himself there
with a brandy-bottle beside him, and acting like one that
was dead drunk ; for he was a very cunning man, not over
scrupulous in his morals, and had taken in many a one by
his craftiness, and, on this account, his name was in no good
repute among his neighbours, who, to say the truth, were
willing to have as little to do with him as possible. Many
hold, too, that he was acquainted with forbidden arts, and
used to carry on an intercourse with the fiends and old
women that raised storms, and such like.
However, be this as it may, when John had gotten the
shoe, he lost no time in letting the folk that dwell under
the ground know that he had it. So at midnight he went
to the Nine- hills, and cried with all his might, " John Wilde,
of Rodenkirchen, has got a beautiful glass shoe. Who will
buy it ? Who will buy it ?" For he knew that the little
one who had lost the shoe must go barefoot till he got it
again, and that is no trifle, for the little people have gene-
rally to walk upon very hard and stony ground.
ISLE OF BflGEK. 195
John's advertisement was speedily attended to. The little
fellow who had lost the shoe made no delay in setting about
redeeming it. The first free day he got, that he might come
out into the daylight, he came as a respectable merchant,
and knocked at John Wilde's door, and asked if John had
not a glass shoe to sell? "For," says he, "they are an
article now in great demand, and are sought for in every
market." John replied that it was true he had a very little
little, nice, pretty little glass shoe, but it was so small that
even a Dwarf's foot would be squeezed in it ; and that God
Almighty must make people on purpose for it before it could
be of any use ; but that, for all that, it was an extraordinary
shoe, and a valuable shoe, and a dear shoe, and it was not
every merchant that could afford to pay for it.
The merchant asked to see it, and when he had examined
it, " Glass shoes," said he, " are not by any means such rare
articles, my good friend, as you think here in Rodenkirchen,
because you do not happen to go much into the world.
However," said he, after hemming a little, " I will give you
a good price for it, because I happen to have the very fellow
of it." And he bid the countryman a thousand dollars
for it.
"A thousand dollars are money, my father used to say
when he drove fat oxen to market," replied John Wilde, in
a mocking tone ; " but it will not leave my hands for that
shabby price ; and, for my own part, it may ornament the
foot of my daughter's doll. Harkye, friend : I have heard a
sort of little song sung about the glass shoe, and it is not
for a parcel of dirt that it will go out of my hands. Tell me
now, my good fellow, should you happen to know the knack
of it, that in every furrow I make when I am ploughing I
should find a ducat ? If not, the shoe is still mine, and you
may inquire for glass shoes at those other markets."
The merchant made still a great many attempts, and
twisted and turned in every direction to get the shoe ; but
when he found the farmer inflexible, he agreed to what John
desired, and swore to the performance of it. Cunning John
believed him, and gave him up the glass shoe, for he knew
right well with whom he had to do. So the business being
ended, away went the merchant with his glass shoe.
Without a moment's delay, John repaired to his stable,
o2
.198 ISLE OF EUGEW.
ret cannot, go away : " and a variety of thoughts and con-
jectures passed through his mind; and he called to mind
what he had often heard from his father, and other old
people, that when the under groundpeople chance to touch
anything holy, they are held fast and cannot quit the spot,
and are therefore extremely careful to avoid all such things.
But he also thought it may as well be something else ; and
you would perhaps be committing a sin in disturbing and
taking away the little animal ; so he let it stay as it was.
But when he had found it twice more in the same place,
and still running about with the same marks of uneasiness,
he said, " No, it is not all right with it. So now, in the
name of God ! " and he made a grasp at the insect, that
resisted and clung fast to the stone ; but he held it tight,
and tore it away by main force, and lo ! then he found he
had, by the top of the head, a little ugly black chap, about
six inches long, screeching and kicking at a most furious rate.
The farmer was greatly astounded at this sudden trans-
formation ; still he held his prize fast and kept calling to
him, while he administered to him a few smart slaps on the
buttocks : " Be quiet, be quiet, my little man ! if crying was
to do the business, we might look for heroes in swaddling
clothes. We '11 just take you with us a bit, and see what
you are good for."
The little fellow trembled and shook in every limb, and
then began to whimper most piteously, and to beg hard of
the farmer to let him go. But "No, my lad," replied the
farmer, " I will not let you go till you tell me who you are,
and how you came here, and what trade you know, that
enables you to earn your bread in the world." At this the
little man grinned and shook his head, but said not a word
in reply, only begged and prayed the more to get loose ; and
the farmer found that he must now begin to entreat him if
he would coax any information out of him. But it was all
to no purpose. He then adopted the contrary method, and
whipped and slashed him till the blood run down, but just
to as little purpose ; the little black thing remained as dumb
as the grave, for this species is the most malicious and obsti-
nate of all the underground race.
The farmer now got angry, and he said, " Do but be quiet,
my child ; I should be a fool to put myself into a passion
ISLE OF UUGEX. 199
with such a little brat. Never fear, I shall soon make you
tame enough."
So saying, he ran home with him, and clapped him into
a black, sooty, iron pot, aud put the iron lid upon it, and
laid on the top of the lid a great heavy stone, and set the
pot in a dark cold room, and as he was going out he said to
him, " Stay there, now, and freeze till you are black ! I '11
engage that at last you will answer me civilly."
Twice a- week the farmer went regularly into the room and
asked his little black captive if he would answer him now ;
but the little one still obstinately persisted in his silence.
The farmer had now, without success, pursued this course
for six weeks, at the end of which time his prisoner at last
gave up. One day as the farmer was opening the room door,
he, of his own accord, called out to him to come and take
him out of his dirty stinking dungeon, promising that he
would now cheerfully do all that was wanted of him.
The farmer first ordered him to give him his history. The
black one replied, " My dear friend you know it just as well
as I, or else you never had had me here. You see I
happened by chance to come too near the cross, a thing we
little people may not do, and there I was held fast and
obliged instantly to let my body become visible ; so, then,
that people might not recognise me, I turned myself into
an insect. But you found me out. For when we get
fastened to holy or consecrated things, we never can get
away from them unless a man takes us off. That, however,
does not happen without plague and annoyance to us, though,
indeed, to say the truth, the staying fastened there is not
over pleasant. And so I struggled against you, too, for we
have a natural aversion to let ourselves be taken into a
man's hand." " Ho, ho ! is that the tune with you ?" cried
the farmer : " you have a natural aversion, have you ? Be-
lieve me, my sooty friend, I have just the same for you ;
and so you shall be away without a moment's delay, and we
will lose no time in making our bargain with each other. But
you must first make me some present." "What you will,
you have only to ask," said the little one : " silver and gold,
and precious stones, and costly furniture all shall be thine
in less than an instant." "Silver and gold, and precious
stones, and all such glittering fine things will 1 none," said
200 ISLE OF
the farmer ; " they have turned the heart and broken the
neck of many a one before now, and few are they whose
lives they make happy. I know that you are handy smiths,
and have many a strange thing with you that other
smiths know nothing about. So come, now, swear to me
that you will make me an iron plough, such that the smallest
foal may be able to draw it without being tired, and then
run off with you as fast as your legs can carry you." So
the black swore, and the farmer then cried out, " Now, in
the name of G-od ; there, you are at liberty," and the little
one vanished like lightning.
Next morning, before the sun was up, there stood in the
farmer's yard a new iron plough, and he yoked his dog Water
to it, and though it was of the size of an ordinary plough,
Water drew it with ease through the heaviest clay-land, and
it tore up prodigious furrows. The farmer used this plough
for many years, and the smallest foal or the leanest little
horse could draw it through the ground, to the amazement of
every one who beheld it, without turning a single hair. And
this plough made a rich man of the farmer, for it cost him
no horse-flesh, and he led a cheerful and contented life by
means of it. Hereby we may see that moderation holds
out the longest, and that it is not good to covet too much.
A SIIEPHEBD'S boy belonging to Patzig, about half a mile
from Bergen, where there are great numbers of the under-
ground people in the hills, found one morning a little silver
bell on the green heath, amoag the Giants' -graves, and
fastened it on him. It happened to be the bell belonging
to the (Kip of one of the little Brown ones, who had lost it
while he was dancing, and did not immediately miss it, or
observe that it was no longer tinkling in his cap. He had
gone down into the hill without his bell, and having dis-
covered his loss, was filled with melancholy. For the worst
thing that can befall the underground people is to lose their
ISLE OF KUOEN. 201
cap, then their shoes ; but even to lose the bell from their
caps, or the buckle from their belts, is no trifle to them.
Whoever loses his bell must pass some sleepless nights, for
not a wink of sleep can he get till he has recovered it.
The little fellow was in the greatest trouble, and searched
and looked about everywhere; but how could he learn who had
the bell? For only on a very few days in the year may they
come up to the daylight ; nor can they then appear in their
true form. He had turned himself into every form of birds,
beasts, and men ; and he had sung and rung, and groaned
and moaned, and lamented and inquired about his bell, but
not the slightest tidings, or trace of tidings, had he been
able to get. For what was worst of all, the shepherd's boy
had left Patzig the very day he found the little bell, and
was now keeping sheep at IJnruh, near Gingst : so it was
not till many a day after, and then by mere chance, that the
little underground fellow recovered his bell, and with it his
peace of mind.
He had thought it not unlikely that a raven, or a crow,
or a jackdaw, or a magpie, had found his bell, and from his
thievish disposition, which is caught with anything bright
and shining, had carried it into his nest ; with this thought
he had turned himself into a beautiful little bird, and
searched all the nests in the island, and had sung before all
kinds of birds, to see if they had found what he had lost,
and could restore him his sleep ; but nothing had he been
able to learn from the birds. As he now, one evening, was
flying over the waters of Ealov and the fields of Unruh, the
shepherd's boy, whose name was Fritz Schlagenteufel
(Smite-devil), happened to be keeping his sheep there at
the very time. Several of the sheep had bells about their
necks, and they tinkled merrily, when the boy's dog set
them trotting. The little bird, who was flying over them
thought of his bell, and sung, in a melancholy tone,
Little bell, little bell,
Little ram as well,
You, too, little sheep,
If you've my Tingletoo,
No sheep's so rich as you
My rest you keep.
The boy looked up and listened to this strange song
196 ISLE OF RtJOEIT.
got ready his horses and his plough, and drove out to the
field. He selected a piece of grou/id where he would have
the shortest turns possible, and began to plough. Hardly
had the plough turned up the first sod, when up sprang a
ducat out of the ground, and it was the same with every
fresh furrow he made. There was now no end of his
ploughing, and John Wilde soon bought eight new horses,
and put them into the stable to the eight he already had
and their mangers were never without plenty of oats in
them that he might be able every two hours to yoke two
fresh horses, and so be enabled to drive them the faster.
John was now insatiable in ploughing ; every morning he
was out before sunrise, and many a time he ploughed on
till after midnight. Summer and winter it was plough,
plough with him evermore, except when the ground was
frozen as hard as a stone. But he always ploughed by him-
self, and never suffered any one to go out with him, or to
come to him when he was at work, for John understood too
well the nature of his crop to let people see what it was he
ploughed so constantly for.
But it fared far worse with himself than with his horses,
who ate good oats and were regularly changed and relieved,
while he grew pale and meagre by reason of his continual
working and toiling. His wife and children had no longer any
comfort of him ; he never went to the alehouse or the club ;
he withdrew himself from every one, and scarcely ever spoke a
single word, but went about silent and wrapped up in his
own thoughts. All the day long he toiled for his ducats,
and at night he had to count them and to plan and meditate
how he might find out a still swifter kind of plough.
His wife and the neighbours lamented over his strange con-
duct, his dullness and melancholy, and began to think that
he was grown foolish. Everybody pitied his wife and chil-
dren, for they imagined that the numerous horses that he
kept in his stable, and the preposterous mode of agriculture
that he pursued, with his unnecessary and superfluous
ploughing, must soon leave him without house or land.
But their anticipations were not fulfilled. True it is, the
poor man never enjoyed a happy or contented hour since he
began to plough the ducats up out of the ground. The old
saying held good in his case, thut he who gives himself up tc
ISLE OF HUGEX. 197
the pursuit of gold is half way in the claws of the evil one.
Flesh and blood cannot bear perpetual labour, and John
Wilde did not long hold out against this running through
the furrows day and night. He got through the first spring,
but one day in the second, he dropped down at the tail of
the plough like an exhausted November fly. Out of the
pure thirst after gold he was wasted away and dried up to
nothing; whereas he had been a very strong and hearty
man the day the shoe of the little underground man fell into
his hands.
His wife, however, found after him a considerable treasure,
two great nailed up chests full of good new ducats, and his
sons purchased large estates for themselves, and became lords
and noblemen. But what good did all that do poor John
Wilde?
Clje
THEEE was once a farmer who was master of one of the
little black ones, that are the blacksmiths and armourers ;
and he got him in a very curious way. On the road leading
to this farmer's ground there stood a stone cross, and every
morning as he went to his work he used to stop and kneel
down before this cross, and pray for some minutes.
On one of these occasions he noticed on the cross a pretty
bright insect, of such a brilliant hue that he could not recol-
lect having ever before seen the like with an insect. He
wondered greatly at this, yet still he did not disturb it ; but
the insect did not remain long quiet, but ran without ceasing
backwards and forwards on the cross, as if it was in pain,
and wanted to get away. Next morning the farmer again
saw the very same insect, and again it was running to and
fro, in the same state of uneasiness. The farmer began now
to have some suspicions about it, and thought to himself,
" Would this now be one of the little black enchanters ?
For certain, all is not right with that insect ; it runs about
just like one that had an evil conscience, as one that would.
202 ISLE OF HfGEN.
which came out of the sky, and saw the pretty bird, which
seemed to him still more strange : "Odds bodikins !" said
he to himself, " if one but had that bird that 's singing up
there, so plain that one of us would hardly match him !
What can he mean by that wonderful song ? The whole
of it is, it must be a feathered witch. My rams have only
pinchbeck bells, he calls them rich cattle ; but I have a
silver bell, and he sings nothing about me." And with
these words he began to fumble in his pocket, took out his
bell, and rang it.
The bird in the air instantly saw what it was, and was
rejoiced beyond measure. He vanished in a second flew
behind the nearest bush alighted and drew off his speckled
feather-dress, and turned himself into an old woman dressed
in tattered clothes. The old dame, well supplied with sighs
and groans, tottered across the field to the shepherd's boy,
who was still ringing his bell, and wondering what was
become of the beautiful bird. She cleared her throat, and
coughing up from the bottom of her chest, bid him a kind
good evening, and asked him which was the way to Bergen.
Pretending then that she had just seen the little bell, she
exclaimed, "Good Lord! what a charming pretty little bell!
Well ! in all my life I never beheld anything more beau-
tiful ! Harkye, my son, will you sell me that bell ? And
what may be the price of it ? I have a little grandson at
home, and such a nice plaything as it would make for him !"
"No," replied the boy, quite short, "the bell is not for
sale. It is a bell, that there is not such another bell in the
whole world. I have only to give it a little tinkle, and my
sheep run of themselves wherever I would have them go.
And what a delightful sound it has ! Only listen, mother !"
said he, ringing it : " is there any weariness in the world
that can hold out against this bell ? I can ring with
it away the longest time, so that it will be gone in a
second."
The old woman thought to herself, " We will see if he
can hold out against bright shining money." And she took
out no less than three silver dollars, and offered them to him:
but he still replied, " No, 1 will not sell my bell." She then
offered him five dollars. " The bell is still mine," said he.
She stretched out her hand full of ducats : he replied, this
ISLK OF RIOEN. 203
third time, " Gold is dirt and does not ring." The old daine
then shii'ted her ground, and turned the discourse another
way. She grew mysterious, and began to entice him by
talking of secret arts, and of charms by which his cattle
might be made to thrive prodigiously, relating to him all
kinds of wonders of them. It was then the young shepherd
began to long, and he now lent a willing ear to her tales.
The end of the matter was, that she said to him, " Harkye,
my child ! give me the bell and see ! here is a white stick
for you," said she, taking out a little white stick which had
Adam and Eve very ingeniously cut on it, as they were
feeding the herds of Paradise, with the fattest sheep and
lambs dancing before them ; and there was the shepherd
David too, as he stood with his sling against the giant
Goliath. " I will give you," said the old woman, " this stick
for the bell, and as long as you drive the cattle with it they
will be sure to thrive. With this you will become a rich
shepherd : your wethers will always be fat a month sooner
than the wethers of other shepherds, and every one of your
sheep will have two pounds of wool more than others, and
yet no one will be ever able to see it on them."
The old woman handed him the stick. So mysterious was
her gesture, and so strange and bewitching her smile, that
the lad was at once in her power. He grasped eagerly at
the stick, gave her his hand, and cried, " Done ! Strike
hands! The bell for the stick!" And cheerfully the old
woman struck hands, and took the bell, and went like a
light breeze over the field and the heath. He saw her
vanish, and she seemed to float away before his eyes like a
mist, and to go off with a slight whiz and whistle that made
the shepherd's hair stand on end.
The underground one, however, who, in the shape of an
old woman, had wheedled him out of his bell, had not
deceived him. For the under groundpeople dare not lie,
but must ever keep their word ; a breach of it being followed
by their sudden chajige into the shape of toads, snakes,
dunghill-beetles, wolves and apes ; forms in which they
wander about, objects of fear and aversion for a long course
of years before they are freed. They, therefore, have natu-
rally a great dread of lying. Fritz Schlagenteufel gave close
attention and made trial of his new shepherd' B-staff, and he
204 ISLE OF RUGEH.
BOOL, found thai the old woman had told him the truth, for
his flocks, and his work, and all the labour of his hands
prospered with him and had wonderful luck, so that there
was not a sheep-owner or head shepherd but was desirous of
having Fritz Schlagenteufel in his employment.
It was not long, however, that he remained an underling.
Before he was eighteen years of age, he had gotten his own
flocks, and in the course of a few years was the richest
sheep-master in the whole island of Riigen ; until at last, he
was able to purchase a knight's estate for himself, and that
estate was Grabitz, close by Rambin, which now belongs to
the lords of Sunde. My father* knew him there, and how
from a shepherd's boy he was become a nobleman, and he
always conducted himself like a prudent, honest and pious
man, who had a good word from every one. He brought up
his sons like gentlemen, and his daughters like ladies, some
of whom are still alive and accounted people of great conse-
quence. And well may people who hear such stories wish
that they had met with such an adventure, and had found a
little silver bell which the underground people had lost.
SSIatfc IBtoarW at CJramtj.
NOT far from the Ahlbeck lies a little mansion called
Granitz, just under the great wood on the sea-coast called
the wood of Granitz. In this little seat lived, not many
years ago, a nobleman named Von Scheele. Toward the
close of his life he sank into a state of melancholy, though
hitherto a very cheerful and social man, and a great sports-
man. People said that the old man took to his lonesome
way of living from the loss of his three beautiful daughters,
who were called the three fair-haired maidens, and who
grew up here in the solitude of the woods, among the herds
and the birds, and who had all three gone off in the same
night and never returned. The old man took this greatly
* Hinrich Tick's ot course, for he is the narrator.
ISLE OF HO GEN. 205
to heart, and withdrew himself from the world, and all
cheerful society. He had great intercourse with the little
black people, and he was many a night out of the house,
and no one knew where he had been ; but when he came
home in the gray of the morning, he would whisper his
housekeeper, and say to her, " Ha, ha ! I was at a grand
table last night."
This old gentleman used to relate to his friends, and
confirm it with many a stout trooper's and sportsman's oath,
that the underground people swarmed among the fir-trees of
Granitz, about the Ahlbeck, and along the whole shore.
He used often, also, to show to those whom he took to walk
there, a great number of little foot-prints, like those of
very small children, in the sand, and he has suddenly called
out to his companions, " Hush ! Listen how they are, buzzing
and whispering !"
Going once with some friends along the sea-shore, he all
of a sudden stood still, as if in amazement, pointed to the
sea, and cried out, " My soul ! there they are again at full
work, and there are several thousands of them employed
about a few sunken casks of wine that they are rolling to
the shore ; oh ! what a jovial carouse there will be to-night !"
He then told his companions that he could see them both
by day and by night, and that they did nothing to him ; nay,
they were his most particular friends, and one of them had
once saved his house from being burnt by waking him in the
night out of a profound sleep, when a firebrand, that had
fallen out on the floor, was just on the point of setting fire
to some wood and straw that lay there. He said that almost
every day some of them were to be seen on the sea-shore,
but that during high storms, when the sea was uncommonly
rough, almost all of them were there looking after amber and
shipwrecks, and for certain no ship ever went to pieces but
they got the best part of the cargo, and hid it safe under the
ground. And how grand a thing, he added, it is to live
under the sand-hills with them, and how beautiful their
crystal palaces are, no one can have any conception who has
not been there.
GERMANY.
Ton wtiden getwergen ban ich gehoret sagen
8i sin in holren bergen ; unt daz si ze scherme tragea
Einez heizet tarnkappen, von wunderlicher art
Swerz hat an sime libe, der sol Til wohl sin be wart
Vor slegen nnt vor stichen. NIBEHTSOEX, LIED St. 342.
Of wild dwarfs I oft have heard men declare
They dwell in hollow mountains ; and for defence they wear
A thing called a Tarn-cloke, of wonderful nature
Who has it on his body will ever be secure
'Gainst cutting and 'gainst thrusting.
THE religion of the ancient Germans, probably the same
with that of the Scandinavians, contained, like it, Alfs,
Dwarfs, and Giants. The Alfs hare fallen from the popular
creed,* but the Dwarfs still retain their former dominion.
Unlike those of the North, they have put off their heathen
character, and, with their human neighbours, have embraced
a purer faith. With the creed they seem to have adopted
the spirit of their new religion also. In most of the tradi-
tions respecting them we recognise benevolence as one of
the principal traits of their character.
The oldest monuments of German popular belief are the
poems of the Heldenbuch (Hero-book) and the spirit-stirring
Nibelungen Lied.f In these poems the Dwarfs are actors
of importance.
In this List-named celebrated poem the Dwarf Albrich
appears as the guardian of the celebrated Hoard which
Sifrit (Siegfried) won from the Nibelungen. The Dwarf is
* The only remnant is Alp, the nightmare ; the eJftn of modem writers is
merely an adoption of the English elves.
+ The edition of this poem which we have used, is that by Schdnhuth,
Leipzig, 1841.
OEBMASY. 207
twice vanquished by the hero who gains his Tarn-kappe, or
Mantle of Invisibility.*
In the Heldenbuch we meet with the Dwarf-king Laurin,
whose garden Dietrich of Bern and his warriors broke into
and laid waste. To repel the invader the Dwarf appears in
magnificent array : twenty-three stanzas are occupied with
the description of his banner, helmet, shield, and other
accoutrements. A furious combat ensues, in which the
Dwarf has long the advantage, as his magic ring and girdle
endow him with the strength of twenty-four men, and his
Hel Keplein t (Tarnkappe) renders him invisible at plea-
sure. At length, by the advice of Hildebrand, Dietrich
strikes off the Dwarfs finger, breaks his girdle, and pulls
off his Hel Keplein, and thus succeeds in vanquishing his
enemy. Laurin is afterwards reconciled to the heroes, and
prevails on them to enter the mountain in which he dwelt,
and partake of a banquet. Having them now in his power,
he treacherously makes them all his prisoners. His queen,
however, Ditlaub's sister, whom he had stolen away from
under a linden, releases them : their liberation is followed
by a terrific engagement between them and Laurin, backed
by a numerous host of Dwarfs. Laurin is again overcome ;
he loses his queen ; his hill is plundered of its treasures,
and himself led to Bern, and there reduced to the extremity
of earning his bread by becoming a buffoon.
In the poem named Hurnen Sifrit J the Dwarf Eugel
* Tarn from taren, to dare, says Dobenek, because it gave courage along
with invisibility. It comes more probably we think from the old German
ternen, to hide. Kappe is properly a cloak, though the Tarnkappe or Nebel-
kappe is generally represented as a cap, or hat.
) From hehlerif to conceal.
J Horny Siegfred ; for when he slew the dragon, he bathed himself in his
blood, and became horny and invulnerable everywhere except in one spot
between his shoulders, where a linden leaf stuck. In the Nibelungen Lied,
(st. 100), Hagene says,
Yet still more know I of him this to me is certain,
A terrible Lind-dragon the hero's hand hath slain ;
He in the blood him bathed, and horny grew his skin ;
Hence woundeth him no weapon, full oft it hath been seen.
MM. Grimm thought at one time that this name was properly Engel,
and that it was connected with the changes of Alp, Alf, to Engel (see above,
p. 67). They query at what time the dim Engelein first came into use,
and when the angels were first represented under the form of children a
208 GERMANY.
renders the hero good service in his combat with the
enchanted Dragon who had carried off the fair Chrin.hild
from Worms, and enclosed her in the Drachenstein. When
Sifrit is treacherously attacked by the Giant Kuperan, the
ally of the Dragon, the Dwarf flings his Nebelkappe over
him to protect him.
But the most celebrated of Dwarfs is Elberich,* who
aided the emperor Otnit or Ortnit to gain the daughter of
the Paynim Soldan of Syria.
Otnit ruled over Lombardy, and had subdued all the
neighbouring nations. His subjects wishing him to marry,
he held a council to consider the affair. No maiden men-
tioned was deemed noble enough to share his bed. At last
his uncle Elias, king of the "wild Russians," says :
" I know of a maiden, noble and high-born,
Her no man yet hath wooed, his life who hath not lorn.
" She shineth like the roses, and the gold ruddy,
She fair is in her person, thou must credit me ;
She shines o'er other women, as bright roses do,
So fair a child was never ; they say she good is too."
The monarch's imagination is inflamed, and, regardless of
the remonstrances of his council, he determines to brave all
dangers, to sail with a powerful army to Syria, where the
maiden dwelt, and to win her or to die. He regulates his
kingdom, and says to his uncle :
As soon as May appeareth, with her days so clear,
Then pray thou of thy friends all, their warriors to cheer,
To hold themselves all ready ; go things as they may,
We will, with the birds' singing, sail o'er the sea away.
practice evidently derived from the idea of the Elves. In Otfried and other
writers of the ninth and tenth centuries, they say, the angels are depicted as
young men ; but in the latter half of the thirteenth, a popular preacher named
Berthold, says : Ir sehet wol daz si allesamt sint juncliche gem'dlet ; als ein
kint daz da viinfjdr alt ist swd man sie mdlet.
* Elberich, (the Albrich of the Nibelungen Lied,) as we have said (above
p. 40), is Oberon. From the usual change of I into u (as al, au, col, cou,
etc.), in the French language, Elberich or Albrich (derived from Alp, Alf )
becomes Auberich ; and ich not being a French termination, the diminu-
tive on was subs-tituted, and so it became Auberon, or Oberon ; a much more
likely origin than the usual one from L'aube dujour. For this derivation of
Oberon we are indebted to Dr. Grimm.
GERMANY. 209
The queen now endeavours to dissuade her son, but
finding her efforts vain, resolves to aid him as far as she
can. She gives him a ring, and desires him to ride toward
Rome till he comes to where a linden stands before a hill,
from which runs a brook, and there he will meet with an
adventure. She farther tells him to keep the ring uncovered,
and the stone of it will direct him.
Obeying his directions, Otnit rides alone from his palace
at Grarda, continually looking at his ring :
Unto a heath he came then, close by the Garda lake,
Where everywhere the flowers and clover out did break;
The birds were gaily singing, their notes did loudly ring,
He all the night had waked, he was weary with riding.
The sun over the mountains and through the welkin shone,
Then looked he full oft on the gold and on the stone ;
Then saw he o'er the meadow, down trodden the green grass,
And a pathway narrow, where small feet used to pass.
Then followed he downwards, the rocky wall boldly,
Till he had found the fountain, and the green linden-tree,
And saw the heath wide spreading, and the linden branching high.
It had upon its boughs full many a guest worthy.
The birds were loudly singing, each other rivalling,
" I have the right way ridden," spake Otnit the king ;
Then much his heart rejoiced, when he saw the linden spread ;
He sprang down from his courser, he held him by the head.
And when the Lombarder had looked on the linden
He began to laugh loud ; now list what he said then :
" There never yet from tree came so sweet breathing a wind."
Then saw he how an infant was laid beneath the lind,
Who had himself full firmly rolled in the grass ;
Then little the Lombarder knew who he was :
He bore upon his body so rich and noble a dress,
No king's child upon earth e'er did the like possess.
His dress was rich adorned with gold and precious stone ;
When he beneath the linden the child found all alone :
" Where now is thy mother ] " king Otnit he cries ;
" Thy body unprotected beneath this tree here lies."
This child was Elberich, whom the ring rendered visible.
\fter a hard struggle, Otnit overcomes him. As a ransom,
Giberich promises him a magnificent suit of armour
210
" 111 give thee for my ransom the very best harness
That either young or old in the world doth possess.
" Pull eighty thousand marks the harness is worth well,
A sword too I will give thee, with the shirt of mail,
That every corselet cuts through as if steel it were not ;
There ne'er was helm so strong yet could injure it a jot
" I ween in the whole world no better sword there be,
I brought it from a mountain is called Alroari ;
It is with gold adorned, and clearer is than glass ;
I wrought it in a mountain is called Goickelsass.
" The sword I will name to thee, it is bright of hue,
Whate'er thou with it strikest no gap will ensue,
It is Eosse called, I tell to thee its name ;
Wherever swords are drawing it never will thee shame.
" With all the other harness I give thee leg armour,
In which there no ring is, my own hand wrought it sure ;
And when thou hast the harness thou must it precious hold,
There 's nothing false within it, it all is of pure gold.
" With all the armour rich I give thee a helmet,
Upon an emperor's head none a better e'er saw yet ;
Full happy is the man who doth this helmet bear,
His head is recognised, a mile off though he were.
"And with the helmet bright I will give to thee a shield,
So strong and so good too, if to me thanks thou 'It yield ;
It never yet was cut through by any sword so keen,
No sort of weapon ever may that buckler win."
Elberich persuades the king to lend him his ring ; when
lie gets it he becomes invisible, and amuses himself by tell-
ing him of the whipping he will get from his mother for
having lost it. At last when Otnit is on the point of going
away, Elberich returns the ring, and, to his no small sur-
prise, informs him that he is his father, promising him, at
the same time, if he is kind to his mother, to stand his friend,
and assist him to gain the heathen maid.
When May arrives Otnit sails from Messina with his
troops. As they approach Sunders,* they are a little in
dread of the quantity of shipping they see in the port, and
the king regrets and bewails having proceeded without his
dwarf-sire. But Elberich has, unseen, been sitting on the
* Probably Saida, i.e. Sidon.
GEBMAJTT. 211
He appears, and gives his advice, accompanied by &,
stone, which, by being put into the mouth, endows its pos-
sessor with the gift of all languages. On the heathens
coming alongside the vessel, Otnit assumes the character ol
a merchant, and is admitted to enter the port. He forth-
with proposes to murder the inhabitants in the night, an act
of treachery which is prevented by the strong and indignant
rebukes of the Dwarf.
Elberich sets off to Muntabur,* the royal residence, to
demand the princess. The Soldan, enraged at the insolence
of the invisible envoy, in vain orders his men to put him to
death; the "little man" returns unscathed to Otnit, and
bids him prepare for war. By the aid of Elberich, Otnit
wins, after great slaughter on both sides, the city of Sunders.
He then, under the Dwarf's advice, follows up his conquest
by marching for Muntabur, the capital. Elberich, still
invisible, except to the possessor of the ring, offers to act
as guide.
" Give me now the horse here they lead by the hand,
And I will guide thine army unto the heathens' land ;
If any one should ask thee, who on the horse doth ride ?
Thou shalt say nothing else, but an angel is thy guide."
The army, on seeing the horse and banner advancing as it
were of themselves, blessed themselves, and asked Otnit why
he did not likewise.
" It is God's messenger ! " Otnit then cried :
" Who unto Muntabur will be our trusty guide ;
Hun ye should believe in, who like Christians debate,
Who in the fight them spare not, he leads to heaven straight."
Thus encouraged, the troops cheerfully follow the invisible
standard-bearer, and soon appear before Muntabur, where
Elberich delivers the banner to king Elias, and directs them
to encamp. He meanwhile enters the city, flings down the
artillery from the walls, and when the Soldan again refuses
to give his daughter, plucks out some of his majesty's beardf
and hair, in the midst of his courtiers and guards, who in
* i. e. Mount Tabor.
t This may have suggested the well-known circumstance in Huon dc
Bordeaux.
t 2
212 GERMANY.
vain cut and thrust at the viewless tormentor. A furious
battle ensues. The queen and princess resort to prayers to
their gods Apollo and Mahomet for the safety of the Soldan
The princess is thus described :
Her mouth flamed like a rose, and like the ruby stone,
And equal to the full moon her lovely eyes they shone.
With roses she bedecked had well her head,
And with pearls precious, no one comforted the maid :
She was of exact stature, slender in the waist,
And turned like a taper was her body chaste.
Her hands and her arms, you nought in them could blame,
Her nails they so clear were, people saw themselves in them ;
And her hair ribbons were of silk costly,
Which she left down hanging, the maiden fair and free.
She set upon her head high a crown of gold red,
Elberich the little, he grieved for the maid ;
In front of the crown lay a carbuncle stone,
That in the royal palace like a taper shone.
Elberich endeavours to persuade her to become a Christian,
and espouse Otnit ; and to convince her of the incapacity of
her gods, he tumbles their images into the fosse. Overcome
by his representations and her father's danger, the princess,
with her mother's consent, agrees to wed the monarch whom
Elberich points out to her in the battle, and she gives her
ring to be conveyed to him. The Dwarf, unperceived, leads
her out of the city, and delivers her to her future husband,
strictly forbidding all intercourse between them, previous to
the maiden's baptism.* When the old heathen misses his
daughter he orders out his troops to recover her. Elberich
hastens to king Elias, and brings up the Christians. A
battle ensues : the latter are victorious, and the princess is
brcmght to Sunders ; ere they embark Elberich and Elias
baptise her, and ere they reached Messina " the noble maiden
was a wife."
As yet not intimately acquainted with Christianity, the
young empress asks Otnit about his god, giving him to
understand that she knew his deity, who had come to her
father's to demand her for him. Otnit corrects her mistake,
* So Oberon in Huoii de Bordeaux.
GERMANY. 213
telling her that the envoy was Elberich, whom she then
desires to see. At the request of Otnit the Dwarf reveals
himself to the queen and court.
Long time he refused, he showed him then a stone,
That like unto the sun, with the gold shone ;
Ruby and carbuncle was the crown so rich,
Which upon his head bare the little Elberich.
The Dwarf let the people all see him then,
They began to look upon him, both women and men ;
Many a fair woman with rosy mouth then said,
" I ween a fairer person no eye hath e'er survey'd."
Then Elberich the little a harp laid hold upon ;
Full rapidly he touched the strings every one
In so sweet a measure that the hall did resound ;
All that him beheld then, they felt a joy profound.
After giving Otnit abundance of riches, and counselling
htm to remunerate those who had lost their relatives in his
expedition, Elberich takes leave of the king. He then
vanishes, and appears no more.
Otnit is the most pleasing poem in the Heldenbuch.
Nothing can be more amiable than the character of the
Dwarf, who is evidently the model of Oberon. We say this,
because the probability is much greater that a French writer
should have taken a Dwarf from a German poet, than that
the reverse should have occurred. The connexion between
the two works appears indubitable.
An attempt has already been made to trace the origin of
Dwarfs, and the historical theory respecting those of the
North rejected. A similar theory has been given of those of
Germany, as being a people subdued between the fifth and
tenth centuries by a nation of greater power and size. The
vanquished fled to the mountains, and concealed themselves
in caverns, only occasionally venturing to appear ; and hence,
according to this theory, the origin of Dwarf stories. As
we regard them as an integrant part of Got ho- German
religion, we must reject this hypothesis in the case oi
Germany also.
214
Beside the Dwarfs, we meet in the Nibelungen Lied with
beings answering to the Nixes or Water-spirits. When* the
Burgundians on their fatal journey to the court of Eze,
(Attila) reached the banks of the Danube, they found that
it could not be crossed without the aid of boats. Hagene
then proceeded along the bank in search of a ferry. Sud-
denly he heard a plashing in the water, and on looking more
closely he saw some females who were bathing. He tried to
steal on them, but they escaped him and went hovering over
the river. He succeeded, however, in securing their clothes,
and in exchange for them the females, who were Watermaida
(Merewiper) promised to tell him the result of the visit to
the court of the Hunnish monarch. One of them then
named Hadeburch assured him of a prosperous issue, on
which he restored the garments. But then another, named
Sigelint told him that Hadeburch had lied for the sake of
the clothes ; for that in reality the event of the visit would
be most disastrous, as only one of the party would return
alive. She also informed him where the ferry was, and told
him how they might outwit the ferryman and get over.
We cannot refrain from suspecting that in the original
legend these were Valkyriaa and not Water-nymphs, for
these last would hardly strip to go into the water, their
native element. In the prose introduction to the Eddaic
poem of Volundr we are told that he and his two elder
brothers went to Wolfdale and built themselves a house by
the water named Wolfsea or lake, and one morning early
they found on the shore of the lake three women who were
spinning flax : beside them were lying their sican-dresses.
They were " Valkyrias, and king's daughters." The three
brothers took them home and made them their wives, but
after seven years they flew away and returned no more. It
is remarkable, that in the poem there is not the slightest
allusion to the swan-dresses, though it relates the coming
and the departure of the maidens. We are then to suppose
either that there were other poems on the subject, or that
these dresses were so well known a vehicle that it was
deemed needless to mention them. We are to suppose also
that it was by securing these dresses that the brothers pre-
* Str. 1664,sej
GERMANY. 215
rented the departure of the maidens, and that it was by
recovering them that they were enabled to effect their
escape. In effect in the German legend of Wielant
(Volundr), the hero sees three doves flying to a spring, and
as soon as they touch the ground they become maidens.
He then secures their clothes, and will not return them till
one of them consents to become his wife.*
This legend resembles the tale of the Stolen Veil in
Musaeus, and those of the Peri-wife and the Mermaid-wife
related above.f In the Breton tale of Bisclavaret, or the
Warwolf, we learn that no one who became a wolf could
resume his human form, unless he could recover the clothes
which he had put off previous to undergoing the trans-
formation. J
Our readers may like to see how the preface to the old
editions of the Heldenbuch accounts for the origin of the
Dwarfs.
" God," says it, " gave the Dwarfs being, because the land
and the mountains were altogether waste and uncultivated,
and there was much store of silver and gold, and precious
stones and pearls still in the mountains. Wherefore God
made the Dwarfs very artful and wise, that they might know
good and evil right well, and for what everything was good.
They knew also for what stones were good. Some stones
give great strength ; some make those who carry them about
them invisible, that is called a mist-cloke (nebelkap) ; and
therefore did God give the Dwarfs skill and wisdom. There-
fore they built handsome hollow hills, and God gave them
riches, etc.
" God created the Giants, that they might kill the wild
beasts, and the great dragons (ivurm), that the Dwarfs
might thereby be more secure. But in a few years the
Giants would too much oppress the Dwarfs, and the Giants
became altogether wicked and faithless.
" God then created the Heroes ; ' and be it known that
the Heroes were for many years right true and worthy, and
* Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 398, seq.
+ See above, pp. 19, 169 ; below, Ireland ; and Grimm, ut sup. p. 1216.
Tbe swan-dresses also occur in the Arabian tales of Jabansb&h and Hassan of
Bassora in Trebutien's Arabian Nights.
J Poesies de Marie de France, i. 177, seq.
216 GEBiLAJSY.
they then came to the aid of the Dwarfs against the faith-
less Giants ; ' God made them strong, and their thoughts
were of manhood, according to honour, and of combats and
We will divide the objects of German popular belief at
the present day, into four classes: 1. Dwarfs; 2. Wild-
women ; 3. Kobolds ; 4. Nixes.
DWABFS.
Fort, fort ! Mich schan' die Sonne nicht,
Ich darf nicht langer barren ;
Mich Elfenkind vor ihren Licht
Sahst du rum Fels erstarren.
LA MOTTE FOUQU*.
Away ! let not the sun view me,
I dare no longer stay;
An Elfin-child thou wonldst me see,
To stone turn at his ray.
THESE beings are called Zwerge (Dwarfs), Berg- and Erd-
manlein (Hill and Ground-mannikins), the Stille Volk (Still-
people), and the Kleine Volk (Little-people).* The follow-
ing account of the Still-people at Plesse will give the popular
idea respecting them.f
At Plesse, a castle in the mountains in Hesse, are various
springs, wells, clefts and holes in the rocks, in which, accord-
ing to popular tradition, the Dwarfs, called the Still-people,
dwell. They are silent and beneficent, and willingly serve
those who have the good fortune to please them. If injured
* Another term is Wicht and its dim. Wichtlein, answering to the Scandi-
navian Vaettr and the Anglo-Saxon wikt, English vright, all of which signify
a being, a person, and also a thing in general. Thus our words aught and
naught were anwiht and nawiht.
t See Grimm's Deutsche Sagen, vol. i. p. 38. As this work is our chief
authority for the Fairy Mythology of Germany, our materials are to be con-
lidered as taken from it, unless when otherwise expressed
DWAEFS. 217
they vent their anger, not on mankind, but on the cattle,
which they plague and torment. This subterranean race
has no proper communication with mankind, but pass their
lives within the earth, where their apartments and chambers
are filled with gold and precious stones. Should occasion
require their visit to the surface of the earth, they accom-
plish the business in the night, and not by day. This Hill-
people are of flesh and bone, like mankind, they bear children
and die, but in addition to the ordinary faculties of humanity,
they have the power of making themselves invisible, and of
passing through rocks and walls, with the same facility as
through the air. They sometimes appear to men, lead them
with them into clifts, and if the strangers prove agreeable to
them, present them with valuable gifts.*
at tf>e JBance.
OLD people have positively asserted that some years ago, at
the celebration of a wedding in the village of Glass, a couple
of miles from the Wunderberg, and the same distance from
the city of Saltzburg, there came toward evening a little
Hill-man out of the AVunderberg. He desired all the
guests to be merry and cheerful, and begged to be permitted
to join in their dance, which request was not refused. He
accordingly danced three dances with some of the maidens of
good repute, and with a gracefulness that inspired all present
with admiration and delight. After the dance he returned them
his thanks, accompanied by a present to each of the bridal
party of three pieces of money of an unknown coin, each of
which they estimated to be worth four creutzers. Moreover,
he recommended them to dwell in peace and concord, to
live like Christians, and, by a pious education, to bring up
their children in goodness. He told them to lay up these
* In Lusatia (Lausatz) if not in the rest of Germany, the same idea of the
Dwarfs being fallen angels, prevails as in other countries : see the ta)e of the
Fairies'-sabbath in the work quoted above, p. 179.
218 GERMANY.
coins with their money, and constantly to think of him, and
so they would rarely come to distress; but warned them
against becoming proud, and advised them, on the contrary,
to relieve their neighbours with their superfluities.
The Hill-man remained with them till night, and took
some meat and drink from each as they offered it to him,
but only very little. He then renewed his thanks, and con-
cluded by begging of one of the company to put him over
the river Satzach, opposite the mountain. There was at the
wedding a boatman, named John Stand!, who got ready to
comply with the dwarf's request, and they went together to
the water' s-edge. As they were crossing, the man asked for his
payment, and the Hill-man humbly presented him three-
pence. The boatman utterly rejected this paltry payment ;
but the little man gave him for answer, that he should not
let that annoy him, but keep the threepence safe, and he
would never suffer want, provided he put a restraint on
arrogance. He gave him at the same time, a little stone
with these words : " Hang this on your neck, and you will
never be drowned in the water." And of this he had a
proof that very year. Finally, the Hill-man exhorted him
to lead a pious and humble life, and being landed on the
opposite bank, departed speedily from the place.*
CIjc StnarfjS JFeait.
THERE appeared in the night to one of the Counts von Hoya,
an extremely small little man. The count was utterly
amazed at him, but he bid him not to be frightened ; said
he had a request to make of him, and entreated that he
might not be refused. The count gave a willing assent,
qualified with the provision, that the thing requested should
be a matter which lay in his power, and would not be
injurious to him or his. The little man then said, " There
* This tale is given by MM. Grimm, from the Brixener Volksbuch. 1782.
DWARFS. 219
will come tomorrow night some people to thy house, aud
make a feast, if thou will lend them thy kitchen, and hall
for as long as they want them, and order thy servants to go
to sleep, and no one to look at what they are doing or are
about ; and also let no one know of it but thyself; only do
this and we shall be grateful to thee for thy courtesy : thou
and thy family will be the better of it ; nor will it be in
any way hurtful to thee or thine." The count readily
gave his consent, and on the following night there came, as
if they were a travelling party, over the bridge into the
house a great crowd of little people, exactly such as the
Hill-mannikins are described to be. They cooked, cut up
wood, and laid out the dishes in the kitchen, and had every
appearance of being about preparing a great entertain-
ment.
When it drew near the morning, and they were about to
take their departure, the little man came again up to the
count, and with many thanks, presented him a sword, a sala-
mander-cloth, and a golden ring, in which there was inserted
a red-lion, with directions for himself and his descendants
to keep these three articles safe ; and so long as they kept
them together all would be at unity and well in the county,
but as socn as they were separated from each other it would
be a token that there was evil coming on the county : the
red lion too would always become pale when one of the
family was to die.
They -were long preserved in the family ; but in the time
when count Jobst and his brothers were in their minority,
and Francis von Halle was governor of the land, two of the
articles, the sword and the salamander-cloth, were taken
away, but the ring remained with the family until they
became txtinct. What has become of it since is unknown.*
* Related by Hammelmann in the Oldenburg Chronicle, by Pretoria*,
Brauncr, ;u.d others.
220 GERMAST.
jfmtrtrtg
CLOSE to the little town of Dardesheim, between Halber-
stadt and Brunswick, is a spring of the finest water called
the Smansborn, and which flows out of a hill in which in
old times the dwarfs dwelt. When the former inhabitants
of the country were in want of a holiday-dress, or, at a
family festival, of any rare utensils, they went and stood
before this Dwarf-hill, knocked three times, and pronounced
their petition in a distinct and audible tone, adding,
Before the sun is up to-morrow.
At the hill shall be the things we borrow.*
The Dwarfs thought themselves sufficiently compensated if
there was only some of the festive victuals set down before
the hill.
ai tijc Etttle
THE little people of the Eilenburg in Saxony had occasion
to celebrate a wedding, and with that intent passed one
night through the key-hole and the window-slits into the
castle-hall, and jumped down on the smooth level floor like
peas on a barn floor. The noise awoke the old count, who
was sleeping in the hall in his high four-post bed, and on
opening his eyes, he wondered not a little at the sight of
such a number of the little fellows.
One of them appareled as a herald came up to him, and
addressing him with the utmost courtesy and in very polite
terms invited him to share in their festivity. " We, however,"
added he, " have one request to make, which is, that you
alone should be present, and that none of your people
Fruhmorgens eh, die Sown aufgeht
Sckon alles vor dem Berge iteht.
DWAKFS. 221
should presume to look on with you, or to cast so much as
one glance." The old count answered in a friendly tone,
" Since you have disturbed my sleep, I will join your com-
pany." A little small woman was now introduced to him ;
little torch-bearers took their places ; and cricket-music
struck up. The count found great difficulty to keep from
losing the little woman in the dance, she jumped away fro n
him so lightly, and at last whirled him about at such a rate
that he could with difficulty recover his breath.
But in the very middle of their spritely dance, suddenly
all became still, the music ceased, and the whole company
hurried to the slits of the doors, mouse-holes, and every-
where else where there was a corner to slip into. The
bride-pair, the heralds, and dancers, looked upwards to a
hole that was in the ceiling of the hall, and there discovered
the face of the old countess, who overflowing with curiosity,
was looking down on the joyous assembly. They then
bowed themselves before the count, and the person who had
invited him stept forward again and thanked him for the
hospitality he had shown them : " But," said he, " since our
wedding and our festivity has been thus disturbed by another
eye gazing on it, your race shall henceforward never count
more than seven Eilenburgs." They then pressed out after
one another with great speed, and soon all was silent, and
the old count alone in the dark hall. The curse has lasted
till the present time, and one of six living knights of
Eilenburg has always died before the seventh was born.*
ON the east side of the Dwarf-hill of Dardesheim there is a
piece of arable land. A smith named Eiechert had sown
this field with peas ; but he observed that when they were
just in perfection they were pulled in great quantities.
Eiechert built himself a little hut on his ground, there to
* This tale was orally related to MM. Grimm in Saxony. They do no
ireution the narrator's rank in lite.
222 GEBMABTT.
lie in wait for the thief; and there he watched day and
night. In the daytime he could see no alteration, but every
morning he found that, notwithstanding all his watchfulness,
the field had been plundered during the night. Vexed to
the heart at seeing that all his labour was in vain, he deter-
mined to thresh out on the ground what remained of the
peas. So with the daybreak Smith Biechert commenced hia
work. Hardly was one half of his peas threshed when he
heard a piteous wailing, and on going to look for the cause,
he found on the ground under the peas one of the dwarfs
whose skull he had rapped with his flail, and who was now
visible, having lost his mist-cap with the blow. The Dwarf
ran back into the hill as fast as his legs could carry him.
However, little tiffs like this disturbed but for a very
short time the good understanding of the Dwarf-people and
the inhabitants. But the Dwarfs emigrated at last, because
the tricks and scoffs of several of the inhabitants were
become no longer bearable, as well as their ingratitude for
several services they had rendered them. Since that time
no one has ever heard or seen anything of the Dwarfs in
the neighbourhood.
JBtoarfe Stealing C0rn.
'Tis not very long since there were Dwarfs at June near
Gottingen, who used to go into the fields and steal the
sheaves of corn. This they were able to do the more easily
by means of a cap they wore, which made them invisible.
They did much injury to one man in particular who had a
great deal of corn. At length he hit on a plan to catch
them. At noon one day he put a rope round the field, and
when the Dwarfs went to creep under it, it knocked off their
caps. Being now visible, they were caught. They gave him
many fair words, promising if he would take away the rope
to give him a peck (mette) of money if he came to that
same place before sunrise. He agreed, but a friend whom
he consulted told him to go not at sunrise but a little before
DWARFS. 223
twelve at night, as it was at that hour that the day really
began. He did as directed, and there he found the Dwarfs,
who did not expect him, with the peck of money. The
name of the family that got it is Mettens.
A farmer in another part of the country being annoyed
in a similar manner, was told to get willow-rods and beat the
air with them, and he thus would knock of some of their
caps and discover them. He and his people did so, and they
captured one of the Dwarfs, who told the farmer that if he
would let him go, he would give him a waggon-load of
money, but he must come for it before sunrise. At the same
time he informed him where his abode was. The farmer
having enquired when the snn really rose, and being told
at twelve o'clock, yoked his waggon and drove off, but when
he came to the Dwarfs' hole, he heard them shouting and
singing within :
It is good that the bumpkin doth not know
That up at twelve the sun doth go.*
When he asked for something, they showed him a dead
horse, and bade him take it with him, as they could give
him nothing else. He was very angry at this, but as he
wanted food for his dogs, he cut off a large piece and laid
it on his waggon. But when he came home, lo ! it was all
pure gold. Others then went to the place, but both hole
and horse had vanished.f
nf DtoartS 0bcr tfjc iWouutaw.
ON the north side of the Hartz there dwelt several thousand
Dwarfs in the clefts of the rocks, and in the Dwarf-caves
that still remain. It was, however, but rarely that they
appeared to the inhabitants in a visible form ; they generally
* Dat is gaut dot de buerkem dat nich weit
JDat de sunne urn twolwe up geit.
t Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 434. Both legends are in the Low-Saxon
iiulcct.
224 OEEMANT.
went about among them protected by their nust-caps ;
unseen and unnoticed.
Many of these Dwarfs were good-natured, and, on par-
ticular occasions, very obliging to the inhabitants, who used,
for instance, in case of a wedding or a christening, to borrow
various articles for the table out of the caves of the Dwarfs,
It was, however, highly imprudent to provoke their resent-
ment ; as when injured or offended, they were malicious and
wicked, and did every possible injury to the offender.
A baker, who lived in the valley between Blenkenburg
and Quedlinburg, used to remark that a part of the loaves
he baked was always missing, though he never could find out
the thief. This continual secret theft was gradually reducing
him to poverty. At last he began to suspect the Dwarfs of
being the cause of his misfortune. He accordingly got a
bunch of little twigs, and beating the air with them in all
directions, at length struck the mist-caps off some Dwarfs,
who could now conceal themselves no longer. There was a
great noise made about it; several other Dwarfs were
caught in the act of committing theft, and at last the whole
of the Dwarf-people were forced to quit the country. In
order, in some degree, to indemnify the inhabitants for
what had been stolen, and at the same time to be able to
estimate the number of those that departed, a large cask
was set up on what is now called Kirchberg, near the village
of Thele, into which each Dwarf was to cast a piece of
money. This cask was found, after the departure of the
Dwarfs, to be quite filled with ancient coins, so great was
their number.
The Dwarf-people went by Warnstadt, a village not far
from Quedlinburg, still going toward the east. Since that
time the Dwarfs have disappeared out of this country ; and
it is only now and then that a solitary one may be seen.
The Dwarfs on the south side of the Hartz were, in a
similar manner, detected plundering the corn-fields. They
also agreed to quit the countrv, and it was settled that
they should pass over a small bridge near Neuhof, and that
each, by way of transit-duty, should cast a certain portion
of his property into a cask to be set there. The peasants,
011 their part, covenanted not to appear or look at them.
DWATCFS. 225
Some, however, had the curiosity to conceal themselves
under the bridge, that they might at least hear them depart-
ing. They succeeded in their design, and heard during
several hours, the trampling of the little men, sounding
exactly as if a large flock of sheep was going over the
bridge.
Other accounts of the departure of the Dwarfs relate as
follows :
The Dosenberg is a mountain in Hesse on the Schwalm,
in which, not far from the bank of the stream, are two holes
by which the Dwarfs* used to go in and out. One of them
came frequently in a friendly way to the grandfather of
Tobi in Singlis, when he was out in his fields. As he was
one day cutting his corn he asked him if he would the next
night, for a good sum of money, take a freight over the
river. The farmer agreed, and in the evening the Dwarf
brought him a sack of wheat as an earnest. Four horses
were then put to the waggon, and the farmer drove to the
Dosenberg, out of the holes of which the Dwarf brought
heavy, but invisible loads to the waggon, which the farmer
then drove through the water over to the other side. Ho
thus kept going backwards and forwards from ten at night
till four in the morning, by which time the horses were
quite tired. Then said the Dwarf, " It is enough, now you
shall see what you have been carrying!" He bade him
look over his right shoulder, and then he saw the country
far and near filled with the Dwarfs. "These thousand years,"
then said the Dwarf, " have we dwelt in the Dosenberg ;
our time is now up, and we must go to another land. But
the hill is still so full of money that it would suffice for
the whole country." He then loaded Tobi's waggon with
money and departed. The farmer had difficulty in bring-
ing home so heavy a load, but he became a rich man. His
posterity are still wealthy people, but the Dwarfs have dis-
appeared out of the country for ever.
At Offensen on the Aller in Lower Saxony, lived a great
* The terms used in the original are Wkhtelrn'dnner
and Wichtti.
226 GEBMANY.
farmer, whose name was Hovennann. He had a boat on
the river ; and one day two little people came to him and
asked him to put them over the water. They went twice
over the Aller to a great tract of land that is called the
Allero,* which is an uncultivated plain extending so wide
and far that one can hardly see over it. "When the farmer
had crossed the second time one of the Dwarfs said to him,
" Will you have now a sum of money or so much a head ? "
"I'd rather have a sum of money," said the farmer. One
of them took oft* his hat and put it on the farmer's head,
and said, " You 'd have done better to have taken so much
a head." The farmer, who had as yet seen nothing and
whose boat had gone as if there was nothing in it, now
beheld the whole Allero swarming (Jcrimmeln un wimmelri)
with little men. These were the Dwarfs that he had brought
over. From that time forward the Hovermanns had the
greatest plenty of money, but they are all now dead and
gone, and the place is sold. But when was this ? Oh ! in
the old time when the Dwarfs were in the world, but now
there 's no more of them, thirty or forty years ago.t
JBtoarfS
ALBEET STEFFEL, aged seventy years, who died in the year
1680, and Hans Kohmann, aged thirty-six, who died in
1679, two honest, veracious men, frequently declared that
as one time Kohmann's grandfather was working in his
ground which lay in the neighbourhood of the place called
the Dwarfs' hole, and his wife had brought out to the field
to him for his breakfast some fresh baked bread, and had
laid it, tied up in a napkin, at the end of the field, there
came up soon after a little Dwarf-woman, who spoke to him
* The Saxon 6 seems to answer to the Anglo-Saxon Ij, Irish Inis : ee
below, Ireland.
T Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 428. The latter story is in the Low-Saxon
dialect.
DWAEFS. 227
about his bread, saying, that her own was in the oven, and
that her children were hungry and could not wait for it,
but that if he would give her his, she would be certain
to replace it by noon. The man consented, and at noon
she returned, spread out a very white little cloth, and laid on
it a smoking hot loaf, and with many thanks and entreaties
told him he might eat the bread without any apprehension,
and that she would return for the cloth. He did as she
desired, and when she returned she told him that there
had been so many forges erected that she was quite annoyed,
and would be obliged to depart and abandon her favourite
dwelling. She also said that the shocking cursing and swear-
ing of the people drove her away, as also the profanation of
Sunday, as the country people, instead of going to church,
used to go look at their fields, which was altogether
sinful.*
IT was the belief, in some parts of Germany, that if a child
that was not thriving were taken to a place named Cyriac's
Mead, near Neuhausen, and left lying there and given to
drink out of Cyriac's Well, at the end of nine days it would
either die or recover.
* In Scandinavia the Dwarfs used to borrow boer, even a barrel at a time,
which one of them would carry off on his shoulders, Thiele i. 121. In the
Highlands of Scotland, a firlot of meal. In all cases they paid honestly. On
one occasion, a dwarf came to a lady named Fru (Mrs. ) Mette of Overgaard, in
Jutland, and asked her to lend her silk gown to Fru Mette of Undergaard, for
her wedding. She gave it, but as it was not returned as soon as she expected,
she went to the hill and demanded it aloud. The hill-man brought it out to
her all spotted with wax, and told her that if she had not been so impatient,
every spot on it would have been a diamond. Thiele iii. 48.
The Vends of LUneburg, we are told, called the underground folk Gorzoni
(from gora, hill), and the hills are still shown in which they dwelt. They
used to borrow bread from people; they intimated their desire invisibly, and
people used to lay it for them outside of the door. In the evening they
returned it, knocking at the window, and leaving an additional cake to expresf
their thankfulness. Grimm, Brit. Mythol., p. 423.
Q3
228 GERMAH r.
The butler and cook of one of the spiritual lords of Ger-
many, without being married, had a child, which kept crying
day and night, and evermore craving for food and yet it
never grew nor throve. It was finally resolved to try on it
the eifect of Cyriac's Mead, and the mother set out for that
place with the child on her back, whose weight was so great
that she hardly could endure it. As she was toiling along
under her burden, she met a travelling student, who said to
her, " My good woman, what sort of a wild creature is that
you are carrying ? I should not wonder if it were to crush
in your neck." She replied that it was her dear child which
would not grow nor thrive, and that she was taking it to
J^euhausen to be rocked. "But," said he, "that is not
your child ; it is the devil. Fling it into the stream." But
she refused, and maintained that it was her child, and kissed
it. Then said he, "Your child is at home in the inner bed-
room in a new cradle behind the ark. Throw, I tell you,
this monster into the stream." With many tears and groans
the poor woman at length did as he required and immediately
there was heard under the bridge on which they were
standing a howling and a growling as if wolves and bears
were in the place. When the woman reached home she
found her own child healthy and lively and laughing in its
new cradle.
A Hessian legend tells that as a woman was reaping corn
at the Dosenberg,* with her little child lying near her on
the ground, a Dwarf-woman (wichtelweiV) came and took
it and left her own lying in its stead. When the mother
came to look after her dear babe a great ugly jolterhead
was there gaping at her. She cried out and roared Murder!
so lustily that the thief came back with the child. But she
did not restore it till the mother had put the changeling to
her breast and given it some ennobling human milk.f
There was, it is said, in Prussian Samland, an inn-keeper
whom the underground folk had done many good turns. It
grieved him to see what bad clothes they had, and he desired
his wife to leave new little coats for them. They took the
* See above, p. 225. f Grimm, Dcut. Mythol., p. 437.
DWARFS. 229
new clothes, but cried out, " Paid off! Paid ~<F!" and went
all away.
Another time they gave great help to a poor smith, and
every night they made bran-new pots, pans, kettles and
plates for him. His wife used to ^eave some milk for them,
on which they fell like wolves, and drained the vessel to the
bottom, and then cleaned it and went to their work. When
the smith had grown rich by means of them, his wife made
for each of them a pretty little red coat and cap, and left
them in their way. "Paid off! Paid off!" cried they,
slipped on the new clothes, and went away without working
the iron that was left for them, and never returned.
There was a being named a Scrat or Schrat, Schretel,
Schretlein.t This name is used in old German to translate
pilosus in the narratives of those who wrote in Latin, and it
seems sometimes to denote a House- sometimes a Wood-
spirit. Terms similar to it are to be found in the cognate
languages, and it is perhaps the origin of Old Scratch, a
popular English name of the devil.
There is, chiefly in Southern Germany, a species of beings
that greatly resemble the Dwarfs. They are called Wicht-
lein {Little Wights), and are about three quarters of an ell
high. Their appearance is that of old men with long beards.
They haunt the mines, and are dressed like miners, with a
white hood to their shirts and leather aprons, and are pro-
vided with lanterns, mallets, and hammers. They amuse
themselves with pelting the workmen with small stones, but
do them no injury, except when they are abused and cursed
by them.
They show themselves most especially in places where
there is an abundance of ore, and the miners are always
glad to see them ; they flit about in the pits and shafts, and
appear to work very hard, though they in reality do
nothing. Sometimes they seem as if working a vein, at
other times putting the ore into buckets, at other times work-
ing at the windlass, but all is mere show. They frequently
call, and when one comes there is no one to be seen.
* Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 453.
f See Orirau), ut sup., p. 447 teg
230
At Kuttenburg, in Bohemia, the "Wichtlein have been
seen in great numbers. They announce the death of a
miner by knocking three times, and when any misfortune is
about to happen they are heard digging, pounding, and
imitating all other kinds of work. At times they make a
noise, as if they were smiths labouring very hard at the
anvil, hence the Bohemians call them Haus-Schmiedlein
(Little House-smiths).
In Istria the miners set, every day, in a particular place, a
little pot with food in it for them. They also at certain
times in each year buy a little red coat, the size of a small
boy's, and make the Wichtlein a present of it. If they
neglect this, the little people grow very angry.*
In Southern Germany they believe in a species of beings
somewhat like the Dwarfs, called "Wild, "Wood, Timber, and
Moss-people. These generally live together in society, but
they sometimes appear singly. They are small in stature,
yet somewhat larger than the Elf, being the size of children
of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad in moss.
The women are of a more amiable temper than the men, which
last live further back in the woods ; they wear green clothes
faced with red, and cocked-hats. The women come to the
wood-cutters and ask them for something to eat ; they also
take it away of themselves out of the pots ; but they always
make a return in some way or other, often by giving good
advice. Sometimes they help people in their cooking or
washing and haymaking, and they feed the cattle. They
are fond of coming where people are baking, and beg of them
to bake for them also a piece of dough the size of half a
mill-stone, and to leave it in a certain place. They some-
times, in return, bring some of their own baking to the
ploughman, which they lay in the furrow or on the plough,
and they are greatly offended if it is rejected. The wood-
woman sometimes comes with a broken wheel-barrow, and
begs to have the wheel repaired, and she pays by the chips
which turn into gold, or she gives to knitters a ball of thread
which is never ended. A woman who good-naturedly gave
her breast to a crying "Wood-child, was rewarded by its
* Deutsche Sagcn, from Pnetorius., Agricola, and other*.
DWARFS. 231
mother by a gift of the bark on which it was lying. She
broke a splinter off it and threw it into her faggot, and on
reaching home she found it was pure gold. Their lives are
attached, Like those of the Hamadryads, to the trees, and if
any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen a Wood-
woman dies.
Their great enemy is the Wild-Huntsman, who driving
invisibly through the air pursues and kills them. A pea-
sant one time hearing the usual baying and cheering in a
wood, would join in the cry. JSText morning he found hang-
ing at his stable-door a quarter of a green Moss-woman as
his share of the game. When the woodmen are felling
timber they cut three crosses in a spot of the tree that is to
be hewn, and the Moss-women sit in the middle of these
and so are safe from the Wild-Huntsman.*
The following account of the popular belief in the parts
of Germany adjacent to Jutland has been given by a late
writer.t
In Friesland the Dwarfs are named Oennereeske, in some
of the islands Oennerbanske, and in Holstein Unnerorske.*
The same stories are told of them as of the Dwarfs and
Fairies elsewhere. They take away, and keep for long periods,
girls with whom they have fallen in love ; they steal children
and leave changelings in their stead, the remedy against
which is to lay a bible under the child's pillow ; they lend
and borrow pots, plates, and such like, sometimes lending
money with or even without interest ; they aid to build
houses and churches ; help the peasant when his cart has
stuck in the mire, and will bring him water and pancakes
to refresh him when at work in the fields.
* Grimm, Deut. Mythol., pp. 451, 881.
t Kohl, Die Marechen und Inseln der Heraogthumer Schleswig uni
Holstein.
J These terms all signify Underground folk.
232 GEBMANT.
toarf
A POOB girl went out one day and as she was passing by
a hill she heard a Dwarf hammering away inside of it, for
they are handy smiths, and singing at his work. She was
so pleased with the song, that she could not refrain from
wishing aloud that she could sing like him, and live like him
under the ground. Scarcely had she expressed the wish
when the singing ceased, and a voice came out of the hill,
saying, " Should you like to live with us ?" " To be sure 1
should," replied the girl, who probably had no very happy
life of it above ground. Instantly the Dwarf came out of
the hill and made a declaration of love, and a proffer of his
hand and a share in his subterranean wealth. She accepted
the offer and lived very comfortably with him, as he proved
an excellent little husband.
Jntjr at Ixaitttim.
THE Friesland girls are, however, rather shy of these matches,
and if they have unwarily been drawn into an engage-
ment they try to get out of it if they possibly can.
A girl named Inge of Rantum had some way or other
got into an engagement with one of the Underground
people. The wedding-day was actually fixed, and she could
only be released from her bond on one condition that of
being able, before it came, to tell the real name of her lover.
All her efforts to that effect were in vain, the dreaded day
was fast approaching and she fell into deep melancholy. On
the morning of her wedding-day she went out and strolled
in sorrowful mood through the fields, saying to herself, as
she plucked some flowers, " Par happier are these flowers
IVWA RFS. 233
than I." As she was stooping to gather them, she thought
she heard a noise under the ground. She listened and
recognised it as the voice oi her lover, who, in the excess of
his joy at the arrival of his wedding-day, was frolicking and
singing, " To-day I must bake and boil and roast and broil
and wash and brew ; for this is my wedding-day. My bride
is the fair Inge of Kantum, and my name is Ekke Nekkepem.
Hurrah ! Nobody knows that but myself! " "Aye, but 1
know it too!" said Inge softly to herself, and she placed
her nosegay in her bosom and went home. Toward even-
ing came the Dwarf to claim his bride. " Many thanks,
dear Ekke Nekkepem," said she, "but if you please I would
rather stay where I am." The smiling face of the bride-
groom grew dark as thunder, but he recollected how he
had divulged his secret, and saw that the affair was past
remedy.*
The Ms of Jutland is called Pukf in Friesland. Like
him he wears a pointed red cap, with a long grey or green
jacket, and slippers on his feet. His usual abode is under
the roof, and he goes in and out either through a broken
window, which is never mended, or through some other
aperture left on purpose for him. A bowl of groute must
be left on the floor for him every evening, and he is very
angry if there should be no butter in it. "When well
treated he makes himself very useful by cleaning up the
house, and tending the cattle. He sometimes amuses him-
self by playing tricks on the servants, tickling, for example,
their noses when they are asleep, or pulling off the bed-
clothes. Stories are told of the Puk, similar to some above
related of the Juttish Ms.
* See above, p. 116.
f The Puk is also called Niss-Puk, Huis-Puk, Niske, Niske-Puk, Nise-
Bok, Niss-Kuk all compounds or corruptions of Nisse and Puk. He is also
named from his racketing and noise Pulter-Claas, i. e. Nick Knocker, (the
German Poltergeist,) Ciaas being the abbreviation of Nicolaus, Niclas ; Bee
above, p. 1 '69, for this same origin of Nisse.
234 GERMANY.
THE "WILD-WOMEN.
Bin MSgdlein kam im Abendglanz,
Wie ich's noch nie gefunden.
SCHREIBEB.
A maiden came in Evening's glow,
Such as I ne'er have met.
THE "Wilde Frauen or "Wild-women of Germany bear a very
strong resemblance to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia. Like
them they are beautiful, have fine flowing hair, live within
hills, and only appear singly or in the society of each other.
They partake of the piety of character we find among the
German Dwarfs.
The celebrated Wunderberg, or TJnderberg, on the great
moor near Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wild-women.
The Wunderberg is said to be quite hollow, and supplied
with stately palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and
springs of gold and silver. Its inhabitants, beside the Wild-
women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it
contains, and who at midnight repair to Salzburg to perform
their devotions in the cathedral ; giants, who used to come
to the church of Grodich and exhort the people to lead a
godly and pious life ; and the great emperor Charles V.,
with golden crown and sceptre, attended by knights and
lords. His grey beard has twice encompassed the table at
which he sits, and when it has the third time grown round
it, the end of the world and the appearance of the Anti-
christ will take place.*
* All relating to the Wild-women and the Wunderberjr is given by MM,
Grimm from the Brixener Volksbuch, 1782. For an account of the varioul
Bergentruckte Helden, see the Deutsche Mythologie, ch. xxxii.
THE WILD- WOMEN. 235
The following is the only account we nave of the Wild-
ivomen.
The inhabitants of the village of Grodich and the pea-
santry of the neighbourhood assert that frequently, about
the year 1753, the Wild-women used to come out of the
Wunderberg to the boys and girls that were keeping the
cattle near the hole within Glanegg, and give them bread
to eat.
The Wild-women used frequently to come to where the
people were reaping. They came down early in the morning,
and in the evening, when the people left off work, they
went back into the Wunderberg without partaking of the
supper.
It happened once near this hill, that a little boy was
sitting on a horse which his father had tethered on the head-
land of the field. Then came the Wild-women out of the
hill and wanted to take away the boy by force. But the
father, who was well acquainted with the secrets of this hill,
and what used to occur there, without any dread hasted up
to the women and took the boy from them, with these
words : " What makes you presume to come so often out
of the hill, and now to take away my child with you ? What
do you want to do with him ? " The Wild- women answered :
" He will be better with us, and have better care taken of
him than at home. We shall be very fond of the boy, and
he will meet with no injury." But the father would not let
the boy out of his hands, and the Wild-women went away
weeping bitterly.
One time the Wild-women came out of the Wunder-
berg, near the place called the Kugelmill, which is prettily
situated on the side of this hill, and took away a boy who
was keeping cattle. This boy, whom every one knew, was
seen about a year after by some wood-cutters, in a green
dress, and sitting on a block of this hill. Next day they
took his parents with them, intending to search the hill
for him, but they all went about it to no purpose, for the
boy never appeared any more.
It frequently has happened that a Wild- woman out of the
Wunderberg has gone toward the village of Anif, which is
better than a mile from the hill. She used to make holes
and beds for herself in the ground. She had uncommonly
230
long and beautiful hair, which reached nearly to the soles of
her feet. A peasant belonging to the village often saw this
woman going and coming, and he fell deeply in love with
her, especially on account of her beautiful hair. He could
not refrain from going up to her, and he gazed on her with
delight ; and at last, in his simplicity, he laid himself, with-
out any repugnance, down by her side. The second night
the Wild-woman asked him if he had not a wife already ?
The peasant however denied his wife, and said he had not.
His wife meanwhile was greatly puzzled to think where it
was that her husband went every evening, and slept every
night. She therefore watched him and found him in the
field sleeping near the Wild-woman : " Oh, God preserve
thy beautiful hair!" said she to the Wild- woman ; "what
are you doing there ? " * With these words the peasant's
wife retired and left them, and her husband was greatly
frightened at it. But the Wild-woman upbraided him with
his false denial, and said to him, " Had your wife manifested
hatred and spite against me, you would now be unfortunate,
and would never leave this place ; but since your wife was
not malicious, love her from henceforth, and dwell with her
faithfully, and never venture more to come here, for it is
written, ' Let every one live faithfully with his wedded wife ,'
though the force of this commandment will greatly decrease,
and with it all the temporal prosperity of married people.
Take this shoefull of money from me : go home, and look no
more about you."
As the fair maiden who originally possessed the famed
Oldenburg Horn was probably a Wild-woman, we will place
the story of it here.
* In a similar tradition (Strack, Beschr. von Eilsen, p. 120) the vnfe cute
off one of her fair long tresses, and is afterwards most earnestly cotjired by
her to restore it.
TffE WTLD-WOMEK. 237
IN the time of count Otto of Oldenburg, who succeeded his
father Ulrich in the year 967, a wonderful transaction
occurred. For as he, being a good sportsman, and one who
took great delight in the chase, had set out early one day
with his nobles and attendants, and had hunted in the
wood of Bernefeuer, and the count himself had put up a
roe, and followed him alone from the wood of Bernefeuer to
the Osenberg, and with his white horse stood on the top of
the hill, and endeavoured to trace the game, he said to him-
self, for it was an excessively hot day, " Oh God ! if one had
now but a cool drink ! "
No sooner had the count spoken the word than the Osen-
berg opened, and out of the cleft there came a beautiful
maiden, fairly adorned and handsomely dressed, and with her
beautiful hair divided on her shoulders, and a garland on
her head. And she had a rich silver vessel, that was gilded
and shaped like a hunter's horn, well and ingeniously made,
granulated, and fairly ornamented. It was adorned with
various kinds of arms that are now but little known, and
with strange unknown inscriptions and ingenious figures,
and it was soldered together and adorned in the same
manner as the old antiques, and it was beautifully and
ingeniously wrought. This horn the maiden held in her
hand, and it was full, and she gave it into the hand of the
count, and prayed that the count would drink out of it to
refresh himself therewith.
"When the count had received and taken this gilded silver
horn from the maiden, and had opened it and looked into it,
the drink, or whatever it was that was in it, when he shook
it, did not please him, and he therefore refused to drink tor
the maiden. Whereupon the maiden said, " My dear lord,
drink of it upon my faith, for it will do you no harm, but
will be of advantage;" adding further, that it the count
238
would drink out of it, it would go well w!th him, count
Otto, and his, and also with the whole house of Oldenburg
after him, and that the whole country would improve and
flourish. But if the count would place no faith in her, and
would not drink of it, then for the future, in the succeeding
family of Oldenburg, there would remain no unity. But
when the count gave no heed to what she said, but, as was
not without reason, considered with himself a long time
whether he should drink or not, he held the silver gilded
horn in his hand and swung it behind him, and poured it
out, and some of its contents sprinkled the white horse, and
where it fell and wetted him the hair all came off.
"When the maiden saw this, she desired to have her horn
back again, but the count made speed down the hill \\ith
the horn, which he held in his hand, and when he looked
round he observed that the maiden was gone into the hill
again. And when terror seized on the count on account of
this, he laid spurs to his horse, and at full speed hasted to
join his attendants, and informed them of what had befallen
him. He moreover showed them the silver gilded horn, and
took it with him to Oldenburg, and the same horn, as it was
obtained in so wonderful a manner, was preserved as a costly
jewel bv him, and by all the succeeding reigning princes of
the house of Oldenburg.*
* Given by Biisching (Volks-sagen Marchen und Legenden. Leipzig,
1820), from Hammelmann's Oldenburg Chronicle, 1599. Mine. Naubert
has, in the second volume of her Volksmarchen, wrought it up into a tale of
130 pages.
The Oldenburg horn, or what is called such, is now in the King of Den-
mark's collection.
KOBOLDS. 239
KOBOLDS.*
Von Kobolt sang die Atnme mir
Von Kobolt sing' ich wieder.
VON HALEJJ.
Of Kobold sang my nurse to me ;
Of Kobold I too sing.
THE Kobold is exactly the same being as the Danish Nis,
and Scottish Brownie, and English Ilobgoblin.t He per-
forms the very same services for the family to whom he
attaches himself.
When the Kobold is about coming into any place, he first
makes trial of the disposition of the family in this way. He
brings chips and saw-dust into the house, and throws dirt
into the milk vessels. If the master of the house takes care
that the chips are not scattered about, and that the dirt is
left in the vessels, and the milk drunk out of them, the
Kobold comes and stays in the house as long as there is one
of the family alive.
The change of servants does not afiect the Kobold, who
still remains. The maid who is going away must recommend
her successor to take care of him, and treat him well. If
she does not so, things go ill with her till she is also obliged
to leave the place.
The history of the celebrated Hinzelmann will give most
* This word is usually derived from the Greek ic6fia\os, a knave, which
is found in Aristophanes. According to Grimm (p. 468) the German
Kobold is not mentioned by any writer anterior to the thirteenth century ,
we find the French Gobelin in the eleventh ; see France.
t In Hanover the Will-o'the-wisp is called the Tuckebold, !. e. Tiicke-
Kobold, and is, as his name denotes, a malicious being. Voss. Lyr. Ged.,
ii. p. 315.
240 GERMANY.
full and satisfactory information respecting the nature and
properties of Kobolds ; for such he was, though he used
constantly to deny it. His history was written at consider-
able length by a pious minister, named Feldmann. MM.
Grimm gives us the following abridgement of it.*
A WONDEHFUL house-spirit haunted for a long time the
old castle of Hudemuhlen, situated in the country of Lune-
burg, not far from the Aller, and of which there is nothing
remaining but the walls. It was in the year 1584 that he
first notified his presence, by knocking and making various
noises. Soon after he began to converse with the servants
in the daylight. They were at first terrified at hearing a
voice and seeing nothing, but by degrees they became accus-
tomed to it and thought no more of it. At last he became
quite courageous, and began to speak to the master of the
house himself, and used, in the middle of the day and in the
evening, to carry on conversations of various kinds ; and at
meal-times he discoursed with those who were present,
whether strangers or belonging to the family. "When all
fear of him was gone he became quite friendly and intimate:
he sang, laughed, and went on with every kind of sport, so
long as no one vexed him : and his voice was on these occa-
sions soft and tender like that of a boy or maiden. When
he was asked whence he came, and what he had to do in
that place, he said he was come from the Bohemian moun-
tains, and that his companions were in the Bohemian forest
that they would not tolerate him, and that he was in con-
sequence obliged to retire and take refuge with good people
* Deutsche Sagen, i. p. 103. Feldmann's work is a 12mo vo.. of
379 pages.
+ Heinze is the abbreviation of Heinrich (Henry). In the Norh of
Germany the Kobold is also named Chimmeken and Wolterken, from Joacmm
and Walther.
KI.MH ,.!>*. 241
till liis affairs should be in a better condition. He added
that his name was Hinzelniann, but that he was also called
Luring ; and that he had a wife whose name was Hi lie
Bingels. When the time for it was come he would let him-
self he seen in his real shape, but that aC present it was not
convenient for him to do so. In all other respects he was,
he said, as good and honest a fellow as need be.
The master of the house, when he saw that the spirit
attached himself more and more to him, began to get fright-
ened, and knew not how he should get rid of him. By the
advice of his friends he determined at last to leave his castle
for some time, and set out for Hanover. On the road thev
observed a white feather that flew beside the carriage,
but no one knew what it signified. When he arrived at
Hanover he missed a valuable gold chain that he wore
about his neck, and his suspicions fell upon the servants of
the house. But the innkeeper took the part of his servants,
and demanded satisfaction for the discreditable charge. The
nobleman, who could prove nothing against them, sat in his
chamber in bad spirits, thinking how he should manage to
get himself out of this unpleasant affair, when all of a sudden
he heard Hinzelmann's voice beside him, saying, " Why are
you so sad ? If there is anything gone wrong with you tell it
to me, and I shall perhaps know how to assist you. If I
were to make a guess, I should say that you are fretting
on account of a chain you have lost." " What are you doing
here?" replied the terrified nobleman; "why have you
followed me ? Do you know anything about the chain ? "
" Yes, indeed," said Hinzelmann, " I have followed you, and
I kept you company on the road, and was always present :
did you not see me ? why, I was the white feather that flew
beside the carriage. And now I '11 tell you where the chain
is : Search under the pillow of your bed, and there you '11
find it." The chain was found where he said ; but the mind
of the nobleman became still more uneasy, and he asked him
in an angry tone why he had brought him into a quarrel with
the landlord on account of the chain, since he was the cause
of his leaving his own house. Hinzelmann replied, " Why
do you retire from me ? I can easily follow you anywhere,
and be where you are. It is much better for you to return
to your own estate, and not be quitting it on my account.
242
You see well that if I wished it I could take away all you
have, but I am not inclined to do so." The nobleman
thought some time of it, and at last came to the resolution
of returning home, and trusting in Grod not to retreat a step
from the spirit.
At home in Hudemuhlen, Hinzelmann now showed him-
self extremely obliging, and active and industrious at every
kind of work. He used to toil every night in the kitchen ;
and if the cook, in the evening after supper, left the plates
and dishes lying in a heap without being washed, next
morning they were all nice and clean, shining like looking-
glasses, and put up in proper order. She therefore might
depend upon him, and go to bed in the evening after supper
without giving herself any concern about them. In like
manner nothing was ever lost in the kitchen ; and if any-
thing was astray Hinzelmann knew immediately where to
find it, in whatever corner it was hid, and gave it into the
hands of the owner. If strangers were expected, the spirit
let himself be heard in a particular manner, and his labours
were continued the whole night long : he scoured the pots
and kettles, washed the dishes, cleaned the pails and tubs.
The cook was grateful to him for all this, and not only did
what he desired, but cheerfully got ready his sweet milk for
his breakfast. He took also the charge of superintending
the other men and maids. He noticed how they got through
their business ; and when they were at work he encouraged
them with good words to be industrious. But if any one
was inattentive to what he said, he caught up a stick and
communicated his instructions by laying on heartily with it.
He frequently warned the maids of their mistress's displea-
sure, and reminded them of some piece of work which they
should set about doing. He was equally busy in the stable :
he attended to the horses, and curried them carefully, so that
they were as smooth in their coats as an eel ; they also
throve and improved so much, in next to no time, that every-
body wondered at it.
His chamber was in the upper story on the right hand
side, and his furniture consisted of only three articles.
Imprimis, of a settle or arm-chair, which he plaited very
neatly for himself of straw of different colours, full of
handsome figures and crosses, which no one looked upon
KOBOLDS. 243
without admiration. Secondly, of a little round table, which
was on his repeated entreaties made and put there. Thirdly,
of a bed and bedstead, which he had also expressed a wish
for. There never was any trace found as if a man had lain
in it ; there could only be perceived a very small depression,
as if a cat had been there. The servants, especially the
cook, were obliged every day to prepare a dish full of sweet
milk, with crums of wheaten bread, and place it upon his
little table ; and it was soon after eaten up clean. He some-
times used to come to the table of the master of the house,
and they were obliged to put a chair and a plate for him at
a particular place. Whoever was helping, put his food on
his plate, and if that was forgotten he fell into a great
passion. What was put on his plate vanished, and a glass
full of wine was taken away for some time, and was then set
again in its place empty. But the food was afterwards found
lying under the benches, or in a corner of the room.
In the society of young people Hinzelmann was extremely
cheerful. He sang and made verses : one of his most usual
ones was,
If thou here wilt let me stay,
Good luck shalt thou have alway ;
But if hence thou wilt me chase,
Luck will ne'er come near the place.
He used also to repeat the songs and sayings of other
people by way of amusement or to attract their attention.
The minister Feldmann was once invited to Hudemiihleu,
and when he came to the door he heard some one above in
the hall singing, shouting, and making every sort of noise,
which made him think that some strangers had come the
evening before, and were lodged above, and making them-
selves merry. He therefore said to the steward, who Avas
standing in the court after having cut up some wood, " John,
what guests have you above there ? " The steward answered,
" We have no strangers ; it is only our Hinzelmann who is
amusing himself; there is not a living soul else in the hall."
When the minister went up into the hall, Hinzelmann sang
out to him
My thumb, my thumb,
And my elbow are two.
The mi lister wondered at this unusual kind oi song, and he
a 2
244 OEKMANT.
said to Hinzelmann, " What sort of music is that you come
to meet me with ? " " Why," replied Hinzelmann, " it was
from yourself I learned the song, for you have often sung
it, and it is only a few days since I heard it from you, when
you were in a certain place at a christening."
Hinzelmann was fond of playing tricks, but he never
hurt any one by them. He used to set servants and work-
men by the ears as they sat drinking in the evening, and
took great delight then in looking at the sport. When any
one of them was well warmed with liquor, and let anything
fall under the table and stooped to take it up, Hinzelmann
would give him a good box on the ear from behind, and
at the same time pinch his neighbour's leg. Then the two
attacked each other, first with words and then with blows ;
the rest joined in the scuffle, and they dealt about their
blows, and were repaid in kind ; and next morning black
eyes and swelled faces bore testimony of the fray. But
Hinzelmann' s very heart was delighted at it, and he used
afterwards to tell how it was he that began it, on purpose to
set them fighting. He however always took care so to order
matters that no one should run any risk of his life.
There came one time to Hudemuhlen a nobleman who
undertook to banish Hinzelmann. Accordingly, when he
remarked that he was in a certain room, of which all the
doors and windows were shut fast, he had this chamber and
the whole house also beset with armed men, and went him-
self with his drawn sword into the room, accompanied by
some others. They however saw nothing, so they began to
cut and thrust left and right in aD directions, thinking that
if Hinzelmann had a body some blow or other must cer-
tainly reach him and kill him ; still they could not perceive
that their hangers met anything but mere air. When they
thought they must have accomplished their task, and were
going out of the room tired with their long fencing, just as
they opened the door, they saw a figure like that of a black
marten, and heard these words, " Ha, ha ! how well you
caught me ! " But Hinzelmann afterwards expressed him-
self very bitterly for this insult, and declared, that he would
have easily had an opportunity of revenging himself, were it
not that he wished to spare the two ladies of the house any
uneasiness. When this same nobleman not long after went
KOBOLDS. 245
into an empty room in tke house, he saw a large snake lying
coiled up on an unoccupied bed. It instantly vanished, and
he heard the words of the spirit " You were near catchino-
. . O
me.
Another nobleman had heard a great deal about Hinzel-
mann, and he was curious to get some personal knowledge
of him. He came accordingly to Hudemiihlen, and his wish
was not long ungratified, for the spirit let himself be heard
from a corner of the room where there was a large cupboard,
in which were standing some empty wine-jugs with long
necks. As the voice was soft and delicate, and somewhat
hoarse, as if it came out of a hollow vessel, the nobleman
thought it likely that he was sitting in one of these jugs, so
he got up and ran and caught them up, and went to stop
them, thinking in this way to catch the spirit. AVhile he
was thus engaged, Hinzelmann began to laugh aloud, and
cried out, " If I had not heard long ago from other people
that you were a fool, I might now have known it of myself,
since you thought I was sitting in an empty jug, and went to
cover it up with your hand, as if you had me caught. I don't
think you worth the trouble, or I would have given you,
long since, such a lesson, that you should remember me long
enough. But before long you will get a slight ducking."
He then became silent, and did not let himself be heard any
more so long as the nobleman stayed. AVhether he fell into
the water, as Hinzelmann threatened him, is not said, but
it is probable he did.
There came, too, an exorcist to banish him. When he
began his conjuration with his magic words, Hinzelmann was
at first quite quiet, and did not let himself be heard at all. but
when he was going to read the most powerful sentences
against him, he snatched the book out of his hand, tore it to
pieces, so that the leaves flew about the room, caught hold of
the exorcist himself, and squeezed and scratched him till he
ran away frightened out of his wits. He complained greatly
of this treatment, and said, " I am a Christian, like any other
man, and I hope to be saved." When he was asked if he
knew the Kobolds and Knocking-spirits (Polter Geister), he
answered, " What have these to do with me ? They are the
Devil's spectres, and I do not belong to them. No one
has any evil, but rather good, to expect from me. Let me
alone and you will have luck in everything ; the cattle wu\
thrive, your substance will increase, and everything will go
on well."
Profligacy and vice were quite displeasing to him ; he usetf
frequently to scold severely one of the family for his stinginess,
and told the rest that he could not endure him on account
of it. Another he upbraided with his pride, which he said he
hated from his heart. When some one once said to him
that if he would be a good Christian, he should call upon
God, and say Christian prayers, he began the Lord's Prayer,
and went through it till he came to the last petition, when
he murmured " Deliver us from the Evil one " quite low.
He also repeated the Creed, but in a broken and stammering
manner, for when he came to the words, " I believe in the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life
everlasting," he pronounced them in so hoarse and indistinct
a *oice that no one could rightly hear and understand him.
The minister of Eicheloke, Mr. Feldmann, said that his
father was invited to dinner to Hudemuhlen at Whitsuntide,
where he heard Hinzelmann go through the whole of the
beautiful hymn, " Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," in a
very high but not unpleasant voice, like that of a girl or
a young boy. Nay, he sang not merely this, but several
other spiritual songs also when requested, especially by those
whom he regarded as his friends, and with whom he was on
terms of intimacy.
On the other hand, he was extremely angry when he was
not treated with respect and as a Christian. A nobleman ot
the family of Mandelsloh once came to Hudemiihlen. This
nobleman was highly respected for his learning ; he was a
canon of the cathedral of Verden, and had been ambassador
to the Elector of Brandenburg and the King of Denmark.
When he heard of the house-spirit, and that he expected to
be treated as a Christian, he said he could not believe that
all was right with him : he was far more inclined to regard
him as the Enemy and the Devil, for that God had never
made men of that kind anl form, that angels praised God
their Lord, and guarded and protected men, with which the
knocking and pounding and strange proceedings of the
House-spirit did not accord. Hinzelmann, who had not let
himself be heard since his arrival, now made a noise and
217
cried out, " What say you Barthold ? (that was the noble-
man's name) am I the Enemy ? I advise you not to say too
much, or I will show you another trick, and teach vou
to deliver a better judgment of me another time." The
nobleman was frightened when he heard a voice without
seeing any one, broke off the discourse, and would hear
nothing more of him, but left him in possession of his
dignity.
Another time a nobleman came there, who, when he saw a
chair and plate laid for Hinzelmann at dinner, refused to
pledge him. At this the spirit was offended, and he said,
"I am as honest and good a fellow as he is; why then
does he not drink to me ?" To this the nobleman replied,
" Depart hence, and go drink with thy infernal companions ;
thou hast nothing to do here." When Hiuzelmann heard
that, he became so highly exasperated, that he seized him by
the strap with which, according to the custom of those days,
his cloak was fastened under his chin, dragged him to the
ground, and choked and pressed him in such a manner that
all that were present were in pain lest he should kill him ;
and the gentleman did not come to himself for some hours
after the spirit had left him.
Another time an esteemed friend of the master of Hude-
miihlen was travelling that way, but he hesitated to come in
on account of the House-spirit, of whose mischievous turn he
had heard a great deal, and sent his servant to inform the
family that he could not call upon them. The master of the
house sent out and pressed him very much to come in and
dine there, but the stranger politely excused himself, by
saying that it was not in his power to stop ; he, however,
added, that he was too much terrified at the idea of sitting
at the same table eating and drinking with a devil. Hinzel-
mann, it appears, was present at this conversation out in the
road ; fcr when the stranger had thus refused they heard
these words, " Wait, my good fellow, you shall be well paid
for this talk." Accordingly, when the traveller went on
and came to the bridge over the Meisse, the horses took
fright, entangled themselves in the harness, and horses,
carriage and all, were within an ace of tumbling down into
the water. When everything had been set to rights, and
the carriage had got on about a gun-shot, it was turned over
248
in the sand on the level ground, without, however, those who
were in it receiving any farther injury.
Hinzelmann was fond of society, but the society he chiefly
delighted in was that of females, and he was to them very
friendly and aifable. There were two young ladies at Hude-
miihlen, named Anne and Catherine, to whom he was par-
ticularly attached ; he used to make his complaint to them
whenever he was angry at anything, and held, besides,
conversations of every kind with them. Whenever they
travelled he would not quit them, but accompanied them
everywhere in the shape of a white feather. When they
went to sleep at night, he lay beneath, at their feet, outside
the clothes, and in the morning there was a little hole to be
seen, as if a little dog had lain there.
Neither of these ladies ever married ; for Hinzelmann
frightened away their wooers. Matters had frequently gone
so far as the engagement, but the spirit always contrived to
have it broken off. One lover he would make all bewildered
and confused when he was about to address the lady, so that
he did not know what he should say. In another he would
excite such fear as to make him quiver and tremble. But
his usual way was to make a writing appear before their
eyes on the opposite white wall, with these words in golden
letters: " Take maid Anne, and leave me maid Catherine."
But if any one came to court lady Anne, the golden writing
changed all at once, and became " Take maid Catherine, and
leave me maid Anne." If any one did not change his course
for this, but persisted in his purpose, and happened to
spend the night in the house, he terrified and tormented him
so in the dark with knocking and flinging and pounding,
that he laid aside all wedding-thoughts, and was right glad
to get away with a whole skin. Some, when they were on
their way back, he tumbled, themselves and their horses,
over and over, that they thought their necks and legs would
be broken, and yet knew not how it had happened to them.
In consequence of this, the two ladies remained unmarried ;
they arrived to a great age, and died within a week of each
other.
One of these ladies once sent a servant from Hudemiihlen
to Eethem to buy different articles ; while he was away
Hinzelmann began suddenly to clapper in the ladies'
KOHOLD8. 249
chamber like a stork, and then said, " Maid Aniie, you must
go look for your things to-day in the mill-stream." She did
not know what this mea,nt ; but the servant soon came in,
and related, that as he was on his way home, he had seen a
stork sitting at no great distance from him, which he shot at,
and it seemed to him as if he had hit it, but that the stork
had remained sitting, and at last began to clap its wings
aloud and then flew away. It was now plain that Hinzelmann
knew this, and his prophecy also soon came to pass. For
the servant, who was a little intoxicated, wanted to wash his
horse, who was covered with sweat and dirt, and he rode
him into the mill-stream in i'ront of the castle ; but owing to
his drunkenness he missed the right place, and got into a
deep hole, where, not being able to keep his seat on the
horse, he fell off and was drowned. He had not delivered
the things he had brought with him ; so they and the body
together were fished up out of the stream.
Hinzelmann also informed and warned others of the future.
There came to Hudemuhlen a colonel, who was greatly
esteemed by Christian III. King of Denmark, and who had
done good service in the wars with the town of Liibeck. He
was a good shot and passionately fond of the chase, and used
to spend many hours in the neighbouring woods after the
harts and the wild sows. As he was getting ready one day
to go to the chase as usual, Hinzelmann came and said,
" Thomas (that was his name), I warn you to be cautious
how you shoot, or you will before long meet with a mishap."
The colonel took no notice of this, and thought it meant
nothing. But a few days after, as lie was firing at a roe,
his gun burst, and took the thumb off his left hand. When
this occurred, Hinzelmann was instantly by his side, and
said, " See, now, you have got what I warned you of! If
you had refrained from shooting this time, this mischance
would not have befallen you."
Another time a certain lord Falkenberg, who was a
soldier, was on a visit at Hudemuhlen. He was a lively,
jolly man, and he began to play tricks on Hinzelmann, and
to mock and jeer him. Hinzelmann would not long put up
with this, and he began to exhibit signs of great dissatisfac-
tion. At last he said, " Falkenberg, you are making very
merry now at my expense, but wait till you come to Magde-
250
burg, and there your cap will be burst in such a way that
you will forget your jibes and your jeers." The nobleman was
awed : he was persuaded that these words contained a hidden
sense : he broke off the conversation with Hinzelmann, and
shortly after departed. Not long after the siege of Magde-
burg, under the Elector Maurice, commenced, at which this
lord Falkenberg was present, under a German prince of high
rank. The besieged made a gallant resistance, and night
and day kept up a firing of double-harquebuses, and other
kinds of artillery; and it happened that one day Falken-
berg' s chin was shot away by a ball from a falconet, and
three days after he died of the wound, in great agony.
Any one whom the spirit could not endure he used to
plague or punish for his vices. He accused the secretary at
Hudemuhlen of too much pride, took a great dislike to him
on account of it, and night and day gave him every kind of
annoyance. He once related with great glee how he had
given the haughty secretary a sound box on the ear. When
the secretary was asked about it, and whether the Spirit had
been with him, he replied. " Ay, indeed, he has been with
me but too often ; this very night he tormented me in such
a manner that I could not stand before him." He had a
love affair with the chamber-maid ; and one night as he
was in high and confidential discourse with her, and they
were sitting together in great joy, thinking that no one
could see them but the four walls, the crafty spirit came and
drove them asunder, and roughly tumbled the poor secretary
out at the door, and then took up a broomstick and laid on
him with it, that he made over head and neck for his
chamber, and forgot his love altogether. Hinzelmann is
said to have made some verses on the unfortunate lover, and
to have often sung them for his amusement, and repeated
them to travellers, laughing heartily at them.
One tune some one at Hudemuhlen was suddenly taken
in the evening with a violent fit of the cholic, and a maid
was despatched to the cellar to fetch some wine, in which
the patient was to take his medicine. As the maid was
sitting before the cask, and was just going to draw the wine,
Hinzelmann was by her side, and said, " You will be pleased tc
recollect that, a few days ago, you scolded me and abused me;
by way of punishment for it, you shall spend this night
KOBOLBS. 25!
sitting in the cellar As to the sick person, he is in no danger
whatever ; his pain will be all gone in half an hour, and the
wine would rather injure him. So just stay sitting here till the
cellar door is opened." The patient waited a long time, but
no wine came ; another maid was sent down, and she found
the cellar door well secured on the outside with a good
padlock, and the maid sitting within, who told her that
Hinzelmann had fastened her up in that way. They wanted
to open the cellar and let the maid out, but they could not find
a key for the lock, though they searched with the greatest
industry. Next morning the cellar was open, and the lock
and key lying before the door. Just as the spirit said, all
his pain left the sick man in the course of half an hour.
Hinzelmann had never shown himself to the master of the
house at Hudemiihlen, and whenever he begged of him
that if he was shaped like a man, he would let himself be
seen by him, he answered, " that the time was not yet come;
that he should wait till it was agreeable to him." One
night, as the master was lying awake in bed, he heard a
rushing noise on one side of the chamber, and he conjectured
that the spirit must be there. So he said " Hinzelmann, if
you are there, answer me." "It is I," replied he; "what
do you want?" As the room was quite light with the
moonshine, it seemed to the master as if there was the
shadow of a form like that of a child, perceptible in the
place from which the sound proceeded. As he observed that
the spirit was in a very friendly humour, he entered into
conversation with him, and said, " Let me, for this once,
see and feel you." But Hinzelmann would not : " Will you
reach me your hand, at least, that I may know whether you
are flesh and bone like a man ? " " No," said Hinzelmann ;
" I won't trust you ; you are a knave ; you might catch hold
of me, and not let me go any more." After a long demur,
however, and after he had promised, on his faith and honour,
not to hold him, but to let him go again immediately, he
said, " See, there is my hand." And as the master caught
at it, it seemed to him as if he felt the fingers of the hand of
a little child; but the spirit drew it back quickly. The
masttr further desired that he would let him feel his face, to
which he at last consented; and when he touched it, it
seemed to Mm as if he had touched teeth, or a fleshless
252 GEBMANT.
skeleton, and the face drew back instantaneously, so that h<
could not ascertain its exact shape ; he only noticed that it.
like the hand, was cold, and devoid of vital heat.
The cook, who was on terms of great intimacy with him.
thought that she might venture to make a request of him,
though another might not, and as she felt a strong desire to
see Hinzelmann bodily, whom she heard talking every day,
and whom she supplied with meat and drink, she prayed
him earnestly to grant her that favour ; but he would not,
and said that this was not the right time, but that after
some time, he would let himself be seen by any person.
This refusal only stimulated her desire, and she pressed him
more and more not to deny her request. He said she would
repent of her curiosity if she would not give up her desire ;
and when all his representations were to no purpose, and
she woiild not give over, he at last said to her, " Come
to-morrow morning before sun-rise into the cellar, and carry
in each hand a pail full of water, and your request shall be
complied with." The maid inquired what the water was for :
" That you will learn," answered he ; " without it, the sight
of me might be injurious to you."
Next morning the cook was ready at peep of dawn, took in
each hand a pail of water, and went down to the cellar.
She looked about her without seeing anything ; but as she
cast her eyes on the ground she perceived a tray, on which
was lying a naked child apparently three years old, and two
knives sticking crosswise in his heart, and his whole body
streaming with blood. The maid was terrified at this sight
to such a degree, that she lost her senses, and fell in a swoon
on the ground. The spirit immediately took the water that
she had brought with her, and poured it all over her head,
by which means she came to herself again. She looked
about for the tray, but all had vanished, and she only heard
the voice of Hinzelmann, who said. " You see now how needful
the water was ; if it had not been at hand you had died here
in the cellar. I hope your burning desire to see me is now
pretty well cooled." He often afterwards illuded the cook
with this trick, and told it to strangers with great glee and
laughter.
He frequently showed himself to innocent children when
at play The minister Feldmann recollected well, that when
KOTCOT.iM 253
he was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and was not
thinking particularly about him, he saw the Spirit in the
form of a little boy going up the stairs very swiftly. When
children were collected about Hudemuhlen house, and were
playing with one another, he used to get among them and
play with them in the shape of a pretty little child, so that
all the other children saw him plainly, and when they went
home told their parents how, while they were engaged in
play, a strange child came to them and amused himself with
them. This was confirmed by a maid, who went one time
into a room in which four or six children were playing
together, and among them she saw a strange little boy of a
beautiful countenance, with curled yellow hair hanging down
his shoulders, and dressed in a red silk coat ; and while she
wanted to observe him more closely, he got out of the party,
and disappeared. Hinzelmann let himself be seen also by a
fool, named Glaus, who was kept there, and used to pursue
every sort of diversion with him. When the fool could not
anywhere be found, and they asked him afterwards where
he had been so long, he used to reply, " I was with the little
wee man, and I was playing with him." If he was farther
asked how big the little man was, he held his hand at a
height about that of a child of four years.*
When the time came that the house-spirit was about to
depart, he went to the master of the house and said to him,
" See, I will make you a present ; take care of it, and let it
remind you of me." He then handed him a little cross it
is doubtful from the author's words whether of silk (seide}
or strings (saiten) very prettily plaited. It was the length
of a finger, was hollow within, and jingled when it was
shaken. Secondly, a straw hat, which he had made himself,
and in which might be seen forms and figures very ingeni-
ously made in the variously-coloured straw. Thirdly, a
* This is a usual measure of size for the Dwarfs, and even the angels, in the
oldGernian poetry; sec above, p. 208. In Otnit it is said of Elbericli : nu list in
Kindes maze des vierden jdres alt; and of Antilois in Ulrioh's Alexander :
er war Heine und niht gruz in der maze als diu kint, wenn si in vier j&ren
sitit, Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 418. We meet with it even in Italian poetry :
E sovra il dorso nn nano si piccino
fJhe sembri di quuttr' anni tin fanciullino.
U. Tasso, Amadijfi, C. c. at. 78.
254 SEEMAST.
leathern glove set with pearls, which formed wonderful
figures. He then subjoined this prophecy : " So long as
these things remain unseparated in good preservation in
your family, so long will your entire race nourish, and their
good fortune continually increase ; but if these presents are
divided, lost, or wasted, your race will decrease and sink."
And when he perceived that the master appeared to set no
particular value on the present, he continued : " I fear that
you do not much esteem these things, and will let them go
out of your hands ; I therefore counsel you to give them in
charge to your sisters Anne and Catherine, who will take
better care of them."
He accordingly gave the gifts to his sisters, who took
them and kept them carefully, and never showed them to
any but most particular friends. After their death they
reverted to their brother, who took them to himself, and
with him they remained so long as he lived. He showed
them to the minister Feldmann, at his earnest request,
during a confidential conversation. When he died, they
came to his only daughter Adelaide, who was married to
L. von H., along with the rest of the inheritance, and they
remained for some time in her possession. The son of the
minister Feldmann made several inquiries about what had
afterwards become of the House-spirit's presents, and he
learned that the straw-hat was given to the emperor
Ferdinand II., who regarded it as something wonderful.
The leathern glove was still in his time in the possession of
a nobleman. It was short, and just exactly reached above
the hand, and there was a snail worked with pearls on the
part that came above the hand. What became of the little
cross was never known.
The spirit departed of his own accord, after he had staid
four years, from 1584 to 1588, at Hudemiihlen. He said,
before he went away, that he would return once more when
the family would be declined, and that it would then flourish
anew and increase in consequence.*
* The feats of House-spirits, it is plain, may in general be ascribed to
ventriloquism and to contrivances of sen-ants and others.
ffOBOLUB. 255
ANOTHEB Kobold or House-spirit took up his abode in the
palace of the bishop of Hildesheim. He was named Hodeken
or Hiitchen, that is Hatekin or Little Hat, from his always
wearing a little felt hat very much down upon his face. He
was of a kind and obliging disposition, often told the bishop
and others of what was to happen, and he took good care
that the watchmen should not go to sleep on their post.
It was, however, dangerous to affront him. One of the
scullions in the bishop's kitchen used to fling dirt on him
arid splash him with foul water. Hodeken complained to
the head cook, who only laughed at him, and said, " Are you
a spirit and afraid of a little boy ?" " Since you won't punish
the boy," replied Hodeken, " I will, in a few days, let you
see how much afraid of him I am," and he went off in high
dudgeon. But very soon after he got the boy asleep at the
fire-side, and he strangled him, cut him up, and put him into
the pot on the fire. When the cook abused him for what he
had done, he squeezed toads all over the meat that was at
the fire, and he soon after tumbled the cook from the bridge
into the deep moat. At last people grew so much afraid of
his setting fire to the town and palace, that the bishop had
him exorcised and banished.
The following was one of Hodeken's principal exploits.
There was a man in Hildesheim who had a light sort of wife,
and one time when he was going on a journey he spoke to
Hodeken and said, " My good fellow, just keep an eye on
my wife while I am away, and see that all goes on right."
Hodeken agreed to do so ; and when the wife, after the
departure of her husband, made her gallants come to her,
and was going to make merry with them, Hodeken always
threw himself in the middle and drove them away by assuming
terrific forms ; or, when any one had gone to bed, he invisibly
flung ~iim so roughly out on the floor as to crack his ribs.
Thus they fared, one after another, as the light-o'-love dame
256
introduced them into her chamber, so that no one ventured
to come near her. At length, when the husband had returned
home, the honest guardian of his honour presented himself
before him full of joy, and said, " Your return is most
grateful to me, that I may escape the trouble and disquiet
that you had imposed upon me." " Who are you, pray ?"
said the man. " I am Hodeken," replied he, " to whom, at
your departure, you gave your wife in charge. To gratify
you I have guarded her this time, and kept her from adul-
tery, though with great and incessant toil. But I beg of
you never more to commit her to my keeping ; for I would
sooner take charge of, and be accountable for, all the swine
in Saxony than for one such woman, so many were the
artifices and plots she devised to blink me."
ANOTHER celebrated House-spirit was King Groldemar, who
lived in great intimacy with Neveling von Hardenberg, on the
Hardenstein at the B-uhr, and often slept in the same bed with
him. He played most beautifully on the harp, and he was in
the habit of staking great sums of money at dice. He used
to call Neveling brother-in-law, and often gave him warning
of various things. He talked with all kinds of people, and
used to make the clergy blush by discovering their secret
transgressions. His hands were thin like those of a frog,
cold and soft to the feel ; he let himself be felt, but no one
could see him. After remaining there for three years, he
went away without offending any one. Some call him King
Vollmar, and the chamber in which he lived is still said to
be called Vollmar's Chamber. He insisted on having a place
at the table for himself, and a stall in the stable for his
horse ; the food, the hay, and the oats were consumed, but
of man or horse nothing more than the shadow ever was
seen. When one time a curious person had strewed ashes
and tares in his way to make him fall, that his foot-prints
might be seen, he came behind him as he was lighting the
KOBOLDS. 257
fire and hewed him to pieces, which he put on the spit and
roasted, and he began to boil the head and legs. As soon
as the meat was ready it was brought to Vollmar's chamber,
and people heard great cries of joy as it was consumed!
After this there was no trace of King Vollmar ; but over
the door of his chamber was found written, that in future
the house would be as unfortunate as it had hitherto been
fortunate ; the scattered property would not be brought
together again till the time when three Hardeubergs of
Hardenstein should be living at the same time. The spit
and the roast meat were preserved for a long time ; but they
disappeared in the Lorrain war in 1051. The pot still
remains built into the wall of the kitchen.*
CIjc
IT is not over fifty years since the Heinzelmanchen, as they
are called, used to live and perform their exploits in Cologne.
They were little naked mannikins, who used to do all sorts
of work ; bake bread, wash, and such like house-work. So
it is said, but no one ever saw them.
In the time that the Heinzelmanchen were still there,
there was in Cologne many a baker, who kept no man, for
the little people used always to make over-night, as much
black and white bread as the baker wanted for his shop,
In many houses they used to wash and do all their work
for the maids.
Now, about this time, there was an expert tailor to whom
they appeared to have taken a great fancy, for when he
married he found in his house, on the wedding d?y, thf
finest victuals and the most beautiful vessels and utensd's,
which, the little folk had stolen elsewhere and brought ro
their favourite. When, with time, his family increased, tbe
little ones used to give the tailor's wife considerable aid in
her household affairs ; they washed for her, and on holidays
* Von Stcinen, Westfal. Gesch. ap. Griiuru, Dcut. Mythol., p. 477
s
258 GERMANY.
and festival times they scoured the copper and tin, and the
house from the garret to the cellar. If at any time the
tailor had a press of work, he was sure to find it all ready
done for him in the morning by the Heinzelmanchen. But
curiosity began now to torment the tailor's wife, and she was
dying to get one sight of the Heinzelmanchen, but do what
she would she could never compass it. She one time strewed
peas all down the stairs that they might fall and hurt them-
selves, and that so she might see them next morning. But
this project missed, and since that time the Heinzelmanchen
have totally disappeared, as has been everywhere the case,
i wing to the curiosity of people, which has at all times been
the destruction of so much of what was beautiful in the
world. The Heinzelmanchen, in consequence of this, went
<ff all in a body out of the town with music playing,
1 ut people could only hear the music, for no one could see
the mannikins themselves, who forthwith got into a boat
; nd went away, whither no one knows. The good times,
1 owever, are said to have disappeared from Cologne along
with the Heinzelmanchen.*
NIXES.
Kennt ihr der Nixen, mnnt're Schaar ?
Von Auge schwarz und griln von Haar
Sie lauscht ain Schilfgestade.
MATTHISSOV.
Know you the Ntses, gay and fair?
Their eyes are black, and green their hair
They lurk in sedgy shores.
THE Nixes, or Water-people, inhabit lakes and rivers. The
11 an is like any other man, only he has green teeth. He
also wears a green hat. The female Nixes appear like beau-
tiful maidens. On fine sunny days they may be seen sitting
on the banks, or on the branches of the trees, combing their
* Om/. Coins Vorzeit. Coin. 1826.
JSIXES. 250
iong golden locks. When any person is shortly to be drowned,
the Nixes may be previously seen dancing on the surface of
the water. They inhabit a magnificent region below the
water, whither they sometimes convey mortals. A girl from
a village near Leipzig was one time at service in the 'uouse
of a Nix. She said that everything there was very good ; all
she had to complain of was that she was obliged to eat her
food without salt. The female Nixes frequently go to the
market to buy meat : they are always dressed with extreme
neatness, only a corner of their apron or some other part of
their clothes is wet. The man has also occasionally gone to
market. They are fond of carrying off women whom they
make wives of, and often fetch an earthly midwife to assist
at their labour. Among the many tales of the Nixes we
select the following :
peasant tuft tfj* Waterman.
A WATEB-MAN once lived on good terms with a peasant who
dwelt not far from his lake. He often visited him, and at
last begged that the peasant would visit him in his house
under the water. The peasant consented, and went down
with him. There was everything down under the water as
in a stately palace on the land, halls, chambers, and cabi-
nets, with costly furniture of every description. The Water-
man led his guest over the whole, and showed him everything
that was in it. They came at length to a little chamber.
where were standing several new pots turned upside down.
The peasant asked what was in them. " They contain," was
the reply, " the souls of drowned people, which I put under
the pots and keep them close, so that they cannot get away."
The peasant made no remark, and he came up again on the
land. But for a long time the affair of the souls continued
to give him great trouble, and he watched to find when the
Water-man should be from home. When this occurred, as
ne had marked the right way down, he descended into the
water-house, and, having made out the little chamber, he
turned up all the pots one after another, and immediately
2
260 GEKMAJTT.
the souls of the drowned peop.e ascended out of the water,
and recovered their liberty.*
THERE is a little lake in Westphalia called the Darmssen,
from which the peasants in the adjacent village of Epe used
to hear all through the night a sound as if of hammering
upon an anvil. People who were awake used also to see
something- in the middle of the lake. They got one time
into a boat and went to it. and there "they found that it was
a smith, who, "with his body raised over the water, and a
hammer in his hand, pointed to an anvil, and bid the people
bring him something to forge. From that time forth they
brought iron to him, and no people had such good plough-
irons as those of Epe.
One time as a man from this village was getting reeds at
the Darmssen, he found among them a little child that was
rough all over his body. The smith cried out, " Don't take
away my son ! " but the man put the child on his back, and
ran home with it. Since that time the smith has never more
been seen or heard. The man reared the Eoughy, and he
became the cleverest and best lad in the place. But when
he was twenty years old he said to the farmer, " Farmer, I
must leave you. My father has called me ! " " I am sorry
for that," said the farmer. " Is there no way that you couTd
stay with me ?" " I will see about it," said the water-
child. " Do you go to Braumske and fetch me a little sword ;
but you must give the seller whatever he asks for it, and not
haggle about it." The farmer went to Braumske and bought
the sword ; but he haggled, and got something off the price.
They now went together to the Darmssen, and the Eoughy
said, " Now mind. When I strike the water, if there comes
* This legend seems to be connected with the ancient idea of the water-
deities taking the souls of drowned persons to themselves. In the Edda, thia
is done by the sea-goddess Ran.
NIXES. 201
up blood, I must go away ; but if there comes milk, then 1
may stay with you." He struck the water, and there came
neither milk nor blood. The Eoughy was annoyed, and said,
" Tou have been bargaining and haggling, and so there comes
neither blood nor milk. Go off to Braumske and buy another
sword." The farmer went and returned ; but it was not till
the third time that he bought a sword without haggling.
When the Eoughy struck the water with this it became as
red as blood, and he threw himself into the lake, and never
was seen more.*
2X3atcrman.
AT Seewenweiher, in the Black-Forest, a little Water-man
(Seem'dnlein) used to come and join the people, work the
whole day long with them, and in the evening go back into
the lakes. They used to set his breakfast and dinner apart
for him. "When, in apportioning the work, the rule of " .Xot
too much and not too little " was infringed, he got angry,
and knocked all the things about. Though his clothes were
old and worn, he steadily refused to let the people get him
new ones. But when at last they would do so, and one
evening the lake-man was presented with a new coat, he said,
" When one is paid off, one must go away. After this day
I '11 come no more to you." And, unmoved by the excuses
of the people, he never let himself be seen again.f
A MIDWIFE related that her mother was one night called up,
and desired to make haste and come to the aid of a woman
in labour. It was dark, but notwithstanding she got up and
* Grimm, ut sup. p. 463. t Grimm, ut sup. p. 453.
262 GEEMANY.
dressed herself, and went down, where she found a man
waiting. She begged of him to stay till she should get a
lantern, and she would go with him ; but he was urgent, said
he would show her the way without a lantern, and that there
was no fear of her going astray.
He then bandaged her eyes, at which she was terrified,
and was going to cry out ; but he told her she was in no
danger, and might go with him without any apprehension.
They accordingly went away together, and the woman re-
marked that he struck the water with a rod, and that they
went down deeper and deeper till they came to a room, in
which there was no one but the lying-in woman.
Her guide now took the bandage off her eyes, led her up
to the bed, and recommending her to his wife, went away.
She then helped to bring the babe into the world, put the
woman to bed, washed the babe, and did everything that was
requisite.
The woman, grateful to the midwife, then secretly said to
her : " I am a Christian woman as well as you ; and I was
carried off by a Water-man, who changed me. Whenever I
bring a child into the world he always eats it on the third
day. Come on the third day to your pond, and you will see
the water turned to blood. When my husband comes in
now and offers you money, take no more from him than you
usually get, or else he will twist your neck. Take good
care! "
Just then the husband came in. He was in a great pas-
sion, and he looked all about ; and when he saw that all had
gone on properly he bestowed great praise on the midwife.
He then threw a great heap of money on the table, and said,
"Take as much as you will!" She, however, prudently
answered, " I desire no more from you than from others, and
that is a small sum. If you give me that I am content ; if
you think it too much, I ask nothing from you but to take
me home again." " It is God," says he, " has directed you
to say that." He paid her then the sum she mentioned,
and conducted her home honestly. She was, however, afraid
to go to the pond at the appointed day.
There are many other tales in Germany of midwives, and
even ladies of rank, who have been called in to assist at Nuc
NIXES. 263
or Dwarf labours. The Ahnfrau von Eanzau, for example,
and the Fran von Alvensleben the Ladies Bountiful of
Germany were waked up in the night to attend the little
women in their confinement.* There is the same danger
in touching anything in the Dwarf as in the Nix abodes, but
the Dwarfs usually bestow rings and other articles, which
will cause the family to flourish. "We have seen tales of the
sai:ie kind in Scandinavia, and shall meet with them in many
other countries.
* A tale of this kind is to be seen in Luther's Table-talk, told by diefrav
doctorin, his wife. The scene of it was the river MuUa.
SWITZERLAND,
Derm da hielten anch 1m lande
Noch die guten Zwerglein Haas ;
Kleingestalt, doch hochbegabet,
Und so btilfreich uberaus !
MCLLER.
For then also in the country
The good Dwarflings still kept house ;
Small in form, but highly gifted,
And so kind and generous 1
WE now arrive at Switzerland, a country with which are
usually associated ideas of sublime and romantic scenery,
simple manners, and honest hearts. The character of the
Swiss Dwarfs will be found to correspond with these ideas.
For, like the face of Nature, these personifications of natural
powers seem to become more gentle and mild as they
approach the sun and the south.
The Dwarfs, or little Hill- or Earth-men* of Switzerland,
are described as of a lively, joyous disposition, fond of stroll-
' ing through the valleys, and viewing and partaking in the
labours of agriculture. Kind and generous, they are
represented as driving home stray lambs, and leaving brush-
wood and berries in the way of poor children. Their prin-
cipal occupation is keeping cattle not goats, sheep, or
cows, but the chamois, from whose milk they make excellent
and well-flavoured cheese. This cheese, when given by the
Dwarfs to any one, has the property of growing again when
it has been cut or bitten. But should the hungry owner be
improvident enough to eat up the whole of it and leave
nothing from it to sprout from, he of course has seen the end
of his cheese.
* la Swiss ff'drdmandlc, pi. H'dnlm'dndhne.
DWAEFS. 265
The Kobolds are also to be met with in Switzerland. In
the Vaudois, they call them Servants,* and believe that they
live in remote dwellings and lonely shiels.f The most cele-
brated of them in those parts is Jean de la Bolieta, or, as he
is called in German, Kapf-Hans, i. e. Jack-of-the-Bowl,
because it was the custom to lay for him every evening on
the roof of the cow-house a bowl of fresh sweet cream, of
which he was sure to give a good account. He used to lead
the cows to feed in the most dangerous places, and yet none
of them ever sustained the slightest injury. He always
went along the same steep path on which no one ever saw
even a single stone lying, though the whole side of the
mountain was strewn as thickly as possible with boulders.
It is still called Bolieta' s Path.J
Rationalising theory has been at work with the Swiss
Dwarfs also. It is supposed, that the early inhabitants of
the Swiss mountains, when driven back by later tribes of
immigrants, retired to the high lands and took refuge in the
clefts and caverns of the mountains, whence they gradually
showed themselves to the new settlers approached them,
assisted them, and were finally, as a species of Genii, raised
to the region of the wonderful.
For our knowledge of the Dwarf Mythology of Switzer-
land, we are chiefly indebted to professor Wyss, of Bern,
who has put some of the legends in a poetical dress, and
given others in the notes to his Idylls as he styles them.
These legends were related by the peasants to Mr. Wyss or
his friends, on their excursions through the mountains ; and
he declares that he has very rarely permitted himself to add
to, or subtract from, the peasants' narrative. He adds, that
the belief in these beings is strong in the minds of the people,
not merely in the mountain districts, but also at the foot of
Belp mountain, Belp, Gelterfingen, and other places about
* Wyss, Reise in das Berner Oberland, ii. 412. Servants is the term in
the original.
f- This Scottish word, signifying the summer cabin of the herdsmen on the
mountains, exactly expresses the Sennhutten of the Swiss.
J Aipenrosen for 1824, op. Grimm, Introd. to Irish Fairy Legends.
Idyllen, Volkssagen, Legenden, und Erzahlungen aus der Schweiz. Von
J. Rud Wyss, Prof. Bern, 1813.
|| In Bilder und Sagen aus der Schwciz. von Dr. Rudolf. Miiller. Glarui,
266 SWITZEBLABP
As a specimen of Mr. Wyss's manner of narrating these
legends, we give here a faithful translation of his first
Idyll.*
<8crtrute airtr
GEBTBUDE.
QUICK, daughter, quick ! spin off what 's on your rock.
'Tis Saturday night, and with the week you know
Our work must end ; we shall the more enjoy
To-morrow's rest when all 's done out of hand.*
Quick, daughter, quick ! spin off what 's on your rock.
HOST.
True, mother, but every minute sleep
Falls on my eyes as heavy as lead, and I
Must yawn do what I will ; and then God knows
I can't help nodding though 'twere for my life ;
Or. ... oh ! it might be of some use if you
Would once more, dearest mother, tell about
The wonderful, good-natured little Dwarfs,
What they here round the country used to do,
And how they showed their kindness to the hinds.
GEBTBUDE.
See now ! what industry ! your work itself
Should keep you waking. I have told you o'er
A thousand times the stories, and we lose,
If you grow wearied of them, store of joy
Reserved for winter-nights ; besides, methinks,
The evening 's now too short for chat like this.
1842, may be found some legends of the Erdmannlein, but they are nearly
all the same as those collected by Mr. Wyss. We give below those in which
there is anything peculiar.
* The original is in German hexameters.
+ It is a notion in some parts of Germany, that if a girl leaves any flax or
tow on her distaff unspun on Saturday night, none of what remains will make
good thread. Grimm, Dent. Mythol. Anhang, p. Lsxii.
DWABFS. 267
HOST.
There 's only one thing I desire to hear
Again, and sure, dear mother, never yet
Have you explained how 'twas the little men
Lived in the hills, and how, all through the year,
They sported round the country here, and gave
Marks of their kindness. For you '11 ne'er persuade
Me to believe that barely, one by one,
They wandered in the valleys, and appeared
TJnto the people, and bestowed their gifts :
So, come now, tell at once, how 'twas the Dwarfs
Lived all together in society.
GEETETJDE.
'Tis plain, however, of itself, and well
"Wise folks can see, that such an active race
"Would never with their hands before them sit.
Ah ! a right merry lively thing, and full
Of roguish tricks, the little Hill-man is,
And quickly too he gets into a rage,
If you behave not toward him mannerly,
And be not frank and delicate in your acts.
But, above all things, they delight to dwell,
Quiet and peaceful, in the secret clefts
Of hills and mountains, evermore concealed.
All through the winter, when with icy rind
The frost doth cover o'er the earth, the wise
And prudent little people keep them warm
By their fine fires, many a fathom down
"Within the inmost rocks. Pure native gold,
And the rock-crystals shaped like towers, clear,
Transparent, gleam with colours thousandfold
Through the fair palace, and the Little-folk,
So happy and so gay, amuse themselves
Sometimes with singing Oh, so sweet! 'twould charm
The heart of any one who heard it sound.
Sometimes with dancing, when they jump and spring
Like the young skipping kids in the Alp-grass.
Then when the spring is come, and in the, fields
268 SWITZERLAND.
The flowers are blooming, with sweet May's approach,
They bolts and bars take from their doors and gates,
That early ere the hind or hunter stirs,
In the cool morning, they may sport and play ;
Or ramble in the evening, when the moon
Lights up the plains. Seldom hath mortal man
Beheld them with his eyes ; but should one chance
To see them, it betokens suffering
And a bad. year, if bent in woe they glide
Through woods and thickets ; but the sight proclaims
Joy and good luck, when social, in a ring,
On the green meads and fields, their hair adorned
With flowers, they shout and whirl their merry rounds
Abundance then they joyously announce
For barn, for cellar, and for granary,
And a blest year to men, to herds, and game.
Thus they do constantly foreshow what will
Befall to-morrow and hereafter ; now
Sighing, and still, by their lamenting tones,
A furious tempest ; and again, with sweet
And smiling lips, and shouting, clear bright skies.*
Chief to the poor and good, they love to show
Kindness and favour, often bringing home
At night the straying lambs, and oftener still
In springtime nicely spreading, in the wood,
Brushwood, in noble bundles, in the way
Of needy children gone to fetch home fuel.
Many a good little girl, who well obeyed
Her mother, or, mayhap, a little boy,
Has, with surprise, found lying on the hills
Bright dazzling bowls of milk, and baskets too,
Nice little baskets, full of berries, left
By the kind hands of the wood-roaming Dwarfa
Now be attentive while I tell you one
Out of a hundred and a hundred stories ;
'Tis one, however, that concerns us more
Than all the rest, because it was my own
Great-great-grandfather that the thing befell,
In the old time, in years long since agone.
* Glam is the term employed in Switzerland,
DWAUF3, 209
Where from the lofty rocks the boundary runs
Down to the vale, Barthel, of herdsmen first
In all the country round, was ploughing up
A spacious field, where he designed to try
The seed of corn ; but with anxiety
His heart was filled, lest by any chance
His venture should miscarry, for his sheep
In the contagion he had lost, now poor
And without skill, he ventures on the plough.
Deliberate and still, at the plough-tail,
In furrows he cuts up the grassy soil,
While with the goad his little boy drives on
The panting ox. When, lo ! along the tall
Rocky hill-side, a smoke ascends in clouds
Like snow-flakes, soaring from the summit up
Into the sky. At this the hungry boy
Began to think of food, for the poor child
Had tasted nothing all the live-long day
For lunch, and, looking up, he thus began :
" Ah ! there the little Dwarf-folk are so gay
At their grand cooking, roasting, boiling now,
For a fine banquet, while with hunger I
Am dying. Had we here one little dish
Of the nice savoury lood, were it but as
A sign that there 's a blessing on our work !"
'Twas thus the boy spake, and his father ploughed
Silently on, bent forwards o'er his work.
They turn the plough ; when huzza ! lo ! behold
A miracle ! there gleamed right from the midst
Of the dark furrow, toward them, a bright
Lustre, and there so charming ! lay a plate
Heaped up with roast meat ; by the plate, a loaf
Of bread upon the outspread table-cloth,
At the disposal of the honest pair.
Hurra ! long live the friendly, generous Dwarfs !
Barthel had now enough so had the boy
And laughing gratefully and loud, they praise
And thank the givers ; then, with strength restored,
They quick return unto their idle plough.
But when again their day's task they resume,
To break more of the field, encouraged now
270 8WITZEBLAITD.
To hope for a good crop, since the kind DwarE*
Had given them the sign of luck they asked
Hush ! bread and plate, and crums, and knife and fork,
Were vanished clean ; only just for a sign
For ever of the truth lay on the ridge
The white, nice- woven, pretty table-cloth.
BOSY.
O mother ! mother ! what ? the glittering plate
And real ? and the cloth with their own hands
Spun by the generous Dwarfs ? No, I can ne'er
Believe it ! Was the thread then, real drawn
And twisted thread, set in it evenly ?
And was there too a flower, a pretty figure,
Nicely wrought in with warp and crossing woof ?
Did there a handsome border go all round.
Enclosing all the figures ? Sure your great-
Great-grandfather, if really he was
The owner of the curious little cloth,
He would have left it carefully unto
His son and grandson for a legacy,
That, for a lasting witness of the meal
Given by the Dwarfs, it might to distant years,
The praise and wonder of our vale remain.
GERTBTTDE.
Odds me ! how wise the child is ! what a loss
And pity 'tis that in old times the folk
"Were not so thoughtful and so over-knowing !
Ah ! our poor simple fathers should rise up
Out of their graves, and come to get advice
And comfort from the brooders that are now,
As if they knew not what was right and fit !
Have but a little patience, girl, and spin
What's on your rock ; to-morrow when 'tis day
I '11 let you see the Dwarfs' flowered table-cloth,
Which, in the chest laid safe, inherited
From mother down to daughter, I have long
Kept treasured under lock and key, for fear
Some little girl, like some one that you know,
Might out of curiosity, and not
Acquainted with its worth, set it astray.
iMVAKFS. 271
Bosr.
Ah, that is kind, dear mother ; and see now
How broad awake I am, and how so smart
I 'm finishing my work since you relate
These pretty tales ; but I will call you up
Out of your bed to-morrow in the morning
So early ! Oh, I wish now it were day
Already, for I 'm sure I shall not get
One wink of sleep for thinking O f the cloth.*
A CHAMOis-uujsTEB set out early one morning, and ascended
the mountains. He had arrived at a great height, and was
in view of some chamois, when, just as he was laying his
bolt on his crossbow, and was about to shoot, a terrible cry
from a cleft of the rock interrupted his purpose. Turning
round he saw a hideous Dwarf, with a battle-axe in his hand
raised to slay him. " Why," cried he, in a rage, " hast thou
so long been destroying my chamois, and leavest not with
me my flock ? But now thou shalt pay for it with thy
blood." The poor hunter turned pale at the stranger's
words. In his terror he was near falling from the cliff.
* This legend was picked up by a friend of Mr. Wyss when on a topogra-
phical ramble in the neighbourhood of Bern. It was told to him by a peasant
of Belp ; " but," says Mr. Wyss, " if I recollect right, thia man said it was a
nice smoking-hot cake that was on the plate, and it was a servant, not the
man's son, who was driving the plough. The circumstance of the table-cloth
being handed down from mother to daughter," he adds, " is a fair addition
which I have allowed myself."
The writer recollects to have heard this story, when a boy, from ail old
woman in Ireland ; and he could probably point out the Tery field in the
county of Kildare where it occurred. A man and a boy were ploughing : the
boy, as they were about in the middle of their furrow, smelled roast beef, and
wished for some. As they returned, it was lying on the grass before them.
When they had eaten, the boy said " God bless me, and God bless the fairies !"
The man did not give thanks, and he met with misfortunes very shortly after.
The same legend is also in Scotland. See below.
272 SWITZEKLA.XD.
At length, however, he recovered himself, and begged for-
giveness of the Dwarf, pleaded his ignorance that the
charm, is belonged to him, declaring at the same time that he
had no other means of support than what he derived from
hunting. The Dwarf was pacified, laid down his axe, and
said to him, " "Tis well ; never be seen here again, and I
promise thee that every seventh day thou shalt find, early
in the morning, a dead chamois hanging before thy cottage ;
but beware and keep from the others." The Dwarf then
vanished, and the hunter returned thoughtfully home, little
pleased with the prospect of the -inactive live he was now
to lead.
On the seventh morning he found, according to the
Dwarf's promise, a fat chamois hanging in the branches of a
tree before his cottage, of which he ate with great satisfac-
tion. The next week it was the same, and so it continued
for some months. But at last he grew weary of this idle
life, and preferred, come what might, returning to the chase,
and catching chamois for himself, to having his food provided
for him without the remembrance of his toils to sweeten the
repast. His determination made, he once more ascended the
mountains. Almost the first object that met his view was a
fine buck. The hunter levelled his bow and took aim at
the prey ; and as the Dwarf did not appear, he was just
pulling the trigger, when the Dwarf stole behind him, took
him by the ankle, and tumbled him down the precipice.
Others say the Dwarf gave the hunter a small cheese of
chimois-milk, which would last him his whole life, but that
he one day thoughtlessly ate the whole of it, or, as some will
have it, a guest who was ignorant of the quality of it ate up
the remainder. Poverty then drove him to return to the
chamois-hunting, and he was thrown into a chasm by the
Dwarf.*
* The former account was obtained by a friend in Glarnerland. The latter
was given to Mr. Wyss himself by a man of Zweyliitschinen, very rich, say
Mr. WYM, in Dwarf lore, and who accompanied him to I^au'erbumuen.
Schiller has founded his poem Der Alpenjager on this legend.
273
JBtoarfe 0u tij
JN the summer-time the troop of the Dwarfs came in groat
numbers down from the hills into the valley, and joined the
men that were at work, either assisting them or merely
looking on. They especially liked to be with the mowers in
the hay-making season, seating themselves, greatly to their
satisfaction, on the long thick branch of a maple-tree, among
the dense foliage. But one time some mischief-loving people
came by night and sawed the branch nearly through. The
unsuspecting Dwarfs, as usual, sat down on it in the morn-
ing ; the branch snapt in two, and the Dwarfs were thrown
to the ground. "When the people laughed at them they
became greatly incensed, and cried out,
how is heaven so high
And perfidy so great !
Here to-day and never more !
and they never let themselves again be seen.*
It is also related that it was the custom of the Dwarfs to
seat themselves on a large piece of rock, and thence to look on
the haymakers when at work. But some mischievous people
lighted a fire on. the rock and made it quite hot, and then
swept off all the coals. In the morning the little people,
coming to take their usual station, burned themselves in a
lamentable manner. Full of anger, they cried out, " O wicked
world! wicked world!" called aloud for vengeance, and
disappeared for ever.
IN old times men lived in the valley, and around them, ir
the clefts and holes of the rocks, dwelt the Dwarfs. They
* Mr. Wyss heard this and the following tale in Haslitlial and Gadmcn.
T
274 SW1TZEBLAITD.
\vere kind and friendly to the people, often performing hard
and heavy work for them in the night ; and when the
country-people came early in the morning with their carta
and tools, they saw, to their astonishment, that the work
was already done, while the Dwarfs hid themselves in the
bushes, and laughed aloud at the astonished rustics. Often,
too, were the peasants incensed to find their corn, which
was scarcely yet ripe, lying cut on the ground ; but shortly
after there was sure to come on such a hail-storm, that it
became obvious that hardly a single stalk could have escaped
destruction had it not been cut, and then, from the bottom
of their hearts, they thanked the provident Dwarf-people.
But at last mankind, through their own folly, deprived
themselves of the favour and kindness of the Dwarfs ; they
iled the country, and since that time no mortal eye has seen
them. The cause of their departure was this :
A shepherd had a fine cherry-tree* that stood on the
mountain. When in the summer the fruit had ripened, it
happened that, three times running, the tree was stript, and
all the fruit spread, out on the benches and hurdles, where
the shepherd himself used to spread it out to dry for the
winter. The people of the village all said, " It could be
none but the good-natured Dwarfs, who come by night trip-
ping along with their feet covered with long mantles, as
light as birds, and industriously perform for mankind their
daily work. People have often watched them," continued
the narrators, " but no one disturbs them ; they are left to
come and go as they please." This talk only excited the
curiosity of the shepherd, and he longed to know why it was
that the Dwarfs so carefully concealed their feet, and
whether they were differently formed from those of men.
Accordingly, next year, when the summer came, and the
time when the Dwarfs secretly pulled the cherries, and
brought them to the barn, the shepherd took a sack full of
ashes, and strewed them about under the cherry-tree. Next
morning, at break of day, he hastened to the place: the
tree was plucked completely empty, and he saw the marks
of several goose-feet impressed on the ashes. The shepherd
* In several of the high valleys of Switzerland it is only a single cherry-
tree which happens to be favouvahly situated that bears fruit. It bears abun-
dantly, and the fruit ripens about th month of August. Wytt.
DWABF8. 275
then laughed and jested at having discovered the Dwarf's 1
secret. But soon after the Dwarfa broke and laid waste
their houses, and fled down deeper in the mountain to their
splendid secret palace, that had long lain empty to receive
them. Vexed with mankind, they never more granted them
their aid ; and the imprudent shepherd who had hetrayed
them became sickly, and continued so to the end of his life.*
Bejcctrtr Gift.
A DwAnr came do vvn one night from the chesnut woods on
the side of the mountain over the village of Walchwyl, and
enquired for the house of a midwife, whom he earnestiy
pressed to come out and go with him. She consented, and
the Dwarf, bearing a light, led the way in silence to the
woods. He stopped at last before a cleft in a rock, at which
they entered, and the woman suddenly found herself in a
magnificent hall. She was thence led through several rich
apartments to the chamber of state, where the queen of the
Dwarfs, for whom her services were required, was lying. She
performed her office, and brought a fair young prince to the
light. She was thanked and dismissed, and her former con-
ductor appeared to lead her home. As he was taking leave
of her, he filled her apron wit-h something, bidding her on no
* Comnare the narrative in the Swiss dialect given hy Grimm, Deut.
Mythol. p. 419. The same peasant of Belp who related the first legend was
Mr. Wyss's authority for this one. " The vanishing of the Bergmanlein," says
Mr. Wyss, " appears to be a matter of importance to the popular faith. It
is almost always ascribed to the fault of mankind sometimes to their
wickedness."
We may in these tales recognise the box of Pandora under a different form,
but the ground is the same. Curiosity and wickedness are still the cause ol
superior beings withdrawing their favour from man.
" I have never any where else," says Mr. Wyss, " heard of the goose-feet ;
but that all is not right with their feet is evident from the popular tradition
giving long trailing mantles as the dress of the little people. Some will have
it that their feet are regularly formed, but set on their legs the wrong way, so
that the toes are behind and the heels before."
Heywood, in his Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels, p. 554, relates a 8tor
which would seem to refer to a similar belief.
T2
276 SWITZEKLAXD.
account to look at it till she was in her own house. But the
woman could not control her curiosity, and the moment the
Dwarf disappeared, she partly opened the apron, and lo ! there
was nothing in it but some black coals. In a rage, she shook
them out on the ground, but she kept two of them in her
hands, as a proof of the shabby treatment she had met with
from the Dwarfs. On reaching home, she threw them also
down on the ground. Her husband cried out with joy and
surprise, for they shone like carbuncles. She asserted that
the Dwarf had put nothing but coals into her apron ; but she
ran out to call a neighbour, who knew more of such things
than they did, and he on examining them pronounced them
to be precious stones of great value. The woman imme-
diately ran back to where she had shaken out the supposed
coals, but they were all gone.*
caouttrvful iitttlr
AT noon one day a young peasant sat by the side of a wood,
and, sighing, prayed to God to give him a morsel of food.
A Dwarf suddenly emerged from the wood, and told him that
his prayer should be fulfilled. He then gave him the pouch
that he had on his side, with the assurance that he would
always find in it wherewithal to satisfy his thirst and hunger,
charging him at the same time not to consume it all and to
share with any one who asked him for food. The Dwarf
vanished, and the peasant put his hand into the pouch to make
trial of it, and there he found a cake of new bread, a cheese,
and a bottle of wine, on which he made a hearty meal. He
* Miiller, Bilder und Sagen, p. 119; see above, p. 81. Coals are the
usual form under which the Dwarfs conceal the precious metals. We also
find this trait in Srindinavia. A smith who lived near Aarhuus in Jutland,
as he was going to church, saw a Troll on the roadside very busy about two
straws that had got across each other on a heap of coals, and which, do what
he would, he could not remove from their position. He asked the smith to
do it for him ; but he who knew better things took up the coals with the cross
straws on them, and carried them home in spite of the screams of the Trcll,
ind when he reached his own liousi he found it was a larc;e treasure he ha<l
jjut, over which the Troll had lost all power. Thiele, i. 122.
DWAEFS. 277
hen saw that the pouch swelled up as before, and looking in
e found that it was again full of bread, cheese, and wine.
Ee now felt sure of his food, and he lived on in an idle
uxurious way, without doing any work. One day, as he was
;orging himself, there came up to him a feeble old man, who
>rayed him to give him a morsel to eat. He refused in a
>rutal, churlish tone, when instantly the bread and cheese
)roke, and scattered out of his hands, and pouch and all
,'amshed.*
airtf
ON the side of Mount Pilatus is a place named the Kastler-
Alpe, now covered with stones and rubbish, but which once
was verdant and fertile. The cause of the change was as
follows.
The land there was formerly occupied by a farmer, a
churlish, unfeeling man, who, though wealthy, let his only
sister struggle with the greatest poverty in the valley
beneath. The poor woman at length having fallen sick, and
seeing no other resource, resolved to apply to her hard-
hearted brother for the means of employing a doctor. She
sent her daughter to him ; but all the prayers and tears of
the poor girl failed to move him, and he told her he would,
sooner than give her anything, see the Alpe covered with
stones and rubbish. She departed, and as she went along a
Dwarf suddenly appeared to her. She would have fled, but
he gently detained her, and telling her he had heard all that
had passed, gave her a parcel of herbs, which he assured her
would cure her mother, and a little cheese, which he said
would last them a long time.
On trial, the herbs quickly produced the promised effect ;
and when they went to cut the cheese they found the knife
would not penetrate it, and no wonder, for it was pure gold.
There also came a sudden storm on the mountain, and the
Kastler-Alpe was reduced to its present condition.f
* Muller, ut mp. p. 123. t M tiller, lit, sup. p. 126.
278 SWITZEELAITD.
CIjc Sfoarf m earc!) of &0&jjtn]j.
ONE night, during a tremendous storm of wind and rain, a
Dwarf came travelling through a little village, and went from
cottage to cottage, dripping with rain, knocking at the doors
for admission. None, however, took pity on him, or would
open the door to receive him : on the contrary, the inhabit-
ants even mocked at his distress.
At the very end of the village there dwelt two honest poor
people, a man and his wife. Tired and faint, the Dwarf crept
on his staff up to their house, and tapped modestly three
times at the little window. Immediately the old shepherd
opened the door for him, and cheerfully offered him the little
that the house afforded. The old woman produced some
bread, milk, and cheese : the Dwarf sipped a few drops of the
milk, and ate some crums of the bread and cheese. " I am
not used," said he, laughing, " to eat such coarse food: but
I thank you from my heart, and God reward you for it : now
that I am rested, I will proceed on farther." " God forbid !"
cried the good woman ; " you surely don't think of going out
in the night and in the storm ! It were better for you to
take a bed here, and set out in the daylight." But the Dwarf
shook his head, and with a smile replied, " You little know
what business I have to do this night on the top of the moun-
tain. I have to provide for you too ; and to-morrow you
shall see that I am r.ot ungrateful for the kindness you have
shown to me." So saying, the Dwarf departed, and the
worthy old couple went to rest.
But at break of day they were awaked by storm and
tempest ; the lightnings flashed along the red sky, and tor-
rents of water poured down the hills and through the valley.
A huge rock now tumbled from the top of the mountain,
and rolled down toward the village, carrying along with it,
in its course, trees, stones, and earth. Men and cattle, every
thing in the village that had breath in it, were buried beneath
DWAEJFS. 279
it. The waves had now reached the cottage of the two old
people, and in terror and dismay they stood out before their
aoor. They then beheld approaching in the middle of the
stream a large piece of rock, and on it, jumping merrily, the
Dwarf, as if he was riding and steering it with a great trunk
of a pine till he brought it before the house, where it stemmed
the water and kept it from the cottage, so that both it and
the good owners escaped. The Dwarf then swelled and grew
higher and higher till he became a monstrous Giant, and
vanished in the air, while the old people were praying to God
and thanking him for their deliverance.*
* This story is told of two places in the Highlands of Berning, of Ralligen,
a little village on the lake of Thun, where there once stood a town called
Roll ; and again, of Schillingsdorf, a place in the valley of Grinderwald,
formerly destroyed by a mountain slip.
The reader need scarcely be reminded of the stories of Lot and of Baucis
and Philemon : see also Grimm's Kinder und Hausmarchen, iii. 153, ftr
other parallels.
GREAT BRITAIN.
In old wives daies that in old time did live,
To whose odde tales much credit men did give,
Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares,
Urchins and elves to many a house repaires.
OLD POEM.
WE use the term Great Britain in a very limited sense, as
merely inclusive of those parts of the island whose inhabit-
ants are of Gotho- German origin England and the Lowlands
of Scotland.
"We have already seen* that the Anglo-Saxon conquerors
of Britain had in their language the terms from which are
derived Elf and Dwarf, and the inference is natural that their
ideas respecting these beings corresponded with those of the
Scandinavians and Germans. The same may be said of the
Picts, who, akin to the Scandinavians, early seized on the
Scottish Lowlands. "We therefore close our survey of the
.Fairy Mythology of the Gotho-German race with Great
Britain.
ENGLAND.
Merry elves, their morrice pacing,
To aerial minstrelsy,
Emerald rings on brown heath tracing,
Trip it deft and merrily.
SCOTT.
THE Fairy Mythology of England divides itself into two
branches, that of the people and that of the poets. Under
tbj former head will be comprised the few scattered tradi-
* See above pp. 66, 75.
ENGLAND. 28 I
tions which we have been able to collect respecting a system,
the belief in which is usually thought to be nearly extinct ;
the latter will contain a selection of passages, treating of
fairies and their exploits, from our principal poets.
The Fairies of England are evidently the Dwarfs of Ger-
many and the North, though they do not appear to have
been ever so denominated.* Their appellation was Elves,
subsequently Fairies ; but there would seem to have been
formerly other terms expressive of them, of which hardly a
restige is now remaining in the English language.
They were, like their northern kindred, divided into two
classes the rural Elves, inhabiting the woods, fields, moun-
tains, and caverns ; and the domestic or house-spirits, usually
called Hobgoblins and Robin Groodfellows. But the Thames,
the Avon, and the other English streams, never seem to have
been the abode of a Neck or Kelpie.
The following curious instances of English superstition,
occur in the twelfth century.
" ANOTHEB wonderful thing," says Ealph of Coggeshall,t
" happened in Suffolk, at St. Mary's of the Wolf-pits. A
boy and his sister were found by the inhabitants of that
place near the mouth of a pit which is there, who had the
form of all their limbs like to those of other men, but they
differed in the colour of their skin from all the people of our
habitable world; for the whole surface of their skin was
tinged of a green colour. No one could understand their
speech. "When they were brought as curiosities to the house
of a certain knight, Sir Eichard de Calne, atWikes, they wept
* The Anglo-Saxon Dweorg, Dworh, and the English Dwarf, do not seem
ever to have had any other sense than that of the Latin nanus.
f As quoted by Picart in his Notes on William of Newbridge. We could
not find it in the Collection of Histories, etc., by Martene and Durand, the
only place where, to our knowledge, this chronicler's works are printed.
282 GEAT BEITALJf.
bitterly, Bread and other victuals were set before them, but
they would touch none of them, though they were tormented
by great hunger, as the girl afterwards acknowledged. At
length, when some beans just cut, with their stalks, were
brought into the house, they made signs, with great avidity,
that they should be given to them. When they were
brought, they opened the stalks instead of the pods, thinking 1
the beans were in the hollow of them ; but not finding there
there, they began to weep anew. When those who were
present saw this, they opened the pods, and showed them
the naked beans. They fed on these with great delight, and
for a long time tasted no other food. The boy, however, was
always languid and depressed, and he died within a short
time. The girl enjoyed continual good health ; and becoming
accustomed to various kinds of food, lost completely that
green colour, and gradually recovered the sanguine habit of
her entire body. She was afterwards regenerated by the
laver of holy baptism, and lived for many years in the service
of that knight (as I have frequently heard from him and his
family), and was rather loose and wanton in her conduct.
Being frequently asked about the people of her country, she
asserted that the inhabitants, and all they had in that country,
were of a green colour ; and that they saw no sun, but en-
joyed a degree of light like what is after sunset. Being
asked how she came into this country with the aforesaid boy,
she replied, that as they were following their flocks, they
came to a certain cavern, on entering which they heard a
delightful sound of bells ; ravished by whose sweetness, they
went for a long time wandering on through the cavern, until
they came to its mouth. When they came out of it, they
were struck senseless by the excessive light of the sun, and
the unusual temperature of the air ; and they thus lay for a
long time. Being terrified by the noise of those who came
on them, they wished to fly, but they could not find the
entrance of the cavern before they were caught."
This story is also told by William of Newbridge,* who
places it in the reign of King Stephen. He says he long
* Guilielmi Neubrigensia Higtoria, give Chronica Rerum Anglica~tan.
Oxon. 1719, lib. i. c. 27.
ENGLAND. 283
hesitated to believe it, but he was at length overcome by the
weight of evidence. According to him, the place where the
children appeared was about four or five miles from Bury St.
Edmund's : they came in harvest-time out of the Wolf-pits
they both lost their green hue, and were baptised, and learned
English. The boy, who was the younger, died ; but the girl
married a man at Lenna, and lived many years. They said
their country was called St. Martin's Land, as that saint was
chiefly worshiped there; that the people were Christians,
and had churches ; that the sun did not rise there, but that
there was a bright country which could be seen from theirs,
being divided from it by a very broad river.
JFatrg banquet.
IN the next chapter of his history, "William of Newbridge
relates as follows :
"In the province of the Deiri (Yorkshire), not far from
my birth-place, a wonderful thing occurred, which I have
known from my boyhood. There is a town a few miles distant
from the Eastern Sea, near which are those celebrated waters
commonly called Gipse. ... A peasant of this town went
once to see a friend who lived in the next town, and it was
late at night when he was coming back, not very sober ; when
lo ! from the adjoining barrow, which I have often seen, and
which is not much over a quarter of a mile from the town,
he heard the voices of people singing, and, as it were, joy-
fully feasting. He wondered who they could be that were
breaking in that place, by their merriment, the silence of the
dead night, and he wished to examine into the matter more
closely. Seeing a door open in the side of the barrow, he
went up to it, and looked in ; and there he beheld a large
and luminous house, full of people, women as well as men,
who were reclining as at a solemn banquet. One of the
attendants, seeing him.standing at the door, offered him a cup.
He took it, but would not drink ; and pouring out the con-
tents, kept the vessel. A great tumult arose at the banquet
284 GBEAT BRITAIN.
on account of his taking away the cup, and all the guests
pursued him ; but he escaped by the fleetness of the beast
he rode, and got into the town with his booty. Finally, this
vessel of unknown material, of unusual colour, and of extra-
ordinary form, was presented to Henry the Elder, king of
the English, as a valuable gift, and was then given to the
queen's brother David, king of the Scots, and was kept for
several years in the treasury of Scotland ; and a few years
ago (as I have heard from good authority), it was given by
William, king of the Scots, to Henry the Second, who wished
to see it."
The scene of this legend, we may observe, is the very
country in which the Danes settled ; and it is exactly the
same as some of the legends current at the present day
among the Danish peasantry.* It is really extraordinary to
observe the manner in which popular traditions and super-
stitions will thus exist for centuries.
Gervase of Tilbury, the Imperial Chancellor, gives the
following particulars respecting the Fairy Mythology of
England in the thirteenth century.
JFatrg $?nrn.
" THEBE is," says he,f " in the county of Gloucester, a forest
abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game that
England produces. In a grovy lawn of this forest there is a
little mount, rising in a point to the height of a man, on which
knights and other hunters are used to ascend when fatigued
with heat and thirst, to seek some relief for their wants. The
nature of the place, and of the business, is, however, such,
that whoever ascends the mount must leave his companions,
and go quite alone.
" When alone, he was to say, as if speaking to some other
person, ' I thirst,' and immediately there would appear a
cupbearer in an elegant dress, with a cheerful countenance,
bearing in his stretched-out hand a large horn, adorned with
* See above, p. 109.
t Otia Iniperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptoret rerum Brunsvicarum, vol. i.
p. 901.
ENGLAND. 285
g )id and gems, as was the custom among the most ancient
English. In the cup * nectar of an unknown but most deli-
cious flavour was presented, and when it was drunk, all heat
and weariness fled from the glowing body, so that one would
be thought ready to undertake toil instead of having toiled.
Moreover, when the nectar was taken, the servant presented
a towel to the drinker, to wipe his mouth with, and then
having performed his office, he waited neither for a recom-
pense for his services, nor for questions and enquiry.
" This frequent and daily action had for a very long period
of old times taken place among the ancient people, till one
day a knight of that city, when out hunting, went thither,
and having called for a drink and gotten the horn, did not,
as was the custom, and as in good manners he should have
done, return it to the cup-bearer, but kept it for his own use.
But the illustrious Earl of Gloucester, when he learned the
truth of the matter, condemned the robber to death, and
presented the horn to the most excellent King Henry the
Elder, lest he should be thought to have approved of such
wickedness, if he had added the rapine of another to the store
of his private property."
IN another part of this work the Chancellor says,t
" They have in England certain demons, though I know
not whether I should call them demons or figures of a secret
and unknown generation, which the French call !Xeptunes,
the English Fortunes. J It is their nature to embrace the
simple life of comfortable farmers, and when, on account of
their domestic work, they are sitting up at night, when the
* Vice calicis.
t Otia Imperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptores rerum Brunsvicarum, voL i.
p. 9SO.
J There is, as far as we are aware, no vestige of these names remaining in
either the French or English language, and we cannot conceive how the Latin
name * of sea-gods came to he applied to the Gotho-German Kobolds, etc.
286 GREAT BRITAIN.
doors are shut, they warm themselves at the ore, and take
little frogs out of their bosom, roast them o'n the coals, and
eat them. They have the countenance of old men, with
wrinkled cheeks, and they are of a very small stature, not
being quite half-an-inch high.* They wear little patched
coats, and if anything is to be carried into the house, or any
laborious work to be done, they lend a hand, and finish it
sooner than any man could. It is their nature to have the
power to serve, but not to injure. They have, however, one
little mode of annoying. When in the uncertain shades of
night the English are riding any where alone, the Fortune
sometimes invisibly joins the horseman ; and when he has
accompanied him a good while, he at last takes the reins,
and leads the horse into a neighbouring slough ; and when
he is fixed and floundering in it, the Fortune goes off with a
loud laugh, and by sport of this sort he mocks the simplicity
of mankind.
(Grant.
" THERE is," says he, againf " in England a certain kind of
demon whom in their language they call Grant, J like a year-
ling foal, erect on its hind legs, with sparkling eyes. This
kind of demon often appears in the streets in the heat of the
day, or about sunset. If there is any danger impending on
the following day or night, it runs about the streets pro-
voking the dogs to bark, and, by feigning flight, draws the
dogs after it, in the vain hope of catching it. This illusion
warns the inhabitants to beware of fire, and the friendly
demon, while he terrifies those who see him, puts by his
coming the ignorant on their guard."
Thus far the Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, and,
* Dimidium pollicis. Should we not read pedit ?
+ Otia Imperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptores renim Bnmsvicarum, vol. i,
p. 980.
J Can th's name be connected with that of Grendel, the malignant spirit ii
Bedwulf?
EKOLAND. 287
except in the poets, we have met with no further account of,
or allusion to, fairies, until the reign of Elizabeth, when
a little work appeared, named, The mad Pranks and merry
Jests of Robin Goodfellow,* from which Shakespeare seems
in a good measure to have derived his Puck.
This work consists of two parts. In the first we are in-
formed that Robin was the offspring of a " proper young
wench by a hee-fayrie, a king or something of that kind
among them." By the time he was six years old he was so
mischievous and unlucky that his mother found it necessary
to promise him a whipping. He rail away and engaged with
a tailor, from whom also he soon eloped. When tired he
sat down and fell asleep, and in his sleep he had a vision of
fairies ; and when he awoke he found lying beside him a
scroll, evidently left by his father, which, in verses written
in letters of gold, informed him that he should have any
thing he wished for, and have also the power of turning him-
self "To horse, to hog, to dog, to ape," etc., but he was to
harm none but knaves and queans, and was to " love those
that honest be, and help them in necessity." He made
trials of his power and found that he really possessed it.
His first exploit was to turn himself into a horse, to punish
a churlish clown, whom he induced to mount him, and gave
him a fall that went well nigh to break his neck. The fellow
then went to ride him through a great plash of water, " and
in the middle of it he found himself with nothing but a pack-
saddle between his legs, while Robin went off laughing, Ho,
ho, Ttoh ! He next exerted himself in the cause of two young
lovers, and secured their happiness.
In the Second Part we find him more in the character of
the Jus or Brownie. Coming to a farmer's house, he takes
a liking to a " good handsome maid," that was there, and in
the night does her work for her, at breaking hemp and flax,
bolting meal, etc. Having watched one night and seen him
at work, and observed that he was rather bare of clothes, she
* Edited for the Percy Society by J. P. Collyer, Esq., 1841. Mr. Collyei
says there is little doubt but that this work was printed before 1588, or even
1584. ^Ve think this is true only of the First Part ; for the Second, which is
of a different texture, must have been added some time after tobacco had
come into common use in England : see the verses in p. 34.
288 GEEAT BEITADT.
provided him with a waistcoat against the next night. But
when he saw it he started and said :
Because thou layest me himpen hampen
I will neither bolt nor stampen :
Tis not your garments, new or old,
That Robin loves : I feel no cold.
Had you left me milk or cream,
You should have had a pleasing dream :
Because you left no drop or crum,
Robin never more will come.
He went off" laughing So, ho, hoh ! and the maid in future
had to do all the work herself.
A company of young fellows who had been making merry
with their sweethearts were coming home over a heath.
Robin met them, and to make himself merry took the form
of a walking fire, and led them up and down till daylight,
and then went off saying :
Get you home, you merry lads :
Tell your mammies and your dads,
And all those that news desire,
How you saw a walking fire.
"Wenches that do smile and lispe,
Use to call me Willy Wispe.
If that you but weary be,
It is sport alone for me.
Away : unto your houses go,
And 1 11 go laughing, Ho, ho, hoh f
A fellow was attempting to offer violence to a young
maiden. Robin came to her aid, ran between his legs in the
shape of a hare, then turning himself into a horse, carried
him off on his back, and flung him into a thick hedge.
Robin fell in love with a weaver's pretty wife, and for her
sake took service with her husband. The man caught them
one day kissing, and next night he went and took Robin as
he was sleeping, up out of his bed, and went to the river and
threw him in. But instantly he heard behind him
For this your service, master, I you thank.
Go swim yourself ; I '11 stay upon the bank ;
and was pushed in by Robin, who had put a bag of yarn in
his bed, and now went off with, Ho, ho, hoh, I
ENGLAND. 289
Robin went as a fiddler to a wedding. When the candies
came he blew them out, and giving the men boxes in the ears
he set them a-fighting. He kissed the prettiest girls, and
pinched the others, till he made them scratch one another
like cats. When the posset was brought forth, he turned
himself into a bear, and frightening them away, had it all to
himself.
At length his father who we now find was king Obreon
(i. e. Oberon),* called him up out of his bed one night, and
took him to where the fairies were dancing to the music of
Tom Thumb's bagpipe, and thence to Fairy-land, where he
" did show him many secrets which he never did open to th
world."
In the same work Sib says of the woman-fairies :
" To walk nightly as do the men-fairies we use not ; but
now and then we go together, and at good housewives' fires
we warm our fairy children.f If we find clean water and
clean towels we leave them money, either in their basins, or
in their shoes ; but if we find no clean water in their houses,
we wash our children in their pottage, milk, or beer, or what-
ever we find : for the sluts that have not such things fitting,
we wash their faces and hands with a gilded child's clout, or
else carry them to some river and duck them over head and
ears. We often use to dwell in some great hill, and from
thence we do lend money to any poor man or woman that
hath need ; but if they bring it not again at the day appointed,
we do not only punish them with pinching, but also in their
goods, so that they never thrive till they have paid us."
The learned and strong-minded Reginald Scot, thus notices
the superstitions of his own and the preceding age. J
" Indeed your grandams' maids were wont to set a bowl
of milk before him (Incubus) and his cousin Robin G-ood-
fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the
house at midnight ; and you have also heard that he would
chafe exceedingly if the maid or good-wife of the house,
having compassion of his nakedness, laid any clothes for him
* Mr. Collyer does not seem to have recollected that Huoii de Bordeaux
had been translated by Lord Berners ; see above, p. 56.
t It is, according to this authority the man-fairy Guim that steals children
and leaves changelings.
J Discoverie of Wiichcrafte* iv. ch. 10.
290 OEEAT BRITAIN.
besides his mess of white bread and milk, which was hia
standing fee ; for iu that case he saith,
What have we here 1 Hemten, hamton,
Here will I never more tread nor stampen.
Again:*
" The Faeries do principally inhabit the mountains and
caverns of the earth, whose nature is to make strange appa-
ritions on the earth, in meadows or on mountains, being Hke
men and women, soldiers, kings, and ladies, children and
horsemen, clothed in green, to which purpose they do in the
night steal hempen stalks from the fields where they grow, to
convert them into horses, as the story goes.
"Such jocund and facetious spirits," he continues, "are
said to sport themselves in the night by tumbling and fool-
ing with servants and shepherds in country houses, pinching
them black and blue, and leaving bread, butter, and cheese,
sometimes with them, which, if they refuse to eat, some mis-
chief shall undoubtedly befal them by the means of these
Faeries ; and many such have been taken away by the said
spirits for a fortnight or a month together, being carried
with them in chariots through the air, over hills and dales,
rocks and precipices, till at last they have been found lying
in some meadow or mountain, bereaved of their senses, and
commonly one of their members to boot."
Elsewhere J he gives the following goodly catalogue of
these objects of popular terror : " Our mother's maids have
so frayed us with Bull-beggars, Spirits, "Witches, Urchins,
Elves, Hags, Faeries, Satyrs, Pans, Faunes, Sylens, Kit-wi-
the-Canstick, Tritons, Centaurs, Dwarfs, Gyants, Impes,
Calcars, Conjurors, Nymphs, Changelings, Incubus, Bobin
Goodfellow, the Spoorn, the Mare, the Man-in-the-Oak, the
Hell-wain, the Firedrake, the Puckle, Tom-thombe, Hob-
goblin, Tom-tumbler, Boneless, and such other Bugs, that
we are afraid of our shadow." t
* R. Scot, Discoverie of Witchcrafte, ii. ch. 4. + Tb. vii. 15.
J This appears to us to be rather a display of the author's learning than an
actual enumeration of the objects of popular terror ; for the maids hardly
talked of Satyrs, Pans, etc. For Bull-beggar, see p. 316 ; for Urchin, p. 319.
Hag is the Anglo-Saxon hae^erc^, German kexe, a witche," and hence the
Nightmare (see p. 332) which was ascribed to witches ; we still say Hag-ridden
ENGLAND. 291
Burton, after noticing from Paracelsus those which in
Germany "do usually walk in little coats, some two foot
long," says,* " A bigger kind there is of them called with us
Hobgoblins and Robin Groodfellows, that would, in those
superstitious times, grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood,
or do any manner of drudgery work." And again : " Some
put our Fairies into this rank (that of terrestrial devils),
which have been in former times adored with much super-
stition, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a pail of
clean water, good victuals, and the like, and then they should
not be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be for
tunate in their enterprises." In another place (p. 30,) he
says, " And so those which Miyaldus calls Ambulones, that
walk about midnight, on heaths and desert places, which
(saith Lavater) draw men out of the way and lead them
all night a by-way, or quite barre them of their way ; these
have several names, in several places ; we commonly call
them Pucks."
Harsenet thus speaks of them in his Declaration : t
" And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly
set out for Robin Goodfellow, the friar, and Sisse the dairy-
maid, why then, either the pottage was burned the next day
in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter
would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good
head. But if a Peter-penny or a Housle-eggeJ were behind,
or a patch of tythe unpaid then 'ware of bull-beggars,
spirits, &c."
Nash thus describes them :
" Then ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their
Calcar and Sporn (spurs ?) may be the same, from the idea of riding : the
French call the Nightmare, Cauchemare, from Caucher, calcare. Kit-wi-thc-
Canstick is Jack-with-the-Lanthorn. The Man in the Oak is probably Puck,
" Turn your cloakes, quoth hee, forPucke is busyin these oakes." Iter Boreaks.
The Hell-wain is perhaps the Death-coach, connected with Northern and
German superstitions, and the Fire-drake an Ignis Fatuus. Boneless may
have been some impalpable spectre ; the other terms seem to be mere appel-
lations of Puck.
Anat. of Mel. p. 47. t Chap. xx. p. 134. Lond. 1604.
J This is, we apprehend, an egg at Easter or on Good Friday. Housle is
the Anglo-Saxon huyel ; Goth, hunsl, sacrifice or offering, and thence the
Eucharist.
Terrors of the Night, 1594.
u2
292 ORKAT BE1TAIIT.
labours; daunced in rounds in green meadows; pinch t maids
in their sleep that swept not their houses clean, and led poor
travellers out of their way."
As the celebrated Luck of Eden Hall is supposed to hare
been a chalice, due respect for the piety of our forefathers
will not allow of our placing the desecration of it any higher
than the reign of Elizabeth, or that of her father at farthest.
We will therefore introduce its history in this place.
ilucfc of Cftren
IK this house (Eden Hall, a seat of the Musgraves,) are some
good old-fashioned apartments. An old painted drinking-
glass, called the Luck of Eden Hall, is preserved with great
care. In the garden near to the house is a well of excellent
spring water, called St. Cuthbert's "Well. (The church is
dedicated to that saint.) This glass is supposed to have
been a sacred chalice ; but the legendary tale is, that the
butler, going to draw water, surprised a company of Fairies,
who were amusing themselves upon the green near the well ;
he seized the glass which was standing upon its margin.
They tried to recover it ; but, after an ineffectual struggle,
flew away, saying,
If that glass either break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Eden HalL*
"In the year 1633-4 (says Aubrey t) soon after I had
entered into my grammar, at the Latin schoole of Tatton-
Keynel, [near Chippenham, "Wilts,] our curate, Mr. Hart,
was annoyed one night by these elves or fayeries. Comming
over the downes, it being neere darke, and approaching one
of the faiery dances, as the common people call them in
* Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 269.
t As quoted by Thorns in his Essay on Popular Songs, in the Athcncum
for 1847.
ENGLAND. 293
these parts, viz. the greene circles made by those sprites on
the grasse, te all at once saw an innumerable quantitie of
pigmies, or very small people, dancing rounde and rounde,
and singing and making all maner of small odd noyses. He,
being very greatly amazed, and yet not being able, as he
says, to run away from them, being, as he supposes, kept
there in a kinde of enchantment, they no sooner perceave
him but they surround him on all sides, and what betwixte
feare and amazement he fell down, scarcely knowing what
he did ; and thereupon these little creatures pinched him all
over, and made a quick humming noyse all the tyme; but at
length they left him, and when the sun rose he found him-
self exactly in the midst of one of these faiery dances. This
relation I had from him myselfe a few days after he was so
tormented ; but when I and my bed-fellow, Stump, wente
soon afterwards, at night time, to the dances on the downes,
we sawe none of the elves or faieries. But, indeed, it is saide
they seldom appeare to any persons who go to seeke for
them."
The next account, in order of time, that occurs, is what
Sir Walter Scott calls the Cock Lane narrative of Anne
Jefferies, who was born in 1626, in the parish of St. Teath,
in Cornwall, and whose wonderful adventures with the
'airies were, in 1696, communicated by Mr. Moses Pitt,
her master's son, to Dr. Fowler, bishop of Gloucester.*
According to this account, Anne described the Fairies,
who she said came to her, as " six small people, aft in green
clothes." They taught her to perform numerous surprising
cures ; they fed her from harvest-time till Christmas ; they
always appeared in even numbers. When seen dancing in
the orchard among the trees, she said she was dancing with
the fairies. These fairies scorned the imputation of being
evil spirits, and referred those who termed them such to
Scripture.
The following " relation of the apparition of Fairies, their
seeming to keep a fair, and what happened to a certain man
that endeavoured to put himself in amongst them," is given
by Bovet.f
* Morgan, Phoenix Britaiimcus, Lond. 1732.
f Pandemonum, p. 207. Lond. 1684.
294 OBEAT
"Heading once the eighteenth of Mr. GlanviTs relations,
p. 203, concerning an Irishman that had like to have been
carried away by spirits, and of the banquet they had spread
before them in the fields, etc., it called to mind a passage
I had often heard, of Fairies or spirits, so called by the
country people, which showed themselves in great companies
at divers times. At some times they would seem to dance,
at other times to keep a great fair or market. I made k
my business to inquire amongst the neighbours what credit
might be given to that which was reported of them, and by
many of the neighbouring inhabitants I had this account
confirmed.
" The place near which they most ordinarily showed them-
selves was on the side of a hQl, named Black-down, between
the parishes of Pittminster and Chestonford, not many miles
from Tanton. Those that have had occasion to travel that
way have frequently seen them there, appearing like men
and women, of a stature generally near the smaller size of
men. Their habits used to be of red, blue, or green, accord-
ing to the old way of country garb, with high crowned hats.
One time, about fifty years since, a person living at Comb
St. Nicholas, a parish lying on one side of that hill, near
Chard, was riding towards his home that way, and saw, just
before him, on the side of the hill, a great company of
people, that seemed to him like country folks assembled as
at a fair. There were all sorts of commodities, to his appear-
ance, as at our ordinary fairs; pewterers, shoemakers, pedlars,
with all kind of trinkets, fruit, and drinking-booths. He
could not remember anything which he had usually seen at
fairs but what he saw there. It was once in his thoughts
that it might be some fair for Chestonford, there being a
considerable one at some time of the year ; but then again
he consideted thqt it was not the season for it. He was
ENGLAND. 295
under very great surprise, and admired what the meaning of
what he saw should be. At length it came into his mind
what he had heard concerning the Fairies on the side of that
hill, and it being near the road he was to take, he resolved
to ride in amongst them, and see what they were. Accord-
ingly he put on his horse that way, and, though he saw them
perfectly all along as he came, yet when he was upon the
place where all this had appeared to him, he could discern
nothing at all, only seemed to be crowded and thrust, as
when one passes through a throng of people. All the rest
became invisible to him until he came to a little distance,
and then it appeared to him again as at first. He found
himself in pain, and so hastened home ; where, being arrived,
lameness seized him all on one side, which continued on him
as long as he lived, which was many years; for he was living
in Comb, and gave an account to any that inquired of this
accident for more than twenty years afterwards ; and this
relation I had from a person of known honour, who had it
from the man himself.
" There were some whose names I have now forgot, but
they then lived at a gentleman's house, named Comb Farm,
near the place before specified : both the man, his wife, and
divers of the neighbours, assured me they had, at many
times, seen this fair-keeping in the summer-time, as they
came from Tanton-market, but that they durst not adven-
ture in amongst them ; for that every one that had done so
had received great damage by it."
CaHrron.
" IN the vestry of Frensham church, in Surrey, on the north
side of the chancel, is an extraordinary great kettle or cal-
dron, which the inhabitants say, by tradition, was brought
hither by the fairies, time out of mind, from Borough-hill,
about a mile hence. To this place, if anyone went to bor-
row a yoke of oxen, money, etc., he might have it for a year
or longer, so he kept his word to return it. There is a cave
296 GBEAT BRITAIN.
where some have fancied to hear music. In this Borough
hill is a great stone, lying along of the length of about six
feet. They went to this stone and knocked at it, and de-
clared what they would borrow, and when they would repay,
and a voice would answer when they should come, and that
they should find what they desired to borrow at that stone.
This caldron, with the trivet, was borrowed here after the
manner aforesaid, and not returned according to promise ;
and though the caldron was afterwards carried to the stone,
it could not be received, and ever since that time no borrow-
ing there."*
Caultr Ea& of fetttan.
" HILTON HALL, in the vale of the "Wear, was in former times
the resort of a Brownie or House-spirit called The Cauld
Lad. Every night the servants who slept in the great hall
heard him at work in the kitchen, knocking the things about
if they had been set in order, arranging them if otherwise,
which was more frequently the case. They were resolved
to banish him if they could, and the spirit, who seemed to
have an inkling of their design, was often heard singing in a
melancholy tone :
Wae 's me ! wae 's me !
The acorn is not yet
Fallen from the tree,
That 's to grow the wood,
That 's to make the cradle,
That 's to rock the bairn,
That 's to grow to a man,
That 's to lay me.
The servants, however, resorted to the usual mode of
banishing a Brownie : they left a green cloke and hood
for him by the kitchen fire, and remained on the watch.
They saw him come in, gaze at the new clothes, try them on,
Aubrey, Natural History of Surrey, iii 366, ap. Ritson, Fairy Talei,
t 166.
ENGLAND. 297
and, apparently in great delight, go jumping and frisking
about the kitchen. But at the first crow of the cock he
vanished, crying
Here 's a cloak, and here 's a hood !
The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do no more good ;
and he never again returned to the kitchen ; yet it was said
that he might still he heard at midnight singing those lines
in a tone of melancholy.
There was a room in the castle long called the Cauld
Lad's Room, which was never occupied unless the castle was
full of company, and within the last century many persons
of credit had heard of the midnight wailing of the Cauld
Lad, who some maintained was the spirit of a servant whom
one of the barons of Hilton had killed unintentionally in a
fit of passion."*
In the beginning of the last century Bourne thus gives
the popular belief on this subject :
"Another part of this (winter's evening) conversation
generally turns upon Fairies. These, they tell you, have
frequently been seen and heard ; nay, that there are some
still living who were stolen away by them, and confined
seven years. According to the description they give of
them, who pretend to have seen them, they are in the shape
of men exceeding little : they are always clad in green, and
frequent the woods and fields. When they make cakes
(which is a work they have been often heard at), they are
very noisy ; and when they have done, they are full of mirth
and pastime. But generally they dance in moonlight, when
mortals are asleep, and not capable of seeing them ; as may
be observed on the following morning, their dancing places
being very distinguishable : for as they dance hand in hand-
and so make a circle in their dance, so next day there will
be seen rings and circles on the grass." t
The author of " Round about our Coalfire " says : ^
* The Local Historian's Table-Book, by M. A. Richardson, iii. 239. New-
aistle-upon-Tyne, 1846.
f Bourne, Antiquitates Vulgares, 1725.
J Quoted by Brand in his Popular Antiquities, an enlarged edition of
Bourne's work.
298 GEEAT BBITA.DT.
" My grandmother has often told me of Fairies dancing
upon our green, and they were little little creatures, clothed
in green.
" The moment any one saw them, and took notice of them,
they were struck bund of an eye. They lived under ground,
and generally came out of a mole-hill.
"They had fine music always among themselves, and
danced in a moonshiny night around, or in a ring, as one
may see at this day upon every common in England, where
mushrooms grow.
" When the master and mistress were laid on their pillows,
the men and maids, if they had a game at romp, and blun-
dered upstairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every
one would swear it was the fairies, and that they heard them
stamping up and down stairs all night, crying ' Water 's
locked ! Water 's locked ! ' when there was not water in
every pail in the kitchen."
To come to the present times. There is no stronger proof
of the neglect of what Mr Thorns has very happily desig-
nated " Folk-lore " in this country, than the fact of there
having been no account given anywhere of the Pixies or
Pisgies * of Devonshire and Cornwall, till within these last
few years. In the year 1836, Mrs. Bray, a lady well known
as the author of several novels, and wife of a clergyman at
Tavistock, published, in a series of letters to Eobert Southey,
interesting descriptions of the part of Devonshire bordering
on the Tamar and the Tavy. In this work there is given
an account of the Piiies, from which we derive the following
information :
According to the Devon peasant, the Pixies are the souls
of infants who died before they were baptised. They are of
* This word Pixy, is evidently Pucksy, the endearing diminutive sy being
tdded to Puck, like Betsy, Nancy, Dixie. So Mrs. Trimmer in her Fabulous
Histories which we read with wonderful pleasure in our childhood, and
would recommend to our young readers calls her hen-robins Pecksy and
Flapsy. Pisgy is only Pixy transposed. Mrs. Bray derives Pixy from Pygmy.
At Truro, in Cornwall, as Mr. Thorns informs us, the moths, which some
regard as departed souls, others as fairies, are called Pisgies. He observes the
curious, but surely casual, resemblance between this and the Greek <ft>x^ which
is both soul and moth. Grimm (p. 430) tells us from an old glossary, that the
caterpillar was named in Germany, Alba, i. e. Elbe, tnd that the Alp oftes
takes the form of a butterfly.
ENGLAND. 299
small dimensions, generally handsome in their form. Their
attire is always green. Dancing is their chief amusement,
which they perform to the music of the cricket, the grass-
hopper, and the frog, always at night ; and thus they form
the fairy-rings. The Pixy-house is usually in a rock. By
moon-light, on the moor, or under the dark shade of rocks,
the Pixy-monarch, Mrs. Bray says, holds his court, where,
like Titania, he gives his subjects their several charges.
Some are sent to the mines, where they will kindly lead the
miner to the richest lode, or maliciously, by noises imitating
the stroke of the hammer, and by false fires, draw him on to
where the worst ore in the mine lies, and then laugh at his
disappointment. Others are sent
To make the maids their sluttery rue,
By pinching them both black and blue.
On this account, says Mrs. Bray, " the good dames in
this part of the world are very particular in sweeping their
houses before they go to bed ; and they will frequently
place a basin of water beside the chimney -nook, to accommo-
date the Pixies, who are great lovers of water ; and some-
times they requite the good deed by dropping a piece of
money into the basin. A young woman of our town, who
declared she had received the reward of sixpence for a like
service, told the circumstance to her gossips ; but no six-
pence ever came again, and it was generally believed that
the Pixies had taken offence by her chattering, as they do
not like to have their deeds, good or evil, talked over by
mortal tongues."
The office of some is to steal children ; of others, to lead
travellers astray, as Will-o'-the-wisps, or to Pixy-lead them,
as it is termed. Some will make confusion in a house by
blowing out the candle, or kissing the maids " with a smack,
as they ' shriek Who 's this ? ' as the old poet writes, till
their grandams come in and lecture them for allowing
unseemly freedoms with their bachelors." Others will make
noises in walls, to frighten people. In short, everything
that is done elsewhere by fairies, boggarts, or other like
beings, is done in Devon by the Pixies.
It is said that they will sometimes aid their favourites in
spinning their flax. "I have heard a story about an old
300 GREAT BEITAIX.
woman in this town," says Mrs. Bray, "who suspected she
received assistance of the above nature ; and one evening,
coming suddenly into the room, she spied a ragged little
creature, who jumped out of the door. She thought she
would try still further to win the services of her elfin friend,
and so bought some smart new clothes, as big as those made
for a doll. These pretty things she placed by the side of
her wheel. The Pixy returned, and put them on ; when,
clapping her tiny hands, she was heard to exclaim
Pixy fine, Pixy gay,
Pixy now will run away ;
and off she went. But the ungrateful little creature never
spun for the poor old woman after."
Mrs. Bray has been assured that mothers used frequently
to pin their children to their sides, to prevent their being
stolen by the Pixies ; and she heard of a woman in Tavistock
who avowed that her mother had a child which was stolen
by them, as she was engaged hanging out clothes to dry in
her garden. She almost broke her heart when she discovered
it; but she took great care of the changeling, which so
pleased the Pixy, that she soon after gave the woman back
her child, who proved eminently lucky in after life.
The being Pixy-led is a thing very apt to befall worthy
yeomen returning at night from fair or market, especially
if they sat long at the market-table; and then, says our
authority, " he will declare, and offer to take his Bible-oath
upon it, that, as sure as ever he 's alive to tell it, whilst his
head was running round like a mill-wheel, he heard with
his own ears they bits of Pisgies a-laughing and 0,-tacking
their hands, all to see he led-astray, and never able to find
the right road, though he had travelled it scores of times
long agone, by night or by day, as a body might tell."
Mr. Thorns, too, was told by a Devon girl, who had often
heard of the Pixies, though she had never seen any, that
" she once knew a man who, one night, could not find his
way out of his own fields, all he could do, until he recollected
to turn his coat ; and the moment he did so, he heard the
Pixies all fly away, up into the trees, and there they sat
and laughed. Oh ! how they did laugh ! But the man then
soon found his way out of the field."
ENGLAND. 301
This turning of the coat, or some other article of dress,
is found to be the surest remedy against Pixy-illusion.
Mrs. Bray says that the old folk in Tavistock have recourse
to it as a preventive against being Pixy-led, if they have
occasion to go out after sun-down. It appears to have been
formerly in use in other parts of England also ; for Bishop
Corbet thus notices it in his "Iter Boreale :"
William found
A mean for our deliverance, Turne your cloakea
Quoth hee, for Pucke is busy in these oakes ;
If ever wee at Bosworth will be found
Then turne your clookes, for this is fairy ground.
In Scandinavia, also, we learn the remedy against being
led astray by the Lygtemand, Lyktgubhe, or Will-o'-the-
Wisp, is to turn one's cap inside out.
Mrs. Bray gives, in addition, the following legends, which
we have taken the liberty of abridging a little.
ONE night, about twelve o'clock in the morning, as the good
folks say, who tell this good tale, Dame the sagefemme
of Tavistock, had just got comfortably into bed, when
rap, rap, rap, came on her cottage door, with such bold and
continued noise, that there was a sound of authority in
every individual knock. Startled and alarmed by the call,
she arose from her bed, and soon learnt that the summons
was a hasty one to bid her attend on a patient who needed
her help. She opened her door, when the summoner
appeared to be a strange, squint-eyed, little, ugly old
fellow, who had a look, as she said, very like a certain dark
personage, who ought not at all times to be called by his
proper name. Xot at all prepossessed in favour of the
errand by the visage of the messenger, she nevertheless
could not, or dared not, resist the command to follow him
straight, and attend on " his wife."
302 GEBA.T BRITAIN.
" Thy wife! " thought the good dame ; " Heaven forgive
me, but as sure as I live I be going to the birth of a little
divil." A large coal-black horse, with eyes like balls of fire,
stood at the door. The ill-looking old fellow, without more
ado, whisked her up on a high pillion in a minute, seated
himself before her, and away went horse and riders as if
sailing through the air rather than trotting on the ground.
How she got to the place of her destination she could not
tell ; but it was a great relief to her fears when she found
herself set down at the door of a neat cottage, saw a couple
of tidy children, and remarked her patient to be a decent
looking woman, having all things about her fitting the time
and occasion. A fine bouncing babe soon made its appear-
ance, who seemed very bold on its entry into life, for it gave
the good dame a box on the ear, as, with the coaxing and
cajolery of all good old nurses, she declared the " sweet
little thing to be very like its father." The mother said
nothing to this, but gave nurse a certain ointment, with
directions that she should strike (i. e. rub) the child's eyes
with it. The nurse performed her task, considering what it
could be for. She thought that, as no doubt it was a good
thing, she might just as well try it upon her own eyes as
well as those of the baby ; so she made free to strike ne
of them by way of trial, when, O ye powers of fairy land !
what a change was there !
The neat, but homely cottage, and all who were in it,
seemed all on a sudden to undergo a mighty transforma-
tion ; some for the better, some for the worse. The new-
made mother appeared as a beautiful lady attired in white ;
the babe was seen wrapped in swaddling clothes of a
silvery gauze. It looked much prettier than before, but
still maintained the elfish cast of the eye, like his father,
whilst two or three children more had undergone a strange
metamorphosis. For there sat on either side the bed's head.
a couple of little flat-nosed imps, who with "mops and
mows," and with many a grimace and grin, were busied to
no end in scratching their own polls, or in pulling the fairy
lady's ears with their long and hairy paws. The dame who
beheld all this, fearing she knew not what, in the house of
enchantment, got away as fast as she could, without saying
one word about striking her own eye with the magic
ENGLAND, 303
ointment and what she had seen. The sour-] Coking old
fellow once more handed her up on the coal-black-horse, and
sent her home in a whip sissa * much faster than she came.
On the next market-day, when she sallied forth to sell
her eggs, she saw the same old fellow busy pilfering sundry
articles from stall to stall, and going up to him she enquired
about his wife and child. " What ! " exclaimed he, " do you
see me to-day ? " " See you ! to be sure I do, as plain as I
see the sun in the sky ; and I see you are busy, too." "Do
you?" says he, "and pray with which eye do you see all
this ? " " "With the right eye to be sure."
" The ointment ! the ointment ! " cried he. " Take that,
for meddling with what did not belong to you ; you shall see
me no more."
He struck her eye as he spoke, and from that hour til]
the day of her death she was blind of that eye.
Two serving-girls in Tavistock said that the Pixies were very
kind to them, and used to drop silver for them into a bucket
of fair water which they took care to place for them in the
chimney-nook every night. Once it was forgotten, and the
Pixies forthwith came up to the girls' room, and loudly
complained of the neglect. One of them, who happened to
be awake, jogged the other, and proposed going down to
rectify the omission, but she said, " for her part she would
not stir out of bed to please all the pixies in Devonshire."
The other went down and filled the bucket, in which, by the
way, she found next morning a handfull of silver pennies.
As she was returning, she heard the Pixies debating about
what they would do to punish the other. Various modes
were proposed and rejected ; at last it was agreed to give
her a lame leg for a term of seven years, then to be cured
by an herb growing on Dartmoor, whose name of seven
* Whip says he, as Mrs. Bray conjectures.
304 GEE AT BRITAIN.
syllables was pronounced in a clear and audible tone. This
the girl tried by every known means to fix in her memory.
But when she awoke in the morning, it was gone, and she
could only tell that Molly was to be lame for seven years,
and then be cured by an herb with a strange name. As for
Molly, she arose dead lame, and so she continued till the end
of the period, when one day, as she was picking up a mush-
room, a strange-looking boy started up and insisted on
striking her leg with a plant which he held in his hand. He
did so, and she was cured and became the best dancer in
the town.
AN old woman who lived near Tavistock had in her garden
a splendid bed of tulips. To these the Pixies of the neigh-
bourhood loved to resort, and often at midnight might they
be heard singing their babes to rest among them. By their
magic power they made the tulips more beautiful and more
permanent than any other tulips, and they caused them to
emit a fragrance equal to that of the rose. The old woman
was so fond of her tulips that she would never let one of
them be plucked, and thus the Pixies were never deprived of
their floral bowers.
But at length the old woman died ; the tulips were taken
up, and the place converted into a parsley-bed. Again,
however, the power of the Pixies was shown ; the parsley
withered, and nothing would grow even in the other beds of
the garden. On the other hand, they tended diligently the
grave of the old woman, around which they were heard
lamenting and singing dirges. They suffered not a weed to
grow on it; they kept it always green, and evermore in
spring-time spangled with wild flowers.
Thus far for the Pixies of Devon ; as for the adjoining
Somerset, all we have to say is, that a good woman from that
county, with whom we were acquainted, used, when making
ENGLAND. 305
a cake, always to draw a cross upon it. This, she said, was
in order to prevent the Vairies from dancing on it. She
described these Vairies as being very small people, who,
with the vanity natural to little personages, wear high-
heeled shoes, and if a new-made cake be not duly crossed,
they imprint on it in their capers the marks of their heels.
Of the actual existence of the Vairies, she did not seem to
entertain the shadow of a doubt.
In Dorset also, the Pixy-lore still lingers. The being is
called Pexy and Colepexy ; the fossil belemnites are named.
Colepexies'-fingers ; and the fossil echini, Colepexies'-heads.
The children, when naughty, are also threatened with the
Pexy, who is supposed to haunt woods and coppices.*
" In Hampshire," says Captain Grose, " they give the/
name of Colt- Pixy to a supposed spirit or fairy, which in tht
shape of a horse wickers, i. e. neighs, and misleads horse&
mto bogs, etc."
The following is a Hampshire legend : f
A FABMEB, in Hampshire was sorely distressed by the
unsettling of his barn. However straightly over-night he
laid his sheaves on the threshing-floor for the application of
the morning's flail, when morning came, all was topsy-turvy,
higgledy-piggledy, though the door remained locked, and
there was no sign whatever of irregular entry. Resolved to
find out who played him these mischievous pranks, Hodge
couched himself one night deeply among the sheaves, and
watched for the enemy. At length midnight arrived, the
barn was illuminated as if by moonbeams of wonderful
brightness, and through the key-hole came thousands of
elves, the most diminutive that could be imagined. They
immediately began their gambols among the straw, which
* Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 513. Bonn's edit.
t Given in the Literary Gazette for 1825. No. 430.
300 OEEAT BE1TAIK.
\vaa soon in a most admired disorder. Hodge wondered, but
interfered not ; but at last the supernatural thieves began to
busy themselves in a way still less to his taste, for each elf
set about conveying the crop away, a straw at a time, with
astonishing activity and perseverance. The key-hole was
still their port of egress and regress, and it resembled the
aperture of a bee-hive, on a sunny day in June. The farmer
was rather annoyed at seeing his grain vanish in this fashion,
when one of the fairies said to another in the tiniest voice
that ever was heard " I weat, you weat ? Hodge could
contain himself no longer. He leaped out crying, " The
devil sweat ye. Let me get among ye ! " when they all flew
away so frightened that they never disturbed the barn
any more.
In Suffolk the fairies are called farisees. Not many years
ago, a butcher near "Woodbridge went to a farmer's to buy a
calf, and finding, as he expressed it, that " the cratur was all
o' a muck," he desired the farmer to hang a flint by a string
in the crib, so as to be just clear of the calf's head.
" Becaze," said he, " the calf is rid every night by the
farisees, and the stone will brush them oft*." *
We once questioned a girl from Norfolk on the subject of
Fairy-lore. She said she had often heard of and even seen
the Frairies. They were dressed in white, and lived under
the ground, where they constructed houses, bridges, and
other edifices. It is not safe, she added, to go near them
when they appear above ground.
We now proceed to Yorkshire, where the Boggart and the
Barguest used to appear in by-gone days. The former,
whose name we will presently explain, is the same as the
Brownie or Kobold ; the latter, whose proper name perhaps
is Barn-ghaist, or Barn-spirit, keeps without, and usually
takes the form of some domestic animal.
Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 503. Bohn'a edit.
ENGLAND. 307
3B0jjig;art
IN the house of an honest farmer in Yorkshire, named
George Grilbertson, a Boggart had taken up his abode. He
here caused a good deal of annoyance, especially by torment-
ing the children in various ways. Sometimes their bread
and butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of
bread and milk be capsized by an invisible hand ; for the
Boggart never let himself be seen ; at other times, the cur-
tains of their beds would be shaken backwards and forwards,
or a heavy weight would press on and nearly suifocate them.
The parents had often, on hearing their cries, to fly to their
aid. There was a kind of closet, formed by a wooden parti-
tion on the kitchen-stairs, and a large knot having been
driven out of one of the deal-boards of which it was made,
there remained a hole.* Into this one day the farmer's
youngest boy stuck the shoe-horn with which he was amusing
himself, when immediately it was thrown out again, and
struck the boy on the head. The agent was of course the
Boggart, and it soon became their sport (which they called
laking f with Boggarf) to put the shoe-horn into the hole and
have it shot back at them.
The Boggart at length proved such a torment that the
farmer and his wife resolved to quit the house and let him
have it all to himself. This was put into execution, and the
farmer and his family were following the last loads of furni-
ture, when a neighbour named John Marshall came up
"Well, Georgey," said he, "and soa you're leaving t'ould
hoose at last ? " " Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I 'm forced
tull it ; for that damned Boggart torments us soa, we can
* The El/bore of Scotland, where it is likewise ascribed to the fairies,
Jamieson, s. v. The same opinion prevails in Denmark, where it is said that
any one who looks through it will see things he would not otherwise have
known: see Thiele, ii. 18.
f- Tba Anglo-Saxon Icean, latcan, to play.
x 2
308 OBEAT BRITAIN.
neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have such
a malice again t'poor bairns, it ommost kills my poor dame
here at thoughts on't, and soa, ye see, we're forced to flitt
loike." He scarce had uttered the words when a voice from
a deep upright churn cried out, " Aye, aye, Georgey, we're
flitting ye see." " Od damn thee," cried the poor farmer,
"if I 'd known thou 'd been there, I wadn't ha' stirred a
peg. Nay, nay, it 's no use, Mally," turning to his wife,
" we may as weel turn back again to t'ould hoose as be tor-
mented in another that's not so convenient." *
StttoltrsJ a::&
AN old lady in Yorkshire related as follows : My eldest
daughter Betsey was about four years old ; I remember it
was on a fine summer's afternoon, or rather evening, I was
seated in this chair which I now occupy. The child had
been in the garden, she came into that entry or passage
from the kitchen (on the right side of the entry was the
old parlour-door, on the left the door of the common sitting-
room ; the mother of the child was in a line with both the
doors) ; the child, instead of turning towards the sitting-
room made a pause at the parlour-door, which was open.
She stood several minutes quite still ; at last I saw her draw
her hand quickly towards her body; she set up a loud
shriek and ran, or rather flew, to me crying out " Oh !
Mammy, green man will hab me ! green man win hab me ! "
It was a long time before I could pacify her ; I then asked
her why she was so frightened. " O Mammy," she said,
" all t'parlour is full of addlers and menters." Elves and
fairies (spectres ?) I suppose she meant. She said they
* Wo have abridged this legend from a well-written letter in the Literary
Gazette, No. 430 (1825), the writer of which says, he knew the house in
which it was said to have occurred. He also says he remembered an old
tailor, who said the horn was often pitched at the head of himself and big
apprentice, when in the North-country fashion they went to work at the farm-
house. Its identity with other legends will be at once perceived.
ENQLAIH). 309
were dancing, and a little man in a green coat with a gold
laced cocked hat on his head, offered to take her hand as ii
he would have her as his partner in the dance. The mother,
upon hearing this, went and looked into the old parlour, but
the fairy vision had melted into thin air. " Such," adds the
narrator, " is the account I heard of this vision of fairies.
The person is still alive who witnessed or supposed she saw
it, and though a well-informed person, still positively asserts
the relation to be strictly true.*
Eitson, who was a native of the bishoprick of Durham,
tells us f that the fairies frequented many parts of it ; that
they were described as being of the smallest size, and
uniformly habited in green. They could, however, change
their size and appearance. "A woman," he says, "who had
been in their society challenged one of the guests whom she
espied in the market selling fairy-butter.J This freedom
was deeply resented, and cost her the eye she first saw him
with. Some one informed him that an acquaintance of his
in "Westmoreland, wishing to see a fairy, was told that 011
such a day on the side of such a hill, he should be gratified.
He went, and there, to use his own words, " the hobgoblin
stood before him in the likeness of a green-coat lad," but
anished instantly. This, he said, the man told him. A
lemale relation of his own told Mr. Eitson of Eobin Good-
fellow's, it would seem, thrashing the corn, churning the
butter, drinking the milk, etc., and when all was done,
lying before the fire " like a great rough hurgin (hugging r^
bear. "
* And true no doubt it is, i.e. the- impression made on her imagination was
as strong as if the objects had been actually before her. The narrator is the
same person who told the preceding Boggart story.
t Fairy Tales, pp. 24, 56.
J In Northumberland the common people call a certain fungous excrescence,
sometimes found about the roots of old trees, Fairy-butter. After great rains
and in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency, which,
together with its colour, makes it not unlike butter, and hence the name.
Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 492, Bohn's edit.
The Menyn Tylna Teg or Fairy-butter of Wales, we are told in the same
place, is a substance found at a great depth in cavities of limestone-rocks when
linking for lead-cre.
Cotnp. Milton, L' Allegro, 105 seq.
310 GREAT BRITAIN.
The Barguest used also to appear in the shape of a
mastiff-dog arid other animals, and terrify people with his
shrikes (shrieks). There was a Barguest named the Pick-
tree Brag, whose usual form was that of a little galloway,
" in which shape a farmer, still or lately living thereabouts,
reported that it had come to him one night as he was going
home; that he got upon it and rode very quietly till it
came to a great pond, to which it ran and threw him in, and
went laughing away"
In Northumberland the belief in the fairies is not yet
extinct. The writer from whom we derive the following
legends tells us * that he knew an old man whose dog had
pointed a troop of fairies,f and though he could not see
them he plainly heard their music sounding like a fiddle and
a very small pair of pipes. He also tells us, that many years
ago a girl who lived near Nether Witton, as she was return-
ing from milking with her pail on her head, saw the fairies
playing in the fields, and though she pointed them out to
her companions they could not see them. The reason it
seemed was her weise or pad for bearing the pail on her
head was composed of four-leaved clover, which gives the
power of seeing fairies. Spots are pointed out in seques-
tered places as the favourite haunts of the elves. A few
miles from Alnwick is a fairy-ring, round which if people
run more than nine times, some evil will befall them. The
children constantly run this number, but nothing will induce
them to venture a tenth run.
A COTTAGES and his wife residing at Nether "Witton were
one day visited by a fary and his spouse with their young
* Richardson, Table-Book, iii. 45 ; see above, p. 297.
+ This -word, as we may see, is spelt f dries in the following legends ; so we
may suppose that fairy is pronounced farry in the North, which has a curioui
coincidence with Pert ; see above, p. 15.
ENGLAND. 311
cliild, which they wished to leave in their charge. The
cottager agreed to take care of the child for a certain
period when it had to be taken thence. The fary gave the
man a box of ointment with which to anoint the child's
eyes ; but he had not on any account to touch himself with
it, or some misfortune would befal him. For a long time he
and his wife were very careful to avoid the dangerous
unction ; but one day when his wife was out curiosity over-
came his prudence, and he anointed his eyes without any
noticeable effect ; but after a while, when walking through
Long Horsley Fair, he met the male fary and accosted him.
He started back in amazement at the recognition ; but
instantly guessing the truth, blew on the eyes of the cot-
tager, and instantly blinded him. The child was never more
seen.
ANOTHEE tale relates that a messenger having visited a
country midwife or howdie requested her professional
assistance in a case where so much secrecy was required
that she must be conducted to and from the destined place
blindfolded ; she at first hesitated, but her scruples were
overcome by a handsome present, the promise of a future
reward, and assurance of perfect personal safety. She then
submitted to the required condition, mounted behind the
messenger on a fleet charger, and was carried forward in an
unaccountable manner. The journey was not of long con-
tinuance, the steed halted, she dismounted, and was
conducted into a cottage where the bandage was removed
from her eyes ; everything appeared neat and comfortable.
She was shown the woman "in the straw," and performed
her office ; but when ready to dress the babe, an old woman,
(who, according to the narration, appears to have been the
nurse,) put a box of ointment into her hand, requiring her
to anoint the child all over with it, but to be careful that it
did not touch her own person; she prudently complied,
312 GBEAT BBITAUT.
though wondering at the motive. "Whilst this operation was
going on, she felt an itching in one of her eyes, and in an
unguarded moment rubbed it with a finger which had
touched the mysterious ointment. And now a new scene
forced itself upon her astonished vision, and she saw every-
thing in a different light ; instead of the neat cottage, she
perceived the large overhanging branches of an ancient oak,
whose hollow and moss-grown trunk she had before mistaken
for the fire place, glowworms supplied the place of lamps,
and, in short, she found herself in the abode of a family of
fanes, with faries was she surrounded, and one of their
number reposed on her lap. She however retained her self-
possession, finished her task, and was conducted homeward
m the same manner as she was brought. So far all went
well, and the howdie might have carried the secret to her
grave, but in after time, on a market-day (in what town the
legend saith not,) forgetful of her former caution, she saw
the old nurse among the countrywomen, gliding about from
one basket to another, passing a little wooden scraper along
the rolls of butter, and carefully collecting the particles thus
purloined into a vessel hung by her side. After a mutual
but silent recognition, the nurse addressed her thus, " Which
eye do you see me with?" "With this," innocently
answered the other. No sooner had she spoken than a puff
from the withering breath of her unearthly companion ex-
tinguished the ill-fated orb for ever, and the hag instantly
vanished.
Another version says the Doctor is presented with a
box of eye-salve by his conductor ; on using it he sees a
splendid portico in the side of a steep hill, through this he
is shown into the faries' hall in the interior of the mountain :
he performs his office, and on coming out receives a second
box ; he rubs one eye, and with it sees the hill in its natural
shape ; then thinking to cheat the devil, feigns to rub the
other, and gallops off. Afterwards he sees the fary's hus-
band stealing corn in the market, when similar consequences
befal him as those which occurred unto the woman.
ENGLAND 313
A WIDOW and her son, a little boy, lived together in a
cottage in or near tlie village of Eotkley, Northumberland.
One winter's evening the child refused to go to bed with his
mother, as he wished to sit up for a whUe longer, "for,"
said he, " I am not sleepy." The mother finding remon-
strance in vain, at last told him that if he sat up by himself
the faries would most certainly come and take him away.
The boy laughed as his mother went to bed, leaving him
sitting by the fire ; he had not been there long, watching the
fire and enjoying its cheerful warmth, till a beautiful little
figure, about the size of a child's doll, descended the chimney
and alighted on the hearth ! The little fellow was somewhat
startled at first, but its prepossessing smile as it paced to
and fro before him soon overcame his fears, and he inquired
familiarly, "What do they ca' thou?" "Ainsel," answered
the little thing haughtily, at the same time retorting the
question, "And what do they ca' ihou?" " My ainsel',"
answered the boy ; and they commenced playing together
like two children newiy acquainted. Their gambols con-
tinued quite innocently until the fire began to grow dim ;
the boy then took up the poker to stir it, when a hot cinder
accideutly fell upon the foot of his playmate ; her tiny
voice was instantly raised to a most terrific roar, and the boy
had scarcely time to crouch into the bed behind his mother,
before the voice of the old fary-mother was heard shouting,
" Who 's done it ? Who 's done it ? " " Oh ! it was my
ainsel!" answered the daughter. "Why, then," said the
mother, as she kicked her up the chimney, " what 's all this
noise for : there 's nyon (i.e. no one) to blame."
Such is the sum of what we have been able to collect
respecting the popular fairy-lore of England, the largest and
most complete collection that, to our knowledge, has ever
314 GKEAT
been made. "We might venture to add that little more is ever
likely to be collected, for the sounds of the cotton-mill, the
steam-engine, and, more than all, the whistle of the railway
train, more powerful than any exorcists, have banished, or
soon will banish, the fairy tribes from all their accustomed
haunts, and their name and their exploits will in future be
found in works like the present rather than in village
tradition.
As the merry spirit, Puck, is so prominent an actor in the
scenes forming our next division, this may be deemed no
unfitting place for the consideration of his various appella-
tions ; such as Puck, Robin Good-fellow, Bobin Hood,
Hobgoblin.
Puck is evidently the same with the old word PouJce* the
original meaning of which would seem to be devil, demon,
or evil spirit. We first meet with it in the Vision of Piers
Ploughman, where it undoubtedly signifies ' the grand
adversary of God and man.'
When, in this poem,t the Seer beholds Abraham, the per-
sonification of Faith, with his " wide clothes," within which
lay a Lazar,
Amonges patriarkes and prophetes,
Pleying togideres,
and asks him what was there,
Loo ! quod he, and leet me see. Ne no buyrn be oure borgh,
Lord mercy ! I seide ; Ne bringe us from his daunger ;
This is a present of muche pris, Out of the poukes pondfold
What prynce shal it have ? No maynprise may us fecche,
It is a precious present, quod he, Til he come that I carpe of,
Ac the pouke it hath attached, Crist is his name,
And me theremyde, quod that That shall delivere us som day
man, Out of the devdea power.
May no wed us quyte,
Golding also must have understood Pooke in the sense ol
devil, when in the ninth book of his translation of Ovid,
* Probably pronounced Poke, as still in Worcestershire. Our ancestors
frequently used ou or oo for the long o while they expressed the sound of oc
by o followed by e t as rote root, coke cook, more moor, pole pool.
f Passus xvii. v. 11,323 seq. ed. 1842. Comp. w. 8363, 9300, 10,902.
ENGLAND. 315
unauthorised however by the original, he applies it to the
Chimaera,
The country where Chymaera, that same pooke
Hath goatish body, lion's head and brist, and dragon's tayle.
Spenser employs the word, and he clearly distinguishes it
from hob-goblin:
Ne let housefires nor lightnings helpless harms,
Ne let the pouke* nor other evil sprites,
Ne let mischievous witches with their charms,
Ne let hob-goblins, names whose sense we see not,
Fray us with things that be not. Epithalamion, v. 340.
These terms are also distinguished in the poem named The
Scourge of Venus :
And that they may perceive the heavens frown,
The poukes and yoblim pull the coverings down.
In Ben Jonson's play of The Devil is an Ass, the unlucky
fiend who gives origin to its name is called Pug, and in the
same author's Sad Shepherd the personage named Puck-
hairy is, as Gifford justly observes, " not the Fairy or
Oriental Puck, though often confounded with him." t In
truth, it is first in Shakespeare that we find Puck confounded
with the House-spirit, and having those traits of character
which are now regarded as his very essence, and have caused
his name Pug to be given to the agile mischievous monkey,
and to a kind of little dog.
We will now discuss the origin of this far-famed appella-
tion and its derivation.
In the Slavonic tongues, which are akin to the Teutonic,
Bog is God, and there are sleights of etymology which would
identify the two terms ; the Icelandic Puki is an evil spirit,
and such we have seen was the English Pouke, which easily
became Puck, Pug, and Bug; finally, in Friesland the
Mr. Todd is right, in reading pouke for ponke, an evident typographic
error : -wrong in saying, " He is the Fairy, Robin Good-fellow, known by the
name of Puck." Robin is the "hob-goblin" mentioned two lines after.
f* We know nothing of the Oriental origin of Puck, and cannot give ourful.
assent to the character of our ancestry, as expressed in the remaining part of
Mr. Gifford's note : " but a fiend engendered in the moody minds, and rude a;id
gloomy fancies of the barbarous invaders of the North." It is full time to
have done with describing the old Gothic race as savages.
316 GEEAT BBITAllf.
Kobold is called Puk, and in old German we meet with
Putz or Butz as the name of a being not unlike the original
English Puck.* The Devonshire fairies are called Pixies,
and the Irish have their Pooka, and the Welsh their Pwcca,
both derived from Pouke or Puck. From Bug comes the
Scottish Bogle, (which Gawin Douglas expressly distinguishes
from the Brownie) and the Yorkshire Boggart.f The
Swedish language has the terms spoTca, spoke ; the Danish
spoge, spdgelse, the German, sjmJcen, spuJc, all used of spirits
or ghosts, and their apparitions. Perhaps the Scottish
pawkey, sly, knowing, may belong to the same family of
words. Akin to Bogle was the old English term Puckle,
noticed above, which is still retained in the sense of mis-
chievous, as in Peregrine Pickle and Little Pickle. It has
been conjectured^ that PicTcleharing, the German term for
zany or merry-andrew, may have been properly PicTcleJidrin,
i.e. the hairy sprite, answering to Jonson's Puck-hairy, and
that he may have worn a vesture of hair or leaves to be
rough like the Brownie and kindred beings.
From Bug also come Bugbear, and Bugleboo, or Bugaboo.
They owe their origin probably to the Ho ! Ho ! Ho ! given
to Puck or Robin Goodfellow, as it was to the Devil (i.e.,
Pouke) in the Mysteries. Bull-beggar may be only a cor-
ruption of Bugbear.
The following passage from a writer of the present day
proves that in some places the idea of Puck as a spirit
haunting the woods and fields is still retained. " The pea-
* Der Putz wfirde uns uber berg und thaler tragen. To frighten
children they say Der Butz kommtJ see Grimm, Dent. Mythol. p. 474.
+ The former made by adding the Anglo-Saxon and English el, le ; the latter
by adding the English art : see p. 318.
By Sir F. Palgrave, from whose article in the Quarterly Review, we
have derived many of the terms named above. He adds that the Anglo-
Saxon pcecan is to deceive, seduce ; the Low-Saxon picken to gambol ;
pickeln to play the fool ; pukra, in Icelandic to make a murmuring noise,
to steal secretly ; and pukke in Danish to scold. He further adds the
Swedish poiica boy, the Anglo-Saxon and Swedish piga and Danish pige girl.
If, however, Pouke is connected with the Sclavonic Bog, these at the most can
be only derivations from it. By the way boy itself seems to be one of these
terms ; the Anglo-Saxon piga, was probably pronounced piya, and a is a mas-
culine termination in that language.
See above, p. 291 . In Low German, however, the Kobold is called Bull-
inann, Bullet-matin, Bullerkater, from bullen, bullern, to knock : we Grimm,
K* sup. p. 473.
ENGLAND. .317
santry," says Mr. Allies,* "of Alfrick and those parts of
Worcestershire, say that they are sometimes what they call
Poake-ledden, that is, that they are occasionally waylaid in
the night by a mischievous sprite whom they call Poake,
who leads them into ditches, bogs, pools, and other such
scrapes, and then sets up a loud laugh and leaves them quite
bewildered in the lurch." This is what in Devon is called
being Pixy-led. We may observe the likeness here to the
Puck of Shakspeare and Drayton, who were both natives of
the adjoining county.
A further proof perhaps of Puck's rural and extern cha-
racter is the following rather trifling circumstance. An old
name of the fungus named piiffball is puck-fist, which is
plainly Puck's-fist, and not puff-fist as Nares conjectured ;
for its Irish name is Cos-a-Phooka, or Pooka' s-foot, i.e.,
Puck's-foot. We' will add by the way, that the Anglo-
Saxon J?ulj:er-pre, Wolf's-fist, is rendered in the dictionaries
toadstool, mushroom, and we cannot help suspecting that as
wolf and elf were sometimes confounded, and wolf and fist
are, in fact, incompatible terms, this was originally ^Eljrer-pifc
Elf's-fist, and that the mushrooms meant were not the
thick ugly toadstools, the "grislie todestooles," of Spenser,
but those delicate fungi called in Ireland fairy-mushrooms.
and which perhaps in England also were ascribed to the
fairies.f
So much then for Puck ; we will now consider some other
terms.
Robin Goodfellow, of whom we have given above a full
account, is evidently a domestic spirit, answering in name
and character to the Nisse God-dreng of Scandinavia, the
Knecht Ruprecht, i.e., Robin of Germany. He seems to
unite in his person the Boggart and Barguest of Yorkshire.
Hob-goblin is, as we have seen, another name of the same
spirit. Goblin is the French gobelin, German Kobold;
Hob is Rob, Robin, Bob ; just as Hodge is Roger. We
still have the proper names Hobbs, Hobson, like Dix, Dixon,
Wills, Wilson ; by the way, Hick, i. e. Dick, from Richard,
still remains in Hicks, Hickson.
* Essay on the Ignis Fatuus, quoted by Thome,
f And you whose pastime
IB to make midnight mushrooms. Tempest, v. 1.
818 GREAT BBITAIN
Robin Hood, though we can produce no instance of it,
must, we think, also have been an appellation of this spirit,
and been given to the famed outlaw of merry Sherwood,
from his sportive character and his abiding in the recesses of
the greenwood. The hood is a usual appendage of the
domestic spirit.
Roguery and sportiveness are, we may see, the characteristics
of this spirit. Hence it may have been that the diminutives
of proper names were given to him, and even to the Ignis
Fatuus, which in a country like England, that was in general
dry and free from sloughs and bog-holes, was mischievous
rather than dangerous.* But this seems to have been a
custom of our forefathers, for we find the devil himself called
Old Nick, and Old Davy is the sailor's familiar name forDeath.
In the Midsummer Night's Dream the fairy says to Puck
"Thou Lob of spirits;" Milton has the lubber-fiend, and
Eletcher says,t " There is a pretty tale of a witch that had
a giant to be her son that was called Lob Lie-by-the-fire."
This might lead us to suppose that Lob, whence loby (looby),
lubbard, lubber, J and adding the diminutive kin, Lubberkin,
a name of one of the clowns in Gay's Pastorals, was an
original name of some kind of spirit. We shall presently
see that the Irish name of the Leprechaun is actually
Lubberkin. As to the origin of the name we have little to
say, but it may have had a sense the very opposite of the
present one of lubber, and have been connected with the
verb to leap. Grimm || tells of a spirit named the Good
* Jack-o'-the-lanthorn, Will-o'-the-wisp. In Worcestershire they call it
Hob-and-his-lanthorn, and HobanyV or Hobredy's-lanthorn. Allies, ut sup.
f" Knight of the Burning Pestle : see above, p. 309.
J Ard is the German hart, and is, like it, depreciatory. It is not an Anglo-
Saxon termination, but from the Anglo-Saxon boll, dull, we have dullard.
May not haygard be hawk-ard, and the French hagard be derived from it,
and not the reverse?
For in Anglo-Saxon dttorcoppe (Poison-head T) is spider, and from dttor-
coppe-web, by the usual aphceresis of the two first syllables we put coppe-
v>efi, cobweb. May not the same have been the case with lob ? and may not
the nasty bug be in a similar manner connected with Puck? As dvergsnat
Is in Swedish a cobweb, one might be tempted to suppose that this last, for
which no good etymon has been offered, was lob-web ; but the true etymon
k. cop-web, from its usual site.
Upon the cop right of his nose he hedde
A wert. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, v. 556.
Deut. Mythol. p. 492.
ENGLAND. 319
Lubber, to whom the bones of animals used to be offered at
Mansfield in Germany ; but we see no resemblance between
him and our Lob of spirits ; we might rather trace a
connexion with the French Lutin, Lubin.* The phrase of
being in or getting into LoVs Pound (like the " Pouke's
pondfold,") is easy of explanation, if we suppose Lob to
be a sportive spirit. It is equivalent to being PoaJce-ledden
or Pixy -led.
Wight, answering to the German Wicht, seems to have
been used in the time of Chaucer for elf or fairy, most
probably for such as haunted houses, or it may have had the
signification of witch, which is evidently another fornj of it
In the Miller's Tale the carpenter says,
i
I crouche thee from elves and from wights.
And
Jesu Crist, and Seint Bcncdight,
Blisse this house from every wicked wight I -f
Urchin is a term which, like elf and such like, we stiL
apply to children, but which seems formerly to have been
one of the appellations of the fairies. Reginald Scott, as we
have seen, places it in his list, and we find it in the following
places of the poets :
Urchins
Shall for the vast of night that they may work
All exercise on thee. Tempest, i. 2.
* See France. In is a mere termination, perhaps, like on, a diminutive, as
in Catin Kate, Robin Bob. Lutin was also spelt Luyton : see p. 42.
+ The two lines which follow
Fro the nightes mare the witfe Paternoster !
"Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster ?
are rather perplexing. We would explain them thus. Bergerac, as quoted
by Brand (Pop. Antiq. i. 312. Bonn's edit.) makes a magician say " I teach
the shepherds the wolf's paternoster," i. e. one tLit keeps off the wolf. Wife
may then be i. q. wight, and wight paternoster be a safeguard against the
wights, and we would read the verse thus : " Fro the nightes mare the wite
paternoster" sc. blisse it or MS. St. Peter's suster, i. e. wife (see 1 Cor. ix. 5)
may have been canonised in the popular creed, and held to be potent against evil
beings. The term suster was used probably to obviate the scandal of supposing
the first Pope to have beea a married man. This charm is given at greater
length ana with some rafiftiiiiM by Cartwright in his Ordinary^ Act iii. sc. 1.
320 GEEAT BBITAIW.
His spirits hear me,
And yet I needs must curse ; but they '11 not pinch.
Fright me with urchin-sho-ios, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me like a fire-brand in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em. Jb. ii. 2.
Like urchins, ouphs, and fairies.
Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.
Elves, urchins, goblins all, and little fairyes.
Mad Pranks, etc., p. 38.
Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares,
Urchins, and elves, to many a house repairs.
Old Poem, in Brand, ii. 514.
Trip it, litttle urchins all.
Maid's Metamorphosis.
Helping all urchin-blasts and ill-luck signs,
That the shrewd meddling elfe delights to make.
Comus, 845.
Urchin is a hedgehog, as Stevens has justly observed,* and
in these lines of Titus Andronicus (ii. 3.)
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
it probably has this sense. "We still call the echinus marinus
the Sea-urchin. Still as we have no analogy, but rather the
contrary, for transferring the name of an animal to the
elves, we feel inclined to look for a different origin of the
term as applied to these beings. The best or rather only
hypothesis we have met withf is that which finds it in the
hitherto unexplained word Grcneas in Beowulf, which may
have been Orcenas, and if, as we have supposed,;}; the Anglo-
Saxons sometimes pronounced c before e and in the Italian
manner, we should have, if needed, the exact word. We
would also notice the old German urkinde, which Grimm
renders nanus.
"We now come to the poets.
In Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon poem, supposed not to be
* He derives it from the French oursin, but the Ang.-Sax. name of the
hedgehog is enrcen.
t Athenaeum, Oct. !), 1847.
{ Hist, of England, i. 478, 8vo edit. Deut Mythol. p. 4i9
ENGLAND.
321
later than the seventh century, we meet with the following
verse,
" Eotenas, and Ylfe,
And Orcacas."
The first of these words is evidently the same as the lotunn
or Giants of the northern mythology ; the second is as
plainly its Alfar, and we surely may be excused for sup-
posing that the last may be the same as its Duergar.
Layamon, in the twelfth century, in his poetic paraphrase
of Wace's Brut,* thus expands that poet's brief notice of the
birth of Arthur :
" Ertur son nom ; de sa bunte
Ad grant parole puis este."
Sone swa he com on eorthe,
Alven nine ivengen.
Heo bigolen that child
Mid galdere swith stronge.
Heo zeven him mihte
To beon best alre cnihton.
Heo zeven him an other thing
That he scolde beon riche king.
Heo zeven him that thridde
That he scolde longe libben.
Heo zeven that kin-bern
Custen swithe gode.
That he was mete-custi
Of alle quike monnen.
This the Alven him zef.
So soon he came on earth,
Elves received him.
They enchanted that child
With magic most strong.
They gave him might
To be the best of all knights.
They gave him another thing
That he should be a rich king.
They gave him the third
That he should long live.
They gave to that kingly child
Virtues most good.
That he was most generous
Of all men alive.
This the Elves him gave.
w. 19254 : se
If we have made any discovery of importance in the
department of romantic literature, it is our identification of
Ogier le Danois with the Eddaic Helgi.t We have shown
among other points of resemblance, that as the N" orns were
at the birth of the one, so the Fees were at that of the
other. With this circumstance Layamon was apparently
acquainted, and when he wished to transfer it to Arthur as
* Layamon's Brut, etc., by Sir Frederick Madden.
f- Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. viii. We do not wonder that this should
have eluded previous observation, but it is really surprising that we should
have been the first to observe the resemblance between Ariosto's tale of
Giocondo and the introductory tale of the Thousand and One Nights. It is
also strange that no one should have noticed the similarity between 0?ian'g
Carthon and the tale of Soohrab in the Shah-uameh.
322 GHEAT BEITAIK.
the Norna were no longer known and the Fees had not yet
risen into importance, there only remained for him to
employ the Elves, which had not yet acquired tiny dimen-
sions. Hence then we see that the progress was Norns,
Elves, Fees, and these last held their place in the subsequent
Fairy tales of France and Italy.
These potent Elves are still superior to the popular
Fairies which we first met with in Chaucer.
Yet nothing in the passages in which he speaks of them
leads to the inference of his conceiving them to be of a dimi-
nutive stature. His notions, indeed, on the subject seem
very vague and unsettled ; and there is something like a con-
fusion of the Elves and Fairies of Romance, as the following
passages will show:
The Wife of Bathes Tale is evidently a Fairy tale. It
.hus commences :
In olde 1 dayes of the king Artour,
Of which that Bretons speken gret honour,
All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ;*
The Elf-quene with her joly compagnie,
Danced ful oft hi many a grend mede.
This was the old opinion as I rede ;
I speke of many hundred yeres ago.
But now can no man see non elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayeres
Of limitoures, and other holy freres,
That serchen every land and every streme,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beme,
Blissing hallos, chambres, kichenes, and boures,
Citees and burghes, castles highe, and toures,
Thropes f and berns, shepenes and dairies,
This maketh that there ben no faeries ;
For there as wont to walken was an elf,
There walketh now the limitour himself,
In undermeles, and in morweninges,
And sayth his matines and his holy thinges,
As he goth in his limitatioun.
Women may now go safely up and down ;
In every bush and under every tree
There is none other incubus but he,
And he ne will don hem no dishonour.
* Both here and lower down we would take faerie in its first sense.
t Tkrcpe, tliorpe, or dorp, is a village, the German darf ; Dutch dorp ; we
may still find it in the names of places, as Althorpe. Dorp occurs frequently in
Drayton's Polyolbion; it is also useil by Dryden, Hind and Panther, V. 1905
Undermeles L e. unde-tide (p 51), aftermeal, afternoon.
ENGLAND. 323
The Fairies therefore form a part of the tale, and they are
thus introduced :
The day was come that homward must he turne ;
And in his way it happed him to ride,
In all his care, under a forest side,
Wheras he saw upon a dance go
Of ladies foure and twenty, and yet mo :
Toward this ilke dance he drow ful yerne,
In hope that he som wisdom shulde lerne ;
But certainly, er he came fully there,
Yvanished was this dance, he n'iste not wher ;
No creature saw he that bare lif,
Save on the grene he saw sitting a wif,
A fouler wight ther may no man devise.
These ladies bear a great resemblance to the Elle-maids of
Scandinavia. We need hardly inform our readers that this
" foul wight " becomes the knight's deliverer from the immi-
nent danger he is in, and that, when he has been forced to
marry her, she is changed into a beautiful young maiden.
But who or what she was the poet sayeth not.
In the Marchantes Tale we meet the Faerie attendant on
Pluto and Proserpina, their king and queen, a sort of blending
of classic and Gothic mythology :
for to tell
The beautee of the gardin, and the well
That stood under a laurer alway grene ;
Ful often time he Pluto, and his quene
Proserpina, and alle hir faerie *
Disporten hem, and maken melodie
About that well, and daunced, as men told.
A.gain, in the same Tale :
And so befel in that bright morwe tide,
That, in the gardin, on the ferther side,
Pluto, that is the king of Faerie,
And many a ladye in his compagnie,
Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina,
Which that he ravisshed out of Ethna,
While that she gadred floures in the mede,
(In Claudian ye may the story rede,
How that hire in his grisely carte he fette) ;
This king of Faerie adouii him sette
Upon a benche of turves, fresh and grene.
* This is the third sense of Faerie. In the next passage it is doubtful
whether it be the second or third sense ; we think the latter.
Y2
324 GREAT BRITAIN.
In the conversation which ensues between these august
personages, great knowledge of Scripture is displayed ; and
the queen, speaking of the "sapient prince," passionately
exclaims
I sete nat of all the vilanie
That he of women wrote a boterflie ;
I am a woman nedes moste I speke,
Or swell unto that time min herte breke.
Some might suspect a mystery in the queen's thus empha-
tically styling herself a woman, but we lay no stress upon it,
as Faire Damoselle Pertelote, the hen, who was certainly
less entitled to it, does the same.
In the Man of Lawes Tale the word Elfe is employed, but
whether as equivalent to witch or fairy is doubtful.
This lettre spake, the quene delivered was
Of so horrible a fendliche creature,
That in the castle, non so hardy was,
That any while dorste therein endure.
The mother was an elfe by dventure,
Y come, by charmes or by sorcerie,
And everich man hateth hire compagnie.*
The Kime of Sir Thopas has been already considered as
belonging to romance.
It thus appears that the works of manners-painting
Chaucer give very little information respecting the popular
belief in Fairies of his day. Were it not for the sly satire of
the passage, we might be apt to suspect that, like one who
lived away from the common people, he was willing to
represent the superstition as extinct" But now can no
man see non elves mo." The only trait that he gives really
characteristic of the popular elves is their love of dancing.
In the poets that intervene between Chaucer and the
Maiden Eeign, we do not recollect to have noticed anything
of importance respecting Fairies, except the employment,
already adverted to, of that term, and that of Elves, by
* This wife which is of faerie,
Of such a childc delivered is,
Fro kinde which stante all amis.
COWER; Legende of Constance.
EKGLAtfD. 325
translators in rendering the Latin NympTiae. Of the size
of these beings, the passages in question give no infor-
mation.
But in Elizabeth's days, " Fairies," as Johnson observes,
" were much in fashion ; common tradition had made them
familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great." A just
remark, no doubt, though Johnson fell into the common
error of identifying Spenser's Fairies with the popular ones
The three first books of the Faerie Queene were published
in 1590, and, as Warton remarks, Fairies became a familiar
and fashionable machinery with the poets and poetasters.
Shakspeare, well acquainted, from the rural habits of his
early life, with the notions of the peasantry respecting these
beings, and highly gifted with the prescient power of genius,
saw clearly how capable they were of being applied to the
production of a species of the wonderful, as pleasing, or
perhaps even more so, than the classic gods ; and in the
Midsummer-Night's Dream he presented them in combina-
tion with the heroes and heroines of the mythic age of
Greece. But what cannot the magic wand of genius effect ?
We view with undisturbed delight the Elves of Gothic
mythology sporting in the groves of Attica, the legitimate
haunts of Nymphs and Satyrs.
Shakspeare, having the Faerie Queene before his eyes,
seems to have attempted a blending of the Elves of the
village with the Fays of romance. His Fairies agree with
the former in their diminutive stature, diminished, indeed,
to dimensions inappreciable by village gossips, in their
fondness for dancing, their love of cleanliness, and their
child-abstracting propensities. Like the Fays, they form a
community, ruled over by the princely Oberon and the fair
Titania.* There is a court and chivalry : Oberon would
have the queen's sweet changeling to be a " Knight of his
* The derivation of Oberon has been already given (p. 208). The Shaks-
pearean commentators have not thought fit to inform us why the poet desig-
nates the Fairy-queen, Titania. It, however, presents no difficulty. It wag
the belief of those days that the Fairies were the same as the classic Nymphs,
the attendants of Diana : " That fourth kind of spritis," says King James,
" quhilk be the gentilis was called Diana, and her wandering court, and
amongst us called the Phairie." The Fairy-queen was therefore the same as
Diana, whom Ovid (Met. iii. 173) styles Titania; Chaucer, as we have seen.-
calls her Proserpina.
326 GKEAT BHITA.IK.
train to trace the forest wild." Like earthly monarchs, he
has his jester, " the shrewd and knavish sprite, called Robin
Good-fellow."
The luxuriant imagination of the poet seemed to exult in
pouring forth its wealth in the production of these new
actors on the mimic scene, and a profusion of poetic imagery
always appears in their train. Such lovely and truly British
poetry cannot be too often brought to view ; we will there-
fore insert in this part of our work several of these gems of
our Parnassus, distinguishing by a different character such
acts and attributes as appear properly to belong to the Fairy
of popular belief.
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM.
ACT H. SCENE I.
Puck and a Fairy.
Puck. How now, spirit ! whither wander you 1
Pai. Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire.
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere,
And I serve the Fairy-queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be ;
In their gold coats spots you see.
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours.
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.*'
Farewell, thou lob of spirits ! I '11 be gone ;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night.
Take heed the queen come not within his sight ;
For Oberon is passing fell and wroth,
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king,
She never had so sweet a changeling ;
* 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads,
Where the light Fairies danced upon the flowers,
Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl.
Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll, 1600. Steevent.
Men of fashion, in that age, wore earrings.
ENGLA.JKJJ. 327
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ;
But she. perforce, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy
And now they never meet iii grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen,
But they do square ; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.
Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quitfl^
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Good-fellow. Are you not he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skims milk, and sometimes labours in the quern.
And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm 1
Those that Hob-goblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck,
Are not you he ?
P'ock. Thou speakest aright,
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal ;
Ai'd sometimes lurk I hi a gossip's bowl,
la very likeness of a roasted crab ,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometimes for three-foot stool mistaketh me :
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries, and falls into a cough ;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
The haunts of the Fairies on earth are the most rural and
romantic that can be selected. They meet
On hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind.
And the place of Titania's repose is
A bank whereon the wild thyme blows.
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine.
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
328 GEEAT BRITAIN.
There sleeps Titania, some time of the night
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight ",
And there the snake throws her enameli'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
The powers of the poet are exerted to the utmost, to
convey an idea of their minute dimensions ; and time, with
them, moves on lazy pinions. " Come," cries the queen,
Come now, a roundel and a fairy song,
Then for the third part of a minute hence :
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds ;
Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats.
And when enamoured of Bottom, she directs her Elves that
they should
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes ;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes ;
To have my love to bed, and to arise
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes.
Puck goes " swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow ;"
he says, " he '11 put a girdle round about the earth in forty
minutes ;" and " We," says Oberon
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon.
They are either not mortal, or their date of life is indeter-
minately long ; they are of a nature superior to man, ana
speak with contempt of human follies. By night they revel
beneath the light of the moon and stars, retiring at the
approach of " Aurora's harbinger," * but not compulsively
like ghosts and " damned spirits."
* And the yellow-skirted Fayes
Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.
MILTON, Ode on the Nativity, 235.
ENGLAND. 329
But we (says Oberon) are spirits of atotier sort ;
I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
And like a forester the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
In the Merry Wives of Windsor, we are introduced to
mock-fairies, modelled, of course, after the real ones, but with
such additions as the poet's fancy deemed itself authorised
to adopt.
Act IV., Scene IV., Mrs. Page, after communicating to
Mrs. Ford her plan of making the fat knight disguise himself
as the ghost of Herne the hunter, adds
Nan Page, my daughter, and my little son,
And three or four more of their growth, we 11 dress
Like urchins, ouphes,* and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands.
*****
Then let them all encircle him about,
And, fairy-like, to-pinch 1 ^ the unclean knight,
And ask him why that hour of fairy revel
In their so sacred paths he dares to tread
In shape profane.
And
My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies,
Finely attired in a robe of white.
In Act V., Scene V., the plot being all arranged, the Fairy
* Ouph, Steevens complacently tells us, in the Teutonic language, is a
fairy ; if by Teutonic he means the German, and we know of no other, he
merely showed his ignorance. Ouph is the same as oaf (formerly spelt aulf),
and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed from elf
by the usual change of I into u.
+ i. e. Pinch severely. The Ang.-Sax. ro joined to a verb or part,
answers to the German zu or zer. tro-bpecan is to break to pieces, to-fcnipan
to drive asunder, scatter. Verbs of this kind occur in the Vision of Piers
Ploughman, in Chaucer and elsewhere. The part, is often preceded by all, iu
the sense of the German ganz, quite, with which some ignorantly join the to
as ail-to ruffled in Comus, 380, instead of all to-ruffled. In Golding's Ovid
(p. 15) we meet " With rugged head as white as down, and garments all to-
torn ;" in Judges ix. 53, "and all to-brdke his skull." See also Faerie
Queene, iv. 7, ; v. 8, 4, 43, 44 ; 9, 10.
380 GHEA.T BE1TAIN.
rout appears, headed by Sir Hugh, as a Satyr, by ancient
Pintol as Hobgoblin, and by Dame Quickly.
Quick. Fairies black, grey, green, and white,
You moonshine revellers and shades of night,
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,*
Attend your office and your quality.
Crier Hob-goblin, make the fairy 0-yes.
Put. Elves, list your names ! silence, you airy toys '
Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap ;
Where fires thou findtst unraked, and hearths unswept,
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry :
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery.
Pals. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die.
I '11 wink and couch ; no man their works must eye.
Pist. Where 's Bead ? Go you, and where you find a maid
That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,
Raise up the organs of her fantasy,
Sleep she as sound as careless infancy ;
But those as sleep and think not on their sins,
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins.
Quick. About, about,
Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out ;
Stnw good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room,
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit ;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm and every precious flower;
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon evermore be blest ;
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring :
The expressure that it bears green let it be,
Afore fertile-fresh than all t/ie field to see;
And " Hony soit qui mal y pense " write,
In emerald tufts, flowers, purple, blue, and white ;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee :
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away disperse ! but, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.
Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourselves in order set,
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be,
* After all the commentators have written, this line is still nearly unin-
telligible to us. It may relate to the supposed origin of the fairies. Foi
orphan, Warburton conjectured ouphen, from ouph.
ENGLAND. 331
To guide our measure round about the tree ;
But stay, I smell a man of middle earth.*
Pal. Heaven defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest
He transform me to a piece of cheese.
Pist. Vile worm I thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birta.
Quick. With trial fire touch we his finger-end :
If he be chaste the flame will back descend,
And turn him to no pain ; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
Pist. A trial, come.
Eva. Come, will this wood take fire 1
Fai. Oh, oh, oh !
Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire :
About him, fairies, sing a scornful rime ;
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.
In Borneo and Juliet the lively and gallant Mercutio
mentions a fairy personage, who has since attained to great
celebrity, and completely dethroned Titania, we mean Queen
Mab,* a dame of credit and renown in Faery.
" I dreamed a dream to-night," says Romeo.
" O then," says Mercutio :
then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife ; and she comes,
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies,
Over men's noses as they lie asleep :
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs ;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web ;
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams :
Her whip of cricket's bone ; the lash of film :
Her waggoner, a small gray-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
The Anglo-Saxon (Biban eajrt> or jeajVn ; and is it not also plainly tht
Midgard of the Edda ?
f The origin of Mab is very uncertain ; it may be a contraction of Habundia,
see below France. " Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of
Shakspeare, " is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled
by the word queen, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish,
designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. c^en
woman, whence both queen and quean. Voss is perhaps right and elf-queen
may have been used in the same manner as the Danish Mle-quinde,
Elle-kone for the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p. 1 1) using Fairy-
queen, as a translation for Nympha.
332 GREAT BB1TAIIT.
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid ;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers.
* * * #
This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night ;
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bode.
This is the hag,* when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them.
In an exquisite and well-known passage of the Tempest,
higher and more awful powers are ascribed to the Elves :
Prospero declares that by their aid he has " bedimmed the
noon-tide sun;" called forth the winds and thunder; set
roaring war " 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault ;"
shaken promontories, and plucked up pines and cedars.
He thus invokes them :
Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves ; f
And ye, that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him,
When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green-sow ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnightrmushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew.
The other dramas of Shakspeare present a few more
characteristic traits of the Fairies, which should not be
omitted.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
* i. e, Night-mare. " Many times," says Gull the fairy, " I get on men and
women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain ; for which
they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare." Merry Pranks, etc. p. 42.
f- Auraeque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,
Dique omnes nemorum, dique omnes noctis, adeste.
Ovid, Met. 1. vii. 198.
Ye ayres and winds, ye elves of hills, of hrooks, of woods, alone,
Of standing lakes, and of the night approach ye everich one.
GOLDING.
Golding seems to have regarded, by chance or with knowledge, the Elves as
a higher species than the Fairies. Misled by the word elves, Sliakspeare makes
sad confusion of classic and Gothic mythology.
EXGLAND. 333
This bird of dawning singeth all night long ;
And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad ;
The nights are wholesome ; then no planet strikes,
No fairy takes,* no witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is that time.
Hamlet, Act. i. sc. 1.
King Henry IV. wishes it could be proved,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet !
The old shepherd in the Winter's Tale, when he finda
Perdita, exclaims,
It was told me, I shou.d be rich, by the fairies : this is some
changeling.
And when his son tells him it is gold that is within the
" bearing-cloth," he says,
This is fairy-gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. We are lucky, boy, and
to be so still requires nothing but secresy.^
In Cymbeline, the innocent Imogen commits herself to
sleep with these words :
To your protection I commit me, gods !
From fairies and the tempters of the night,
Guard me, beseech ye !
And when the two brothers see her in their cave, one
cries
But that it eats our victuals, I should think
Here were a fairy.
* Take signifies here, to strike, to injure.
And there lie blasts the tree and talces the cattle.
Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4
Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken.
SURREY, Poems, p. 13, Aid. edit.
ID our old poetry take also signifies, to give.
f- But not a word of it, 'tis fairies' treasure,
Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin.
MASSINGER, Fatal Dowry, Act iv. sc. J
A prince's secrets are like fairy favours,
Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered.
Honest Man's Fortune
334 GKEA.T BEITAUT.
Ana thinking her to be dead, Guiderius declares
If he be gone, he 11 make his grave a bed ;
With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
And worms will not come to thee.
The Maydes Metamorphosis of Lylie was acted in 1600,
the year the oldest edition we possess of the Midsummer
Night's Dream was printed. In Act II. of this piece,
Mopso, Joculo, and Frisio are on the stage, and " Enter the
Fairies singing and dancing."
By the moon we sport and play,
With the night begins our day ;
As we dance the dew doth fall
Trip it, little urchins all,
Lightly as the little bee,
Two by two, and three by three ;
And about go we, and about go we.
Jo. What mawmets are these 1
Fris. they be the faieries that haunt these woods.
Mop. we shall be pinched most cruelly !
1st fai. Will you have any music, sir ?
2d Fai. Will you have any fine music ?
3d Fai. Most dainty music ?
Mop. We must set a face on it now ; there is no flying.
No, sir, we very much thank you.
1st Fai. but you shall, sir.
Fris. No, I pray you, save your labour.
2d Fai. 0, sir ! it shall not cost you a penny.
Jo. Where be your fiddles ?
3d Fai. You shall have most dainty instruments, sir ?
Mop. I pray you, what might I call you ?
1st Fai. My name is Penny.
Mop. I am sorry I cannot purse you.
Fi-is. I pray you, sir, what might I call you ?
2d Fai. My name is Cricket.
Fris. I would I were a chimney for your sake.
Jo. I pray you, you pretty little fellow, what 's your uaiue
3d Fai. My name is little little Prick.
Jo. Little little Prick 1 you are a dangerous faierie '
I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of yours.
1st Fai. I do come about the coppes.
Leaping upon flowers' toppes ;
Then I get upon a fly,
She carries me about the sky,
And trip and go.
ENQLAKD. 335
2d Pat. When a dew-drop falleth down,
And doth light upon my crown.
Then I shake my head and skip,
And about I trip.
Sd Fai. When I feel a girl asleep,
Underneath her frock I peep,
There to sport, and there I play,
Then I bite her like a flea,
And about I skip.
Jo. I thought where I should have you,
1st Fai. Will 't please you dance, sir ?
Jo. Indeed, sir, I cannot handle my legs.
Id Fai. you must needs dance and sing,
Which if you refuse to do,
We will pinch you black and blue ;
And about we go.
They all dance in a ring, and sing as followeth :
Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a ;
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,
All about, in and out, for our brave queen a.
Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a;
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,
All about, in and out, for our brave queen a.
We have danced round about, in a fine ring a,
We have danced lustily, and thus we sing a .
All about, in and out, over this green a,
To and fro, trip and go, to our brave queen a.
The next poet, in point of time, who employs the Fairies,
is worthy, long-slandered, and maligned Ben Jonson. Hia
beautiful entertainment of the Satyr was presented in 1603,
to Anne, queen of James I. and prince Henry, at Althorpe,
the seat of Lord Spenser, on their way from Edinburgh to
London. As the queen and prince entered the park, a
Satyr came forth from a "little spinet" or copse, and having
gazed the " Queen and the Prince in the face" with admi-
ration, again retired into the thicket ; then " there came
tripping up the lawn a bevy of Fairies attending on Mab,
their queen, who, falling into an artificial ring, began tc
dance a round while their mistress spake as .^olloweth :"
336 GBEAT BRITAIN".
Mob. Hail and welcome, worthiest queen !
Joy had never perfect been,
To the nymphs that haunt this green.
Had they not this evening seen.
Now they print it on the ground
With their feet, in figures round;
Marks that will be ever found
To remember this glad stouud.
Satyr (peeping out of the bush).
Trust her not, you bonnibell,
She will forty leasings tell ;
I do know her pranks right well.
Mob. Satyr, we must have a spell,
For your tongue it runs too fleet.
Sat. Not so nimbly as your feet,
When about the cream-bowls sweet
You and all your elves do meet.
(Here he came hopping forth, and mixing himself with the Fairies,
skipped in, out, and about their circle, while they made many offer*
to catch him.)
This is Mob, the mistress Fairy,
That doth nightly rob the dairy ;
And can hurt or help the churning
As she please, without discerning.
1st Fai. Pug, you will anon take warning.
Sat. She that pinches country wenches,
If they rub not clean their benches,
And, with sharper nail, remembers
When they rake not up their embers ;
But if so they chance to feast her,
In a shoe she drops a tester.
2rf Fai. Shall we strip the skipping jester ?
Sat. This is she that empties cradles,
Takes out children, puts in ladles ;
Trains forth midwives in their slumber,
With a sieve the holes to number,
And then leads them from her burrows,
Home through ponds and water-furrows.*
1st Fai. Shall not all this mocking stir us?
Sat. She can start our Franklin's daughters
In her sleep with shouts and laughters ;
And on sweet St. Anna's t night
Feed them with a promised sight,
* We do not recollect having met with any account of this prank ; but
Jonson is usually BO correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the
popular belief.
f- Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony
is, we believe, still practised in the north cf England on St. Agnes' night.
See Brand, i. 34.
ENGLANP. 337
Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers.
1st Pai. Satyr, vengeance near you hovers.
At length Mab is provoked, and she cries out,
Fairies, pinch him black and blue.
Now you have him make him rue.
Sat. hold, mistress Mab, I sue !
Mab, when about to retire, bestows a jewel on the Queen,
and concludes with,
Utter not, we you implore,
Who did give it, nor wherefore.
And whenever you restore
Yourself to us you shall have more.
Highest, happiest queen, farewell,
But, beware you do not tell.
The splendid Masque of Oberon, presented in 1610,
introduces the Fays in union with the Satyrs, Sylvans, and
the rural deities of classic antiquity ; but the Fay is here,
as one of them says, not
The coarse and country fairy,
That doth haunt the hearth and dairy ;
it is Oberon, the prince of Fairy-land, who, at the crowing
of the cock, advances in a magnificent chariot drawn by
white bears, attended by Knights and Fays. As the car
advances, the Satyrs begin to leap and jump, and a Sylvan
thus speaks :
Give place, and silence ; you were rude too late
This is a night of greatness and of state ;
Not to be mixed with light and skipping sport
A night of homage to the British court,
And ceremony due to Arthur's chair,
From our bright master, Oberon the Fair,
Who with these knights, attendants here preserved
In Fairy-land, for good they have deserved
Of yond' high throne, are come of right to pay
Their annual vows, and all their glories lay
At 's feet
z
338 GREAT BRITAIN.
Another Sylvan says,
Stand forth, bright faies and elves, and tune your laj
Unto his name ; then let your nimble feet
Tread subtile circles, that may always meet
In point to him.
There in the stocks of trees white fays* do dweii,
And span-long elves that dance about a pool,
With each a little changeling in their arms !
The Masque of Love Restored presents us " Robin Good-
fellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean,
riddles for the country maids, and does all their other
drudgery, while they are at hot-cockles," and he appears
therefore with his broom and his canles.
In Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess we read of
A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds,
By the pale moonshine ; dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality.
And in the Little French Lawyer (iii. 1), one says, " You
>valk like Robin Goodfellow all the house over, and every
man afraid of you."
In Randolph's Pastoral of Amyntas, or the Impossible
Dowry, a "knavish boy," called Dorylas, makes a fool of a
" fantastique sheapherd," Jocastus, by pretending to be
Obeion, king of Fairy. In Act i., Scene 3, Jocastus'
brother, Mopsus, " a foolish augur," thus addresses him:
Mop. Jocastus, I love Thestylis abominably,
The mouth of my affection waters at her.
Jo. Be wary, Mopsus, learn of me to scorn
The mortals ; choose a better match : go love
Some fairy lady ! Princely Oberon
Shall stand thy friend, and beauteous Mab, his queen,
Give thee a maid of honour.
* Shakespeare gives different colours to the Fairies; and in some places they
VK still thought to be white. See p. 306.
ENGLAND. 339
Mop. How, Jocastus 1
Marry a puppet ? Wed a mote i' the sun 1
Go look a wife in nutshells 1 Woo a gnat,
That 's nothing but a voice ? No, no, Jocastus,
I must have flesh and blood, and will have Thestylia :
A fig for fairies !
Thestylis enters, and while she and Mopsus converse,
Jocastus muses. At length he exclaims,
Jo. It cannot choose but strangely please his highness.
The. What are you studying of Jocastus, ha ?
Jo. A rare device ; a masque to entertain
His Grace of Fairy with.
T/ie. A masque ! What is 't ?
Jo. An anti-masque of fleas, which I have taught
To dance corrantos on a spider's thread.
# # * *
And then a jig of pismires
Is excellent.
Enter DORYLAS. He salutes MOPSUS, and then
Dor. Like health unto the president of the jigs.
I hope King Oberon and his joyall Mab
Are well.
Jo. They are. I never saw their Graces
Eat such a meal before.
Dor. E'en much good do 't them !
Jo. They 're rid a hunting.
Dor. Hare or deer, my lord ?
Jo. Neither. A brace of snails of the first head.
ACT i. SCEXE 6.
Jo. Is it not a brave sight, Dorylas ? Can the mortals
Caper so nimbly 1
Dor. Verily they cannot.
Jo. Does not King Oberon bear a stately presence ?
Mab is a beauteous empress.
Dor. Yet you kissed her
With admirable courtship.
Jo. I do think
There will be of Jocastus' brood in Fairy.
*****
The. But what estate shall he assure upon me ?
a
340 GEEAT BBITAIH.
Jo. A royal jointure, all in Fairy land.
* * *
Dorylas knows it
A. curious park
Dor. Paled round about with pickteeth.
Jo. Besides a house made all of mother-of-pearl,
An ivory tennis-court
Dor. A nutmeg parlour.
Jo. A sapphire dairy-room.
Dor. A ginger halL
Jo. Chambers of agate.
Dor. Kitchens all of crystal.
Am. admirable ! This it is for certain.
Jo. The jacks are gold.
Dor. The spits are Spanish needles.
Jo. Then there be walks
Dor. Of amber.
Jo. Curious orchards
Dor. That bear as well in winter as in summer.
Jo. "Bove all, the fish-ponds, every pond is full
Dor. Of nectar. Will this please you ! Every grove
Stored with delightful birds.
ACT m. SCENE 2.
Dorylas says,
Have at Jocastus' orchard ! Dainty applea,
How lovely they look ! Why these are Dorylas' sweetmeata.
Now must I be the princely Oberon,
And in a royal humour with the rest
Of royal fairies attendant, go in state
To rob an orchard. I have hid my robes
On purpose in a hollow tree.
ACT m. SCENE 4.
Dorylas vnth a bevy ofFairiet.
Dor. How like you now, my Grace 1 Is not my countenance
Royal and full of majesty 1 Walk not I
Like the young prince of pygmies ] Ha, my knaves,
We '11 fill our pockets. Look, look yonder, elves ;
Would not yon apples tempt a better conscience
Than any we have, to rob an orchard 1 Ha !
Fairies, like nymphs with child, must have the things
They long for. You sing here a fairy catch
In that strange tongue I taught you, while ourself
Do climb the trees. Thus princely Oberon
Ascends his throne of state.
ENGLAKtf. 341
Elves. Nos beata Fauni proles,
Quibus non est magna moles,
Quamvis Lunam incolamus.
Hortos ssepe frequentamus.
Furto cuncta magis bella,
Furto dulcior puella,
Furto omnia decora,
Furto poma dulciora.
Cum mortales lecto jacent,
Nobis poma noctu placent ;
Ilia tainen sunt ingrata
Nisi furto sint parata.
Jocastus and his man Bromius come upon the Elves while
plundering the orchard: the latter is for employing his
cudgel on the occasion, but Jocastus is overwhelmed by the
condescension of the princely Oberon in coming to his
orchard, when
His Grace had orchards of his own more precious
Than mortals can have any.
The Elves, by his master's permission, pinch Bromius,
singing,
Quoniam per te violamur,
Ungues hie experiamur ;
Statim dices tibi datam
Cutem valde variatam.
Finally, when the coast is clear, Oberon cries,
So we are got clean off; come, noble peers
Of Fairy, come, attend our royal Grace.
Let 's go and share our fruit with our queen Mab
And the other dairy-maids ; where of this theme
We will discourse amidst our cakes and cream.
Cum tot poma habeamus,
Triumphos laeti jam canamus ;
Faunos ego credam ortos,
Tantum ut frequentent hortos.
I domum, Oberon, ad illas,
Quse nos manent nunc, ancillaa,
Quarum osculeinur sinum,
Inter poma lac et vinum.
dhp explored the Jkby Mjftofagy
CBHSK HMstek, and. A iimfaMsn JOT SMBgoBy, WEU< ine
togas of the paefe. IWr faie, fcoiiwer, left a fe^
t&ifWXT.
i"i rgl Ji rmmt* Hi ii iiliiBJii oil t
'-: _IM:
>_ _' V-.M :-..-...: :, :
> JLi A*
EfGULSTO. 343
As ly Saanes led jfelBeB .a a
In his Shepherd** Pipe, aba, Bkwrn tibms speda of the
Fairies:
1- . L_t -. . :-. -^~- - . _ ; -_,- : .-_i_
_- ^ _ 1, ~ 3 1 ._' "_ " ": L V L -: '
A "- _ -' "- ~ -: * '- ' " ". V_ 1 . .".'.!_
ftr Jiritm tifar rmftrawT nrflmnrr
-
- - *- Q^UHW
-':-:-; :_-;- v .._: >-.- L :_- : :. . _..
- ~ . ' . '. .1-1 '-.' - I. ._'"_." ' '-I. 7 '.*'. .-
J- -JZ1. vr_ .""_"." .1, _ " _1 . >L -v
^: J 7.^ i.i_- :: -; ": : ^ v . -... i -, v ^ : .:_.
DUE Duwlm B uic poci' ***'
Fairies lad tine gredUaril afttiaciJimK. Emeu in
btoo he does not i*J^gJM*. tioem. Im Scmg TTJ
in Caadndgeshiie, sajs,
- - ' 1^ 1-. : '7 1- --":".: Vr .- 1 -'"-... -1 - ^''.''-L- -
A "'._""_ . ..'-: _. __ - .. . : ____ 1 ~ "-"i-I ' . ' ".-_! 1
csf CTCCTD -
df (fiewrim tittssr Hascrricins
.1: ..._.". . .'
J- : :-!.:- i.~ i; ;.L . - : ._ :_,
lijnnlDdai is A defieioiH pas*? of airr amii &neufu]
tion. Use desenptian rf Otercaa's pabae in lihe sir. Hab's
UBUUU urMi tike godde P^nita^ia. ii>e nad frsais cxf line
jealous Oberan, tiae pv^mj OMbamdcu tie mutual arti&pes of
Puck and the Faary mids of icnaCTar. Hop, Mop, Pip. Trap,
and Co, and tibefinioas eanbail of Oheram mad the
344 GREAT BRITAIN.
Pigwiggin, mounted on their earwig chargers present
altogether an unequalled fancy-piece, set in the rerr best
and most appropriate frame of metre.
It contains, moreover, several traits of traditionary Fairy
lore, such as in these lines :
Hence shadows, seeming idle shapes
Of little frisking elves and apes,
To earth do make their wanton skapes
As hope of pastime hastes them ;
Which maids think on the hearth they see,
When fires well near consumed be,
There dancing hays by two and three,
Just as their fancy casts them.*
These make our girls their sluttery rue,
By pinching them both black and blue,
And put a penny in their shoe,
The house for cleanly sweeping ;
And in their courses make that round,
In meadows and in marshes found,
Of them so call'd the fairy ground,
Of which they have the keeping.
These, when a child haps to be got,
That after proves an idiot,
When folk perceive it thriveth not,
The fault therein to smother,
Some silly, doating, brainless calf,
That understands things by the half,
Says that the fairy left this aulf,
And took away the other.
And in these :
Scarce set on shore but therewithal
He meeteth Puck, whom most men call
Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall
With words from frenzy spoken ;
" Ho ! ho ! " quoth Puck, " God save your Grace !
Who drest you in this piteous case ?
He thus that spoiled my sovereign's face,
I would his neck were broken.
This is perhaps the dancing on the hearth of the fairy-ladies to wh'ck
Milton alludes : see above, p. 42. " Doth not the warm zeal of an English-
man's devotion make them maintain and defend the social hearth as the sanc-
tuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods,
and the only court where the lady-fairies convene to dance ai.d revel .'"-
Paradoxical Assertions, etc. 1664, quoted by Brand, ii. p. 504.
ENGLAND. 345
This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt.
Still walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bush doth bolt,
Of purpose to deceive us j
And leading us, makes us to stray
Long winter nights out of the way ;
And when we stick in mire and clay,
He doth with laughter leave us.
In his Poet's Elysium there is some beautiful Fairy
poetry, which we do not recollect to have seen noticed any
where. This work is divided into ten Nymphals, or pastoral
dialogues. The Poet's Elysium is, we are told, a paradise
upon earth, inhabited by Poets, Nymphs, and the Muses.
The poet's paradise this is,
To which but few can come,
The Muses' only bower of bliss,
Their dear Elysium.
In the eighth Nymphal,
A nymph is married to a fay,
Great preparations for the day,
All rites of nuptials they recite you
To the bridal, and invite you.
The dialogue commences between the nymphs Mertilla
and Claia:
M. But will our Tita wed this fay ?
C. Yes, and to-morrow is the day.
M. But why should she bestow herself
Upon this dwarfish fairy elf?
C. Why, by her smallness, you may find
That she is of the fairy kind ;
And therefore apt to choose her make
Whence she did her beginning take ;
Besides he 's deft and wondrous airy,
And of the noblest of the fairy,
* The reader will observe that the third sense of Fairy is the most usual
one in Drayton. It occurs in its second sense two lines further on, twice in
Nymphidia, and in the following passage of his third Eclogue,
For learned Colin (Spenser) lays his pipes to gage,
And is to Fayrie gone a pilgrimage,
The more our moan.
346 GEEA.T BRITAIN.
Chief of the Crickets,* of much fame,
In Fairy a most ancient name.
The nymphs now proceed to describe the bridal array of
Tita : her jewels are to be dew-drops ; her head-dress the
" yellows in the full-blown rose ;" her gown
Of pansy, pink, and primrose leaves,
Most curiously laid on in threaves ;
her train the " cast slough of a snake ;" her canopy com-
posed of " moons from the peacock's tail," and " feathers from
the pheasant's head ;"
Mix'd with the plume (of so high price),
The precious bird of paradise ;
and it shall be
Borne o'er our head (by our inquiry)
By elfs, the fittest of the fairy.
Her buskins of the " dainty shell" of the lady-cow. The
musicians are to be the nightingale, lark, thrush, and other
songsters of the grove.
But for still music, we will keep
The wren and titmouse, which to sleep
Shall sing the bride when she 's alone,
The rest into their chambers gone ;
And like those upon ropes that walk
On gossamer from stalk to stalk,
The tripping fairy tricks shall play
The evening of the wedding day.
Finally, the bride-bed is to be of roses ; the curtains, tester,
and all, of the "flower imperial;" the fringe hung with
harebells ; the pillows of lilies, " with down stuft of the
butterfly ;"
For our Tita is to-day,
To be married to a fay.
* Mr. Chalmers does not seem to have known that the Crickets were
family of note in Fairy. Shakspeare (Merry Wives of Windsor) mentions a
Fairy named Cricket ; and 110 hint cf Shakspeare's was lost upon Drayton.
ENGLAND. 347
In Nymphal iii.,
The fairies are hopping,
The small flowers cropping,
And with dew dropping,
Skip thorow the greaves.
At barley-break they play
Merrily all the day :
At night themselves they lay
Upon the soft leaves.
And in Nymphal vi. the forester says,
The dryads, hamadryads, the satyrs, and the fawns,
Oft play at hide-and-seek before me on the lawns ;
The frisking fairy oft, when horned Cynthia shines,
Before me as I walk dance wanton matachines.
Herrick is generally regarded as the Fairy-poet, par excel-
lence ; but, in our opinion, without sufficient reason, for
Dray ton's Fairy pieces are much superior to his. Indeed
Herrick's Fairy-poetry is by no means his best ; and we
doubt if he has anything to exceed in that way, or perhaps
equal, the light and fanciful King Oberon's Apparel of
Smith.*
Milton disdained not to sing
How faery Mab the junkets eat.
She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said ;
And he, by friars lantern led,-)-
Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat
To earn his cream bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
* In the Musarum Delicise.
f This is a palpable mistake of the poet's. The Friar (see above, p. 291)
is the celebrated Friar Rush, who haunted houses, not fields, and was never
the same with Jack-o'-the-Lanthorn. It was probably the name Rush, which
suggested rushlight, that caused Milton's error. He is the Briider Rausch of
Germany, the Broder Ruus of Denmark. His name is either as Grimm
thinks, noise, or as Wolf (Von Bruodor Rauschen, p. xxviii.) deems drunkenness,
our old word, rouse. Sir Walter Scott in a note on Mann ion, says also " Friar
Rush, alias Will-o'-the-Wisp. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow and
Jack-o'-Lanthorn," which is making precious confusion. Reginald Scot more
correctly describes him as being " for all the world such another fellow as this
Hudgin," . e. Hodckon : see above, p. 255.
348 6EEAT BRITAIN.
That ten day-labourers could not end ;
Then lies him down, the lubber fiend,
And stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And, crop-full, out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Regardless of Mr. Gifford's sneer at "those who may
undertake the unprofitable drudgery of tracing out the pro-
perty of every word, and phrase, and idea in Milton," * we
will venture to trace a little here, and beg the reader to
compare this passage with one quoted above from Harsenet,
and to say if the resemblance be accidental. The truth is,
Milton, reared in London, probably knew the popular
superstitions chiefly or altogether from books ; and almost
every idea in this passage may be found in books that he
must have read.
In the hands of Dryden the Elves of Chaucer lose their
indefiniteness. In the opening of the Wife of Bath her
Tale,
The king of elves and little fairy queen
Gamboled on heaths and danced on every green.
And
In vain the dairy now with mint is dressed,
The dairy-maid expects no fairy guest
To skim the bowls, and after pay the feast.
She sighs, and shakes her empty shoes in vain,
No silver penny to reward her pain.
In the Flower and the Leaf, unauthorised by the old
bard, he makes the knights and dames, the servants of the
Daisy and of the Agnus Castus, Fairies, subject, like the
Italian Fate, to " cruel Demogorgon."
Pope took equal liberties with his original, as may be
seen by a comparison of the following verses with those
quoted above :
About this spring, if ancient fame say true,
The dapper elves their moonlight sports pursue :
* Ben Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 499. We shall never cease to regret
that the state to which literature has come in this country almost precludes
even a hope of our ever being able to publish our meditated edition of Milton'!
poerns for which we have been collecting materials these five and twenty
years. It would have been very different from Todd's. [Published in 1859.]
ENGLAND. 3~:9
Their pigmy king and little fairy queen
In circling dances gamboled on the green,
While tuneful sprites a merry concert made,
And airy music warbled through the shade.
January and May, 459.
It so befel, in that fair morning tide,
The fairies sported on the garden's side,
And in the midst their monarch and his bride.
So featly tripp'd the light-foot ladies round,
The knight so nimbly o'er the greensward bound,
That scarce they bent the flowers or touch'd the ground.
The dances ended, all the fairy train
For pinks and daisies search'd the flowery plain.
Ibid., 31'i.
With the Kensington Garden f of Tickell, Pope's con-
temporary, our Fairy-poetry may be said to have terminated. J
Collins, Beattie, and a few other poets of the last century
make occasional allusions to it, and some attempts to revive
it have been made in the present century. But vain are
such efforts, the belief is gone, and divested of it such poetry
can produce no effect. The Fairies have shared the fate of
the gods of ancient Hellas.
* Evidently drawn from Dryden's Flower and Leaf,
f We meet here for the last time with Fairy iu its collective sense, or
rather, perhaps, as the country :
All Fairy shouted with a general voice.
J In Mr Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, will be found a good
deal of Fairy poetry, for which we have not had space in this work.
350 GREAT BRITAIN.
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS.
When from their hilly dens, at midnight hour,
Forth rush the airy elves in mimic state,
And o'er the moonlight heath with swiftness scour,
In glittering arms the little horsemen shine.
EBSKINB.
THE Scottish Fairies scarcely differ in any essential point
from those of England. Like them they are divided into
the rural and the domestic. Their attire is green, their
residence the interior of the hilb. They appear more
attached than their neighbours to the monarchical form of
government, for the Fairy king and queen, who seem in
England to have been known only by the poets, were recog-
nised by law in Caledonia, and have at all times held a place
in the popular creed. They would appear also to be more
mischievously inclined than the Southrons, and less addicted
to the practice of dancing. Thy have, however, had the
advantage of not being treated with contempt and neglect
by their human countrymen, and may well be proud of the
attention shown them by the brightest genius of which
their country can boast. There has also been long due
from them an acknowledgment of the distinction conferred
on them by the editor of the Nithsdale and Galloway Song,*
for the very fanciful manner in which he has described their
attributes and acts.
The Scottish Fairies have never been taken by the poets
for their heroes or machinery, a circumstance probably to be
attributed to the sterner character of Scottish religion. We
cannot, therefore, as in England, make a distinction between
popular and poetic fairies.
* Mr. Crotnek. There was, we believe, some false dealing on the part of
Allan Cunningham toward this gentleman, such as palming on him hit own
rerses as traditionary ones. But the legends arc genuine.
SCOTTISH LOWLA1S*D8. 351
The earliest notice we have met with of the Fairies is ir
Montgomery's Flyting against Polwart, where he says,
In the hinder end of harvest, at All-hallowe'en,
When our good neighbours * dois ride, if I read right,
Some buckled on a beenwand, and some on a been,
Ay trottand in troops from the twilight ;
Some saddled on a she-ape all graithed in green,
Some hobland on a hempstalk hovand to the sight ;
The king of Phairie and his court, with the elf-queen,
With many elfish incubus, was ridand that night.
Elf-land was the name of the realm ruled by the king of
Phairie. King Jamesf speaks of him and his queen, and
" of sic a jolie court and traine as they had ; how they had a
teinde and a dewtie, as it were, of all guidis ; how they natu-
rally raid and yeid, eat and drank, and did all other actions
lyke natural men and women. I think," concludes the
monarch, "it is lyker Virgilis Campi Elysii nor anything
that ought to be believed by Christianis." And one of the
interlocutors in his dialogue asks how it was that witches
have gone to death confessing that they had been " trans-
ported with the Phairie to such and such a hill, which,
opening, they went in, and there saw a faire queene, who,
being now fighter, gave them a stone which had sundry
virtues."
According to Mr. Cromek, who, however, rather sedu-
lously keeps their darker attributes out of view, and paints
everything relating to them couleur de rose, the Lowland
Fairies are of small stature, but finely proportioned ; of a
fair complexion, with long yellow hair hanging over their
shoulders, and gathered above their heads with combs ol
gold. They wear a mantle of green cloth, inlaid with wild
flowers ; green pantaloons, buttoned with bobs of silk ; and
silver shoon. They carry quivers of " adder-slough," and
bows made of the ribs of a man buried where three lairds'
* This answers to the Deene Mdh, Good People, of the Highlands and
Ireland. An old Scottish name, we may add, for a fairy seems to have l*en
Bogle, akin to tlie English Pouke, Puck, Puckle ; but differing from tb
Boggart. Thus Gawain Douglas says,
Of Brownyis and of Boggles full is this Beuk.
j- Daemonologie, B. III. c. 5.
352 GBEA.T BRITAIN.
lands meet ; their arrows are made of bog-reed, tipped with
white flints, and dipped in the dew of hemlock ; they ride on
steeds whose hoofs " would not dash the dew from the cup
of a harebell." "With their arrows they shoot the cattle of
those who offend them ; the wound is imperceptible to
common eyes, but there are gifted personages who can
discern and cure it.*
In their intercourse with mankind they are frequently
kind and generous. A young man of Nithsdale, when out
on a love affair, heard most delicious music, far surpassing
the utterance of ' any mortal mixture of earth's mould.'
Courageously advancing to the spot whence the sound
appeared to proceed, he suddenly found himself the spec-
tator of a Fairy-banquet. A green table with feet of gold,
was laid across a small rivulet, and supplied with the finest
of bread and the richest of wines. The music proceeded
from instruments formed of reeds and stalks of corn. He
was invited to partake in the dance, and presented with a
cup of wine. He was allowed to depart in safety, and ever
after possessed the gift of second sight. He said he saw
there several of his former acquaintances, who were become
members of the Fairy society.
We give the following legend on account of its great simi-
larity to a Swiss tradition already quoted :
Two lads were ploughing in a field, in the middle of
which was an old thorn-tree, a trysting place of the Fairy-
folk. One of them described a circle round the thorn,
within which the plough should not go. They were sur-
prised, on ending the furrow, to behold a green table placed
there, heaped up with excellent bread and cheese, and even
wine. The lad who had drawn the circle sat down without
hesitation, ate and drank heartily, saying, " Fair fa' the
hands whilk gie." His companion whipped on the horses,
refusing to partake of the Fairy-food. The other, said Mr.
* These elf-arrows are triangular pieces of flint, supposed to have been the
heads of the arrows used by the aborigines. Though more plentiful in Scot-
land they are also found in England and Ireland, and were there also attached
to the fairies, and the wounds were also only to be discerned by gifted eyes.
In an Anglo-Saxon poem, there occur the words ra jeycoc and ylpa ^ej-coc,
t. 6. arrow of the Gods, and arrow of the Elves. Grimm, Deut. Mythol.,
p. 22.
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 353
Cromek's informant, "thrave like a breckan," and was a
proverb for wisdom, and an oracle for country knowledge
ever after,*
The Fairies lend and borrow, and it is counted uncanny to
refuse them. A young woman was one day sifting meal
warm from the mill, when a nicely dressed beautiful little
woman came to her with a bowl of antique form, and re-
quested the loan of as much meal as would fill it. Her
request was complied with, and in a week she returned to
make repayment. She set down the bowl and breathed over
it, saying, " Be never toom." The woman lived to a great
age, but never saw the bottom of the bowl.
Another woman was returning late one night from a
gossiping. A pretty little boy came up to her and said,
" Coupe yere dish-water farther frae yere door-step, it pits
out our fire." She complied with this reasonable request,
and prospered ever after.
THE Fairies have a great fondness for getting their babes
suckled by comely, healthy young women. A fine young
woman of Nithsdale was one day spinning and rocking her
first-born child. A pretty little lady in a green mantle, and
bearing a beautiful babe, came into the cottage and said,
" Gie my bonny thing a suck." The young woman did so,
and the lady left her babe and disappeared, saying, " Nurse
kin' and ne'er want." The young woman nursed the two
children, and was astonished to find every morning, when
she awoke, rich clothes for the children, and food of a most
* " It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they
repeated the rhyme
Faiiy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop,
And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend !
three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they
would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fcurtb
furrow." Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.
A A
354 GHEAT BRITAIN.
delicious flavour. Tradition says this food tasted like
wheaten-bread, mixed with wine and honey.
When summer came, the Fairy lady came to see her child.
She was delighted to see how it had thriven, and, taking it
in her arms, desired the nurse to follow her. They passed
through some scroggy woods skirting the side of a beautiful
green hill, which they ascended half way. A door opened on
the sunny side they went in, and the sod closed after them.
The Fairy then dropped three drops of a precious liquid
on her companion's left eyelid, and she beheld a most deli-
cious country, whose fields were yellow with ripening corn,
watered by looping burnies, and bordered by trees laden with
fruit. She was presented with webs of the finest cloth, and
with boxes of precious ointments. The Fairy then moist-
ened her right eye with a green fluid, and bid her look. She
looked, and saw several of her friends and acquaintances at
work, reaping the corn and gathering the fruit. " This,"
said the Fairy, " is the punishment of evil deeds !" She
then passed her hand over the woman's eye, and restored it
to its natural power. Leading her to the porch at which she
had entered, she dismissed her ; but the woman had secured
the wonderful salve. From this time she possessed the faculty
of discerning the Fairy people as they went about invisibly ;
till one day, happening to meet the Fairy-lady, she attempted
to shake hands with her. "What ee d'ye see me wi' ?"
whispered she. " Wi' them baith," said the woman. The
Fairy breathed on her eyes, and the salve lost its efficacy,
and could never more endow her eyes with their preterna-
tural power.*
dfatrn
THE Fairy Hade, or procession, was a matter ot great im-
portance. It took place on the coming in of summer, and
the peasantry, by using the precaution of placing a branch
* See above, pp. 302, 311. Graham also relates this legend in his Picturesque
Sketches of Perthshire.
I SCOTTISH LOWLAXDS. 355
o* rowan over their door, might safely gaze on the cavalcade,
as with music sounding, bridles ringing, and voices mingling,
it pursued its way from place to place. An old woman of
Nithsdale gave the following description of one of these
processions :
" In the night afore Eoodmass I had trysted with a neebor
lass a Scots mile frae hame to talk anent buying braws i' the
fair. \Ve had nae sutten lang aneath the haw-buss till we
heard the loud laugh of fowk riding, wi' the jingling o'
bridles, and the clanking o' hoofs. We banged up, thinking
they wad ride owre us. We kent nae but it was drunken
fowk ridin' to the fair i' the forenight. We glowred roun'
and roun', and sune saw it was the Fairie-fowJcs Rode. We
cowred down till they passed by. A beam o' light was
dancing owre them mair bonnie than moonshine : they were
a' wee wee fowk wi' green scarfs on, but ane that rade fore-
most, and that ane was a good deal larger than the lave wi'
bonnie lang hair, bun' about wi' a strap whilk glinted like
stars. They rade on braw wee white naigs, wi' unco lang
swooping tails, an' manes hung wi' whustles that the win'
played on. This an' their tongue when they sang was like
the soun' o' a far awa psalm. Marion an' me was in a brade
lea fiel', where they came by us ; a high hedge o' haw-trees
keepit them frae gaun through Johnnie Corrie's corn, but
they lap a' owre it like sparrows, and gallopt into a green
know beyont it. We gaed i' the morning to look at the
treddit corn ; but the fient a hoof mark was there, nor a
blade broken."
l)angcltncj.
BUT the Fairies of Scotland were not, even according to
Mr. Cromek, uniformly benevolent. Woman and child
abstraction was by no means uncommon with them, and
the substitutes they provided were, in general, but little
attractive.
A fine child at Caerlaveroc, in Nithsdale, was observed on
356 GBEAT BKITAllf.
the second day after its birth, and before it was baptised, to
have become quite ill-favoured and deformed. Its yelling
every night deprived the whole family of rest ; it bit and
tore its mother's breasts, and would lie still neither in tin-
cradle nor the arms. The mother being one day obliged to
go from home, left it in charge of the servant girl. The
poor lass was sitting bemoaning herself " Were it nae for
thy girning face, I would knock the big, winnow the corn,
und grun the meal." " Lowse the cradle-band," said the
child, " and tent the neighbours, and I '11 work yere work."
Up he started the wind arose the corn was chopped the
outlyers were foddered the hand-mill moved around, as by
instinct and the knocking-mill did its work with amazing
rapidity. The lass and child then rested and diverted them-
selves, till, on the approach of the mistress, it was restored
to the cradle, and renewed its cries. The girl took the
tirst opportunity of telling the adventure to her mistress.
" "What '11 we do with the wee diel ? " said she. " 1 '11 work
it a pirn," replied the lass. At midnight the chimney-top
was covered up, and every chink and cranny stopped. The
fire was blown till it was glowing hot, and the maid speedily
undressed the child, and tossed him on the burning coals.
He shrieked and yelled in the most dreadful manner, and in
an instant the Fairies were heard moaning on every side,
aud rattling at the window s, door, and chimney. " In the
name of God bring back the bairn," cried the lass. The
window flew up, the real child was laid on the mother's lap,
and the icee diel flew up the chimney laughing.
Scparturc of tfjc jFatrtrsf.
ON a Sabbath morning, all the inmates of a little hamlet
had gone to church, except a herd-boy, und a little girl, his
sister, who were lounging beside one of the cottages, when
just as the shadow of the garden-dial had fallen on the line
of noon, they saw a long cavalcade ascending out of the
ravine, through the wooded hollow. It winded among the
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 357
knolls and bushes, and turning round the northern gable of
the cottage, beside which the sole spectators of the scene
were stationed, began to ascend the eminence towards the
south. The horses were shaggy diminutive things, speckled
dun and grey ; the riders stunted, misgrown, ugly creatures,
attired in antique jerkins of plaid, long grey clokes, and
little red caps, from under which their wild uncombed locks
shot out over their cheeks and foreheads. The boy and his
sister stood gazing in utter dismay and astonishment, as
rider after rider, each more uncouth and dwarfish than 'the
other which had preceded it, passed the cottage and dis-
appeared among the brushwood, which at that period covered
the hill, until at length the entire rout, except the last rider,
who lingered a few yards behind the others, had gone by.
" What are you, little manie ? and where are ye going ? "
inquired the boy, his curiosity getting the better of his
fears and his prudence. " Not of the race of Adam," said
the creature, turning for a moment in its saddle, " the
people of peace shall never more be seen in Scotland." *
JJrofomtc.
THE Nis, Kobold, or Goblin, appears in Scotland under
the name of Brownie.f Brownie is a personage of small
stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short curly brown hair,
and wearing a brown mantle and hood. His residence is the
* Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, p. 251. We are happy to have
an opportunity of expressing the high feelings of respect and esteem which we
entertain for this extraordinary man. Born in the lowest rank of society, and
commencing life as a workman in a stone-quarry, he has, by the mere force of
natural genius, become not only a most able geologist but an elegant writer,
and a sound and discerning critic. Scotland seems to stand alone in producing
such men.
t He is named as we have seen (p. 351) by Gawain Douglas. King Jamc
says of him " The spirit called Brownie appeared like a rough man, and
haunted divers houses without doing any evil], but doing, as it were, necessarie
turns up and down the house ; yet some are so blinded as to believe that thei
house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there."
358 GREAT BRITAIN.
hollow of tin old tree, a ruined castle, or the abode of man.
He is attached to particular families, with whom he has been
known to reside, even for centuries, threshing the corn,
cleaning the house, and doing everything done by his
northern and English brethren. He is, to a certain degree,
disinterested ; like many great personages, he is shocked at
anything approaching to the name of a bribe or douceur, yet,
like them, allows his scruples to be overcome if the thing be
done in a genteel, delicate, and secret way. Thus, offer
Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and
hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted
the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some
fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon
disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never
knew anything of them.
A good woman had just made a web of linsey-woolsey,
and, prompted by her good nature, had manufactured from
it a snug mantle and hood for her little Brownie. Not con-
tent with laying the gift in one of his favourite spots, she
indiscreetly called to tell him it was there. This was too
direct, and Brownie quitted the place, crying,
A new mantle and a new hood ;
Poor Brownie ! ye 11 ne'er do mair gude !
Another version of this legend says, that the gudeman of
a farm-house in the parish of Glendevon having left out some
clothes one night for Brownie, he was heard to depart,
saying,
Gie Brownie coat, gie Brownie sark,
Ye 'se get nae mair o' Brownie's work ! *
At Leithin-hall, in Dumfrieshire, a Brownie had dwelt,
as he himself declared, for three hundred years. He used
to show himself but once to each master ; to other persons
he rarely discovered more than his hand. One master was
greatly beloved by Brownie, who on his death bemoaned him
exceedingly, even abstaining from food for many succssoive
days. The heir returning from foreign parts to take possession
of the estate, Brownie appeared to do him homage, but the
Laird., offended at his mean, starved appearance, ordered him
* Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.
SCOTTISH LOWLANDS 359
meat and driuk, and new livery. Brownie departed, loudl}
crying,
Ca', cuttee, ca' !
A' the luck of Leithin Ha'
Gangs wi' me to Bodsbeck Ha'.
In a few years Leithin Ha' was in ruins, and " bonnie Bods-
beck " nourishing beneath the care of Brownie.
Others say that it was the gudeman of Bodsbeck that
offended the Brownie by leaving out for him a mess of bread
and milk, and that he went away, saying,
Ca, Brownie, ca',
A' the luck of Bodsbeck awa to Leithenha'.
Brownie was not without some roguery in his composition.
Two lasses having made a fine bowlful of buttered brose, had
taken it into the byre to sup in the dark. In their haste
they brought but one spoon, so, placing the bowl between
them, they supped by turns. "I hae got but three sups,"
cried the one, "and it's a' dune." "It's a' dune, indeed,"
cried the other. " Ha, ha, ha!" cried a third voice, " Brownie
has got the maist o' it." And Brownie it was who had placed
himself between them, and gotten two sups for their one.
The following story will remind the reader of Hinzelmann.
A Brownie once lived with Maxwell, Laird of Dalswinton,
and was particularly attached to the Laird's daughter, the
comeliest lass in all the holms of ]N r ithsdale. In all her love
affairs Brownie was her confidant and assistant ; when she
was married, it was Brownie who undressed her for the bridal
bed; and when a mother's pains first seized her, and a
servant, who was ordered to go fetch the cannie wife, who
lived on the other side of the Nith, was slow in getting
himself ready, Brownie, though it was one of dark December's
stormy nights, and the wind was howling through the trees,
wrapped his lady's fur cloak about him, mounted the ser-
vant's horse, and dashed through the waves of the foaming
Nith He went to the cannie wife, got her up behind him,
and, to her terror and dismay, plunged again into the torrent.
"Bide nae by the auld pool," said she, " lest we suld meet
wi' Brownie." "Fear nae. dame," replied he, "ye've met
a' the Brownies ye will meet." He set her down at the hall
360 GREAT
steps, and went to the stable. There finding the lad, whose
embassy he had discharged, but drawing on his boots, he
took off the bridle, and by its vigorous application instilled
into the memory of the loitering loon the importance of.
dispatch. This was just at the time of the Reformation, and
a zealous minister advised the Laird to have him baptised
The Laird consented, and the worthy minister hid himself in
the barn. When Brownie was beginning his night's work,
the man of God flung the holy water in his face, repeating
at the same time the form of baptism. The terrified Brownie
gave a yell of dismay, and disappeared for ever.
Another name by which the domestic spirit was known in
some parts of Scotland was Shellycoat, of which the origin is
uncertain.*
Scotland has also its water-spirit, called Kelpie, who iu
some respects corresponds with the Neck of the northern
nations. " Every lake," says Graham,t " has its Kelpie, or
Water-horse, often seen by the shepherd, as he sat in a
summer's evening upon the brow of a rock, dashing along
the surface of the deep, or browsing on the pasture-ground
upon its verge. Often did this malignant genius of the
waters allure women and children to his subaqueous haunts,
there to be immediately devoured. Often did he also swell
the torrent or lake beyond its usual limits, to overwhelm the
hapless traveller in the flood. " J
We have now gone through nearly the whole of the Gotho-
German race, and everywhere have found their fairy system
the same a proof, we conceive, of the truth of the position
of its being deeply founded in the religious system originally
common to the whole race. We now proceed to another,
and, perhaps, an older European family, the Celts.
* Grimm (Deut. Mythol., p. 479) says it is the German Schellenrock, i. e,
Bell-coat, from his coat being hung with bells like those of the fools. A Puck
he says, once served in a convent in Mecklenburg; for thirty years, in kitchen,
and stable, and the only reward he asked was " tunicam de diversis coloribui
et tintinnabulis plenam."
f Sketches of Perthshire, p. 245.
* In what precedes, we have chiefly followed Mr. Ciomek. Those anxious
for further information will meet >t iu 'lie Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,
and other works.
CELTS AND CYMRY.
There every herd by sad experience Knows,
How winged with fate their elf-shot arrows fly ;
When the sick ewe her summer-food foregoes,
Or, stretched on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.
COLLINS.
UNDEB the former of these appellations we include the inha-
bitants of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, and the Isle
of Man ; under the latter, the people of Wales and Brittany.
It is, not, however, by any means meant to be asserted that
there is in any of these places to be found a purely Celtic or
Cymric population. The more powerful Gotho-German
race has, every where that they have encountered them,
beaten the Celts and Cymry, and intermingled with them,
influencing their manners, language, and religion.
Our knowledge of the original religion of this race is very
limited, chiefly confined to what the Roman writers have
transmitted to us, and the remaining poems of the Welsh
bards. Its character appears to have been massive, simple,
and sublime, and less given to personification than those of
the more eastern nations. The wild and the plastic powers
of nature never seem in it to have assumed the semblance of
huge giants and ingenious dwarfs.
Yet in the popular creed of all these tribes, we meet at
the present day beings exactly corresponding to the Dwarfs
and Fairies of the Gotho-German nations. Of these beings
there is no mention in any works such as the Welsh
Poems, and Mabinogion, the Poems of Ossian, or the dif-
ferent Irish poems and romances which can by any possi-
bility lay claim to an antiquity anterior to the conquests of
862 CELTS AND CTMET.
the Northmen. Is it not then a reasonable supposition that
the Picts, Saxons, and other sons of the North, brought with
them their Dwarfs and Kobolds, and communicated the
knowledge of, and belief in, them to their Celtic and Cymric
subjects and neighbours ? Proceeding on this theory, we
have placed the Celts and Cymry next to and after the
Grotho-German nations, though they are perhaps their pre-
cursors in Europe.
IEELAND.
Like him, the Sprite,
Whom maids by night
Oft meet in glen that's haunted.
MOOBE.
WE commence our survey of the lands of Celts and Cymry
with Ireland, as being the first in point of importance, but
still more as being the land of our birth. It is pleasing to
us, now in the autumn of our life, to return in imagination
to where we passed its spring its most happy spring. As
we read and meditate, its mountains and its vales, its ver-
dant fields and lucid streams, objects on which we probably
never again shall gaze, rise up in their primal freshness and
beauty before us, and we are once more present, buoyant
with youth, in the scenes where we first heard the fairy-
legends of which we are now to treat. Even the forms of
the individual peasants who are associated with them in our
memory, rise as it were from their humble resting-places and
appear before us, again awaking our sympathies; for, we
will boldly assert it, the Irish peasantry, with all their faults,
gain a faster hold on the affections than the peasantry of
any other country. We speak, however, particularly of
them as they were in our county and in our younger days ;
for we fear that they are somewhat changed, aud not for the
better. But our present business is with the Irish fairies
n*" ~- : 'h the Irish people,
IBELA1SD. 363
The fairies of Ireland can hardly be said to diifer in any
respect from those of England and Scotland. Like them
they are of diminutive size, rarely exceeding two feet in
height ; they live also in society, their ordinary abode being
the interior of the mounds, called in Irish, Raths (Bdhs), in
English, Moats, the construction of which is, by the pea-
santry, ascribed to the Danes from whom, it might thence
perhaps be inferred, the Irish got their fairies direct and
not via England. From these abodes they are at times seen
to issue mounted on diminutive steeds, in order to take at
night the diversion of the chase. Their usual attire is
green with red caps.* They are fond of music, but we do
not in general hear much of their dancing, perhaps because on
account of the infrequency of thunder, the fairy-rings are less
numerous in Ireland than elsewhere. Though the fairies
steal children and strike people with paralysis and other
ailments (which is called being fairy-struck), and shoot their
elf-arrows at the cattle, they are in general kind to those
for whom they have contracted a liking, and often render
them essential service in time of need. They can make
themselves visible and invisible, and assume any forms they
please. The pretty tiny conical mushrooms which grow so
abundantly in Ireland are called Fairy-mushrooms ; a kind
of nice regularly-formed grass is named Fairy-flax, and the
bells of the foxglove called in some places Fairy -bells, are als j
said to have some connexion with the Little People.
The popular belief in Ireland also is, that the Fairies are
a portion of the fallen angels, who, being less guilty than the
rest, were not driven to hell, but were suffered to dwell on
earth. They are supposed to be very uneasy respecting their
condition after the final judgement.
The only names by which they are known in those parts of
Ireland in which the English language is spoken are, Fairies,
the Good People,t and the Gentry, these last terms being
placatory, like the Greek Eumenides. When, for example,
the peasant sees a cloud of dust sweeping along the road,
he raises his hat and says, " God speed you, gentlemen !"
for it is the popular belief that it is in these cloudy vehicles
Mr. Croker says, that according to the Minister peasantry the ordinary
ttire of the Fairy is a black hat, green coat, white stockings, and red shoe*,
f In Irish as in Erse, &A)f;e nj^/c (deene mdh).
.364 CELTS A1TD CTMRT.
that the Grood People journey from one place to another.*
The Irish language has several names for the fairies ; all
however are forms or derivations of the word Shia,^ the
proper meaning of which seems to he Spirit. The most
usual name employed by the Munster peasantry is Shifra ;
we are not acquainted with the fairy-belief and terminology
of the inhabitants of Connemara and the other wilds of
Connaught.J
Most of the traits and legends of the Irish fairies are con-
tained in the Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of
Ireland, compiled by Mr. Crofton Croker. As we ourselves
aided in that work we must inform the reader that our con-
tributions, both in text and notes, contain only Leinster
ideas and traditions, for that was the only province with
which we were acquainted. We must make the further confes-
sion, that some of the more poetic traits which MM. Grimm,
in the Introduction to their translation of this work, give
as characteristic of the Irish fairies, owe their origin to
the fancy of the writers, who were, in many cases, more
anxious to produce amusing tales than to transmit legends
faithfully.
The Legend of Knockshegowna (Hill of the Fairy-calf) the
first given in that work, relates how the fairies used to
torment the cattle and herdsmen for intruding on one of
their favourite places of resort which was on this hill. The
fairy-queen, it says, having failed in her attempts to daunt
a drunken piper who had undertaken the charge of the
cattle, at last turned herself into a calf, and, with the piper
on her back, jumped over the Shannon, ten miles off, and
back again. Pleased with his courage, she agreed to abandon
the hill for the future.
The Legend of Knock-Grafton tells how a little hunch-
back, while sitting to rest at nightfall at the side of a Bath
or Moat, heard the fairies within singing over and over again,
DaLuan, Da Mart! (i.e.,Monday, Tuesday !) and added, weary
* See above, p. 2fi.
f They are rtA (shia), rtABn<* (shifra), nACArne (shicdre), rij (shee),
r'3e (sheee), rjjm (sheeidh) all denoting, spirit, fairy. The term n*> also
signifies a hag, and a hillock, and as an adjective, spiritual.
+ We never heard a fairy-legend from any of the Connaught-men with
whom we conversed in our boyhood. Their tales were all of Finn-ma<-Coo'
and his heroes.
IRELAND. 365
with the monotony, Agus da Cadin! (i.e., aud Wednesday !)
The fairies were so delighted with this addition to their
song that they brought him into the Moat, entertained him,
and finally freed him from the iucumbrance of his hump.
Another hunchback hearing the story went to the Moat to
try if he could meet with the same good fortune. He heard
the fairies singing the amended version of the song, and,
anxious to contribute, without waiting for a pause or attend-
ing to the rhythm or melody, he added Agus da Sena ! (i.e.,
and Friday.)* His reward was, being carried into the Moat,
and having his predecessor's hump placed on his back in
addition to his own.f
In the story named the Priest's Supper, a fisherman, at
the request of the fairies, asks a priest who had stopt at his
house, whether they would be saved or not at the last day.
The priest desired him to tell them to come themselves and
put the question to him, but this they declined doing, and
the question remained undecided.
The next three stories are of changelings. The Young
Piper, one of our own contributions, will be found in the
Appendix. The Changeling has nothing peculiar in it ; but
the Brewery of Eggshells is one which we find in many
places, even in Brittany and Auvergne. In the present
version, the mother puts down eggshells to boil, and to the
enquiry of the changeling she tells him that she is brewing
them, and clapping his hands he says, " Well ! I 'm fifteen
hundred years in the world, and I never saw a brewery of
eggshells before ! "
In the Capture of Bridget Purcel, a girl is struck with a
little switch between the shoulders, by something in the form
of a little child that came suddenly behind her, and she
pined away and died.
The Legend of Bottle Hill gives the origin of that name,
which was as follows. A poor man was driving his only cow
In Irish, &JA xxojoe (dhia eene). We are inclined to think that he
must have added, b]A bAtiOAOjt). 6IA <*oirje (dhia dhardlwen, dhia eene), i. e.
Thursday, Friday ; for we can see no reason for omitting Thursday.
+ See below, Brittany and Spain, in both of which th* legend is more
perfect; but it is impossible to say which is the original. Parnell's pleasing
Fairy Tale is probably formed on this Irish version, yet it agrees moie will
the Breton legend.
366 CELTS A5U> CYJJRT.
to Cork to sell her. As he was going over that hill he was
suddenly joined by a strange-looking little old man with a
pale withered face and red eyes, to whom he was eventually
induced to give his cow in exchange for a bottle, and both
cow and purchaser then disappeared. When the poor mar.
came home he followed the directions of the stranger, an&
spreading a cloth on the table, and placing the bottle on the
ground, he said, " Bottle, do your duty ! " and immediately
two little beings rose out of it, and having covered the table
with food in gold and silver dishes, went down again intc
the bottle and vanished. By selling these he got a good deal
of money and became rich for one in his station. The
secret of his bottle however transpired, and his landlord
induced him to sell it to him. But his prosperity vanished
with it, and he was again reduced to one cow, and obliged
to drive her to Cork for sale. As he journeyed over the
same hill he met the same old man, and sold him the cow
for another bottle. Having made the usual preparations, he
laid it on the ground and said, " Bottle, do your duty ! " but
instead of the tiny little lads with their gold and silver dishes,
there jumped up out of it two huge fellows with cudgels,
who fell to belabouring the whole family. When they had
done and were gone back into the bottle, the owner of it,
without saying a word, put it under his coat and went to
his landlord, who happened to have a great deal of company
with him, and sent in word that he was come with another
bottle to sell. He was at once admitted, the bottle did its
duty, and the men with cudgels laid about them on all
present, and never ceased till the original wealth-giving
Dottle was restored. He now grew richer than ever, and his
son married his landlord's daughter, but when the old man
and his wife died, the servants, it is recorded, fighting at
their wake, broke the two bottles.*
The Confessions of Tom Bourke, as it contains a faithful
transcript of the words and ideas of that personage, is per-
haps the most valuable portion of the work. From this we
learn that in Munster the fairies are, like the people them-
selves, divided into factions. Thus we are told that, on the
* This story may remind one of the Wonderful Lamp, and others. Ther
Is something of the same kind in the Pentainerone.
IRELAKD. SG7
occasion of the death of Bourke's mother, the two parties
fought for three continuous nights, to decide whether she
should be buried with her own or her husband's people
(i. e. family). Bourke also had sat for hours lookirg ut two
parties of the Good People playing at the popular game of
hurling, in a meadow at the opposite side of the river, with
their coats and waistcoats off, and white handkerchiefs on
the heads of one, and red on these of the other party.
A man whom Tom knew was returning one evening from
a fair, a little elevated of course, when he met a berrin
(i. e. funeral), which he joined, as is the custom; but, to his
surprise, there was no one there that he knew except one
man, and he had been dead for some years. When the berrin
was over, they gathered round a piper, and began to dance
in the churchyard. Davy longed to be among them, and the
man that he knew came up to him, and bid him take out a
partner, but on no account to give her the usual kiss. He
accordingly took out the purtiest girl in the ring, and danced
a jig with her, to the admiration of the whole company ; but
at the end he forgot the warning, and complied with the
custom of kissing one's partner. All at once everything
vanished ; and when Davy awoke next morning, he found
himself lying among the tombstones.
Another man, also a little in liquor, was returning one
night from a berrin. The moon was shining bright, and
from the other side of the river came the sounds of merri-
ment, and the notes of a bagpipe. Taking off his shoes and
stockings, he waded across the river, and there he found a
great crowd of people dancing on the Inch* on the other
side. He mingled with them without being observed, and
he longed to join in the dance ; for he had no mean opinion
of his own skill. He did so, but found that it was not to be
compared to theirs, they were so light and agile. He was
going away quite in despair, when a little old man, who was
looking on with marks of displeasure in his face, came up to
him, and telling him he was his friend, and his father's
* Inis, pronounced sometimes Inch, (like the Hebrew Ee (<x) and the
Indian Dsib } is either island or coast, bank of sea or river. The Ang.-Sax.
1 7> ( ee ) 9eenl9 to have had the same extent of signification, hence Chelsea,
Battersea, etc., which never could have been islands. Perhaps J>eojV6ij
{worth//, worth) was similar, as wcnl, werth, in German is an island.
368 I;ELTS AND
friend, bade him go into the ring and call for a lilt. He
complied, and all were amazed at his dancing ; he then got
a table and danced on it, and finally he span round and
round on a trencher. "When he had done, they wanted him
to dance again ; but he refused with a great oath, and
instantly he found himself lying on the Inch with only a
white cow grazing beside him. On going home, he got a
shivering and a fever. He was for many days out of his
mind, and recovered slowly; but ever after he had great
skill in fairy matters. The dancers, it turned out, had
belonged to a different faction, and the old man who gave
him his skill to that to which he himself was attached.
In these genuine confessions it is very remarkable that
the Good People are never represented as of a diminutive
size ; while in every story that we ever heard of them in
Leinster, they were of pygmy stature. The following account
of their mode of entering houses in Ulster gives them
dimensions approaching to those of Titania's ' small elves.'
A Fairy, the most agile, we may suppose, of the part)', is
selected, who contrives to get up to the keyhole of the d'oor,
carrying with him a piece of thread or twine. With this he
descends on the inside, where he fastens it firmly to the
floor, or some part of the furniture. Those without then
' haul taut and belay,' and when it is fast they prepare
to march along this their perilous Es-Sirat, leading to the
paradise of pantry or parlour, in this order. First steps up
the Fairy-piper, and in measured pace pursues his adven-
turous route, playing might and main an invigorating elfin-
march, or other spirit-stirring air; then one by one the
rest of the train mount the cord and follow his steps. Like
the old Romans, in their triumphal processions, they pass
beneath the lofty arch of the keyhole, and move down along
the other side. Lightly, one by one, they then jump down
on the floor, to hold their revels or accomplish their thefts.
"We have never heard of any being, in the parts of Ireland
with which we are acquainted, answering to the Boggart,
Brownie, or Nis. A farmer's family still, we believe, living
in the county of Wicklow, used to assert that in their grand-
father's time they never had any trouble about washing up
plates and dishes ; for they aad only to leave them collected
IRELAND. 309
in a certain part of the house for the Good People, \vtio
would come in and wash and clean them, and in the morning
everything would be clean and in its proper place.
Yet in the county of Cork it would seem that the Cluri-
caun, of which we shall presently speak, used to enact the
part of Nis or Boggart. Mr. Croker tells a story of a little
being, which he calls a Cluricaun, that haunted the cellar
of a Mr. Macarthy, and in a note on this tale he gives the
contents of a letter informing him of another ycleped Little
Wildbeaii, that haunted the house of a Quaker gentleman
named Harris, and which is precisely the Nis or Boggart
This "Wildbean, who kept to the cellar, would, if one of the
servants through negligence left the beer-barrel running,
wedge himself into the cock and stop it, till some one came
to turn it. His dinner used to be left for him in the cellar,
and the cook having, one Friday, left him nothing but part
of a herring and some cold potatoes, she was at midnighc
dragged out of her bed, and down the cellar-stairs, and so
much bruised that she kept her bed for three weeks. In
order at last to get rid of him, Mr. Harris resolved to
remove, being told that if he went beyond a running stream
the Cluricaun could not follow him. The last cart, filled
with empty barrels and such like, was just moving off, when
from the bung-hole of one of them Wildbean cried out,
" Here, master ! here we go all together ! " " What ! " said
Mr. Harris, " dost thou go also ?" " Yes, to be sure, master.
Here we go, all together ! " "In that case, friend," replied
Mr. Harris, " let the carts be unloaded ; we are just as well
where we are." It is added, that " Mr. Harris died soon
after, but it is said the Cluricaun still haunts the Harris
family."
In another of these Fairy Legends, Teigue of the Lee, who
haunted the house of a Mr. Pratt, in the county of Cork,
bears a strong resemblance to the- Hinzelmanu of Germany.
To the story, which is exceedingly well told by a member of
the society of Friends, now no more, also the narrator of
the Legend of Bottle-hill, Mr. Croker has in his notes added
some curious particulars.
A being named the Fear Dearg (i. e. Red Man) is also
known in Munster. A tale named The Lucky Guest, which
Mr. Croker gives as taken down verbatim from the mouth of
370 CELTS AKD CTMET.
the narrator by Mr. M'Clise, the artist, gives the fullest
account of this being. A girl related that, when she was
quite a child, one night, during a storm of wind and rain, a
knocking was heard at the door of her father's cabin, and a
voice like that of a feeble old man craving admission. On
the door's being opened, there came in a little old man,
about two feet and a half high, with a red sugar-loaf hat and
a long scarlet coat, reaching down nearly to the ground, his
hair was long and grey, and his face yellow and wrinkled.
He went over to the fire (which the family had quitted in
their fear), sat down and dried his clothes, and began smoking
a pipe which he found there. The family went to bed, and
in the morning he was gone. In about a month after he
began to come regularly every night about eleven o'clock.
The signal which he gave was thrusting a hairy arm through
a hole in the door, which was then opened, and the family
retired to bed, leaving him the room to himself. If they did
not open the door, some accident was sure to happen next
day to themselves or their cattle. On the whole, however,
his visits brought good luck, and the family prospered, till
the landlord put them out of their farm, and they never saw
the Fear Dearg more.
As far as our knowledge extends, there is no being in the
Irish rivers answering to the Nix or Kelpie ; but on the
sea coast the people believe in beings of the same kind as
the Mermen and Mermaids. The Irish name is Merrow,* and
legends are told of them similar to those of other countries.
Thus the Lady of Gollems resembles the Mermaid-wife and
others which we have already related. Instead, however, of
an entire dress, it is a kind of cap, named Cohuleen Driuth,
without which she pannot return to her subaqueous abode.
Other legends tell of matrimonial unions formed by mortals
with these sea-ladies, from which some families in the south
claim a descent. The Lord of Dunkerron, so beautifully
told in verse by Mr. Croker, relates the unfortunate termi-
nation of a marine amour of one of the 0' Sullivan family.
The Soul-cages alone contains the adventures of a Merman.
* Mr. Croker says this is moruach, sea-maid ; the only word we find in
O'Reilly is ti)uififii;5eAc (mtfn'ryoeA). We Lave met no term answering
to merman.
IBELAND. 371
The Irish Pooka* (puc<x) is plainly the English Pouke,
Puck, and would seem, like it, to denote an evil spirit. The
notions respecting it are very vague. A boy in the moun-
tains near Killarney told Mr. Croker that " old people used
to say that the Pookas were very numerous in the times long
ago. They were wicked-minded, black-looking, bad things,
that would come in inform of wild colts, with chains hanging
about them. They did great hurt to benighted travellers."
Here we plainly have the English Puck ; but it is remarkable
that the boy should speak of Pookas in the plural number.
In Leinster, it was always the, not a Pooka, that we heard
named. When the blackberries begin to decay, and the
seeds to appear, the children are told not to eat them any
longer, as the Pooka has dirtied on them.
The celebrated fall of the Liffey, near Ballymore Eustace,
is named Pool-a-Phooka, or The Pooka's Hole. Near Ma-
croom, in the county of Cork, are the ruins of a castle built
on a rock, named Carrig-a-Phooka, or The Pooka's Rock.
There is an old castle not far from Dublin, called Puck's
Castle, and a townland in the county of Kildare is named
Puckstown. The common expression play the Puck is the
same as play the deuce, play the Devil.
The most remarkable of the Fairy-tribe in Ireland, and
one which is peculiar to the country, is the Leprechaun.f
This is a being in the form of an old man, dressed as he is
described in one of the following tales. He is by profession
a maker of brogues ; he resorts in general only to secret and
retired places, where he is discovered by the sounds which
he makes hammering his brogues. He is rich, like curmud-
geons of his sort, and it is only by the most violent threats
* It is a rule of the Irish language, that the initial consonant of an oblique
case, or of a word in regimine, becomes aspirated ; thus Pooka (nom.), na
Phooka (gen.), mac son, a mhic (vie) my son.
f- In Irish lobamcii) (lubarkiri) ; the Ulster name is Logheryman, in Irish
locAttttjAi) (lucharman). For the Cork term Cluricaun, the Kerry Lurioaun
and the Tipperary Lurigadaun, we have found 710 equivalents in the Irish
dictionaries. The short o in Iri;?h, we map observe, is pronounced as in
French and Spanish, i. e. as u in but, cut ; at nearly as a in fa 1 !,. It may he
added, on account of the following tales, that in Kildare and the adjoinhig
counties the short English u, in but, cut, etc., is invariably pronounptd as in
pull, full, while this u is pronounced as that in but, cut.
B B 2
372 CELTS A2TD CTMRT.
of doing him some bodily harm, that he can be made to
show the place where his treasure lies ; bufc if the person
who has caught him can be induced (a thing that always
happens, by the way) to take his eyes off him, he vanishes,
and with him the prospect of wealth. The only instance of
more than one Leprechaun being seen at a time is that which
occurs in one of the following tales, which wap related by an
old woman, to the writer's sister and early companion, now
no more.
Yet the Leprechaun, though, as we said, peculiar to
Ireland, seems indebted to England, at least, for his name.
En Irish, as we have seen, he is called Lobairein, and it
would not be easy to write the English Lubberkin more
accurately with Irish letters and Irish sounds. Leprechaun
is evidently a corruption of that word.* In the time of
Elizabeth and James, the word Lubrican was used in
England to indicate some kind of spirit. Thus Drayton
gives as a part of Nymphidia's invocation of Proserpina :
By the mandrake's dreadful groans ;
By the Lubrican's sad moans ;
By the noise of dead men's bones
In chamel-house rattling.
That this was the Leprechaun is, we think, clear ; for in
the Honest Whore of Decker and Middleton, the following
words are used of an Irish footman :
As for your Irish Lubrican, that spirit
Whom by preposterous charms thy lust has raised.
Part H. L l.f
AVe thus have the Leprechaun as a well-known Irish fairy,
though his character was not understood, in the sixteenth
century.
The two following tales we ourselves heard from the
peasantry of Kildare in our boyhood : J
* The Ulster Lucharman also has such an English look, that we should be
tempted to derive it from the Ang.-Sax. Idcan, Icecan, to play. Loki Lojemand,
or Loki Playman, is a name of the Eddaic deity Loki in the Danish ballads.
t In the place of the Witch of Edmonton usually quoted with this, Lubrick
it plainly the Latin lubricus.
It will be observed that these, as well as the Young Piper in the Appen-
ISSLA3TD. 373
OLIVER Tom Fwich-(i.e. Fitz)pathrick, as people used to
call him, was the eldest son o' a comfortable farmer, who
lived nigh hand to Morristo wn-Lattin, not far from the
Liffey. Tom was jist turned o' nine-an'-twinty, whin he
met wid the follyin' advinthur, an' he was as cllver, clane,
tight, good-lukin' a boy as any in the whole county Kildare.
One fine day in harvist (it was a holiday) Tom was takin' a
ramble by himsilf thro' the land, an' wint sauntherin' along
the sunny side uv a hidge, an' thiukin' in himsilf, whare id
be the 'grate harm if people, instid uv idlin' an' goin' about
doin' nothin' at all, war to shake out the hay, an' bind and
stook th' oats that was lyin' an the ledge, 'specially as the
weather was raither brokin uv late, whin all uv a suddint he
h'ard a clackin' sort o' n'ise jist a little way fornint him, in the
hidge. " Dear me," said Tom, " but isn't it now raaly
surprisin' to hear the stonechatters singin' so late in the
saison." So Tom stole an, goin' on the tips o' his toes to
thry iv he cud git a sight o' what was makin' the n'ise, to
see iv he was right in his guess. The n'ise stopt ; but as
Tom luked sharp thro' the bushes, what did he see in a
neuk o' the hidge but a brown pitcher that might hould
about a gallon an' a haff o' liquor ; an' bye and bye he seen
a little wee deeny dawny bit iv an ould man, wid a little
motty iv a cocked hat stuck an the top iv his head, an' a
deeshy daushy leather apron hangin' down afore him, an' he
pulled out a little wooden stool, an' stud up upon it, and
dipped a little piggen into the pitcher, an' tuk out the full
av it, an' put it beside the stool, an' thin sot down undher
the pitcher, an' begun to work at puttiu' a heelpiece an a
bit iv a brogue jist fittin' fur himsilf.
dix, are related in the character of a peasant. This was in accordance with a
frame that was proposed for the Fairy Legends, but which proved too difficult
of execution to be adopted.
374 CELTS ASTD CTMET.
"Well, by the powers!" said Tom to himsilf, "I aften
hard tell o' the Leprechauns, an', to tell God's thruth,
I nivir rightly believed in thim, but here 's won o' thim in
right airnest ; if I go knowin'ly to work, I 'm a med man.
They say a body must nivir take their eyes aff o' thim, or
they'll escape."
Tom now stole an a little farther, wid his eye fixed an the
little man jist as a cat does wid a mouse, or, as we read in
books, the rattlesnake does wid the birds he wants to
inchant. So, whin he got up quite close to him, " God bless
your work, honest man," sez Tom. The little man raised up
his head, an' " Thank you kindly," sez he. " I wundher
you 'd be workin' an the holiday," sez Tom. "That's my
own business, an' none of your's," was the reply, short
enough. " Well, may be, thin, you 'd be civil enough to tell
us, what you 've got in the pitcher there," sez Tom. "Aye,
will I, wid pleasure," sez he: "it's good beer." " Beer! "
sez Tom : " Blud an' turf, man, whare did ye git it ? "
" Whare did I git it, is it ? why I med it to be shure ; an'
what do ye think I med it av ? " " Divil a one o' me
knows," sez Tom, "but av malt, I 'spose; what ilse?"
" 'Tis there you 're out ; I med it av haith." " Av haith ! "
sez Tom, burstin' .out laughin'. " Shure you don't take me
to be sich an omedhaun as to b'lieve that ? " " Do as ye
plase," sez he, " but what I tell ye is the raal thruth. Did
ye nivir hear tell o' the Danes ?" " To be shure I did," sez
Tom, " warn't thim the chaps we gev such a lickin' whin
they thought to take Deny frum huz ? " " Hem," sez
the little man dhrylv, "is that all ye know about the
matther ? " " Well, but about thim Danes," sez Tom. " Why
all th' about thim is," said he, "is that whin they war here
they taught huz to make beer out o' the haith, an' the
saicret 's in my family ivir sense." " Will ye giv a body a
taste o' yer beer to thry ? " sez Tom. " I '11 tell ye what it
is, young man, it id be fitther fur ye to be lukin' afther yer
father's propirty thi'n to be botherin' dacint, quite people
wid yer foolish questions. There, now, while you 're idlin'
away yer time here, there 's the cows hav' bruk into th'
oats, an' are knockin' the corn all about."
Tom was taken so by surprise wid this, that he was jist an
the very point o' turnin' round, whin he recollicted himsilf.
IEELAND. 375
So, afeard that the like might happin agin, he med a grab at
the Leprechaun, an' cotch him up in his hand, but in his
hurry he ovirset the pitcher, and spilt all the beer, so that he
couldn't git a taste uv it to tell what sort it was. He thin
swore what he wouldn't do to him iv he didn't show him
whare his money was. Tom luked so wicked, an' so bloody-
minded, that the little man was quite frightened. " So,"
sez he, " come along wid me a couple o' fields aff, an' I ! li
show ye a crock o' gould." So they wint, an' Tom held the
Leprechaun fast in his hand, an' nivir tuk his eyes frum aff
uv him, though they had to crass hidges an' ditches, an' a
cruked bit uv a bog (fur the Leprechaun seemed, out o'
pure mischief, to pick out the hardest and most conthrairy
way), till at last they come to a grate field all full o'
bolyawn buies* an' the Leprechaun pointed to a big
bolyawn, an' sez he, " Dig undher that bolyawn, an' you '11
git a crock chuck full o' goulden guineas."
Tom, in his hurry, had nivir minded the bringin' a fack t
wid him, so he thought to run home and fetch one, an' that
he might know the place agin, he tuk aff one o' his red
garthers, and tied it round the bolyawn. " I s'pose," sez
the Leprechaun, very civilly, " ye 've no further occashin
fur me ? " " No," sez Tom, " ye may go away now, if ye like,
and Grod speed ye, an' may good luck attind ye whareivir ye
go." " Well, good bye to ye, Tom Fwichpathrick," sed the
Leprechaun, " an' much good may do ye wid what ye '11 git."
So Tom run fur the bare life, till he come home, an' got a
fack, an' thin away wid him as hard as he could pilt back
to the field o' bolyawns ; but whin he got there, lo an'
behould, not a bolyawn in the field, but had a red garther,
the very idintical model o' his own, tied about it ; an' a* to
diggin' up the whole field, that was all nonsinse, fur there
was more nor twinty good Irish acres in it. So Tom come
home agin wid his lack an his shouldher, a little cooler
nor he wint ; and many 's the hearty curse he gev the
Leprechaun ivry time he thought o' the nate turn he sarved
him.J
* Lit. Yellow-stick, the ragwort or ragweed, which grows to a great size
in Ireland.
+ A kind of spade with but one step, used in Leinster.
All that is said in this legend about the beer is a pure fiction, for we
376 CELTS A.KD CTMKT.
Ecprcdjatm in tfjc <artien.
THERE'S a sort o' people that every body must have met
wid sum time or another. I mane thim people that pur-
tinds not to b'lieve in things that in their hearts they do
b'lieve in, an' are mortially afeard o' too. Now Failey*
Mooney was one o' these. Failey (iv any o' yez knew him)
was a rollockin', rattlin', divil-may-care sort ov a chap like
but that 's neither here nor there ; he was always talkin' one
nonsinse or another ; an' among the rest o' his fooleries, he
purtinded not to b'lieve in the fairies, the Leprechauns, an'
the Poocas, an' he evin sumtimes had the impedince to pur-
tind to doubt o' ghosts, that every body b'lieves in, at any
rate. Yit sum people used to wink an' luk knowin' whin
Failey was gostherin', fur it was obsarved that he was mighty
shy o' crassin' the foord o' Ahnamoe afther nightfall ; an'
that whin onst he was ridin' past the ould church o' Tipper
in the dark, tho' he 'd got enough o' pottheen into him to
make any man stout, he med the horse trot so that there
was no keepin' up wid him, an' iv'ry now an' thin he'd throw
a sharp luk-out ovir his lift shouldher.
Well, one night there was a parcel o' the neighbours sittin'
dhrinkin' an' talkin' at Larry Reilly's public-house, an'
Failey was one o' the party. He was, as usual, gittin' an
wid his nonsinse an' baldherdash about the fairies, an' swearin'
that he didn't b'lieve there was any live things, barrin' min
never heard of a Leprechaun drinking or smoking. It is, however, a tradition
of the peasantry, that the Danes used to make beer of the heath. It was a
Protestant fanner in the county of Cavan, that showed such knowledge of the
siege of Derry ; the Catholic gardener who told us this story, knew far better.
It is also the popular belief that the Danes keep up their claim on Ireland,
and that a Danish father, when marrying his daughter, gives her a portion in
Ireland.
* i. e. Fejix. On account of the Romish custom of naming after Saints,
Felix, Thaddseus, Terence, Augustine, etc., are common names among tho
peasantry.
IRELAND. 877
an' bastes, an' birds and fishes, an' sich like tilings as a body
cud see, an' he wint on talkin' in so profane a way o' the
good people, that som o' the company grew timid an' begun
to crass thimsilves, not knowin' what might happin', whin
an ould woman called Mary Hogan wid a long blue cloak
about her, that was sittin' in the chimbly corner smokin'
her pipe widout takin' the laste share in the conversation,
tuk the pipe out o' her mouth, an' threw the ashes out o' it,
an' spit in the fire, an' turnin' round, luked Failey straight
in the face. " An' so you don't b'lieve there 's sich things
as Leprechauns, don't ye ? " sed she.
Well, Failey luked rayther daunted, but howsumdivir
he sed nothin'. " Why, thin, upon my throth, an' it well
becomes the likes o' ye, an' that 's nothin' but a bit uv a
gossoon, to take upon yer to purtind not to b'lieve what yer
father, an' yer father's father, an' his father afore him,
nivir med the laste doubt uv. But to make the matther
short, seein' 's b'lievin' they say, an' I, that might be yer
gran' mother, tell ye there is sich things as Leprechauns, an'
what 's more, that I mysilf seen one o' thim, there 's fur ye,
now ! "
All the people in the room luked quite surprised at this,
an' crowded up to the fireplace to listen to her. Failey
thried to laugh, but it wouldn't do, nobody minded him.
"I remimber," sed she, "some time afther I married the
honest man, that 's now dead and gone, it was by the same
token jist a little afore I lay in o' my first child (an' that 's
many a long day ago), I was sittin', as I sed, out in our little
bit o' a gardin, wid my knittin' in my hand, watchin' sum
bees we had that war goin' to swarm. It was a fine sun-
shiny day about the middle o' June, an' the bees war hum-
min' and flyin' backwards an' forwards frum the hives, an'
the birds war chirpin' an' hoppin' an the bushes, an' the
buttherflies war flyin' about an' sittin' an the flowers, an'
ev'ry thing smelt so fresh an' so sweet, an' I felt so happy,
that I hardly knew whare I was, Well, all uv a suddint, I
heard among sum rows of banes we had in a corner o' the
gardin, a n'ise that wint tick tack, tick tack, jist fur all the
world as iv a brogue-maker was puttin' an the heel uv a
pump. ' The Lord presarve us,' sed I to mysilf, ' whal in
the world can that be ? ' So I laid down my knittin', an'
378 CELTS AND CTMET.
got up, an' stole ovir to the banes, an' nivir believe me iv I
didn't see, sittin' right forenint me, in the very middle of
tbim, a bit of an ould man, not a quarther so big as a new-
born child, wid a little cocked hat an his head, an' a dudeen
in his mouth, smokin' away ; an' a plain, ould-fashioned,
dhrab-coloured coat, wid big brass buttons upon it, an his
back, an' a pair o' massy silver buckles in his shoes, that
a'most covered his feet they war so big, an' he workin' away
as hard as ivir he could, heelin' a little pair o' pumps. The
instant minnit I clapt my two eyes upon him I knew him to
be a Leprechaun, an' as I was stout an' foolhardy, sez I to
him ' God save ye honist man ! that 's hard work ye 're at
this hot day.' He luked up in my face quite vexed like ; so
wid that I med a run at him an' cotch hould o' him in
my hand, an' axed him whare was his purse o' money!
' Money ? ' sed he, ' money annagh ! an' whare on airth id a
poor little ould crathur like mysilf git money ?' 'Come, come,'
sed I, ' none o' yer thricks upon thravellers ; doesn't every
body know that Leprechauns, like ye, are all as rich as the
divil himsilf.' So I pulled out a knife I 'd in my pocket,
an' put on as wicked a face as ivir I could (an' in throth,
that was no aisy matther fur me thin, fur I was as comely
an' good-humoured a lukin' girl as you'd see frurn this to
Ballitore) an' swore by this and by that, if he didn't
instantly gi' me his purse, or show me a pot o' goold, I 'd
cut the nose aff his face. Well, to be shure, the little man
did luk so frightened at hearin' these words, that I a'most
found it in my heart to pity the poor little crathur. ' Thin,'
sed he, ' come wid me jist a couple o' fields aff, an' I '11 show
ye whare I keep my money.' So I wint, still houldin' him
fast in my hand, an' keepin' my eyes fixed upon him, whin
all o' a suddint I h'ard a whiz-z behind me. ' There ! there !'
cries he, ' there's yer bees all swarmin' an' goin' aff wid
thimsilves like blazes.' I, like a fool as I was, turned my
head round, an' whin I seen nothin' at all, an' luked back aV
the Leprechaun, an' found nothin' at all at all in my hand-
fur whin I had the ill luck to take my eyes aff him, ye see,
he slipped out o' my fingers jist as iv he was med o' fog or
smoke, an' the sarra the fut he iver come nigh my garden
agin."
379
Hcprrrfjautuf.
MBS. L. having heard that Molly Toole. an old woman who
held a few acres of land from Mr. L., had seen Leprechatma,
resolved to visit her, and learn the truth from her own lips.
Accordingly, one Sunday, after church, she made her appear-
ance at Molly's residence, which was no very common
thing extremely neat and comfortable. As she entered,
every thing looked gay and cheerful. The sun shone bright
in through the door on the earthen floor. Molly was seated
at the far side of the fire in her arm-chair ; her daughter
Mary, the prettiest girl on the lands, was looking to the
dinner that was boiling ; and her son Mickey, a young man
of about two-and-twenty, was standing lolling with his back
against the dresser.
The arrival of the mistress disturbed the stillness that had
hitherto prevailed. Mary, who was a great favourite, hastened
to the door to meet her, and shake hands with her. Molly
herself had nearly got to the middle of the floor when the
mistress met her, and Mickey modestly staid where he was
till he should catch her attention. " then, musha ! but
isn't it a glad sight for my ould eyes to see your own silf
undher my roof ? Mary, what ails you, girl ? and why don't
you go into the room and fetch out a good chair for the
misthress to sit down upon and rest herself?" " 'Deed faith,
mother, I 'm so glad I don't know what I 'm doin'. Sure
you know 1 didn't see the misthress since she cum down
afore."
Mickey now caught Mrs. L.'s eye, and she asked him how
he did. " By Gorra, bravely, ma'am, thank you," said he,
giving himself a wriggle, while his two hands and the small
of his back rested on the edge of the dresser.
" Now, Mary, stir yourself, alanna," said the old woman,
" and get out the bread and butther. Sure you know the
misthress can't but be hungry afther her walk." " O, never
mind it, Molly ; it 's too much trouble." " Throuble, indeed !
380 CELTS AND CYMRT.
it 's as nice buttler, ma'am, as iver you put a tooth in ;
and it was Mary herself that med it." " O, then I must
taste it."
A nice half griddle of whole-meal b*ead and a print of
fresh butter were now produced, and Molly helped the mis-
tress with her own hands. As she was eating, Mary kept
looking in her face, and at last said, " Ah then, mother,
doesn't the misthress luk mighty well ? Upon my faikins,
ma'am, I never seen you luking half so handsome." " Well !
and why wouldn't she luk well ? And niver will she luk
betther nor be betther nor I wish her." " Well, Molly, I
think I may return the compliment, for Mary is prettier
than ever ; and as for yourself, I really believe it 's young
again you're growing." "Why, Grod be thanked, ma'am,
I 'm stout and hearty ; and though I say it mysilf, there 's
not an ould woman in the county can stir about betther nor
me, and I 'm up ivery mornin' at the peep of day, and rout
them all up out of their beds. Don't I. ? " said she, looking
at Mary. " Faith, and sure you do, mother," replied Mickey j
" and before the peep of day, too ; for you have no marcy in
you at all at all." " Ah, in my young days," continued the
old woman, " people weren't slugabeds ; out airly, home late
that was the way wid thim." " And usedn't people to
see Leprechauns in thim days, mother ?" said Mickey, laugh-
ing. "Hould your tongue, you saucy cub, you," cried
Molly; "what do you know about thim?" "Lepre-
chauns ?" said Mrs. L.. gladly catching at the opportunity;
" did people really, Molly, see Leprechauns in your young
days ?" " Yes, indeed, ma'am ; some people say they did,"
replied Molly, very composedly. " O com' now, mother,"
cried Mickey, " don't think to be goin' it upon us that away ;
you know you seen thim one time yoursilf, and you hadn't
the gumption in you to cotch thim, and git their crocks of
gould from thim." " Now, Molly, is that really true that
you saw the Leprechauns?" "'Deed, and did I, ma'am;
but this boy 's always laughin' at me about thim, and that
makes me rather shy in talkin' o' thim." " Well, Molly,
I won't laugh at you; so, come, tell me how you paw
them."
" Well, ma'am, you see it was whin I was jist about the
age of Mary, there. I was comin' home late one Monday
IRELAND. 381
evenin' from the market ; for my aunt Kitty, God be mar-
ciful to her ! would keep me to take a cup of tay. It was in
the summer time, you see, ma'am, much about the middle of
June, an' it was through the fields I come. Well, ma'am, ag
I was sayin', it was late in the evenin', that is, the sun was
near goin' down, an' the light was straight in my eyes, an' I
come along through the bog-meadow ; for it was shortly
afther I was married to him that 's gone, an' we wor livin' in
this very house you 're in now ; an' thin whin I come to the
castle-field the pathway you know, ma'am, goes right
through the middle uv it an' it was thin as fine a field of
whate, jist shot out, as you 'd wish to luk at ; an' it was a
purty sight to see it wavin' so beautifully wid every air of
wind that was goin' over it, dancin' like to the music of a
thrush, that was singin' down below in the hidge.* Well,
ma'am, I crasst over the style that 's there yit, and wint
along fair and aisy, till I was near about the middle o' the
field, whin somethin' med me cast my eyes to the ground, a
little before me ; an' thin I saw, as sure as I 'm sittin' here,
no less nor three o' the Leprechauns, all bundled together
like so miny tailyors, in the middle o' the path before me.
They worn't hammerin' their p\imps, nor makin' any kind of
n'ise whatever ; but there they wor, the three little fellows,
wid their cocked hats upon thim, an' their legs gothered up
undher thim, workin' away at their thrade as hard as may be,
If you wor only to see, ma'am, how fast their little ilbows
wint as they pulled out their inds ! Well, every one o' thim
had his eye cocked upon me, an' their eyes wor as bright as
the eye of a frog, an' I cudn't stir one step from the spot
* In our Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 16, we noticed the coincidence
between this and a passage in an Arabic author. We did not theu recollect
the following verses of Milton,
The willows and the hazle copses green
Shall now no more be seen
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.
I/ycidas, 42.
The simile of the moon among the stars in the same place, we have since
found in the Nibelungen Lied (st. 285), and in some of our old poets, and
Hammer says (Schirin i. note 7), that it occurs even to satiety in Oiiental
poetry. In like manner Camoens' simile of the mirror, mentioned in the same
place, occurs in Poliziano's Stanze i. 64.
382 CELTS AND CTMET.
for the life o' me. So I turned my head round, aud prayed
to the Lord in his marcy to deliver me from thim, and when
I wint to luk at thim agin, ma'am, not a sight o' thim was
to be seen: they wor gone like a dhrame." "But, Molly,
why did you not catch them?" "I was afeard, ma'am,
that 's the thruth uv it ; but maybe I was as well widout
thim. I niver h'ard tell of a Leprechaun yit that wasn't too
many for any one that cotch him." "Well, and Molly, do
you think there are any Leprechauns now?" "It's my
belief, ma'am, they 're all gone out of the country, cliver and
clane, along wid the Fairies ; for I niver hear tell o' thim
now at all."
Mrs. L. having now attained her object, after a little more
talk with the good old woman, took her leave, attended by
Mary, who would see her a piece of the way home. And
Mary being asked what she thought of the Leprechauns,
confessed her inability to give a decided opinion : her mother,
she knew, was incapable of telling a lie, and yet she had her
doubts if there ever were such things as Leprechauns.
The following tale of a Cluricaun, related by the writer of
the Legend of Bottle Hill, is of a peculiar character. We
have never heard anything similar of a Leprechaun.
CIjc Etttlc
" Now tell me, Molly," said Mr. Coote to Molly Cogan, as
he met her on the road one day, close to one of the old gate-
way s of Kilmallock, " did you ever hear of the Cluricaun ?"
" Is it the Cluricaun ? Why, thin, to be shure ; aften an'
aften. Many 's the time I h'ard my father, rest his sowl !
tell about 'em over and over agin." " But did you ever
see one, Molly did you ever see one yourself?" "Och!
no, I niver seen one in my life ; but my gran' father, that 's
my father's father, you know, he seen one, one time, an'
cotch him too." " Caught him ! Oh ! Molly, tell me how
was that."
IBELiftTD. 388
" "Why, thin, I '11 tell ye. My gran'father, you see, was
out there above in the bog, dhrawin' home turf, an' the poor
ould mare was tir't afther her day's work, an' the ould man
wint out to the stable to look afther her, an' to see if she
was aitin' her hay; an' whin he come to the stable door there,
my dear, he h'ard sumthin' hammerin', hammerin', ham-
merin', jist for all the wurld like a shoemaker makin' a shoe,
and whis'lin' all the time the purtiest chune he iver h'ard in
his whole life afore. Well, my gran'father he thought it was
the Cluricaun, an' he sed to himsilf, sez he, ' I '11 ketch you,
if I can, an' thin I '11 have money enough always.' So he
opened the door very quitely, an' didn't make a taste o'
n'ise in the wurld, an' luked all about, but the niver a bit
o' the little man cud he see anywhare, but he h'ard hia
hammerin' and whis'lin', an' so he luked and luked, till at
last he seen the little fellow ; an' whare was he, do ye think,
but in the girth undher the mare ; an' there he was, wid hia
little bit ov an apron an him, an' his hammer in his hand, an'
a little red night-cap an his head, an' he makin' a shoe ; an
he was so busy wid his work, an' was hammerin' an' whis'lin'
so loud, that he niver minded my gran'father, till he cotch
him fast in his hand. ' Faix, I have ye now,' says he, ' an'
I '11 niver let ye go till 1 git yer purse that 's what I won't ;
so give it here at onst to me, now.' ' Stop, stop,' says the
Clurieaun ; ' stop, stop,' says he, ' till I get it for ye.' So my
gran'father, like a fool, ye see, opened his hand a little, an'
the little weeny chap jumped away laughin', an' he niver
seen him any more, an' the divil a bit o' the purse did he git ;
only the Cluricaun left his little shoe that he was makin'.
An' my gran'father was mad enough wid himself for lettin'
him go ; but he had the shoe all his life, an' my own mother
tould me she aftin seen it, an' had it in her hand ; an' 'twas
the purtiest little shoe she ivir seen." " An' did you see it
yourself, Molly?" "Oh! no, my dear, 'twas lost long
afore I was born ; but my mother tould me aftin an' aftiu
enough."
384 CELTS A3D OTMR-/.
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS.
Huar Prownie coad agiis otirochd,
Agus cha dian Prownie opar tullidh.
Brownie has got a cowl and coat,
And never more will work a jot
STEWART.
COLONIES of Gothic Fairies, it would appear, early
established themselves in the Highlands, and almost every
Lowland, German, and Scandinavian Fairy or Dwarf-tale
will there find its fellow. The Gaelic Fairies are very hand-
some in their persons ; their usual attire is green. They
dance and sing, lend and borrow, and they make cloth and
shoes in an amazingly short space of time. They make their
raids upon the low country, and carry off women and
children ; they fetch midwives to assist at the birth of their
children, and mortals have spent a night at the fairy revels,
and next morning found that the night had extended a
hundred years. Highland fairies also take the diversion of
the chase. " One Highlander," says Mc.Culloch,* " in
passing a mountain, hears the tramp of horses, the music of
the horn, and the cheering of the huntsmen ; when suddenly
a gallant crew of thirteen fairy hunters, dressed in green,
sweep by him, the silver bosses of their bridles jingling in
the night breeze."
- f The Gael call the Fairies Daoine Shi',f (Dheene SJiee)
and their habitations Shians, or Tomhans. These are a sort
of turrets, resembling masses of rock or hillocks. By day
they are indistinguishable, but at night they are frequently
lit up with great splendour.
Brownie, too, ' shows his honest face ' in the Highlands ;
* Account of the Highlands, etc. iv. 358.
f* Men of Peace, perhaps the Stille-folk, Still-people, or rather, merely
Fairy- or Spirit-people. See above p. 364.
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 385
and the mischievous water-Kelpie also appears In his equine
form, and seeks to decoy unwary persons to mount him,
that he may plunge with his rider into the neighbouring
loch or river.
The Highlanders have nearly the same ideas as their Shet-
land neighbours, respecting the seals.
The following legends will illustrate what we have stated.*
trg'fJ Inqutrp.
A. CLERGYMAN was returning home one night after visiting
a sick member of his congregation. His way led by a lake,
and as he proceeded he was surprised to hear most melodious
strains of music. He sat down to listen. The music
seemed to approach coming over the lake accompanied by a
light. At length he discerned a man walking on the water,
attended by a number of little beings, some bearing lights,
others musical instruments. At the beach the man dis-
missed his attendants, and then walking up to the minister
saluted him courteously. He was a little grey-headed old
man, dressed in rather an unusual garb. The minister
having returned his salute begged of him to come and sit
beside him. He complied with the request, and on being
asked who he was, replied that he was one of the Daoine Shi.
He added that he and they had originally been angels, but
having been seduced into revolt by Satan, they had been cast
down to earth where they were to dwell till the day of
doom. His object now was, to ascertain from the minister
what would be their condition after that awful day. The
minister then questioned him on the articles of faith ; but
as his answers did not prove satisfactory, and as in repeating
the Lord's Prayer, he persisted in saying wert instead of art
" See Stewart, The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders. Edinburgh.,
1823. As Mr. Stewart's mode of narrating is not the very best, we have
taken the liberty of re-writing a*id abridging the legends.
CC
386 CELTS AND CTMET.
in heaven, he did not feel himself justified in holding out any
hopes to him. The fairy then gave a cry of despair and
flung himself into the loch, and the minister resumed hia
journey.
;$Han in rtjc
A FARMEB named Macgillivray, one time removed from the
neighbourhood of Cairngorm in Strathspey to the forest of
G-lenavon, in which the fairies are said to reside. Late one
night, as two of his sons, Donald and Eory, were in search
of some of his sheep that had strayed, they saw lights
streaming from the crevices of a fkiry turret which in the
day time had only the appearance of a rock. They drew
nigh to it, and there they heard jigs and reels played
inside in the most exquisite manner. Eory was so fasci-
nated that he proposed that they should enter and take part
in the dance. Donald did all he could to dissuade him, but
in vain. He jumped into the Shian, and plunged at once
into the whirling movements of its inhabitants. Donald was
in great perplex^y, for he feared to enter the Shian. All he
could do therefore was to put his mouth to one of the cre-
vices, and calling, as the custom was, three times on his
brother, entreating him in the most moving terms, to come
away and return home. But his entreaties were unheeded
and he was obliged to return alone.
Every means now was resorted to for the recovery of
Eory, but to no purpose. His family gave him up for lost,
when a Duin Glichd or "Wise man, told Donald to go to the
place where he had lost his brother, a year and a day from
the time, and placing in his garments a rowan-cross, to enter
the Shian boldly, and claim him in the divine name, and if
he would not come voluntarily, to seize him and drag him
out ; for the fairies would have no power to prevent him.
After some hesitation Donald assented. At the appointed
time he approached the Shian at midnight. It was full of
revelry, and the merry dance was going on as before. Donald
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 387
had his terrors no doubt, but they gave way to his fraternal
affection. He entered and found Bory in the midst of a
Highland Fling, and running up to him, seized him by the
collar, repeating the words dictated by the Wise man. Rory
agreed to go provided he would let him finish his dance ; for
he had not been, he assured him, more than half an hour in
the place, but Donald was inexorable, and took him home to
his parents. Eory would never have believed that his half-
hour had been a twelvemonth, " did not the calves grown now
into stots, and the new-born babes now toddling about the
house, at length convince him that in his single reel he had
danced for a twelvemonth and a day."
C$n0
NEAELT three hundred years ago, there dwelt in Strathspey
two fiddlers, greatly renowned in their art. One Christina's
they resolved to go try their fortune in Inverness. On
arriving in that town they took lodgings, and as was the
custom at that time, hired the bellman to go round announc-
ing their arrival, their qualifications, their fame, and their
terms. Soon after they were visited by a venerable-looking
grey-haired old man, who not only found no fault with, but
actually offered to double their terms if they would go with
him. They agreed, and he led them out of the town, and
brought them to a very strange-looking dwelling which
seemed to them to be very like a Shian. The money, how-
ever, and the entreaties of their guide induced them to
enter it, and their musical talents were instantly put into
requisition, and the dancing was such as in their lives they
had never witnessed.
When morning came they took their leave highly gratified
with the liberal treatment they had received. It surprised
them greatly to find that it was out of a hill and not a house
that they issued, and when they came to the town, they
could not recognise any place or person, every thing seemed
cc 2
388 CELTS ATTD CTMET.
so altered. While they and the townspeople were in mutual
amazement, there came up a very old man, who on hearing
their story, said : " You are then the two men who lodged
with my great-grandfather, and whom Thomas Rimer, it was
supposed, decoyed to Tomnafuracb. Tour friends were
greatly grieved on your account, but it is a hundred years
ago, and your names are now no longer known." It was
the Sabbath day and the bells were tolling ; the fiddlers,
deeply penetrated with awe at what had occurred, entered
the church to join in the offices of religion. They sat in
silent meditation while the bell continued ringing, but the
moment that the minister commenced the service they
crumbled away into dust.
MANY years ago there dwelt in Strathspey a midwife of
great repute. One night just as she was going to bed, she
heard a loud knocking at the door, and on opening it she
saw there a man and a grey horse, both out of breath. The
rider requested her to jump up behind him and come away
to assist a lady who was in great danger. He would not
even consent to her stopping to change her dress, as it would
cause delay. She mounted and away they went at full
speed. On the way she tried to learn from the rider whither
she was going, but all she could get from him was, that
she would be well paid. At length he let out that it was to
a fairy-lady he was taking her. Nothing daunted, however,
she went on, and on reaching the Shian, she found that her
services were really very much needed. She succeeded in
bringing a fine boy to the light, which caused so much joy,
that the fairies desired her to ask what she would, and if it
was in their power, it should be granted. Her desire was
that success might attend herself and her posterity in all
similar operations. The gift was conferred and it continued,
it was said, with her great-grandson, at the time the collector
of these legends wrote.
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 389
JFatrs fcomiimnfl Oatmeal.
A FAIEY came one day from one of the turrets of Craig-ail-
naic to the wife of one of the tenants in Delnabo, and asked
her to lend her a firlot of oatmeal for food for her family,
promising to repay it soon, as she was every moment expect-
ing an ample supply. The woman complied with this request,
and after, as was the custom of the country, having regaled
her with bread, cheese, and whiskey, she went, as was usual,
to see her a part of the way home. When they had reached
the summit of an eminence near the town, the Beanshi told
her she might take her meal home again as she was now
abundantly supplied. The woman did as desired, and as
she went along she beheld the corn-kiln of an adjacent
farm all in a blaze.
A FABMEE in Strathspey was one day engaged in sowing
one of his fields and singing at his work. A fairy damsel of
great beauty came up to him and requested him to sing for
her a favourite old Gaelic song named Niglian Donne na
Bual. He complied, and she then asked him to give her
some of his corn. At this he demurred a little and wished
to know what she would give him in return. She replied
with a significant look that his seed would never fail him.
He then gave to her liberally and she departed. He went
on sowing, and when he had finished a large field, he found
that his bag was as full and as heavy as when he began. He
then sowed another field of the same size, with the same
result, and satisfied with his day's work, he threw the bag
on his shoulder and went home. Just as he was entering
300 CELTS AJTD CTMET.
the barn-door he was met by his wife, a foolish talkative body
with a tongue as long, and a head as empty as the church
bell, who, struck with the appearance of the bag after a day's
sowing, began to ask him about it. Instantly it became
quite empty. " I'll be the death of you, you foolish woman,"
roared out the farmer ; " if it were not for your idle talk,
that bag was worth its weight in gold."
Cfje ^-talrn jr.
THE tacksman (*. e. tenant) of the farm of Auchriachan in
Strathavon, while searching one day for his goats on a hill
in Grlenlivat, found himself suddenly enveloped in a dense
fog. It continued till night came on when he began to give
himself up to despair. Suddenly he beheld a light at no
great distance. He hastened toward it, and found that it
proceeded from a strange-looking edifice. The door was
open, and he entered, but great was his surprise to meet
there a woman whose funeral he had lately attended. From
her he learned that this was an abode of the fairies for whom
she kept house, and his only chance of safety, she said, was
in being concealed from them ; for which purpose she hid him
in a corner of the apartment. Presently in came a troop of
fairies, and began calling out for food. An old dry-looking
fellow then reminded them of the miserly, as he styled him
tacksman of Auchriachan, and how he cheated them out of
their lawful share of his property, by using some charms
taught him by his old grandmother. "He is now from
home," said he, "in search of our allies,* his goats, and his
family have neglected to use the charm, so come let us have
his favourite ox for supper." The speaker was Thomas
Rimer, and the plan was adopted with acclamation. " But
what are we to do for bread ? " cried one. " We '11 have
* " The goats are supposed to be upon a very good understanding with the
fairies, and possessed of more cunning and knowledge than their appearance
lespeaks." Stewart: see Wales.
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 391
Auchriachan's new baked bread," replied Thomas ; "his wife
forgot to cross the first bannock."* So said, so done. The
ox was brought in and slaughtered before the eyes of his
master, whom, while the fairies were employed about their
cooking, his friend gave an opportunity of making his
escape.
The mist had now cleared away and the moon was
shining. Auchriachan therefore soon reached his home.
His wife instantly produced a basket of new-baked ban-
nocks with milk and urged him to eat. But his mind was
running on his ox, and his first question was, who had
served the cattle that night. He then asked the son who laid
done it if he had used the charm, and he owned he had for-
gotten it. " Alas ! alas ! " cried he, " my favourite ox is no
more." " How can that be ?" said one of the sons, " I saw
him alive and well not two hours ago." " It was nothing but
a fairy stock," cried the father. " Bring him out here." The
poor ox was led forth, and the farmer, after abusing it and
those that sent it, felled it to the ground. The carcase was
flung down the brae at the back of the house, and the bread
was sent after it, and there they both lay untouched, for it
was observed that neither cat nor dog would put a tooth in
either of them.
gtaltn
EOT, who lived in Grlenbroun, in the parish of Aber-
nethy, being out one night on the hills in search of his
cattle, met a troop of fairies, who seemed to have got a prize
of some sort or other. Eecollecting that the fairies are
obliged to exchange whatever they may have with any one who
offers them anything, however low in value, for it, he flung
his bonnet to them, crying Shuis s/o slumus sheen (i. e., mine
is yours and yours is mine). The fairies dropped their
booty, which proved to be a Sassenach (English) lady whom
the dwellers of the Shian of Coir-laggac had carried away
* See above, p. 305.
302 OKLTS AND CTMBT.
from her own country, leaving a stock in her place which,
of course, died and was buried. John brought her home,
and she lived for many years in his house. " It happened,
however, in the course of time," said the Gaelic narrator,
" that the new king found it necessary to make the great
roads through these countries by means of soldiers, for
the purpose of letting coaches and carriages pass to the
northern cities ; and those soldiers had officers and com-
manders in the same way as our fighting army have now.
Those soldiers were never great favourites in these countries,
particularly during the time that our kings were alive ; and
consequently it was no easy matter for them, either officers
or men, to procure for themselves comfortable quarters."
But John Roy would not keep up the national animosity to the
cottan dearg (red-coats), and he offered a residence in his house
to a Saxon captain and his son. When there they could
not take their eyes off the English lady, and the son re-
marked to his father what a strong likeness she bore to his
deceased mother. The father replied that he too had been
struck with the resemblance, and said he could almost fancy
she was his wife. He then mentioned her name and those
of some persons connected with them. The lady by these
words at once recognised her husband and son, and honest
John Boy had the satisfaction of reuniting the long-sepa-
rated husband and wife, and receiving their most grateful
acknowledgments.*
* There is a similar legend in Scandinavia. As a smith was at work in his
forge late one evening, he heard great wailing out on the road, and hy the
light of the red-hot iron that he was hammering, he saw a woman whom a
Troll was driving along, bawling at her " A little more ! a little more !" He
ran out, put the red-hot iron between them, and thus delivered her from the
power of the Troll (see p. 108). He led her into his house and that night
she was delivered of twins. In the morning he waited on her husband, who
he supposed must be in great affliction at the loss of his wife. But to his
surprise he saw there, in bed, a woman the very image of her he had saved
from the Troll. Knowing at once what she must be, he raised an axe he had
in his hand, and cleft her skull. The matter was soon explained to the satis-
faction of the husband, who gladly received his real wife and her twins.
Thiele, i. 88. Oral.
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 393
A COUPLE of Strathspey lads who dealt in whiskey that
never paid duty, which they used to purchase in Grlenlivat,
and sell at Badenoch and Fort William, were one night
laying in stock at Grlenlivat when they heard the child in the
cradle give a piercing cry, just as if it had been shot. The
mother, of course, blessed it, and the Strathspey lads took no
further notice, and soon after set out with their goods.
They had not gone far when they found a fine healthy child
lying all alone on the road-side, which they soon recognised
as that of their friend. They saw at once how the thing
was. The fairies had taken away the real child and left a
stock, but, owing to the pious ejaculation of the mother, they
had been forced to drop it. As the urgency of their business
did not permit them to return, they took the child with
them, and kept it till the next time they had occasion to
visit Grlenlivat. On their arrival they said nothing about
the child, which they kept concealed. In the course of con-
versation, the mother took occasion to remark that the
disease which had attacked the child the last time they were
there had never left it, and she had now little hopes of its
recovery. As if to confirm her statement, it continued
uttering most piteous cries. To end the matter at once, the
lads produced the real child healthy and hearty, and told how
they had found it. An exchange was at once effected, and
they forthwith proceeded to dispose of their new charge.
For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and
some straw to light under it. Seeing the serious turn
matters were likely to take, he resolved not to await the
trial, but flew up the smoke-hole, and when at the top he
cried out that things would have gone very differently with
them had it not been for the arrival of their guests.
394 CELTS A3TD CTMKT.
THEEE once dwelt on the northern coast, not far from Taigh
Jan Crot Callow (John d 1 Or oaf s Souse), a man who gained
his living by fishing. He was particularly devoted to the
killing of the seals, in which he had great success. One
evening just as he had returned home from his usual occupa-
tion, he was called upon by a man on horseback who was an
utter stranger to him, but who said that he was come on the
part of a person who wished to make a large purchase of seal-
skins from him, and wanted to see him for that purpose that
very evening. He therefore desired him to get up behind
him and come away without any delay. Urged by the hope
of profit he consented, and away they went with such speed
that the wind which was in their backs seemed to be in their
faces. At length they reached the verge of a stupendous
precipice overhanging the sea, where his guide bade him
alight, as they were now at the end of their journey. " But
where," says he, "is the person you spoke of?" " You'll
see him presently," said the guide, and, catching hold of him,
he plunged with him into the sea. They went down and
down, till at last they came to a door which led into a range
of apartments inhabited by seals, and the man to his amaze-
ment now saw that he himself was become one of these
animals. They seemed all in low spirits, but they spoke
kindly to him, and assured him of his safety. His guide
now produced a huge gully or joctaleg, at sight of which,
thinking his life was to be taken away, he began to cry for
mercy. " Did you ever see this knife before ? " said the
guide. He looked at it and saw it was his own, which he had
that very day stuck into a seal who had made his escape
with it sticking in him. He did not, therefore, attempt to
deny that it had been his property. " Well," said the guide,
" that seal was my father. He now lies dangerously ill, and
as it is only you that can cure him, I have brought you
hither." He then led him into an inner room, where the old
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 305
seal lay suffering grievously from a cut in bis hind quarters.
He was then desired to lay his hand on the wound, at which
it instantly healed, and the patient arose hale and sound.
All now was joy and festivity in the abode of the seals, and
the guide, turning to the seal-hunter, said, " I will now take
you back to your family, but you must first take a solemn
oath never again to kill a seal as long as you live." Hard
as the condition was, he cheerfully accepted it. His guide
then laid hold on him, and they rose up, up, till they reached
^he surface of the sea, and landed at the cliff. He breathed
on him and they resumed the human form. They then
mounted the horse and sped away like lightning till they
reached the fisherman's house. At parting his companion
left with him such a present as made him think light of
giving over his seal-hunting.
Two Brownies, man and woman, were attached to the
ancient family of Tullochgorm, in Strathspey. The former
was named Brownie-Clod, from a habit he had of flinging
clods at passers-by ; the latter was called Maug Vuluchd
(i.e., Hairy Mag), on account of her great quantity of
hair. She was a capital housekeeper, and used invisibly
io lay out the table in the neatest and handiest manner.
Whatever was called for came as if floating through the air.
She kept a very strict hand over the maids, with whom she
was no great favourite, as she reported their neglect of duty
to their mistress. Brownie-Clod was not so pawky, and he
was constantly overreached by the servants, with whom he
used to make contracts. He, however, was too able for them
on one occasion. He had agreed with two of them to do
their whole winter's threshing for them, on condition of get-
ting in return an old coat and a Kilmaraock hood to which
he had taken a fancy. He wrought away manfully, and
they had nothing to do but lie at their ease on the straw and
look on. But before the term was expired they laid the
396 CELTS AKX CTMEI
coat and hood for him in the barn. The moment Brownie
laid his eyes upon them he struck work, using the words
prefixed to this section of our volume.
Martyn describes the Brownie of the Western Isles as a
tall man, and he tells a story of his invisibly directing a per-
son, at Sir Norman M'Leod's, who was playing at draughts,
where to place his men.
THEBE is also in the Highlands a rough hairy spirit, called
the Urisk. The following legend will display his nature and
character :
To the very great annoyance of a Highland miller, and to
the injury of the machinery, his mill, he found, used to be
set to work at night when there was nothing in it to grind.
One of his men offered to sit up, and try to discover who it
was that did it ; and, having kindled a good turf-fire, sat by
it to watch. Sleep, however, overcame him, and when he
awoke about midnight, he saw sitting opposite him a rough
shaggy being. Nothing daunted, he demanded his name,
and was told that it was Urisk. The stranger, in return,
asked the man his name, who replied that it was Myself.
The conversation here ended, and Urisk soon fell fast asleep.
The man then tossed a panful of hot ashes into his shaggy
lap, which set his hair all on fire. In an agony, and scream-
ing with the pain, he ran to the door, and in a loud yelling
tone several of his brethren were heard to cry out, " What 's
the matter with you? " " Oh ! he set me on fire !" "Who ? "
" Myself! " " Then put it out yourself," was the reply.*
* Told, without naming his authority, by the late W. S. Rose, :a th
Quarterly Review for 1825.
ISLE OF MA*'. 397
ISLE OF MAN.
Mona once hid from those that search the main,
Where thousand elfin shapes abide.
COLLINS.
THE Isle of Man, peopled by Celts, and early and frequently
visited and colonised by the Northmen, has also its Fairies,
which differ little from those of the greater islands between
which it lies. An English gentleman, named Waldron, who
resided in the island in the early part of the last century,
was curious about its Fairy-lore, and he has recorded a
number of the legends which he heard.* His book, indeed,
has been the chief source whence Eitson, Sir Walter Scott,t
and others, have drawn their illustrations of English Fairy-
lore in general, and the subsequent inquiries of Mr. Train
have enabled him to add but very little to it. We will here
relate some of these legends :
The great peculiarity of the Manks Fairies, according to
Mr. Waldron, is their fondness for riding, and this not on
little steeds of their own, or on the small breed of the
country, but on the large English and Irish horses, whicli
are brought over and kept by the gentry. Nothing, it was
said, was more common than to find in the morning horses
covered with foam and sweat, and tired to death, which had
been shut up at night in the stable. One gentleman assured
Mr. Waldron that three or four of his best horses had been
killed with these nocturnal exercises.
They called them the Good People, and said that their
reason for dwelling in the hills and woods was, their dislike
of the vices of towns. Hence the houses which they deigned
to visit were thought to be blest. In these houses, a tub or
* Description of the Isle of Man. London, 1731.
t In bis Essay on Fairies in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and i
tbe notes on Feveril of the Peak.
398 CELTS AND CTMET.
pail of clean water was always left for them to bathe in.
Good, however, as they were, they used to change children.
Mr. Waldron saw one of these changelings ; it was nearly
six years old, but was unable to walk or even stand, or move
its limbs. Its complexion was delicate, and it had the finest
hair in the world. It never cried or spoke, and it ate
scarcely anything ; it rarely smiled, but if any one called it
Fairy-elf, it would frown and almost look them through. Its
mother, who was poor, was often obliged to go out for whole
days a-charing, and leave it by itself, and when the neigh-
bours would look in on it through the window, they always
saw it laughing and in great delight, whence they judged
that it had agreeable company with it, more especially as let
it be left ever so dirty, the mother on her return found it
with a clean face, and its hair nicely combed out.
A MAN being desirous of disposing of a horse he had at
that time no great occasion for, and riding him to market for
that purpose, was accosted in passing over the mountains by
a little man in a plain dress, who asked him if he would
sell his horse. " 'Tis the design I am going on," replied he :
on which the other desired to know the price. " Eight
pounds," said he. "No," returned the purchaser, " I will
give no more than seven, which if you will take, here is
your money." The owner thinking he had bid pretty fair,
agreed with him, and the money being told out, the one
dismounted and the other got on the back of the horse,
which he had no sooner done than both beast and rider sunk
into the earth immediately, leaving the person who had
made the bargain in the utmost terror and consternation.
As soon as he had a little recovered himself, he went
directly to the parson of the parish, and related what had
passed, desiring he would give his opinion whether he ought
to make use of the money he had received or not. To whicli
ISLE OF MAN. 399
he replied, that as he had made a fair bargain, and no way
circumvented nor endeavoured to circumvent the buyer, he
saw no reason to believe, in case it was an evil spirit, it
could have any power over him. On this assurance, he went
home well satisfied, and nothing afterwards happened to give
him any disquiet concerning this affair. This was told to
Waldron by the person to whom it happened.
A MAN one time was led by invisible musicians for several
miles together, and not being able to resist the harmony,
followed till it conducted him to a large common, where
were a great number of little people sitting round a table,
and eating and drinking in a very jovial manner. Among
them were some faces whom he thought he had formerly
seen, but forbore taking any notice, or they of him, till the
little people offering him drink, one of them, whose features
seemed not unknown to him, plucked him by the coat, and
forbade him whatever he did to taste anything he saw before
him, "For if you do," added he, "you will be as I am, and
return no more to your family." The poor man was much
affrighted, but resolved to obey the injunction. Accordingly,
a large silver cup, filled with some sort of liquor, being put
into his hand, lie found an opportunity to throw what it
contained on the ground. Soon after, the music ceasing, all
the company disappeared, leaving the cup in his hand, and
he returned home, though much wearied and fatigued. He
went the next day, and communicated to the minister of the
parish all that had happened, and asked his advice, how he
should dispose of the cup, to which the parson replied, he^
could not do better than to devote it to the service of the
church, and this very cup, they say, is that which is now
used for the consecrated wine in Kirk Merlugh.
400 CELTS AND CTMET.
A WOMAN related that being great with child, and expecting
every moment the good hour, as she lay awake one night in
her bed, she saw seven or eight little women come into her
chamber, one of whom had an infant in her arms. They
were followed by a man of the same size with themselves,
but in the habit of a minister. One of them went to the
pail, and finding no water in it, cried out to the others, what
must they do to christen the child ? On which they replied
it should be done in beer. TVith that the seeming parson
took the child in his arms, and performed the ceremony of
baptism, dipping his head into a great tub of strong beer,
which the woman had brewed the day before to be ready for
her lying-in. She said they baptised the infant by the name
of Joan, which made her know she was pregnant of a girl,
as it proved a few days after when she was delivered. She
added, that it was common for the fairies to make a mock
christening when any person was near her time, and that,
according to what child, male or female, they brought, such
should the woman bring into the world.
A WOMAN who lived about two miles distant from Balla-
salli, and used to serve Mr. "Waldron's family with butter,
made him once very merry with a story she told him of
her daughter, a girl of about ten years old, who being sent
over the fields to the town for a pennyworth of tobacco for
her father, was on the top of a mountain surrounded by a
great number of little men, who would not suffer her to
pass any farther. Some of them said she should go with
ISLE OP MAS. 401
them, and accordingly laid hold of her ; but one, seeming
more pitiful, desired they would let her alone, which thev
refusing, there ensued a quarrel, and the person who took
her part fought bravely in her defence. This so incensed
the others, that to be revenged on her for being the cause,
two or three of them seized her, and pulling up her
clothes, whipped her heartily ; after which, it seems, they
had no farther power over her, and she ran home direct!}
telling what had befallen her, and showing her buttocks, on
which were the prints of several small hands. Several of
the town's-people went with her to the mountain ; and she
conducting them to the spot, the little antagonists were
gone, but had left behind them proofs, as the good woman
said, that what the girl had informed them was true, for
there was a great deal of blood to be seen on the stones.
This did she aver with all the solemnity possible.
A YOUNG sailor coming off a long voyage, though it was late
at night, chose to land rather than lie another night in the
vessel. Being permitted to do so, he was set on shore at
Douglas. It happened to be a fine moonlight night, and very
dry, being a small frost ; he therefore forbore going into any
house to refresh himself, but made the best of his way to the
house of a sister he had at Kirk-Merlugh. As he was going
over a pretty high mountain, he heard the noise of horses,
the halloo of a huntsman, and the finest horn in the world.
He was a little surprised that any one pursued those kinds
of sports in the night ; but he had not time for much reflec-
tion before they all passed by him so near, that he was able
to count what number there was of them, which he said was
thirteen, and that they were all dressed in green, and gal-
lantly mounted. He was so well pleased with the sight, that
he would gladly have followed could he have kept pace with
them. He crossed the footway, however, that he might see
402 CELTS AJTD CYMRY.
them again, which he did more than once, and lost not the
sound of the horn for some miles. At length being arrived
at his sister's, he tells her the story, who presently clapped
her hands for joy that he was come home safe; "for," said
she, " those you saw vf ere fairies, and 'tis well they did not
take you away with them."
Cljr Jfftrtflcr zriQ tfjc JFatrg.
A FIBDLEE having agreed with a person, who was a stranger,
for so much money, to play to some company he should bring
him to, all the twelve days of Christmas, and received earnest
for it, saw his new master vanish into the earth the moment
he had made the bargain. Nothing could be more terrified
than was the poor fiddler. He found he had entered himself
into the Devil's service, and looked on himself as already
damned ; but having recourse to a clergyman, he received
some hope. He ordered him, however, as he had taken
earnest, to go when he should be called, but that whatever
tunes should be called for, to play none but psalms. On the
day appointed the same person appeared, with whom he
went, but with what inward reluctance it is easy to guess ;
and punctually obeying the minister's directions, the com-
pany to whom he played were so angry, that they all vanished
at once, leaving him at the top of a high hill, and so bruised
and hurt, though he was not sensible when or from what
hand he received the blows, that he got not home without
the utmost difficulty.
THE Phynnodderee, or Hairy-one, is a Manks spirit of the
same kind with the Brownie or the Kobold. He is said to
have been a fairy who was expelled from the fairy society.
ISLE OF A1JLN'. 108
The cause was, he courted a pretty Manks maid who lived
in a bower beneath the blue tree of Glen Aldyn, and there-
fore was absent from the Fairy court during the Re-hollys
vooar yn ouyr, or harvest-moon, being engaged dancing hi
the merry glen of Rushen. He is condemned to remain iu
the Isle of Man till doomsday, in a wild form, covered with
long shaggy hair, whence his name.
He is very kind and obliging to the people, sometimes
driving home the sheep, or cutting and gathering the hay, if
he sees a storm coming on. On one of these occasions, a
farmer having expressed his displeasure with him for not
having cut the grass close enough to the ground, he let him
cut it himself the next year ; but he went after him stubbing
up the roots so fast, that it was with difficulty that the
farmer could escape having his legs cut off. For several
years no one would venture to mow that meadow ; at length
a soldier undertook it, and by beginning in the centre of the
field, and cutting round, as if on the edge of a circle, keeping
one eye on the scythe, and looking out for the Phynnodderee
with the other, he succeeded in cutting the grass in safety.
A gentleman having resolved to build a large house on his
property, at a place called Sholt-e-will, near the foot of Sna-
field mountain, caused the stones to be quarried on the
beach. There was one large block of white stone which he
was very anxious to have, but all the men in the parish could
not move it. To their surprise, the Phynnodderee in the
course of one night conveyed all the stones that had been
quarried, the great white one included, up to the proposed
site, and the white stone is there still to be seen. The
gentleman, to reward the Phynnodderee, caused some clothes
to be left for him in one of his usual haunts. When he saw
them, he lifted them up one by one, saying in Manks :
Bayrm da'n choine, dy doogh da'n choine,
Cooat da'n dreeym, dy doogh da'n dreeym,
Breechyn da'n toyn, dy doogh da'n toyn,
Agh my she Ihiat ooiley, shoh cha nee Ihiat Glen reagh Rushoo.
Cap for the head, alas, poor head !
Coat for the back, alas, poor back !
Breeches for the breech, alas, poor breech !
If these be all thine. tlne cannot be the merry glen of Kuslieix
DD2
404 CELTS A3TD CTMET.
And he departed with a melancholy wail, and has never been
seen since. The old people say, "There has not been a
merry world since he lost his ground."*
WALES.
It was the Druid's presage, who had long
In Geirionydd'sj airy temple marked
The songs that from the Gwyllion J rose, of eve
The children, in the bosom of the lakes.
TALTESM.
THE oldest account we have met with of Welsh Fairies is in
the Itinerary of Giraldus Cambrensis, who, in the year 1188,
accompanied Archbishop Baldwin in his tour through Wales,
undertaken for the purpose of exciting the zeal of the people
to take part in the crusade then in contemplation.
Griraldus, who was an attentive observer of nature and of
mankind, has in this work given many beautiful descriptions
of scenery, and valuable traits of manners. He is liberal of
legends of saints, but such was the taste of his age. Among
his narratives, however, he gives the two following, which
show that there was a belief in South Wales in beings similar
to the Fairies and Hobgoblins of England.
(Talc of.
A SHORT time before our days, a circumstance worthy of
note occurred in these parts, which Elidurus, a priest, most
strenuously affirmed had befallen himself. When he was a
* Train, Account of the Isle of Man, ii. p. 148.
t A lake, on whose banks Taliesin resided.
* These Mr. Davies thinks correspond to the Gallicenae of Mela : we
Brittany.
WALES. 405
vouth of twelve years, since, as Solomon says, " The root of
learning is bitter, although the fruit is sweet," and was
following his literary pursuits, in order to avoid the discipline
and frequent stripes inflicted on him by his preceptor, he
ran away, and concealed himself under the hollow bank of a
river ; and, after fasting in that situation for two days, two
little men of pygmy stature appeared to him, saying, " If
you will come with us, we will lead you into a country full
of delights and sports." Assenting, and rising up, he fol-
lowed his guides through a path, at first subterraneous and
dark, into a most beautiful country, adorned with rivers and
meadows, woods and plains, but obscure, and not illuminated
with the full light of the sun. All the days were cloudy, and
the nights extremely dark, on account of the absence of the
moon and stars. The boy was brought before the king, and
introduced to him in the presence of the court ; when, having
examined him for a long time, he delivered him to his son,
who was then a boy. These men were of the smallest sta-
ture, but very well proportioned for their size. They were
all fair-haired, with luxuriant hair falling over their shoulders,
like that of women. They had horses proportioned to them-
selves, of the size of greyhounds. They neither ate flesh nor
fish, but lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron.
They never took an oath, for they detested nothing so much
as lies. As often as they returned from our upper hemi-
sphere, they reprobated our ambition, infidelities, and incon-
stancies. They had no religious worship, being only, as it
seems, strict lovers and reverers of truth.
The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes
by the way he had first gone, sometimes by another ; at first
in company with others, and afterwards alone, and confided
his secret only to his mother, declaring to her the manners,
nature, and state of that people. Being desired by her to
bring a present of gold, with which that region abounded, he
stole, while at play with the king's son, the golden ball with
which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother
in great haste ; and when he reached the door of his father's
house, but not unpursued, and was entering it in a great
hurry, his foot stumbled on the threshold, and, falling down
into the room where his mother was sitting, the two Pygmies
seized the ball, which had dropped from his hand, and
406 CELTS ATST) CTMET.
departed, spitting at and deriding the boy. On recovering
from his fall, confounded with shame, and execrating the evil
counsel of his mother, he returned by the usual track to the
subterraneous road, but found no appearance of any passage,
though he searched for it on the banks of the river for nearly
the space of a year. Having been brought back by his friends
and mother, and restored to his right way of thinking and
his literary pursuits, he attained in process of time the rank
of priesthood. Whenever David the Second, bishop of St.
David's, talked to him in his advanced state of life concerning
this event, he could never relate the particulars without
shedding tears.
He had also a knowledge of the language of that nation,
and used to recite words of it he had readily acquired in his
younger days. These words, which the bishop often re-
peated to me, were very conformable to the Greek idiom.
When they asked for water, they said, Udor udorum, which
signifies " Bring water ;" for TTdor, in their language, as
well as in the Greek, signifies water ; and Dwr also, in the
British language, signifies water. When they want salt,
they say, Halgein udorum, "Bring salt." Salt is called
aXs in Greek, and Halen in British ; for that language, from
the length of time which the Britons (then called Trojans,
and afterwards Britons from Brito, their leader) remained
in Greece after the destruction of Troy, became, in many
instances, similar to the Greek.*
" If," says the learned archdeacon, "a scrupulous inquirer
should ask my opinion of the relation here inserted, I answer,
with Augustine, ' admiranda fore divina miracula non dispu-
tatione discutienda ;' nor do I, by denial, place bounds to
the Divine power ; nor, by affirming insolently, extend that
power which cannot be extended. But on such occasions I
always call to mind that saying of Hieronymus : " Multa,"
says he, ' incredibilia reperies et non verisimilia, quae nihilo-
minus tamen vera sunt.' These, and any such that might
occur, I should place, according to Augustine's opinion,
among those things which are neither to be strongly affirmed
nor denied."
* Giraldus Cainbrensis, Itinerarium Cambric, 1. i. c. 8, translated by Sif
R. C. Hoare.
WA.LES. 407
David Powel, who edited this work in 1585, thinks that
ibis legend is written in imitation of the relation of Eros the
Armenian, in Plato, or taken from Polo's account of the
garden of the Old Man of the Mountain.*
Again Giraldus writes, " In these parts of Penbroch it
has happed, in our times, that unclean spirits have conversed
with mankind, not indeed visibly, but sensibly ; for they
manifested their presence at first in the house of one Stephen
Wiriet, and some time after of William Not, by throwing
iirt and such things as rather indicate an intention of
mockery and injury. In the house of William, the spirit
used to make rents and holes in both linen and woollen gar-
ments, to the frequent loss of both host and guest, from
which injury no care and no bolts could protect them. In
the house of Stephen, which was still more extraordinary,
the spirit used to converse with people ; and when they
taunted him, which they frequently did out of sport, he
used to charge them openly with those actions of theirs,
from their birth, which they least wished to be heard or
known by others. If you ask the cause and reason of this
matter, I do not take on me to assign it ; only this, that it,
as is said, used to be the sign of a sudden change, either
from poverty to riches, or rather from riches to desolation
and poverty, as it was found to be a little after with both of
these. But this I think worthy of remark, that places can-
not be freed from illusions of this kind by the sprinkling of
holy water, not merely of the ordinary, but even of the great
kind ; nor by the aid of any ecclesiastical sacrament. Nay,
the priests themselves, when coming in with devotion, and
fortified as well with the cross as with holy water, were
forthwith among the first defiled by the dirt thrown at them.
From which it would appear that both sacramentals and
sacraments defend from hurtful, not harmless things, and
from injury, not from illusion." f
* Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should kuow any
tiling of Plato o; of Marco Polo, especially as the ktter was not yet bora !
t Book i. chap. 12.
408 CELTS AND CTMET
IN the mountains near Brecknock, says Davies,* there is a
small lake, to which tradition assigns some of the properties
of the fabled Avernus. I recollect a Mabinogi, or mytho-
logic tale, respecting this piece of water, which runs thus :
In ancient times a door in a rock near this lake was
found open upon a certain day every year. I think it was
May-day. Those who had the curiosity and resolution to
enter were conducted by a secret passage, which terminated
in a small island in the centre of the lake. Here the
visitors were surprised with the prospect of a most enchant-
ing garden stored with the choicest fruits and flowers, and
inhabited by the Tylwyth Teg, or Fair Family, a kind of
Fairies, whose beauty could be equalled only by the courtesy
and affability which they exhibited to those who pleased
them. They gathered fruit and flowers for each of their
guests, entertained them with the most exquisite music, dis-
closed to them many secrets of futurity, and invited them to
stay as long as they should find their situation agreeable.
But the island was secret, and nothing of its produce must
be carried away. The whole of this scene was invisible to
those who stood without the margin of the lake. Only an
indistinct mass was seen in the middle ; and it was observed
that no bird would fly over the water, and that a soft strain
of music at times breathed with rapturous sweetness in the
breeze of the morning.
It happened upon one of these annual visits that a sacri-
legious wretch, when he was about to leave the garden, put
a flower, with which he had been presented, in bis pocket ;
but the theft boded him no good. As soon as he had touched
unhallowed ground the flower vanished and he lost his
senses. Of this injury the Fair Family took no notice at
the time. They dismissed their guests with their accus-
tomed courtesy, and the door was closed as usual. But their
* Mythology and Rites of the British Druid*.
WALES. 409
resentment ran high. For though, as the tale goes, the
Tylwyth Teg and their garden undoubtedly occupy the spot
to this day, though the birds still keep at a respectful dis-
tance from the lake, and some broken strains of music are
still heard at times, yet the door which led to the island
has never re-opened, and from the date of this sacrilegious
act the Cymry have been unfortunate.
Some time after this, an adventurous person attempted to
draw off the water, in order to discover its contents, when a
terrific form arose from the midst of the lake, commanding
him to desist, or otherwise he would drown the country.
These Tylwyth Teg are, as we see, regarded as Fairies,
but we think improperly ; for diminutive size is an attribute
of the Fairies in all parts of the British Isles, and Mr. Owen
(in his Welsh Dictionary, s. v.) expressly says that such is
not the case with these beings.
Spirit at tfj* Wan.
AMONG the mountains of Carmarthen, lies a beautiful and
romantic piece of water, named The Van Pools. Tradition
relates, that after midnight, on New Tear's Eve, there appears
on this lake a being named The Spirit of the Van. She is
dressed in a white robe, bound by a golden girdle ; her hair
is long and golden, her face is pale and melancholy ; she sits
in a golden boat, and manages a golden oar.
Many years ago there lived in the vicinity of this lake a
young farmer, who having heard imich of the beauty of this
spirit, conceived a most ardent desire to behold her, and be
satisfied of the truth. On the last night of the year, he
therefore went to the edge of the lake, which lay calm and
bright beneath the rays of the full moon, and waited anxiously
for the first hour of the New Tear. It came, and then he
beheld the object of his wishes gracefully guiding her golden
gondola to and fro over the lake. The moon at length sank
410 CELTS A.SO CTMET.
behind the mountains, the stars grew dim at the approach
of dawn, and the fair spirit was on the point of vanishing,
when, unable to restrain himself, he called aloud to her to
stay and be his wife ; but with a faint cry she faded from his
view. Night after night he now might be seen pacing the
shores of the lake, but all in vain. His farm was neglected,
his person wasted away, and gloom and melancholy were
impressed on his features. At length he confided his secret
to one of the mountain-sages, whose counsel Avas a "Welsh
one, by the way to assail the fair spirit with gifts of cheese
and bread ! The counsel was followed ; and on Midsummer
Eve the enamoured swain went down to the lake, and let fall
into it a large cheese and a loaf of bread. But all was vain ;
no spirit rose. Still he fancied that the spot where he had
last seen her shone with more than wonted brightness, and
that a musical sound vibrated among the rocks. Encouraged
by these signs, he night after night threw in loaves and
cheeses, but still no spirit came. At length New Year's
Eve returned. He dressed himself in his best, took his
largest cheese and seven of his whitest loaves, and repaired
to the lake. At the turn of midnight, he dropped them
slowly one by one into the water, and then remained in
silent expectation. The moon was hid behind a cloud, but
by the faint light she gave, he saw the magic skiff appear,
and direct its course for where he stood. Its owner stepped
ashore, and hearkened to the young man's vows, and con-
sented to become his wife. She brought with her as her
dower flocks and herds, and other rural wealth. One charge
she gave him, never to strike her, for the third time he
should do so she would vanish.
They married, and were happy. After three or four years
they were invited to a christening, and to the surprise of all
present, in the midst of the ceremony, the spirit burst into
tears. Her husband gave an angry glance, and asked her
why she thus made a fool of herself ? She replied, " The
poor babe is entering in a world of sin and sorrow, and
misery lies before it ; why should I rejoice ? " He gave her
a push. She warned him that he had struck her once.
Again they were, after some time, invited to attend the
funeral of that very child. The spirit now laughed, and
danced, and sang. Her husband's wrath was excited, and he
WALES. 411
asked her why she thus made a fool of herself? " The
babe," she said, " has left a world of sin and sorrow, and
escaped the misery that was before it, and is gone to be good
and happy for ever and ever. Why, then, should I weep ? "
He gave her a push from him, and again she warned him.
Still they lived happily as before. At length they were
invited to a wedding, where the bride was young and fair,
the husband a withered old miser. In the midst of the
festivity, the spirit burst into a copious flood of tears, and to
her husband's angry demand of why she thus made a fool of
herself, she replied in the hearing of all, " Because summer
and winter cannot agree. Youth is wedded to age for paltry
gold. I see misery here, and tenfold misery hereafter, to be
the lot of both. It is the devil's compact." Forgetful of
her warnings, the husband now thrust her from him with
real anger. She looked at him tenderly and reproachfully,
and said, " Tou have struck me for the third and last time.
Farewell ! "
So saying, she left the place. He rushed out after her,
and just reached his home in time to see her speeding to the
lake, followed by all her flocks and herds. He pursued her,
but in vain ; his eyes never more beheld her.*
As far as we have been able to learn, the belief in Fairies
is confined in Wales to the southern counties of Glamorgan,
* Abridged from " A Day at the Van Pools ;" MS. of Miss Beale, tbe author
of " Poems'' and of " The Vale of the Towey," a most delightful volume. We
have since received from our gifted friend the following additional information.
" Since writing this letter, I have heard a new version of the last part of the
Spirit of the Van. The third offence is said to be, that she and her husband
were ploughing ; he guiding the plough, and she driving the horses. The
horses went wrong, and the husband took up something and threw it at them,
which struck her. She seized the plough and went off, followed by the flocks
and herds she had brought with her to Van Pool, where they all vanished, and
the mark of the ploughshare is shown on the mountain at this present day.
She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors. Jones was
their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to
have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for
the healing art ; as for many generations, seven sons were regularly born in
each family, the seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in bin
profession. It is said even now, that the Jones of Muddfi are, or were, until
very recently, clever doctors." A. B. A somewhat different version of tbj
logend is given by Mr. Croker, iii. 256.
412 CELTS A3TD C1MET.
Carmarthen, and Pembroke, the parts into wlich the Saxons
had penetrated farthest, and where they of course had
exercised most influence. In these counties the popular
belief in these beings is by no means yet extinct, and their
attributes in the creed of the Welsh peasant are similar to
those of their British and Irish kindred.
The usual name given to the fairies in these parts of
Wales, is Y Dynon Bach Teg, i. e. The Little Fair People.
Ellyll, in the plural Ellyllon, also signifies an Elf, from
which word, indeed, it may have been derived. The bells of
the Digitalis or fox-glove are called Menyg Ellylon, or the
Elves'-gloves ; in Ireland, also, they are connected with the
fairies. The toadstools or poisonous mushrooms are named
Bwyd Ellyllon, or Elves'-food. Perhaps, however, it is not
the large ugly toadstools that are so named, but those pretty
small delicate fungi, with their conical heads, which are
named Fairy-mushrooms in Ireland, where they grow so
plentifully. Finally, there was formerly in the park of Sir
Robert Vaughan a celebrated old oak-tree, named Crwben-
yr-Ellyll, or The Elf's Hollow-tree. The popular belief
respecting these Ellyllon is, that they are the souls of
the ancient Druids, who, being too good for relegation to
Hell, and too evil for re-admittance to Heaven, are permitted
to wander among men upon earth till the last day, when
they also will enter on a higher state of being.*
The legends of which we will now proceed to give a
specimen, were collected and published in the latter half of
the eighteenth century, by a Welsh clergyman, who seems to
have entertained no doubt whatever of the truth of the
adventures contained in them.f
The two daughters of a respectable farmer in the parish
of Bedwellty were one day out hay-making with their man
* For the chief part of our knowledge respecting the fairy lore of Wales
we are indebted to the third or supplemental volume of the Fairy Legends, in
which Mr. Croker, with the aid of Dr. Owen Pugh and other Welsh scholars,
has given a fuller account of the superstitions of the people of the Principality,
than is, we believe, to be found any where else.
f A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the
Principality of Wales, by the Rev. Edward Jones of the Tiarch. For our
extracts from this work we are indebted to Mr. Croker.
WALES. 413
and maid servant and a couple of their neighbours, when on
a hill, about quarter of a mile distant, they saw a large flock
of sheep. Soon after, they saw them going up to a place
half a mile off, and then going out of their sight as if they
vanished in the air. About half-an-hour before sunset, they
saw them again, but not all alike ; for some saw them like
sheep, some like greyhounds, some like swine, and some like
naked infants. They appeared in the shade of the mountain
between them and the sun, and the first sight was as if they
rose out of the earth. " This was a notable appearance of
the fairies, seen by credible witnesses. The sons of infidelity
are very unreasonable not to believe the testimonies of so
many witnesses of the being of spirits."
E. T. going home by night over Bedwellty Mountains,
saw the fairies on each side of him. Some of them were
dancing. He also heard the sound of a bugle-horn, as if
people were hunting. He began to grow afraid, but recol-
lecting to have heard that if, on seeing the fairies, you draw
out your knife, they will vanish, he did so, and saw them
no more. " This the old gentleman sincerely related to me.
He was a sober man, and of the strictest veracity."
A young man having gone early one morning to a barn to
feed oxen, when he had done, lay down on the hay to rest.
As he lay he heard the sound of music approaching the
barn, and presently came in a large company, wearing
striped clothes (some more gay than others), and commenced
dancing to their music. He lay quite still, thinking to
escape their notice ; but a woman, better dressed than the
others, came up to him with a striped cushion, with a tassel
at each corner, and put it under his head. Some time after,
a cock was heard to crow, which seemed either to surprise
or displease them, and they hastily drew the cushion from
under his head, and went away.
P. W., "an honest virtuous woman," related that one
time, when she was a little girl on her way to school, she saw
the fairies dancing under a crab-tree. As they appeared to
be children of her own size, and had small pleasant music,
she went and joined in their exercise, and then took them to
dance in an empty barn. This she continued to do for three
or four years. As she never could hear the sound of their
feet, she always took off her shoes, supposing noise to be
414 CELTS AND
displeasing to them. They were of small stature, looked
rather old, and wore blue and green aprons. Her grand-
father, who kept school in the parish-church, used, when
going home from it late in the evening, to see the fairies
dancing under an oak, within two or three fields of the
church.
The learned writer gives finally a letter to himself, from a
" pious young gentleman " of Denbighshire, dated March 24,
1772, in which he informs him, that about fifteen years
before, as himself, his sister, and two other little girls were
playing at noon of a summer's day in a field, they saw a
company of dancers, about seventy yards from them. Owing
to the rapidity of their whirling motions, they could not
count them, but guessed them at fifteen or sixteen. They
were in red, like soldiers, with red handkerchiefs spotted
with yellow, on their heads. As they were gazing and
wondering at them, one of the dancers came running towards
them. The children, in a fright, made for an adjacent stile.
The girls got over, but the boy was near being caught, and
on looking back when over, he saw the red man stretching
his arms after him over the stile, which it would seem he
had not the power to cross. When they came to the house,
which was close at hand, they gave the alarm, and people
went out to search the fields, but could see nothing. The
little man was very grim-looking, with a copper-coloured
face. His running-pace was rather slow, but he took great
strides for one of his size.
The following legends were collected in 1827, in the Yale
of Neath, in Glamorganshire, by a lady with whom we
became acquainted when travelling through North Wales, in
the preceding autumn.*
An old woman assured our fair friend, that she one time,
many years before, saw the fairies to the number of some
hundreds. They were very small, were mounted on little
white horses, not bigger than dogs, and rode four a-breast.
It was almost dusk at the time, and they were not a quarter
* The lady's name was Williams. The legends were originally intended
for the present work, but circumstances caused them to appear in the supple-
mental volume of the Irish Fairy Legends. We have abridged them.
WALES. 415
of a mile from her. Another old -woman said that her
father had often seen the fairies riding in the air on little
white horses, but he never saw them come down on the
ground. He also used to hear their music in the air. She
had heard, too, of a man who had been five-and-twenty years
with the fairies, and thought he had been away only five
minutes.
RHYS and Llewellyn, two farmer's servants, who had been
all day carrying lime for their master, were driving in the
twilight their mountain ponies before them, returning home
from their work. On reaching a little plain, Rhys called to
his companion to stop and listen to the music, saying it was
a tune to which he had danced a hundred times, and must go
and have a dance now. He bade him go on with the horses,
and he would soon overtake him. Llewellyn could hear
nothing, and began to remonstrate ; but away sprang Rhys,
and he called after him in vain. He went home, put up the
ponies, ate his supper, and went to bed, thinking that Rhys
had only made a pretext for going to the ale-house. But
when morning came, and still no sign of Rhys, he told his
master what had occurred. Search was then made every-
where, but no Rhys could be found. Suspicion now fell
upon Llewellyn of having murdered him, and he was thrown
into prison, though there was no evidence against him. A
farmer, however, skilled in fairy-matters, having an idea of
how things might have been, proposed that himself and some
Dthers should accompany Llewellyn to the place where he
parted with Rhys. On coming to it, they found it green as
the mountain ash. "Hush!" cried Llewellyn, "I hear
music, I hear sweet harps." We all listened, says the
narrator, for I was one of them, but could hear nothing.
" Put your foot on mine, David," said he to me (his own
foot was at the time on the outward edge of the fairy-ring).
I did so, and so did we all, one after another, and then we
heard the sound of many harps, and saw within a circle,
416 CELTS AITD CTMBT.
about twenty feet across, great numbers of litt.e people of
the size of children of three or four years old, dancing
round and round. Among them we saw Rhys, and Llewellyn
catching him by the smock-frock, as he came by him, pulled
him out of the circle. " Where are the horses ? where are
the horses ? " cried he. " Horses, indeed ! " said Llewellyn.
Rhys urged him to go home, and let him finish his dance, in
which he averred he had not been engaged more than five
minutes. It was by main force they took him from the
place. He still asserted he had been only five minutes away,
and could give no account of the people he had been with.
He became melancholy, took to his bed, and soon after died.
"The morning after," says the narrator, "we went to look
at the place, and we found the edge of the ring quite red, as
if trodden down, and I could see the marks of little heels,
about the size of my thumb-nail. "
Gitto Barf).
GITTO BACH,* who was a fine boy, used often to ramble to
the top of the mountain to look after his father's sheep. On
his return, he would show his brothers and sisters pieces
of remarkably white paper, like crown-pieces, with letters
stamped upon them, which he said were given him by the
little children with whom he used to play on the mountain.
One day he did not return, and during two whole years no
account could be got of him, and the other children were
beginning to go up the mountain, and bring back some of
those white crown-pieces. At length, one morning, as their
mother opened the door, she saw Gitto sitting on the
threshold, with a bundle under his arm. He was dressed,
and looked exactly as when she last had seen him. To her
inquiry of where he had been for so long a time, he replied
that it was only the day before he had left her ; and he bade
her look at the pretty clothes the little children on the
mouctain had given him for dancing with them to the music
* Gitto U the dim. of Griffith : bach (beg IT.) is little.
WALES. 417
ot their harps. The dress in the bundle was of very white
paper, without seam or sewing. The prudent mother com-
mitted it to the flames.
"This," said the narrator, "made me more anxious than
ever to see the fairies," and his wish was gratified by a
gipsy, who directed him to find a four-leaved clover, and
put it with nine grains of wheat on the leaf of a book which
she gave him. She then desired him to meet her next night
by moonlight on the top of Craig y Dinis. She there
washed his eyes with the contents of a phial which she had,
and he instantly saw thousands of fairies, all in white,
dancing to the sounds of numerous harps. They then
placed themselves on the edge of the hill, and sitting down
and putting their hands round their knees, they tumbled
down one after another, rolling head-over-heels till they
disappeared in the valley.
Another old man, who was present at the preceding narra-
tion, averred that he had often seen the fairies at waterfalls ;
particularly at that of Sewyd yr Rhyd in Cwm Pergwm,
Vale of Neath, where a road runs between the fall and the
rock. As he stood behind the fall, they appeared in all the
colours of the rainbow, and their music mingled with the
noise of the water. They then retired into a cavern, which
they had made in the rock, and, after enjoying themselves
there, ascended the rock, and went oif through the moun-
tains, the sounds of their harps dying away as they receded.
ONE of those old farm-houses, where the kitchen and cow-
house are on the same floor, with only a low partition
between them, was haunted by the fairies. If the family-
were at their meals in the kitchen, they were racketing in
the cow-house, and if the people were engaged about the
cows, the fairies were making a riot in the kitchen. One
day, when a parcel of reapers were at their harvest-dinner
B E
418 CELTS AXD CTMltT.
in the kitchen, the elves, who were laughing and' dancing
above, threw down such a quantity of dust and dirt as
quite spoiled the dinner. While the mistress of the house was
m perplexity about it, there came in an old woman, who, on
hearing the case, said she could provide a remedy. She then
told her in a whisper to ask six of the reapers to dinner next
day in the hearing of the fairies, and only to make as much
pudding as could be boiled in an egg-shell. She did as
directed, and when the fairies saw that a dinner for six men
was put down to boil in an egg-shell, there was great stir
and noise in the cow-house, and at length one angry voice
was heard to say, " We have lived long in this world ; we
were born just after the earth was made, and before the
acorn was planted, and yet we never saw a harvest-dinner
dressed in an egg-shell ! There must be something wrong
in this house, and we will stop here no longer." They went
away and never returned.
The fairies are said to take away children, and leave
changelings.* They also give pieces of money, one of which
is found every day in the same place as long as the finder
keeps his good fortune a secret. One peculiarity of the
Cambrian fairies is, that every Friday night they comb the
goats' beards "to make them decent for Sunday."
We hear not of Brownies or Kobolds in the Welsh
houses* now, but Puck used to haunt Wales as well as
Ireland. His Welsh name, Pwcca, is the same as his Irish
one. In Brecon there is Cwm Pwcca, or Puck's Glen, and
though an iron-foundry has in a great measure scared him
from it, yet he occasionally makes his appearance. As a
man was returning one night from his work, he saw a light
before him, and thought he discerned some one that carried
it. Supposing it to be one of his fellow-workmen with a
lanthorn, he quickened his pace to come up with him,
wondering all the while how so short a man as he appeared
to be could get over the ground so fast. He also fancied
he was not going the right way, but still thought that he
who had the light must know best. At last, he came up
* See Brittarty.
BEITTANT. 419
with him, and found himself on the very edge of one of the
precipices of Cwm Pwcca, down which another step would
have carried him. The Pwcca, for it was he, sprang over
the glen, turned round, held the light above his head, and
then with a loud laugh put it out and vanished.
BBITTANY.
Mut unt este noble Barun
Cil de Bretaine li Bretun.
MARIE DE FBAUOS.
Thise oldfe gentil Bretons in hir dayes
Of diverse aventurts maden hives.
CHAUCER.
BBITTANY, the ancient Armorica, retains perhaps as un-
mixed a population as any part of Western Europe. Its
language has been, however, like the Welsh and the Celtic
dialects, greatly affected by the Latin and Teutonic. The
ancient intercourse kept up with Wales and Cornwall by
the Bretons, who were in a great measure colonists from
these parts of Britain, caused the traditions and poetry of
the latter to be current and familiar in Little Britain, as
that country was then called. To poetry and music, indeed,
the whole Celto- Cymric race seem to have been strongly
addicted ; and, independently of the materials which Brit-
tany may have supplied for the history of Geoffrey of
Monmouth, many other true or romantic adventures were
narrated by the Breton poets in their Lais. Several of
these Lais were translated into French verse in the
thirteenth century by a poetess named Marie de France,
resident at the court of the English monarchs of the house
of Plantagenet, to one of whom, probably Henry the Third,
her Lais are dedicated.* This circumstance may account
Poesies de Marie de France, par De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. If any one
should suspect that these are not genuine translations from the Breton, his
doubts will be dispelled by reading the original of the Lai du Lauttic in the
Barzan-Breiz (i. 24) presently to be noticed.
420 CELTS AWD CTMET.
for the Lais being better known in England than in France,
The only manuscript containing any number of them is in
the Harleian Library ; for those of France contain but five
Lais. The Lai du Fresne was translated into English ; and
from the Lai de Lanval and Lai de Graeient which last by
the way is not in the Harleian Collection Chestre made
bis Launfal Miles, or Sir Launfal. Chaucer perhaps took
tue concluding circumstance of his Dream from the Lai de
Eliduc.
In some of these Lais we meet with what may be regarded
as Fairy machinery. The word Fee, indeed, occurs only
once;* but in the Lais de Gugemer, de Lanval, d'Ywenec,
and de Graeient, personages are to be met with differing in
nothing from the Fays of Romance, and who, like them,
appear to be human beings endowed with superior powers.
The origin of the Breton Kerrigan, as they are called, has
been sought, and not improbably, in the Gallicense f 01
ancient Gaul, of whom Pomponius Mela thus writes:
" Sena,J in the British sea, opposite the Ofismician coast, is
remarkable for an oracle of the Gallic God. Its priestesses,
holy in perpetual virginity, are said to be nine in number.
They are called Gallicenae, and are thought to be endowed
with singular powers, so as to raise by their charms the
winds and seas, to turn themselves into what animals they will,
to cure wounds and diseases incurable by others, to know
and predict the future ; but this they do only to navigators
who go thither purposely to consult them."
"We have here certainly all the attributes of the Damoi-
selles of the Lais of Marie de France. The doe whom
Gugemer wounds speaks with a human voice. The lady who
loved Lanval took him away into an island, and Graeient and
his mistress crossed a deep and broad river to arrive at her
country, which perhaps was also an island in the original
Breton Lai. The part most difficult of explanation ia the
secret manner in which these dames used to visit their
* See above, p. 21.
t The Bas-Breton Kerrigan or Korrigwen differs, as we may see, but
little from GaUican. Strabo (i. p .304) says that Demeter and KOTO, were
worshipped in an island in these parts.
Sena is supposed to be L'Isle des Saints, nearly opposite Brest.
Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.
421
joverei; but perhaps the key is to be found in the Lai
d'Twenec, of which, chiefly on that account, we give an
analysis. The hero of that Lai differs not in point of power
from these ladies, and as he is a real man, with the power
of assuming at will the shape of a bird, so it is likely they
were real women, and that it was in the bird-shape they
entered the chambers of their lovers. Graelent's mistress
says to him,*
I shall love you trewely ;
But one thing I forbid straitly,
You must not utter a word aperte
Which might our love make discoverte.
I will give uuto you richly,
Gold and silver, clothes, and fee.
Much love shall be between us two-
Night and day I'll go to you :
You '11 see me come to you alwiy
With me laugh and talk you may.
You shall no comrade have to see,
Or who shall know my privacy,
* * *
Take care now that you do not boast
Of things by which I may be lost.
The lady says to Lanval,
When you would speak to me of ought
You must in no place form the thought
Where no one could meet his amie
Without reproach and villainie
I will be presently with you,
All your commands ready to do ;
No one but you will me see,
Or hear the words that come from me.
She also had previously imposed on the knight the obliga-
tion of secresy.
As a further proof of the identity of the Korrigan and
the Grallicenae, it may be remarked, that in the evidently
very ancient Breton poem, Ar-Eannou, or The Series, we
* It might seem iardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses
and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. Yet
tome have taken them for old English verses.
422 CELTS AND CTMET.
meet the following passage: "There are tine Korrigen,
who dance, with flowers in their hair, and robes of wh'te
wool, around the fountain, by the light of the full moon." *
I HAVE in thought and purpose too,
Of Ywenec to tellen you
Of whom he born was, his sire's fame,
How first he to his mother came.
He who did beget Ywenec
Y-cleped was Eudemarec.
There formerly lived in Britain a man who was rich and
old. He was Avoez or governor of Caerwent on the
Doglas, and lord of the surrounding country. Desirous of
having an heir to his estates, he espoused a maiden " cour-
teous and sage, and passing fair." She was given to him
because he was rich, and loved by him for her beauty. Why
should I say more, but that her match was not to be found
between Lincoln and Ireland ? " Great sin did they who
gave her him," adds the poet.
On account of her rare beauty, the jealous husband now
turned all his thoughts to keeping her safe. To this end he
shut her up in his tower, in a large room, to which no one
had access but himself and his sister, an old widow, without
whose permission the young wife was forbidden to speak to
any even of her female attendants. In this tower the suspi-
cious husband immured his lovely bride for seven years,
during which time they had no children, nor did she ever
leave her confinement on any account. She had neithei
chamberlain nor huissier to light the tapers in her chambei
when she would retire, and the poor lady passed her time
* E korole nao c'horrigan,
Bleunvek ho bleo, gwisket gloan,
Kelc'h ar feunteun, d'al loar-gann.
VILLEMARQUE, Barzan-BrWy i. 8.
The c'h expresses the cultural.
BRITTANY. 423
weeping, sighing, and lamenting ; and from grief and neglect
of herself losing all her beauty.
The month of April was entering,
When every bird begins to sing ;
Her lord arose at early day,
And to the wood he takes his way.
Before he set out he called up the old dame to fasten the
door after him. This done, she took her psalter and retired
to another room to chant it. The imprisoned lady awoke in
tears, seeing the brightness of the sun, and thus began
her moan :
Alas ! said she, why born was I ?
Right grievous is my destiny :
In this towere imprisoned,
I ne'er shall leave it till I 'm dead.
She marvels at the unreasonable jealousy of her old husband,
curses her parents, and all concerned in giving her to a man
not only so unamiable, but who was of so tough a constitu-
tion that the chance of his dying seemed infinitely remote.
When baptised he was to be,
In hell's rivere deep dipt was he ;
Hard are his sinews, hard each vein,
And lively blood they all contain.
Oft have I heard the people tell,
That in this country there befell
Adventures in the days of yore,
That did to joy grieved hearts restore ;
Knights met with damsels, fair and gent,
In all things unto their talent ;
And dames met lovers courteous,
Handsome, and brave, and generous ;
So that they never blamed were,
For save themselves none saw them e'er.*
If this may be, or ever was,
Or any it befallen has,
May God, who hath all might and power,
My wish perform for me this hour.
Scarcely had she uttered this pious wish, when she per-
This manifestly alludes to Lanval or Graelent, or similar stories.
424 CELTS AND CTMRT.
ceived the shadow of a large bird at a narrow window. The
bird now flew into the room. He had jesses on his legs, and
appeared to be a goss-hawk.* He placed himself before the
lady, and in a few minutes after became a handsome gentle
knight. The lady was terrified at the sight, and covered her
head ; but the knight was courteous, and addressed her,
Lady, said be, be not thus stirred ;
A goss-hawk is a gentle bird.
If my secrete should be obscure,
Attend, and I will you assure ;
Maketh now of me your lovere,
For that it is I am come here.
Long have I loved you and admired,
And in my heart have much desired ;
I ne'er have loved save you alone,
And save you never shall love none ;
But I could never come to you,
Nor from own countrie issue,
If you had not required me :
Your lover now I may well be.
The lady was now re-assured : she uncovered her head, and
told the knight she would accept him as her Dru, if she
f
were satisfied that he believed in God. On this head, he
assures her,
I hi the Creator believe,
Who did from misery us relieve,
In which us Adam our sire put,
By eating of that bitter fruit :
He is, and was, and ever he
To sinners life and light will be.
And to put the matter out of all doubt, he directs her to
feign sickness, and send for the chaplain, when he under-
takes to assume her form, and receive the holy Sacrament.
The dame does accordingly ; and the old woman, after many
objections, at length sends for the chaplain.
* It follow*, in M. de Roquefort's edition,
" Deci ne muez fu ou desis."
Of which we can make no sense, and the French translation gives DO aid. IB
the Ilarleian MS. it is
" De cine muez fu ou de sis,"
which is more intelligible.
BRITTANY 425
And he with all due speed did hie,
And brought the Corpus Domini.
The knight received the holy sign,
And from the chalice drank the wine :*
The chaplain then his way is gone
The old dame shut the doors anon.
The scruples of the lady being now entirely removed, she
grants le don (Tamoureuse tnerci, and the bliss of the lovers
is complete. At length the knight takes his leave, and in
reply to the lady's question, of when she should see him
again, he tells her that she has only to wish for him, and the
wish will be fulfilled by his appearance ;t but he warns her
to beware of the old woman, who will closely watch her,
assuring her at the same time that a discovery will be his
certain death.
The lady now bids adieu to all sadness and melancholy,
and gradually regains all her former beauty. She desires no
longer to leave her tower ; for, night or day, she has only to
express a wish, and her knight is with her. The old lord
marvels greatly at this sudden change, and begins to distrust
the fidelity of his sister. On revealing his suspicions, her
replies fully satisfy him on that head, and they concert
between them how to watch the young wife, and to discover
her secret. After an interval of three days, the old lord
tells his wife that the king has sent for him, and that he
must attend him, but will soon return. He sets out, arid
the old woman having closed the door as usual after him,
* This tends to prove that this is a translation from the Breton ; for Inno-
cent III., in whose pontificate the cup was first refused to the laity, died in
1216, when Henry III., to whom Marie is supposed to have dedicated her Lais,
wag a child.
f The same was the case with the Wiinschelweib ( Wish-woman) of
German romance.
Swenne du finest wiinschest nach mir,
So bin ich endelichen bi dir,
says the lady to the Staufenberger. She adds,
War ich wil da bin ich,
Den Wunsch hat mir Got gegeben.
He finds it to be true,
Er wunschte nach der frouwen gin,
Bi iiu so war diu schone sin.
GRIMM, Dent. Mytkol., p. 39;.
4:26 CELTS AND CTMET.
gets behind a curtain to watch. The lady now wishes, for
her lover, and instantly he is with her, and they continue
together till it is time to rise. He then departs, leaving the
spy, who had seen how he came and went, terrified at the
strange metamorphosis.
When the husband, who was at no great distance, came
home, his spy informed him of the strange aifair. Greatly
grieved and incensed at this, he began to meditate the
destruction of his rival. He accordingly got four pikes
made, with steel-heads so sharp that
No razor under heaven's sheen
Was ever yet so sharp and keen.
These he set at the window through which the knight was
used to enter. Next day he feigns to go to the chase, the
old woman returns to her bed to sleep, and the lady anxiously
expects "him whom she loveth loyally,"
And says that he may come safely,
And with her at all leisure be.
So said, so done : the bird was at the window ; but alas !
too eager for caution, he overlooked the pikes, and, flying
against them, was mortally wounded. Still he entered the
chamber and threw himself on the bed, which his blood soon
filled, and thus addressed his distracted mistress :
He said unto her " My sweet friend,
For you my life comes to an end ;
I often told you 't would be so,
That your fair cheer would work us woe."
When she heard this she swooned away,
And long time there for dead she lay ;
Her gently to herself he brought,
And said, that grief availeth nought ;
That she by him a son would bear,
Valiant and wise, and debonair ;
He would dispel her sorrows all.
Ywenec she should him call.
He woulde" vengeance for their sake
Upon their trait'rous enemy take.*
In the Sh&h-nameh, Siyawush, when he foresees his own death by the
BR1TTJLNT. 427
Exhausted with loss of blood, he can stay no longer. He
departs; and the lady, uttering loud cries of woe, leaps
after him, unapparelled as she is, out of the window, which
was twenty feet from the ground, and pursues him by the
traces of his blood.
Along his path strayed the daine,
Until unto a hill she came.*
Into this hill one entrance led ;
It with the blood was all sprinkled.
Before her she can nothing see ;
Whereat she thinketh full surely
Her lover thither is gone in.
She entereth with niickle teen ;
Within it light ne found she none ;
Thorow it still she goeth on,
Until she from the hill issued
In a fair meadow, rich and good.
With blood she stained found the grass,
At which she much dismayed was ;
The trace lay of it on the ground.
Quite near she there a city found ;
With walls it was enclosed all.
There was not house, nor tower, nor hall,
That did not seem of silver fair :
The Mandeventf right wealthy are.
Before the town lay marshes rude,
The forest, and wild solitude.
On the other side, toward the donj6n,
The water all around did run ;
And here the shippes did enter,
More thanne three hundred they were.
The lower gate wide open lay ;
Therein the lady took her way,
treachery of Afrasiab, tells his wife Ferengis, the daughter of that monarch, that
he will bear a son whom she is to name Ky Khosroo, and who will avenge
the death of his father : see Gorres, Heldenbuch von Iran, ii. 32.
* Desi k'a une hoge vint :
En cole hoge ot une entree.
M. de Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romaine, correctly renders
hoge by colline. In his translation of this Lai he renders it by cabane, not,
perhaps, understanding how a hill could be pervious. The story, however, of
Prince Ahmed, and the romance of Orfeo and Heurodis (see above, p. 52), are
good authority on this point : see also above, pp. 405, 408.
) In the Harleian MS. Mandement. M. de Roquefort confesses his total
ignorance of this people ; we follow his example. May it not, howevei, b
connected with manant, and merely * ; gnify people, inhabitants?
428 CELTS AND CTMBT.
Stil following the blood, that fell
The townd thorow to the castl.
Unto her spake* there no one,
Ne man nor woman found she none.
She to the palace came ; with blood
The steps she found were all embrued ;
She entered then a low ohambere ;
A knight she found fast sleeping there ;
She knew him not she passed on
To a larger chamber came anon ;
A bed, and nothing more, there found,
A knight was on it sleeping sound.
Still farther passed on the dame ;
Unto the third chambere she came,
Where she gan find her lover's bed.
The posts were gold enamelled ;
I could not price the clothes aright :
The chandeliers and tapers bright,
Which night and day burned constantly,
Were worth the gold of a citee.
She finds her lover at the point of death.
At seeing his wretched state the unhappy lady swoons
again. The expiring knight endeavours to console her ; and,
foretelling his own death on that day, directs her to depart,
lest his people in their grief should ill treat her as the cause
of his death. She, however, protests that she will stay and
die with him, as, if she returns, her husband will put her to
death. The knight repeats his consolations, and gives her a
ring, which, whue she wears, her husband will retain no
remembrance of what relates to her. At the same time he
gives her his sword, which she is to keep safely and to give
to her son when grown up and become a valiant knight. He
says, she then
Unto a festival will go ;
Her lord will thither wend also ;
Unto an abbey they will come,
Where they will see a stately tomb,
Will learn the story of the dead,
And how he was there buried.
There thou the sword shalt to him reach,
And all the adventure then teach,
How he was born, who was his sire ;
His deeds enough will then admire.
He then gave her a dress of fine silk, and insisted on her
BEITTANT. 429
departure. She is with difficulty induced to leave him, and
is hardly half a league from the place when she hears the
bells tolling, and he cries of grief of the people for the
death of their lord. She faints four times, but at length
recovering retraces her steps, and returns to her tower. Her
husband makes no inquiry, and gives her no farther uneasi-
ness. She bare a son, as Eudemarec had foretold, and named
him Ywenec. As he grew up, there was not his peer in the
kingdom for beauty, valour, and generosity.
After Ywenec had been dubbed a knight, his supposed
father was summoned to attend the feast of St. Aaron at
Carlion. He went, accompanied by his wife aud Ywenec.
On their way, they stopped at a rich abbey, ^here they were
received with the utmost hospitality. Next day, when they
asked to depart, the abbot entreated them to stay a little
longer till he should show them the rest of the abbey. They
consented, and after dinner,
On entering the chapter-room,
They found a large and stately tomb,
Covered with rich tapestry,
Bordered with gold embroidery.
At head and feet and sides there were
Twenty tapers burning clear ;
Of fine gold were the chandeliers ;
Of amethyst were the censeres,
With which they incensed alway,
For great honour, this tomb each day.
The curiosity of the visitors was excited by the sight of this
magnificent tomb, and they learned, on inquiry, that therein
lay one of the noblest and most valiant knights that had ever
lived. He had been king of that country, and had been slain
at Caerwent for the love of a lady, leaving a vacancy in the
throne which had never been since filled, it being reserved,
tccording to his last commands, for his son by that lady.
"When the Dame heard this, she called aloud to her son,
" Fair son, you now have heard," she said,
"That God hath us to this place led.
It is your father here doth lie,
Whom this old man slew wrongfully."
She then gave him the sword she had kept so long, relating
430 CELTS AJTD CTMET.
the whole story to him. At the conclusion she fainted on
the tomb, and expired. Pilled with rage and grief, Twenec
at one blow struck off the head of the old man, and avenged
both his father and mother. The lady was buried in the
coffin with him whom she had loved, and the people joyfully
acknowledged Twenec as king of the country.
Long time after mad.en they,
Who heard this Adventure, a Lay
Of the grief and the dolour
That for love these did endure.
There are still to be seen in Brittany the rock, the cavern,
the fountain, the hole, the valley, etc., of the Fees.
The forest of Brezeliande, near Quintin, was, in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, regarded as the chief seat of Breton
wonders. It contained the tomb of Merlin. Robert de
"Wace, hearing of the wonders of this forest, visited it ; but,
by his own account, to little purpose.
La allai je merveilles querre (chercher),
Vis la foret et vis la terre ;
Merveilles quis (ckerchai) mais ne trovai,
Fol m'en revins, fol y allai ;
Fol y allai, fol m'en revins,
Folie quis, por fol me tins.*
There were also the Fountain of Berenton and the Pe
(block, or steps) Merveilleux.
En Bretagne ce treuve-on
Une Fontaine et un Perron ;
Quant on gette 1'iaue (eau) dessus
Si vente et tonne et repluit jus (d bos).
Huon de Mery was more fortunate than Wace. He
sprinkled the Perron from the golden basin which hung
from the oak that shaded it, and beheld all the marvels. t '
Such is the result of our inquiries respecting the Fairy
* Roman de Roux, v. ii. 234.
t See Roquefort, Supplement au Glosaaire de la Lanm* Romaine s. v.
Perron.
BBITTAHT. 431
system of the " olde gentil Bretons." Owing to the praise-
worth) labours of a Breton gentleman of tho present day,*
we are enabled to give the following account of it as it
actually prevails in Brittany.
Our author divides the Breton fairies into two classes,
the Fays (Fees) and the Dwarfs (Nains) ; of which the
Breton name seems to be Korrig or Kerrigan, and Korr or
Korred.f The former he identifies, as we have seen, very
plausibly, with the Gallicenae of Mela ; for he says that the
ancient Welsh bards declare that they reverenced a being of
the female sex named Korid-gwen, i. e. Korid-woman, to
whom they assigned nine virgins as attendants. To this
being Taliesin gives a magic vase, the edges of which are
adorned with pearl, and it contains the wondrous water of
bardic genius and of universal knowledge.
The Kerrigan, our authority further states, can predict the
future, assume any form they please, move from place to
place with the rapidity of thought, cure maladies by the aid
of charms which they communicate to their favourites. Their
size is said not to exceed two feet, but their proportions are
most exact ; and they have long flowing hair, which they
comb out with great care. Their only dress is a long white
veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night, or
in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great ; but in the
daylight their eyes appear red, their hair white, and their
faces wrinkled ; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by
day. They are fond of music, and have fine voices, but are
not much given to dancing. Their favourite haunts are the
springs, by which they sit and comb their hair. They are
* Barzan-Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, recueilles et publics par
Th. Hersart de la Villemarque'. Paris, 1846. This is a most valuable work
and deserving to take its place with the Ballads of Scotland, Scandinavia, and
Seivia, to none of which is it inferior. To the credit of France the edition
which we use is the fourth. How different would the fate of such a work be
in this country !
f We make this distinction, because in the ballads in which the personage
is a Fay, the word used is Kerrigan or Korrig, while in that in which the
Dwarfs are actors, the words are Korr and Korred. But the truth is, they are
all but different forms of Korr. They are all the same, singular and plural,
The Breton changes its first consonant like the Irish: see p. 371. We also
meet with Crion, Goric, Couril, as names of these beings, but they are onlj
forms of those given above.
432 CELTS AKD CTMET.
said to celebrate there every returning spring a great noc-
turnal festival. On the sod at its brink is spread a table-cloth
white as the driven snow, covered with the most delicious
viands. In the centre is a crystal cup, which emits such
light that there is no need of lamps. At the end of the
banquet a cup goes round filled with a liquor, one drop of
which would make one as wise as God himself. At the
approach of a mortal the whole vanishes.
Like fairies in general the Korrigan steal children, against
which the remedy usually employed is, to place the child
under the protection of the Virgin, by putting a rosary or
a scapulary about its neck. They are also fond of uniting
themselves with handsome young men to regenerate, as the
peasants say, their accursed race. The general belief re-
specting them is, that they were great princesses who,
having refused to embrace Christianity when it was preached
in Armorica by the Apostles, were struck by the curse of
God. Hence it is that they are said to be animated by a
violent hatred of religion and the clergy. The sight of a
soutane, or the sound of a bell, puts them to flight ; but
the object of greatest abhorrence to them is the Holy
Virgin. The last trait to be noticed of these beings is,
that, like similar beings in other countries, their breath is
deadly.
The reader must have observed the strong resemblance
which the Korrigan bear to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia.
In like manner the Korred are very similar to the Trolls.*
These are usually represented as short and stumpy with
shaggy hair, dark wrinkled faces, little deep-set eyes, but
bright as carbuncles Their voice is cracked and hollow :
their hands have claws like a cat's ; their feet are horny like
those of a goat. They are expert smiths and coiners ; they
are said to have great treasures in the dolmen^ in which
they dwell, and of which they are regarded as the builders.
They dance around them by night, and wo to the belated
peasant who, passing by, is forced to join in their roundel ;
* Hence we may infer that they came originally from Scandinavia, commu-
nicated most probably by the Normans.
t Stone-tables. They are called by the same name in Devon and Cornwall;
in Irish their appellation is Cromleach.
BHITTANT. 433
he usually dies of exhaustion. Wednesday is their holiday ;
the first Wednesday in May their annual festival, which they
celebrate with dancing, singing, and music. They have tht
same aversion to holy things as the Korrigan ; like them, too,
they can fortell events to come. The Korrid is always fur-
nished with a large leathern purse, which is said to be full of
gold ; but if any one succeeds in getting it from him, he finds
nothing in it but hair and a pair of scissors.
The Bretons also believe in Mermaids ; they name them
Morgan (sea-women) and Morverc'h (sea-daughters), and say
that they draw down to their palaces of gold and crystal at
the bottom of the sea or of ponds, those who venture impru-
dently too near the edge of the water. Like the mermaids
they sing and comb their golden hair. In one of the ballads
we read, " Fisher, hast thou seen the mermaid combing her
hair, yellow as gold, by the noontide sun, at the edge of the
water ? " "I have seen the fair mermaid. I have also
heard her singing ; her songs were plaintive as the waves."*
In M. ViUemarque's collection there are three ballads
relating to the Korrigan and Korred. The following is a
faithful translation of the first of them in the exact measure
of the original. All the Breton poetry is rimed, very fre-
quently in triads or tercets.
tije Horrtflan.
TEE Lord Nann and his bride so fair
In early youth united were,
In early youth divided were.
The lady lay-in yesternight
Of twins, their skin as snow was white,
A boy and girl, that glad his sight.
" What doth thy heart desire, loved one,
For giving me so fair a son ?
Say, and at once it shall be done.
* Barzan-Breiz., '. xlix. 69.
434 CELTS AND CYMRY.
" A woodcock from the pool of the glyn,
Or roebuck from the forest green ? "
" The roebuck's flesh is savoury,
But for it thou to the wood should' st hie."
Lord Nann when he these words did hear,
He forthwith grasped his oaken spear,
And vaulting on his coal-black steed
Unto the green-wood hied with speed.
tVTien he unto the wood drew nigh,
A fair white doe he there did spy,
And after her such chase he made,
The ground it shook beneath their tread.
And after her such chase made he,
From his brows the water copiously
And from his horse's sides ran down.
The evening had now come on,
And he came where a streamlet flowed
Fast by a Kerrigan's abode ;
And grassy turf spread all around.
To quench his thirst he sprang to ground.
The Korrig at her fount sat there
A-combing of her long fair hair.
She combed it with a comb of gold
These ladies ne'er are poor, we 're told.
" Hash man," cried she, "how dost thou dare
To come disturb my waters fair !
" Thou shalt unto me plight thy fay,
Or seven years thou shalt waste away,
Or thou shalt die ere the third day."
" To thee my faith plight will I ne er
For I am married now a vear.
BEITTANT. 43.")
" I shall not surely waste away,
Nor shall I dio ere the third day ;
" I shall not die within three days,
But when it unto God shall please."
" Good mother, mine, if you love me,
See that my bed made ready be,
For I have ta'en a malady.
" Let not one word tu my wife be told ;
In three days I shall lie in the mould,
A Korrigan has thus foretold."
And when three days were past and gone,
The young wife asked this question,
" My mother-in-law, now tell me why
The bells all ring thus constantly ?
" And why the priests a low mass sing,
All clad in white, as the bells ring ? "
" Last night a poor man died whom we
A lodging gave through charity."
" My mother-in-law, tell me, I pray,
My Lord Nann whither is he gone away ? "
" My daughter, to the town he 's gone,
To see thee he will come anon."
" Good mother-in-law, to church to fare,
Shall I my red or blue gown wear ? "
" The custom now is, daughter dear,
At church always in black to appear."
As they crossed o'er the churchyard-wall,
On her husband's grave her eye did fall.
" Who is now de id of our family,
That thus fresh dug our ground I see ? "
F V 2
436 CELTS AITD CT3TET.
" Alas ! my child, the truth can I
Not hide : thy husband there doth lie."
On her two knees herself she cast
And rose no more, she breathed her last.
It \vas a marvel to see, men say,
The night that followed the day,
The lady in earth by her lord lay,
To see two oak-trees themselves rear
From the new-made grave into the air ;
And on their branches two doves white,
Who there were hopping gay and light ;
"Which sang when rose the morning-ray
And then toward heaven sped away.
This ballad is very remarkable. Its similarity to that of
Sir Olof, so celebrated in Scandinavia, and of which we have
already given two variations out of fifteen, must strike
every one ; in its concluding stanzas also it resembles other
Scandinavian and English ballads. On the other hand, the
White Doe and the Kerrigan at the fount remind us of the
Lais of Marie de France. Our opinion on the whole is,
that the ballad belongs to Scandinavia, whence it was
brought at an early period by the Normans, we might say
only for its Christian air in both countries and naturalised
in the usual manner. It is rather strange that there is
neither an English nor a Scottish version of it.
The next lay, which is entirely composed in tercets, is the
story of a changeling. In order to recover her own child
the mother is advised by the Virgin, to whom she has
prayed, to prepare a meal for ten farm-servants in an egg-
shell, which will make the Korrid speak, and she is then to
whip him well till he cries, and when he does so he will be
taken away. The woman does as directed : the Korr asks
what she is about : she tells him : " For ten, dear mother, in
an eggshell ! I have seen the egg before I saw the white
hen . I have seen the acorn before I saw the tree : I hare
437
seen the acorn and I have seen the shoot : I have seen the
oak in the wood of Brezal, but never saw I such a thing as
this." " Thou hast seen too many things, my son," replied
she, and began to whip him, when one came crying, " Don't
beat him, give him back to me ; I have not done yours any
injury. He is king in our country." When the woman
went home she found her own child sleeping sweetly in the
cradle. He opened his eyes and said, " Ah ! mother, I have
been a long time asleep ! "
Among the Welsh legends above related, that of the
Fairies Banished has some resemblance to this ; but M.
Villemarque says that he was told a changeling-story by the
Glamorgan peasantry, precisely the same as the Breton
legend. In it the changeling is heard muttering to himself
in a cracked voice, " I have seen the acorn before I saw the
oak : I have seen the egg before I saw the white hen : I
have never seen the like of this." It is remarkable that
these words form a rimed triad or tercet nearly the same
with that in the Breton ballad,* whence M. Villemarque is
led to suspect that the legend is anterior to the seventh
century, the epoch of the separation of the Britons of Wales
and Armorica. But as changelings seem to have come from
the North, we cannot consent to receive this theory. He
also quotes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin,
"There is in this forest," said Merlin the Wild, "an oak
laden with years : I saw it when it was beginning to grow. . .
I saw the acorn whence it rose, germinate and become a twig. . .
1 have then lived a long time." This would, in our opinion,
tend to show that this was an ordinary formula in the
British language.
The third and last of those ballads tells, and not without
humour, how Paskou-Hir, i. <?., Long-Paskou, the tailor,
one Friday evening, entered the abode of the Korred, and
there dug up and carried home a concealed treasure. They
* WELSH. BRBTOK.
Oweliz inez ken gwelet derven, Gweliz vi ken guelet iar wenn,
Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn, Gweliz mez ken gwelet gwezen.
Eriocz ne wiliz evelhenn. Gweliz mez ha gweliz gwial,
Gweliz derven e Koat Brezal,
Biskoaz na weliz kemend all.
438 CELTS A>*D CY31RT.
pursued him, and came into the court-yard dancing with
might and main, and singing,
Dilun, dimeurs, dimerclier
Ha diriaou, ha digwener.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
And Thursday, and Friday.
Finding the door secured* they mount the roof and break
a hole through which they get in, and resume their dance on
the floor, still singing, Monday, Tuesday, etc., and calling
on the tailor to come and join them and they would teach
him a dance that would crack his back-bone, and they end
by telling him that the money of the Korr is good for
nothing.
Another version says, that it was a baker who stole the
treasure, and, more cunning than the tailor, he strewed the
floor of his house with hot ashes and cinders on which the
Korred burned their feet. This made them scamper off, but
before they went they smashed all his crockerv and earthen-
ware. Their words were, "In lannik-ann-lrevou's house
we burnt our horny feet and made a fine mess of his
crockery."
The following legend will explain the song of the Korred.
D.inrr attir =-ong at tfjr !\nrrrtr.
THE valley of G-oel was a celebrated haunt of the Korred.t
It was thought dangerous to pass through it at night lest
one should be forced to join in their dances, and thus
perhaps lose his life. One evening, however, a peasant and
* The tailor cries "Shut the door ! Here are the little Ihtz of the night "
(Setu aim Duzigou, nouz), and St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, c. xxiii.) speaks
t" " Daemones quos Duscios Galli nuncupant." It may remind us of our own
word Deuce.
t In the original the word is Korrigan, hut fee above, p. 431.
BEITTANT. 439
Ins wife thoughtlessly did so, and they soon found them-
selves enveloped by the dancing sprites, who kept singing
Lez y, Lez hon,
Bas an arer zo gant hon ;
Lez on, Lez y,
Bas an arer zo gant y.
Let him go, let him go,
For he has the wand of the plough ;
Let her go, let her go,
For she has the wand of the plough.
It seems the man had in his hand thefourche, or short stick,
which is used as a plough-paddle in Brittany, and this was a
protection, for the dancers made way for them to go out of
the ring.
When this became known, many persons having fortified
themselves with a fourcJie, gratified their curiosity by wit-
nessing the dance of the Korred. Among the rest were two
tailors, Peric and Jean, who, being merry fellows, dared
each other to join in the dance. They drew lots, and the
lot fell upon Peric, a humpbacked red-haired, but bold stout
little fellow. He went up to the Korred and asked per-
mission to take share in their dance. They granted it, and
all went whirling round and round, singing
Dilun, Dimeurs, Dimerc'her.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Peric, weary of the monotony, when there was a slight pause
at the last word, added
Ha Diriaou, ha Digwener.
And Thursday and Friday.
Mat ! mat ! (good ! good !) cried they, and gathering round
him, they offered him his choice of beauty, rank, or riches.
He laughed, and only asked them to remove his hump and
change the colour of his hair. They forthwith took hold ot
him and tossed him up into the air, throwing him from hand
to hand till at last he lighted on his feet with a flat back
and fine long black hair.
440 CELTS AND
When Jean saw and heard of the change he resolved to
try what he could get from the potent Korred, so a few
evenings after he went and was admitted to the dance, which
now went to the words as enlarged by Peric. To make iia
addition he shouted out,
Ha Disadarn, ha DisuL
And Saturday and Sunday.
" What more ? what more ? " cried the Korred, but he only
went on repeating the words. They then asked him what
he would have, and he replied riches. They tossed him up,
and kept bandying him about till he cried for mercy, and on
coming to the ground, he found he had got Peric's hump and
red hair.
It seems that the Korred were condemned to this con-
tinual dancing, which was never to cease till a mortal should
join in their dance, and after naming all the days of the
week, should add, Ha cetu chu er sizun, " And now the week
is ended." They punished Jean for coming so near the end
and then disappointing them.*
We add the following circumstances from other authorities:
At Carnac, near Quiberon, says M. de Cambry, in the
department of Morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the Temple of
Carnac, called in Breton "Ti Groriquet" {Souse of the Gorics),
one of the most remarkable Celtic monuments extant. It is
composed of more than four thousand large stones, standing
erect in an arid plain, where neither tree nor shrub is to be
seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on
which they stand. If the inhabitants are asked concerning
this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of
Caesar's, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work, of
the Crions or Gorics. These they describe as little men
between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous
masses on their hands ; for, though little, they are stronger
than giants. Every night they dance around the stones ;
* From an article signed H Y in a cheap publication called Tiacts for
the People. The writer says he heard it in the neighbourhood of the Vale of
Goel, and it has every appearance of being genuine. Villemarque(i. 61) men
tions the last circumstance as to the end of the penance of the Korred.
BEITTANT, 441
and vroe befcide the traveller who approaches within their
reach ! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled
about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst
the peals of laughter of the Crions. All vanish with the
break of day.*
In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils.f They are
of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. At
night they sport around the Druidical monuments. The
unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their
rounds with them till cock-crow ; and the instances are not
few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next
morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue. Woe also to the
ill-fated maiden who draws near the Couril dance ! nine
months after, the family counts one member more. Tet so
great is the power and cunning of these Dwarfs, that the
young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they
impart to it the features of some lad of the village.
A number of little men, not more than a foot high, dwell
under the castle of Morlaix. They live in holes in the
ground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating
on basins. They possess great treasures, which they some-
times bring out ; and if any one pass by at the time, allow
him to take one handful, but no more. Should any one
attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is
instantly assailed by a shower of boxes in the ear from
invisible hands.
The Bretons also say that there are spirits who silently
skim the milk-pans in the dairies. They likewise speak of
Sand Tan y Tad (St. John and Father), who carry five lights
at their finger-ends, which they make spin round and round
like a wheel. J
There is a species of malignant beings, called Night-
* Monumens Celtiqurg, p. 2. An old sailor told M. de Cambry, that one
of these stones covers an immense treasure, and that these thousands of them
have been set up the better to conceal it. He added that a calculation, the
key to which was to be found in the Tower of London, would alone indicate
the spot where the treasure lies.
t For what follows we are indebted to the MS. communication of Dr. W,
Orimm. He quotes as his authority the Zeitimfj der Gcsellschafter for 1826.
J The former seems to be a house spirit, the Goblin, Follet, or Lutin ol
the north of France : the latter is apparently the Ignis Fatuus.
442 CELTS A>*D CTilliT.
washers (Eur cnnnerez noz), who appear on the banks of
streams, and call on the passers-by to aid them to wash the
linen of the dead. If any one refuses, they drag him into
the water and break his arms.
About Morlaix the people are afraid of evil beings they
call Teurst. One of these, called Teursaponliet, appears in
the likeness of some domestic animal.* In the district of
Yannes is a colossal spirit called Teus,f or Bugemoz, who
appears clothed in white between midnight and two in the
morning. His office is to rescue victims from the Devil. He
epreads his mantle over them, and they are secure. The
Devil 3omes over the ocean ; but, unable to endure the look
of the good spirit, he sinks down again, and, the object of
the spirit accomplished, he vanishes.
* So the Yorkshire Bar-guest,
t See above, p. 438.
SOUTHERN EUROPE.
O faretrate Ninfe, o agresti Pan!,
O Satiri e Silvani, o Fauni e Driadi,
Najadi ed Amadriadi, e Semidee,
Oreadi, e Napee, or siete sole.
SANAZZABO.
the title of Southern Europe, we comprise Greece
and those nations whose languages are derived from the
Latin ; Italy, Spain, and France. Of the Fairy-system, if
there ever was one. of Portugal we have met with nothing,
at least in the works of Camoens, Bernardes, and Lobo.
The reader will, in this part of our work, find little corre-
sponding to the Gothic Dwarfs who have hitherto been our
companions. The only one of our former acquaintances
that will attend us is honest Hob-goblin, Brownie, Kobold,
Nis, or however else he may style himself. And it is very
remarkable that we shall meet with him only in those places
where the Northmen, the Visigoths or other Scandinavian
tribes settled. Whence perhaps it might be concluded that
they brought him with them to the South of Europe.
GEEECE.
at irnBlt itrfui. EL'KIPIDES.
Like a tender Nymph
"Within the dewy caves.
THE Grecian mythology, like its kindred systems, abounded
in personifications.* Modified by scenery so beautiful, rich,
* See our Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, where (p. 237 J most of
what follows will be found, with notes.
444 SOUTHEBN EUBOPE.
and various as Hellas presented, it in general assigned the
supposed intelligences who presided over the various parts
of external nature more pleasing attributes than they else-
where enjoyed. They were mostly conceived to be of the
female sex, and were denominated Nymphs, a word originally
signifying a new-married woman.
Whether it be owing to soil, climate, or to an original dis-
position of mind and its organ, the Greeks have above all
other people possessed a perception of beauty of form, and a
fondness for representing it. The Nymphs of various kinds
were therefore always presented to the imagination, in the
perfection of female youth and beauty. Under the various
appellations of Oreades, Dryades, Na'ides, Limniades,
Nereides, they dwelt in mountains, trees, springs, lakes, the
sea, where, in caverns and grottos, they passed a life whose
occupations resembled those of females of human race. The
Wood-nymphs were the companions and attendants of the
huntress goddess Artemis; the Sea-nymphs averted ship-
wreck from pious navigators ; and the Spring- and River-
nymphs poured forth fruitfulness on the earth. All of them
were honoured with prayer and sacrifice ; and all of them
occasionally ' mingled in love' with favoured mortals.
In the Homeric poems, the most ancient portion of
Grecian literature, we meet the various classes of Nymphs.
In the Odyssey, they are the attendants of Calypso, herself
a goddess and a nymph. Of the female attendants of Circe,
the potent daughter of Helios, also designated as a goddess
and a nymph, it is said,
They spring from fountains and from sacred groves,
And holy streams that flow into the sea.
Yet these nymphs are of divine nature, and when Zeus, the
father of the gods, calls together his council,
None of the streams, save Ocean, stayed away,
Nor of the Nymphs, who dwell in beauteous groves,
And springs of streams, and verdant grassy slades.
The good Eumseus prays to the Nymphs to speed the return
of his master, reminding them of the numerous sacrifices
GREECE. 445
Ulysses had offered to them. In another part of the poem,
their sacred cave is thus described:
But at the harbour's head a long-leafed olive
Grows, and near to it lies a lovely cave,
Dusky and sacred to the Nymphs, whom men
Call Naides. In it large craters lie,
And two-eared pitchers, all of stone, and there
Bees build their combs. In it, too, are long looms
Of stone, and there the Nymphs do weave their robes,
Sea-purple, wondrous to behold. Aye-flowing
Waters are there ; two entrances it hath ;
That to the north is pervious unto men ;
That to the south more sacred is, and there
Men enter not, but 'tis the Immortals' path.
Yet though thus exalted in rank, the Homeric Nymphs fre-
quently ' blessed the bed' of heroes ; and many a warrior
who fought before Troy could boast descent from a Nais or
a Nereis.
The sweet, gentle, pious, Ocean-nymphs, who in the Pro-
metheus of JEschylus appear as the consolers and advisers
of its dignified hero, seem to hold a nearly similar relation
with man to the supernal gods. Beholding the misery
inflicted on Prometheus by the power of Zeus, they
cry,
May never the all-ruling
Zeus set his rival power
Against my thoughts ;
Nor may I ever fail
The gods, with holy feasts
Of sacrifices, drawing near,
Beside the ceaseless stream.
Of father Ocean :
Nor may I err in words ;
But this abide with me
And never fade away.
One of the most interesting species of Nymphs is the
Dryads, or Hamadryads, those personifications of the vege-
table life of plants. In the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite,
we find the following full and accurate description of them.
Aphrodite, wheii she informs Anchises of her pregnancy,
446 SOU1IIEBN EUROPE.
and her shame to have it known among the gods, savs of the
child :
But him, when first he sees the sun's clear light,
The Nymphs shall rear, the mountain-haunting Nymphs,
Deep-bosomed, who on this mountain great
And holy dwell, who neither goddesses
Nor women are. Their life is long ; they eat
Ambrosial food, and with the deathless frame
The beauteous dance. With them, in the recess
Of lovely caves, well-spying Argos-siayer
And the Sileni mix in love. Straight pines
Or oaks high-headed spring with them upon
The earth man-feeding, soon as they are born ;
Trees fair and flourishing ; on the high hills
Lofty they stand ; the Deathless' sacred grove
Men call them, and with iron never cut.
But when the fate of death is drawing near,
First wither on the earth the beauteous trees,
The bark around them wastes, the branches fall,
And the Nymph's soul at the same moment leaves
The sun's fair light.
They possessed power to reward and punish these who
prolonged or abridged the existence of their associate-tree.
In the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, Phineus thus ex-
plains to the heroes the cause of the poverty of Peraebius :
But he was paying the penalty laid on
Hi a father's crime ; for one tune, cutting trees
Alone among the hills, he spurned the prayer
Of the Hamadryas Nymph, who, weeping sore,
With earnest words besought him not to cut
The trunk of an oak tree, which, with herself
Coeval, had endured for many a year.
But, in the pride of youth, he foolishly
Cut it ; and to him and to his race the Nymph
Gave ever after a lot profitless.
The Scholiast gives on this passage the following tale from
Charon of Lampsacus :
A man, named Rhoecus, happening to see an oak just
ready to fall to the ground, ordered his slaves to prop it.
The Nymph, who had been on the point of perishing with
the tree, came to him and expressed her gratitude to him
for having saved her life, and at the same time desired him
IX-LLY. 447
to ask what reward he would. Ehoecus then requested her
to permit him to be her lover, and the Nymph acceded to
his wishes. She at the same time charged him strictly to
avoid the society of every other woman, and told him that a
bee should be her messenger. One time the bee happened
to come to Ehoecus as he was playing at draughts, and he
made a rough reply. This so incensed the Nymph that she
deprived him of sight.
Similar was the fate of the Sicilian Daphnis.* A Nais
loved him and forbade him to hold intercourse with any other
woman under pain of loss of sight. Long he abstained,
though tempted by the fairest maids of Sicily. At length a
princess contrived to intoxicate him : he broke his vow, and
the threatened penalty was inflicted.
ITALY.
Faune Nympharum fugientum amator,
Per meos fines et aprica rura
Lenis incedas, abeasque parvis
./Equus alumnis.
HORATIUS.
UNFORTUNATELY for our knowledge of the ancient Italian
mythology, the ballad-poetry of Rome is irrecoverably lost.
A similar fate has befallen the literature of Etruria, Umbria,
and other parts of the peninsula. The powerful influence
exercised by Grecian genius over the conquerors of the
Grecian states utterly annihilated all that was national and
domestic in literature. Not but that Latin poetry abounds
in mythologic matter ; but it is the mythology of Greece,
not of Italy ; and the reader of Virgil and Ovid will observe
with surprise how little of what he meets in their works is
Italian.
So much however of the population of ancient Italy,
* Partheniui Erotica, chap. xxix.
148 8OUTHEEK EUROPE.
particularly of Latium, was Pelasgian, that it is natural to
suppose a great similarity between the religious systems of
Latium and Hellas. The Latins do not, however, appear to
have believed in choirs of Nymphs. Those we read of, sucli
as Egeria, Anna Perenna, Juturna, are all solitary, al]
dwellers of fountains, streams, and lakes. The Italian Diana
did not, like the Grecian Artemia, speed over the mountains
attended by a train of buskined nymphs. No Dryads sought
to avert the fate of their kindred trees no Nereides sported
on the waves.
Dwarfish deities they had none. "We are indeed told of
the Lars, particularly the rural Lars, as answering to the
Gothic Dwarfs ; but no proofs are offered except the diminu-
tive size of their statues. This we hold to amount to
nothing. Are we to suppose the following lines of Plautus to
have been delivered by an " eyas ? "
Lest any marvel who I am, I shall
Briefly declare it. I am the family Lar
Of this house whence you see me coming out.
'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
This family ; both father and grandsire
Of him that has it now, I aye protected.
Now his grandsire intrusted me a treasure
Of gold, that I, unknown to all, should keep it.
*****
He has one daughter, who, each day with wine
Or incense, or with something, worships me.
She gives me crowns, and I in recompense
Have now made Euclio find the treasure out,
That if he will, he may more readily
Get her a match.*
The Lars were a portion of the Etrurian religion. The
Etruscan word Lar signifies Lord, with which it has a
curious but casual resemblance.f The Lars were regarded,
like the Grecian heroes, as being the souls of men who, after
death, still hovered about their former abodes, averting
dangers from, and bestowing blessings on, the inhabitants.
They differed from the Penates, who were, properly speak-
Aulularia, Prologue.
f See our Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 543 ; and our Ovid's Faiti,
Excursus IT.
ITALY. 44i)
ing, Gods, beings of a higher nature, personifications of
natural powers, the givers of abundance and wealth.
The old Italians, it appears, believed in a being, we know
not of what size, called an Incubo, that watched over trea-
sure. " But what they say I know not," says Petronius,*
but I have heard how he snatched the cap of an Incubo and
found a treasure."
Respecting the Fairy mythology of the modern Italians,
what we have been able to collect is very little.
The people of Naples, we are told,t believe in a being
very much resembling the Incubo, whom they call the
Monaciello, or Little Monk. They describe him as a short,
thick kind of little man, dressed in the long garments of a
monk, with a broad-brimmed hat. He appears to people in
the dead of the night, and beckons to them to follow him.
If they have courage to do so, he leads them to some place
where treasure is concealed. Several are said to have made
sudden fortunes through him. In the Neapolitan story-book,
named the Pentamerone, of which we shall presently give an
account, we meet with a Monaciello of a very different
character from this guardian of hidden treasure.
In the second tale of the first day of that work, when the
prince in the night heard the noise made by the Fairy in his
room, "he thought it was some chamber-boy coming to
lighten his purse for him, or some Monaciello to pull the
clothes off him." And in the seventh tale of the third day
of the same collection, when Corvetto had hidden himself
under the Ogre's J bed to steal his quilt, " he began to pull
* Satyricon, ch. 38. Sunt qui eumdem (Hercules) Incubonem esse velint.
Schol. Hor. Sat. ii. 6, 13.
( Viessieux, Italy and the Italians, vol. i. pp. 161, 162.
J L'huorco, the Oreo of Bojardo and Ariosto, probably derived from the
Latin Orcus : see Mythol. of Greece and Italy, p. 527. In this derivation we
find that we had been anticipated by Minucci in his notes on the Malmantile
Bacquistato, c. ii. st. 50.
In a work, from which we have derived some information (Lettres sur les
Contes des Fe'es, Paris, 1826), considerable pains are taken, we think to little
purpose, to deduce the French Ogre from the O'igours,a Tartar tribe, who with
the other tribes of that people invaded Europe in the twelfth century. In the
Glossaire de la Langue Roniaine, Ogre is explained by Hongrois. Any one,
lowever, that reads the Pentamerone will see that the ugly, cruel, man-eating
a *
450 8OUTHEBN ETTROPE.
quite gently, when the Ogre awoke, and bid his wife not to
pull the clothes that way, or she 'd strip him, and he would
get his death of cold." " Why, it 's you that are stripping
me," replied the Ogress, "and you have not left a stitch on
me." " Where the devil is the quilt ? " says the Ogre ; and
putting his hand to the gronnd, he happened to touch the
face of Corvette, and immediately began to shout out, " The
Monaciello, the Monaciello, hola ! candles ! run, run ! "
Corvetto, meanwhile, got off with his prize through the
window.*
It is quite clear that the Monaciello is the same kind ol
being as the House-spirit of the Gotho-Grerman nations.
He seems to belong peculiarly to Naples, for we have not
heard of him in any other part of Italy. Now we are to
recollect that this was the very place in which the Normans
settled, and so he may be their Nis or Kobold ;t or, as he
is so very like the Spanish Duende, he may be that being
introduced by the Aragonese, who seem to have exercised so
much influence over the language and manners of the people
of Naples.
The belief in Mermaids also prevailed in modern Italy.
In the reign of Eoger, king of Sicily, a young man happen-
ing to be bathing in the sea late in the evening, perceived
that something was following him. Supposing it to be one
of his companions, he caught it by the hair, and dragged it
on shore. But finding it to be a maiden of great beauty
and of most perfect form, he threw his cloak about her, and
took her home, where she continued with him till they had a
son. There was one thing however which greatly grieved
him, which was the reflection that so beautiful a form should
be dumb, for he had never heard her speak. One day he
was reproached by one of his companions, who said that it
Huorco is plainly an Ogre ; and those expert at the tours de passe passe of
etymology will be at no loss to deduce Ogre from Oreo. See Tales and Popu-
lar Fiction*, p. 223.
* In another of these tales, it is said of a young man, who, on breakmp
open a cask, found a beautiful maiden in it, that he stood for a while co/mmc o
c/dllo che ha visto lo Monaciello.
t See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. is. p. 269 ; see also Spain and
1'rance.
ITALY. 451
was a spectre, and not a real woman, that he had at home :
being both angry and terrified, he laid his hand on the hilt
of his sword, and urged her with vehemence to tell him who
or what she was, threatening if she did not do so, to kill the
child before her eyes. The spirit only saying, that he had
lost a good wife by forcing her to speak, instantly vanished,
leaving her son behind. A few years after, as the boy was
playing on the sea-shore with his companions, the spirit hia
mother dragged him into the sea, where he was drowned.*
We now come to the Fate of romance and tale.
The earliest notice that we can recollect to have seen of
these potent ladies is in the Orlando Innamorato, where we
meet the celebrated Fata Morgana, who would at first appear
to be, as a personification of Fortune, a being of a higher
order.
Ivi una fata nomata Morgana,
Che a le genti diverse dona 1'oro ;
Quanto e per tutto il mondo or se ne spande
Convien che ad essa prima si dimande.
L. i. c. xxv. st. 5. ed. 1831.
But we afterwards find her in her proper station, subject,
with the Fate and Witches, to the redoubtable Demogorgon.f
When Orlando, on delivering Zilante from her, makes her
swear by that awful power, the poet says :
Sopra ogni fata e quel Demogorgone
(Non so se mai 1'odiste raccontare)
E giudica tra loro e fa ragione,
E quel che piace a lui pud di lor fare.
La notte si cavalca ad un montone,
Travarca le montagne e passa il mare,
E strigie, e fate, e fantasinie vane
Batte con serpi vive ogni dimane.
Se le ritrova la dimane al mondo.
Perche non ponno al giorno comparire,
Tanto le batte al colpo furibondo
Che volentier vorrien poter morire.
* Vincentius apud Kornmann, de Miraculis Vivorum.
f This being, unknown to classic mythology, is first mentioned by Lactan-
this. It was probably from Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum that Bojardo got
his knowledge of him.
GG2
452 SOUTIIEBff EUROPE.
Or le incatena gift nel mar profondo,
Or sopra il vento scalze le fa gire,
Or per il fuoco dietro a se le mena ;
A cui da questa, a cui quell' altra pena.
L. H. c. xiii. st. 27, 23.
According to Ariosto,* Demogorgon has a splendid temple
palace in the Himalaya mountains, whither every fifth
year the Fate are all summoned to appear before him,
and give an account of their actions. They travel through
the air in various strange conveyances, and it is no easy
matter to distinguish between their convention and a Sabbath
of the Witches.
"We meet with another Fata in Bojardo,f the beautiful
Silvanella, who raised a tomb over Narcissus, and then dis-
solved away into a fountain.
When Brandamarte opens the magnificent tomb and kisses
the hideous serpent that thrusts out its head, it gradually
becomes a beautiful maiden.
Questa era Febosilla quella fata,
Che edificato avea 1'alto palaccio
E '1 bel giardino e quella sepoltura,
Ove un gran tempo e stata in pena dura.
Perche una fata non pud morir mai,
Sin che non giunge il giorno del giudizio,
Ma ben ne la sua forma dura assai,
Mill* anni o piu, si come io aggio indizio.
Poi (siccome di questa io vi contai
Qua! fabbricato avea il bell' edifizio)
In serpe si tramuta e stawi tanto
Che di baciarla alcuii si doni il vanto.
L. u. c. xx vi. st. 14, 15
The other Fate who appear in this poem are Le Fate
Nera and Bianca, the protectresses of Gkiidone and Aquilante;
the Fata della Fonte, from whom Mandricardo obtains the
arms of Hector, and finally Alcina, the sister of Morgana,
who carries off Astolfo. Dragontina and Falerina, the
owners of such splendid gardens, may also have been Fate,
though they are not called so by the poet.
I Cinque Canti, c. i. st. 1 . seq. f Lib. ti. xvii. 56, seq.
ITALY. 453
Alcina re-appears in great splendour in the Orlando
Furioso, where she is given a sister named Logistilla, an?
both, like Morgana in the preceding poem, are in a great
measure allegorical. "We also obtain there a glimpse of the
White and Black Fate. The Maga Manto of Dante be-
comes here a Fata, and we meet her in the form of a serpent ;
to account for which she says,
Nascemmo ad un punto che d' ogni altro male
Siamo capaci fuor che della morte.
Ma giunta e con questo essere immortale
Condizioa non men del morir forte ;
Ch' ogni settimo giorno ognuna d certa
Che la sua forma in biscia si converta.
C. xliiL st 98.
Elsewhere (x. 52) the poet tells us that
Morir non puote alcuna fata mai
Fin che il Sol gira, o il ciel non muta stilo.
In the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso the Fate appear for
the last time in Italian poetry;* but in greater number,
and, we may say, greater splendour than elsewhere. There
are two classes of them, the beneficent and protective, and
the seductive and injurious. The terms Maga and Incan-
tatrice, as well as Fata, are applied to them all indifferently.
The good Fairy-ladies are TJrganda, termed La savia and
La sconosciuta,^ the guardian of Amadigi, and the fair
Oriana ; Silvana or Silvanella who stands in a similar rela-
tion to Alidoro ; Lucina, also named La Donna del Lago,
another protectress of Alidoro and of his lady-love, the fair
warrior Mirinda, sister of Amadigi ; Eufrosina, the sister ot
Lucina ; Argea, called La Eeina della Fate, the protectress
of Floridante, to whom, after making him undergo various
trials, she gives her daughter Filidora in marriage ; finally,
Argea' s sister Filidea. The Fate whose character resembles
that of Alcina are Morganetta, Nivetta, and Carvilia, the
* There is, however, a Maga or Fata named Falsirena in the Adone of
Marini.
t La Sabia and La Desconocida of the original romance, which Taw
follows very closely in everything relating to Amadis and Oriana.
454 SOUTHERN ETTBOPE.
three daughters of Morgana. Beside these then are two Fate
of neutral character, Dragontina, who formed a palace, temple
and gardens, in which, at the desire of her father, she
enchanted a young prince and his wife ; and Montana, who,
to avenge the fate of her lover, slain hy Alidoro, enchanted
that warrior in a temple which she had raised to the memory
of the fallen.*
Ma veggiam ch' io non stessi troppo a bada
Con qucste Alcine e Morgane.
The earliest collections of European Fairy-tales in prose
belong to Italy. In 1550, Straparola, a native of Caravaggio,
in the Milanese, published at Venice his Notti Piacevoli, a
collection of tales, jokes, and riddles, of which several, and
those the best, are Fairy-tales. These were translated into
French in 1560-76, and seem to have been the origin of the
so well known Contes des Fees. Perrault's Puss in Boots
(Le Ghat JSotte,) and the Princess Fairstar (Belle Etoile?)
and many others of Madame D'Aulnoy's, who borrowed
largely from the Notti Piacevoli, are to be found in Straparola.
In 1637, eighty-seven years after the Notti Piacevoli
appeared at Naples, and in the Neapolitan dialect, the
Pentamerone, the best collection of Fairy-tales ever written, t
The author, Giambattista Basile,J had spent his youth in
Candia, and then passed several years rambling through
Italy. He seems to have carefully treasured up all the tales
* Few of our readers, we presume, are acquainted with this poem, and they
will perhaps be surprised to learn that it is, after the Furioso, the most beau-
tiful romantic poem in tbe Italian language, graceful and sweet almost to
excess. It is strange that it should be neglected in Italy also. One cause
may be its length (One Hundred Cantos), another the constant and inartificial
breaking off of the stories, and perhaps the chief one, its serious moral tone so
different from that of Ariosto. It might be styled The Legend of Constancy,
for the love of its heroes and heroines is proof against all temptations. Mr.
Panizzi's charge of abounding in scandalous stories, is not correct, for it is in
reality more delicate than even the Faerie Queene. Ginguene, who admired
it, appreciates it far more justly.
t See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 183. The Pentamerone we may
observe, was not a title given to it by the author ; in like manner the only
title Fielding gave his great work was The History of a Foundling.
t He was brother to Adriana aid uncle to Leonora Baroni, the ladies whoM
musical talents Milton celebrate*.
ITALY. 455
he heard, and he wrote and published them, under the
feigned name of Gian Alesio Abbatutis, in his native dialect,
not long before his death.
In the Tales and Popular Fictions we gave some trans-
lations from the Notti Piacevoli, the only ones in English,
and they will probably remain such, as the work is not one
likely ever to be translated. In the same work we gave two
from the Pentamerone, and three (the Dragon, G-agliuso, and
the Groatface) in the former edition of the present work.
Most certainly we were the first to render any of these
curious tales into English, and we look back with a mixture
of pleasure and surprise at our success in the unaided
struggle with an idiom so different from the classic Italian.*
We fancied that we had been the first to make translations
from it into any language, but we afterwards learned that of
the two tales in our other work, the one, Peruonto, had been
translated into French (probably by the Abbe Galiani) for
the Cabinet des Fees, the other, the Serpent into German,
by M. Grimm.f Of late, this most original work has been
brought within the reach of ordinary readers by two trans-
lations, the one in German by Felix Liebrecht, who has given
the work complete with few omissions ; the other in English
by Mr. J. E. Taylor, who has made a selection of thirty tales,
and these most carefully expurgated, in order that agreeably
to its second title, it might form a book of amusement even
for children a most difficult task, and in which his success
has been far greater than might have been anticipated. All
our own translations have been incorporated in it, and we can
safely refer to it those who wish to know the real character
and nature of the Pentamerone.
Whatever name Basile might give his book it is quite
plain that he never could have meant it merely for children.
The language alone is proof enough on that head. It is,
besides, full of learned allusions and of keen satire, so that it
* Ex.gr. Fiutne it thiume; Fiore, ahiure ; Piaggia, chiaja ; Piombo,
ehiummo ; Biondo, gkiunno. There are likewise numerous Hispanicisms.
Thus gaiola in Gagliuso which we all rendered coffin, is the Spanish jaula,
cage, and the meaning apparently is that he would have the cat stuffed and pu
in a glass-case ; in like manner calling the eyes suns (as in na belleZM a dcjl
tole) occurs in the plays of Calderon.
f In the Taschenburh fiir altdeuUcher Zeit und Kunst, 1816.
456 SOUTHERN EUROPE.
could only be understood and relished by grown persons, for
whose amusement it was apparently designed ; and its tales
are surely not much more extravagant than some of those in
Ariosto and the other romantic poets. It in fact never waa
a child's book like the Contes de ma Mere 1' Oie. It haa
now become very scarce; we could not at Naples meet
with a copy of it, or even with any one who had read it.
SPAIN.
Duendecillo, duendecillo,
Quien quiera que seas 6 fueras,
El dinero que tu das
En lo que mandares ruelve.
C.VLDEBOX, La Dama Duende.
we inquired after the fairy-system of Spain, we
were told that there was no such thing, for that the Inqui-
sition had long since eradicated all such ideas. Most
certainly we would not willingly be regarded as partisans of
the Holy Office, yet still we must express our doubt of the
truth of this charge. In Senor Llorente's work, as far as
we can recollect, there is no account of prosecutions for
Duende-heresy ; and even to the Holy Office we should
give its due. Still, with all our diligence, our collection of
Iberian fairy-lore is extremely scanty.
Our earliest authority for Spain, as for other countries, is
the celebrated marshall of Champagne, Gervase of Tilbury,
who thus relates :
at |}ctcr 2Jc Caitnam.
IK the bishop rick of G-erunda (i. e. G-erona), and the pro-
vince of Catalonia, stands a mountain which the natives call
Convagum. It is very steep, and on its summit is a lake of
SPAIN. 457
dark water, so deep that it cannot be fathomed. The abode
of the Demons is in this lake ; and if a stone, or anything
else, be thrown into it, there rises from it an awful tempest.
Not far from this mountain, in a village named Junchera,
lived a man named Peter de Cabinam, who being one day
annoyed by the crying of his little girl, wished in his anger
that the Demons might fetch her away. The child instantly
vanished snatched away by invisible hands and was seen
no more. Time passed on ; and it was seven years after
this event, when a man belonging to the village, as he was
one day rambling about the foot of the mountain, met a
man weeping bitterly, and bewailing his hard fate. On
inquiry, he said that he had now been seven years in the
mountain under the power of the Demons, who employed
him as a beast of burden. He added, that there was also a
girl in the mountain, the daughter of Peter de Cabinam of
Junchera, a servant like himself; but that they were tired
of her, and would restore her to her father if he came to
claim her. When this information came to Peter de Cabi-
nam, he forthwith ascended the mountain, and going to the
edge of the lake, he besought the Demons to give him back
his child. Like a sudden gust of wind she came, tall in
stature, but wasted and dirty, her eyes rolling wildly, and
her speech inarticulate. The father, not knowing what to
do with her, applied to the Bishop of Gerunda, who took
this opportunity of edifying his people by exhibiting the
girl to them, and warning them against the danger of wishing
that the Demons had their children. Some time after the
man also was released, and from him the people learned that
at the bottom of the lake there was a large palace, with a
wide gate, to which palace the Demons repaired from all
parts of the world, and which no one could enter but them-
selves, and those they brought thither.*
* Otia Imperialia, p. 982, The Demong must have been acme kind of
fairies : see above, p. 4.
458 SOUTHERN EUROPE.
t0ut of tljc $ourfc cf
As Don Diego Lopez, lord of Biscay, was one day lying
in wait for the wild boar, he heard the voice of a woman
who was singing. On looking around, he beheld on the
summit of a rock a damsel, exceedingly beautiful, and richly
attired. Smitten with her charms, he proffered her his
hand. In reply, she assured him that she was of high
descent, but frankly accepted his proffered hand ; making,
however, one condition he was never to pronounce a holy
name. Tradition says that the fair bride had only one
defect, which was, that one of her feet was like that of a
goat. Diego Lopez, however, loved her well, and she bore
him two children, a daughter, and a son named Iniguez
Guerra.
Now it happened one day, as they were sitting at dinner,
that the lord of Biscay threw a bone to the dogs, and a
mastiff and a spaniel quarrelled about it, and the spaniel
griped the mastiff by the throat, and throttled him. " Holy
Mary ! " exclaimed Don Diego, " who ever saw the like ? "
Instantly the lady caught hold of the hands of her children ;
Diego seized and held the boy, but the mother glided through
the air with the daughter, and sought again the mountains
whence she had come. Diego remained alone with his son ;
and some years after, when he invaded the lands of the
Moors, he was made captive by them, and led to Toledo.
Iniguez Guerra, who was now grown up, was greatly grieved
at the captivity of his father, and the men of the land told
him that his only hope was to find his mother, and obtain
her aid. Iniguez made no delay ; he rode alone to the well-
known mountains, and when he reached them, behold ! his
fairy-mother stood there before him on the summit of a rock.
" Come unto me," said she, "for well do I know thy errand."
And she called to her Pardalo, the horse that ran without a
rider in the mountains, and she put a bridle into his mouth,
and bade Iniguez mount him, and told him that he must not
SPAIN. 459
give him either food or water, or unsaddle or unbridle him,
or put shoes upon his feet, and that in one day the demon-
steed would carry him to Toledo. And Iniguez obeyed the
injunctions of his mother, and succeeded in liberating his
father ; but his mother never returned.*
In the large collection of Spanish ballads named El
Komancero Castellano, the only one that treats of fairy-lore
is the following, which tells of the enchantment of the King
of Castille's daughter by seven fairies, t for a period of seven
years. It is of the same character as the fairy-tales of France
and Italy.
il.i Infantine.
A CAZAB va el caballero,
A cazar como solia.
Los perros lleva cansados,
El falcon perdido avia.
Arrimarase a un roble,
Alto es a maravilla,
En un ramo mas alto
Viera estar una Infantina.
Cabellos de su cabeza
Todo aquel roble cobrian ;
" No te espantes, caballero
Ni tengas tamana grima.
'' Hija soy del buen rey
Y de la reina de Castilla ;
Siete fadas me fadaron,J
En brazos de una ama mia,
* Related by Sir Francis Palgrave, but without giving any authority, in
the Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. See France.
f In Don Quixote (part i. chap. 50) we read of "los siete castillos de las
liete Fadas " beneath the lake of boiling pitch, and of the fair princess wno
was enchanted in one of them.
J Fada is certainly the elided part, of this verb, for the Latin mode ol
460 SOUTHERN EUROPE.
" Que andase loa siete afioe
Sola en esta montina.*
Hoy se cumplan los anoa
mafiana, en aquel dia.
" For Dios te ruego, caballero
Llevesme en tu compania,
Si quisieres por muger,
Si no sea por amiga."
" Espereis me vos, senora,
Esta manana, aquel dia ;
Ire yo tomar consejo
De una madre que tenia."
La nina le respondiera,
T estas palabras, decia :
" mal haya el caballero
( Que sola deja la nina ! "
El se va a tomar consejo,
T ella queda en la montina.
Aconsejdle su madre
Que la tomase por amiga.
Quando volvid el caballero
No la hallara en la montina.
Tio la que la llevaban,
Com muy grande caballeria.
El caballero, que lo ha visto,
En el suelo se caia.
Desque en si hubo tornado
Estas palabras decia :
elision (see above p. 7.) was retained in Spanish as well as Italian. Thus quedo,
jwnto, harto, marchito, vacio, enjuto, violento, &c., come from quedar, juntar,
hartar, &c. As the Spanish, following the Latin, also frequently uses the
past as a present participle, as un hombre atrevido, "a daring man;" and the
same appears to take place in Italian, as un Iiuomo accorto, saputo, aweduto,
dupietato and even in French, as un homme rfftechi, disespire ; may we
not say that fada, fata, fee, is enchanting rather than enchanted ?
* Montina is a small wood.
SPAIN. 461
" Caballero que tal pierde
Muy grandes penas merecia.
To mismo sere el alcalde,
To me sere la justicia,
Que me cortan pies y manos,
Y me arrastran por fa villa."*
$Jqptto tl Carcabatra.
PEPITO EL CoECOVADO,t a gay lively little hunchback, used
to gain his living by his voice and his guitar ; for he was a
general favourite, and -was in constant request at weddings
and other festivities. He was going home one night from
one of these festive occasions, being under engagement for
another in the morning, and, as it was in the celebrated
Sierra Morena, he contrived to lose his way. After trying
in vain to find it, he wrapped his cloak about him, and lay
down for the night at the foot of a cork-tree. He had
hardly, however, gone to sleep, when he was awakened by
the sound of a number of little voices singing to an old air
with which he was well acquainted,
Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres
over and over again. Deeming this to be imperfect, he
struck in, adding,
Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis.
The little folk were quite delighted, and for hours thq
mountain rang with
Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres,
Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis.
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three,
Thursday and Friday and Saturday, six.
* Romancero Castellano por Depping, ii.p. 198, 2nd edit. A translation of
this romance will be found in Thorns' s Lays and Legends of Spain.
f- i.e. Joey the Hunchback. Pepito is the dim. of Pepc, i.e. Jose, Joseph.
462 SOUTHERN EUROPE.
They finally crowded round Pepito, and bade him ask what
he would for having completed their song so beautifully.
After a little consideration, he begged to have his hump
removed. So said so done, he was in an instant one of the
straightest men in all Spain. On his return home, every
one was amazed at the transformation. The story soon got
wind, and another hunchback, named Cirillo, but unlike
Pepito, as crooked in temper as in person, having learned
from him where the scene of his adventure lay, resolved to
proceed thither and try his luck. He accordingly reached
the spot, sat under the cork-tree, and saw and heard all that
Pepito had heard and seen. He resolved also to add to the
song, and he struck in with " Y Domingo siete" (and Sunday
seven) ; but whether it was the breach of rhythm, or the
mention of the Lord's Day that gave offence, he was
instantly assailed with a shower of blows or pinches, and to
make his calamity the greater, Pepito' s hump was added to
his own.*
We thus may see that there are beings in Spain also
answering to the various classes of Fairies. But none of
these have obtained the same degree of reputation as the
House-spirit, whose Spanish name is Duende or Trasgo. In
Torquemada's Spanish Mandeville, as the old English version
of it is named, there is a section devoted to the Duende, in
which some of his feats, such as pelting people with stones,
clay, and such like, are noticed, and in the last century the
learned Father Feijoo wrote an essay on Duendes,f i.e. on
House-spirits ; for he says little of the proper Spanish
Duende, and his examples are Hodiken and the Kobolds, of
* See Thoms's Lays and Legends of Spain, p. 83. It was related, he says,
to a friend of his by the late Sir John Malcolm, who had heard it in Spain.
It is also briefly related (probably on the same authority) in the Quarterly
Review, vol. xxii. (see above pp. 364, 438). Redi, in his Letters, gives another
form of it, in which the scene is at Benevento, the agents are witches, and
the hump is taken off, senza verun suo dolor, with a saw of butter. Y
Domingo siete is, we are told, a common phrase when any thing is said or
done mal a propos.
f- Teatro Critico, torn. ii. His object is to disprove their existence, and he
very justly says that the Duende was usually a knavish servant who had his
own reasons for making a noise and disturbing the family. This theory wit
ftlso explain the Duende-tales of Torquemada.
SPAIN. 403
which he had read in Agricola and other writers. On the
whole, perhaps, the best account of the Duende will be
found in Calderon's spritely comedy, named La Dama
Duende.
In this piece, when Cosme, who pretends that he had
seen the Duende when he put out his candle, is asked by his
master what he was like, he replies :
Era un fraile
Tamanito, y tcnia puesto
Un cucurucho tamano ;
Que por estas senas creo
Que era duende capuchino.
This cucurucho was a long conical hat without a brim
worn by the clergy in general, : nd not by the Capuchins
alone. A little before, Cosme, when seeking to avert the
appearance of the Duende, recites the following lines, which
have the appearance of being formed from some popular
charm against the House-spirit :
Senora dama duende,
Duelase de mi ;
Que soy nino y solo,
Y nunca en tal me vL
In De Solis' very amusing comedy of Un Bobo hace
Ciento, Dona Ana makes the following extremely pretty
application of the popular idea of the Duende :
Yo soy, don Luis, una dama
Que no conozco este duende
Del amor, si no es por fama.
In another of his plays (El Amor al Uso'), a lady says :
Amor es duende importuno
Que al mundo asombrando trae ;
Todos dicen que le ay,
Y no le ha visto ninguno.
The lines from Calderon prefixed to this section of our
work, show that money given by the Duende was as unsub-
stantial as fairy-money in general. This is confirmed by
Don Quixote, who tells his rather covetous squire, that " los
464 SOUTHERN EITBOl'E.
tesoros de los caballeros andantes son, como los de los
Duendes, aparentes y falsos."
The Spaniards seem also to agree with the people of other
countries in regarding the Fairies as being fallen angels.
One of their most celebrated poets thus expresses himself:
Disputase por hombres entendidos
Si fuc de los caidos este duende.
Some Spanish etymologists say that Duende is a contrac-
tion of Dueno de casa ; others, that it comes from the Arabic
Duar, (dwelling) the term used for the Arab camps on the
north-coast of Africa. To us it appears more probable that
the Visigoths brought their ancient popular creed with them
to Spain * also, and that as Duerg became Drac in Pro-
vence, it was converted into Duende in Spain.f It is further
not quite impossible that Duerg may be also the original o*
Trasgo, a word for which we believe no etymon has beer;
proposed.
* See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 269.
( The change of r and n is not without examples. Thus we have
tpyvpov and argentum ; water, English; vand, Danish; vatn, Swedish.
Oriitofero is Cristofano in Tuscan ; homine, nomine, sanguine, are hombre,
nombre, sangre, Spanish. In Duerg when r hecame n, euphony changed g
to d t or vice versa. The changes words undergo when the derivation is
certain, are often curious. Alguacil, Spanish, is El-weseer A rah, as Azucena
Spanish, Cecem Portuguese (white-lily) is Susan Arab; Guancia (cheek) Italian,
is Wange German ; NUWTOICTOS has become Lepanto. It might not he safe
to assert that the Persian gurk and our wolf are the same, and yet the letters
in them taken in order are all comniutable. Our God be with you has shrunk
to Goodbye, and the Spanish Vuestra merced to Usted, pr. Uste. There must,
by the way, some time or other, have been an intimate connexion between
Spain and England, so many of our familiar words seem to have a Spanish
origin. Thus ninny is from nino : booby from 6060 ; pucker from pucfiero ;
launch (a boat) from lancha ; and perhaps monkey (if not from mannikin)
from mono, monico. We pronounce our colonel like the Spanish corond.
4C5
FKANCE.
Poorqaoi faut-il s'emorveiller
Que la raison la mieux senses,
I.osse souvent de veiller,
Far des contes d'ogre et de fte
Ingenieusement bercee,
Prenne plaisir a sommeiller ?
PEEEAULT.
THE Fairy mythology of France may be divided, as respects
. its locality, into two parts, that of Northern and that of
Southern France, the Langue d'Oil and the Langue d'Oc.
We will commence with the latter, as adjacent to Spain. Of
its mythology, Grervase of Tilbury, who resided in the king-
dom of Aries, has left us some interesting particulars, and
other authorities enable us to trace it down to the present
day. Speaking of the inhabitants of Aries, Gervase thus
expresses himself:
" They also commonly assert, that the Dracs assume the
human form, and come early into the public market-place
without any one being thereby disturbed. These, they say,
have their abode in the caverns of rivers, and occasionally,
floating along the stream in the form of gold rings or cups,
entice women or boys who are bathing on the banks of the
river ; for, while they endeavour to grasp what they see, they
are suddenly seized and dragged down to the bottom : and
this, they say, happens to none more than to suckling women,
who are taken by the Dracs to rear their unlucky offspring ;
and sometimes, after they have spent seven years there, they
return to our hemisphere. These women say that they lived
with the Dracs and their wives in ample palaces, in the
caverns and banks of rivers. We have ourselves seen one of
these women, who was taken away while washing clothes on
the banks of the Ehone. A wooden bowl floated along by
her, and, in endeavouring to catch it, having got out into the
460 SOUTHERN
deep water, she was carried down by a Drac, and made nurse
to his son below the water. She returned uninjured, and
was hardly recognised by her husband and friends after seven
years' absence.
" After her return she related very wonderful things, such
as that the Dracs lived on people they had carried off, and
turned themselves into human forms ; and she said that one
day, when the Drac gave her an eel-pasty to eat, she hap-
pened to put her fingers, that were greasy with the fat, to
one of her eyes and one side of her face, and she immediately
became endowed with most clear and distinct vision under the
water. When the third year of her time was expired, and
she had returned to her family, she very early one morning
met the Drac in the market-place of Beaucaire. She knew
him at once, and saluting him, inquired about the health of
her mistress and the child. To this the Drac replied,
' Harkye,' said he, ' with which eye do you see me ? ' She
pointed to the eye she had touched with the fat : the Drac
immediately thrust his finger into it, and he was no longer
visible to any one."*
Eespecting the Dracs, Grervase farther adds :
" There is also on the banks of the Ehone, under a guard-
house, at the North-gate of the city of Aries, a great pool of
the river. ... In these deep places, they say that the Dracs
are often seen of bright nights, in the shape of men. A few
years ago there was, for three successive days, openly heard
the following words in the place outside the gate of the city,
which I have mentioned, while the figure as it were of a man
ran along the bank : ' The hour is passed, and the man does
not come.' On the third day, about the ninth hour, while
that figure of a man raised his voice higher than usual, a
young man ran simply to the bank, plunged in, and was
swallowed up ; and the voice was heard no more."
The word Drac is apparently derived from Draco ; but we
are inclined to see its origin in the Northern Duerg. We
must recollect that the Visigoths long occupied Provence
and Languedoc. It is, we apprehend, still in use. Fa Je
Drac, in Provenc,al, signifies Faire le diable.^ Goudelin, a
Otia Imperialia, p. 987 : see above p. 302 et alib.
f Like the Irish Play tlte Puck, above, p. 371.
FRANCE. 46V
Proven9al poet of the seventeenth century, begins his Caste
en 1'Ayre with these lines :
Belomen qu' yeufarS U Drac
Se jamay trobi dins un sac
Cine 6 sies mil ante pistolos
Espessos como de redolos.
The following curious narrative also occurs in Gervase's
work, and might seem to belong to Provence :
" Seamen tell that one time as a ship was sailing in the
Mediterranean sea, which sea we call ours, she was sur-
rounded by an immense number of porpoises (delphinos), and
that when an active young man, one of the crew, had wounded
one of them with a weapon, and all the rest of them had
rapidly sought the bottom, a sudden and awful tempest
enveloped the ship. While the sailors were in doubt of their
lives, lo ! one in the form of a knight came borne on a steed
on the sea, and demanded that, for the salvation of all the
rest, the person who had wounded the porpoise should be
delivered up to him. The sailors were in an agony between
their own danger and their aversion to expose their comrade
to death, which seemed to them to be most cruel, and they
thought it infamous to consult their own safety at the
expense of the life of another. At last the man himself,
deeming it better that all should be saved at the cost of one,
as they were guiltless, than that such a number of people
should run the risk of destruction on account of his folly,
and lest by defending him they should become guilty, devoted
himself to the death he merited, and voluntarily mounted
the horse behind the rider, who went over the firm water,
taking his road along it as if it had been the solid land, la
a short time he reached a distant region, where he found
lying in a magnificent bed the knight whom he had wounded
the day before as a porpoise. He was directed by his guide
to pull out the weapon which was sticking in the wound, and
when he had done so, the guilty right hand gave aid to the wound.
This being done, the sailor was speedily brought back to the
ship, and restored to his companions. Hence it is, that fron:
that time forth sailors have ceased to hunt the porpoises."*
Otia Tmper. p. 981 : see above, p. 394. It does not appear that the
bode ot these ponxrnc-knights was beneath the water.
n H 2
468 SOUTHERN EUKOPJB.
Gervase also describes the Kobold, or House-spirit, the
Esprit Follet, or Goblin of the North of France.
" There are," says he, " other demons, commonly called
Follets, who inhabit the houses of simple country people,
and can be kept away neither by water nor exorcisms ; and
as they are not seen, they pelt people as they are going in
at the door with stones, sticks, and domestic utensils. Their
words are heard like those of men, but their form does not
appear. I remember to have met several wonderful stories
of them in the Vita Abbreviata, et Miraculis beatissimi
Antonii."*
Elsewheret he speaks of the beings which he says are
called Lamiae, who, he relates, are used to enter houses siid-
denly, ransack the jars and tubs, pots and pitchers, take the
children out of the cradles, light lamps or candles, and
sometimes oppress those who are sleeping.
Either Gervase mistook, or the Fadas of the south of
France were regarded as beings different from mankind. The
former is, perhaps, the more likely supposition. He thus
speaks of them : " This, indeed, we know to be proved even-
day by men who are beyond all exception; that we have heard
of some who were lovers of phantoms of this kind, J which
they call Fadas ; and when they married other women, they
died before consummating the marriage. We have seen most
of them live in great temporal felicity, who when they with-
drew themselves from the embraces of these Fadas, or dis-
covered the secret, lost not only their temporal prosperity,
but even the comfort of wretched life."
" In the legend of St. Armentaire, composed about 1300,
by Raymond, a gentleman of Provence, we read of the Fee
Esterelle, and of the sacrifices to her, who used to give
barren women beverages to drink, to make them fruitful ;
and of a stone called La Lauza de la Fada ; that is the Fairy-
stone on which they used to sacrifice to her." ||
Otia Imper. p. 897. See above p. 407. Orthone, the House-spirit, who,
according to Froissart, attended the Lord of Corasse, in Gaacony, resembled
Hinzeltnann in many points. + Ibid.
t Hujusmodi larvarum. He classes the Fadas with Sylvans and Pans.
P. 989. Speaking of the wonderful horse of Giraldus de Cabreriit f
Oervase says, Si Fadus erat, i. e. says Leibnitz, incantatus, ut Fadce, Fatce,
PP'CS.
i. Cambry, Monumens Critiques, p. 342. The author says, that Esterelle,
FRANCE. 469
Even at the present day the belief in the Fadas seems to
linger in Provence and the adjoining districts.
" On the night of the 31st of December," says Du Mege,*
the " Fees (Hadas) enter the dwellings of their worshipers.
They bear good-luck in their right, ill-luck in their left-hand.
Care has been taken to prepare for them in a clean retired
room, such a repast as is suited to them. The doors and
windows are left open ; a white cloth is laid on a table with
a loaf, a knife, a vessel full of water or wine, and a cup. A
lighted candle or wax taper is set in the centre of the table.
It is the general belief that those who present them with
the best food may expect all kinds of prosperity for their
property and their family ; while those who acquit them-
selves grudgingly of their duty toward the Fees, or who
neglect to make preparations worthy of these divinities, may
expect the greatest misfortunes."
From the following passage of the Koman de Guillaume
au Court-Nez it would appear that three was the number
of the Hadas.
Coustume avoient les gens, par veritez,
Et en Provence et en autres regnez.
Tables m6toient et sieges ordenez,
Et sur la table iij blans pains buletez,
lij poz de vins et iij henez de les
Et par encoste iert li enfes posez.-f*
as well as all the Fairies, was the moon. This we very much doubt. He
derives her name from the Breton Escler, Brightness, Lauza, from Lac'h
(Irish Clock), a flat stone.
* Monuments religieux des Voices Tectosages, ap. Mile. Bosquet, Nor-
mandie, etc., p. 92 : see above, pp. 161, 342.
f- See Leroux de Lincy, ap. Mile. Bosquet, p. 93, who adds " In Lower
Normandy, in the arrondissement of Bayeux, they never neglect laying a table
for the protecting genius of the babe about to be born ;" see our note on Virg.
Buc. iv. 63. In a collection of decrees of Councils made by Burchard of
Worms, who died in 1024, we read as follows : " Fecisti, ut quaedam muliercs
in quibusdam temporibus anni facere solent, ut in domo tua mensam praepareg
et tuos cibos et potum cum tribus cultellis supra mensam poneres, ut si venis-
sent tres illae sorores quas antiqua posteritas et antiqua stultitia Parcas nomi-
navit, ibi reficirentur . . . ut credens illas quas tu dicis esse sorores tibi posse anl
hie aut in futuro prodesse?" GRIMM. Deut. Mythol. Anhang, p. xxxviii., where
we are also told that these Parcae could give a man at his birth the power of
becoming a Werwolf. All this, however, does not prove that they were the
origin of the Fee* : see above, p. 6.
470 BOUTHEBN EUROPE.
Some years ago a lady, named Marie Aycard, published a
volume named "Ballades et Chants populaires de la Pro-
vence," two of which seem to be founded on popular legends.
She names the one La Fee aux Cheveux Verts, and in it
relates the story of a young mariner of Marseilles who was
in the habit of rowing out to sea by himself in the evening.
On one of these occasions he felt himself drawn down by au
invisible power, and on reaching the bottom found himself
at the gate of a splendid palace, where he was received by a
most beautiful fairy, only her hair was green. She at once
told him her love, to which he responded as she wished, and
after detaining him some time she dismissed him, giving him
two fishes, that he might account for his absence by saying
that he had been fishing. The same invisible power brought
him back to his boat, and he reached home at sunrise. The
size and form of his fishes, such as had never been seen,
excited general wonder ; but he feared the fairy too much to
reveal his secret. An invincible attraction still drew him to
the submarine palace, but at last he saw a maiden whose
charms, in his eyes, eclipsed those of the fairy. He now
fled the sea-shore, but every time he approached his mistress
he received an invisible blow, and he continually was haunted
by threatening voices. At length he felt an irresistible desire
to go out again to sea. When there he was drawn down
as before to the palace, but the fairy now was changed, and
saying, " You have betrayed me you shall die," she caused
him to be devoured by the sea-monsters. But other accounts
gay that she kept him with her till age had furrowed his brow
with wrinkles, and then sent him back to poverty on earth.
The other legend named Le Lutin tells how seven little
boys, regardless of the warnings of their old grandmother,
would go out at night on various affairs. As they went
along a pretty little black horse came up to them, and they
all were induced to mount on his back. When they met any
of their playmates they invited them also to mount, and the
back of the little horse, stretched so that at last he had on
him not less than thirty little boys. He then made with all
speed for the sea, and plunging into it with them they were
all drowned.*
* This may remind us of the Neck or Kelpie above, p. 1 62. It seem*
confirmatory of our theoiy respecting the Visigoths, p. 466.
FRANCE. 471
Passing to Auvergne we find Gregory of Tours in the
sixth century thus relating an event which happened in his
youth. A man was going one morning to the forest, and he
took the precaution to have his breakfast, which he was
taking with him, blessed before he set out. Coming to the
river, before it was yet day, he drove his bullock-cart into
the ferry-boat (in ponte qui super navem est), and when he
was about half-way over he heard a voice saying, " Down
with him! down with him! be quick!" (Merge, merge, ne
moreris /) to which another replied, " I should have done it
without your telling me if something holy did not prevent
me ; for I would have you to know that he is fortified with
the priest's blessing, so that I cannot hurt him."*
Miss Costello t heard in Auvergne a story of a changeling,
which the mother, by the direction of the Cure, took to the
market-place, where she whipped it well, till its mother, La
Fee du Grand Cascade, brought her back her own child.
She also relates at great length a legend which she styles
La Blonde de la Roche, in which a young lady, instructed
by her nurse, learns to change her form, and thus become
a companion of the Fees, who are beings of tiny dimensions.
Afterwards, when she is married, they take away her children,
but she manages to recover them.
" La Tioul de las Fadas is within five and a half leagues
of St. Flour, at Pirols, a village of Haute Auvergne. It is
composed of six large rude stones, covered by a seventh,
larger and more massive than the rest ; it is twelve feet long,
and eight and a half wide. The tradition relates that a Fee
who was fond of keeping her sheep on the spot occupied by
this monument, resolved to shelter herself from the wind and
rain. For this purpose she went far, very far, (lien loin,
lien loin) in search of such masses of granite, as six yoke of
oxen could not move, and she gave them the form of a
little house. She carried, it is said, the largest and heaviest
of them on the top of her spindle, and so little was she in-
commoded by the weight of it, that she continued to spin all
the way." \
Greg. Tur. De Glor. Confess, ch. xxxi., ap. Grimin. p. 466.
t Pilgrimage to Auvergne, ii, p. 294, teq.
J Cambry, Monuments Celtiques, p. 232.
472 SOUTH KRX EUKOl'E.
The following legend is traditional in Perigord :
Embosomed in the forest of the canton of La Double,
near the road leading from Perigueux to Eiberac, is a
monument named Roque Brun. It consists of four enormous
rocks placed two and two, so as to form an alley ten feet
long and six wide. A fifth rock, higher and thicker than
the others, closes this space on the west. The whole is
covered by a huge mass of rock, at least twelve feet by seven,
and from three to four feet thick. There can be no doubt of
its being the work of man, and it is remarkable that the
stone composing it is different from that of the soil on which
it stands.* The tradition of the canton, however, is, that
many thousand years ago there was a Fee who was the
sovereign of the whole country, and having lost her husband
in a battle fought in this very place she resolved to bury
him on the spot. She therefore called six of her pages, and
ordered them to fetch, each one of these stones, and to place
them in the order which they still maintain. They instantly
obeyed, and they carried and arranged the huge masses as
easily as if they had been only rose-leaves. When the tomb
was completed, the Fairy ascended it, and turning to the
east, she thrice cursed, in a voice of thunder, whoever should
henceforth dare even to touch this monument of her royal
spouse. Many an instance is still recorded by the peasantry
of those who dared and were punished.f
The Fairy-lore of the North of France, at least of Nor-
mandy, is, as was to be expected, similar to that of the other
portions of the Gotho-German race. We meet it in the fees
or fairies, and the lutins or gobelins, which answer to the
Kobolds, Nisses, and such like of those nations.];
The Fees are small and handsome in person ; they are
* It is evidently a cromleach. What is said of the nature of the stones it
also true of Stonehenge.
t Lettres de Madame S. a sa Fille. Perigueux, 1830 : by M. Jouannet
of Bordeaux.
See Mile. Bosquet, La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse, and the
works there quoted by this learned and ingenious lady. What follows is so
extremely like what we have seen above of the Korrigan of the adjacent
Brittany, that we hope she has been careful not to transfer any of their traits
to her Fee*.
FRANCE. 473
fond of dancing in the night-time, and in their dances which
are circular they form the Cercles des Fe.es, or fairy-rings.
If any one approaches their dance, he is irresistibly impelled
to take part in it. He is admitted with the greatest
courtesy ; but as the whirling movement increases, and goes
faster and faster, his head becomes giddy, and he falls to
the ground utterly exhausted. Sometimes the fees amuse
themselves by flinging him up to a great height in the air,
and, if not killed by the fall, he is found next morning full of
bruises. These little beings, it is also said, haunt solitary
springs, where they wash their linen, which they then dry by
way of preference on the Druidic stones, if at hand, and lay
up in the hollows of rocks or barrows, thence named
Chambres or Grottes des Fees. But, further, it is said of
them, like the Lutins, they select particular farms to which
they resort at night, and there making use of horses, harness
and utensils of all kinds, they employ themselves at various
kinds of work, of which, however, no traces remain in the
morning. They are fond of mounting and galloping the
horses ; their seat is on the neck, and they tie together locks
of the mane to form stirrups. Their presence, however,
always brings luck, the cattle thrive where they arc, the
utensils of which they have made use, if broken are mended
and made as good as new. They are altogether most kind
and obliging, and have been known to give cakes to those to
whom they have taken a fancy.
The Fees of Normandy are, like others, guilty of child-
changing. A countrywoman as she was one day carrying
her child on her arm met a Fee similarly engaged, who pro-
posed an exchange. But she would not consent, even
though, she said, the Fee's babe were nine times finer than
her own. A few days after, having left her child in the
house when she went to work in the fields, it appeared to
her on her return that it had been changed. She imme-
diately consulted a neighbour, who to put the matter to
the proof, broke a dozen eggs and ranged the shells before
the child, who instantly began to cry out, Oh! what a
number of cream-pots ! Oh ! what a number of cream-pots !
The matter was now beyond doubt, and the neighbour
next advised to make it cry lustily in order to bring
its real mother to it. This also succeeded ; the Fee came
474 SOUTHERN ETTHOPE.
imploring them to spare her child, and the real one should
be restored.
There is another kind of Fees known in Normandy by the
name of Dames Blanches, or White Ladies, who are of a less
benevolent character. These lurk in narrow places, such as
ravines, fords and bridges, where passengers cannot well
avoid them, and there seek to attract their attention. The
Dame Blanche sometimes requires him whom she thus meets
to join her in a dance, or to hand her over a plank. If he
does so she makes him many courtesies, and then vanishes.
One of these ladies named La Dame a" Aprigny, used to
appear in a winding narrow ravine which occupied the place
of the present Rue Saint Quentin at Bayeux, where, by her
involved dances, she prevented any one from passing. She
meantime held out her hand, inviting him to join her, and if
he did so she dismissed him after a round or two ; but if ho
drew back, she seized him and flung him into one of the
ditches which were full of briars and thorns. Another Dame
Blanche took her station on a narrow wooden bridge over the
Dive, in the district of Falaise, named the Pont d' Angot. She
sat on it and would not allow any one to pass unless he went
on his knees to her ; if he refused, the Fee gave him over to
the lutins, the cats, owls, and other beings which, under her
sway, haunt the place, by whom he was cruelly tormented.
Near the village of Puys, half a league to the north-east of
Dieppe, there is a high plateau, surrounded on all sides by
large entrenchments, except that over the sea, where the
cliffs render it inaccessible. It is named La Cite de Limes
orLa Gamp de Cesar or simply Le Catel or Cartel. Tradition
tells that the Fees used to hold a fair there, at which all
sorts of magic articles from their secret stores were offered
for sale, and the most courteous entreaties and blandishments
were employed to induce those vrho frequented it to become
purchasers. But the moment any one did so, and stretched
forth his hand to take the article he had selected, the
perfidious Fees seized him and hurled him down the cliffs.
Such are the accounts of the Fees still current in Nor-
mandy. To these we may add that of Dame Abonde or
Habonde, current in the middle ages. William of Auvergne,
bishop of Paris, who died in the year 1248, thus writes :
" Sunt et aliae ludificationes malignorum spiritorum quaa
FRANCE. 475
faciunt interdum in nemoribus et locis amoenis, et frondosis
arboribus, ubi apparent in similitudine puellarum aut ma-
tronarum ornatu muliebri et Candida; interdum etiam in
stabulis, cum luminaribus cereis, ex quibus apparent distilla-
tiones in comis et collis equorum et comas ipsorum diligenter
tricatce ; et audies eos, qui talia se vidisse fatentur, dicentes
veram ceram esse quae de luminaribus hujusmodi stillaverat.
De illis vero substantiis quae apparent in domibus quas
dominas nocturnas et principem earum vocant Dominant
Abundiam pro eo quod domibus, quas frequentant, abundan-
tiam bonorum temporalium praestare putantur non aliter
tibi sentiendum est neque aliter quam quemadmodum de
illis audivisti. Quapropter eo usque invaluit stultitia
hominum et insania vetularum ut vasa vini et receptacula
ciborum discooperta relinquant, et omnino nee obstruent
neque claudant eis noctibus quibus ad domos suos eas
credunt adventuras ; ea de causa videlicet ut cibos et potus
quasi paratos inveniant, et eos absque difficultate apparitionis
pro beneplacito sumant."*
Dame Abonde is also mentioned in the same century in
the celebrated Roman de la Rose as follows :
Qui les cine sens ainsinc deceit
Par les fantosmes qu'il re9oit,
Dont maintes gens par lor folie
Cuident estre psir nuit estries (alles)
Errans avecques Dame Habonde.
Et dient que par tout le monde
Si tiers enfant de nacion (nawsance)
Sunt de ceste condicion,
Qu'ils vont trois fois en la semaine,
Li cum destinee les maine (mine),
Et par tous ces ostex (htitek) se boutent,
Ne cles ne barres ne redoutent.
Ains sen entrent par les fendaces (fentet)
Par chatieres et par crevaces.
Et se portent des cors les ames
Et vont avec les bonnes dames
Par leur forains et par maisons.
Et le prouvent par tiex (ces) raisons :
Que les diversites veues
No sont pas en lor liz (lits) venues,
* Opera i. 1036; Paris, 1674, ap. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 261
470 SOrTHEEN EUEOPE.
Ains (ami It.) mint lor ames que laborent
Et par le monde ainsinc sen coreiit.*
In these places we find that Abundia is a queen or ruler
over a band of what we may call fairies, who enter houses at
night, feast there, twist the horses' manes, etc. This may
remind us at once of Shakespeare's Queen Mab, whom, though
only acquainted with Habundia through a passage in Hey-
wood,f we conjectured to have derived her name from that
of this French dame.J Chaucer, by the way, always spells
habundance with an h, which may have become m as it does
n in Numps from Humphrey ; so Edward makes Ned, Oliver
Noll, etc.
The Lutin or Gobelin of Normandy hardly differs in any
respect from the domestic spirit of Scandinavia and Germany.
He is fond of children and horses ; and if the proverb
Ou il y a belle fille et bon vin
La aussi hante le lutin
lie not, of young maidens also. He caresses the children,
and gives them nice things to eat, but he ako whips and
pinches them if naughty. || He takes great care of the
horses, gallops them at times, and lutines their manes, i.e., elfs
* Ap. Grimm, ut sup. Douce (111. of Shak. i. 382) was, we believe, the
firs' who directed attention to Abundia. He quotes from an old fabliau :
Ceste richesse nus abonde,
Nos 1'avons de par Dame Abonde.
+ One kind of these the Italians False name ;
Fe the French ; we Sybils ; and the same
Others White Nymphs ; and those that have them seen,
Night Ladies some, of which Habundia queen.
Hierarchic, viii. p. 507.
J Mr. Thorns prefers a derivation from the Cymric, Mdb, boy, child.
There is no satisfactory derivation of Lutin, for we cannot regard as such
Grimm's a luctu. Gobelin, Goblin, or Goubelin, is evidently the same as
Kobold. Follet (from fol, fou) and Farfadet, are other names. Both
Gobelin and Lutin were in use in the llth century. Orderic Vitalis, speaking
of the demon whom St. Tauriu drove out of the temple of Diana, says, Hunt,
vulgus Gobelinum appellat, and Wace (Roman de Rou, v 9715) says of the
familiar of bishop Mauger who excommunicated the Conqueror
Ne sei s'esteit lutin ou non.
|| Mothers also threaten their children with him. Le gobelin vout mangera,
te gobelin vous emportera. Pfent L'ABBE, Etymologic, i. p. 262.
FRANCE. 477
or plaits and twists them in an inexplicable manner. So fond,
indeed, is he of this amusement, that it is related that when
one time two young girls fell asleep in a stable, he lutined
their hair in such a way that they had to cut it all off. Some-
times the Lutin takes the form of a young villager, and struts
about with great complacency. On such occasions it is ne-
cessary to call him Bon Grarc,on, a thing the Norman pea-
sant never neglects to do. At other times he appears under
the form of a horse ready bridled and saddled. If any peasant,
weary after his day's work, is induced to mount him in order
to ride home, he begins to kick and fling and rear and bound,
and ends by jerking him into a marsh or a ditch full of water.
When he takes this form he is called Le Cheval Bayard,
probably after the famous steed of the Paladin Einaldo.
The following tradition of " Le Lutin, ou le Fe amou-
reux," is related in the neighbourhood of Argentan :
A Fe was fond of a pretty young paysanne, and used to
come every evening when she was spinning at her fireside,
and take his seat on a stool opposite to her, and keep gazing
on her fair face. The ungrateful object of this respectful
attention, however, told her husband the whole story, and
in his jealous mood he resolved to have his revenge of the
amorous Lutin. Accordingly, he heated the girdel (galetiere)
red-hot, and placed it on the seat which he used to occupy,
and then dressing himself in his wife's clothes, he sat in her
place, and began to spin as well as he could. The Fe came
as usual, and instantly perceived the change. " Where,"
said he, " is La-belle belle of yesterday evening, who draws,
draws, and keeps always twirling, while you, you turn, turn,
and never twirl ? " He, however, went and took his usual
seat, but immediately jumped up, screaming with pain.
His companions, who were at hand, inquired the cause.
" I am burnt," cried he. " Who burned you ? " cried they.
" Myself," replied he ; for this the woman had told him was
her husband's name. At this they mocked at him and went
away.*
The best way, it is said, to banish a Lutin who haunts a
* In another French tale a man to deceive a Fe'e, put on his wife's clothei
and was minding the child, but she said as the came in, " Non, tu ne point la
belle d'hier au soir, tu ne files, ni ne vogues, ni ton fuseau ne t'enveloppet,"
and to punish him she tunied some apples that were roasting on the hearth intc
peas. SCHREIBER <//>. GRIM" 385.
t7S SOUTHERN EUROPE.
house, is to scatter flax-seed in the room that he most fre-
quents. His love of neatness and regularity will not allow
him to let it lie there, and he soon gets tired of picking it up,
and so he goes away.
A Lutin, named the Nain Rouge, haunts the coast of
Normandy. He is kind in his way to the fishermen, and
often gives them valuable aid; but he punishes those who do
not treat him with proper respect. Two fishermen who lived
near Dieppe, were going one day to Pollet. On their way
they found a little boy sitting on the road-side ; they asked
him what he was doing there. " I am resting myself," said
he, " for I am going to Berneville " (a village within a league
of Pollet.) They invited him to join company ; he agreed,
and amused them greatly with his tricks as they went along.
At last, when they came to a pond near Berneville, the mali-
cious urchin caught up one of them, and flung him, like a
shuttlecock, up into the air over it ; but, to his great disap-
pointment, he saw him land safe and sound at the other side.
" Thank your patron-Saint," cried he, with his cracked voice,
" for putting it into your mind to take some holy water when
you were getting up this morning. But for that you 'd have
got a nice dip." *
A parcel of children were playing on the strand at Pollet,
when Le Petit Homme Rouge came by. They began to
make game of him, and he instantly commenced pelting them
with stones at such a rate that they found it necessary to
seek refuge in a fishing-boat, where, for the space of an hour,
as they crouched under the hatches, they heard the shower
of stones falling so that they were sure the boat must be
buried under them. At length the noise ceased, and when
they ventured to peep out, not a stone was to be seen.
There is also in Normandy a kind of spirits called Lubins,
which take the form of wolves, and enter the churchyards
under the guidance of a chief, who is quite black. They are
very timorous, and at the least noise they fly, crying " Robert
est mort ! Robert est mort ! " People say of a timorous man,
" II apeur de Lubins / " f
See above, p. 471.
f Lulrin may be only another form of Lutin, and connected with th
English Lob. Its likeness to loup may have given occasion to the fiction of
their taking the lupine form.
FRANCE. 479
A belief in Fees, similar to those which we nave denomi-
nated Fairies of Romance, seems to have prevailed all over
France during the middle ages.
The great Bertrand Duguesclin married a lady named
Tiphaine, " extraite do noble lignee," says his old biographer ;
" laquello avoit environ vingt-quatre ans, ne onques n'avoit
ete mariee et estoit bonne et sage, et moult experte aux arts
d'astronomie ; aucuns disoient qu'elle estoit faee mais non
estoit, mais estoit ainsi inspiree et de la Grace de Dieu."
One of the chief articles of accusation against the heroic
and unfortunate Maid of Orleans, was " Que souvent alloit
a une belle fontaine au pais de Lorraine, laquelle elle nom-
moit bonne fontaine aux Fees nostre Seigneur, et en icelui
lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils avoient fiebvre Us alloient
pour recouvrer garison, et la alloit souvent la dite Jehanne
la Fueelle, sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine ombroit, et
s'apparurent a elle St. Katerine et St. Marguerite." * She
was also asked " Si elle sait rien de ceux qui vont avecq les
Of these Fees the most celebrated is Melusina, who was
married to the Count of Lusignan. Toward the end of the
fourteenth century, Jean d' Arras collected the traditions
relating to her, and composed what he called her " Chronicle."
Stephen, a Dominican of the house of Lusignan, took up the
history written by Jean D'Arras, gave it consistency, and
cast such splendour about his heroine, that several noble
houses were ambitious of showing a descent from her. Those
of Luxembourg and Rohan even falsified their genealogies
for that purpose; and the house of Sassenage, though it
might claim its descent from a monarch, preferred Melusina,
and to gratify them it was feigned that when she quitted
Lusignan she retired to the grot of Sassenage, in Dauphiny.
The following is a slight sketch of the story of the fair
Melusina. J
Ange par la figure, et serpent par le reste.
DE LILLE.
* Chartier. t See above, p. 475.
Histoire de Melusine, tiree des Clroniques de Poftou. Paris, 169&
Dobenek, des Deutschen Mittelalter und Volksglauben.
480 feC U Till. KX
of fHrlustna.
ELINAS, king of Albania, to divert his grief for the death of
his wife, amused himself with hunting. One day, at the
chase, he went to a fountain to quench his thirst : as he
approached it he heard the voice of a woman singing, and on
coming to it he found there the beautiful Fay Pressina.
After some time the Fay bestowed her hand upon him, on
the condition that he should never visit her at the time of
her lying-in. She had three daughters at a birth : Melusina,
Melior, and Palatina. Nathas, the king's son by a former
wife, hastened to convey the joyful tidings to his father, who,
without reflection, flew to the chamber of the queen, and
entered as she was bathing her daughters. Pressina, on
seeing him, cried out that he had broken his word, and she
must depart; and taking up her three daughters, she
disappeared.
She retired to the Lost Island ;* so called because it was
only by chance any, even those who had repeatedly visited it,
could find it. Here she reared her children, taking them
every morning to a high mountain, whence Albania might be
seen, and telling them that but for their father's breach of
promise they might have lived happily in the distant land
which they beheld. When they were fifteen years of age,
Melusina asked her mother particularly of what their father
had been guilty. On being informed of it, she conceived the
design of being revenged on him. Engaging her sisters to
join in her plans, they set out for Albania : arrived there,
they took the king and all his wealth, and, by a charm,
inclosed him in a high mountain, called Brandelois. On
telling their mother what they had done, she, to punish them
for the unnatural action, condemned Melusina to becomo
every Saturday a serpent, from the waist downwards, till she
* i. e. Cepbalonia, see above, p. 41.
FRANCE. 4S 1
should meet a man who would marry her under the con-
dition of never seeing her on a Saturday, and should keep hia
promise. She inflicted other judgements on her two sisters,
iess severe in proportion to their guilt. Melusina now went
roaming through the world in search of the man who was to
deliver her. She passed through the Black Forest, and that
of Ardennes, and at last she arrived in the forest of Colom-
biers, in Poitou, where all the Fays of the neighbourhood
came before her, telling her they had been waiting for her to
reign in that place.
Raymond having accidentally killed the count, his uncle,
by the glancing aside of his boar-spear, was wandering by
night in the forest of Colombiers. He arrived at a fountain
that rose at the foot of a high rock. This fountain was
called by the people the Fountain of Thirst, or the Fountain
of the Fays,* on account of the many marvellous things
which had happened at it. At the time, when Raymond
arrived at the fountain, three ladies were diverting them-
selves there by the light of the moon, the principal of whom
was Melusina. Her beauty and her amiable manners quickly
won his love : she soothed him, concealed the deed he had
done, and married him, he promising on his oath never to
desire to see her on a Saturday. She assured him that a
breach of his oath would for ever deprive him of her whom
he so much loved, and be followed by the unhappiness of
both for life. Out of her great wealth, she built for him, in
the neighbourhood of the Fountain of Thirst, where he first
saw her, the castle of Lusignan. She also built La Rochelle,
Cloitre Malliers, Mersent, and other places.
But destiny, that would have Melusina single, was
incensed against her. The marriage was made unhappy
by the deformity of the children born of one that was
enchanted; but still Raymond's love for the beauty that
ravished both heart and eyes remained unshaken. Destiny
now renewed her attacks. Raymond's cousin had excited
him to jealousy and to secret concealment, by malicious
suggestions of the purport of the Saturday retirement of
* It is at this day (1698) corruptly called La Font de Sec; and every year iu
the month of May a fair is held in the neighbouring mead, where the pastry-cooks
sell figures of women, bien c&iffees, called Merlusines. French Author's XoLt
I I
482 BOUTHEBIT ETJEOPE.
the countess. He hid himself ; and then saw how the lovely
form of Melusina ended below in a snake, gray and sky-
blue, mixed with white. But it was not horror that seized
him at the sight, it was infinite anguish at the reflection
that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife
for ev*. Yet this misfortune had not speedily come on him,
were it not that his son, Greoffroi with the tooth,* had burned
his brother Freimund, who would stay in the abbey of
Malliers, with the abbot and a hundred monks. At which
the afflicted father, count Raymond, when his wife Melusina
was entering his closet to comfort him, broke out into these
words against her, before all the courtiers who attended
her : " Out of my sight, thou pernicious snake and odious
serpent ! thou contaminator of my race ! "
Melusina' s former anxiety was now verified, and the evil
that had lain so long in ambush had now fearfully sprung on
him and her. At these reproaches she fainted away ; and
when at length she revived, full of the profoundest grief, she
declared to him that she must now depart from him, and, in
obedience to a decree of destiny, fleet about the earth in pain
and suffering, as a spectre, until the day of doom ; and that
only when one of her race was to die at Lusignan would she
become visible.
Her words at parting were these :
" But one thing will I say unto thee before I part, that
thou, and those who for more than a hundred years shall
succeed thee, shall know that whenever I am seen to hover
over the fair castle of Lusignan, then will it be certain that
in that very year the castle will get a new lord ; and though
Eeople may not perceive me in the air, yet they will see me
y the Fountain of Thirst ; and thus shall it be so long as
the castle stands in honour and flourishing especially on
the Friday before the lord of the castle shall die." Imme-
diately, with wailing and loud lamentation, she left the castle
of Lusignan,t and has ever since existed as a spectre of the
might. Raymond died as a hermit on Monserrat.
* A boar's tusk projected from his mouth. According to Brantflme, a
figure of him, cut in stone, stood at the portal of the Melusine tower, which
was destroyed in 1574.
+ At her departure she left the mark of her foot on the stone of one of tho
windows, where it remained till the castle was destroyed.
FRANCE. 483
The president de Boissieu says,* that she chose for her
retreat one of the mountains of Saasenage, near Grenoble,
on account of certain vats that are there, and to which she
communicated a virtue which makes them, at this day, one
of the seven wonders of Dauphine. They are two in num-
ber, of great beauty, and so admirably cut in the rock, that
it is easy to see they are not the work of unaided nature.
The virtue which Melusina communicated to them was, that
of announcing, by the water they contain, the abundance or
scantiness of the crops. When there is to be an abundant
harvest, it rises over the edges, and overflows ; in middling
years, the vats are but half full ; and when the crops are to
fail, they are quite dry. One of these vats is consecrated
to corn, the other to wine.
The popular belief was strong in France that she used to
appear on what was called the tower of Melusina as often as
any of the lords of the race of Lusignan was to die ; and that
when the family was extinct, and the castle had fallen to the
crown, she was seen whenever a king of France was to depart
this life. Mezeray informs us that he was assured of the
truth of the appearance of Melusina on this tower previous
to the death of a Lusignan, or a king of France, by people
of reputation, and who were not by any means credulous.
She appeared in a mourning dress, and continued for a long
time to utter the most heart-piercing lamentation.
The following passage occurs in Brantome's Eloge of the
Duke of Montpensier, who in 1574 destroyed Lusignan, and
several other retreats of the Huguenots :
" I heard, more than forty years ago, an old veteran say,
that when the Emperor Charles V. came to France, they
brought him by Lusignan for the sake of the recreation of
hunting the deer, which were there in great abundance in
fine old parks of France ; that he was never tired admiring
and praising the beauty, the size, and the chef d'oeuvre of
that house, built, which is more, by such a lady, of whom he
made them tell him several fabulous tales, which are there
quite common, even to the good old women who washed their
linen at the fountain, whom Queen Catherine of Medicis,
mother to the king, would also question and listen to. Some
In his poem of Melusiua, dedicated to Christina of Sweden.
n2
484 BOUTHEBN EUKOPE.
told her that they used sometimes to see her come to the
fountain to bathe in it, in the form of a most beautiful
woman, and in the dress of a widow. Others said that they
used to see her, but very rarely, and that on Saturday even-
ing, (for in that state she did not let herself be seen,)
bathing, half her body being that of a very beautiful lady,
the other half ending in a snake : others, that she used to
appear a-top of the great tower in a very beautiful form, and
as a snake. Some said, that when any great disaster was to
come on the kingdom, or a change of reign, or a death, or
misfortune among her relatives, who were the greatest people
of France, and were kings, that three days before she was
heard to cry, with a cry most shrill and terrible, three
times.
" This is held to be perfectly true. Several persons of that
place, who have heard it, are positive of it, and hand it from
father to son ; and say that, even when the siege came on,
many soldiers and men of honour who were there affirmed it.
But it was when the order was given to throw down and
destroy her castles that she uttered her loudest cries and
wails. This is perfectly true, according to the saying of
people of honour. Since then she has not been heard. Some
old wives, however, say she has appeared to them, but very
rarely."
Jean d' Arras declares that Serville, who defended the
castle of Lusignan for the English against the Duke of Berri,
swore to that prince, upon his faith and honour, " that, three
days before the surrender of the fortress, there entered into
his chamber, though the doors were shut, a large serpent,
enamelled with white and blue, which came and struck its
tail several times against the feet of the bed where he was
lying with his wile, who was not at all frightened at it,
though he was very much so ; and that when he seized his
sword, the serpent changed all at once into a woman, and
said to him, How, Serville, you who have been at so many
sieges and battles, are you afraid! Know that I am the mis-
tress of this castle, which I have built, and that you must
surrender it very soon. When she had ended these words
she resumed her serpent-shape, and glided away so swiftly
that he could not perceive her." The author adds, that the
prince told him that other credible people had sworn to him
FftAKCE. 485
that they too had seen her at the same time in other places
in the neighbourhood, and in the same form.
The old castle of Pirou, on the coast of the Cotentin, in
Lower Normandy, likewise owes its origin to the Fees.*
These were the daughters of a great lord of the country, who
was a celebrated magician. They built the castle long before
the time of the invasions of the Northmen, and dwelt there
in peace and unity. But when these pirates began to make
their descents on the coast, the Fees, fearing their violence,
changed themselves into wild geese, and thus set them at
defiance. They did not, however, altogether abandon their
castle ; for the elders of the place assert that every year, on
the first of March, a flock of wild geese returns to take pos-
session of the nests they had hollowed out for themselves in
its walls. It was also said that when a male child was born
to the illustrious house of Pirou, the males of these geese,
displaying their finest grey plumage, strutted about on the
pavement in the courts of the castle ; while, if it was a girl,
the females, in plumage whiter than snow, took precedence
then over the males. If the new-born maiden was to be a
nun, it was remarked that one of them did not join with the
rest, but kept alone in a corner, eating little, and deeply
sighing.
The following traditions are attached to the castles of
Argouges and Kanes, in Normandy : t
One of the lords of Argouges, when out hunting one day,
met a bevy of twenty ladies of rare beauty, all mounted on
palfreys white as the driven snow. One of them appeared to
be their queen, and the lord of Argouges became all at once
so deeply enamoured of her, that he offered on the spot to
marry her. This lady was fee ; she had for a long time past
secretly protected the Sire d' Argouges, and even caused him
to come off victorious in a combat with a terrible giant. As
she loved the object of her care, she willingly accepted his
troth, but under the express condition that he should never
pronounce in her presence the name of Death. So light a
* Mile Bosquet, ut sup. p. 1 00.
+ Mile. Bosquet, ut sup. p. 98. The castle of Argouges is near Bayeuxy
that of Ranee is in the arrondisscment of Armenian.
486 SOUTHEBN ErBOPE.
condition caused no difficulty ; the marriage took place under
the happiest auspices, and lovely children crowned their
union. The fatal word was never heard, and then- happiness
seemed without alloy. It came to pass, however, one day at
length, that the wedded pair were preparing to give their
presence at a tournament. The lady was long at her toilet,
and her husband waited for her with impatience. At length
she made her appearance. " Fair dame," said he, when he
saw her, "you would be a good person to send to fetch
Death ; for you take long enough to perform what you are
about."* Hardly had he pronounced the fatal word when,
uttering a piercing cry, as if actually struck by death, the
Fee lady disappeared, leaving the mark of her hand on the
gate. She comes every night clad in a white robe, and
wanders round and round the castle, uttering deep and con-
tinuous groans, amid which may be heard, in funereal notes,
Death! Death I ^
The same legend, as we have said, adheres to the castle of
Eanes, where, however, it was on the top of a tower that the
Fee vanished, leaving, like Melusina, the mark of her foot on
the battlements, where it is still to be seen.
In explication of the former legend, M. Pluque observes,
that at the siege of Bayeux by Henry I., in 1106, Eobert
d'Argouges vanquished in single combat a German of huge
stature ; and that the crest of the house of Argouges is
Faith, under the form of a woman naked to the waist, seated
in a bark, with the motto, or war-cry, A la Fe ! (i. e. a la
foi /) which the people pronounce A la Fee !
So far the genuine French Fees. On the revival of learn-
ing they appear to have fallen into neglect, till the memory
of them was awakened by the appearance of the translation
of the Italian tales of Straparola, many of which seem to have
become current among the people ; and in the end of the
seventeenth century, the Contes des Fees of Perrault, Madame
d' Aulnoy, and their imitators and successors, gave them vogue
throughout Europe. These tales are too well known to our
readers to require us to make any observations on them.
* This proverbial expression is to be met with in various languages : te
Grimm, Dent. Mythol. p. 802. f See above, p. 458.
EASTERN EUROPE.
tip the bill I went, and gazed round,
Hoping golden maids to see ;
Trooping lovely maidens came, who
Round the hill danced merrily.
All the sweetest ditties singing,
Sweetest ditties that might be ;
Bearing fragrant apple-blossoms,
These fair maidens came to me.
LETTISH SONG.
EUEOPE is inhabited on the east and north-east, from the
Frozen Ocean to the Adriatic, by two extensive races named
the Finns and the Slaves. The former dwell round the
northern edge of Scandinavia by the Icy Ocean, and on the
east and south-east of the Baltic. The Majjars, or the
dominant portion of the people of Hungary, are also of
Finnish origin. The Slaves who are akin to the Gotho-
Q-erman race are also widely spread. This stem numbers
among its branches the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Ser-
vians, and the nations dwelling north-east of the Adriatic.
Our knowledge of the popular mythology of both races is
very limited.
FINNS.
Bee ! thou little mundane bird 1
Fly away to where I bid thee;
O'er the moon, beneath the sun,
Behind the lofty heaven's stars,
Close by the Wain's axle fly
To the great Creator's court.
FIHNISH Brae.
OF the mythology of the Finnish race, the first possibly that
appeared in Europe, and one of the most widely spread in
the world, our knowledge, as we have just stated, is very
488 EASTERN EUEOPE.
slight. It appears, however, either to have influenced that
of the Gothic race, or to have been affected hy it.
The Finlanders, Laplanders, and other nations of this race,
who are neighbours of the Scandinavians and Germans,
believe, like them, in Dwarfs and Kobolds. The former they
describe as having a magnificent region under the ground, to
which mortals are sometimes admitted and are there
sumptuously entertained, getting plenty of tobacco and
brandy, and other things esteemed by them delicious.
It is an article of faith with the Finns that there dwell
under the altar in every church little misshapen beings
which they call Kirkonwalci, i. e., Church-folk. When the
wives of these little people have a difficult labour they are
relieved if a Christian woman visits them and lays her hand
upon them. Such service is always rewarded by a gift of
gold and silver.*
The Kobold of Finland is called Para (from the Swedish
Bjara) ; he steals the milk from other people's cows, carries
and coagulates it in his stomach, and then disgorges it into
the churn of his mistress. There is a species of mushroom,
which if it be fried with tar, salt and sulphur, and then
beaten with a rod, the woman who owns the Kobold will
quickly appear, and entreat to spare him.
The Alp, or nightmare, is called Painajainen, *. e., Presser.
It resembles a white maid, and its brightness illumines the
whole room. It causes people to scream out wofully ; it
also hurts young children, and makes them squint. The
remedy against it is steel or a broom placed under the
pillow. The House-spirit named Tonttu (the Swedish
Tomtegubbe) is also common in Finland, t The Esthonians
believe that the Neck has fish's teeth.
An Esthonian legend relates that one time a girl was
stopt by a pretty boy that had on him a handsome peasant's
belt and forced to scratch his head a little. She did so, and
while she was so engaged she was, without her knowledge,
fastened to him by his belt, but the rubbing of her hand set
him to sleep. Meanwhile a woman passed by, who came up
and asked the girl what she was doing there. She told her
* Mnemosyne, Abo 1821, ap. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 426.
j- Rubs, Finland und seine Bewohner.
FINNS. 489
the whole matter, and as she was speaking she freed herself
from the belt. The boy, however, slept sounder than ever
and his mouth was wide open. The woman who had come
nearer cried at once, Ha ! that 's a Ndkki (Neck,) see his
foh's teeth ! The Neck instantly vanished.*
The following Esthonian legend, though the Devil is the
subject, strongly resembles some of those of France and
Great Britain :
A man who had charge of the granary of a farm-house
was sitting one day moulding buttons in lead. The Devil
came by, saluted him, and said, "What are you doing
there ? " "I am moulding eyes." " Eyes ! could you make
me new ones ? " " To be sure I could ; but I have none by
me at present." " Will you then do it another time ? "
"That will I." "When shall I come again?" "When-
ever you please." Next day the Devil came to get his new
eyes. " Will you have them large or small ? " said the man.
" Very large." The man then put a large quantity of lead
down to melt, and said, " I cannot make them for you,
unless you first let me tie you fast." He then made him
lie on his back on a bench and tied him down with good
strong thick ropes. When the Devil was thus fast bound he
asked the man what his name was. " My name is Myself
(Issi)," replied he. "That's a good name, I know none
better." The lead was now melted ; the Devil opened his
eyes as wide as he could, expecting to get the new ones.
" Now, I 'm going to pour it out," said the man, and he
poured the melting lead into the eyes of the Devil, who
jumped up with the bench on his back, and ran away. As
he passed by some people who were ploughing, they asked
him " Who did that to you ? " " Myself did it ( Jm teggi)^
replied the Devil. The people laughed and said, " K you
did it yourself, keep it yourself." The Devil died of his new
eyes, and since then no one has seen the Devil any more.f
The Hungarians or Madyars (Magyars) as they call them-
* Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 459.
t Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 979. This is the fourth place where we have
met this story. Could they have all come from the Odyssey, the hero of
which tells the Cyclops, whom he blinds, that his name ig Nobody ?
490 EA.8TEBH EUEOPE.
selves, are, as we nave seen, a portion of the Finnish race.
Two collections of their popular tales have been published of
late years. The editor of one of them which we have read,*
assures us that he took them from the lips of an old
Hungarian soldier, who knew no language but his own,
"We therefore cannot but regard the tales as genuine,
though the mode and tone in which they are narrated by the
editor are not always the best. They contain no traits of
popular mythology, a circumstance not a little remarkable,
rather resembling the French and Italian Fairy tales.
Several of them, however, are very pleasing. We regret
that we have not seen the other collection, which is appa-
rently of greater value. f
SLAVES.
Whatsoe'er at eve had raised the workmen,
Did the Vila raze ere dawn of morning.
BOWBING, Servian Popular Poetry.
A DEMON, in the attire of a mourning widow, used, in the
Eastern Russia, to go through the fields at noon in harvest-
time, and break the legs and arms of the workmen, who
failed, when they saw her, to fall on their faces. There was
a remedy, however, against this. Trees, long venerated,
grew in the adjacent wood, the bark of which being laid on
the wound, removed the pain and healed it.J
The Vends believe in a similar being ; but a Vend knows
that when he converses with her for an hour together about
flax and the preparation of it, if he always contradicts her,
or says the paternoster backwards without stopping, he is
secure.
The Russians also believe in a species of water and wood-
* Goal, Marchen der Magyaren. Wien, 1822.
f 1 Mailath, Magyarische Sagen Mahrchen, etc., 2 vols, 8vo. Stutg. 1 837.
J Delrio, Lib. ii. Sect. 2. Boxhorn Resp. Mcecov. Par* I.
Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 447.
SLATES. 491
maids, called Eusalki. They are of a beautiful form, with
long green hair ; they swing and balance themselves on the
branches of trees bathe in lakes and rivers play on the
surface of the water and wring their locks on the green
meads at the water's-edge. It is chiefly at Whitsuntide
that they appear, and the people then singing and dancing,
weave garlands for them, which they cast into the stream.*
The following is the Polish form of a legend which we
have already met with in several places : t
There came to a nobleman an unknown man, who called
himself Iskrzycki (spark Qvjirestone), and offered to engage
in his service. The contract was drawn up and signed, when
the master perceived that Iskrzycki had horse's hoofs, and
he accordingly wanted to break off the agreement ; but the
servant stood on his right, and declared that he would enter
on his duties, even against his master's will. From this
time forwards he took up his abode invisibly in the stove,
and performed all the tasks set him. People gradually grew
accustomed to him, but at last the lady prevailed on her
lord to remove, and he hired another estate. His people
left the castle, and they had already gone the greater part of
the way, when on a bad part of the road the carriage was
near turning over, and the lady gave a loud cry of terror.
Immediately a voice answered from behind the carriage
" Never fear ! Iskrzycki is with you ! " The lord and his
lady now saw that there was no way of getting rid of him,
so they went back to the old house, and lived there on good
terms with their servant till the term of the engagement had
arrived.
The Servian ballads, that have lately appeared,}: have
made us acquainted with an interesting species of beings
called Vilas. These are represented as mountain-nymphs,
young and beautiful, clad in white, with long flying hair.
Their voice is said to resemble that of the woodpecker.
They shoot, according to popular belief, deadly arrows at
* Mone, vol. i. p. 1 44. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 460.
t Grimm, ut sup. p. 480.
J Published by Wuk and translated by Talvi and others into German, by
Bovvring into English.
402 EASTEKN EUROPE.
men, ar d sometimes carry off children, whom their mothers
in their anger have consigned to them or the devil : yet the
general character of the Vilas is to injure none but those who
intrude upon their kolos, or roundels.
The Vilas sometimes appear gaily dancing their kolos
beneath the branches of the Vishnia or Vistula cherry ; some-
times a Vila is introduced comforting the sorrows of an
enamoured deer; at other times collecting storms in the
heavens ; * now foretelling to a hero his impending death ; t
now ruthlessly casting down each night the walls of a rising
fortress, till a young and lovely female is immured within
them.J She usually rides a seven-year old hart, with a bridle
made of snakes.
The following are specimens of these Servian ballads :
Vila*.
CHERBT ! dearest Cherry !
Higher lift thy branches,
Under which the Vilas
Dance their magic roundels.
Them before Eadisha
Dew from flowers, lashes,
Leadeth on two Vilas,
To the third he sayeth
" Be thou mine, O Vila!
Thou shalt, with my mother,
In tbe cool shade seat thee ;
feott silk deftly spinning
From the golden distaff." J
* Bowring, p. 1 75. Sabejam oblake, Cloud-gatherer, is an epithet of the
Vila, answering to the N6^)eAr^y<;^T;s of the Grecian Zeus.
t Death of Kralwich Marko. Bowring, p. 97.
The building of Skadra. Ibid. p. 64.
We have made this translation from a German version in the Wienji
Jahrbiicher, vol. xxx. which is evidently more faithful than Bowring's.
SLATES. 193
Drcr
A TOTTX& deer track' d his way through the lone lorest
One lonely day another came in sadness
And the third dawn'd, and brought him sighs and sorrow j
Then he address' d him to the forest Vila :
" Toung deer," she said, " thou wild one of the forest !
Now tell me what great sorrow has oppress'd thee;
Why wanderest thou thus in the forest lonely :
Lonely one day another day in sadness
And the third day with sighs and anguish groaning ? "
And thus the young deer to the Vila answered :
" O thou sweet sister ! Vila of the forest !
Me has indeed a heavy grief befallen ;
For I once had a fawn, mine own beloved,
And one sad day she sought the running water ;
She enter'd it, but came not back to bless me.
Then, tell me, has she lost her way and wander'd ?
Was she pursued and captured by the huntsman 'f
Or has she left me ? has she wholly left me
Loving some other deer and I forgotten ?
Oh, if she has but lost her way, and wanders,
Teach her to find it bring her back to love me !
Oh, if she has been captured by the huntsman,
Then may a fate as sad as mine await him !
But if she has forsaken me if, faithless,
She loves another deer, and I forgotten
Then may the huntsman speedily o'ertake her/' *
We have already observed how almost all nations compare
female beauty to that of the beings of their legendary creed.
With the Servians the object of comparison is the lovely
* Bowringr, This version differs considerably from the German one of Talvi
We feel quite o>nv>nced that the English translator has mistaken the sense.
494 EASTEBN EUROPE.
Vila. " She is fairer than the mountain- Vila," is the highest
praise of woman's beauty. In the ballad of The Sister of
the Kapitan Leka, it is said of the heroine Rossandra, that
in no country, either Turkey, or the land of the Kauran, or
Jowrs, was her fellow to be found. No white Bula (Moham-
medan), no Vlachin (Greek), no slender Latiness (Roman
Catholic), could compare with her,
And who on the hills hath seen the Vila
E'en the Vila, brother, must to her yield.
The swiftness of the Vila also affords a subject of com-
parison : a fleet horse is said to be " Vilaish," or " swift
as a Vila."
The Morlacchi of Dalmatia, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson
informs us,* believe also in the Vila. They describe her as
a handsome female, who accompanies the man who is her
favourite everywhere he goes, and causes all his undertakings
to prosper. One thus favoured is termed Vilenik. Another
of their objects of belief is the Macieh, who appears in the
form of a boy, with a cap on his head, and is always
laughing. Any one to whom he appears gets the power
of commanding him. If ordered to bring money, he usually
steals it from one of the neighbours, and if taxed with his
dishonesty, he goes to the sea and comes back dripping and
with money.
* Dalmatia and Montenegro, etc.
AFRICANS, JEWS, ETC.
Lead from the hills the voice of riot comes,
Where Yumboes shout and beat their Jaloff drums.
T. K.
THIS division of our work is somewhat miscellaneous, not
being restricted to any particular race, or to any determinate
part of the earth's surface. It contains merely such matters
as appeared to us to be worthy of note, but which we could
not include in any of the preceding sections.
AFEICANS.
When evening's shades o'er Goree's isle extend,
The nimble Yumboes from the Paps descend,
Slily approach the natives' huts, and steal,
With secret hand, the pounded coos-coos meal.
T. K.
THE Jaloff inhabitants of the mainland of Africa, opposite
the isle of Goree, believe in a species of beings who have a
striking and surprising correspondence with the Gothic
Fairies. They call them Yumboes, and describe them aa
being about two feet high, of a white colour, as every thing
preternatural is in Africa. It is remarkable that, acting on
the same principle as the Greeks, who called their Furies
Eumenides, and the Scots and Irish, who style the Fairies
Good Neighbours, or Good People, the Africans call the
Yumboes, Bakhna Eakhna, or Good People. The dress of
496
the Yumboes exacily corresponds with that of the natives,
and they imitate their actions in every particular. They
attach themselves to particular families ; and whenever any
of their members die, the Yumboes are heard to lament
them, and to dance upon their graves. The Moors believe
the Yumboes to be the souls of their deceased friends.
The chief abode of the Yumboes is a subterraneous
dwelling on the Paps, the hills about three miles distant
from the coast. Here they dwell in great r/.agnificence, and
many wonderful stories are told of those persons, particu-
larly Europeans, who have been received and entertained in
the subterraneous residence of the Yumboes : of how they
were placed at richly furnished tables ; how nothing but
hands and feet were to be seen, which laid and removed the
various dishes ; of the numerous stories the underground
abode consisted of; the modes of passing from one to the
other without stairs, etc., etc.
In the evening the Yumboes come down to the habitation
of man, wrapped close in their pangs* with only their eyes
and nose risible. They steal to the huts, where the women
are pounding in mortars the coos-coos, or corn, watch till the
pounders are gone for sieves to searce the meal, and then
slily creep to the mortars, take out the meal, and carry it off
in their pangs, looking every moment behind them, to see if
they are observed or pursued ; or they put it into calabashes,
and arranging them selves in a row, like the monkeys, convey
it from hand to hand, till it is placed in safety.
They are also seen at night in their canoes, out fishing in
the bay. They bring their fish to land, and, going to the
fires kindled by the natives to keep away the wild beasts,
they steal each as much fire as will roast his fish. They
bury palm-wine, and when it becomes sour they drink of it
till it intoxicates them, and then make a great noise, beating
J aloft' drums on the hills.t
* The Pang (Span, pa&o, cloth) is an oblong piece of cotton cloth, which
the natives manufacture and wear wrapped round their bodies.
f- For the preceding account of the Yumboes we are indebted to a young
lady, who spent several years of her childhood at Goree. What she related tc
us she had heard from her maid, a Jaloff woman, who spoke no language but
Jaloff.
497
JEWS.
PSALM xci. 5. Cfiadlaki
And the Hazikeen shall not come near thy tents.
Ir has long been an established article of belief among the
Jews that there is a species of beings which they call
Shedeem,* Shehireem,t or Mazikeen. J These beings exactlv
correspond to the Arabian Jinn ; and the Jews hold that it
is by means of them that all acts of magic and enchantment
are performed.
The Talmud says that the Shedeem were the offspring of
Adam. After he had eaten of the Tree of life, Adam was
excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years. " In all
those years," saith Rabbi Jeremiah Ben Eliezar, " during
which Adam was under excommunication, he begat spirits,
demons, and spectres of the night, as it is written, ' Adam
lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat children in hi a
likeness and in his image,' which teaches, that till that time
he had not begotten them in his own likeness." In
Berashith Rabba, R. Simon says, " During all the one
hundred and thirty years that Adam was separate from Eve,
male spirits lay with her, and she bare by them, and female
spirits lay with Adam, and bare by him."
These Shedeem or Mazikeen are held to resemble the
* rP~\V from ~\T\e to lay waste, Dcut. xxxii. 17.
f Q'TJW fr m "IJW horreo, Isaiah, xiis 22.
+ i % P*TO from pn to hurt.
Moses Edrehi, our informant, says that the Mazikeen are called SM tb
Arabic language, snoon (.jJ i)> i- e- Jinn.
R K
493 JEWS.
angels in three things. They can see and not be seen ; they
have wings and can fly ; they know the future. In three
respects they resemble mankind : they eat and drink ; they
marry and have children; they are subject to death, lit
may be added, they have the power of assuming any form
they please ; and so the agreement between them and the
Jinn of the Arabs is complete.
Moses Edrehi, a learned Jew of Morocco, has translated
into Spanish for us several of the tales of the Mazikeen con-
tained in the Talmud and Rabbinical writings. We select
the following as specimens ; and according to our usual
custom, adhere strictly to our original.
Srofcrn
THEEE was a man who was very rich, and who had but one
only son. He bestowed upon him every kind of instruction,
so that he became very learned and of great talent.
Before his death the old man gave a great entertainment,
and invited all the chief people of the city ; and when the
entertainment was over, he called his son, and made him
swear, in the name of the great God of the whole universe,
that he never would travel or go out of his own country.
He then left him the whole of his riches on this condition,
and made him sign a paper to that effect, with sufficient
witnesses, in the presence of all that company, and he
gave the paper into the custody of one of the principal
persons.
Some years after the death of his father, there came a
very large ship from India, laden with merchandise of great
value. The captain when he arrived inquired after the
father of this young man, and the people said unto him that
he was dead, but that he had left a son, and they conducted
the captain to the young man's dwelling. The captain then
said unto him, " Sir, I have brought hither much property
JEWS. 499
belonging to thy father, and as there is much property of thy
father's still remaining, if thou wilt come with me, thou
wilt be able to obtain much riches, for thou canst recover all
that is owing unto thy father." He made answer unto the
captain and said, that he could not travel, as he had taken an
oath unto his father that he never would go out of the
country. The captain, however, ceased not every day to
persuade him, until at length he gave him his word that he
would go with him. He then went unto the learned Eabbin
that were at that time, to see if they would give him abso-
lution respecting the oath he had sworn unto his father.
But they counselled him not to leave the country. But his
eagerness to acquire more riches was so great, that he would
not hearken unto the counsel of any one. So he finally took
his resolution, and went away with the captain.
]N"ow, when they were in the midst of the sea, lo ! the ship
went to pieces, and all the merchandise that was on board
was lost, and all the people were drowned, save only this
young man, who got upon a plank. And the watec carried
him about from one place unto another, until it cast him upon
the land. But here he was in danger of starving, and had
nothing to eat but the herbs of the field, or to drink but the
running water.
One day an exceeding large eagle drew near unto him, and
seated himself on the ground before him. As he was now
reduced to despair, and had b'ttle hopes of being able to
preserve his life, and knew not where he was, he resolved to
mount this eagle, and to sit upon his back. He accordingly
mounted the bird, and the eagle flew with him until he
brought him unto a country that was inhabited, where he
left him.* When he saw that he was in a land where there
were people, he was greatly rejoiced, and he immediately
inquired where the great Rabbi of that country dwelt. But
all the people that were there stood raocking at him, and
cursing him, and saying that he should die, because he had
broken the oath he had sworn unto his father. "When he
heard this he was greatly astonished at their knowing it,
but he went to the house of the chief person among them
who said unto him that he should abide in his house unti]
Com p. Laiic, Thousand and One Nights, iii. p. 91.
KK 2
500 JEWS.
they did him justice, because in that country they were all
Mazikeen. and they wanted to kill him because he deserved
death on account of the oath to his father, which he had
broken. " Therefore," said he, " when they will sentence
thee, and will lead thee forth to punishment, cry aloud and
say, I call for justice before God and the king ! The king
will then do his utmost to deliver thee out of their hands,
and thou wilt remain alive."
Accordingly, when he was tried before the senate, and
before their princes and great men, he was found guilty, and
sentenced to death, according to the law of God. And when
they led him forth to be slain, he put his fingers before
God, and before his majesty the king.* When they heard
this, they took him before the king, who examined him, and
saw that, in justice, he was worthy of death. But the king
asked him if he had studied or knew the law of Moses, or
had studied the Talmud, and various authors ; and he saw
that he was very learned, and a great Rabbi, and it grieved
him much that he should be put to death. The king, there-
fore, begged that they would defer his execution until the
following day, for he wished to give his case a little further
consideration. At this they all held their peace, and
departed.
JS"ext day all the senators, governors, chief men, and all
the people of the city, came together to see and hear the
sentence of the king, and also to behold the death of this
man, as it would be for them a very curious sight. Now,
while they were all standing there assembled, before the
king came forth from his palace to give his judgement, he
called for this man who was condemned to death, and asked
him if he was willing to remain with him and teach his
children what he knew, as, in such case, he would do his
utmost to deliver him from death. He made answer that he
was willing. The king then went forth from his palace, and
seated himself upon his throne of judgement, and called all
the chief men, and all the people, and spake unto them in
this sort :
" Sirs, it is a truth that you have adjudged this man to
death, which he deserves : but there is no rule without au
* To signify that he appealed to them.
JEWS. 501
exception, and I believe that this man hath not yet come to
his time that he should die. For if it was the "will of God
that he should die, he would have died along with the rest
of the people who were on board the same ship with him
when the ship went to pieces, and not have escaped as he
hath done. Again, if it was the will of God that he should
die, he would not have reached the land, and an eagle would
not have come and brought him hither amongst us. In like
manner, God hath delivered him from you, for he might
have been slain by you. He hath thus been delivered out
of these manifold and great perils, and it therefore seemeth
unto me that he should live ; as for the sin that he hath
committed, in breaking his oath, it is between him and God,
who shall reward him for it one day or other. He shall
therefore be free from us ; and I ordain that no one shall
touch him, or do him any evil ; and whosoever troubleth
him shall be put to death."
When they heard these words of the king, they all ex-
pressed themselves well pleased at his decision ; and the
man remained in the house of the king, teaching his chil-
dren. He continued in the palace for three years, highly
respected by every one, and greatly esteemed by the king
for his talents and his capacity.
Now it came to pass that the king was obliged to set
forth with an army, to war against one of the provinces of
his kingdom which had rebelled. As he was on the point
to set out, he called for this man, and gave him all the keys
of his palaces and his treasures, and said unto him, " Behold !
tliou mayest view every thing that is in the land and in the
palaces ; but thou hast here a golden key of one palace which
thou must beware of opening, for on the day that thou
openest it I will slay thee." Then, charging the people to
respect and attend to him, the king took his leave of him
and departed. When the king was gone, he began to open
and examine all the palaces, and all the curiosities, which
were such as he had never seen in his life, and all the
treasures of the greatest riches that could be in the world ;
in short, he saw mountains upon mountains of diamonds of
great weight, and other things of various kinds, most admi-
rable to behold. But when he had seen all, he was not
satisfied ; he wanted to see more. And as his desire was
n02 JEWS.
very great, he would open the other palace ; find he thought
he should suffer no injury thereby, so that he resolved to
open it. Five or six times he drew nigh to open it, and as
often he drew back in fear : at length he took courage and
opened it.
There were seven apartments, one within the other, and
every apartment was full of different rich and curious things
In the seventh apartment was the princess, with other
women, all richly dressed, and very beautiful. "When the
princess saw him, she gave a sigh, and said, "Man, it
grieveth me for thee ! how art thou come hither ? Where
is thy regard for the advice of my father, who entreated thee
not to open this palace, when he gave thee the keys of his
palaces and his treasures, and straitly charged thee not to
come hither ? Know now that my father is coming, and
that he will surely slay thee. But if thou wilt follow my
counsel, and wilt espouse me, I will save thee ; but thou
must give unto me thy oath, that thou wilt do it." He
replied that he would, and he sware unto her, and gave it
unto her in writing. She then said unto him, " When my
father asketh thee why thou hast opened the palace, thou
shalt make answer, and say that thou desirest to marry me,
and then he will let thee escape, and not slay thee."
He had scarcely ended speaking with her, when the king
entered, with his sword drawn in his hand, to slay him.
Then he threw himself on the ground, and began to entreat
him, and said that he was desirous to marry the princess.
When the king heard this, he was rejoiced that he would
remain there, and so teach his children all the knowledge he
possessed ; for he was of great capacity in everything. He
therefore teld him, that he would leave it to his daughter,
whether she would have him or not. The king then asked
his daughter, and she replied, " What your majesty doth for
me is well done." The king then gave his consent for her
marriage with him. The contract was made, and notice was
given to all the chief persons of the city, and the wedding
was appointed to be in two months.
When the appointed time was come, all the chief men of
all the provinces of the kingdom were invited, and a great
feast was made to celebrate the marriage of the princess ;
and they were married to their great joy and happiness.
JEWS. 503
On the first night of their marriage, when the husband
and the wife were alone, she said unto him, " Behold ! I am
not like one of you, and thou seest that, thanks be unto
God ! there is no defect in my body; if, therefore, though
we have been publicly married with the consent of my
father, thou art not content to live with me as husband and
wife, thou art at liberty, and no one shall know it ; but if
thou art content with all thy will, thou must swear unto me
that thou wilt never leave me." He replied, that he was
well content with everything ; and he sware unto her, and
wrote it down on paper, and signed it with his hand, and
gave it unto her ; and they lived happily as man and wife
for many years, and they had children ; and his first-born he
named Solomon, after the name of king Solomon.
Immediately after the marriage, the king caused it to be
proclaimed that his son-in-law should be the second person
in the kingdom to give judgement, and to punish such as
should be deserving of punishment. This f.he king did with
the consent of all the great men of the country.
But, after some years, this man began to be very anxious
and melancholy ; and his wife asked him many times what it
was that ailed him, but he would never tell her the cause :
yet she persuaded him so much, that at length he told it
unto her, and said, that when he looked upon his children
he remembered the other children that he had, and his other
wife, and that he yearned to behold them once more. Hia
wife replied, " My dear husband, let not this give thee any
uneasiness, for if thou wishest to see them, tho 
