[163] _Sabel och Mrd._ These furs are always mentioned in the northern ballads, as the royal rewards of distinguished actions.

[164] This fine ancient Visa was taken down from recitation in West Gothland. The corresponding Danish one of Herr Tonne is much later.

[165] Niebuhr, speaking of the Celsi Ramnes, says, "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 _stout_ (_stolz_, _stolt_) had also the sense of noble, high-born.

Do now your devoir, yonge knightes _proud_.

_Knight's Tale._

Up stood the queen and ladies _stout_.

_Launfal._

[166] _Men jag vet at sorge ar tung._

[167] Wain, our readers hardly need be informed, originally signified any kind of carriage: see Faerie Queene, _passim_. It is the Ang. Sax.

?n, and not a contraction of _waggon_.

[168] From Vermland and Upland.

[169] 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.

[170] _Brandcreatur_, a word of which we cannot ascertain the exact meaning. We doubt greatly if the following _hielmeta_ be helmets.

[171] Grimm (Deut. Mythol. p. 435) has extracted this legend from the Bahuslan of odman, who, as he observes, and as we may see, relates it quite seriously, and with the real names of persons. It is we believe the only legend of the union of a _man_ with one of the hill-folk.

[172] "Three kings' ransoms" is a common maximum with a Danish peasant when speaking of treasure.

[173]

"Rid paa det Bolde, Og ikke paa det Knolde."

[174] _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 Tam o' Shanter, caught the horse's hind leg, but was only able to keep one of the cocks of his shoe: hence the bridge was called Hagbro, _i. e._ Cock Bridge.

[175] _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 cannot live here any longer, they keep such eternal ringing and dinging!"

"There is a high hill," says Kalm (Resa, &c. p. 136), "near Botna in Sweden, in which formerly dwelt a Troll. When they got up bells in Botna church, and he heard the ringing of them, he is related to have said:

"_Det ar s godt i det Botnaberg at bo, Vore ikke den leda Bjalleko._"

"Pleasant it were in Botnahill to dwell, Were it not for the sound of that plaguey bell."

[176] This story is told by Rabelais with his characteristic humour and extravagance. 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 Afghanistan (Masson, Narrative, etc., iii. 297); but there it was the Shaitan (_Satan_) that cheated the farmers. The legends are surely independent fictions.

[177] _Oral._ Gudmanstrup is in Zealand. In Ouroe, a little island close to Zealand, there is a hill whence the Trolls used to come down and 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 Atlas_, i. 10. There is a similar story in Grimm's Deutsche Sagen, i. p. 55.

[178] This legend is oral.

[179]

_Tie stille, barn min!

Imorgen kommer Fin, Fa'er din, Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares oine og hjerte at lege med._

[180] _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 note on this story, notice the unexpected manner in which, in the Thousand and One Days, or Persian Tales, the princess Turandot learns the name of Calaf.

[181]

_Wind och Veder!

Du har satt spiran spedar!_

Others say it was

_Blaster! satt spiran vaster!_ Blester! set the pinnacle westwards!

Or,

_Slat! satt spiran ratt!_ Slatt! set the pinnacle straight!

[182] Afzelius Sago-hafder, iii. 83. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 515.

[183] This event happened in Jutland. The Troll's dread of thunder seems to be founded in the mythologic narratives of Thor's enmity to the Trolls.

[184] Groute, Danish _Grod_, is a species of food like furmety, made of shelled oats or barley. It is boiled and eaten with milk or butter.

[185]

_Hor du Plat, Siig til din Kat, At Knurremurre er dod._

[186] The scene of this story is in Zealand. The same is related of a hill called Ornehoi 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.

[187] This legend was orally related to Mr. Thiele.

[188] Hulpher, Samlingen om Jamtland. Westeras, 1775. p. 210 _ap._ Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 425.

[189] odmans Bahuslan, _ap._ 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 on so menacing an attitude that they both deemed it advisable to go away.

[190] Thiele, iv. 120. In both these legends we find the tradition of the artistic skill of the Duergar and of Volundr still retained by the peasantry: see Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 270.