Denmark -- History -- To 1241; Folklore -- Scandinavia
The "Beggar that stole the Lady" (told of Snio Siwaldson and the
daughter of the King of the Goths), with its brisk dialogue, must have
been one of the most artful of the folk-tales worked on by Saxo or his
informants; but it is only half told, unfortunately.
The "Crafty Soaker" is another excellent comic folk-tale. A terrible
famine made the king (Snio) forbid brewing to save the barley for
bread, and abolished all needless toping. The Soaker baffled the king by
sipping, never taking a full draught. Rebuked, he declared that he never
drank, but only sucked a drop. This was forbidden him for the future, so
he sopped his bread in ale, and in that inconvenient manner continued to
get drunk, excusing himself with the plea that though it was forbidden
to drink or sip beer, it was not forbidden to eat it. When this was in
turn prohibited, the Soaker gave up any pretence, and brewed and
drank unabashed, telling the angry king that he was celebrating his
approaching funeral with due respect, which excuse led to the repeal of
the obnoxious decree. A good Rabelaisian tale, that must not have
been wide-spread among the Danish topers, whose powers both Saxo and
Shakespeare have celebrated, from actual experience no doubt.
The "Magician's tricks to elude pursuit", so common an incident in
our fairy tales, e.g., Michael Scot's flight, is ascribed here to the
wonder-working and uncanny Finns, who, when pursued, cast behind
them successively three pebbles, which become to their enemies' eyes
mountains, then snow, which appeared like a roaring torrent. But they
could not cast the glamour on Arngrim a third time, and were forced to
submit. The glamour here and in the case of the breaking of Balder's
barrow is akin to that which the Druid puts on the sons of Uisnach.
The tale of the king who shuts up his daughter in an "earth-house" or
underground chamber with treasures (weapons and gold and silver), in
fear of invasion, looks like a bit of folk-tale, such as the "Hind in
the Wood", but it may have a traditional base of some kind here.
A folk-tale, very imperfectly narrated, is the "Clever King's Daughter",
who evidently in the original story had to choose her suitor by his feet
(as the giantess in the prose Edda chooses her husband), and was able to
do so by the device she had practised of sewing up her ring in his leg
sometime before, so that when she touched the flesh she could feel the
hardness of the ring beneath the scar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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