The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
[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 är så godt i det Botnaberg at bo,
Vore ikke den leda Bjälleko._"
"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 Lujhmân in Afghanistân (Masson, Narrative,
etc., iii. 297); but there it was the Shâitan (_Satan_) that cheated
the farmers. The legends are surely independent fictions.
[177] _Oral._ Gudmanstrup is in Zealand. In Ouröe, 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 öine 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-Märchen, 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!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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