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
The grandfather of Reor, who dwelt at Fuglekärr (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 daughter. 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 (_bröllup_) 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 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_),[169] 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,[170]
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 Foglekärsten,
had a number of children by this wife of his, whom he fetched out of the
hill, among whom was the aforesaid Reor. Olaf Stenson also in Stora
Rijk, who died last year, was Reor's sister's son.[171]
_The Altar-Cup in Aagerup._
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.[172]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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