The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notesLawrence, Robert Means
History
The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes
Lawrence, Robert Means
Folklore
And to point the moral of this legend, and as a warning to cheats,
the two horse-shoes which the smith had completed were nailed up in the
village church at Schwarzenstein.
5. According to an old tradition, the Lapp king, Olaf Skötkonung
(995-1030), wishing to become a Christian, asked his royal contemporary,
Ethelred II. of England, to send him a teacher. In response to this
request Bishop Siegfried and three missionaries came to Sweden, and,
landing on the southwestern coast, encamped the first night at Wexio, on
Lake Sodre. Here the bishop saw in a vision a great company of angels,
and thereupon determined to build a church at that place. The pagan
inhabitants, however, were hostile to the undertaking, and seized the
three missionaries, Winaman, Unaman, and Sunaman, whom they beheaded, and
caused their heads to be thrown into the water.
One night soon after this sad event Siegfried was walking along the
shore of the lake, sighing and praying, when he espied three luminous
objects approaching on the water, borne onward by the waves, and soon
he recognized them as the heads of his friends. And, behold, the first
head said, “The dead shall be avenged.” And a voice from the second head
exclaimed, “When?” Then replied the third head in solemn tones, “On
their children and children’s children.” This prophecy was not, however,
fulfilled to the letter, for through Siegfried’s intercession Olaf
consented to spare the lives of the murderers, on condition that they
should build a Christian church in Wexio; and this church, which still
exists, has on its coat-of-arms, or seal, the representation of three
severed heads, in memory of the occurrence and its legend. In this church
hung formerly a shoe of Wodan’s famous steed Sleipnir, as a souvenir of
the following tradition: When the church bells rang for the first time
to summon the people to mass, Wodan came riding over the mountains, and,
when nearing Wexio, Sleipnir, in a sudden fright, struck a rock with one
of his feet, and the impress of the powerful blow remains in the rock to
this day. But the shoe fell off and was placed in the church.[229]
6. Many years ago, so runs an old legend, a man obtained employment at a
farm in Norway, where, unknown to him, the mistress was a witch. Although
the man had plenty of good wholesome food, he did not thrive upon it, but
became thinner each day. Being troubled at this, he sought the counsel
of a wise man, from whom he learned the true character of his mistress.
He learned, moreover, that she had been in the habit of transforming him
into a horse at night while he slept, and riding him to Troms Church, a
fact which fully accounted for his leanness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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