Herman Hofberg

“ Borgåsa Mountain. On the steps stood the mountain queen, so beautiful and fine, who inquired of the rider how things were going at the wedding feast in Grimland.
“The food is salt and the oil is sour,” answered he. “That stingy farmer has hidden the wine and meat in the cellar where no one can find it. Now, your husband sends greeting, and requests that you give me the Hålde hat, that he may be able to find its hiding-place.”
Without mistrust the queen gave him the enchanted hat, whereupon the young peasant hastened back to the festivities. ”

“ Early one morning the Lady of Pintorp stood on the castle steps watching the people congregate for the day’s work. Noticing an unfortunate fellow a little behind time, she flew into a rage, pouring upon him a flood of abuse and curses, and in punishment commanded him to fell the largest oak to be found upon the estate, and to carry it, before evening, uncut, top foremost, to the garden. ”

“ No one has, however, dared venture to search for this treasure, and luckily, for with property of giants, blessings do not go.
This giant had a daughter, so beautiful that he who once saw her could never drive thoughts of her from his mind. Among the few whose fortune it was to see her was a young peasant from the estate of Rom, adjacent to the mountain. When he was one day out searching for the horses, which had gone astray, he suddenly came upon the wonderfully beautiful maiden, sitting upon the side of the mountain, in the sunshine, playing on her harp. ”

“ In the parish of Näsinge, two poor sisters once found service with a rich farmer. All through the summer they herded their master’s flocks on the mountain sides, whiling away their time in relating legends of kings and abducted princesses.
“If only some prince would carry me away to his gilded palace,” said the younger, one day.
“Hush! Do not talk so wickedly,” remonstrated the elder. “The Trolls might hear you, when it would go hard with you.” ”

“ Dark heaths cover a good portion of the parish, and from their dull brown surface rises, here and there, a lonely, cheerless mountain. One of these is Folkared’s Cliff, in the southern part of the parish, noted of old as the abiding-place of little Trolls and Pigmies.
One chilly autumn day a peasant, going from Hogared, in Ljungby, to Folkared, in Sibbarp, in order to shorten his journey took a short cut by way of the cliff, upon reaching which he perceived a Pigmy about the size of a child seven or eight years old, sitting upon a stone crying. ”

“ In this mountain dwells the Urko, a monster cow of traditionary massiveness, which, in former times, when she was yet loose, plowed the earth, making what is now Lake Sommen and its many fjords. At last [132] she was captured and fettered by a Troll man from Tulleram, who squeezed a horseshoe around the furious animal’s neck and confined her in Urberg. For food she has before her a large cow-hide from which she may eat a hair each Christmas eve, but when all the hairs are consumed, she will be liberated and the destruction of Ydre and all the world is to follow. ”

“ Why is there not, at least, a watchman or an attendant? There must be some unusual reason for such a condition of things.
Let us listen to the narration of a good old woman, resident in the neighborhood, who once gave us the story. We use her words, which, may be, enter too much into the detail, but bear with them the natural freshness and coloring that, it is hoped, will not be tedious to the reader. We are given to understand that if we will have the story we must begin at the beginning, and that is, like “Milton’s Paradise Lost,” with the beginning of all things. ”

“ From the Troll cap he received such power that he could take a sack of rye under each arm and a barrel of fish upon his back, and fly as lightly through the air as with no burden whatever.
“It was wrong of me and hard on the merchants,” said Johan, “but it was the fault of the Trolls. If there were no Trolls in the world the merchants would become rich, but now they must pay tribute, and so are kept on the verge of bankruptcy.” And Johan was done. ”

“ My ale cans are all empty,” answered the housewife.
“Very good! Maybe you can lend me a little milk for my little child that is sick in the mountain.”
“Milk! Where should I get milk? My cows are all farrow,” said the woman.
“Very well,” said the Troll woman, and went her way.
The housewife laughed in her sleeve, and thought that she had escaped the Trolls cheaply; but when she inspected her larder it was found that she had really told the truth to the Troll woman. The meal boxes were swept clean, the ale barrels were empty, and the new milch cows, to the last one, farrow. ”

“ People predicted that such a heartless man could not possibly be at rest in his grave, and true to the prediction, Bille, after his death and burial, came every night, in spirit, to Rosendal. Halting his white team in the court-yard, with stealthy steps he would make his way to his former bed-chamber where he would spend the night until cock-crow. If the bed had been prepared all was quiet in the chamber, otherwise such a dreadful noise followed that there was no such thing as sleep in the castle. ”

“ The peasant at once understanding who it was, not of the kind to be easily frightened, knowing that her father had an abundance of riches, and thinking it was no worse for him than for many others to marry into the giant family, approached her, under cover of the shrubbery, until he was quite near, when he threw his knife between her and the mountain, and as “steel charms a Troll,” or others of the supernatural family, she was obliged, whether or not she would, to follow him to his home. ”

“ In a rage, Pelle threw the dollar piece after the vanishing figure, at the same time calling out:
“I will take no pay from you for such a deed. Here you have your gift again, you detestable Troll.”
A hoarse laugh answered from the mountain.
Pelle went home. The child was absent. His wife cried, but Pelle kept still and went to the ale house. He had no money with which to buy brandy in order to drown his sorrows, but after his old custom he stuck his fingers in his vest pocket to feel if there might not be a penny there. Behold! There was the dollar piece which he had recently cast from him. ”

“ A poor old woman of the human family living near Soåsan, in a little hut, was one time in great distress, her table bare and no one near to help her, with famine, already a guest in her hut, menacing her with terrible glare. ”

“ About this time it happened that a farmer, returning from the market of Skagersholm, where he had been with a load of produce, found quarters for the night with an old man at Tveden. The evening conversation turned upon the hidden treasure, and the many unsuccessful attempts to recover it that had been made, when the old man instructed his guest to procure a pair of bull calves, upon which there should not be a single black hair, and to feed them for three years on skimmed milk, whereby they would acquire the necessary strength to drag the wagon out of the creek. ”

“ When they came later to their first camping place, Rossberg, about four miles from Soller Island, Malin was seen to fall upon her knees and give herself up to earnest prayer, but just as the evening sun hid himself behind a mountain, she sank lifeless upon a stone, which even to this day is called “Malin’s Church,” and is dressed every midsummer by the herdsmen with fresh leaves and fragrant flowers. [205]
1 In other regions it is related that heralding an epidemic, a little bird flies around the country where men are plowing, and, perched upon the ox-yokes, twitters its warning. ”

“ When he failed to find his mistress there he walked around the meadow and came, finally, to the mountain, where his attention was attracted to the crown hanging in the tree. He now understood what had happened, and in anguish drew his sword and pierced his body with it. When the young woman awoke, the giant woman commanded her son to carry her back to the spring. ”

“ At Pintorp, so goes the story, lived a nobleman who, at his death, yet a young man, left his goods and estates to his widow. Instead of proving a good mistress to her numerous dependents, she impoverished them in all possible ways and treated them with the greatest cruelty. Under the castle she had deep cells, the terrors of which, on the slightest provocation, many a poor innocent creature was made to experience. ”

“ As he neared the stack he discovered it in bright flames, and around it stood the mother and her three children drawing the coal. They drew and slacked so that fire, smoke and sparks filled the air high toward the heavens, but instead of pine branches, ordinarily used for slacking, they had bushy tails, with which, after dipping them in the snow, they beat the fire.
When Nils had contemplated this awhile, he crept stealthily back to the pine whose trunk he made echo by three blows from his ax, so that it was heard far away at Harg Mountain. ”

“ The young man listened to his mother’s instructions, and, betaking himself, the following Thursday evening, to a convenient hiding place near the sound, he waited, with impatience, the coming of the swans. The sun was just sinking behind the trees when the young man’s ears were greeted by a whizzing in the air, and the three swans settled down upon the beach, as on their former visit.
As soon as they had laid off their swan attire they were again transformed into the most beautiful maidens, and, springing out upon the white sand, they were soon enjoying themselves in the water. ”

“ In the mountain of Boråseröd, which is located in the parish of Svarteborg, there lived, in ancient days, a giant. As with all the giant people, he has disappeared since the coming in of Christianity. Some say that he died, but others believe that he moved to Dovre, in Norway, where giants betook themselves when disturbed by the church bells. [92]
However, there is even to-day a hollow in the mountain which is called “the giant’s door,” and within the mountain, it is believed there are vaults filled with the giant’s gold. ”

“ In the forge where the Tomts have established themselves, the smith may take his rest in confidence that they will awaken him by a blow on the sole of the foot when it is time for him to turn the iron. ”

“ When St. Jaffen, “the Apostle of the North,” was one time riding through Jämtland from the borders of Norway, his way led along a beautiful green valley, in the parish of Åre. Becoming weary, he dismounted and laid himself down for a nap. When he awoke it occurred to him that such a garden spot must some day be inhabited by mankind, so, selecting a slab of stone, he cut in its surface the following prophetic lines:
“When Swedish men adopt foreign customs
And the land loses its old honor,
Yet, shall stand the Stone in Grönan Dal. ”

“ An interest in the Swedish people, their language, their literature and history; the important part the traditions of a people play in their history, character and domestic life, and that the traditions of the world play in its history and that of mankind, and that I would, if possible, add to the growing interest in that far-away, beautiful country, and that generous, hospitable people, have been the incentives to the labor involved in this translation; a labor not unmixed with pleasure, and not a little of that pleasure coming from the encouragement of my Swedish acquaintances. ”

“ It happened in the last century that a great number of the mountain Lapps had pitched their tents in the vicinity of Qvikkjokk. It was at the season when the court and fair were in session in Jokkmokk. In the absence of the older people, in attendance at court or fair, the youths and maids remaining at home let themselves out for a good time at all kinds of games. An old Lapp woman, knowing that the Kadnihaks, or Trolls, living in the adjacent mountains would not tolerate such a confusion, warned the young people, but in vain. ”

“ Sometimes, but not so often, they appear in the folk-lore as the capricious rulers of the streams which they inhabit. It is believed, in certain regions that one should not grind grain on the night before Christmas, for at that time the nymphs are out in all the streams, and if they find a mill going they stop it, break it, or grind at such a furious rate that the millstones burst. ”

“ A farmer, who himself never looked after his property, had in his employ a lazy and negligent servant. One dry summer the man rode his master’s horse, many days in succession, to a pasture where there was no water, without first giving it drink, as he had been instructed. So the poor animal was thus left to suffer through the long dry period.
It happened one day that the farmer would go to the city, and commanded the servant to fetch the horse from the pasture. The man went, but search where he would, no horse could be found. ”