The Fairy Mythology. Thomas Keightley

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СКАЧАТЬ got cleverly over it, but the poor bride fell on her face. At the sight of this the girl could not restrain herself, but burst out a-laughing, and that instant the whole vanished from her sight. Next day, to her utter amazement, she found that what she had taken to be nothing but chips, were so many pieces of pure gold.[132]

      A dairy-maid at a place called Skibshuset (the Ship-house), in Odense, was not so fortunate. A colony of Elves had taken up their abode under the floor of the cowhouse, or it is more likely, were there before it was made a cowhouse. However, the dirt and filth that the cattle made annoyed them beyond measure, and they gave the dairy-maid to understand that if she did not remove the cows, she would have reason to repent it. She gave little heed to their representations; and it was not very long till they set her up on top of the hay-rick, and killed all the cows. It is said that they were seen on the same night removing in a great hurry from the cowhouse down to the meadow, and that they went in little coaches; and their king was in the first coach, which was far more stately and magnificent than the rest. They have ever since lived in the meadow.[133]

      

      The Elves are extremely fond of dancing in the meadows, where they form those circles of a livelier green which from them are called Elf-dance (Elfdans). When the country people see in the morning stripes along the dewy grass in the woods and meadows, they say the Elves have been dancing there. If any one should at midnight get within their circle, they become visible to him, and they may then illude him. It is not every one that can see the Elves; and one person may see them dancing while another perceives nothing. Sunday children, as they are called, i.e. those born on Sunday, are remarkable for possessing this property of seeing Elves and similar beings. The Elves, however, have the power to bestow this gift on whomsoever they please. People also used to speak of Elf-books which they gave to those whom they loved, and which enabled them to foretell future events.

      The Elves often sit in little stones that are of a circular form, and are called Elf-mills (Elf-quärnor); the sound of their voice is said to be sweet and soft like the air.[134]

      The Danish peasantry give the following account of their Ellefolk or Elve-people.

      The Elle-people live in the Elle-moors. The appearance of the man is that of an old man with a low-crowned hat on his head; the Elle-woman is young and of a fair and attractive countenance, but behind she is hollow like a dough-trough. Young men should be especially on their guard against her, for it is very difficult to resist her; and she has, moreover, a stringed instrument, which, when she plays on it, quite ravishes their hearts. The man may be often seen near the Elle-moors, bathing himself in the sunbeams, but if any one comes too near him, he opens his mouth wide and breathes upon them, and his breath produces sickness and pestilence. But the women are most frequently to be seen by moonshine; then they dance their rounds in the high grass so lightly and so gracefully, that they seldom meet a denial when they offer their hand to a rash young man. It is also necessary to watch cattle, that they may not graze in any place where the Elle-people have been; for if any animal come to a place where the Elle-people have spit, or done what is worse, it is attacked by some grievous disease which can only be cured by giving it to eat a handful of St. John's wort, which had been pulled at twelve o'clock on St. John's night. It might also happen that they might sustain some injury by mixing with the Elle-people's cattle, which are very large, and of a blue colour, and which may sometimes be seen in the fields licking up the dew, on which they live. But the farmer has an easy remedy against this evil; for he has only to go to the Elle-hill when he is turning out his cattle and to say, "Thou little Troll! may I graze my cows on thy hill?" And if he is not prohibited, he may set his mind at rest.[135]

      The following ballads and tales will fully justify what has been said respecting the tone of melancholy connected with the subject of the Elves.[136]

Sir Olof in the Elve-Dance.

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      Sir Olof he rode out at early day,

       And so came he unto an Elve-dance gay.

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      The Elve-father reached out his white hand free,

       "Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      "O nought I will, and nought I may,

       To-morrow will be my wedding-day."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      And the Elve-mother reached out her white hand free,

       "Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      "O nought I will, and nought I may,

       To-morrow will be my wedding-day."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      And the Elve-sister reached out her white hand free,

       "Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      "O nought I will, and nought I may,

       To-morrow will be my wedding-day."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      And the bride she spake with her bride-maids so,

       "What may it mean that the bells thus go?"

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      "'Tis the custom of this our isle," they replied;

       "Each young swain ringeth home his bride."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      "And the truth from you to conceal I fear,

       Sir Olof is dead, and lies on his bier."

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      And on the morrow, ere light was the day,

       In Sir Olof's house three corpses lay.

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.

      It was Sir Olof, his bonny bride,

       And eke his mother, of sorrow she died.

       The dance it goes well,

       So well in the grove.[137]

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