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016 - Danish Popular Legends · Fairytales and Short Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

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  Speaker 1: Section sixteen of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and Short Stories,
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  Speaker 1: Volume six. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Diana Schmidt. Hans
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  Speaker 1: Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and Short Stories, Volume six, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six to eighteen seventy three by Hans Christian Andersen,
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  Speaker 1: translated by H. P. Paul Danish Popular Legends, eighteen seventy.
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  Speaker 1: Denmark is rich in old legends of historical persons, churches
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  Speaker 1: and manors, of hills, of fields and bottomless moors, sayings
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  Speaker 1: from the days of the great plague, from the times
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  Speaker 1: of war and peace. The sayings live in books and
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  Speaker 1: on the tongues of the people. They fly far about
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  Speaker 1: like a flock of birds, but still are as different
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  Speaker 1: from one another as the thrush is from the owl,
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  Speaker 1: as the wood pigeon from the gulf. Listen to me,
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  Speaker 1: and I will tell you some of them. It happened
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  Speaker 1: one evening in days of yore, when the enemy were
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  Speaker 1: pillaging the Danish country, that a battle had been fought
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  Speaker 1: and won by the Danes, and many killed and wounded
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  Speaker 1: lay on the field of battle. One of these, an enemy,
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  Speaker 1: had lost both his legs by a shot. A Danish
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  Speaker 1: soldier standing near by, had just taken out a bottle
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  Speaker 1: filled with beer and was about to put it to
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  Speaker 1: his mouth when the badly wounded man asked him for
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  Speaker 1: a drink. As he stopped to hand him the bottle,
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  Speaker 1: the enemy discharged his pistol at him, but the shot missed.
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  Speaker 1: The soldier drew his bottle back again, drank half of it,
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  Speaker 1: and gave the remaining hand to his enemy, only saying, you, rascal,
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  Speaker 1: now you will only get half of it. The king, afterward,
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  Speaker 1: hearing of this, granted the soldier and his descendants an
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  Speaker 1: armorial bearing of nobility, on which was painted a half
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  Speaker 1: filled bottle in memory of his deed. There is a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful tradition worth telling about the church bell of Farum.
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  Speaker 1: The parsonage stood close by the church. It was a
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  Speaker 1: dark night, laid in the fall, and the minister was
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  Speaker 1: sitting up at a late hour preparing his Sabbath sermon
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  Speaker 1: when he heard a slight, strange sound from the large
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  Speaker 1: church bell. No wind was blowing, and the sound was
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  Speaker 1: inexplicable to him. He got up, took the keys, and
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  Speaker 1: went into the church. As he entered the church, the
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  Speaker 1: sound stopped suddenly, but he heard a faint sigh from above.
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  Speaker 1: Who is there disturbing thee of the church, he asked
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  Speaker 1: in a loud voice. Footsteps were heard from the tower,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw in the passageway a little boy advancing
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  Speaker 1: toward him. Be not angry, said the child. I slipped
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  Speaker 1: in here when the vesper service was rung. My mother
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  Speaker 1: is very sick. And now the little boy could not
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  Speaker 1: say more for the tears that choked him. The minister
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  Speaker 1: patted him on the cheek and encouraged him to be
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  Speaker 1: frank and tell him all about it. They say that
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  Speaker 1: my mother, my sweet good mother, is going to die.
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  Speaker 1: But I knew that when one is sick unto death,
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  Speaker 1: he may recover again and live. If in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the night one dares enter the church and scrape
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  Speaker 1: off a little rust from the large church bell, that
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  Speaker 1: is a safeguard against death. Therefore I came here and
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  Speaker 1: hid myself until I heard the clock strike twelve. I
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  Speaker 1: was so afraid. I thought of all the dead ones,
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  Speaker 1: and of their coming into the church. I dared not
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  Speaker 1: look out. I read my Lord's prayer and scraped the
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  Speaker 1: rust off the bell. Come, my good child, said the minister.
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  Speaker 1: Our Lord will forsake neither thy mother nor thee. So
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  Speaker 1: they went together to the poor cottage where the sick
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  Speaker 1: mother was lying. She slept quietly and soundly. Our Lord
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  Speaker 1: granted her life, and his blessings shown over her and
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  Speaker 1: her son. There is a legend about a poor young fellow,
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  Speaker 1: Paul Vandelbow, who became a great and honored man. He
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  Speaker 1: was born in Jutland and had striven and studied so
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  Speaker 1: well that he got through the examination as student, but
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  Speaker 1: felt a still greater desire to become a soldier and
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  Speaker 1: stroll about in foreign countries. One day he walked with
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  Speaker 1: two young comrades who were well off along the ramparts
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  Speaker 1: of Copenhagen, and talk to them of his desire. He
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  Speaker 1: stopped suddenly and looked up at the window of the
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  Speaker 1: professor's house, where a young girl was seated, whose beauty
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  Speaker 1: had astonished him. And the two others. Perceiving how he blushed,
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  Speaker 1: they said in joke, go into her, Paul, and if
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  Speaker 1: you can get a voluntary kiss from her. At the
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  Speaker 1: window so that we can see it. We will give
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  Speaker 1: you the money for traveling, that you may go abroad
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  Speaker 1: and see if fortune is more favorable for you there
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  Speaker 1: than at home. Paul Vendabule entered into the house and
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  Speaker 1: knocked at the parlor door. My father is not home,
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  Speaker 1: said the young girl. Do not be angry with me.
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  Speaker 1: He answered, and the blood rushed into his cheeks. It
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  Speaker 1: is not your father I want. And now he told
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  Speaker 1: her frankly and heartily, his wish to try the world
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  Speaker 1: and acquire an honorable name. He told her of his
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  Speaker 1: two friends who were standing in the street and had
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  Speaker 1: promised him money for traveling on the condition that she
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  Speaker 1: should voluntarily give him a kiss at the open honest
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  Speaker 1: and frank face that her anger disappeared. It is not
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  Speaker 1: right for you to speak such words to a chaste maid,
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  Speaker 1: said she. But you look so honest. I will not
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  Speaker 1: hinder your fortune, and she led him to the window
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  Speaker 1: and gave him a kiss. His friends kept their promise
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  Speaker 1: and furnished him with money. He went into the service
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  Speaker 1: of the Tsar, fought in the Battle of Poltoa, and
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  Speaker 1: acquired name and honor. Afterward, when Denmark needed him, he
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  Speaker 1: returned home and became a mighty man of the army
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  Speaker 1: and of the King's council. One day he entered the
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  Speaker 1: professor's plain room, and it was not just the professor
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  Speaker 1: he wished to see this time either. It was again
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  Speaker 1: his daughter Ingebord Vinding, who gave him the kiss the
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  Speaker 1: inauguration of his fortune. A fortnight after Paul vendabout Loughvenure,
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  Speaker 1: Lion Eagle celebrated his wedding, the enemy made once a
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  Speaker 1: great attack on the Danish island of Funen. One village
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  Speaker 1: only was spared, but this was also soon to be
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  Speaker 1: sacked and burnt. Two poor people lived in a low
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  Speaker 1: studded house in the outskirts of the town. It was
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  Speaker 1: a dark winter evening the enemy was expected, and in
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  Speaker 1: their anxiety they took the book of Psalms and opened
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  Speaker 1: it to see if the psalm which they first met
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  Speaker 1: with could render them any aid or comfort. They opened
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  Speaker 1: the book and turned to the psalm, A mighty fortress
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  Speaker 1: is our God. Full of confidence, they sang it, and
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  Speaker 1: strengthened in faith. They went to bed and slept well
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  Speaker 1: kept by the lord's guardianship. When they awoke in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: it was quite dark in the room, and the daylight
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  Speaker 1: could not penetrate. They went to the door, but could
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  Speaker 1: not open it. Then they mounted the loft, got the
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  Speaker 1: trap door open, and saw that it was broad daylight.
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  Speaker 1: But a heavy drift of snow had in the night
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  Speaker 1: fallen upon the whole house and hidden it from the enemies,
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  Speaker 1: who in the night time had pillaged and burnt the town.
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  Speaker 1: Then they clasped their hands in thankfulness and repeated the psalm,
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  Speaker 1: A mighty fortress is our God. The Lord had guarded
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  Speaker 1: them and raised an entrenchment of snow around them from
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  Speaker 1: north Sealand there comes a gloomy incident that stirs the thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: The church of Rovig is situated far out toward the
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  Speaker 1: sand hills by the stormy Kadicat one evening a large
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  Speaker 1: ship dropped anchor out there, and was presumed to be
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  Speaker 1: a Russian man of war. In the night, a knocking
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  Speaker 1: was heard at the gate of the parsonage, and several
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  Speaker 1: armed and masked persons ordered the minister to put on
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  Speaker 1: his ecclesiastical gown and accompany them to the church. They
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  Speaker 1: promised him good pay, but used menaces if he declined
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  Speaker 1: to go. He went with them. The church was lighted.
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  Speaker 1: Unknown people were gathered, and all was in deep silence
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  Speaker 1: before the altar. The bride and bridegroom were waiting, dressed
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  Speaker 1: in magnificent clothes as if they were of high rank,
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  Speaker 1: but the bride was pale as a corpse. When the
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  Speaker 1: marriage ceremony was finished, a shot was heard and the
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  Speaker 1: bride lay dead before the altar. They took the corpse
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  Speaker 1: and all went away with it. The next morning the
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  Speaker 1: ship had weighed anchor. To this day nobody has been
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  Speaker 1: able to give any explanation of the event. The minister
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  Speaker 1: who took part in it wrote down the whole event
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  Speaker 1: in his Bible, which is handed down in his family.
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  Speaker 1: The old church is still standing between the sand hills
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  Speaker 1: at the Tossing Kaddagat, and the story lives in writing
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  Speaker 1: and in memory. I must tell you one more church legend.
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  Speaker 1: There lived in Denmark, on the island of Foster, a
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  Speaker 1: rich lady of rank who had no children, and her
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  Speaker 1: family was about to die out. So she took a
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  Speaker 1: part of her riches and built a magnificent church. When
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  Speaker 1: it was finished and the altar candles lighted, she stepped
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  Speaker 1: up to the altar table and prayed on her knees
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  Speaker 1: to our Lord that he would grant her, for her
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  Speaker 1: pious gift a life upon the earth as long as
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  Speaker 1: her church was standing. Years went by, her relations died,
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  Speaker 1: her old friends and acquaintances, and all the former servants
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  Speaker 1: of the manor were laid in their graves. But she
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  Speaker 1: who had made such an evil wish, did not die.
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  Speaker 1: Generation upon generation became strange to her. She did not
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  Speaker 1: approach anybody, and nobody approached her. She wasted away in
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  Speaker 1: a long dotage and sat abandoned it alone. Her senses
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  Speaker 1: were blunted. She was like a sleeping but not like
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  Speaker 1: a dead person. Every Christmas Eve, the life in her
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  Speaker 1: flashed up for a moment, and she got her voice again.
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  Speaker 1: Then she would order her people to put her in
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  Speaker 1: an oak coffin and place it in the open burying
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  Speaker 1: place of the church. The minister then would come on
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  Speaker 1: the Christmas night to her in order to receive her commands.
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  Speaker 1: She was laid in the coffin, and it was brought
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  Speaker 1: to the church. The minister came as ordered every Christmas night,
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  Speaker 1: threw the choir up to the coffin, raised the cover
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  Speaker 1: for the old, wearied lady who was lying there without rest.
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  Speaker 1: Is my church still standing? She asked, with shivering voice,
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  Speaker 1: And upon the minister's answer, it stands still, she sighed
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  Speaker 1: profoundly and sorrowfully, and fell back again. The minister let
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  Speaker 1: the cover down, and came again the next Christmas night,
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  Speaker 1: and the next again, and still again the following. Now
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  Speaker 1: there is no stone of the church left upon another,
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  Speaker 1: no traces of the buried dead ones. A large white
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  Speaker 1: thorn grows here on the field, with beautiful flowers every spring,
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  Speaker 1: as if it were the sign of the resurrection of life.
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  Speaker 1: It is said that it grows on the very spot
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  Speaker 1: where the coffin with the noble ladies stood, where her
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  Speaker 1: dust became dust of earth. There is an old popular
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  Speaker 1: saying that our Lord, when he expelled the fallen angels,
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  Speaker 1: let some of them drop down upon the hills where
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  Speaker 1: they still live. And they are called Bijurgfolk, mountain goblins,
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  Speaker 1: or troldy imps. They are always afraid and flee away
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  Speaker 1: when it thunders, which is for them a voice from heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Others fell down in the Aldermores. They are called Elverfolk
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  Speaker 1: alder folks, and among them the women are very handsome
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  Speaker 1: to look at, but not to trust. Their backs are
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  Speaker 1: also hollow like a dough trough. Others fell down in
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  Speaker 1: old farms and houses. They became dwarfs and nisser elves.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they are wont to have intercourse with men, and
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  Speaker 1: a great many stories about them are related, which are
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  Speaker 1: very strange. Up in Jutland lived in a large hill
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  Speaker 1: such a mountain Goblin, together with a great many other imps.
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  Speaker 1: One of his daughters was married to the smith of
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  Speaker 1: the village. The smith was a bad man and beat
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  Speaker 1: his wife. At last. She got tired of it, and
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  Speaker 1: one day, as he was going again to beat her,
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  Speaker 1: she took a horse shoe and broke it over him.
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  Speaker 1: She possessed such an immense strength that she could easily
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  Speaker 1: have broken him in pieces too. He thought about it
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  Speaker 1: and did not beat her any more. Yet it was
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  Speaker 1: rumored abroad, and her respect among the country people was lost,
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  Speaker 1: and she was known as the trolled barn an imp child.
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  Speaker 1: No one in the parish would have any intercourse with her.
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  Speaker 1: The mountain Goblin got a hint of this, and once Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: when the smith and his wife, together with other parishioners,
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  Speaker 1: were standing in the church yard waiting for the minister,
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  Speaker 1: she looked out over the bay, where a fog was rising.
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  Speaker 1: Now comes father, she said, and he is angry. He came,
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  Speaker 1: and angry he was. Will you throw them to me?
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  Speaker 1: Or will you rather to do the catching? He asked,
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  Speaker 1: and looked with greedy eyes upon the church people. The catching,
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  Speaker 1: she said, for she knew well that he would not
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  Speaker 1: be so gentle when they fell into his hands. And
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  Speaker 1: so the mountain Goblin seized one after another and flung
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  Speaker 1: them over the roof of the church, while the daughter,
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  Speaker 1: standing on the other side, caught them gently. From that
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  Speaker 1: time she got along well with the parishioners. They were
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  Speaker 1: all afraid of the mountain Goblin, and many of that
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  Speaker 1: kind were scattered about the country. The best they could
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  Speaker 1: do was to avoid quarreling with him, and rather turned
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  Speaker 1: his acquaintance to their profit. They knew well that the
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  Speaker 1: imps had big kettles filled with gold money, and it
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  Speaker 1: was certainly worth while to get a handful of it.
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  Speaker 1: But for that they had to be cunning and ingenious,
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  Speaker 1: like the peasant of whom I am going to tell you,
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  Speaker 1: as also of his boy, who was still more cunning.
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  Speaker 1: The peasant had a hill on his field which he
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  Speaker 1: would not leave uncultivated. He plowed it, but the mountain goblin,
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  Speaker 1: who lived in the hill, came out and asked, how
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  Speaker 1: dare you plow upon my roof? I did not know
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  Speaker 1: that it was yours, said the peasant. But it is
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  Speaker 1: not advantageous for any of us to let such a
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  Speaker 1: piece of land and lie uncultivated. Let me plow and sew,
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  Speaker 1: and then you will reap the first year what is
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  Speaker 1: growing over the earth, and I what grows in the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Next year we will change. They agreed, and the peasant
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  Speaker 1: sowed first year carrots and the second corn. The mountain
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  Speaker 1: goblin got the top part of the carrots and the
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  Speaker 1: roots of the corn. In this way they lived in
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  Speaker 1: harmony together. But now it happened that there was to
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  Speaker 1: be a christening in the house of the peasant. The
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  Speaker 1: peasant was much embarrassed, as he could not well omit,
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  Speaker 1: inviting the mountain goblin, with whom he lived in good accord.
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  Speaker 1: But if the imp accepted his invitation, the peasant would
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  Speaker 1: fall into bad repute with the minister and the other
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  Speaker 1: folk of the parish. Cunning as the peasant ordinarily was,
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  Speaker 1: this time, he could not find out how to act.
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  Speaker 1: He spoke about it to his pig boy, who was
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  Speaker 1: the more cunning of the two. I will help you,
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  Speaker 1: said the boy, and taking a large bag, he went
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  Speaker 1: out to the hill of the mountain Goblin. He knocked
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  Speaker 1: and was let in. Then he said that he came
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  Speaker 1: to invite him to the gristening. The mountain goblin accepted
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  Speaker 1: the invitation and promised to come. I must give a
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  Speaker 1: christening present. I suppose, mustn't I They usually do, said
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  Speaker 1: the boy, and opened the bag. The imp poured money
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  Speaker 1: into it. Is that sufficient, the boy lifted the bag.
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  Speaker 1: Most people give as much. Then all the money in
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  Speaker 1: the large money kettle was poured into the bag. Nobody
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  Speaker 1: gives more, most less. Let me know now, said the
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  Speaker 1: mountain goblin. The great guests. You are expecting three priests
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  Speaker 1: and one bishop, said the boy. That is fine, but
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  Speaker 1: such gentlemen look only for eating and drinking. They couldn't
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  Speaker 1: care about me. Who else comes? Mother? Mary is expected Mum,
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  Speaker 1: but I think there will also be a little place
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  Speaker 1: for me behind the stove. Well, and then well then
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  Speaker 1: comes our lord. Hmmm. That was mighty. But such highly
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  Speaker 1: distinguished guests usually come late and go away early. I
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  Speaker 1: shall therefore while they are in slink away a little.
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  Speaker 1: What sort of music shall you have? Drum music? Said
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  Speaker 1: the boy. Our father has ordered heavy thundering, after which
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  Speaker 1: we shall dance drum music. It shall be, Oh, is
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  Speaker 1: it not dreadful? Cried the mountain goblin. Thank your master
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  Speaker 1: for the invitation, but I would rather stay at home.
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  Speaker 1: Did he not know then that thundering and drum are
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  Speaker 1: to me and my whole race a horror? Once in
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  Speaker 1: my younger days, going out to take a walk, the
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  Speaker 1: thunder began to drum, and I got one of the
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  Speaker 1: drumsticks over my thigh bones, so that it I will
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  Speaker 1: not have more of that kind of music. Give my
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  Speaker 1: thanks and my greetings. And the boy took the bag
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  Speaker 1: on his back and brought his master, the great riches
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  Speaker 1: and the imps friendly greetings. We have many legends of
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  Speaker 1: this sort, but those we have told ought to be
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  Speaker 1: enough for to day. And of Section sixteen