PEER GYNT.
In the old days there lived in Kvam a hunter, whose name was Peer Gynt. He was always up in the mountains shooting bears and elks; for in those days there were more forests on the mountains to harbour such wild beasts. One time, late in the autumn, long after the cattle had been driven home, Peer set out for the hills. Every one had left the uplands except three sæter-girls. When Peer came up towards Hövring, where he was to pass the night in a sæter, it was so dark that he could not see his fist before him, and the dogs fell to barking and baying so that it was quite uncanny. All of a sudden he ran against something, and when he put his hand out he felt it was cold and slippery and big. Yet he did not seem to have strayed from the road, so he couldn’t think what this could be; but unpleasant it was at any rate.
“Who is it?” asked Peer, for he felt it moving.
“Oh, it’s the Boyg,”[[147]] was the answer.
Peer was no wiser for this, but skirted along it for a bit, thinking that somewhere he must be able to pass. Suddenly he ran against something again, and when he put out his hand, it too was big, and cold, and slippery.
“Who is it?” asked Peer Gynt.
“Oh, it’s the Boyg,” was the answer again.
“Well, straight or crooked, you’ll have to let me pass,” said Peer; for he understood that he was walking in a ring, and that the Boyg had curled itself round the sæter. Thereupon it shifted a little, so that Peer got past. When he came inside the sæter, it was no lighter there than outside. He was feeling along the wall for a place to hang up his gun and his bag; but as he was groping his way forward he again felt something cold, and big, and slippery. — “Who is it?” shouted Peer.
“Oh, it’s the great Boyg,” was the answer. Where-ever he put his hands out or tried to get past, he felt the Boyg encircling him.
“It’s not very pleasant to be here,” thought Peer, “since this Boyg is both out and in; but I think I can make short work of the nuisance.”
So he took his gun and went out again, groping his way till he found the creature’s head.
“What are you?” asked Peer.
“Oh, I am the big Boyg from Etnedale,” said the Troll-Monster. Peer did not lose a moment, but fired three shots right into its head.
“Fire another,” said the Boyg. But Peer knew better; if he had fired another shot, the bullet would have rebounded against himself.
Thereupon Peer and his dogs took hold of the Troll-Monster and dragged him out, so that they could get into the sæter. Meanwhile there was jeering and laughing in all the hills around.
“Peer Gynt dragged hard, but the dogs dragged harder,” said a voice.
Next morning he went out stalking. When he came out on the uplands he saw a girl, who was calling some sheep up a hillside. But when he came to the place the girl was gone and the sheep too, and he saw nothing but a great flock of bears.
“Well, I never saw bears in a flock before,” thought Peer to himself. When he came nearer, they had all disappeared except one.
“Look after your pig:
Peer Gynt is out
with his gun so big,”[[148]]
shouted a voice over in a hillock.
“Oh, it’ll be a bad business for Peer, but not for my pig; for he hasn’t washed himself to-day,” said another voice in the hill. Peer washed his hands with the water he had, and shot the bear. There was more laughter and jeering in the hill.
“You should have looked after your pig!” cried a voice.
“I didn’t remember he had a water-jug between his legs,” answered the other.
Peer skinned the bear and buried the carcass among the stones, but the head and the hide he took with him. On his way home he met a fox.
“Look at my lamb, how fat it is,” said a voice in a hill.
“Look at that gun[[149]] of Peer’s, how high it is,” said a voice in another hill, just as Peer took aim and shot the fox. He skinned the fox and took the skin with him, and when he came to the sæter he put the heads on the wall outside, with their jaws gaping. Then he lighted a fire and put a pot on to boil some soup, but the chimney smoked so terribly that he could scarcely keep his eyes open, and so he had to set wide a small window. Suddenly a Troll came and poked his nose in through the window; it was so long that it reached across the room to the fireplace.
“Here’s a proper snout for you to see,” said the Troll.
“And here’s proper soup for you to taste,” said Peer Gynt; and he poured the whole potful of soup over the Troll’s nose. The Troll ran away howling; but in all the hills around there was jeering and laughing and voices shouting—
“Soup-snout Gyri! Soup-snout Gyri!”
All was quiet now for a while; but before long there was a great noise and hubbub outside again. Peer looked out and saw that there was a cart there, drawn by bears. They hoisted up the Troll-Monster, and carted him away into the mountain. Just then a bucket of water came down the chimney and put out the fire, so that Peer was left in the dark. Then a jeering and laughing began in all the corners of the room, and a voice said—
“It’ll go no better with Peer now than with the sæter-girls at Vala.”
Peer made up the fire again, took his dogs with him, shut up the house, and set off northward to the Vala sæter, where the three girls were. When he had gone some distance he saw such a glare of light that it seemed to him the sæter must be on fire. Just then he came across a pack of wolves; some of them he shot, and some he knocked on the head. When he came to the Vala sæter he found it pitch dark; there was no sign of any fire; but there were four strangers in the house carrying on with the sæter-girls. They were four Hill-Trolls, and their names were Gust of Værë, Tron of the Valfjeld, Tjöstöl Aabakken, and Rolf Eldförpungen. Gust of Værë was standing at the door to keep watch, while the others were in with the girls courting. Peer fired at Gust, but missed him, and Gust ran away. When Peer came inside he found the Trolls carrying on desperately with the girls. Two of the girls were terribly frightened and were saying their prayers, but the third, who was called Mad Kari, wasn’t afraid; she said they might come there for all she cared; she would like to see what stuff there was in such fellows. But when the Trolls found that Peer was in the room they began to howl, and told Eldförpungen to make up the fire. At that instant the dogs set upon Tjöstöl and pulled him over on his back into the fireplace, so that the ashes and sparks flew up all round him.
“Did you see my snakes, Peer?” asked Tron of the Valfjeld—that was what he called the wolves.
“You shall go the same way as your snakes,” said Peer, and shot him; and then he killed Aabakken with the butt-end of his rifle. Eldförpungen had escaped up the chimney. After this Peer took the girls back to their homes, for they didn’t dare to stay any longer up at the sæter.
Shortly before Christmas-time Peer set out again. He had heard of a farm on the Dovrefjeld which was invaded by such a number of Trolls every Christmas-eve that the people of the farm had to turn out and get shelter with some of their neighbours. He was anxious to go there, for he was very keen upon the Trolls. He dressed himself in some old ragged clothes, and took with him a tame white bear that he had, as well as an awl, some pitch, and waxed twine. When he came to the farm he went in and begged for houseroom.
“God help us!” said the farmer; “we can’t put you up. We have to clear out of the house ourselves, for every blessed Christmas-eve the whole place is full of Trolls.”
But Peer Gynt said he thought he should be able to clear the house of Trolls; and then he got leave to stay, and they gave him a pig’s skin into the bargain. The bear lay down behind the fireplace, and Peer took out his awl, and pitch, and twine, and set to making a big shoe, that took the whole pig’s skin. He put a strong rope in for laces, so that he could pull the shoe tight together at the top; and he had a couple of handspikes ready.
All of a sudden the Trolls came, with a fiddle and a fiddler; some began dancing, while others fell to eating the Christmas fare on the table; some fried bacon, and some fried frogs and toads, and other disgusting things: these were the Christmas dainties they had brought with them. In the meantime some of the Trolls found the shoe Peer had made; they thought it must be for a very big foot. Then they all wanted to try it on; and when each of them had put a foot into it, Peer tightened the rope, shoved one of the handspikes into it, and twisted it up till they were all stuck fast in the shoe.
Just then the bear put his nose out and smelt the fry.
“Will you have a sausage, white pussy?” said one of the Trolls, and threw a red-hot frog right into the bear’s jaws.
“Claw and smite Bruin!” said Peer Gynt.
And then the bear got into such a rage that he rushed at the Trolls and smote and clawed them all, and Peer Gynt took the other handspike and hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. So the Trolls had to clear out, and Peer stayed and enjoyed himself on the Christmas cheer the whole feast-time. After that the Trolls were not heard of again for many years. The farmer had a light-coloured mare, and Peer advised him to breed from her, and let her foals in their turn run and breed among the hills there.
Many years afterwards, about Christmas-time, the farmer was out in the forest cutting wood for the feast-time, when a Troll came towards him and shouted—
“Have you got that big white pussy of yours yet?”
“Yes, she’s at home behind the stove,” said the farmer; “and she’s got seven kittens now, much bigger and fiercer than herself.”
“We’ll never come to you any more, then,” shouted the Troll.
“That Peer Gynt was a strange one,” said Anders. “He was such an out-and-out tale-maker and yarn-spinner, you couldn’t have helped laughing at him. He always made out that he himself had been mixed up in all the stories that people said had happened in the olden times.”