"Balder's Baal, solbilledet, smukt, brændte paa
viede stene."[[1]]
[[1]] Frithjof's saga.
This, translated, reads:
"Balder's symbol, sun's beautiful image, burned
in pyres on rocks consecrated."
We read in the Icelandic sagas that the two great festivals of the year in heathen times were Yuletide and midsummer, and both were celebrated by the lighting of great fires. This primitive custom is better preserved in Norway than in most other countries, but even here it appears to be slowly dying out.
Exactly at midnight the fires begin to appear, and soon every promontory, rock, and mountain breast is alight; hundreds of fires shine and glimmer as far as the eye can see, casting their lurid reflections on the waters of the fjord in the brilliant twilight.
Around the nearer fires may be discerned shadow-like figures moving round the blaze in the dance, the music of the fiddle being almost drowned by the singing and merriment of the young people who are taking part in the proceedings.
A mock wedding forms part of the ceremony, a young peasant girl being dressed as a bride, wearing on her head a crown of birch twigs; the other girls, in national costume, follow in procession, headed by the fiddler, and the boys bring up the rear. The dancing afterwards is kept up all through the long midsummer night.
It is a very effective sight to see the well-filled boats stealing over the water from the surrounding farms, the young folks, dressed in holiday costume, coming to take part in the festival.
In several places along the fjord it is the custom to build a strong raft of logs; this is piled high with combustible material and floated some distance from shore, where it is anchored. When in full blaze it looks very effective, and lights up the water with ruddy reflection.