[Footnote 34]: Alfsdaughter. Danish and Norwegian surnames were, and we believe still are, formed in the following manner:--The male children take the name of the father or family, with the addition of "son;" the females the same name, with the addition of "daughter." Thus we have Alfson and Alfsdaughter, the children of Alf, Erikson and Eriksdaughter, the children of Erik.--Tr.
[Footnote 35]: Literally, "shield-maids," or amazons. The sword Tirfing, like King Arthur's Excalibar, was one of wonderful properties. It could never be drawn, even in jest, without causing the death of some one. The story of Hervor, and the manner in which she recovered the fatal weapon from her father's cairn, or barrow, though interesting, is too long for the subject of a note. I have therefore ventured to give it in the form of an appendix, at the end of the work.--Tr.
[Footnote 36]: The original of this ballad, which has little to boast of but its great antiquity, will be found in Syr's Kæmpeviser, p. 151.--Tr.
[Footnote 37]: Eagle's-borg or castle.
[Footnote 38]: Perhaps from his favourite expression: "By all holy men!" (hellige mænd.) Some, however, derive this surname from mændevid, or mandevid,(pronounced 'menved,' and signifying man-wit,) with reference to the young king's manly intelligence and sagacity.
[Footnote 39]: In the year following, Sir Algotson was beheaded on the spot where the abduction took place. Thorstenson's intended bride subsequently became Abbess of Breta convent.
[Footnote 40]: In a storm at sea, he was, some time afterwards, by casting lots, condemned to death as a secret criminal. He then confessed his crimes before the crucifix, and leaped overboard. There is still extant a ballad, entitled "John Rimaardson's Confession."
[Footnote 41]: Skalds: the appellation anciently given to the bards or poets.
[Footnote 42]: A small peninsula on the north coast of Funen.
[Footnote 43]: Several traditions have been preserved respecting Marsk Stig's death and funeral, and the abstraction of the pall that covered his coffin. One account states that he was interred at Hintzeholm at midnight; that the priest's servant-maid, who had secretly witnessed the funeral, disclosed it to her master; that the priest ransacked the grave, and shared the velvet pall with the maid, who, shortly afterwards, was married to one of the marsk's swains; and that her husband, who saw the velvet on one of her pillows, and was informed by her how she had obtained it, fearful that his master's place of sepulchre would be discovered, killed her; although, as the tradition says, "he loved her very dearly." Another account, quoted from a manuscript (a kind of parish-register, kept by a clergyman from the year 1622,) in the royal library of Copenhagen, states, that the marsk had a granary on Hielm, strongly fortified with mounds and ditches. Opposite Hielm, at Biornkier, he had a barn-yard, bounded on one side by the sea, and on three others by a fresh-water lake, a great morass which was impassable, and a thick wood. In this wood which he could reach in an hour and a half's ride from Hielm, he took his pleasure in hunting. It is related that on one of these journeys he became overheated and was taken ill, and, being obliged to dismount, he sat down on a stone and there died. His body was the same night carried to the church of Helgeness, and honourably interred by Our Lady's altar; "and the priest, who then lived in the parsonage-house, had a maid-servant, who, going out to bring ale from a place under the north armoury, stopped and saw how they buried him, and laid a magnificent pall over his coffin; and when she found an opportunity, she had the grave dug up, and stole it away," &c. This story, the worthy priest adds, was told him by honest Danes who were born in these parts, and had lived in the country more than a hundred years.--Tr.