In all quarters of the country similar legends are current, more or less founded upon the Ljungby legend.
As late as the present year (1888) the translator met a gentleman, recently from Sweden, and from the province in which Ljungby is located, who states that the horn is still in the possession of the owners of the Ljungby estate, and that this story concerning it is still current and quite generally believed. [↑]
The Swan Maiden.[1]
A young peasant, in the parish of Mellby, who often amused himself with hunting, saw one day three [[36]]swans flying toward him, which settled down upon the strand of a sound near by.
Approaching the place, he was astonished at seeing the three swans divest themselves of their feathery attire, which they threw into the grass, and three maidens of dazzling beauty step forth and spring into the water.
After sporting in the waves awhile they returned to the land, where they resumed their former garb and shape and flew away in the same direction from which they came.
One of them, the youngest and fairest, had, in the meantime, so smitten the young hunter that neither night nor day could he tear his thoughts from the bright image.
His mother, noticing that something was wrong with her son, and that the chase, which had formerly been his favorite pleasure, had lost its attractions, asked him finally the cause of his melancholy, whereupon he related to her what he had seen, and declared that there was no longer any happiness in this life for him if he could not possess the fair swan maiden. [[37]]