The Giant Maiden in Boråseröd Mountain.
In the mountain of Boråseröd, which is located in the parish of Svarteborg, there lived, in ancient days, a giant. As with all the giant people, he has disappeared since the coming in of Christianity. Some say that he died, but others believe that he moved to Dovre, in Norway, where giants betook themselves when disturbed by the church bells. [[92]]
However, there is even to-day a hollow in the mountain which is called “the giant’s door,” and within the mountain, it is believed there are vaults filled with the giant’s gold. No one has, however, dared venture to search for this treasure, and luckily, for with property of giants, blessings do not go.
This giant had a daughter, so beautiful that he who once saw her could never drive thoughts of her from his mind. Among the few whose fortune it was to see her was a young peasant from the estate of Rom, adjacent to the mountain. When he was one day out searching for the horses, which had gone astray, he suddenly came upon the wonderfully beautiful maiden, sitting upon the side of the mountain, in the sunshine, playing on her harp.
The peasant at once understanding who it was, not of the kind to be easily frightened, knowing that her father had an abundance of riches, and thinking it was no worse for him than for many others to marry into the giant family, approached her, under cover of the shrubbery, until he was quite near, when he threw his knife between her and the mountain, and as “steel charms a Troll,” or others of the supernatural family, she was obliged, whether or not she would, to follow him to his home.
In the evening, when the giant missed his daughter, he started out in search of her, and in his search came to Rom.
Through the walls he heard the snores of two persons, and, when he had lifted the roof off the cottage, he saw his daughter sleeping in the arms of the young swain. [[93]]
“Are you there, you whelp!” he hissed. “Has it come to this?” added he. “So be it, then; but I demand that the wedding shall take place before the next new moon. If you can then give me as much food and drink as I want all your offspring shall be made rich and powerful, otherwise I will have nothing to do with you.”
Preparations were hastily made by the young man’s parents for the wedding, and neighbors and relations came from far and near, laden with provisions. A great number likely to be present, it was determined to have the ceremony performed in the Church of Tosse; but the day before the wedding there came such a great freshet that it seemed impossible for the bridal carriage to cross the swollen creek between Duigle and Barby. The giant was equal to the emergency, and, with his wife, went to Holmasar, in Berffendalen, and fetched a large slab of stone and four boulders to the creek. The giant carried the slab under his arm, and his wife the boulders in her mitten. And thus they built the stone bridge which to this day spans the creek.