A Danish Parsonage

by John Fulford Vicary

'Nu hviler Grøn med Phane sin;
Som trættede rasken Hjort og Hind.
Tak, Bonde, god! den dyre Gud,
Nu gaar du tryg af Sundet ud.'

Literally—

'Now rests Grøn and his Phane;
They followed the quick buck and hind.
Thank, peasant, the good God,
That now you can safely go through the fjord.'

There is a story of Grøn. He halted one night and knocked at a Bonde's door, and told him to hold his hounds by a leash. Grøn rode away, and was absent two hours. At length he returned, but across his horse was a mermaid, which he had shot. This was before the time of powder. Grøn said to the Bonde, 'I have hunted that mermaid for seven years, and now I have got her.' He then asked for something to drink, and when he was served with it he gave the Bonde some gold money; but it was so hot it burnt through his hand, and the money sunk in the earth. Grøn laughed, and said, 'As you have drank with me, you shall have something, so take the leash you have held my hounds with.' Grøn rode away, and the Bonde kept the leash, and as long as he did so all things prospered; but at last he thought it was of little value, and threw it away. He then gradually grew poorer and poorer, and died in great poverty."

"A very good legend, and thank you, Herr Pastor," said Mrs. Hardy.

"There is an old ballad," continued the Pastor, "called 'The Pilgrim Stone,' which opens with a mother calling her three daughters to go to the early Catholic church service of the times, and then the water was so shallow between Møen and Falster that they could jump over it. The three daughters were attacked by three robbers and killed by them. They put their bodies in sacks; but they were seized by the father and his men, and then it appeared that the three robbers were brothers to the murdered girls, having been stolen, when they were very young, on their way to school. The two eldest were hung, and the youngest made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and when he returned he lived a few years at Phanefjord, and was buried where the pilgrim stone marks the place. The ballad is of the simplest character and incomplete; but such is the story. Under different conditions it is recited in other places in Denmark; but it is dramatic in all cases."

"It is indeed dramatic," said Mrs. Hardy. "The stories of giants appear to have had their origin from natural forces, as ice, or the heat of summer, but have been blended with human attributes."

The drive to Møen's Klint from Grønsund was full of interest from Pastor Lindal's knowledge of the past history of so many places.

"There are not so many traditions in the low part of Møen as in Høie Møen; that is where the cliffs are," said the Pastor. "The cliffs are chalk, with layers of flint, and were supposed to be peopled with Underjordiske or underground people, the chief of whom was called the Klinte Konge, or cliff king. Klint is the Danish word for cliff. His queen is described as being very beautiful, and she resided at the place called Dronningstol, or the queen's throne or chair, and near it was her sceptre, in old times called Dronningspir, but now called Sommerspir. The Klinte Konge was supposed to reside at Kongsberg. He was always at war with another Klinte Konge, at Rygen, and there is an old ballad on the subject. It is said that when Denmark is in danger, the Klinte Konge and his army can be seen ready to resist the invader. There are very many variations of this superstitious story, more or less picturesque."

"Are there any stories of communications between the Underjordiske and mortals?" asked Mr. Hardy.