Four gold shoes, and thirty gold nails,
And the maiden into the swift stream falls.
My heart's, &c.
Sir Peter he spake to his footpage so—
"Thou must for my gold harp instantly go."
My heart's, &c.
The first stroke on his gold harp he gave
The foul ugly Neck sat and laughed on the wave.
My heart's, &c.
The second time the gold harp he swept,
The foul ugly Neck on the wave sat and wept.
My heart's, &c.
The third stroke on the gold harp rang,
Little Kerstin reached up her snow-white arm.
My heart's, &c.[209]
He played the bark from off the high trees;
He played Little Kerstin back on his knees.
My heart's, &c.
And the Neck he out of the waves came there,
And a proud maiden on each arm he bare.
My heart's own dear!
Tell me wherefore you grieve?[210]
The Strömkarl, called in Norway Grim or Fosse-Grim[211] (Waterfall-Grim) is a musical genius like the Neck. Like him too, when properly propitiated, he communicates his art. The sacrifice also is a black lamb,[212] which the offerer must present with averted head, and on Thursday evening. If it is poor the pupil gets no further than to the tuning of the instruments; if it is fat the Strömkarl seizes the votary by the right hand, and swings it backwards and forwards till the blood runs out at the finger-ends. The aspirant is then enabled to play in such a masterly manner that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music.[213]
The Havmand, or Merman, is described as of a handsome form, with green or black hair and beard. He dwells either in the bottom of the sea, or in the cliffs and hills near the sea shore, and is regarded as rather a good and beneficent kind of being.[214]
The Havfrue, or Mermaid, is represented in the popular tradition sometimes as a good, at other times as an evil and treacherous being. She is beautiful in her appearance. Fishermen sometimes see her in the bright summer's sun, when a thin mist hangs over the sea, sitting on the surface of the water, and combing her long golden hair with a golden comb, or driving up her snow-white cattle to feed on the strands and small islands. At other times she comes as a beautiful maiden, chilled and shivering with the cold of the night, to the fires the fishers have kindled, hoping by this means to entice them to her love.[215] Her appearance prognosticates both storm and ill success in their fishing. People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not found, are believed to be taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids. These beings are also supposed to have the power of foretelling future events. A Mermaid, we are told, prophesied the birth of Christian IV. of Denmark, and