Cf. Wagner's Epics and Romance; Asgard and the Gods; Morte d'Arthur, book 1, cap. xxiii. and book 21, cap. v.; Mythical and Mediæval Swords, by Lady Verney, in Contemporary Review, October, 1880; The Seven Champions of Christendom; and Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. xi. pp. 129, 164.
In the Finnish "Oriiksi muutettu poika," the devil has a wonderful sword, which the hero obtains by the help of the horse: see also "The Water Smith," Keightley's Fairy Mythology, p. 260.—"Shortshanks," in Dasent, p. 153, gets possession of the only eye an old hag had, and so obtained "a sword, such a sword! It would put a whole army to flight, be it ever so great;" and certainly it chopped up sundry ogres later on in the tale; cf. p. 188 in the same collection.
The trap-door by which Mirkó entered the nether world appears in many stories, such as "St. Patrick's Purgatory"; see Baring Gould's Curious Myths, p. 230, and note to "[Shepherd Paul]" in this collection, infra.
Page [68]. In the Lapp stories it is said that if Stallo's[25] dog is not killed as well as the monster himself, that it will lick its master's blood and then Stallo will come to life again, just as the witch in this story is evolved out of the morsels of unburnt ribs. See "Stallo" and "Fogden i Vadsø, som gjorde sig til en Stallo," in Friis, pp. 74, 97.
Page [71]. The flashing eyes of the princess remind us of the Gorgons. Her repentance is like that of the queen in the Russian story, who slays and restores the hero; Ralston, p. 235.
The "strength-giving fluid" occurs in numerous stories, e.g., in the Finnish stories, "Alder Block," S. ja T., ii., p. 2, and the "Enchanted Horse," where the hero cannot move an immense sword until he wets his head with the blood that is in a tub in the middle of the forbidden room in the devil's house. Cf. also Ralston, p. 237; Dasent, "The big bird Dan," pp. 445, 459; Folk-Lore Record, 1879, p. 99; and, "Irish Folk-Tales," ibidem, 1883, p. 55.
Sometimes it is a belt or ointment that gives strength, as in "The Blue Belt" and "The Three Princesses of Whiteland," in Dasent, pp. 178, 209. Cf. ante, p. 248.
A daughter explains to the hero how to conquer her father, in Brockhaus, Märchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta, vol. i., p. 110.
Page [72]. In the Karelian story "Awaimetoin Wakka," S. ja T. i., p. 151, the lad threw a great iron pole against Vääräpyärä's castle, in order to let the inmates know he was coming. In the Finnish "Alder Block," S. ja T. ii. p. 2, the hero throws or kicks off one of his shoes, and it flies to his comrades, and they come and help him.
In "The History of Gherib and his brother Agib," Terkenan threw an iron mace at his son with such power that it smote three stones out of a buttress of the palace; Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. vi., p. 152. See also "Story of Vasilisa" in Naake's Slavonic Tales, p. 57; and "Sir Peppercorn," in Denton's Serbian Folk-Lore, p. 128: where Peppercorn hurls the giant's mace back to him just as Mirkó did; and Roumanian Fairy Tales, p. 64.