Page [101]. Amongst the numberless examples of swan-maidens, cf. the following:
Friis, "Pigen fra Havet," p. 27; "Bæivekongens eller Solkongens Datter," p. 152; and "Goveiter-Pige," p. 39, where the girls appear in gorgeous dresses.
S. ja T. i. p. 35, "Tuhkamo"; and ii. p. 53, "Ei-niin-mitä."
Hofberg, Svenska Sägner: "Jungfrun i Svanhamn," p. 27.
A story is current in Småland of a clergyman's son who assisted his father as curate. One morning when the young man awoke he saw the sun-beams coming in through a knot-hole in the floor, and suddenly a woman of marvellous beauty came floating in on the light and stood before him. He sprang up and threw his cloak over her and took her to his parents. She became his wife and lived happily with him for many years. One day he chanced to say how strange her coming was, and in order to emphasize his words he took the knot out of the hole in the floor, and in a moment she was gone!
In a Lapp story, Friis, No. 7, the girl tells her husband to drive a nail into the threshold to prevent her going away. See also "Lappen i Skathamn." Hofberg, p. 174.[28]
Other examples of the swan-maiden kind are to be found in:—
Rink, Tales of the Eskimo, "The Man who mated himself with a Sea-fowl," p. 146.
Keightley's Fairy Mythology, "The Peri Wife," p. 20; also p. 163, where seals are said to put off their skins; and "The Mermaid Wife," p. 169.
Legends of the Wigwam, "Son of the Evening Star," p. 81.