"The trout and salmon being in season have, at their
first taking out of the water, their bodies adorned with
such red spots, and the other with such black spots, as give
them such an addition of natural beauty as I think was never
given to any woman by artificial paint or patches."
--_The Complete Angler._
John Hardy had tied a couple of casting lines with the flies he
usually fished with on the Gudenaa, and came down a little before
three the next day.
Karl and Axel yet slept, but their sister called them, and after the
accustomed cup of coffee and rusks they went out to fish on the
Gudenaa. Of late Hardy had hired a flat-bottomed boat, and a man
called Nils Nilsen rowed or punted it with a pole, as on the Thames,
or he went ashore on the towing-path and pulled it up the river with a
towing rope, while a minnow was cast from the boat.
Hardy had taken a travelling rug for Helga to sit on, and Nils Nilsen
towed the boat up the river, while Hardy fished with a minnow and
caught a few trout. When they reached the shallows, which Hardy
usually fished with a fly, he sent the boys on land to cast from the
bank, and Nils Nilsen took the pole to punt the boat slowly down the
stream. The trout rose freely for about an hour, and Helga had charge
of the landing-net, and lost for Hardy several good fish, to Nils
Nilsen's great disgust. She saw the long casts Hardy made, the light
fall of the fly on the water, while a slight motion of the line threw
the flies repeatedly on the surface of the river like real flies, and
as soon as a trout rose the line was tightened with a sudden motion,
and the trout drawn gradually to within reach of the landing-net.
"May I try, Herr Hardy, to throw the line for the Fish?" asked Helga.
"Certainly," replied Hardy, and he shortened the line to allow her to
do so.
Her first attempt was to hook Hardy's cap; her next was to hook Nils
Nilsen by the ear.
"It seems so easy to do," said Helga, as she handed Hardy the rod, who
showed her how to cast the line as well as he was able.
"You will fish better from the bank, where it is not necessary to cast
such a long line," said Hardy. "We will try a little lower down."
Helga followed his instructions, and at length hooked a trout, which
Hardy picked out with the landing-net.
"I do so like this sort of fishing," said Helga; "it is the way a lady
should fish, if she fished at all."
"Many English ladies are good fly fishers," said Hardy; "and I have
seen them catch salmon in Norway. I will, with pleasure, leave my rods
and tackle here, if you would like to fish with Axel; he can show you
how to attach the flies to the line, and anything else necessary."
"Thank you so much!" replied Helga; and as she raised her eyes to his,
with her handsome face lit up by exercise, Hardy saw how beautiful she
was. Her manner towards him had changed. She talked freely to him now,
and without reserve.
"We will put a mark on the trout you have caught," said Hardy, "that
we may know it again after it has been in the frying-pan. The Herr
Pastor does not often eat fish of his daughter's catching. It weighs
just half an English pound."
"How can you tell?" asked Helga.
"I guess it to be so; but we will soon see," replied Hardy, as he took
a little spring balance out of his pocket, and held it up to her with
the trout on it. "That little line is the half-pound, and the fish
pulls the spring to that line."
"What a pretty thing to weigh with! Is it silver?" asked Helga.
"Yes, it is silver," replied Hardy. "I will leave it with you, with
the rest of the fishing gear, on the condition that the first time you
catch a trout weighing one pound you write and tell me all about it."
"Yes, that I will!" said Helga. "I write my father's letters, and
shall have to write to you for him about Rosendal."
At breakfast, Helga described to her father all the little incidents
of the morning, and her bright fresh look testified to the benefit of
early morning exercise.
"I think, Helga," said the Pastor, "that when Karl is gone, you had
better go fishing in the morning with Axel; you look the better for
it."
When the tobacco parliament was opened that evening, and the Pastor
had finished puffing like a small steam launch to get his porcelain
pipe well lit. Hardy asked him if there was anything in the
superstitions of Jutland, corresponding to those of the sea, about the
rivers.
"Yes," replied the Pastor. "Our Danish word for river is 'Aa'
(pronounced like a broad _o_). Thus, the Gudenaa is the Guden river.
The tradition is that each river has its Aamand or river man, who
every year craves a life; if a year passes without a victim, he can be
heard at night saying, 'The time and hour are come, but the victim is
not yet come.' Sometimes the Aamand is called Nokken."
"That is the Norsk name," said Hardy. "In Scotland they have a
superstition as to changelings; that is, a human child is stolen and a
child of the Trolds substituted. This is referred to by Sir Walter
Scott in one of his poems. Does anything of the sort exist in your
Jutland traditions?"
"There are several varied stories," replied Pastor Lindal. "One is of
a couple who had a very pretty child; they lived near a wood called
Rold Wood. The Trolds came one night and stole the child, leaving one
of their own in its place. The man and his wife did not at first
notice any change, but the wife gradually became suspicious, and she
asked the advice of a wise woman, who told her to brew in a nutshell,
with an eggshell as beer barrel, in the changeling's presence, who
exclaimed that it had lived so many years as to have seen Rold Wood
hewn down and grow up three times, but had never seen any one brew in
a nutshell before. 'If you are as old as that,' said the wife, 'you
can go elsewhere;' and she took the broom-stick and beat the
changeling until it ran away, and as it ran he caught his feet in his
hands and rolled away over hill and dale so long as they could see it.
This story has a variation that they made a sausage with the skin,
bones, and bristles of a pig, and gave the changeling, who made the
same exclamation, with the result as I have before related. There is
also another variation, where the changeling is got rid of by heating
the oven red hot and putting it into the oven, when the Trold mother
appears and snatches it out, and disappears with her child."
"The superstition would appear to have arisen from children being
affected with diseases which were not understood," said Hardy.
"We can only speculate," said the Pastor, "in these subjects; the
origin is lost in the mists of time. There is one story of a
changeling that has some graphic incidents. When a child is born, a
light is always kept burning in the mother's room until the child is
baptized, as the Trolds may come and steal it. This was not done at a
place in North Jutland, because the mother could not sleep with the
light burning. The father therefore determined to hold the child in
his arms, so long as it was dark in the room, but he fell asleep;
shortly after he was aroused, and he saw a tall woman standing by the
bed, and found that he had two children in his arms. The woman
vanished, but the children remained, and he did not know which was his
own. He consulted a wise woman, who advised him to get an unbroken
horse colt, who would indicate the changeling. Both children were
placed on the ground, and the colt smelt at them; one he licked, but
the other he kicked at. It was therefore plain which was the
changeling. The Trold mother came running up, snatched the child away,
and disappeared."
"The advice of the wise woman was clever. It is, as you say, a graphic
story," said Hardy. "But who were the wise women?"
"There were both men and women. They were called Kloge Maend and Kloge
Koner, or wise men and wise wives. They pretended to heal diseases, to
find things lost or stolen, and the like. They were often called white
witches, as in England. There was a man called Kristen, who pretended
to have wonderful powers. A certain Bonde did not believe in him, and
one day told him that he had a sow possessed with a devil. The sow was
simply vicious. Kristen at once offered to drive the devil out of the
sow. He instructed the Bonde and his men not to open the door of the
stable in which the pig was, even if they saw him (Kristen) come and
knock and shout, as the devil would take upon him his appearance, to
enable him to escape better. Kristen went into the stable and began to
exorcise. The sow, however, rushed at him and chased him round the
stable, and every time Kristen passed the door, he shouted to the
Bonde and his men to open it, but they, pretending to follow his
instructions, would not. At last, when Kristen was nearly dead with
fatigue, they opened the door. Of course, Kristen never heard the last
of that sow."
"That is not a bad story," said Hardy.
"You have read Holberg's comedies?" said the Pastor. "In one of them
you will recollect a thief is discovered from amongst the other
domestics of the house, by their being ranged behind the man who had
been asked to discover the thief, and who tells them all to hold their
hands up. He asks if they are all holding their hands up, as his back
is towards them. They all reply, 'Yes;' and the man then asks if the
person who has stolen the silver cup is holding up his hand. The thief
replied 'Yes,' thus discovering himself. There is a story of a watch
being stolen in a large household in Jutland. The white witch was sent
for, and he discovered the thief by ranging the domestics round a
table and making each domestic put a finger on the table, over which
he held a sharp axe. He asked each if they had stolen the watch, as
the axe would fall and cut off the finger of the one who had. He
detected the thief by his at once removing his finger."
"Verily a wise man," said Hardy. "In Norway I used to meet with the
word 'Dvaerg,' as applied to supernatural beings.
"Dvaerg is dwarf in Danish," replied the Pastor; "but there are many
stories of them, and in a superstitious sense. Dvaerg are analogous to
Underjordiske, or underground people. The tradition of their origin
is, that Eve was one day washing her children at a spring, when God
suddenly called her, at which she was frightened, and hid two of the
children that were yet unwashed, as she did not wish Him to see them
when dirty. God said, 'Are all your children here?' and she replied,
'Yes.' God said, 'What is hidden from Me shall be hidden from men;'
and from these two children are descended the Dvaerg and Underjordiske.
The most striking story of a Dvaerg is that in the Danish family Bille,
who have a Dvaerg in their coat of arms. There was, many hundred years
ago, such a dry time in the land that all the water-mills could not
work, and the people could not get their corn ground. A member of the
family of Bille was in his Herregaard, and was much troubled on this
account. A little Dvaerg came to him, who was covered with hair, and
had a tree in his hand plucked up by the roots. 'What is the matter?'
said the Dvaerg. 'It is no use my telling you' said Bille; 'you cannot
help me.' The Dvaerg replied, 'You cannot get your corn ground, and you
have many children and people that want bread; but I will show you a
place on your own land where you can build seven corn-mills, and they
shall never want water.' So Herr Bille built the seven mills, and they
have never wanted water, winter or summer. The Dvaerg gave him also a
little white horn, and told Herr Bille that as long as it was kept in
the family, prosperity would attend it. This legend belongs to
Sjaelland."
"I suppose there are many traditions in families in Denmark?" said
Hardy.
"Very many," replied the Pastor. "There is a story of Tyge Brahe, or,
as you call him in England, Tycho. He was at a wedding, and got into a
quarrel with a Herr Manderup Parsberg, and it went so far that they
fought a duel. Tyge Brahe lost his nose. But he had a nose made of
gold and silver, so artistically correct that no one could see that it
was any other than his own nose, and of flesh and blood; but to be
sure that it should not be lost, he always carried some glue in his
pocket."
"I never heard that story of the great astronomer," said Hardy.
"There is a story also of a Herr Eske Brok, who lived in Sjaelland. He
was one day walking with a servant, and was swinging about his
walking-stick, when suddenly a hat fell at his feet. He picked it up
and put it on, when he heard an exclamation from his servant Then said
Brok, 'You try the hat;' and they found that whoever had the hat on
was invisible to the other. After a while, a bareheaded boy came to
Brok's house and inquired for his hat, and offered a hundred ducats
for it, and afterwards more. At last, the boy promised that if he gave
him the hat none of his descendants should ever want. Brok gave the
hat to the boy; but as he went away he said, 'But you shall never have
sons, only daughters.' So Eske Brok was the last of his name."
"That boy must have been a Dvaerg," said Hardy.
"Quite as probable as the story," said the Pastor. "There is, however,
another impossible story of a Herr Manderup Holck of Jutland. He was
taken prisoner by the Turks, and his wife contrived his escape by
sending him a dress of feathers, so that he could fly out of his
Turkish prison and home to Jutland. She, with very great prudence,
collected all the bed-clothes in the parish, that he should fall soft
when he alighted in Jutland."
"The story is so improbable that it must be very old indeed," said
Hardy.
"I think the tradition about the Rosenkrands' arms is older," said
Pastor Lindal. "The date attached to it is given as A.D. 663. The son
of the then King of Denmark went to England to help an English king,
whose name is given as Ekuin, in his wars. He secretly married the
daughter of the crown prince, and by her had a son. She placed the
child in a box of gold, and placed a consecrated candle and salt in
the box, because the child was not baptized. One day, her father,
Prince Reduval, rode by and saw the child, and as it was in a gold box
he concluded that it came from a noble source. He brought it up under
the name of Karl. King Ekuin died, and Prince Reduval succeeded, and
he was the first Christian king in England. He desired to marry Karl
to his daughter, who was his own mother; but when the marriage should
take place, she confessed that the bridegroom was her own son. The
king therefore wanted to burn her at the stake, but Karl arranged
matters so that his father should be married to his mother, who for
nineteen years had been separated from her. Karl had painted on his
arms a white cross, to show he was a Christian, then white and blue,
to show he was both an English and a Danish prince. In one quartering
he had a lion painted white with a crown, to signify Denmark, and in
another quartering a lion, to signify England, and then a design like
a chessboard, to betoken the long separation of his father and
mother."
"I think the story rather clashes with history," said Hardy; "but
Rosenkrands means a wreath of roses."
"Yes, it does," said the Pastor. "One of them went to Rome, and the
pope gave him a wreath of roses; hence the name."
"You will miss Herr Hardy, little father," said Helga. "In two days he
leaves us. Cannot he stay longer?"
"No, I cannot," said Hardy. "My mother wishes me to return. She is
anxious to see me, and I am anxious to tell her my experiences in
Denmark; but whatever my own wishes are, I must obey hers."
"What sort of person is your mother?" asked Helga.
"The best and kindest," replied Hardy, as he took a photograph out of
his pocket-book and handed her, which Helga looked at with evident
interest.
"I feel what you say of her is true," said Helga. "Little father, it
is a noble face."
"It is like you, Hardy," said the Pastor. "She must have been
handsome."
"Yes, but she is," said Hardy. "Here is a photograph of her picture at
twenty-two;" and he handed the Pastor another photograph.
Helga looked over her father's shoulder. "It is lovely!" she said,
with warmth. "It is more like you, Herr Hardy, than the other."
"As you like the photographs, Froken," said Hardy, "keep them; it is
seldom a compliment is so well uttered."