creature’s head.
“What are you?” asked Peer.
“Oh, I am the big Boyg from Etnedale,” said the Troll-Monster. Peer did
not lose a moment, but fired three shots right into its head.
“Fire another,” said the Boyg. But Peer knew better; if he had fired
another shot, the bullet would have rebounded against himself.
Thereupon Peer and his dogs took hold of the Troll-Monster and dragged
him out, so that they could get into the sæter. Meanwhile there was
jeering and laughing in all the hills around.
“Peer Gynt dragged hard, but the dogs dragged harder,” said a voice.
Next morning he went out stalking. When he came out on the uplands he
saw a girl, who was calling some sheep up a hillside. But when he came
to the place the girl was gone and the sheep too, and he saw nothing but
a great flock of bears.
“Well, I never saw bears in a flock before,” thought Peer to himself.
When he came nearer, they had all disappeared except one.
“Look after your pig:
Peer Gynt is out
with his gun so big,”[148]
shouted a voice over in a hillock.
“Oh, it’ll be a bad business for Peer, but not for my pig; for he hasn’t
washed himself to-day,” said another voice in the hill. Peer washed his
hands with the water he had, and shot the bear. There was more laughter
and jeering in the hill.
“You should have looked after your pig!” cried a voice.
“I didn’t remember he had a water-jug between his legs,” answered the
other.
Peer skinned the bear and buried the carcass among the stones, but the
head and the hide he took with him. On his way home he met a fox.
“Look at my lamb, how fat it is,” said a voice in a hill.
“Look at that gun[149] of Peer’s, how high it is,” said a voice in
another hill, just as Peer took aim and shot the fox. He skinned the fox
and took the skin with him, and when he came to the sæter he put the
heads on the wall outside, with their jaws gaping. Then he lighted a
fire and put a pot on to boil some soup, but the chimney smoked so
terribly that he could scarcely keep his eyes open, and so he had to set
wide a small window. Suddenly a Troll came and poked his nose in through
the window; it was so long that it reached across the room to the
fireplace.
“Here’s a proper snout for you to see,” said the Troll.
“And here’s proper soup for you to taste,” said Peer Gynt; and he poured
the whole potful of soup over the Troll’s nose. The Troll ran away
howling; but in all the hills around there was jeering and laughing and
voices shouting—
“Soup-snout Gyri! Soup-snout Gyri!”
All was quiet now for a while; but before long there was a great noise
and hubbub outside again. Peer looked out and saw that there was a cart
there, drawn by bears. They hoisted up the Troll-Monster, and carted him
away into the mountain. Just then a bucket of water came down the
chimney and put out the fire, so that Peer was left in the dark. Then a
jeering and laughing began in all the corners of the room, and a voice
said—
“It’ll go no better with Peer now than with the sæter-girls at Vala.”
Peer made up the fire again, took his dogs with him, shut up the house,
and set off northward to the Vala sæter, where the three girls were.
When he had gone some distance he saw such a glare of light that it
seemed to him the sæter must be on fire. Just then he came across a pack
of wolves; some of them he shot, and some he knocked on the head. When
he came to the Vala sæter he found it pitch dark; there was no sign of
any fire; but there were four strangers in the house carrying on with
the sæter-girls. They were four Hill-Trolls, and their names were Gust
of Værë, Tron of the Valfjeld, Tjöstöl Aabakken, and Rolf Eldförpungen.
Gust of Værë was standing at the door to keep watch, while the others
were in with the girls courting. Peer fired at Gust, but missed him, and
Gust ran away. When Peer came inside he found the Trolls carrying on
desperately with the girls. Two of the girls were terribly frightened
and were saying their prayers, but the third, who was called Mad Kari,
wasn’t afraid; she said they might come there for all she cared; she
would like to see what stuff there was in such fellows. But when the
Trolls found that Peer was in the room they began to howl, and told
Eldförpungen to make up the fire. At that instant the dogs set upon
Tjöstöl and pulled him over on his back into the fireplace, so that the
ashes and sparks flew up all round him.
“Did you see my snakes, Peer?” asked Tron of the Valfjeld—that was what
he called the wolves.
“You shall go the same way as your snakes,” said Peer, and shot him; and
then he killed Aabakken with the butt-end of his rifle. Eldförpungen had
escaped up the chimney. After this Peer took the girls back to their
homes, for they didn’t dare to stay any longer up at the sæter.
Shortly before Christmas-time Peer set out again. He had heard of a farm
on the Dovrefjeld which was invaded by such a number of Trolls every
Christmas-eve that the people of the farm had to turn out and get
shelter with some of their neighbours. He was anxious to go there, for
he was very keen upon the Trolls. He dressed himself in some old ragged
clothes, and took with him a tame white bear that he had, as well as an
awl, some pitch, and waxed twine. When he came to the farm he went in
and begged for houseroom.
“God help us!” said the farmer; “we can’t put you up. We have to clear
out of the house ourselves, for every blessed Christmas-eve the whole
place is full of Trolls.”
But Peer Gynt said he thought he should be able to clear the house of
Trolls; and then he got leave to stay, and they gave him a pig’s skin
into the bargain. The bear lay down behind the fireplace, and Peer took
out his awl, and pitch, and twine, and set to making a big shoe, that
took the whole pig’s skin. He put a strong rope in for laces, so that he
could pull the shoe tight together at the top; and he had a couple of
handspikes ready.
All of a sudden the Trolls came, with a fiddle and a fiddler; some began
dancing, while others fell to eating the Christmas fare on the table;
some fried bacon, and some fried frogs and toads, and other disgusting
things: these were the Christmas dainties they had brought with them. In
the meantime some of the Trolls found the shoe Peer had made; they
thought it must be for a very big foot. Then they all wanted to try it
on; and when each of them had put a foot into it, Peer tightened the
rope, shoved one of the handspikes into it, and twisted it up till they
were all stuck fast in the shoe.
Just then the bear put his nose out and smelt the fry.
“Will you have a sausage, white pussy?” said one of the Trolls, and
threw a red-hot frog right into the bear’s jaws.
“Claw and smite Bruin!” said Peer Gynt.
And then the bear got into such a rage that he rushed at the Trolls and
smote and clawed them all, and Peer Gynt took the other handspike and
hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. So the
Trolls had to clear out, and Peer stayed and enjoyed himself on the
Christmas cheer the whole feast-time. After that the Trolls were not
heard of again for many years. The farmer had a light-coloured mare, and
Peer advised him to breed from her, and let her foals in their turn run
and breed among the hills there.
Many years afterwards, about Christmas-time, the farmer was out in the
forest cutting wood for the feast-time, when a Troll came towards him
and shouted—
“Have you got that big white pussy of yours yet?”
“Yes, she’s at home behind the stove,” said the farmer; “and she’s got
seven kittens now, much bigger and fiercer than herself.”
“We’ll never come to you any more, then,” shouted the Troll.
“That Peer Gynt was a strange one,” said Anders. “He was such an
out-and-out tale-maker and yarn-spinner, you couldn’t have helped
laughing at him. He always made out that he himself had been mixed up in
all the stories that people said had happened in the olden times.”
GUDBRAND GLESNË.
“There was a hunter in the West-Hills,” said Thor Ulvsvolden, “called
Gudbrand Glesnë. He was married to the grandmother of the lad you saw at
the sæter yesterday evening, and a first-rate hunter they say he was.
One autumn he came across a huge buck. He shot at it, and from the way
it fell he couldn’t tell but that it was stone dead. So he went up to
it, and, as one often does, seated himself astride on its back, and was
just drawing his knife to cleave the neck-bone from the skull. But no
sooner had he sat down than up it jumped, threw its horns back, and
jammed him down between them, so that he was fixed as in an arm-chair.
Then it rushed away; for the bullet had only grazed the beast’s head, so
that it had fallen in a swoon. Never any man had such a ride[150] as
that Gudbrand had. Away they went in the teeth of the wind, over the
ugliest glaciers and moraines. Then the beast dashed along the
Gjende-edge; and now Gudbrand prayed to the Lord, for he thought he
would never see sun or moon again. But at last the reindeer took to the
water and swam straight across with the hunter on its back. By this time
he had got his knife drawn, and the moment the buck set foot on shore,
he plunged it into its neck, and it dropped dead. But you may be sure
Gudbrand Glesnë wouldn’t have taken that ride again, not for all the
riches in the world.
“I have heard a story like that in England, about a deer-stalker that
became a deer-rider,” said Sir Tottenbroom.[151]
“Bliecher, in Jutland, tells a similar one,” I said.
“But what sort of a place was this Gjender-edge you spoke of, Thor?” he
interrupted me.
“Gjende-edge, you mean?” asked Thor. “It’s the ridge[152] of a mountain
lying between the Gjende-lakes, and so horribly narrow and steep that if
you stand on it and drop a stone from each hand, they will roll down
into the lakes, one on each side. The reindeer-hunters go over it in
fine weather, otherwise it’s impassable; but there was a devil of a
fellow up in Skiager—Ole Storebråten was his name—who went over it
carrying a full-sized reindeer on his shoulders.”
“How high is it above the lakes?” asked Sir Tottenbroom.
“Oh, it’s not nearly so high as the Rondë-hills,” said Thor. “But it’s
over seven hundred ells high.”
-----
Footnotes:
-----
Footnote 147:
See footnote, p. xxvi.
Footnote 148:
Literally, “with his tail.” A gun loosely slung over the shoulder
bears a certain resemblance to a tail sticking up in the air.
Footnote 149:
Literally, “tail.”
Footnote 150:
“Skyds”—conveyance.
Footnote 151:
An English sportsman who accompanied Asbjörnsen on his rambles.
Footnote 152:
“Rygge”—backbone, _arête_.
-----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
There are quite a few instances of missing punctuation. The conventional
period following the character’s name is sometimes missing and has been
added for consistency’s sake without further comment. Those missing from
setting and stage direction are also added without comment, since there
is no obvious purpose to be served by the omission. However, the
restoration of punctuation missing from dialogue is noted below, since
the punctuation is frequently expressive.
Volume I of this series included errata for each succeeding volume.
Some, but not all, of the corrections indicated there had been made
before the printing employed here. Those that remained unchanged have
been corrected here, and noted as such.
Other errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected,
and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the
original.
14.8 something really grand[.] Added.
14.13 Who knows what may befall one[?] Added.
21.12 You beast[!] Added.
22.23 I’ll be heaven high[.] Added.
25.10 Oh, let them chatter[?/.] Replaced.
26.23 Up with you, Peer, my lad[.] Added.
33.4 Wherever he goes there is silence[;] Added.
47.26 for a carcase like his[.] Added.
48.26 With the bride[.] Added.
54.27 roll down to bewilder him[!] Added.
66.11 You’re a king’s son[?] Added.
67.24 with us it[’]s precisely the same. Inserted.
71.21 [“]Man, be thyself!” Added.
72.24 fly off with your home-brewed drinks[!] Added.
82.6 Let go will you, beast[!] Added.
83.3 Mother, help me, I die[!] Added.
84.29 the one only one[.] Added.
96.2 tempted my poor boy astray[!] Added.
97.17 I fear it’s a sin[.] Added.
122.6 Yes, gentlemen, [comp[elety/letely] clear Replaced.
122.31 Those noble-trolls[.] Added.
125.21 Dear friends[,] Added.
127.28 Well, but the African commod[it]ies? Probably.
140.15 Since [though] art so wise _sic_: Thou?
148.1 here are ferns growing—edible roots[.] Added.
148.12 the Lord let[’]s lets me keep Removed.
157.35 Tender, shrinking little hearts[.] Added.
164.22 Your Emperor I am[!] Added.
164.32 loved to this pitch[!] Added.
165.31 Hearts tha[n/t] can love Replaced,
per Errata.
168.36 sober and wakeful.[”] Added.
172.7 It[’]s secular traces Removed.
175.19 A man[!] Added.
181.9 out of his skin[!] Added.
182.23 fathomed the Sphinx’s meaning[!] Added.
191.9 Pray do not sputter[.] Added.
191.18 a fate-guided pen[.] Added.
197.21 a dram to their supper[.] Added.
199.29 A wreck a-lee[!] Added.
206.3 to make it come quicker[.] Added.
209.11 His hand[s] slips; Removed.
220.16 Twopence for the pedlar’s pack[!] Added.
221.28 on Christmas Eve[.] Added.
226.8 _Man mus[s] sich drappiren_ Added, per
Errata.
229.34 [“]Life, as it’s called, Restored.
231.29 The worm has gnawed us[.] Added.
233.23 With the switch from the cupboard[.] Added.
248.8 You’re welcome[,] Peer. Added.
250.26 It[’]s name shall be Removed.
264.7 if I’m not mistaken[.] Added.
267.23 for me and my sins[.] Added.