THE ELF MAIDEN

Edition and rights: Original English text from Project Gutenberg ebook #31201, marked public domain in the USA. The literary text below is reproduced without AI rewriting.

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Once upon a time two young men living in a small
village fell in love with the same girl. During the
winter, it was all night except for an hour or so about
noon, when the darkness seemed a little less dark, and
then they used to see which of them could tempt her out
for a sleigh ride with the Northern Lights flashing above
them, or which could persuade her to come to a dance
in some neighbouring barn. But when the spring began,
and the light grew longer, the hearts of the villagers
leapt at the sight of the sun, and a day was fixed for the
boats to be brought out, and the great nets to be spread
in the bays of some islands that lay a few miles to the
north. Everybody went on this expedition, and the two
young men and the girl went with them.

They all sailed merrily across the sea chattering
like a flock of magpies, or singing their favourite songs.
And when they reached the shore, what an unpacking
there was! For this was a noted fishing ground, and
here they would live, in little wooden huts, till autumn
and bad weather came round again.

The maiden and the two young men happened to
share the same hut with some friends, and fished daily
from the same boat. And as time went on, one of the
youths remarked that the girl took less notice of him
than she did of his companion. At first he tried to think
that he was dreaming, and for a long while he kept his
eyes shut very tight to what he did not want to see,
but in spite of his efforts, the truth managed to wriggle
[Pg 191]
through, and then the young man gave up trying to
deceive himself, and set about finding some way to get
the better of his rival.

The plan that he hit upon could not be carried out for
some months; but the longer the young man thought of
it, the more pleased he was with it, so he made no sign
of his feelings, and waited patiently till the moment came.
This was the very day that they were all going to leave
the islands, and sail back to the mainland for the winter.
In the bustle and hurry of departure, the cunning fisherman
contrived that their boat should be the last to put
off, and when everything was ready, and the sails about
to be set, he suddenly called out:

‘Oh, dear, what shall I do! I have left my best knife
behind in the hut. Run, like a good fellow, and get it for
me, while I raise the anchor and loosen the tiller.’

Not thinking any harm, the youth jumped back on
shore and made his way up the steep bank. At the door
of the hut he stopped and looked back, then started and
gazed in horror. The head of the boat stood out to sea,
and he was left alone on the island.

Yes, there was no doubt of it—he was quite alone;
and he had nothing to help him except the knife which
his comrade had purposely dropped on the ledge of the
window. For some minutes he was too stunned by the
treachery of his friend to think about anything at all,
but after a while he shook himself awake, and determined
that he would manage to keep alive somehow, if it were
only to revenge himself.

So he put the knife in his pocket and went off to a
part of the island which was not so bare as the rest, and
had a small grove of trees. From one of these he cut
himself a bow, which he strung with a piece of cord that
had been left lying about the huts.

When this was ready the young man ran down to the
shore and shot one or two sea-birds, which he plucked
and cooked for supper.

[Pg 192]
In this way the months slipped by, and Christmas
came round again. The evening before, the youth went
down to the rocks and into the copse, collecting all the
drift wood the sea had washed up or the gale had blown
down, and he piled it up in a great stack outside the door,
so that he might not have to fetch any all the next day.
As soon as his task was done, he paused and looked out
towards the mainland, thinking of Christmas Eve last
year, and the merry dance they had had. The night was
still and cold, and by the help of the Northern Lights
he could almost see across to the opposite coast, when,
suddenly, he noticed a boat, which seemed steering
straight for the island. At first he could hardly stand
for joy, the chance of speaking to another man was so
delightful; but as the boat drew near there was something,
he could not tell what, that was different from the
boats which he had been used to all his life, and when it
touched the shore he saw that the people that filled it
were beings of another world than ours. Then he hastily
stepped behind the wood stack, and waited for what might
happen next.

The strange folk one by one jumped on to the rocks,
each bearing a load of something that they wanted.
Among the women he remarked two young girls, more
beautiful and better dressed than any of the rest, carrying
between them two great baskets full of provisions. The
young man peeped out cautiously to see what all this
crowd could be doing inside the tiny hut, but in a moment
he drew back again, as the girls returned, and looked
about as if they wanted to find out what sort of a place
the island was.

Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man
crouching behind the bundles of sticks, and at first they
felt a little frightened, and started as if they would run
away. But the youth remained so still, that they took
courage and laughed gaily to each other. ‘What a strange
creature, let us try what he is made of,’ said one, and she
stooped down and gave him a pinch.

[Pg 193]
Now the young man had a pin sticking in the sleeve
of his jacket, and the moment the girl’s hand touched
him she pricked it so sharply that the blood came. The
girl screamed so loudly that the people all ran out of
their huts to see what was the matter. But directly they
caught sight of the man they turned and fled in the other
direction, and picking up the goods they had brought
with them scampered as fast as they could down to the
shore. In an instant, boat, people, and goods had
vanished completely.

In their hurry they had, however, forgotten two things:
a bundle of keys which lay on the table, and the girl
whom the pin had pricked, and who now stood pale and
helpless beside the wood stack.

‘You will have to make me your wife,’ she said at
last, ‘for you have drawn my blood, and I belong to you.’

‘Why not? I am quite willing,’ answered he. ‘But
how do you suppose we can manage to live till summer
comes round again?’

‘Do not be anxious about that,’ said the girl; ‘if you
will only marry me all will be well. I am very rich, and
all my family are rich also.’

Then the young man gave her his promise to make
her his wife, and the girl fulfilled her part of the bargain,
and food was plentiful on the island all through the long
winter months, though he never knew how it got there.
And by-and-by it was spring once more, and time for the
fisher-folk to sail from the mainland.

‘Where are we to go now?’ asked the girl, one day,
when the sun seemed brighter and the wind softer than
usual.

‘I do not care where I go,’ answered the young man;
‘what do you think?’

The girl replied that she would like to go somewhere
right at the other end of the island, and build a house,
far away from the huts of the fishing-folk. And he
consented, and that very day they set off in search of a
[Pg 194]
sheltered spot on the banks of a stream, so that it would
be easy to get water.

In a tiny bay, on the opposite side of the island, they
found the very thing, which seemed to have been made on
purpose for them; and as they were tired with their long
walk, they laid themselves down on a bank of moss
among some birches and prepared to have a good night’s
rest, so as to be fresh for work next day. But before she
went to sleep the girl turned to her husband, and said:
‘If in your dreams you fancy that you hear strange noises,
be sure you do not stir, or get up to see what it is.’

‘Oh, it is not likely we shall hear any noises in such
a quiet place,’ answered he, and fell sound asleep.

Suddenly he was awakened by a great clatter about his
ears, as if all the workmen in the world were sawing and
hammering and building close to him. He was just going
to spring up and go to see what it meant, when he luckily
remembered his wife’s words and lay still. But the time
till morning seemed very long, and with the first ray of
sun they both rose, and pushed aside the branches of
the birch trees. There, in the very place they had chosen,
stood a beautiful house—doors and windows, and everything
all complete!

‘Now you must fix on a spot for your cow-stalls,’ said
the girl, when they had breakfasted off wild cherries; ‘and
take care it is the proper size, neither too large nor too
small.’ And the husband did as he was bid, though he
wondered what use a cow-house could be, as they had no
cows to put in it. But as he was a little afraid of his wife,
who knew so much more than he, he asked no questions.

This night also he was awakened by the same sounds
as before, and in the morning they found, near the stream,
the most beautiful cow-house that ever was seen, with
stalls and milk-pails and stools all complete, indeed, everything
that a cow-house could possibly want, except the
cows. Then the girl bade him measure out the ground for
a storehouse, and this, she said, might be as large as he
[Pg 195]
pleased; and when the storehouse was ready she proposed
that they should set off to pay her parents a visit.

The old people welcomed them heartily, and summoned
their neighbours, for many miles round, to a great feast
in their honour. In fact, for several weeks there was no
[Pg 196]
work done on the farm at all; and at length the young
man and his wife grew tired of so much play, and declared
that they must return to their own home. But, before
they started on the journey, the wife whispered to her
husband: ‘Take care to jump over the threshold as quick
as you can, or it will be the worse for you.’

The young man listened to her words, and sprang over
the threshold like an arrow from a bow; and it was well
he did, for, no sooner was he on the other side, than his
father-in-law threw a great hammer at him, which would
have broken both his legs, if it had only touched them.

When they had gone some distance on the road home,
the girl turned to her husband and said: ‘Till you step
inside the house, be sure you do not look back, whatever
you may hear or see.’

And the husband promised, and for a while all was
still; and he thought no more about the matter till he
noticed at last that the nearer he drew to the house the
louder grew the noise of the trampling of feet behind him.
As he laid his hand upon the door he thought he was
safe, and turned to look. There, sure enough, was a vast
herd of cattle, which had been sent after him by his
father-in-law when he found that his daughter had been
cleverer than he. Half of the herd were already through
the fence and cropping the grass on the banks of the
stream, but half still remained outside and faded into
nothing, even as he watched them.

However, enough cattle were left to make the young
man rich, and he and his wife lived happily together,
except that every now and then the girl vanished from
his sight, and never told him where she had been. For a
long time he kept silence about it; but one day, when he
had been complaining of her absence, she said to him:
‘Dear husband, I am bound to go, even against my will,
and there is only one way to stop me. Drive a nail into
the threshold, and then I can never pass in or out.’

And so he did.

[Lappländische Mährchen.]

[Pg 197]