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The Elfin Mound
The Elfin Mound
[See The Elf Assembly: Where the really grand company were assembled.]
Several large lizards were running quickly into the cleft of an old tree;
they could understand each other perfectly, for they all spoke the lizard
language.
"What a noise there is in the old Elfin mound!" said one of the Lizards.
"What a rumbling and uproar! For two nights I have not been able to close my
eyes, and might just as well have had a toothache, for then I certainly should
not have slept."
"There is a something going on there," said the other Lizard. "They let
the mound stand on four red poles till the crowing of the cock, to have it
thoroughly aired; and the Elfin damsels have learnt new dances, in which there
is some stamping. A something is going on, I`m sure."
"Yes; I have spoken to an earth-worm of my acquaintance," said the
third Lizard. "The Earth-worm came direct from the mound, where day and
night he had been rummaging about in the ground. He had heard a good deal; for
he can see nothing, poor wretch, but eavesdropping and listening he
understands to perfection. Visitors are expected at the Elfin mound; visitors
of rank, but who they were, the Earth-worm either would not or could not
say. All the Jacks-o`-the-lantern have been ordered to prepare a
procession by torch-light; and all the silver and gold, of which there is
plenty in the Elfin mound, will be polished and laid in the moonshine."
"But who can the strangers be?" said all the Lizards. "What can be going
on? Listen! what a humming and buzzing!"
At the same instant the Elfin mound opened, and an elderly Elfin damsel,
without a back, but for the rest very respectably dressed, came tripping
forth. It was the old Elfin King`s housekeeper; she was distantly related to
him, and wore an amber heart on her forehead. Her feet were so nimble - trip-
trap-trip-trap! - how she skipped along, right away to the moor to the
Night-raven.
"You will be invited to the Elfin mound, and that tonight," said she.
"But would you not do us a great favor, and take charge of the invitations? As
you do not give parties yourself, you must do us this service. Strangers of
high rank are coming to us; magicians of no small importance, let me tell you;
and so the old Elfin King wants to show himself off to advantage."
"Who is to be invited?" asked the Night-raven.
"Why, to the grand ball everybody may come; men even, if they do but
speak in their sleep, or are able to do something in our way. But the
principal banquet is to be very select; those of the first rank only are to be
invited. I have had a long discussion with the Elfin King; for, according to
my notions, we cannotseven ask ghosts. The Sea-god and his daughters must be
invited first; `tis true, they don`t much like coming on dry land, but they
will have probably a wet stone to sit upon, or maybe something better still;
and then, I think, they will not refuse for this once. We must have the old
Mountain Dwarfs of the first class, with tails; the Elf of the Brook, and the
Brownie, and then, I think, we must not omit the Swarf Elf, and the Skeleton
Horse: they belong, it is true, to the clergy, who are not of our sort;
however, `tis their office, and they are, moreover, nearly related to us, and
are continually paying us visits."
"Caw!" said the Night-raven, and flew away to invite the company.
The Elfin maidens were already dancing on the Elfin mound: they danced
with long shawls, woven of haze and moonshine; and to all who like this sort
of dancing, it seems pretty. In the centre of the Elfin mound was the great
hall, splendidly ornamented; the floor was washed with moonshine, and the
walls were rubbed with witches` fat, so that they shone in the light like
tulip-leaves. In the kitchen there was a great quantity of frogs among the
dishes; adders` skins, with little children`s fingers inside; salad of
mushroom-seed; wet mice`s snouts and hemlock; beer, from the brewery of the
old Witch of the Moor; sparkling saltpetre wine from a grave-cellar, - all
very substantial eating: rusty nails and church-window glass were among the
delicacies and kickshaws.
The old Elfin King had his golden crown polished with powdered slate -
pencil. It was the pencil of the head-scholar; and to obtain this one is
very difficult for the Elfin King.
They hung up the curtains in the bed-chamber, and fastened them with
adder spittle. There was, indeed, a humming and a buzzing in the Elfin mound!
"Now we must perfume the place with singed hair and pigs` bristles; and
then I think I shall have done my share of the business," said the little
Elfin damsel.
"Dear papa," said the least of the daughters, "shall I now know who the
high visitors are?"
"Well then," said he, "I suppose I must tell you. Two of my daughters are
to show themselves off, in order to get married. Two will certainly be
married. The aged Mountain Elf of Norway, who lives in the old Dovre-field,
and possesses many craggy castles, and a gold-mine too, - which is a better
thing than one imagines, - is coming here with his two sons; and they are to
choose themselves wives. The hoary Elf is an honest old Norwegian, merry and
straightforward. I have known him since many a long day, when we drank
together to better acquaintance and good fellowship. He came here to fetch his
wife, - she is dead now, - who was the daughter of the Rock-king. O, how I
long to see the old northern Elf! His sons, people say, are coarse, blustering
fellows; but maybe one wrongs them, and when older, they will improve."
"And when will they come?" asked his daughter.
"That depends on wind and weather," said the Elfin King. "They travel
economically; they will come here by water. I wish they would go through
Sweden; but the old gentleman has no inclination that way. He does not keep
pace with the time, and that I can`t bear."
At the same moment two Jacks-o`-the-lantern came hoping in, one
faster than the other, and for that reason one was first.
"They`re coming! they`re coming!" cried they.
"Give me my crown; and let me stand in the moonshine," said the Elfin
King.
The daughters held up their long shawls and bowed to the earth.
There stood the hoary Mountain Elf, with a crown of hardened icicles and
polished fir-cones on his head, and wrapped up in a mantle of fur and boots
of the same. His sons, on the contrary, went with open throats, for they
disdained the cold.
"Is that a mound?" asked the lesser of the youths, pointing to Elfin -
home. "In Norway we call such a thing a hole."
"Boy," said the father, "a mound rises upward, and a hole goes inward.
Have you no eyes in your head?"
Now they went into the Elfin mound, where there was very choice company,
certainly; and had come together with such speed, one might have thought they
had been borne thither on the breeze; however, the arrangements for every one
were neat and pretty. The sea folk sat at table in large water-butts; and
they said they felt just as if they were at home. All observed good manners at
the table, except the two little Norwegian Mountain Elves, who put their feet
on the board, for they thought that all they did was becoming.
"Take your feet away from the plates," said the old Elf; and then they
obeyed, although not immediately. They tickled the ladies next them with fir -
cones; then they pulled off their boots, to be more at ease, and gave them to
the ladies to hold for them; but their father was very different. He told
about the proud Norwegian rocks, and of the water-falls, which, covered with
foam, dashed downwards, raging and roaring like thunder; he told about the
salmon, that leaps up against the falling waters, when the Spirit of the flood
plays on her golden harp. He related about the clear winter nights, when the
bells on the sledges jingle, and the youths run with flaming torches over the
smooth ice, which is so transparent that they could see how affrighted the
fishes were beneath their feet. He, indeed, could recount so that one saw and
heard the things he described; when, huzza! all of a sudden, the old Elf gave
one of the Elfin damsels a smacking kiss; and yet they were not even distantly
related.
The Elfin maidens were now to dance, simple as well as stamping dances;
and then came the most difficult one of all, the so-called "Dance out of the
dance." Confound it! their legs grew so long, one did not know which was the
beginning nor which was the end: one could not distinguish legs from arms; all
was twirling about in the air like sawdust; and they went whizzing round to
such a degree that the Skeleton Horse grew quite sick, and was obliged to
leave the table.
"Brrrrr!" said the gray-headed Elf; "that`s a regular Highland fling,
as it`s called. But what can they do besides spinning about like a whirlwind?"
"That you shall see," said the King, calling the youngest of his
daughters. She was as delicate and fair as moonlight, and was the daintiest of
all the sisters. She put a white wand in her mouth, and vanished. That was her
art.
But the old Mountain Elf said, "This was an art he should not at all like
in his wife, nor did he think his sons would either."
The other could walk beside her own self, as though she had a shadow,
which is a thing Elves never have.
The third one`s talent was of a very different kind; she had learned in
the brewery of the Witch of the Moor, and she knew how to lard alder-wood
with glow-worms.
"She would make a good housewife," said the Mountain Elf, blinking, for
he did not at all like drinking so much.
Then came the fourth Elfin maiden; she had a large golden harp, and when
she touched the first string, everybody lifted up the left foot, for the Elves
are all left-sided; and when she touched the next, everybody was forced to
do whatever she pleased.
"That is a dangerous damsel," said the Mountain Elf; but both his sons
went out of the Elfin mound, for they were tired of it.
"What can the next daughter do?" asked the old Elf.
"I have learned to love the Norwegians," said she; "and I will not marry
unless I can go to Norway."
But the youngest of the sisters whispered into the old Elf`s ear, "She
only says that, because she has heard in an old Norwegian rhyme, that when
even the world is at an end, the rocks of Norway will stand firm; and that`s
the reason she wants to go there, for she is greatly afraid of death."
"Ho, ho!" said the old Elf; "that`s the way the wind blows, is it? But
what can the seventh and last do?"
"The sixth comes before the seventh," said the Elfin King, for he knew
how to count; but the sixth at first would not come forward.
"I can do nothing except tell people the truth," said she. "No one
troubles about me, and I have enough to do to get my shroud ready."
Now came the seventh and last. And what could she do? She could tell as
many fairy-tales as she chose.
"Here are my five fingers," said the old Mountain Elf. "For each one tell
me a story."
And the Elfin maiden took hold of him by the wrist, and he laughed till
he was almost choked; and when she came to the finger that wore a golden ring,
just as if it knew that matrimony was going on, the old Elf said, "Hold fast
what you have! The hand is yours! I will take you myeelf to wife!"
And the Elfin maiden said that the fairy-tale to the ring-finger and
to the little finger were wanting.
"O, we`ll hear them in winter," said the old Elf; "and about the fir -
tree too, and about the birch, and the gifts of the wood-nymphs, and about
the crackling frost. You shall have opportunities enough of telling stories,
for no one understands that yonder. And there we will sit in our rocky
dwelling, where the pine-torch is burning, and where we drink mead out of
the golden horns of the old Norwegian kings; I got some as a present from the
Water-spirit. And when we are sitting so together, Garbo will come to pay us
a visit, and he will sing to you all the songs of the mountain maidens. How
merry we shall be! The salmon will leap in the waterfall, and dash against the
walls of rock; but he will not be able to come in to us, after all! Yes, yes;
one leads a happy, comfortable life in dear old Norway! But where are the
boys?"
Where were they? Why, they were running about the fields, blowing out the
wills-o`-the-wisp that were coming quite orderly to have a procession
with torches.
"What`s all this harum-scarum about?" said the old Elf. "I have taken a
step-mother for you; methinks now you may choose a wife too."
But they said they liked speechifying and boon companionship better, and
had no taste for matrimony; and so they made speeches, tossed off their
glasses, and turned them topsy-turvy, to show that they were quite empty.
They then pulled off their coats, and lay down on the table to sleep. But the
old Elf danced round the room with his young bride, and exchanged boots with
her; for that is much more genteel than exchanging rings.
"The cock is crowing!" said the elderly damsel who attended to the
housekeeping. "We must now bolt the shutters, lest the sun should spoil our
complexions."
And then the mound closed. The Lizards ran about and up and down the
cleft tree and one said to the other, "How much I like the old Mountain Elf!"
"I like the merry boys better," said the Earth-worm; but then he could
not see, poor wretch!
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