Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Ossianic afid other Early Legends. 285
THE ORIGIN OF THE LAKE OF TIIS.
Soon after the preaching of Christianity in Zealand,
a church was raised in Kund, and the cheerful clang of
the bells was often heard, scattering their holy music
abroad, and exciting devotion. But the chimes, as all
other things connected with Christian ceremonial, were
very distasteful to a troll who haunted the neighbour-
and at last his annoyance became so intense, that
hood ;
he crossed over to Funen, and there abode.
Some time after he met a man from Kund, and made
many inquiries about his old neighbours. At last, seeming
to recollect something on a sudden, he changed the
subject, and said to the man, " Will you oblige me by
delivering this letter which I am dropping into your
pocket, without showing you the address ? There is a
little secret about it, and you will oblige me by throwing
it over the churchyard wall in Kund, where my friend
is already expecting it." The man promised to do as
desired, but on his return he forgot all about it. At last,
being one day out in the low meadow, which now forms
the basin of Lake Tiis, he suddenly recollected the letter,
and, forgetting the injunction, he pulled it out of his
pocket and looked at it. He observed with surprise that
drops of water were trickling out of the comers. But
terror soon succeeded to surprise when it flew open, and
a mighty torrent began to rush from it. He had time,
however, to escape before the hollow of the land in
which he stood was filled with water. The revengeful
troll had enclosed the whole lake in that pestilent letter
and if his evil design had succeeded, the church, and
perhaps the whole town of Kund, would have been
inundated.
The Celtic elves as well as the trolls have a great
dislike to the intrusion of churches near their owm resi-
;