Northern mythology

SWEDISH TRADITIONS. 71
which the Hchen called alfniifver (lichen aphosus, or lichen
caninus) is to be sought for. In old topographical
works there is no lack of accounts of families, which, on
the mother's side, are supposed to descend from such
beings. In Smuland a tradition has been credited of a
well-known family, whose ancestress, a young, beautiful
elfin girl, is said to have flown with the sunbeams through
a knot-hole in the wall,
have been taken to wife.
and by the heir of the family to
After having given her husbaiul
seven sons, she vanished by the way she came.
LOFJERSKOR.
The ' Lofjerskor ' named in the old Swedish catechism
seem identical with the Grove-damsels (Lundjungfrur), a
species of Elves which is also called the Grove-folk (Lundfolk).
The sacred groves of the heathens which, by the
ecclesiastical law, it was forbidden to approach with superstitious
worship, were beheved, in the time of paganism,
to be protected by invisible deities. If a lime or other
tree, either in a forest or sohtary, grew more vigorously
than the other trees, it w^as called a habitation-tree (botrad),
and ^vas thought to be inhabited by an Elf (Ra,
Radande), w^ho, though invisible, dwelt in its shade, rew^arded
with health and prosperity the individual that took
care of the tree, and punished those who injured it.
Thus did our heathen forefathers hold in reverence and
awe such groves and trees, because they regarded them as
given by the Almighty as ornaments to his noble creation,
as well as to afford protection to the husbandman and
cattle against the scorching heat of the midday sun. In
this and in many other instances, simple Antiquity may
serve us as a lesson not wantonly to destroy the life even
of a shoot, which may one day become a useful, umbrageous
tree, or to injure and profane a grove, into which
no reflecting Christian can enter, for the purpose of en-