Northern mythology

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128 DANISH TRADITIONS.
Fru Mette. To this lady a little Troll one day came,
saying " Fru Mette of Overgaard : ! wilt thou lend thy
sifken skirt to Fru Mette of Undcrgaard, to be married
in V Having lent the skirt and waited a long time in
vain for its return, she went one day to the mount, and
cried " Give me back my skirt/' At this the Troll came
:
out and gave her the skirt quite covered with drippings
of wax, and said "
: As you have demanded it, take it
but if you had waited a few days, there should have been
a diamond in the place of every drop of wax/'
THE UNDERGROUND FOLK FETCH A MIDWIFE.
One Christmas eve, as a woman was preparing meat for
the family, an Elf-man came to her, begging her to accompany
him and help his wife who was in labour. The
woman having consented to accompany him, he took her
on his back and descended with her into the earth through
a fountain. Here the woman learned that the Elf-wife
could not be delivered without the aid of a Christian
woman, she being herself a Christian, but had been carried
off by the Elf-man.
When the child was born, the Elf-man took it in his
arms and went away with it, which, as the mother told
the woman, he did for the reason, that if he could find
two newly married persons, in the bridal bed, before they
had repeated their Paternoster, he could, by laying the
child between them, procure for it all the good fortune
that was designed for the newly married pair. The wife
then instructed her helper as to what she had to do when
the Elf-man returned :
" First,'' said she, " you must eat
nothing, if he asks you; for I ate, and therefore never
returned. Next, if he will make you a present, and
gives you the choice between something that looks like
silver and something that looks like potsherds, do you