Northern mythology

DANISH TRADITIONS. 171
mightest thou say so. But if ye do not instantly restore
me to the water, neither the ship nor yourselves shall ever
reach land.'^ After this he would not utter a word, but
was placed in the boat, and thence sprang into the water.
Out in Nordstrand there dwells a Merwife, who once
drove her cattle up on the sea-shore, and let them graze
the whole day on Tibirke Mark. This did not at all
please the peasantry thereabouts, who for ages have been
notorious for their covetousness ;
they therefore took measures
for intercepting the cattle, whereby they succeeded
in driving the Merwife with all her herd into an inclosure
near the town, from which they would not allow her to
escape until she had paid them for pasturage on their
lands. Having assured them that she had no money to
give, they required her to give them the girdle she wore
round her body, which appeared very costly and shone as
with precious stones. There being no alternative, she
redeemed herself and cattle by giving them the girdle.
But as she was driving her cattle down to the shore, she
''
said to her large bull : Rake up now
!
" Whereupon the
animal began to throw up the earth with his horns and
to cast up the sand along the sea-coast ; and as the wind
now blew from the north-west, the sand was drifted in
over the country towards the village of Tibirke, so that
the church was nearly buried under it. Of the costly
girdle, too, they had but a short-lived gratification, for on
returning home and examining it more closely, it was
found to consist of worthless rushes.
In the diocese of Aarhuus there once dwelt two poor
people who had an only daughter named jMargaret, or
Grethe. One day when she had been sent down to the
sea-side to fetch sand, and was scooping it into her apron,
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