Northern mythology

that on he had no power over her,
DANISH TRADITIONS. 181
placed it on her head in the name of Jesus.
JENS PLOVGAARD.
the bridemaids having
In Sondre-Nissum, near Ringkiobing ^j there dwelt a
man named Jens Plovgaard, who was in league with the
devil, and could therefore raise the dead and perform other
feats of the kind, whereby he gained a considerable sum of
money. But for this he was, on the other hand, after a
certain number of years, to belong to the evil one. One day
when he was absent from home, a fisherman from Thy came
to ascertain what had become of a swine, but not meeting
with Jens Plovgaard, and it being late, he slipt into the
barn to sleep till the following morning, when he could
accomplish his errand. In the middle of the night Jens
returned home, who, on hearing that a man from Thy had
been there to make inquiry of him concerning a lost swine,
would immediately consult ' Eric ^/ and for that purpose
went into the barn to raise him. The man, who was still
awake, heard plainly how the devil was forced to obey.
Jens asked him about the swine, but Eric would not
utter a syllable, for he had observed that they were not
alone ;
while Jens, on the other hand, ascribed his silence
to sheer obstinacy, and therefore took his iron whip, with
which he belaboured the fiend until he told him that the
swine lay under an earth-slip, and described the place
most accurately. When the fisherman heard this, he
spared Jens Plovgaard all further trouble, and on his return
dug in the slip, and found his swine.
The time at length arrived when the fiend, according to
their compact, was to fetch Jens Plovgaard, who caused
himself to be placed in a large cask together with an
1 A small town on the west coast of Jutland.
- The devil, like our ' old Harry,' which is probably a corruption of the
Danish term.