Northern mythology

DANISH TRADITIONS. 201
there is a passage through a farm, he rides in at one gate
and out at the other, and no locks or bolts are so strong
as not to fly open at his approach. In some places he
takes his course e\^en over the house-tops, and in the
neighbourhood of Herlufsholm there is said to be a house,
the roof of which is considerably sunk in the middle,
because he so often passes over it. In the north of Seeland
he has another Gurre, where there are ruins,
which
are still called Valdemai-^s castle. It is a custom here for
the old women, at St. John's tide, to go out at night on
the road, and open the gates for him. About two miles
from Gurre is Valdemar's mount, surrounded by water.
Here, according to the tradition, six priests in
black walk
every midnight, muttering over the islet. Between Sollerod
and Nserum, he hunts with black
dogs and horses,
on the road called Wolmar's way.
Having thus roamed about, he rests alternately at many
places in the country. It is particularly related that he
stops at Vallo castle, where he has a bedchamber, in which
there stood two ready-made beds. Here he passes the
night in the form of a black dog.
In the same room stand
two large chests, which, on being once opened, were
found full of small round pieces of leather ;
" for better
money they had not in King Wolmar's time.'' A subterraneous
passage is said to connect Vallo castle with
ToUosegaard, in the district (amt) of Holbek. Here he is
also said to have had a chamber, and formerly even a maidservant
was kept to wait on him. Sometimes he rests at
Vordingborg, in ' Valdemar's Tower,' or among the ruins
of ' Valdemar's Castle,' where young females and persons
from his time are often seen to go and make beds. A
peasant, who would not believe that the king thus came
to his tower in the night, ventured once to pass the night
there ;
but at midnight, in walked King Yaldemar to hnn,
greeted him in a friendly manner, and said, " Thou hast
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