Northern mythology

NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 103
THE SMITH OF JUTERBOGK ^
In the little towD of Jiiterbogk there once dwelt a smith,
of whom both young and old relate a wonderful story.
This smith when a youth had a very strict father and
faithfully observed God's commandments. He had travelled
much and passed through many adventures,
and
was, moreover, skilful and active in his art beyond all
belief. He possessed a chalybeate tincture that made every
harness or mail coat impenetrable that was washed with it.
He had been with the army of the emperor Frederic II.,
in which he had borne the office of imperial armourer, and
had made the campaign of Milan and Apulia. There he
had captured the standard of the city; and, after the
death of the emperor, had returned home with a considerable
treasure. He had seen good days, and afterwards
evil ones, and was more than a hundred years old.
Once,
w^hen sitting in his garden under an old pear-tree, there
came a little grey man riding on an ass, who had previously
often proved himself the smith's guardian spirit.
The little man took up his quarters with the smith,
and had his ass shod, which the smith wilHngly did without
i:equiring any remuneration. The little man then
said to Peter (for so the smith was named) that he should
wish three w^ishes, but in so doing not forget the best.
—because his pears had often been
wished that whoever climbed up into his
So
stolen by thieves—he
pear-tree might
not be able to come down without his permission ;
and
because thefts had often been perpetrated in his apartment—he
wished that no one might enter it
—
without his
permission, unless it were through the keyhole. At each
of these foolish wishes, the little man reminded him not
to forget the best ; whereupon the smith uttered his third
^
From Bechstein's Deutsches Marchenbuch. Leipzig, 1848,'p. 44, and
his Kiffhausersagen.