Weird Tales from Northern Seas

Weird Tales from Northern Seas

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Weird Tales from Northern Seas
by Jonas Lie Translated by R. Nisbet Bain and Illustrated by Laurence
Housman
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Title: Weird Tales from Northern Seas
Author: Jonas Lie Translated by R. Nisbet Bain Illustrated by Laurence
Housman
Release Date: September 21, 2004 [EBook #13508]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TALES FROM NORTHERN SEAS ***

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WEIRD TALES FROM NORTHERN SEAS FROM THE DANISH
OF JONAS LIE
BY R. NISBET BAIN
WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS
BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN

Translation 1893
* * * * *
[Illustration: _THE GAN-FINN._]
* * * * *
PREFACE
Jonas Lie is sufficiently famous to need but a very few words of
introduction. Ever since 1870, when he made his reputation by his first
novel, "Den Fremsynte," he has been a prime favourite with the
Scandinavian public, and of late years his principal romances have
gone the round of Europe. He has written novels of all kinds, but he
excels when he describes the wild seas of Northern Norway, and the
stern and hardy race of sailors and fishers who seek their fortunes, and
so often find their graves, on those dangerous waters. Such tales, for
instance, as _"Tremasteren Fremtid," "Lodsen og hans Hustru," "Gaa
Paa!"_ and "_Den Fremsynte_" are unique of their kind, and give far
truer pictures of Norwegian life and character in the rough than
anything that can be found elsewhere in the literature. Indeed, Lie's
skippers and mates are as superior to Kjelland's, for instance, as the
peasants of Jens Tvedt (a writer, by the way, still unknown beyond his
native land) are superior to the much-vaunted peasants of Björnstjerne
Björnson.
But it is when Lie tells us some of the wild legends of his native
province, Nordland, some of the grim tales on which he himself was
brought up, so to speak, that he is perhaps most vivid and enthralling.
The folk-lore of those lonely sub-arctic tracts is in keeping with the
savagery of nature. We rarely, if ever, hear of friendly elves or
companionable gnomes there. The supernatural beings that haunt those
shores and seas are, for the most part, malignant and malefic. They
seem to hate man. They love to mock his toils, and sport with his
despair. In his very first romance, "Den Fremsynte," Lie relates two of
these weird tales (Nos. 1 and 3 of the present selection). Another tale,
in which many of the superstitious beliefs and wild imaginings of the
Nordland fishermen are skilfully grouped together to form the
background of a charming love-story, entitled "Finn Blood," I have
borrowed from the volume of "_Fortællinger og Skildringer_,"
published in 1872. The remaining eight stories are selected from the
book "Trold," which was the event of the Christmas publishing season

at Christiania in 1891. Last Christmas a second series of "_Trold_"
came out, but it is distinctly inferior to the former one.
R.N.B.
* * * * *

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG
II. JACK OF SJÖHÖLM AND THE GAN-FINN
III. TUG OF WAR
IV. "THE EARTH DRAWS"
V. THE CORMORANTS OF ANDVÆR
VI. ISAAC AND THE PARSON OF BRÖNÖ
VII. THE WIND-GNOME
VIII. THE HULDREFISH
IX. FINN BLOOD
X. THE HOMESTEAD WESTWARD IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
XI. "IT'S ME!"
* * * * *
THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG [Illustration: _THE
FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG._]

THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG

On Kvalholm, down in Helgeland,[1] dwelt a poor fisherman, Elias by
name, with his wife Karen, who had been in service at the parson's over
at Alstad. They had built them a hut here, and he used to go out fishing
by the day about the Lofotens.
There could be very little doubt that the lonely Kvalholm was haunted.
Whenever her husband was away, Karen heard all manner of uncanny
shrieks and noises, which could mean no good. One day, when she was
up on the hillside, mowing grass to serve as winter fodder for their
couple of sheep, she heard, quite plainly, a chattering on the strand
beneath the hill, but look over she durst not.
They had a child every year, but that was no burden, for they were both
thrifty, hard-working folks. When seven years had gone by, there were
six children in the house; but that same autumn Elias had scraped
together so much that he thought he might now venture to buy