Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/58

 46 The Cormorants of Udrost. many legends are told in the north. These fairy-lands are only seen by very pious people or by those who are gifted with second sight, when in danger of their lives at sea, and they appear where at other times no land is to be found. The supernatural people who live here have farms and keep cattle, fish and own ships, like other folks, but here the sun shines on greener pastures and richer corn fields than elsewhere in the nørth ; and fortunate, indeed, is he who has landed on or even has seen one of these sunny isles ;—m he is a made man," say the people in the north. An old ballad, in the style of Peder Dass, gives a full description of an island off Trænen in Helgeland, called Sandflæsen, with rich fisheries and abounding with game of all sorts. In the middle of the Vestford a large flat land with rich corn fields also appears, but it only rises high enough above the surface of the water to leave the ears of the corn dry ; and outside Rost, off the southern point of the Lofoten islands, a similar fairy land with green hills and golden barley fields is spoken of, which is called Udrost. The farmer on Udrost owns his fishing-smack just like any other farmer in the north ; sometimes the fishermen see it under full sails, and steering right down upon them, but just as they expect to be run down, it disappears. On Væro, not far from Rost, lived once a poor fisherman, whose nåme was Isaac. All he possessed was a boat and a couple of goats, which his wife managed to keep ali ve on fish offal, and the few stray wisps of grass to be found on the neigh bouring clififs ; but he had a whole cottage full of hungry children. But still Isaac seemed always to be satisfied with the lot Providence had ordained for him. His only complaint was, that he could never be left in peace by his neighbour, who was a well-to-do man, and fancied that he ought to have everything better than such riff-raff as Isaac He wanted,