Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/369

 Collectanea. 3 1 5

"Superstitions." Avalanches and landslips often occur. In his account of the farms the Pastor mentions a landslip, the traces of which can be seen in the distance to the right in the Plate, and which, about 100 years ago, buried the oldest houses in the valley, He says that the only inmate of the houses who was saved was a woman. She was returning home after milking the cows when she met a huldre-wova^ccv who warned her not to go home, but to escape at once, as the farm was about to be destroyed. The oldest farm existing in the present year has the date 1692 on its beams, and the logs of which it is made are the largest in the neighbourhood. It has painted over the doors various inscriptions bidding welcome to visitors, and contains two immense chests, each hollowed out roughly from a single log. The Pastor mentions this farm as " hardly rebuilt since heathen times."

There are interesting heirlooms in most of the homesteads, — such as silver jewellery, bridal crowns, and especially beer cups and bowls for health drinking at wedding and other festivities, shaped out of single pieces of wood, and painted with inscriptions and dates. The largest bowl I know is dated 1700. The grandson of the old man mentioned in No. 13 of the " Superstitions " below is still alive, and possesses a large iron key said to have been smithied by the dwarfs, and used as described in No. 16. At the farm of Gjdra (which name, the Pastor says, means "giant v/oman "), there is a four-sided calendar staff, and an axe dated 16 — and inscribed Jeg er god for en Daler" ("I am good for one dollar").

In the course of his description of the farms the Pastor men- tions that at Tanger, near the fjord, the last wizard was burnt at the end of the sixteenth century, and that at Arodal, near an ancient burying ground, there was found a copper urn containing a pot of ashes and part of a shield. He tells also how the site of the church was chosen. The original old "Stavkirke" was destroyed by an avalanche in 1660. It was decided to rebuild it on the other side of the river, but each night the work done on the previous day was pulled down. So the peasants took a staff and cast it into the water, and, at the place where it touched the bank, an untamed foal was harnessed, and on the spot where the foal first stood still the church was built.