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DS_I_1036	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	In Vissing woods there was a place where the child had been switched, and they got a changeling instead that had an unusual way of holding its eyes, it kept its eyes fixed all the time. It also had an unusually large head, but otherwise it looked like a baby. They didn’t know what to do. Then someone came along and taught them that they should make some nice pancakes and use eggs to make them, but every time they broke an egg, they should throw the shell at the baby’s head, because the trolls were invisibly present and when they saw that, they’d think that the baby didn’t get anything else to eat. A little time passed and then the trolls came with their child and threw it in the crib and took the changeling with these words, “I never would have thought that egg shells were good to eat.” Then it left. Just to make sure that it wouldn’t happen again, they sewed a cross on all the clothing the baby wore and then the baby was baptized.
DS_I_1140	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	At Svejstrup-Østergaard, the nisse had built his house under their barn and they lost a head of cattle in a certain stall. One day during the harvest, while the farm wife was walking home alone, the nisse comes up to her and asks her quite politely to come and help his wife give birth, she was having a difficult birth. He showed her a little hole that he slipped down and she was able to crawl through it and then she saw that their bed was right under this stall. She helps his wife give birth, and it was successful. Then the nisse husband comes and says, “Well, you should have a little something for the inconvenience.” Then he swept the dirt off the floor and put it in her apron, and when she gets up again on land, she threw these sweepings away. As soon as they fell, she could see that they glittered like gold, but they disappeared immediately. Then that night as she lay in her bed, she thought that the nisse came and said, “Well, you refused my gifts yesterday, even though they were better than they looked, but as soon as you get up you should go and look by the mouth of the spotted ox and you’ll find something there that won’t disappear as easily. I want you to have one part of it and the other part I’d like you to give to the church for my child." When she goes out there in the morning, there were two silver pots by the spotted ox’s mouth, and they got one and the church in Dover got an altar pitcher. It's true. He also told her about the damage the animal was doing. He showed her a damp spot on the ceiling of his room and it dripped right down into their bed. After that, they never put any animals in that stall.
DS_I_1179	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A man in Åby was digging on a mound that he had on his field and he wanted to get rid of. Then he comes to a copper kettle and it was full of money. But when he was going to touch it, it was just shit and dung, because he’d been so careless as to talk. At least he had that belief. He made a coffee pot of the copper kettle.
DS_I_1412	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	…. The hired boy goes out to the mound man: “Good day.” -- “Yes, thank you.” -- “What’s going on today little guy?” So he tells him … Well, he was so scared of Thunder father and mother Mary. …. Now everybody wanted that boy to work for them, but he said that it wouldn’t do any good, because then the mound man wouldn’t recognize him if he went out on a different field. There was probably something to that, and so he continued on with that man and they got along so well that he inherited the farm from him.
DS_I_263	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A tiny little girl passed by a hired boy and he asked her where she was going. Well, she was going to Boels-Maren with birth food. There’s a mound they call Boelshøj.
DS_I_400	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Over in Voldum there was a farmhand who was plowing between Voldum and Hvalløs and there was a small mound that lay right close by. When he was down at the other end of the field, an oven rake came up out of the mound and it was in pieces. So he fixes it. At noontime, he drove home to Voldum and, in the afternoon, he went back out there. Then there was a cake lying there at the place where the [oven] rake had lain. He cut into it and ate it and things turned out really well for him.
DS_I_402	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A mound dweller’s wife came running with her dough-covered hands and a peel-board that was broken out of Bavnhøj here on Årestrup field and went up to a man who was plowing there. He repaired it too with a nail which he took out of his plow beam, and he now got a piece of a flatbread when she’d baked, and some beer too. He made a cross over it and read the Lord’s prayer, before he took it, but then the woman came and said he didn’t have to do that since it was made of the same things as his.
DS_I_43	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Pers mound lies on the field that Kold-Jens owned, and there are mound dwellers inside it. It's just south of here. Kold-Jens really believed that they were there, and he prohibited both of his successors, both Rasmus and Krogsen (Krogs-Niels), the one after the other, to touch that mound, because then it would go bad for them. One evening he’d thrown a piece of rope on top of it and let it lie there until the next morning. Then it had been cut into four or five pieces. “There haven’t been any people doing that, that I know,” he said.
DS_I_553	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Old Villads over here in Ersted--he lived in the westernmost and the southernmost farm--he was so great a witchmaster that he could talk to these here mound dwellers and elves whenever he wanted. There was a hidden man (mound man) who lived in a hill out on his field, called Kringelbjærg, south of the road to Årestrup, there’s a gravel pit there now, and they called him the Kringelbjærg man. You see, old Villads said he could talk to him whenever he wanted to. So one night, he and Kolde-Per and Søren Østergaard--it was in fact he who later wound up living in Tveden--they sat drinking in the most north-westerly farm here in the town and after they had had several drams, Villads begins boasting that he can talk to this here mound dweller, and if they’d follow him up to Kringelbjærg, then he’d call him so they could see him and get to talk to him. Sure, they’d gladly go along, they said, maybe so that he wouldn’t think that this might scare them. So then they leave with each other and then Villads tells them what to do. “Now we’re to walk three times around the mound, and when I bang three times down on the mound with my staff, then he’ll come, goddammit.” Well, they walk around the mound and then Villads bangs his staff down on the ground, and calls out to him, “Hey mound dweller, come out here, there are two who want to talk to you.” -- “There are three,” said Kolde-Per. But he wouldn’t come. He hit a second time, and no one came. “Well, when I hit this third time, he’ll come, goddammit.” He figured that maybe they’d get scared and run away. Well, then he hit a third time, but no one would come out. At the same time, a dog began barking really loudly, it was Søren Bravlstrup’s from up here near the forest. “Goddammit, now I know what’s happened,” said Villads, “the mound dweller has gone up there, and so he can’t come out to us tonight.” So that’s how Villads got out of calling the mound dweller out, because they have to fill them with lies and whatever else they can when they can't do any better. Villads saw the mound dwellers so often, he saw that they walked from Bavnhøj and down to the parish clerk’s sheep pen and from there out to Kringelbjærg; and they walked with their arms around each other and were carrying wax torches or candles. Once there was a flock of sheep that got away from him down by Kringelbjærg, and if he hadn’t been as cunning, he never would have got them again; but he read them up, since he had a Cyprianus and his books, and he could talk to Old Jerrik.
DS_I_576	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Lars Kusk from Ersted, who’d worked for the baron at Lundbæk, he said that there was a mute person who lived there, perhaps they got something for having him there, and one day they were out digging out a mound and the mute one had come along. He pointed up to the sky and then down to the ground and made so many signs, and then the baron got scared and said that they should let the mound be. The mound was supposed to be driven off to a marl pit, and the mute one would work everywhere except for on the mound. He’d just stand there babbling and pointing and then he scared the baron off when he came out to them.
DS_I_685	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Down by Skjødstrup, there are two places where there had been hidden people (mound dwellers). There were also some here on the commons. One night, several of us women walked from Bygballe, and it was so bright off to the left but it was so dark off to the right, because that’s where Bastruphøj mound was. When we came opposite it, there was a tall woman with green sleeves and a red blouse and a white apron and a long green skirt. I got really scared by her. People other than me have seen her too. I have also seen a fire wheel by those mounds. It was Shrovetide Monday, and I was walking with the bread basket, and it came flying toward me and continued on toward Møgelhøje.
DS_I_767	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	They came down through Månnes hollow and saw that Dakbjærg was raised up on four glowing poles, and the mound folk were swinging about in there to music played all-out, and a little man wearing a big red cap sat and looked on from the top of the mound. There’s no doubt that there was something out there because once they were out haying in Alken at around lunch time, and that was nearby the mound. They were going to go home and eat their lunch but one of the girls didn’t want to go along, she said that she felt really heavy, and so the others went and let her be. When they came back, she was frothing at the mouth and those devils had danced her to death. She was dead and stayed dead.
DS_I_782	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a farmhand who rode past a mound which they called Henningshøj, it lies south of Hornslet. There he saw so many little people and they were dancing and hopping outside the mound. So he stopped and wanted to watch what was going on and then one came over and offered him a gold [drinking] horn and invited him to drink it up. He took the horn but threw the drink behind him. Three drops landed on the back of the horse and it took both the hair and skin off the horse's back. Now the farmhand rode as fast as he could and the little people came after him with the mound hag out in front. Then he could see that he couldn't hold his own with her, so he set off across the plowed field. She couldn't run over that, she had to run around each furrow, and then she yelled out to him and said: “You should ride on the unplowed fields (boor) and not on the plowed fields (joor)” and at the same time she took a clump of dirt and threw it at him. That became a mound on the field which they call Vendingshøj [Turning mound], because she turned around at the same time, she could see that she could neither catch him nor hit him. It has later been changed to Hæningshøj. Since he'd gotten away from her so luckily, he used the drinking horn to build Horns church, and that's how it got its name.
DS_I_783	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A farmhand came riding past a mound on Tendrup field once, they call it Hvonbjærg. Then a fine lady came running down from the mound and asked him to hold a glass while she poured him a snaps. He stopped and he took the gold cup from her but instead of drinking it, he threw it behind himself, and a couple of drops landed on the horse, it took all the skin off of the horse in those places. But he held onto the drinking horn and took off as fast as he could, right across the fields, and she set off after him and asked him to ride on the hard and not on the plowed fields because she had to go along the road and couldn’t run on the plowed land. She ran with a large handful of dirt and after she’d come a ways she threw it and then she turned around and went back. A large mound appeared there where she’d thrown the clump of dirt and they call it Vendingshøj. But the farmhand brought the horn here to Hornslet and they say that the church was built with the horn, that’s why it was called Hornslet, before that it was just called Slææt. Now they call the mound Hænildshøj, but it is Vændildshøj, because that’s where she turned around, and it lies in between Hornslet and the forest.
DS_I_830	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a girl in Tørring, she was about ten years old, and early one spring she was tending sheep out in a field right at the entrance to a dale. There was a man on the other side plowing. Just as he’s going along he happens to look about and then a devil had taken the girl and driven her about up in the air down there in the dale. The girl screams wildly because of this. Then the man stopped and began to read his Our Father, and when he’d read it three times, the devil let her go and she got away unharmed.
DS_I_959	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Svend Felding was born at Åkjær and continued to live there as an adult, and he was so good at building that the elves wanted him. Late one evening, when he was riding home, two elf girls come to him and one of them sang for him and the other one asked him to drink from a chalice. Then she says to him that he could have a wish and as soon as he’d emptied the chalice it would be granted. So he wished that he could have the strength of twelve farmhands and then he took the chalice and threw the drink over his back, and where it landed on the horse, it lost all its hair and everything. Then he rode directly across a newly plowed field, and the elves couldn’t follow him there. He got away that way. But the elves tricked him anyway, because there was the problem that he’d forgotten to mention eating. Now that he had the strength of twelve farmhands, he also needed to eat for twelve farmhands. The breakfast bowl that he used to get his food in used to be kept at Åkjær and it was called Svend Felding’s breakfast bowl.
DS_II_A_1	Elves	Adam first had a wife named Lillith, she could fly and she could swim, and when she had children, it was ten at a time. It was all these little elves, and they were so tiny. They got that name from their mother because she had all those l’s in her name. The old ones wanted the Lord to make two people at a time, and so the Lord got tired of the woman who was called Lillith and made Eve, as told in the bible.
DS_II_A_100	Elves	It was in Balle, their shepherd disappeared and was gone for eight days. They thought that he’d fallen into a water hole and drowned. But then one day when they were out mowing, they saw that a whole group of beautiful young girls came out of a grove of alders and danced and the boy was with them. The farmhand threw down his scythe and jumped right in the middle of them and grabbed the boy. The young girls didn’t say anything but stood and looked at him a bit and then they turned around and went back into the alders. The boy couldn’t tell them anything other than that he’d been with these beautiful women and afterward he was never quite right in the head. 
DS_II_A_57	Elves	There was a forest ranger in Nielstrup, he had responsibility for Hvalløs vie. One afternoon, he was sitting out there in the forest and a beautiful girl with a pancake for him came and sat on his lap, and then he looked at the pancake, and then he looked at the girl, and he had no idea what he should do with it. Finally he takes his knife up out of his pocket and cuts a cross in the pancake and as soon as he’d done that, both the girl and the pancake disappeared. She was just as hollow in her back as a trough. That’s what the man said, and he also said that he’d seen many times some of these elf girls dancing down there in the willows.
DS_II_A_98	Elves	Down near Skjødstrup there was a mound, there was so much alder wood near it, and there were a lot of elves. They danced so happily up on the mound. Then there was a boy who went and took care of the cattle, he really enjoyed watching the elves. Finally they surrounded the boy and he couldn’t get out anywhere. Their farmhand was plowing right nearby and then he rode into the circle and grabbed the boy and rode home with him. But the boy was so strange after that. He always used to say that he wanted to go out to the elves.
DS_II_A_99	Elves	A cabinet maker from Nielstrup went down and danced with the elf hags when he was supposed to be taking his afternoon nap. But he became so thin from that and wound up looking really terrible.
DS_II_A_150	Elves	There was a similar story about a man from Rold, who was in the company of these elf hags. He was sleeping out in the forest burning charcoal, that was the practice in the olden days. When they bought timber in the forests, they always burned the top down to charcoal and had a large number of charcoal stacks to take care of. Now this man was out in the forest one night taking care of his stacks, and then this elf woman comes and pulls up her skirt and stands there warming herself by the stack. Then he thought that she should be warmed a bit better, and he takes a stick out of the stack and pokes it at her. “What’s your name?” she says. “Myself,” he says. Well, then she yells out, “Fussibu and Trussitrold, Bukkjær hags and Aldåls boys, little pussy has been burned.” Just as she said that, all those she had called stood there next to her. “Who did it?” they shouted. “Myself! Myself!” Then they thought that she’d done it herself, and it took so long to figure it out that the man had managed to get home in the meantime, he’d thought it wisest to get out of there. Just as he’d gotten inside and closed the door, they were there and pounded on the door, but he was saved. The next morning, when he went out into the forest, all his charcoal stacks had been smashed to pieces. They’d done that to him. Now it was in Rold forest that he burned charcoal, and Bukkjær and Aldal are a couple of places there in the forest. Aldal is just across from Stubberup, and there was a road up the dale, but one year it collapsed almost completely. Trussitrold lived most likely in Try Lake, which is next to the road from Tveden to Rold, and Fussibuu probably lived in Fossi swamp, which is close to Fåre lake. Elves lived in the hill they called Stubberup House. People hauled firewood there in the forest and burned charcoal stacks.
DS_II_B_13	Household spirits	The nisser at Mollerup sat and played cards on a barrel that they had tipped upside down. They played for money, too, and in the morning people would sometimes find money in the barrel's rim.
DS_II_B_147	Household spirits	My foster-mother was from Egå and served Niels Andersen there. There was a nisse at the farm and he visited her many times. When she was frightened, he said that she shouldn’t be afraid of him, he wouldn’t hurt her, because he noticed that she could see him. They always milked their cows out by an ash tree because that’s where he had his house and so they always got more butter and milk. The farmer’s wife was supposed to cook porridge for nis every day, and what he didn’t finish he always used to feed a horse. It was used to getting his left-overs. Then one day while they sat and milked, the nisse came and knocked the milk away from the farmer’s wife. “Sure, I know there wasn’t enough butter in your porridge today,” she said, “but if you’ll leave me alone, I’ll give you more butter tomorrow, I didn’t have enough today.” He always went around and fed the horses, but one time they had a farmhand who wanted to lift him out of the stall. Then the nis says to him: “No, wait a moment, we have to go over there and get more oats for the horses.” He got him to come along too. The farmhand bound ten sheaves together, but nis took a shock (sixty sheaves). When they got half way, the farmhand wanted to rest. After they’d rested, the nis said, “If I’d known that rest existed, then I would have brought just as much more.” When they got home, the farmhand was happy because now he’d gotten something to use for feed, and afterward nis could go and feed the animals just as much as he wanted to. Then they got another farmhand, and he didn’t want to let him go on like that. But he got lifted up in his bed and all the way up to the rafters, so he lay there dead when people got up the next morning.
DS_II_B_90	Household spirits	The people in Hallendrup had a nisse, and the people in Ginderup, they had one too. Then the Ginderup nisse decided that he wanted to go over and steal in Hallendrup and then he asked one who was called Terkild, the nisse did, if he didn’t want to come along and steal oats over there. Terkild said sure, they could do that. Then they went and they took as much as they each could carry. When they got half way home, they met the Hallendrup nisse, he’d been in Ginderup stealing oats. Now the two started fighting and in the mean time Terkild climbed into a tree trunk that was to the side there. When they were done fighting, the Ginderup nisse had won. He then speaks up and says to Terkild, “Can you see, Terkild in the trunk, I’m still standing.” They got their packs on their backs again, and then they tramped off with them. A little bit later, Terkild says, “Let’s take a rest.”—“What, can we rest?” says the nisse. “If I’d known, I could have taken twice as much as I’ve got.”
DS_II_C_110	Traveling monsters	There was this little girl who had to tend the sheep on her sister’s wedding day, and she was so angered by this that she threw herself into a watering hole down in Gravlev fen, they call it the Cat's well. Finally they found her, and she was fished out, and then she was to be cast down in unconsecrated earth, because she couldn’t be buried in the cemetery like that. The corpse was put in a wagon with a couple of oxen in front, and then they let them walk where they wanted to. But then they went and opened the churchyard gate, in case the oxen decided to go in there with her. The oxen went up to the church gates, too, but they just stood there. Then the minister said, “Well, her soul was this close to heaven, but it couldn’t come in.” They turned the oxen around and shooed them along. Then they went and stopped up where Jens Binderup’s farm now is. It was called Helledi, because there were two farms in Gravlev called Heaven and Helledi. She was buried in a field divider, which is on their field now, and she’s the one who became the night raven that people in the area heard. When it had to go across running water, it cried and said, “Ba-u, ba-u, ba-u!”
DS_II_C_115	Traveling monsters	A man had driven a load of heather over here, which they’d gathered over in the hills. When they were going to carry it in at night, the night raven came and scared my mother, and she ran inside defenseless. One time over at Gravlev Inn, a large group of youngsters had gathered. Then there was one called Jokum, he called for the night raven and said “ba-u” just like it. But then it came after them out on the street, and they ran into the inn and wanted to hide. Jokum had said, “What kind of a guy says ba-u?” and after that they’d called it Jokum’s guy. Well, then the night raven flew away again, but Jokum didn’t dare come out of the inn, he was the last one there that night. 
DS_II_C_120	Traveling monsters	If during a battle they didn’t find the king or chieftain and bury him, then ravens would come and eat part of him, and these ravens became Valravens, and the one that ate his heart got the knowledge of a human and could do evil and twist (bewitch) people and they had supernatural power and they were really frightening animals.
DS_II_C_66	Traveling monsters	There was a woman who had two doors on her house, one out to the south and one out to the north. The last door was on her kitchen (frammers) and, when she’d been brewing, she’d opened both doors to cool off the beer and get the yeast in in good time. See, then Jon’s hunter and his dogs could come in, and they drank all her wort, and then she had to give them a rye bread (grovkage) to get them to leave. The hunter was green and he had little puppies with red mouths along with him.
DS_II_C_90	Traveling monsters	A man came walking from Ersted to Årestrup. Then two elf women came running quickly towards him, and they came in on the south side of the town while they said to each other, “He won’t catch us yet, because he isn’t clean.” Well, the man continued to go on his way along the road, but then someone came riding up to him and it was none other than Jon’s hunter. He says, “Did anyone come the other way?”--“Yes, these two little ones came by running as fast as they could.” -- “What did they say to each other?” asked the one who was riding. “They said: he won’t catch us yet, because he isn’t clean.” Then Jon's hunter pissed in his hand and wiped himself with it, and then he said to the man, “If you’ll lie down and stick your fingers in your ears, I’ll pay you well when I come back in a little bit.” Sure, he did that too, but then he thought that it was taking a while, and so he wanted to take his fingers out of his ears a little bit. First he took one finger out, and then he heard that somebody shot; but that wasn’t too far away, he thought it might be over by Hobro. Well, he lies down again for a little while. But then he got bored again lying there like that, and he gets up and takes the other finger out. Then he hears a shot again, but that was as far away as Horsens. Well, then he quickly puts his fingers back in his ears and he lies down in his old place. Then the rider comes back with both of them, and they were tied together by their hair and they’d been hung over the horse, each on their own side. Then he says, “You’ll be paid well for this, but it could have been better; you took your fingers out of your ears, and that hindered me so much that I had to ride from Hobro to Horsens to catch the last one.” Now his horse had lost a shoe along the way, and the rider told the man that he could go and get it, then he’d have received ample payment. When the man got out there and found it, it turned out to be a gold horseshoe.
DS_II_D_5	Water spirits	There was once a fisherman on the West Sea who found a glove on the beach. He brought it home to his wife and had her knit one just like it, then he went back and put both gloves on the beach again, and then he went out to fish. Then something shouted: They're shouting in the north and they're whistling and blowing go to land, you man who knitted the glove Then the fisherman hurried to land. Immediately a storm blew up that was so bad that many fishermen drowned, but the man was saved because he'd given the merman the glove.
DS_II_D_50	Water spirits	A river runs under Sjelle bridge, and those who lived near the river and knew it could hear when it wanted someone. According to old talk it was supposed to call out at night and people often drowned there too. You see, they could hear when it wanted a victim. That’s the way it was one night when some people from Mols came driving to Randers with fish. The current was so strong that they splashed down in there, man and wife and horse and wagon and drowned. The people around there could hear for almost an hour how the woman screamed and they believed that it was her skirts that had held her up, but the man's voice soon became quiet. She drifted down past Fløjstrup and they found her body there.
DS_II_E_145	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	One day I walked past a grass snake that had a frog in its mouth, so that its back legs were still sticking out. Then I poked at the snake and it let the frog go and slithered away, and the frog hopped away. A Swede, Jens Karlsen, said that I should have gone in between them because then I would have saved a woman who was having birthing difficulties.
DS_II_E_156	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	The viper king was entirely white and had a red head. It was the only female in the entire den, so it’s the same as with bees. A horse dealer had gotten hold of one once, and wanted to cook and eat it, because then he’d have been able to see down into the ground as deep as he was tall, and he’d be able to see calves inside cows too. Then he goes in one place and he wants this viper king prepared. They had a little girl there who stood there chewing on a piece of bread. It falls down into the pot and she picks it up and continues to chew on it. Then she could see through the walls and see that the horse dealer was sitting next to the wood burning stove, and she could also see if there were white or dappled calves inside the cows. So now the horse dealer wanted to buy the girl from the people, but they wouldn’t sell her.
DS_II_E_2	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Down here a little north and east of Torstedlund, there’s a hollow they call Sørvad. One day, Lavst Gammelholm was walking down there and he saw the most horrible lindorm in front of him on the road; there was a stone wall on either side of the road, and the snake could reach from the one wall to the other. Now he’d heard that it had been predicted that a lindorm was supposed to come up in Ersted wælder--that’s in the woods near what they call Ersted swamp, but it’s not part of Ersted now, because the huntsmaster sold the farms when he took over the meadows--and when Lavst saw the snake, he went back and told others about it, and then the district judge, he was called Knud Teil, and his scribe went up there with their guns and wanted to kill this here snake as they believed it was there, since it was a man like Lavst Gammelholm who’d told them about it--but it was gone. 
DS_II_E_20	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	There was a place where there was a lindorm buried under a stone wall, and just as long as that stone wall was, that’s how long the lindorm had been. It had eaten a man, and a horse in its harness and a plow, and then it had slowed down because of that, and then someone had come over and stoned it to death with the stones from the stone wall. Then they built the wall over it there where it lay and that’s how that came to be. Sure, it sounds strange, but you’ve got to understand that the horses were smaller back then and they used wooden plows. My great grandfather told me where it was, but I can’t remember. 
DS_II_E_213	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Some big animals could grow in mead casks, and they could really hit on the sides so that it would splash about inside the casks.
DS_II_E_84	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	There was a lindorm that lay around Århus cathedral, and by the end it was just about ready to encircle the church completely. They’d gone after it several times but they couldn’t get the upper hand. Finally they raised a bull for three years on sweet milk and nuts. It went out against the lindorm but couldn’t stand up to it. Then they fed the bull for three more years, and then it got the upper hand.
DS_II_E_120	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	A man had someone to plow for him. They were digging peat in Gjern heath, and there were a huge number of snakes. Then a really big one comes out. The one who was driving, he says to the other one: “Watch this!” and then he drew a line shaped like a pretzel around the snake with his staff. He might have said something too, but it's enough to know that the snake began to slither as fast as it could around on this pretzel line. Then the man went home for lunch and says to the other one: “Now don't kill it, because it's supposed to keep running until it runs itself to death.” Now this man went and plowed and he looked over to the snake because it was in his thoughts. He thought that it was a shame that it should have to run like that and so he decided to go over and take his whip and kill the snake. As soon as he'd done that, the other man is standing there and says: “You killed it, even though I asked you not to. See, if you knew what you were doing there, then you wouldn't have done it.” It was Anton's own father who was plowing and he assured me that it was true, but he didn't know what the snake was to be used for.
DS_II_E_186	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	You can’t cure a hawk-moth caterpillar bite. Before, people would rather confront a viper than a caterpillar. A hawk moth caterpillar bite wastes a person away, but a viper bite can kill a person quickly. It can bite a hay scythe so hard that you can hear that it’s biting.
DS_II_F_14	Werewolves and nightmares	My father told a story that there were once two hags who pulled off their clothes and climbed through a horse hide they’d hung up on a pole. They were pregnant and they were naked and then their babies became werewolves. But they were people most of the time. When they were wolves, they’d tear apart the first thing they encountered regardless of what it was. A farmhand at home here was out driving on the heath with a girl and they were boyfriend and girlfriend. When they got to a dale or a low place out there on the heath, the farmhand gets down and says to the girl: “If a wolf comes up to you, don’t stick it with the pitchfork.” -- “Well, what should I do with it then?” Well, she could pull off her apron and hit it with that. As soon as he’d gone, a wolf comes up to her and it wanted to jump on her. But she grabbed her apron and hit it. It snapped at it and tore it into tiny pieces, and then it ran away. A little later, the farmhand comes back. “A wolf was just here and wanted to tear me apart, and you were gone for so long.” He laughed a bit about that. Her apron was blue with some white stripes. When the farmhand began to laugh, she could see the threads between his teeth. “It was you,” she says, “because I can see the threads between your teeth.” Then he never became a werewolf again, because now he’d been revealed.
DS_II_F_78	Werewolves and nightmares	There was one who was ridden by the mare and he was really hard on him. They locked the doors and kept a look out but the mare went in there anyway. Then he noticed that it always came up from his feet and so he took the cutting knives from the threshing machine and put them so that if anything came it would get caught in the knives. After that he never noticed a thing, but a few days later they heard that there was a person a mile or so away who’d cut open his stomach one night and then they figured out that it was him who was the mare. All those people whose eyebrows grow together over their nose, they’re mares, and a common remedy for getting rid of them is to turn one’s clogs backwards by your bed, because it has to put those on before it goes into your bed.
DS_II_G_100	Religious legends	Two farmhands were out on the heath digging peat. Then one of them fell asleep and a white mouse came out of his mouth and ran over to a channel where it ran and tumbled. The other one put his peat spade over the channel and then the mouse ran over the spade and into the ground on the other side. A little later it came back and ran once again into the farmhand’s mouth. Then he woke up. “I’ll bet you had a dream.”--“Yes.”--“What did you dream?” -- “I dreamed that there was a kettle of money in that hill.” -- “Well, we should get hold of them, let’s go dig for them right now.” -- “Ah, to hell with that,” says the farmhand who’d been sleeping. “Well, I’m going to dig.” He found the kettle too, and it was also filled with money. Then he told the other farmhand what had happened.
DS_II_G_113	Religious legends	I’ve also had dreams that turned out to be right. When I was a young lad and went to Årestrup school, I dreamed that I found a copper four-shilling coin in a specific place. The next morning, when I got to school, I found it in the very same place.
DS_II_G_267	Religious legends	Kirketorup minister had a mute coachman. They were out driving once and were supposed to go to Bislev, and the coachman couldn’t say anything and hadn’t learned any finger language or anything like that as they do now. They were to give the last sacrament to a woman, and she died too, while they were there. The coachman cried for her, because it was terrible, but the minister couldn’t understand that, because he thought it was a good death. Then they drove back to the parish and drove down Ejdrup hill, and this was during the winter. A man came driving towards them and one of the horses kicks out, and cleaves the man’s forehead so he falls backwards out of the sleigh and died immediately. The coachman laughed so hard over this, and the minister thought that it was strange that he could laugh at that. Then the minister prayed from the pulpit for seven years that his coachman would learn to talk, so he could tell him why he cried when the woman died such a good, normal, peaceful death in her bed and laughed when the man died so poorly. Then the coachman got his voice back and said the raven took her soul while the dove took his soul and that’s what amused him. This isn’t a story, it’s a true incident, but it happened a long time ago.
DS_II_G_85	Religious legends	Wassen’s shoemaker said to Jesus, “Go away you…” when he stood and leaned against his house.
DS_II_H_141	Death portents	They said that there was a headless horse that went up and down the streets in Nielstrup. Some people said that it wasn’t true, but Niels Bødker said that it was true, because the horse had stuck its head in the window of his chaffing room while he stood there cutting chaff. Later, when he was a grown man, he lived in Nielstrup.
DS_II_H_34	Death portents	One time my father wanted to go to town, he ran into a really big fox that rubbed up against his legs. It wasn’t a real fox, and it wanted him to follow it to Katsåendet [Katsandet], there was a pond in the town called that. Then the fox wanted to push him down there, but he asked to be allowed to go free. When he was on his way home, a big sow came up to him; it was the size of a horse. He got so scared because it was so frightening, then it became so little that it wasn’t bigger than a corpse lamb. It wanted to follow him up to the church gate, he lived right across from the cemetery, and then it disappeared there. 
DS_II_H_436	Death portents	While they were sitting one evening some place in Nielstrup, they heard something clattering, and when they looked out, it looked as if a funeral procession was leaving their farm, and then within a half year, an old woman that lived with them there died, that was my grandmother’s mother-in-law.
DS_II_H_480	Death portents	One evening a man was driving along, he’d been over at Tåbæk mill. When he passed Ødum and was headed toward Langskov, he had the impression that a large crowd was approaching. He drove a bit to the side for them, and then a funeral procession passed him, and he could vividly hear them mumbling. Then they turned in towards the church and there they disappeared.
DS_II_J_363	Lights and portents	Once before the old war (1807), two men were walking between Nielstrup and Rude church one evening. Then they heard what sounded to them like an entire regiment coming down the road. They could hear that the horses huffed, because it was cavalry—and the swords clanked. They rode off the road and got down and lay down and rested near a small thicket, they call it mound thicket—it's down near Hvalløs vide. The men could hear that there was murmuring between them, and it sounded as if the soldiers were mumbling, because they couldn’t distinguish individual voices. The sound disappeared and they didn’t know what had happened to it, but later they realized that it was an omen of the war they’d heard.
DS_II_J_47	Lights and portents	The person who can walk to a “kongelys” hasn’t been born yet. The light burns where a king’s ransom is buried. Near Svejstrup there’s a kold (a flat area with slopes on three sides) which is called Hjortens kold (The Shepherd’s kold), because that’s where all the sheep that died during the sheep plague were buried. They also say that a light used to burn out there, which the old people have seen, but it disappeared as you got closer. Lights burn over things that are either hidden or secret. 
DS_II_J_69	Lights and portents	I was walking one night from Boes mill where I’d been working, and then a real thunder storm starts, but it wasn’t directly overhead and it hadn’t started raining either. Just as I’m walking past Dakbjærg, I notice something around me. Flame shot up out of my hat and I had fire in my beard. I got scared because I’d heard a lot about that mound and I wasn’t happy being there and I ran home. But that was måårild. 
DS_III_1236	Legends about farms and towns	There was a farm in Madum Sø [Madum Lake], which sank and it was called Freggelund… slaughtered a pig… left his book on a chair and then wanted to go off and give the last sacrament to the sick person, but a splash of water appeared right in the middle of living room floor, and then he says to his coachman that he should turn around and get out of there as fast as they could, because now the farm would sink. They got up in the wagon and left, and when they had gotten off the property, the farm had sunk. The minister had forgotten his book on the chair, but it came sailing ashore with the book on it.
DS_III_127	Heroes and their sport	There’s a stone on Kirketange, south of Årestrup, and a giant stood on Rævild mound and wanted to knock Årestrup church down with it while people were in the church. It must have made a huge racket, and he must have had some strength in his fingers, because they left marks in the stone. He must have really used a lot of his strength when he threw it, because it landed a bit too far to the south.
DS_III_1549	Legends about farms and towns	North of Torup parsonage there was a town which was called Gammelby which was destroyed by sand drifts.
DS_III_1566	Legends about farms and towns	Back in the really old days, a lot of farms lay spread out about, and the towns weren’t as gathered. There are a few mounds out on Nielstrup field, they call them the Ståbdrup mounds, I went out there and watched the cattle, and below them there’s a dale where there was supposed to have been a farm that was called Tuesgård. The depression there is still called Tuesgård. “We’re going over to Tuesgård with the cows,” we herders used to say. In my childhood, there weren’t any traces of the farm except the cobblestones. Then people had to move together into towns again, because there were so many beggars and gypsies, and the solitary farms couldn’t protect themselves against them. But now it's starting again according to the old ways, because people are spreading out now and they’re moving out of the towns.
DS_III_1589	Legends about farms and towns	Our heath here in Årestrup had been plowed before as well, and the fields are still well marked out there in the heather. You could easily see it near a big stone, since they’d clearly driven around it when they plowed, so there was a dirt berm all the way around the stone.
DS_III_1712	Diverse place legends	There was also a lake here in Nørlund forest, they call it Gudsø. Well, it's dried up now anyway, and it's become a swamp instead, which they call Gudsø’s swamp. Around the swamp, it looks like it had been plowed in the old days.
DS_III_1779	Diverse place legends	There’s a place over by Venge farm which is called Mindet (the memorial), it was the connection between Ravn lake and another really big lake farther up, which is still called Pitte Lake today, but it isn’t anything but a little swamp now. It’s on Høver field near Old Farm.
DS_III_1793	Diverse place legends	Part of the old fjord arm, of which Kolund sound was the last part, once reached all the way up to Torsager and one knows that, in the olden days, it was possible to sail all the way up there. Just north of the school, they’ve found a lot of old mooring posts, chopped so that they are square, and north of the town there’s a large meadow that’s called Medkjær harbor where they found an old boat a couple of years ago. But it was in such bad condition it couldn’t be brought up. They also found a ship’s anchor in that same meadow. A road in town was called Skipper Street, now it’s called Pludderen.
DS_III_1850	Diverse place legends	In Hvilstedgård’s meadows, there is a really big hole, they called it the Minister Hole to this very day. It has grown in a bit and isn’t nearly as big as it was before. A minister from Vrejlev drove onto the ice and into it with his sleigh and driver and everything, and they stayed there.
DS_III_1851	Diverse place legends	There’s a hollow below the Svejstrup hills, called the Count’s hollow, but they don’t tell any stories about it now. In Østergård woods, there’s something they call Rask Hald’s room, it’s a small hollow.
DS_III_1873	Diverse place legends	Ersted water hole east of the town here is a big hole down in the ground, and when there’s a thaw, the water level reaches so high it flows from the pond down to there, and then it can’t be stopped. When there's been frost and it has snowed for a long time, and then there comes a sudden thaw so that the water really gets going, then it can really run down there. Villads’s gander went down into the water hole and it came out again by Røde mill, about two kilometers from there. There’s an outlet from the underwater stream, but it runs all the time as if it were a stream, and they call it Kjæn stiens.
DS_III_222	Heroes and their sport	There was a stone in Svejstrup, and there was a hand print in it, it looked like the hand had been pressed way down into it, and the stone is still there now. It was a troll over on Boes field who didn’t like the Dover church bells, he thought they rang too loudly, and so he took a stone and threw it at them, but it barely made it half way.
DS_III_2367	Legends about treasure	There’s a king's ransom out in Silkeborg forest and a large oak stands over it, but it's sanded over. There was a man who invested a lot in digging it out and they had dug so far down that they had come to the roots of the oak. But they didn't get farther than that because just as fast as they dug, the sand slid back into the hole. They could work as hard as they wanted, they couldn't get any farther down. My grandfather was at a place where there was a king's ransom. It was by the side of a mound and when one stands on the mound and looks down at a certain time, four o'clock in the afternoon actually, and looks straight down at the foot of it then one can see a large square stone with inscriptions on it. But it's illegible and if one goes to look, then there is nothing but earth. They dug after that too and they'd also found the stone but this man was more careful than most others who dig for that kind of thing since he had gone over to the Black School in Copenhagen and he had gotten himself a blue candle there. Wherever the candle burns, there is no treasure to be found, where it goes out, that's where one should look, that is where the treasure is. It turned out to be true enough because, when he lit the candle, it burned every place except there, it couldn't burn there. Then he and his farmhand started to dig for it and all sorts of animals came and wanted to disturb them because they couldn't speak or leave. They had gotten so far that they had the handle of the kettle. Then a giant buck elk appears and it begins to scrape his hand, the one who had hold of the axe, and then he couldn't keep quiet any longer and said: “No, if you're Old Erik himself, I won't let go.” All of a sudden, without them being able to understand it, the men and the picks and shovels lay on each their side of the mound and it was leveled like it had never been dug up before. They tried to dig again but they didn't get to it again because a king's ransom sinks twice as deep the next time when someone has dug for it.
DS_III_2378	Legends about treasure	Near Kalvø castle lay a dragon with a nine year old treasure and they could see its tail, because it lay right up by the castle.
DS_III_303	Heroes and their sport	On Årestrup field northwest of the church, there’s a rune stone, it's in the third field south of Bavnhøj, that’s what my mother said, she was born in 1792, and she wasn’t more than a little girl when they found it. It was after the fields had been reapportioned and her father plowed into it. Then he got his farmhand out there to help him dig a ditch around it, but it was so big that four horses couldn’t pull it up, and he had four good horses too, and really wanted to bring it back to the farm, it could have closed up a big part of the stone wall around the farm. But when he realizes that it's too big to freight off, they decide to bury it. Then they had to dig a hole below it that was big enough for them to push it in, and it had to be deep enough that they could plow over it; that wasn’t too hard because it turned out there was some beautiful white sand there that was easy to dig. There was some heather near Bavnhøj at that time, and it was starting to break up when my father ran into it. When the farmhand had gotten the stone dug out, there were all sorts of raised letters on it, they weren’t carved into it, more like they’d been glued onto it. It was probably a stone that had stood over on Bavnhøj in the old days. But it isn’t so easy to find it again, because the fields have been turned completely around since that time.
DS_III_303	Heroes and their sport	On Årestrup field northwest of the church there’s a rune stone, it's in the third field south of Bavnhøj, that’s what my mother said, she was born in 1792 and she wasn’t more than a little girl when they found it. It was after the fields had been reapportioned and her father plowed into it. Then he got his farmhand out there to help him dig a ditch around it, but it was so big that four horses couldn’t pull it up, and he had four good horses too and really wanted to bring it back to the farm, it could have closed up a big part of the stone wall around the farm. But when he realizes that it's too big to freight it off, they decide to bury it. Then they had to dig a hole below it that was big enough for them to push it in, and it had to be deep enough that they could plow over it; that wasn’t too hard because it turned out there was some beautiful white sand there that was easy to dig. There was some heather near Bavnhøj at that time, and it was starting to break up when my father ran into it. When the farmhand had gotten it dug out there were all sorts of raised letters on it, they weren’t carved into it, more like they’d been glued onto it. It was probably a stone that had stood over on Bavnhøj in the old days. But it isn’t so easy to find it again, because the fields have been turned completely around since that time.
DS_III_340	Heroes and their sport	My foster father said that there was an area for sacrifices on the flat part of the field on Svejstrup field, and from the time of his boyhood the stones were called Støønstæjet (the meeting place). People used to meet there when they had something that they had to decide together. There were two stones on the sides, the stone in back went up with something like a backrest, and even the edge of it was very sharp. Then there were two on top of the side stones and there was an opening between them, and when they made a fire underneath them, the fire could burn up in between the stones and burn the person who was tied up on top, and the backrest was there to crush his back.
DS_III_445	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	There was once a poor farmer from Suldrup who drove to Aalborg. When he got to Dra(g)strup Sige not too far from Aalborg, his jades were tired. He unharnessed them and let them graze in the woods which at that time reached almost all the way to Aalborg. Then he heard somebody who called out but he didn’t dare answer because he was scared that he’d be noticed grazing his animals on someone else’s property. Then they called out a second time but he still didn’t answer. The other one called out to make sure that nobody was nearby because he thought that if somebody heard him they’d answer. Then the poor farmer heard a jingling as if someone had poured a huge amount of money down into a hollow tree but he couldn’t see anything. He got down on his knees now and prayed to god that if he’d show him the tree where the money was hidden then he’d build a temple to honor god. He found the tree too and got hold of the money. When he got home he began leveling the place where the church now stands. Then there was a rich man in the town who saw this and said, “What are you doing here? Why are you leveling this place?.”--The poor man answers, “I think I’ll build a church, it’s so far for us to go to god’s house.” -- “Well,” says the rich man, “if you’ll build the church, then I’ll put up the tower, the altar and the choir box.” They agreed to that and the poor man built the church. But the rich man wasn’t able to add more than the altar and the choir box; the tower never came to be and that’s how the church stands to this very day.
DS_III_462	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	It is told as an old legend that Torsager church tower was originally used as a gunpowder tower. It was probably a watchtower against pirates, and later, once sailing there ended because the fjord arm filled in, the tower was put to another use.
DS_III_515	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	On the church bell in Dover is written: My mouth is wide, my tongue is long, I call people to church
DS_III_528	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	There were two bells in Venge church. One of them flew out and down into Venge lake. It turned out that during the casting, the master had gone and cursed it; it wouldn’t do as he wanted, and it was in fact the best of the two. Now, when it was to be rung, they started it swinging on a holy day, and then as it was ringing its best, it flew out into the lake and they never got it back.
DS_III_744	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	There’s a church at the bottom of Stilling lake. In still weather, you can see the walls, and there’s a large treasure down there in an ironclad chest. These people from Svolbjærg had sailed out there in two boats, and they wanted to get hold of it, and they’d had some hooks made at the smithy which they could hook onto it with, and they also managed to get the chest right up to the gunwales of both boats and they were about to sail to shore with it. But before they get there, it looks to them like their town was on fire, and so they let the chest go and it went back down to the bottom. The church had sunk on account of a minister who was so ungodly that during a mass the church went down with him.
DS_III_870	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	There’s a corpse lamb over at Dover church, it goes about on three legs. When the church was built, they were supposed to bury a living creature under the foundation. They were so poor that they couldn’t get a hold of anything other than a lamb, at other places there was usually a sow, a horse or a cow. The old church was actually in Illerup, but it had become so dilapidated, that it couldn’t stay up and then they were going to build a new one. The people wanted it built in Svejstrup, it wasn’t in one end of the parish, and the parsonage and school were there too. But everything they built wouldn’t stay together and they couldn’t get a church to stand there. So they didn’t know what to do. Then one day a traveler came by and while they stood there hammering on the walls, he said, “What have you got here, little people, this looks like it's falling apart to me.” – “Well, we want to build a church here, but we can’t get it to stand; it keeps on falling down.” – “Well,” he says, “you shouldn’t do it like this, you should get two oxen, which have never been in a harness before, and put a pulling harness on them, and then harness them to a pair of wheels, and let them go after sunset.” Then the oxen wandered so far during the night that they came over to where Dover church now stands; there was a big swamp, and the oxen went out into that and they couldn’t get out. And so that’s where the church was built. The corpse lamb has been seen by a few, and Smede-Rask has seen it, and also my great grandfather; he believed that that is what it was.
DS_III_887	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Rude church was supposed to have stood between Stahåt and the place where it now is, namely on Brådagrene… Couldn’t be to anything, and so they put a stone on a sled and let a pair of oxen walk off with it. Then the oxen went a little further to the east, and so they built the church there.
DS_IV_1027	Ministers	A minister in Harridslev who was called Rafn sold grain to poor people and he always said, when he measured the first bushel: “We won’t count that.” Then a man came and wanted to get some grain from him. When he’d said the usual, “I won’t count that,” the man answered, “For that Father should have lots of thanks” and then he went off with it. When he came back later and wanted some more grain, the minister said, as he measured the first bushel, “We’ll say two.”
DS_IV_1052	Ministers	Pastor Trap lived at Hvidstedgård and owned it and he also owned Spangerhede and Mølgård along with its large landholding and Ugiltgård and the parsonage. He was a member of the university council and was a Freemason. They could see him come driving from the farm and down to Spangerhede and when they got to the farm he was already home. His grave is under the alter in Tårs in a walled crypt. A carpenter and a mason were supposed to build the crypt and they worked on it. Then the minister comes in and wants to see how it's going. He laid his arms on his knees before the altar and he cried so much that his shirt sleeves got wet. He asked them to hurry up with the crypt. Then Mason Jens says, “But Father is a healthy and lively man still, he could live for many more years.” To that the minister answered: “Well, the grave is ready as soon as the corpse is ready.” It was too, he died suddenly in 1804.
DS_IV_1075	Ministers	There was a man in Blegind, he went over to the minister's many nights and stole some of the good apples they had there. They noticed that somebody was taking them and then the farmhand asks the minister if he shouldn't sit guard and see who it was. “That isn't really necessary, because by the time you wake up tomorrow morning, then you can go out and see who it is.” When the people got up the next morning and went out in the yard, one of the townsmen was sitting up in the tree and had a sack in one hand and in it was a single apple so that one could see that that was what he was after and he was holding onto the tree with the other hand. Then people tried to help him down but they couldn't. When the minister came he said, “It's sad that you aren't smarter than to occupy yourself with something like this,” and then he could climb down.
DS_IV_1092	Ministers	The minister's wife in Haslum died and then she was to be placed in the church the night before she was to be buried, that was the custom at the time. But then the parish clerk sneaked in there with his lantern, because he wanted to steal a gold ring she had on her little finger; but he couldn't get it off of her and so he took his knife and wanted to cut her finger off with it. Then she came to life and said: “Ow, my little finger!” When the parish clerk heard that, he got scared to death and ran, and they neither heard from him nor saw him again. The minister's wife took the lantern and walked home. She saw that there was light in the kitchen, because the girls were there and busying about late that night, and so she went over to the window and asked them to let her in. They ran in to the minister and said to him: “The lady was here.”—“Oh children, that's not true,” he answered. “Yes, it is,” they said. So the minister went out to them. “Oh dear papa let me in,” she said out there. “Oh dear mama go to your grave and lie down.”—“No, I'm quite alive, let me in.”—“Alas no,” he said again, “go to your grave and lie down.”—“For Christ's sake, let me in, I'm freezing to death.” Now the minister let her in and she told him how she had come to life and what the parish clerk had been up to. She had six children after that time, but her left side was never warm again.
DS_IV_1134	Ministers	A minister in Mosbjærg had to go up to the cemetery every night for an hour. Then his wife got their coachman to scare him by putting a sheet over himself. He ran in front of the minister from one grave to the next…. “If you’re a person, speak, if you’re Satan, then give way!” He says it three times… He reaches into his pocket and takes out a book… Then he sinks down three inches. Then the farmhand yells, “Father, Father, it's me!” – “Well,” answered the minister, “even if you were my own brother, I wouldn’t be able to help you now.” Then he ran down to the parish clerk and got the church keys, got the wine and bread and gave him the last rites. The minister’s wife was so horrified by this, that she lost her mind.
DS_IV_121	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	On Legårdslyst field there’s a whole bunch of warrior graves, and it's believed that Niels Ebbesen is buried there because that was where he fell. You see, at that time, Mos lake was connected to the ocean, so they could sail up there, and all the meadows were under water. The Danes had a raft that they could get up on when the going got rough, but the Germans who were after them, got stuck in the mud. The Danes won the battle that way. But Niels had to stay there, and so they raised a stone for him. There are also some battlements at the same place.
DS_IV_1408	Robbers, murderers and thieves	In a cemetery here in Vendsyssel, a grave digger was digging a grave and he finds a body that was rotten but the head was intact. When he throws it up to the other bones, it rattles and there was lead in the ears. Then this gets reported to the parish bailiff and he figures out that a horse dealer had come to the inn one night and had died suddenly the next morning after which he’d been buried in the cemetery and this had to be his body. It turned out that the innkeeper, who was a widow, had killed him and gotten four hundred daler by doing so. She wasn’t dead yet and had to admit to her deed. She’d gotten her daughter to help her pour the lead into his ears. The old woman was executed and her daughter was put in jail for the rest of her life.
DS_IV_1465	Robbers, murderers and thieves	In the old days in Amdal south of Amdal mill between Ugilt and Tårs there was supposed to have been a thick woods and there were also robbers there. My grandparents remembered those woods, and the robbers went and attacked people up there, both those who were driving and walking, and plundered them. But no one ever really got those robbers. 
DS_IV_1485	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A soldier had received leave for two or three days and had been given permission to take his sword with him, they weren't usually allowed to in those days. He intended to go to Jerslev and so he goes in and gets himself a dram at the inn. Then a farmer comes driving along, and he’s also headed up north. So then the soldier asks the farmer if he can ride along with him. Yeah, he sure could, because the road wasn't always so nice through the Østbjærg hills, and he had just been in Aalborg and gotten some money, which he had with him. Then they start driving and, when they get into the woods, they get surrounded by three robbers. Two of them jump each to one side of the horses and grab hold of them, and the third tries to jump up into the wagon. But then the soldier draws his sword and chops a finger off of him, and it remains lying there in the wagon. When that happened, all three of them galloped away.
DS_IV_1486	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a horse dealer who came from the south over the fjord and wanted to go to market down here. He arrived at an inn, which is called Langbro (Long Bridge) Inn north of Sundby--at the time the road went over Jerslev bridge. So he sat down inside and had a bite to eat and told the innkeeper that he had four thousand rixdollars with him that he was going to use to buy horses. “It's not worth it leaving here tonight,” said the innkeeper, “it's a mighty thick weather, and a guy we don't trust too well just left here.” He had in fact been sitting inside there and heard the horse dealer talk about the money and then he had left. “Well,” he answers, “I've got to get going. I'm pretty well armed--I've got two good pistols.” Then he leaves. When he got down to the Østbjærg hills east of Tylstrup--that's where the road went through--there was a woods which he also had to go through, and in there just next to the road there was a dale, which was called Tyrens (Bull's) dale. The robber lived there and he had a den along with a rope across the road with a bell down in the den so he could hear when somebody traveled along the road. The robber comes at him and takes the money from him along with a big white homespun sweater like the ones they used to wear in the olden days with big silver buttons on it. The man shot his pistols well enough, but didn't hit him. Then he fled and when he got away from the thief and arrived at Gammel-Vrå, where he got the huntsman to come with him. He told him what had happened and then he armed himself. When they got down into the dale, the robber was sitting down and had spread the homespun sweater out and was counting the money. The huntsman yells to him to give himself up otherwise he'd shoot. But the robber jumped up and threw his long knife, the blade of which was a foot long, and he wanted to hit the huntsman; but he didn't hit him but instead hit the saddle just in front of him and it stuck there. Then the huntsman immediately shot the robber, that's how mad he was. But he regretted it as long as he lived that he had to shoot the robber on the spot because they got no further information on him. My grandfather worked as the coachman at Gammel-Vrå and he knew the huntsman, so this really had happened. So many others were robbed at that spot.
DS_IV_1488	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A man on Spangerhede who was called Færch, he sold a horse to someone in Aalborg for six hundred rixdollars. At the same time, a farmhand was working there as a coachman, he was called Jens Snårup and had been a cavalry soldier in Randers and was used to riding. So he rode on a cavalry horse and was leading the horse that had been sold. When he came to Langbro Inn on the way home, he went in there and wanted a shot of akvavit and a drop of beer. Two others were sitting in there. He sits down now and tells the innkeeper that he'd been in Aalborg and had six hundred rixdollars on him. “You'd better stay here tonight,” says the innkeeper, “because you won't get through the Østbjærg hills.” The two had left just after they'd heard that. Well, he says he wants to go home because his boss was waiting for him, he had to get home to Spangerhede that night. The horse got a little feed then and he journeyed off. When he was halfway into the woods, a guy comes up to him and really wants to ride along, he was so tired. But Jens wouldn't let him up. “I'm used to riding by myself.” But then the guy continues to walk along with him holding onto the bridle. When they were a good way in, another person shouts out that he should hold on tight to the horse. Then the farmhand cuffs him one on the ear so he spins around two, three times. The horse was off and running fast immediately, but the two are so fast that one of them is right up front with him in a moment. But then he wallops him with the butt of a pistol he had with him so he stumbles along the road and the other one fled. Then he didn't see them any more. The farmhand was very strong and he counted on that.
DS_IV_149	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	There was a robbers’ fort a little bit south of Aldal down there by the river. Queen Margaret stayed for so long with her cavalry and artillery before she managed to get it blown up. There’s a big stone down there by Skjørping marsh some place, they call it Queen Margaret’s stone, and she sat on it while they blew up the fort. The robbers’ fort was called Stubberuphus. They also say that the same thing happened to Egholm Castle. Some of the stones from there were brought to Skjørping, and you walk on them when you go in through the door of Skjørping church. Around Egholm and Stubberup there were big moats. There’s a big hollow in Ersted forest they call the Robber Den, and when the robbers heard that they’d blown up Stubberuphus, they didn’t dare stay home any longer, and that’s how they destroyed the robbers here in the area. They say otherwise that Queen Margaret used that trick of turning the horse shoes around on her horse, and when the robbers saw the tracks, they thought that she’d ridden away, and then she managed to blow up the fort. There were both apple and plum trees and gooseberry bushes at that place where the fort lay. Some have probably said that it wasn’t anything more than a mound, and Jens Krog in Årestrup went so far as to say, “I wonder if there have been robbers here?” but he wasn’t that superstitious. My father told me that there was both chalk and stone that they could poke up with their staffs. Hofmand, who lived at Stubberuphus, was supposed to have been killed in a duel. The robbers in the mentioned robber den once took the Amtmand from Aalborg. He’d been in Randers at a wedding. They hid themselves in a big hollow over near Rold forest until he came.
DS_IV_1517	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a manor lord who lived in Illerup who was called Hjelmslev, and he was a man who was renowned for being immensely strong. If he sat in a chair and seven farmhands bound a rope around him, they couldn't pull him from the chair. He had a sword which had a name I can't remember, nor its length. This manor lord ruled the peasant farms in that area. Halfway between Dover church and Illerup there were two single farms [enstedgårde], and in one of them there was a man who had six sons, but they wouldn’t do a thing and then they couldn’t pay their debt and the manor lord forced them out of the house, and nobody came to live there afterward since it had been so damaged that nobody could live there, and so he put the land under another farmstead. The man who got the land was named Poul, and the one who got chased away was named Klaus. Now these seven vagabonds had nothing to eat, and since the manor lord was the reason they didn’t have any bread, they swore that he’d experience misfortune, but first Poul would get what he had coming to him since it was he who’d gotten their property. They disappeared completely from the area, and people neither heard from them nor asked about them for quite a while. So then people thought they were dead and gone. Poul had been afraid for a while, but now he felt safe again. Then late one winter evening, a potter came and wanted to stay at Poul’s place and since he was a kind person, he said yes as usual. The man wanted to get his wagon under cover, but it wasn’t possible because back then people didn’t have as large houses as they do now. The wagon wound up being parked just outside next to a pond. Just about bedtime, the hired girl went out to get a bucket of water and then she hears some people speaking inside the wagon. So she goes over and listens and it turns out to be one of Klaus’s sons and Klaus himself who are lying there talking, wondering if the people weren’t going to go to bed soon, it was ridiculous how long it was taking. While she’d been out, they’d set up a bed for the other one [the potter], and he had already gone to bed. Then she tells Poul what she’d heard, and they go quietly outside together and tip the wagon with all the pots and everything else down into that water hole. Then they go and wait behind the end of the house and stand there listening, because the water hole was close by. Then they see the other one come jumping out of the window, but there wasn’t anything for him to do, since the other two had drowned and when he realizes that, he runs away and leaves the horses and the wagon there. Then a little while passed, but in the quiet week just before Maundy Thursday, a poor person came running as fast as he could to Poul and told him that he’d been sleeping in a barn out on Sjelle heath the previous night and he’d lain there and listened to how five people had discussed visiting him [Poul] Maundy Thursday morning, and then they’d kill him. But because Poul had been nice to him, he’d do him the favor of coming over and telling him about it. Poul didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t run away from it all and desert his house and cattle, because then they’d just destroy everything. By the same token he could be destroyed himself if he just ate up the day. When it started to get really light, he started to get uneasy. Then the manor lord, Hjelmslev, came riding by on his way to church. Poul went out to him and told him how things stood concerning these five guys. “Well, it's possible that it's nothing other than a way to trick us, but it might also be true. So if you’ll treat me to a good meal, then I’ll watch out for them, and if they come, I’ll make up for it.” You see, now they had to serve up a meal for the manor lord who was a really big eater, and they got busy with all the preparations. The only pork they had was a shoulder of pork, and he got eggs as well and he ate it all. Just as they were sitting there, right in the middle of the meal, the Dover church bell rang the last time, and as soon as it was done, the robbers began pounding on the door. Then the manor lord says, “It’s annoying how eager they are, can’t you tell them I’m not done yet?” Poul also talked to them but they didn’t pay too much attention to him. “Well, sit down for a little while by the door, for God’s sake, I want to finish.” Now they pounded again, but it was a little door and they couldn’t really get at it, and he said that if they’d wait just a second, he’d open the door voluntarily. So, satisfied, they gave them a moment. Hjelmslev finished soon and then he got up from the table and took his saber and then said to Poul that he could open the door now, but they’d better not come more than one at a time. Poul did just so, so that they only came through one at a time, and then the manor lord stood inside and chopped their heads off as they came in and kicked their bodies aside. They didn’t suspect a thing, even though they thought that it took a while, but they didn’t manage to warn each other when they first had gotten inside, because then it was immediately kaput. When the last one had been killed, the manor lord said, “Now I’ve made up for the meal.” From that time on, the church has been called Dover church, and the place where the robbers were killed has been called the Hjelmslev ground. It was a smallholding and now it’s a house which is called the Hjelmslev house.
DS_IV_1592	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Daniel lived in a mound east of Ugilt church on the south side of the road to Linderum. He was really strong and given to killing people. He was supposed to have eaten two child hearts and would have eaten the third, he had it in his hand when he was caught. If he’d gotten that, no one would have been able to take him and he would have been able to break iron and everything in two. He had his head chopped off.
DS_IV_1605	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Near the old inn in Ugilt they found several human skulls in the garden. One fall, while I was still in school, they dug three like that up, and they were brought to Ugilt cemetery. There must have been some sort of trickery around here in the olden days.
DS_IV_1689	Plague and illnesses	There was a plague that came on with a sneezing fit and when there was somebody who managed to say, “God bless you” before the person finished sneezing, then they were saved, otherwise it was fatal. That’s where that custom comes from.
DS_IV_1839	Plague and illnesses	I had an uncle who was almost blind and so he went to seek advice from the cunning woman in Vindblæs. She gave him some herbs that were to be boiled and then he was supposed to drink it. Amongst the herbs, there was a piece of paper with nine notches like a comb, but the paper was narrower at one end than at the other. He was supposed to take one notch each morning for nine mornings, and start at the narrow end. He was also supposed to go to a mill and get some shaft grease and put it on a poultice and put it on his neck. But it didn’t help at all.
DS_IV_289	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	A Spanish cavalry soldier was killed in Halling forest by the inhabitants there and thrown down there. There was a farm out in the woods called Jungstrup, and it was probably the Jungstrup man who fought with the Spaniard and killed him.
DS_IV_627	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	The old one who built Mylenberg, he drove again after his death, he’d appear every now and then with four horses before his wagon. He was called Mylius and the farm was named after him. They called it Skjelhusene, but he wanted to turn it into a big farm, and so he wanted Hvarre farm to be merged into it as well. It was a whole town, but then he lay waste to all the farms. Of course, he had to build just as many houses as there’d been farms, they weren’t allowed to desert hearths like that, but he got the land. Then when Mylius became owner of the farms, he made them sign papers that allowed him to take any of their property that hindered him. After that, he took the meadows from these copyholders and gave them some heath instead. The old copyholders had had permission to graze their animals in the woods, but he forbade them that as well. The woods was to be fenced in. As the old copyholders died off, he took the meadows, and then they were drained and irrigated. That was at the time that there was supposed to be one big manor lord and a lot of small workers.
DS_IV_650	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	The old counselor from Skårupgård came riding with four headless horses to Todbjærg church. He always came out of the northern door, and there by the door was a stall, they could never keep that stall door closed. They had a farmhand who closed it and after that it sprang open. But one night, after he’d gone to bed, something came after him and it lifted his bed straight up to the rafters and crushed him quite hard. Then the farmhand shouted and asked them to stop lifting him up there. “No, you’ve tormented us, but now you’ll die before we die.” Then the farmhand was crushed to death, because he wanted to close the door, and then they never tried to close it again. 
DS_IV_687	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	There was a manor lord here at Boller in Tårs, he was quite a scoundrel, and plagued his peasants with forced labor, taxes and tithes, and then he chased them from their farms and abused them. The manor lord went again so much there at the farm that the new man who’d come there couldn’t stay. Then he got a wise minister to come and conjure the revenant of the manor lord. The revenant came at a set time and they also wound up speaking to each other. The minister chased the revenant from the farm and out past Boller water mill. He wanted to put the revenant down in the dam outside of the mill. The miller’s farmhand thought that it would be fun to watch how things went and he sticks his head out and watches. But then the revenant becomes too strong, and the minister was about to be put down in the millpond. Then the farmhand gets scared and pulls his head back inside. The minister then gets mastery over the revenant and he’s put down.
DS_IV_720	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	At the farm Urup, there was a count named Jørgen who owned seven manor farms besides Urup and, whenever he drove in formal finery, he had eight white mares before his carriage. The farm was stoutly built and there was a drawbridge leading over to it. The door posts and the knocker were made out of whalebone, and the windowsills were sculpted out of fine stone. But this Count Jørgen was a lecherous fellow, so to speak, and he kidnapped girls round about and he had one to lie with every night. Afterward, he would throw her out into the moat, and then she had to take care of herself, whether or not she could make it to land. Then he got to thinking that he wanted to get married and he marched on down to Venge farm; a rich woman lived there, she only had one daughter. He courted her, and he had his horses shod with gold horse shoes before he rode over there and there was a group of guys who followed along in procession. When he came to the farm, the woman was standing at the gate, so he told her his errand there on his horse. When he was finished, the woman answered: “No, my daughter is not going to have a lecherous fellow like you.” Then he threatened her but I can't remember how it turned out since I was only six years old when it was told to me. The woman got out of it by getting five manor lords from her kin to go after him, and gamble with him and they cheated him. He played with such ardor that he slammed the dice down on the table so it sang, but before it was day, both Urup and the seven estates were lost, and he became such a poor beggar that he went about begging until his death. This is supposed to have really happened.
DS_IV_948	Ministers	There was a minister in Torslev who was called Deichmann. He used to read for the candidates for confirmation out on the church floor. One day as he was reading along, a big black dog came in and walked out onto the church floor. He kept pushing the children so they all wound up in the choir loft and the dog followed along behind. But then the minister left the church and the dog followed but the children stayed inside. Then he was outside for half an hour and then he came back inside again. He was so changed that the children didn’t recognize him. Then the minister says to them that if when they got home, they talked about what had happened in the church that day then they wouldn’t be confirmed by him. Nobody saw the dog again and the children talked about it anyway. But people kept quiet about it so the minister didn’t find out.
DS_IV_988	Ministers	Pastor Kattrup in Skjødstrup asked his wife if her canvas that was being bleached hadn’t disappeared. She went out and asked the girls about it. They denied it the first time, because they thought that the farmhands had hidden it on them. Then they went and asked the farmhands about it, but they said no, they hadn’t hidden anything. Then the girls had to admit that it had disappeared and the lady went in to Kattrup and told him. Yes, he knew that was the case, “but you could have told me the first time, then I could have gotten it back for you, but now there’s a scissors at it, and they’re cutting it into pieces, so I can’t show it back. But this fall the thief will come and steal apples, so we’ll catch him sure enough. I know that he’ll come and steal from the tree right in front of the garden room, then my son Jokum will have the gun loaded with buckshot.” The thief came, too, and he sought out the tree as the minister had said. The son was up in the garden room and when the other one was a good ways up and had gotten hold of some apples, Jokum shot his legs full of buckshot and his toes were blown off. Since the minister could do so much magic, the neighborhood youngsters wanted his farmhand to scare him in the church. The minister went up to the church every night and sat in his chair, and when he was on his way back, the farmhand stood stiff in front of him. “If it’s a person, then answer, if it’s Satan, then say so!” But the farmhand didn’t answer. Then the minister took his book, flung it open and began to read. Now the farmhand noticed that he was sinking, and he’d sunk down above his ankles before he answered. Then the minister said, “I can’t save you now, now that you’ve sunk in above the joint. If you’d spoken before, then I could have saved you.” One time, he told his people that Lars Nielsen, who’d hung himself, was likely in Heaven. It was his wife who’d caused it, he was sure about that. Then he took two men with him and they went to the dead one, when he was lying on straw, and asked him three questions. He answered them well enough and the men were quite surprised by that. Then he went in to the wife and said, “Well, I wish you and I were as certain about Heaven as he is, he’s definitely going into consecrated ground.” It was the custom that people who had killed themselves were put into holes or the like. “But we sure aren’t going to do that to him.” Then the minister wrote to Copenhagen and got permission for the body to be placed in the cemetery. Every night, he walked up in the cemetery and into the church. His daughter Kristiane followed with him to the church, but she wouldn’t go in there. He was quite helpless and therefore she always accompanied him to church every Sunday.
DS_V_1028	Female revenants	There was a haunt that looked like an old woman. She came driving in a half wagon with a horse before it and she had a little angry red whip in her hand. They called it, “The woman in the half wagon.” She came from the north and drove down along Ledkrogen and then up past Per Ingvarsen’s and then along the road to the Skovhul (Woods hollow). Then one night Per Ingvarsen’s farmhand and hired girl stood there talking to each other, and then the girl says that she wanted him to lay with her in the half wagon that night. But before they knew it, something came and took his dog and threw it up against the door of the main room. Then Per Ingvarsen got annoyed and gave them a lot of grief, and then he hurried and made a cross over the door and jabbed a knife into the doorpost.
DS_V_1153	Female revenants	There was a person who went past Dover church at night. Then a woman figure came and wanted burial clothes for her child. To get away from her he had to tear his shirt tail off and give it to her, she was satisfied with that.
DS_V_1163	Female revenants	While Pastor Pedersen was minister in Svejstrup, there was a girl in the parsonage who had been seduced by the feed hand and he was a married man. When the time came that she was to give birth, the delivery was really hard. They wanted her to say who the father of the child was because that usually can help. But she wouldn’t. Then she died undelivered and was buried and it was never cleared up who the father of the child was. But every evening, just after sunset, a white virgin would come out of the cemetery and walk to the parsonage and disappear there by the stall door in the farmhand’s room and nobody saw anymore of her until she went again. Finally it got so bad that no one dared stay there at that time of the evening, they ran away. One evening Mr. Pedersen asked all of them to go to bed, not a single sound could be uttered, and the doors were closed and locked. Himself, he gets into his robes and collar and then he went out to meet her, and after that they never saw her again. But not a living soul found out what they’d negotiated between them.
DS_V_1232	Female revenants	All the way out on the parsonage’s field in Skjødstrup there’s Galgeknolden (Gallows knoll). A little girl was executed there in my day, she’d killed a baby. My father wanted me to go down and see it, but I cried so terribly and I didn’t want to. Afterward, they saw the girl sitting with her baby on top of the ground right on the knoll itself. Then pastor Katrup had to go down there and conjure her.
DS_V_1370	Female revenants	A young man, about seventeen or eighteen years old, who was quite brave, went along a road one moonlit night about midnight. As he’s walking along, he meets a woman who is standing digging furiously in the side of a hill. Then he says, “God help you!” It didn’t answer. He said it again. It still didn’t answer. The he says it a third time. Then it puts the shovel down and comes over to him. Now he got scared and started to walk. It followed him, and no matter how fast he went, it would go just as fast, but he couldn’t see that it moved its legs. Finally he comes to an intersection and now either she couldn’t cross it, or however it was, it’s enough to know that she walks over to him and puts one hand on his chest and the other on his back, and then she laughed right in his face, and she opened her mouth incredibly wide, and looking into her eyes was like looking into two holes. Then she let go of him and disappeared. He got home but he was sick and he had to stay in bed for quite a while after that walk. When he told others about it, he said, “You better believe that I let people who I meet do their work, since I’ve never in all my days forgotten that.” It was out past Flensted heath this happened.
DS_V_1430	Revenants on ill-gotten land	My grandmother had been over visiting a relative in Halling and she had a little boy with her, and then they walked home to Nielstrup where she lived. When they got out onto Halling heath, then the boy says, “Look, mother, who are those two men walking there?” Then she looked and it looked to her as if there were two men walking with a chain between them. They passed right in front of them and they could both hear the chain rattle and they heard that the men were mumbling, but it wasn’t real talk. She continued watching them but they disappeared all of a sudden.
DS_V_1542	Revenants on ill-gotten land	My grandfather told me about something that had happened that he’d been involved in, its him that I’m named after. He and a farmhand were to take turns watching the animals at night, since they were roaming loose, it was during the barley planting time, since back then they sowed barley late. It was right near Rude church, and so they would go into the church entryway and lay down when they wanted to take a nap. So my grandfather had gone in there and lain down, since it was the other farmhand’s turn to keep watch, and he was going about out in the fields. Then he comes running as fast as he can in to my grandfather and wakes him up and says, “Ras Kjær, get up, the red ox has disappeared.” Well, then he got up and when he got out of the churchyard, the other one says, “Oh God, I was at a plow and plowed around, I’m so scared. I didn’t see anything, but there was one who put me to the plow and said to me: Put that one here for me and put that one there for me. So I put my clogs down and followed along, and when I came back to my clogs, then I was free.” Then the two farmhands accompanied each other out to get the animals and pull them away. It wasn’t true, that the ox was missing, but he didn’t dare stay out there alone any longer, and he didn’t dare say anything about the revenant there in the church.
DS_V_1706	Revenants in diverse places	There was one who lived at old Hæstrup mill, he was bad about going again (haunting). Then Master Niels from Hjørring was out there to conjure him, but he couldn’t get control of him unless he raced him. The revenant was to go under the ground and the minister was to drive over the ground. The minister was allowed to choose where they were going to race, and he chose a stretch that was filled with oak trunks and roots and brushwood. They could hear the revenant underneath the ground the whole time, he screamed and complained without stop. But when the minister got to the scene of the crime, both of his horses stumbled. He came first by a few feet and then the revenant had lost, and he had to stay down there and be conjured down. That was north of Brønderup somewhere.
DS_V_202	Revenants and their conjuring	In Nygård’s woods, a horseman rides on a headless horse. My father and my maternal uncle often went out hunting at night and they encountered that haunting. It crackled in the leaves and snorted just like a horse, and they couldn’t get the dog they had with them to move from the spot and so they they had to go back home again that night.
DS_V_252	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a little house in the most western part of Tårs on the southern side of Amdal; there was a barn at the western end and everyone who’d lived there knew that on the north and south sides of the barn there were two holes. They could wall them over as often as they liked, they were always there. There was also quite a row there in the barn. They thought it was a sow with a terribly long chain that went through there since that sow went through the dale and continued on to Hvidstedgård’s field to a stone wall where it disappeared. Many have seen that sow, and it was supposed to be a really huge sow, but nobody knew anything else about it.
DS_V_51	Revenants and their conjuring	My father was born on Whitsunday itself, and he could see all sorts of stuff. By Kattesund, a pond in the middle of Skjødstrup, he saw a fox one evening that went from it up to the church. There were many who saw that, because that’s where it tended to wander. He could also see the corpse lamb that went and tapped on the doors where somebody was to die.
DS_V_549	Revenants and their conjuring	In the main room at Søndergården at Nielstrup, where there had once been a meeting room, things were wrong. Some people had been out shoveling snow and had gotten lost and wound up staying at the farm up in the meeting room. The people had baked that day and had put their bread at the end of the table. Then the visitors saw--it was a wonderfully moonlit night--that a big black dog came in there. Then they thought that it was the farm dog and they were afraid that it would take the bread and so they wanted to chase it away. But then it looked at them with two big mean eyes and stood still and didn’t move, and a little later the vision disappeared. 
DS_V_607	Revenants and their conjuring	There is a manor farm here to the east a bit, they call it Stadsgård, and ghosts haunted there in the old days. It was the earlier owner who went again because he had been so barbaric toward his peasants. He went in the shape of a monster with horns and bustled about a lot in the main room. Nobody dared to be at the farm at night because of him. So they gathered the ministers together--there were twelve altogether--one night at midnight. They came in the evening and they were also waited on before they were to go to it. Then at twilight, a beggar came, he was otherwise known as Klemmen Unborn because he had been cut out of his mother’s side, and he asked for lodgings for the night. But they said no. First of all, they didn’t have a reasonable room to give him, and second of all, he couldn’t very well be there when everyone else was going to flee from there, and nobody other than these twelve chaps were going to be there, how was he going to handle himself? “Yes,” he says to them, “just let me stay, who knows, you might find my help useful in a bit.” -- “Sure,” says one of the people, “if you aren’t any more afraid that you offer to help them, well then there’s a bed here in the hall next to the main room, why don’t you go and lay down there?” So he went in there. Up toward midnight, these twelve ministers arrange themselves in a circle in the main room, each one with a psalm book or whatever in their hands, and they open them up and begin to make quite a ruckus with songs and prayers and what have you. Then when the clock struck, the door burst open and in comes this monster and for every nod it made toward a minister with its horns, that minister's psalm book flew out of his hands. Then he says, Klemmen, he did: “Now it’s my turn, I guess.” So he went in there and there was nobody who could understand what he said, but the animal stood still and so he went over and bound a red thread around its horns. Then he pulled it out to the south-east corner of the farm where there was a large linden tree in those days, and he tied the monster to the tree until the next day when he conjured it down. After that, he didn’t have to ask to get lodgings at that farm.
DS_V_61	Revenants and their conjuring	My father's parents separated and then my father went to live with an old man who wasn't married and who wandered about and played (music). My father often lay alone in the house. One night after he’d gone to bed, and it was a clear moonlit night, he couldn't fall asleep, and then a big black shaggy dog came in to him, he could clearly see everything in the room. The door sprang open when it came in and it went over to the fireplace, it was an open wood-burning stove, where it began to stand and puff and blow in the ashes, so smoke swirled about the room. He got under his comforter and when he looked up again, the dog was gone.
DS_V_687	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a revenant one place who was to be conjured, and he was always walking again. So there were three ministers to do it, and they were gathered together and they each sat with a candle at a table. Then a curate comes in, he'd heard about this, and he sat down next to them. Then he asked if they thought that they could take care of the revenant. Then they looked at him and laughed, they thought that they were much more learned than him. Then the curate cut three pegs and he put them over the door. Then when he had sat for a little while, the first peg tumbled down. “Now he's getting up out of the grave,” said the curate. A little later the second peg fell down. “Now he's on the way.” Then the third peg fell down. “Now he's here.” All at once the revenant came in the door and then he went about to the others and blew their candles out, but he couldn't blow the curate's candle out. Then the curate says to him: “Follow me down here to the barn to see if the cows are tied up.” “No, there's nothing for us to do out there. You've also stolen once.” “Well, I didn't do that for the sake of abundance, but out of need and necessity.” And then he flung a bread roll right into the revenant's mouth. “Follow me now,” said the curate. “Well, let's go then, Per Fæbinder (cow binder).” Ever since then, the curate had that name. Then the revenant followed him out and then he was conjured down there in the barn.
DS_V_810	Revenants and their conjuring	When Master Laust drove one evening from Århus, he saw that there was light in Trige church, and so he says to his farmhand who was driving that he should stop, and then he went in there. But as he left he said to him, “Wait here and don’t drive until someone comes and says, Drive now in the name of Jesus Christ. Many will come and order you to drive, but you must not.” First one came and then another who said, “Drive now, drive now!” and sat down beside him, but he wouldn’t do it. Finally Master Laust came and said, “Drive now in the name of Jesus Christ.” But when he tried to drive, the wagon wouldn’t budge. “Can you get down and put the right rear wheel up in the wagon behind us?” The farmhand did that. “Drive now!” said the minister, and then he could drive. When they got home, the farmhand put the wheel on again, and then Master Laust went up to the cemetery and said to someone, “Follow me.” The farmhand in the meantime couldn’t see anything. Then Master Laust was up there for a little while and then he came back, and then everything was in order. 
DS_V_822	Revenants and their conjuring	While Pastor Fæster was minister in Svejstrup, there was a man who killed himself there at the farm, and it was during the summer so he was placed in the barn. One afternoon a farmhand had gone into the barn to take his afternoon nap and then the minister went in there too and goes over to the dead person whom he wakes up. He sits up on his behind and answers the minister’s questions. The farmhand who was lying in there became so wretched that he never really was much of a person after having seen that sight.
DS_V_831	Revenants and their conjuring	An old man who was called Lars Nielsen, he’d hung himself down in a little woods which was called Hjørre, then he was supposed to be buried in a stone wall between two fields, which was the practice in those days. But then the minister went in to him with two men, who were supposed to be witnesses, and he asked him three questions. He answered all three questions, and they say that the men turned so pale that they almost fainted when they heard him give correct answers as if he were alive. When the minister went back in to the wife, because she couldn’t be in there with the corpse, then he says, “You’re the one to blame, if you and I were so certain about Heaven as he is, then it would be no matter.” He wasn’t so sure himself about getting into Heaven since he did so much magic. Then he wrote to Copenhagen about this, and so he was the first one around here that had hung himself that was buried in consecrated ground, but without any songs and ringing.
DS_V_859	Revenants and their conjuring	There were a lot of ghosts and hauntings in Torslev church. Then there was a cobbler, he agreed with them that he would sit there for a whole night and get a cow in exchange. The minister drew a circle around him there in the church, and he sat there with all his cobbling equipment and cobbled and sewed on a pair of shoes and of course he also had a candle with him. Then the devil comes and says: “You’re probably sitting here earning a cow.” No, he was sewing a pair of shoes. The devil offered him money and put it down outside of the circle and put down one thing after another that could tempt him, but he still couldn’t get him out of the circle. The minister had told him that if he went outside of the circle he’d be torn apart. The devil continued to tempt him for a while but didn’t succeed, and the cobbler earned that cow sure enough.
DS_V_872	Revenants and their conjuring	An old rope maker in Svejstrup told that there were two men who had bad blood between them. Then they died and when they were buried, a hand grew out of each of their graves and they stood there and threatened each other. Then people thought that it was such a gruesome sight that they chopped the hands down and made a little box which they put them into. Every New Year's day, they were carried around among the people. But the odd thing was that no matter how often one switched the hands around, they always switched themselves back. One always wanted to be on top, as did the other one, and at that time they were always going on top of each other. One of them always wanted to rule over the other one.
DS_V_975	Revenants and their conjuring	A man who lived at Åstrup mill, south and west of Hjørring, got sick and was going to die. He had eight hundred daler in a bag near his bed and before he died he told his wife that he wanted the money with him in his grave. The wife puts them in the casket too. Then the minister comes down there, when the dead man was supposed to be buried, they called the minister Master Nielsen, and he was told about the money and said that it should be taken out, otherwise he wouldn’t bury him, the dead man couldn’t have the money with him. So the corpse is buried but then they couldn’t stay down there at Åstrup at night, a big black dog came in and tipped over the beds with them in them, and had nearly torn them apart. So they sent for the minister and he came down there and changed things, he conjured the haunt down half way out on the mill pond's earthen dam under a big heavy stone. Kristen Måjen’s mother worked for that minister, so it isn’t so long ago. His casket is in Hjørring church.
DS_V_982	Revenants and their conjuring	My grandfather said that at a farm in Nielstrup—it was in fact the one where there’d been things—they always had bad luck with their animals. Then they sought out a cunning man and he said to the man: “You should look in your parlor, there’s a hole in the floor, and where the hole is, that's where you should dig and you'll find a kettle filled with money. But you can’t stay at your farm that night.” The man answered and said that it would never happen that he’d dig for it. But their son, he believed nevertheless that his parents had dug for it, because they wound up having a lot of money, and it was quiet at the farm after that. But he never really found out what had happened. That farmhand said--and he told this as though it were true--that sometimes, when things were bad there, it was like the horses could stand and sweat, and when he went up and fixed their manger, it looked as if there were small piglets lying there, and after he'd carried them out to the mud pool, in the morning he'd discover that, instead of piglets, it was good straw that he'd carried out. 
DS_VI_1028	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a woman in Skjødstrup, she was called Puust-Maren and she could witch and she could do so much magic. The man at Vosnæsgård had asked about that, and one day she comes down to him and stood and talked with him, he says, “Listen, Maren, is it true that you know a lot of magic and can witch?” Maren: "Yes, it was." "If you can get all my plows to stop at once, then I’ll believe it." All his people were out in the fields plowing. Sure, that was an easy matter for her, she could stop all of them except for one, he knew a lot of magic himself, that farmhand, because as long as he was in the furrow, she couldn’t do it, as soon as he got out of it, then she could. But she couldn’t do it in any other way than to make the horses stampede, and the manor lord had to promise not to regret that or get angry about that. No, he wouldn’t. Then all the plows except one stopped. Something broke on all the farmhands’ plows: for some, the blade broke, for some, the jointer knife broke, and for others, the harnesses broke. But when the one farmhand, who was still plowing, came out at the end, the horses got so wild, and they smashed the plow and they ran off across several fields and damaged the horses and everything. “Now I believe that you can,” says the manor lord, “since you’ve done it. That was bad enough, but you won’t be punished for it. But if you do it to others, then you won’t be able to avoid being accused [of witchcraft]. I’ve heard how you even made your own daughter wing-mouthed because she wanted Per Virring.” Yes, that’s was true enough. One time she’d also made a woman so sick and then another woman from Århus had to cure her because she was a bit wiser than Maren. But then the sick woman’s husband was supposed to stand when Maren came--because come she would--and hit her in the forehead with a wooden club [nødde], otherwise the one from Århus couldn’t cure her. “But I’ll probably kill her.” No, they couldn’t kill her, it wouldn’t even hurt. Then the man was so afraid that she’d sneak in the door past him, but then the woman from Århus said that she’d put a birch broom [ruflime] or a straw broom [sliklime] in the door, she knew that she couldn’t go over that. Now when the cunning woman was reading and curing the sick one, then Maren came and was incredibly angry. The man was ready with the club and hit her as hard as he could. Maren couldn't to do anything then and had to go home. “I wouldn’t have thought that there was such magic here,” she said, “because then you could have let me known, and I could have cured her as well. But if I can’t do anything else now, well then she’ll be wing-mouthed just like my daughter.” 
DS_VI_1079	Cunning men and women and their activities	My uncle had a pipe that had disappeared one day when they were out cutting clover. There were two farmhands doing that and when they went home at noon, he’d forgotten his pipe out in the field on a stone. When he got home he said, “Oh, now I’ve forgotten my pipe.”—“Oh, just let it lie there until we go back out there.” But when they got back out there, the pipe was gone. Then the other farmhand says, “You’d better go over to the cunning man tonight and get him to show it again.” That was Klemmen in Sorte-mose. When he got out there and told him his errand, he said, “Well, don’t worry about a thing, when you get out there tomorrow afternoon, the pipe will be there.” That was right, too.
DS_VI_1100	Cunning men and women and their activities	Anders Væver had so many apples in his garden. He said that they couldn’t take a single one of them, and there was a big bet made, they wagered ten daler, and there were three men involved. The first was going to shake them down, the other one was going to chase away anyone who came by, and the third was going to gather them. Then they thought that they’d be able to get them. The first one got up into the apple tree and shook. A rooster came after him and pecked at his head so he didn’t manage to shake much down. Then a big calf came and swallowed the ones that had fallen down and it pushed the man off the road, so they couldn’t get any apples and Anders won the bet. When Anders Væver was dead, he went again up in the attic and measured grain and sat at the end of the table and counted his money. Then the minister had to go down there and conjure him.
DS_VI_1205	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a curate in Serridslev, he was called Jermiin and lived in the annex farm. Then the big Vildmose had caught fire and there had never been a swamp fire like that in Vendsyssel before. It burned both winter and summer and burned for nine or ten years. Jermiin said then that he could stop the fire easily, he could be at home in the parsonage and stop the fire but he didn't want to because then people would think he was involved with witchcraft. But now they could drive with him up to the fire. They did that too and he sat in the wagon and drove around the fire. Then it was put out. Then there was a theft in Vrå church, and the thieves stole both the chalice and the drinking vessels and everything. Now there was a rural dean in Vrå at that time, and he wanted the stolen goods to be “shown again,” and Jermiin was to do this, because he was so wise. The dean brought two ministers with him to the church to watch that he showed it again. As they went in there, Jermiin says that now he’d show them something they'd never seen before and that they’d never want to see again. At that time, they had leaded windows in the church just like at other places and so he took a needle and went and poked three holes in the lead. Next, he advised them that they should notice the thieves and see if they could recognize them, there were three who had done it, and all three were to go through the holes in the window lead. The dean and the two ministers got really scared by that sight. The dean said that he wished never to see it again. He knew all three thieves and it was three cotters from Vrå parish. I also heard their names, because Maline from Øksenvad who the dean had confirmed knew them personally and she told me that. But they got all their silver back again.
DS_VI_1248	Cunning men and women and their activities	An old Norwegian came to Kristen Blære’s in Kras, that’s out on the southern side of Nørlund forest. He was the forest ranger there, and his wife tells the Norwegian, no, she wouldn’t give him lodgings, there were so many wandering about, one out and the next one in. So the Norwegian had to go back out into the woods. Then the husband saw him as he was on his way home and asked him who he was. Well, he was an old beggar who wanted lodgings. When the forest ranger gets home to his wife he tells her to have one of the girls go get the Norwegian, it was a pity that he was going to wander about out there in the forest and freeze to death. So he was allowed to stay there. The forest ranger told him that they had so many mice that he didn't really know where he could put his bag down. Well, said the Norwegian, he wasn’t scared of those guys. The next morning it turned out that they’d bit a hole in his bag anyway. Then he asks the forest ranger if he wants them shown away, because he’d do him that favor in return. Sure, he’d like that a lot. Did he have any enemies he wanted them to be shown to? No, he didn’t, he didn’t want to visit that kind of harm on anyone, because he thought they’d had a hard enough time with them. Then all the mice came running, and there were so many of them, it was horrible, and then he put them under an osier bush and they ate that all winter. They also say that a couple of mice came running out across the floor and wanted to run in another hole, and then the Norwegian said, “Don't bend over, don't bend over, you didn’t bend over last night when you bit my bag.”
DS_VI_1270	Cunning men and women and their activities	A poacher ran once here in Rold forest and he’d gotten something in his shoe. When he got down to the marsh by Katkjelde (Cat's well) near Gravlev, the witches were sitting there churning, he could see that, since he’d gotten this bracken seed in his shoe, and I suppose he shot at them. On Saint Hans eve they bloom and produce seed the same night for only two hours.
DS_VI_1271	Cunning men and women and their activities	Bracken aren’t supposed to bear seeds except on Saint Hans eve. There was a girl called Karen Marie, that was Jens Brandstrup’s daughter--she’s now in America--and she came and wanted me to go out into the woods with her that night. We each had some paper with us which had something written on it and she’d written what was supposed to be written. We were supposed to put that paper under the bracken and she said that she got plenty, but I didn’t get any. Those seeds were used to do magic.
DS_VI_1314	Cunning men and women and their activities	A midwife in Torslev was with a woman who was going to give birth. The birth pains were so bad and the woman wailed pitiably. Then her husband says, “Yeah, that's really something to blubber about, what a wretch,” and he tells his wife to shut up. “You shouldn't say that,” says the midwife, “you better believe it's a hard trip.” No, he didn't count that as anything. “Then you'll also get to feel it,” says the midwife. Then the man goes out, but just as soon as he gets outside, he gets so sick, so sick, and he gets the pains his wife had before. And he continued to have them until his wife gives birth, but then it was over. The midwife calls to him now and asks if he'll stand by those words he'd said before. No, he wouldn't, it was a really hard trip.
DS_VI_139	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a man who lived in Teglgården, a little manor farm between Buderup and Skjørping, and he’d given himself to the devil’s power. But the devil had agreed to give him a sign before he came and took him so that he could be somewhat prepared for the trip. Then one Sunday morning his hired girl was to go and get his Sunday clothes for him, he wanted to go to church, and when she brings him a pair of white stockings first, they looked red to his eyes. He says to her that she should get him another pair, he didn’t want ones like that. She got him another pair, but they were red too, and all the ones she brought were red. Then he gets quite upset and says that he doesn’t want to go to church today and she should put them away. After that, he chased everyone off to church, they all had to go except for the girl who’d given him the stockings, she was to stay home. Now she was to get him a big bowl of sour milk, he said to her, and he put a bunch of silver coins in it. “Now I want you to give me a spoon,” he said, and he wanted to spoon the coins into himself, but he couldn’t swallow the them. So he pushed them over to the girl, she could have them. Immediately, the finest carriage drove into the courtyard and stopped in front of the main door. She thought that it was important guests, and the man who was sitting in the wagon also went in to see the lord, but she didn’t see what he did to him, but she did hear that the lord complained quite a bit and he wasn't allowed to leave out through the door with the visitor, but instead he had to leave through a corner window, and then off the lord went with him, and they went fast because they drove right over an oak by Hvældam. When they got to the stream that runs between Skjørping and Teglgården, there were some scrub oak trees and other oaks down by the stream at that time, and they cleaved that oak tree so that it almost broke in two, and it hung down and grew like that for many years, and because the devil had driven over it there was no one who dared take it for firewood. Now no one saw Per Yde any more--you see that’s what the manor lord at Teglgården was called--but they traveled north to hell with each other, and after that people heard that when the devil traveled over the sea with him, a ship came sailing right by at the same moment and the people called out asking who he was. Well, it was the devil. And what freight did he have? Well, he had Andreas the bishop and Andreas Fal and Peder Yde. Where were they from?, ask the shipspeople. Well, one was the bishop of Bremen, and the other was a dean--I can’t remember now where he was from, but it was a place way down south--and the third was the man from Teglgården. You see, that was the last people heard of Peder Yde, but when the girl came into the room where the devil had taken him, she saw his brains hanging on the walls, so he must have grabbed him pretty hard. There was a farmhand who worked here in the town who said that there was always a ruckus in the attic at Teglgården at night.
DS_VI_167	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A count by the name of Feer lived at Baggesvogn and he and his wife are buried in Sindal cemetery. They had oxen on the farm and then one winter fifty of them died. They believed that it was evil people who were guilty of it. The lady borrows some wise books from the Bragholdt hag and then she got two other women with her who were to help her with this. They go into a room in the farmhouse which is called the blue room and they set something up and they read in the books and read the Devil to them. He was to tell them who the guilty one was, but it was never cleared up. One of the women had a son at the farm who was the oxhand and they wanted him along but he didn’t want to. So the three were alone. A little later that night, screams were heard and then when they opened up, all three women lay there and were torn to stumps and pieces. Just at the moment they died, three tears appeared on the comforter on the bed in which the oxhand lay. He got frightened and came up, but by then his mother was dead. The first one to come in and see it was my father’s maternal aunt, she worked there. They couldn’t plaster over the blood spots on the wall, but when Nyholm got there, he tore the entire wall down and then when new stones were put up, it stopped.
DS_VI_191	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Knold Kræn had a Ceperånus (Cyprianus). He’d gotten it down in Torslev from a man who had four, but he never used it. One time, however, he’d gotten it down off the shelf and sat there reading in it. Just as he’s sitting there, a sharpening stone which was sitting right next to him breaks in half and it made a really loud noise as if someone had shot a rifle right next to him. Then he got scared and put the Ceperånus back up on the shelf. I was supposed to get it from him and we’d arranged a day when he was supposed to bring it. But then my father got me to run an errand in town and he told me what it said on the title page too. When I’d heard that, I’d also had enough. Knold-Kræn came, too, but, since I wasn’t home, he went on to Lørslev and I didn’t get the book.
DS_VI_2	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a lot of talk in the old days of people who had a gjejst. There was a story like that about a farmhand in Nielstrup, they said he could go out in the stalls and sing and when the other farmhands came and wanted to go in there, then they thought he was there; but when they went into the house then he was sitting at the table there. Then they presumed that it was his gjejst they’d seen out there.
DS_VI_428	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a soldier who had sixty miles to go to get home, and then he goes up to a person who is driving in a wagon and asked permission to ride with him. Well, he got permission and he gets up (in the wagon). Then they drove for about an hour and they get to a town. The coachman asks him if he knows the town. Well, it looked familiar but there was no reason it should, because he knew he had sixty miles to go to get home and they hadn’t been driving for more than an hour. Well, it was right, he was to get off here, and now he could say that the devil had done right by a poor soldier, but he himself had to go another sixty miles and help a poor girl have a child. The girl wanted the baby killed and he had to go and help her with that. But her boyfriend had told her that she shouldn’t do it until he’d had a chance to see it. Then she put the child to her right breast and it began to suck. Then he asks her if she won’t do it. No, now she couldn’t, because the child had had her breast. Then the devil cackled up on the cock’s roost and said that he wouldn’t have held her lower back if he’d thought it would go like this.
DS_VI_429	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a man down in Jerup, he’d been in the navy for fifteen years in the old war, and he told about a strange thing that had happened on the ship. They’d had quiet weather for four days and couldn’t sail, and so the three hundred men who were on board decided that, to amuse themselves and to pass the time, they should try what it was like to hang themselves. They were hung up, one after the other, and then the one who was up was supposed to put his finger in the air when he didn’t want to hang any longer. Then there was an old sailor, he was sixty years old, and he didn’t want to try this because he thought it was silly. They’d all tried it, but he wouldn’t. Then the crew goes up on deck and they’re missing the old guy. So they wanted to go back down to get him and they get down below decks but they can’t get into the room where they’d tried the hanging because the door was locked and they couldn’t open it. Then the ship’s captain comes along and says, “Smash open the door!” Then they smashed the door to pieces and when they get in there, the old guy is hanging up in the noose and there’s a black cat sitting on his head. Then it got up and ran up on deck and jumped out into the sea. They didn’t have any cats on board so they were totally puzzled by that sight. Then they cut the old guy down and he seemed to be dead but the doctor managed to bring him back to life. When he came to, he told them that, when the others had gone up, he decided to try it, but as soon as he’d gotten his chin in the noose, it was as if a barrel of grain had been put on his head, and then he didn’t remember a thing. If they hadn’t come in and smashed the door down, then he’d never have survived. The man from Jerup saw the whole thing and swore that this was true. My father worked at the farm with him and he told him about it. He could get so mad when people didn’t believe his stories.
DS_VI_433	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Up in Stenum there was a girl who had gotten engaged but then her boyfriend dumped her and she went around for six, eight days and thought about killing herself. Then one night it was so terribly dark and she wanted to go into the wagon house and hang herself there. But how shall I see to find a piece of rope, she thought to herself, it was so dark, since she had closed the door when she had gone in. At that moment, it gets so light in there like it was daylight and she gets so scared that she begins to read her Our Father. But as soon as she had read it, it got just as dark as it had been before. Then she went out again and the devil didn't have any luck that time. The next day she told it to her farm girl, what had happened to her the night before, that girl worked at the next farm over, and it was in fact her who married Gotfred, the one who wound up living in the mountains. She told it to others and then things got patched up between her and her boyfriend and later they got married.
DS_VI_593	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	An old man, Jens Ywsten (Justesen), who was somewhat down and out, lived in Skjelhusene, where Mylenbjærg is now. When he was mad at his wife, he said that she’d be rid of him sure enough, because at such and such a time the devil was going to come and get him. He always went and swore that the devil should take him. Then one night, his wife sat and milked, a shaggy dog came and climbed up a wagon shaft, and went up and finally sat down by their chimney out on the roof. When the woman came in, her husband lay in their bed, and froth was coming out of his nose and mouth. So then they thought that it was the devil who’d come to get him, and she got so scared, the poor woman, that she ran off and got their neighbor, they called him Søren Krog. The first thing he did was to stop the clock, the devil was supposed to get him at a precise time, and then they read and they prayed, and finally the dog disappeared again. The man got better and he became so good-natured because of this, that he never swore again, he’d only say: Få dig for skam (For shame).
DS_VI_810	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a man they called Klemmen in Sorte-Mose—that’s in Hortshøj parish—they always went to him when they wanted something shown again. Then a woman came to him and wanted him to show two feet of canvas. “Sure, you can see the woman who stole it,” he said, and then he put a tub of water in the middle of the floor and a mirror in front of her and a mirror behind her, and she was supposed to see the woman in the water there. “Because if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me, but when you see it for yourself, you’ll believe it better, because it's one of your best friends.” When it had burned over at Jens Klemmensen’s in Hårup, Klemmen came and visited him because they were such good friends. Then he wanted him to show a small dog again that had disappeared during the fire. I worked there, that’s why I know that. “Well, if the dog’s alive I’ll get him for you, you can meet him tomorrow morning by the door, he’ll be standing there really happy to see you.” It happened too. The next morning, the dog met him at the door. One time Klemmen was on his way to Løgten, and they decided to make fun of him. But he chased one of the men out into the swamp so he stood in mud up over his ankles until he [Klemmen] came back and so that guy at least didn’t get to Løgten. When Klemmen got back, he set him free. “Yeah, now you’ve learned what happens if you make fun of Klemmen, I don’t think you’ll do that again. Otherwise you could wind up standing like that again.” Klemmen did so much magic like that. We had some cows in Brandstrup who got sick in their knees and three died. But then we went to find Klemmen and he helped them. They were to have a pail of their own milk eight mornings in a row, and after that we didn’t have any that died. He could also cure those who were bewitched.
DS_VI_884	Cunning men and women and their activities	There were several others from Nielstrup who went down to the cunning woman in Vindblæs. They had a son who was sick, and they went down there for advice, but he died anyway. They said that she went constantly winding a bolster of yarn, then she'd unravel it, and then she wound it up again. While they were there, a whole column of wagons drove through Vindblæs and they were going to the market town. Then the cunning woman says, “That baker, he’ll die before he gets home.” It didn’t take too long before it was all over town that he’d died on the road. She could see that in her window, and she must have been somewhat wise (cunning).
DS_VI_897	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a man who lived on Knudsholm in Ugilt parish, they called him Iver Holmen or “Long Iver.” He had a large piece of canvas that disappeared one fall. Then he went down to the Bragholdt hag and she was supposed to show the canvas again. When he gets down to her, she’s drunk. She tells him to come the next morning, then she’d tell him where the canvas was. He felt that it was quite a long way from Bragholdt to Knudsholm, and the barn was in bad shape, he could probably get in through one of the walls and hide himself in some hay in there. No sooner thought than done; but it wasn’t too long before the hag came into the barn, too, and she had a little devil with her, she was holding it by the hair in one of her hands and she had a wet dishrag in the other and slapped him with that. He was to tell her where the canvas was. The devil answered her: “He hears, he hears, he hears!” But the hag was so drunk she didn’t notice that he'd said that. Well, she continued slapping him and he said that it lay in the side of a hollow down on the minister’s meadow, that’s where it was hidden. The minister in Ugilt has a meadow on the north side of Holmen’s field. Then the hag and the devil left and the man went home, he didn’t want the hag to get any money for this. But the following morning a message came for him, he had to go out there and talk to her. She wanted her payment and then he could leave. His canvas was in the place that had been mentioned and he went and got it.
DS_VI_930	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a man in Nørre-Harridslev, he did villeinage at Åstrup in west Hjørring and so he was incredibly poor. He lost a huge number of animals, both horses and cows and sheep and pigs and geese and ducks and chickens, in short, everything that he had, and there had to be evil people at play. Now he had four horses, but two of them were so thin and weak that they couldn’t do anything, they hung in some ropes and were near death. Then the man was supposed to go to Løkken with a load of grain for the manor lord and had to have these two horses harnessed up. At the same time, an old Norwegian had come here to the country, he was one who was cunning and could cure such things, and he’d helped many others. Then there were some who’d told him about this farmer and how bad off he was. He goes over there and comes the very evening that the man was supposed to drive to Løkken and wanted to talk to him about that. But since the man wasn’t home, he asks the farmer’s wife if he can’t stay there that night. No, she says no, that couldn’t be done; they were poor people and couldn’t afford to have strangers lodging with them. See, she was harsh and chewed him out; but he just kept sitting there, and people told him to stay until the man came home if he wasn’t there at the moment. Then later that night the man comes back from Løkken and he gave the Norwegian permission to stay there, it was too late to leave now. Now he had a bottle of akvavit along from Løkken and they sat there and emptied it that night and they were feeling good and this here old Norwegian became a little more talkative. Then he says, “How is it that you lose so many cattle and horses?” Well, he couldn’t stay at the farm, he says, he was about ready to leave it any day now, because he lost everything, and it was probably evil people who were at fault. Well, then the Norwegian starts to talk and says, “There’s a remedy for that.”--No, says the man, he’d given a lot of money to have it cured and there’d been a lot of cunning folk, but it didn’t help any. “Well, I’ll stay here tonight,” says the Norwegian, “then we can take a look at it tomorrow morning.” The next morning, they got up and he says to the wife, “Take an entire basket of peat and make a fire in the fireplace.” She agreed to do that. “Well, then we’ll go out to the barn and see if we can’t figure out a remedy for this.” The Norwegian went back and forth in there and then he pointed at a large stone that was lying in the stone floor. They were to pull it up. They did that and no there wasn’t anything under it, they could put it back down. Then he went back and forth a couple of times, and then he says, “It should be here.” There was also a stone in there which he now pointed at. They got a metal bar and lifted the stone, and underneath it there was a hole big enough to fit a couple bushels. There were also all sorts of bones, both horses and cows and pigs and the like, and there was hair from them too, and there were bones and feathers of chickens and ducks and geese. Tied onto these hairs were so many bad luck knots that the cunning man filled a two bushel basket when he’d gathered it all together and carried it out. He calculated that it could have lasted for another hundred years before it would have ended, that’s how long they would have lost animals there. They carried it into the kitchen and then they had to shut all the doors and windows tightly and plug all the holes in the main room, because now everything that was in the basket was thrown onto the fire, and the evil-doer would come immediately. It wasn’t too long either before their neighbor’s wife came and really wanted to come in, and she yelled and screamed, she really needed to talk to them. But she wasn’t allowed to because the Norwegian was afraid that it wouldn’t help if she came in, and so she wasn’t allowed in. After that filth had been burned to ashes, they carried it and the bone stumps out to the dunghill and after that they never lost a thing. He became a clever man and his grandchildren have the farm to this very day. The one who told me this knew the man personally.
DS_VI_970	Cunning men and women and their activities	The Bee Curse (Spell). Little bird you fly so high, beautiful weather is under your wings. Will you not put your wings to the ground, while I get the hive and the canvas to en dé. We had bees at home and my mother read that for them. She ran in under them and then they lay down right in a stone heap.
DS_VI_98	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a man in Skanderborg who was called Lavst Thomsen, he was a skilled merchant and was quite well off; but he’d bought all his riches from the devil with whom he had made a contract. Then a little while passed and he became a bit of a drunk, and things started to backslide. People believed that it was because he was worried that every day he was one day closer to the devil. One day a man comes driving, he was called Frederik and came from Flensted, and he passed a wagon that had glowing red wheels below and two coal black horses in front. Even though it was a summer day, steam came out of the noses of the horses as if it was a hard frost. There was only one man on the wagon, and he had a cape thrown over his shoulders, he had a pointy beard and a whiplash mustache, his face was thin and he looked quite sinister. Frederik met him near Hårby and when he got to Forlev, the other one was already on his way back, but he didn’t think anything about that and continued to Skanderborg. Then he went in to Lavst Thomsen, because his nephew was an apprentice shopkeeper there. Then his nephew told him that the devil had been there, and he’d stood and listened by the keyhole and heard what had been said. “Well,” says the devil when he came in, “now your time is up.” – “Yes it is,” answered the merchant, “if you let me be while I tie up my one stocking, then I’ll come along.” – “I’ll allow that,” and then Lavst let it hang and never again tied up his stocking. Then the Evil One had lost his power. People believed that the devil had gotten control over Lavst anyway one time and had cast some spells so Lavst wound up in a peat ditch a few years later and there he’d sat and frozen to death. When the man from Flensted heard the apprentice shopkeeper’s account he knew that the wagon had been the devil’s. Frederik sat here with us and told us that; his widow is still alive.
DS_VI_981	Cunning men and women and their activities	Besekorset (Stampeding spell). When you said the following, then the cows weren’t supposed to be able to stampede: When I see a cow stampeding over a field, then it stampedes neither forward nor backward. At night you were supposed to release the spell, and say that they neither stampeded backward nor forward, otherwise they’d die, we shepherds had to remember that.
DS_VI_995	Cunning men and women and their activities	My foster father could stop runaway horses, but horses that have been stopped like that are never any good any longer.
DS_VII_1045	Witches and their sport	My uncle’s son in Lille-Arden was bewitched, and then they took him to a cunning man, they called Yww Luet (Iver L..t). He came and then everybody had to go to bed because if anybody stayed up, it wouldn’t work. The cunning man was to talk to the Old One. But they had a big girl there who’d also gone to bed and was supposed to be asleep, but she was curious, as such people always are, and she lay with the comforter over her head and looked out to see what Ywer was doing. He sat at the table with a bottle of brandy in front of him and took a swig and mixed the medicines that were to be used for this witchcraft. After he’d mixed something, he'd say, “Is it strong enough?” Then there were three knocks on the ceiling and then he stopped. Ever since then, the girl said, “If the Devil wasn’t at my father’s farm that night, then he's never been there.” But the boy died, the witch master didn’t manage to cure him.
DS_VII_1181	Witches and their sport	Calves couldn’t survive at a farm in Årestrup and so they got a witch master from the west, he was called Jens Ilder. He wrote a bunch of small notes and put them round about. Then there was a crack in the door post and he put one in there too. After, when the weather was windy, it had worked its way out and a hired boy got it and read, “Give your calves both straw and hay, if they won’t live, then let them die.”
DS_VII_1182	Witches and their sport	There was a man in Stenbroen in Tårs, he was called Kristian Stenbroen. That’s south of Borup. Then a woman comes in and wants some milk, they called her Støv-Karen and she lived in Støvhuset on the road to Sæsing. Well, says the farmer's wife, she couldn’t today, because they had a cow that had calved, but when she came again, she could have all that she wanted. As soon as she’d left, the calf gets so crazy that it jumped up against the hay rafters and fell down again and made some strange noises and it continued to do this for so long that it finally killed itself. The next morning the man goes down and wants to beat Støv-Karen. But as he comes down to where the poorhouse is now, he meets her, and she was walking along with a staff in her one hand and a milk can in the other. When he gets close to her, she changes herself into a crow and sits on top of her staff and caws at him and the milk can stood beside it. The man got so scared that he ran home and told his wife that as soon as Støv-Karen came again, she was to have everything she wanted. You see, she’d scared him. My mother was there when that happened with the calf.
DS_VII_120	Witches and their sport	Eighty years ago, a little woman was the shepherd at Bøgsted, they called her little Rut. An under-chamberlain who was called Qualen lived at the farm, and his father, who owned the farm, lived down in Holsten. There was never much more than fourteen days between the times they would send this old woman to Aalborg to run errands for them. She led the sheep out in the morning and then walked off, and as soon as she got south of the farm, they saw her in the shape of a hare that ran south as fast as it could. As soon as it got to Knudsholmen, it jumped over the river east of the farm, and in the evening the hare came again, jumped over and ran to Bøgsted. That was a quick messenger who could run fourteen miles like that. 
DS_VII_1274	Witches and their sport	Here in a farm in the eastern most part of Jerslev parish, a strange thing happened about thirty years ago. Their sheep disappeared one night and all the people came out and were going to look for them. After a while, there’s a shout: “We’ve found them now.” That’s what it sounded like to the people, and immediately after there was an answer, “Can I come too?” The man shouts and says yes; but no sheep came, they didn’t find them that night and they went about all night and looked for them and continued until dawn. Finally they found them. There was continual haunting on the farm and in the house, so much that the people could barely stay there. Right nearby there was a big pond, and in the afternoon in broad daylight, wheels and half wagons and other things could appear in the pond, and no one could understand what was going on. There was also frequently a ruckus in the house. They sought out cunning people and even ministers--Jerslev minister was there several times--and after a while they managed to quiet it; but it was really there for many years. Sometimes fifty or so people could stand and watch as something rose up out in the pond. When it disappeared it made strange noises. None of the occupants wanted to stay at the farm and it was finally sold for next to nothing.
DS_VII_1299	Witches and their sport	There was one in Gravlev they called Anders Bødker, and he bewitched Kræn Degn’s field on Fløø. There was a place as big as a spinning wheel and, as soon as the cattle got there, they went completely crazy. They couldn’t raise any barley either. But then Jakob Ingvarsen, he cured the field. It was one time when the men of Gravlev had gathered--in the old days, the townsmen often gathered--and Anders Bødker was also there, and the Fløø men were also there. It was over at Poul Isak’s, that's where they were, and then someone says, “Can’t you give us half a pægl Poul?” Sure, they got that then. “Skål, Anders Bødker, now you should let us raise some good barley,” one of them says, that was Jakob. “Sure, you’ll get some good tall standing barley,” says Anders, he was such a joker he was. Then all the men wanted to pour a glass for him to get good barley, and Kræn Degn sat there quietly listening to that. Anders Påske’s plow in Fløø had also been bewitched one afternoon, when his son had had the animals out in front, and then he couldn’t control the plow at all that afternoon, either it would go too deep or up out of the ground or to the side. Then he had to unhitch the animals and go home to his father. Yes, evil people had done that, and then they had to go over to Iver Ott, he was old Villads’s son-in-law, and he’d inherited all his knowledge. So the man hitches up his wagon and drives over to him. He came over and read in his books to find out what was wrong with the plow and then he followed him home and read over the plow and screwed on all the screws. He had a little drill in his pocket as well as a little stick, and when he’d drilled a little hole in the plow axe, he tapped the stick into it. “Now it won’t give you those problems anymore,” he said, and then the plow went as wonderfully as it had before.
DS_VII_1312	Witches and their sport	An old woman in Nielstrup, she was called Ma’ Røgters, was known as a witch. Søndergård lay down below it and during the harvest the son at Søndergård drove and loaded grain up on their heath. Then he had to go past her house with a load and every time he came past and drove down the path to the farm, he tipped over. This happened for the first five loads. Then he took his whip and headed over to her place, while he said, “She’s to blame for all these problems, that Ma’ Røgter, since she’s the one doing this.” When he got up to her, he said, “If you do this more today, then I’ll beat you so that blood will flow about you.”—“Oh, little Niels,” she began whining , “if you’ll leave me alone, then you won’t tip over anymore today.” Then he went back and he didn’t tip over any more.
DS_VII_1409	Witches and their sport	There was a man out in Gandrup who occupied himself with bewitching people. Then his own people figured out to hang a horse’s head up in the smoke in their own chimney, as long as it hung there, he got no peace or quiet, except when he lay with a rye bread on his chest. He lay in his bed for several years and held on to that rye bread. Then the devil couldn’t come and squeeze him.
DS_VII_146	Witches and their sport	There was a man in Hjørring, he was a merchant and an innkeeper and he was called Niels Løt and his wife, she was called Karen. Then the old Skytte-Kræn from Astrup had accused her of being a witch and Niels Løt summons him then, he had to prove what he said. They went to court. Then there was a big black dog that followed Niels Løt to the court. They ask Skytte-Kræn if he can prove that she’s a witch. Then he turns to this black dog and says, “Stand up, Karen, and answer that.” Then she stood there buck-naked in the middle of the courtroom with them. The man took off his chenille which he had on over his jacket and put it over his wife.
DS_VII_1487	Human and cattle illnesses	There was a man who was born in the same town as me, his mother had been seduced, he was born in a victory shirt. It was made like a soldier’s jacket but where the buttons were supposed to be there were some knots. People believed that he was going to be a real army leader, but it turned out differently, because he was a real klutz. His shirt was burned because the people that he was living with wanted to get rid of all superstition. The person who has a piece of a victory shirt on him, no bullets can hit him during a battle.
DS_VII_1569	Human and cattle illnesses	For warts. We need to use the right ring finder and write the “ave” around it and say, Ogsel my daughter, eight becomes seven, seven becomes six, six becomes five, five becomes four, four becomes three, three becomes two, two becomes one, one becomes nothing. In the name of God the Father. This is read three times and then three Our Fathers.
DS_VII_1614	Human and cattle illnesses	Marekors (The Mare Spell). Mother, mother, why do you punish her so hard, weren’t you born, when she was born, won’t you die, when she shall die. In the name of God the Father. One rubs on the midriff and on the tummy while saying this. Parish clerk Christensen in Rude went down to a woman in Stubdrup and learned this, and then he went and used it for his sister, she lived in Himmerig over near Borup. It helped immediately.
DS_VII_1628	Human and cattle illnesses	For venom (skarn, edder). One rubs the swollen place and says: The stag goes on the open heath, sunken and bent and thin in the undergrowth; and that’s where Jesus came walking up: Oh stag why are you standing here so long. I am so swollen with poison. You shall no longer be swollen with poison, than I can put my hand down to the blessed earth. In the name of three men. The Our Father… You read this three times.
DS_VII_1658	Human and cattle illnesses	For sprain. With both hands you should stroke down along the place that is hurt, bring the hands slowly up and stroke again and say: Jesus up the mountain went, his right foot he did sprain, down to the blessed earth he went, send him from bone to bone, flesh to flesh, tendon to tendon, let it be just as it was before. In Jesus’s name. Amen. You read this three times.
DS_VII_169	Witches and their sport	There was a witch in Skjoldelev, her daughter could, among other things, perform that bit of witchcraft, when she came out to the other shepherds, she could milk using a hazel rod and the milk would splash about, and she had so much power over the cattle. While the other shepherds had to use rods and whips, she just needed to call, then the cattle would come, even if they were otherwise uncontrollable. But then the authorities came for her mother, and she was going to be accused of being a witch, and she was summoned to meet at the meeting place. When the mother gets there, they say to her that if she’d leave that magic alone and just take care of herself, she'd be left alone, otherwise they’d want to talk to her. But she said that she hadn’t done anything illegal, and if they couldn’t look after themselves then she’d like to try to see if she couldn’t give them something to look after. Then they let her go home, and each one made sure they got home as fast as they could. They’d all become so infested with lice that they couldn’t let themselves be seen because of the shame.
DS_VII_177	Witches and their sport	My great grandfather's wife was so sick in her thighs and hips and screamed so. They lived near Rude church and the minister went over there with his cattle on Sundays, he was called Buhmann by the way. Then my great grandfather said to him, “I don't know what I should do, father, I wonder if I should go to a cunning man, since some have advised me to do that, but I don't really know.”—“Well, little Rasmus,” says the minister, “just you go in God's name, since there are both good and evil folk about.” So then he went to the cunning man, I don't know where he lived, and my great grandfather was so unhappy. The cunning man said: “You can take it easy because since two o'clock this afternoon she's been at peace.” Then he thought that she was dead. But when he got back home and came in the door, she yelled out to him: “You don't have to walk so quietly, Rasmus, because since two o’clock this afternoon I've had peace, I've really gotten better.” Then the man realized that it was right what the cunning man had said but how it could be explained he could never figure out. The woman got better from that day on.
DS_VII_285	Witches and their sport	A man in Torslev, Poul Knagholt, kept himself occupied with curing things that were bewitched. He had a drag (a carcass that was dragged from one place to another) and he wanted to use it as bait to shoot foxes. As he was watching the drag, a fox came and started to gnaw on it. He shoots at the fox, but it runs away. He goes into the house to reload while the carcass lay there behind the barn. There was some brushwood (alder, oak and all sorts of trees and bushes) close to the farm. The fox had run down into that while the man was inside. When he comes out again, the fox is gnawing again. He shoots another time, but it was the same story, it didn’t get hurt. Then he’s going to load a third time and he goes in to his wife and says, “Now I’ve shot a second time in vain, but I won’t a third time.” Then he took a silver button and loaded his gun with that and shot. But while he was inside loading, there was a huge ruckus in the cow barn. When he came back out of the house, the fox was gnawing again. When he shoots, it screams and it is wounded. Then he jumps out of his hiding place and he gets so close to it he can see that it has turned into a hag with a red skirt over her, and her one thigh had been shot to pieces. The next morning her son comes and asks the man to give him a remedy for the woman, she’d broken her thigh and the cure was the marrow of the right leg of the drag. But the man answered, “If you want it, then you can take it yourself.” But they couldn’t take the marrow and she wound up staying in bed, and she lay there for an entire year before she died. I knew the son who went to get the remedy. When the man had shot the hag and gone back into the cow barn to see what had happened, he found that two of his calves lay there dead, their necks had been wrung, and she’d been in to do that after he’d shot the second time. That hag was from Skjern in Torslev parish.
DS_VII_292	Witches and their sport	The witches they churned on Saint Hans eve. One night a girl went and smeared Jens Ilder’s door with that butter because she wanted to bewitch his cattle. But he scraped it off in one place and then he loaded his rifle and shot into it and then he hit the girl and shot her back full of it. Then she had to come to him for a remedy. Well, if she promised to never do that to him or anybody else again, he’d cure her, otherwise she could just stay as she was. Then she had to promise that and then he cured her.
DS_VII_419	Witches and their sport	It was a common belief that when the witches were on their way to Troms church, that they could go in through the bell bays in each and every church they went past, and they’d sit and rest on the bells. Then there was one called Find, and another called Rind, and they were going to visit each other. They met at a church, which was named but I can’t remember it. Then one says to the other, “I came all the way from Troms church to here without eating.” The other one was supposed to have brought food for him, but he didn’t have it. They talked a bit more together but I don’t remember what it was.
DS_VII_437	Witches and their sport	Here in the northern towns there was an old woman, she smeared her oven rake and rode on it. She’d dressed up a bundle of straw to look like her and laid it beside her husband while she was gone. There was a beggar sleeping out in their scullery and he heard what she said to the oven rake and saw how she smeared it from a jar and how she put it back. When she said, “No places against, but with every place, and up out of the chimney to Troms church in Norway,” then she flew away. Then the beggar went over and took the jar and then he smeared his staff. But the beggar had so utterly misheard what she had said that he said, “Against all places and without every place and up out of the chimney to Hasseris in Jutland.” He was from there and it just came out of his mouth. Then he got up on the staff and then every place flew at him and he finally came out of the chimney totally beaten up and flew over to Hasseris, where it threw him into a dung pool. He could truly say that he’d come up to ride with his brother-in-law.
DS_VII_447	Witches and their sport	There was one from Jens Adals family, a witch rode on him to Troms church, it was the dean’s wife from Smorup (Ravnkilde parish). Then he talked to a witch master about this thing that had come and ridden on him one night, and he thought that he was a horse. He’d gone past both Aalborg and Sundby and was so far away that he didn’t know how far it was. Well, the cunning man would give him some good advice for this. “When it is Voldborg eve again--some places they ride on Saint Hans eve as well--she’ll probably come like the last time and will want to ride on you, but you must not fall asleep.”--“Sure, but my whole body is so sore.” -- “Well, that’s because you’re troll-ridden.” And then he gave him something that was supposed to help. Well sure enough, she came again on Voldborg eve and put a bridle on him. But he was wide awake. She rode on him then to Troms church and she tied him up there--or maybe she just let him go take care of himself. The witch master had told him what would happen. Then he was supposed to push the bridle off of himself in the meantime and when she came out again, he was supposed to put it on her. Then she’d turn into a horse and he was to get up and ride her. Well, the witch did exactly what the witch master said she would. She went in along with the others and there were many of them. He stands there and pushes the bridle off and, when she came out, he put it on her. Then he rode home to where he came from and, when it was day, he rode to Store-Arden and had her shod both front and back. When that was done, he took the bridle off of her and he saw that it was the dean’s wife, she stood there and had been shod on both her hands and feet and she stood shaking them. One time when he went to Brorstrup church to see her, he thanked her for their last meeting.
DS_VII_491a	Witches and their sport	A woman lived in a house called Støvhuset [Dust house] down here west of Vugdrup in Tårs parish, and they called her Støvkaren [Dust Karen]. Then she comes up to a house they called Stenbroen [Stone bridge] and wants some milk. The woman [of the house] says, “No, I can't today, because we have a calf and my husband won't eat veal unless it has been milk-fed. But in eight days we'll slaughter it and then you can come and get milk.” Then the woman went away, but she had barely left before the calf got sick and began to jump up and down, banging against the walls, and continued to jump until it had killed itself. It's no lie because my mother was there and grew up there. Then the man [of the house] gets mad and he goes off down to Støvhuset the next morning and took a large staff along with him. A little to the west of where the poorhouse is, he meets her and she came walking along with a pail in her hand. Before he got to her, she plants her staff in the ground and she turned herself into a crow and stood on top of the staff and cawed. The man got so scared that he ran home and told his wife that as soon as Støvkaren came, she should give her everything she wanted. Well, so then she comes soon after and the wife says to her: “Yeah, you better believe that we've suffered a big loss because of you.” She answered: “Well Chri ... I know nothing,” (she couldn't say Christ properly). Well the calf had become crazy and had killed itself. Well, she was totally innocent of that. The wife gave her some meat and bread and a bit of everything because they'd gotten scared of the haunting and she left with all of it. The wife at Vester-Vugdrup got sick and lay in bed for quite a while. She couldn’t eat any of their own food, but she could eat a little bit of food that came from other places. It lasted for about half a year, and she was so miserable and couldn’t do anything. Then they had a shepherd boy who took care of the sheep and he went down to Støvkaren one day and asked her if she didn’t have any advice for that, she was so strange and could only eat food from other places, and even that was only a little and his foster mother had given him some money to do that. So this boy had gone and met the hag and she says to him, “Well, since it's you, my little boy, who comes asking so nicely for his foster mother, I’ll help her. I baked today and here’s a new bread, it's still warm, take it home and give it to her. But tell her not to eat too much, because she won’t be able to handle it; she’ll start eating now.” She got the bread and almost ate the whole thing at once. That was at harvest time this happened, and the woman quickly got better and was herself again. Then in the fall, their sheep disappeared over there in Vester-Vugdrup, they were gone for five days, and people rode all over Tårs parish and looked for them at the church, but couldn’t find them. Then this little boy goes down to her again, and he asks if she knew where the sheep were. Sure, she could easily tell him that, “they’re out on a little island in the meadows south of Bastholm in Vrejlev. They’re close to the river and they’re completely surrounded by water, and they’ve stood there like that for five days. But now I’ll go out and call to them." Then she picked up a bell and went out and started ringing it. “Now you can go home and say that I’ve now called them and they’ll come.” The next morning the sheep had come home. The people in the farm believed that she was at fault because she’d gotten mad at them. She kept living at Støvhuset for many years and was a really disgusting woman, and people round about in the area were afraid of her.
DS_VII_505	Witches and their sport	If one went to an intersection at twelve o’clock three Thursday nights in a row and dug a peat stack there, one was supposed to find a toad and one was supposed to take it and keep it until the meat fell off of it. If one then took its bones and blew through them in through the church door keyhole at midnight, then someone would come and say, “What does my master command?” Then one was supposed to say what you thought you wanted and then you’d get it.
DS_VII_565	Witches and their sport	A fifteen or sixteen year old girl worked at Børglum monastery and, according to the other girls, she was cunning, because she could make their gloves and clogs dance. They told the manor lord—that was Chamberlain Hillerød—that if he didn't get rid of her they would leave. One day they were all going to leave. Then the chamberlain said to the coachman that he should harness up the wagon, they were going to go out driving, and he takes the girl along with him in the carriage. Then they drive to Børglum parsonage and he gets the minister to come along too. Then they drive to the town Vitrup which belongs to the manor. When they get there, there’s a beautiful red cotter's cow standing out on the field. Then the chamberlain says that she should go out and milk the cow until it died, could she do that? Sure, she could do that easily. She jumps down and milks so long until she milks pure blood and then the cow died immediately. Then they drive to Åsenterp. There she also does small magic with cows and calves and the dean and the chamberlain sit and watch. Finally on the way home they come to a windmill, which stood west of the farm, and now that it was still weather, they asked her if she could get the mill to turn. Then she got the mill started and then the dean says to her, “Now that’s enough!” and they drove home to the monastery. They were supposed to go into the church now and there the minister re-baptized her. After that she was like an infant, she completely lost her senses, and she couldn’t do a thing. The one who told me this had seen the girl himself many many times. He was called Tulli-Lars. The Tulli name he’d gotten from a family that lived up in Nørre Harridslev. The son from there was a grocer in Løkken and was called Tulli-Andreas.
DS_VII_611	Witches and their sport	A man lived in Ravheden, his wife was called Ane Marie. They had brought a tailor to the farm and it was old Ib the tailor, an old funny guy, he was pockmarked and we knew him. So he sat on the table and sewed and the farmwife was going to churn. So she sets the churn in beside the wood burning stove and she was going to do it there but goes out to the kitchen for a bit, just as she was going to start and comes back with a slip of paper, she has it in her hand, something was written on it. She puts this under the bottom of the churn and goes out into the kitchen again. Then the tailor jumps down from the table and grabs this here slip of paper. He wanted to read it but didn't have time to because the farmwife comes in at that moment. He stuffs the slip of paper down his pants and the farmwife begins to churn. After she'd churned for a quarter of an hour, the tailor yells out: “Stop, my dear woman, because now my pants are totally full of butter, they can't hold any more.” Well, then she helped him off with his pants and they were totally full, it was quite a sight. “Now I'll give you five rixdollars,” she says, “if you'll keep quiet about this.” Yes, he promises that, and then he gets the five rixdollars. After they'd gotten the pants clean, he saw what was written on the slip of paper and it said that she wanted a spoonful of cream from each man in the parish who had cows. But the only thing he forgot was to be quiet because the first place he came to sew he told what had happened with the old woman.
DS_VII_698	Witches and their sport	There’s a farm in Astrup called Torne. The old Kristen Torne, who was the grandfather of the current farmwife, he remembered that a woman traveled to Norway with wolves, and that witch occupied herself with freeing other witches who were to be burned. No witches have been burned here in this country since. He said to her, when they met, “Good day, mother! You’ve got yourself a good pack of trouble [plagues].” Yes, she had, but she hadn’t gotten them all, there were two left, but they were lame. Right then he sees a wolf go running up on a mound that’s been called Wolf Mound ever since, and it sat down on its ass to howl and, immediately after, another one came up to him. Then both of them had to follow the others and since then there haven’t been wolves here in the country, those were the last two.
DS_VII_738	Witches and their sport	Up in Bratbjærg in Han District, where I learned to make clogs, there was a neighbor woman whose mother was a witch. “I think that woman looks quite wise,” I said. “Yes,” said my master, “She can make it so that your hub bore can’t cut a thing.”
DS_VII_887	Witches and their sport	When Kristen Vilhjelm came to Støvring to live, his stepfather, Iver Andersen, was over there first to see what herbs grew in the garden. You see, a witch had lived in that house before and he wanted to see how many herbs there were to do harm with. He was cunning you see and was really famous down by Nibe as a witch master.
DSnr_I_124	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A man, who lived in a place called Mikkelsted or Mikkels farm, he wanted to drive to Dals mill one day, and so he drives through an area of sand dunes and ditches which were just north and east of the house called Sandkilde. Then he hears smithing inside a little mound or hill that the road went right past, it didn’t go the same way then as it does now. Then he calls out, “Smith me a jointer knife for my plow,” but keeps driving and doesn’t think anything about it. When he comes back from the mill, someone comes running out with a jointer knife and tells him that he should wait. He got so scared that he kept driving, but the other one threw the jointer knife up into his wagon. He drove home with it now and the dwarves didn’t get any payment for it. That knife could never be worn out; and there were three men, one after the other, who used it, but they never wore it out. Mikkels farm, where this happened, has been torn down now, and the fields have been placed under the control of Mølle farm and two other farms, but that was over in Lørslev township.
DSnr_I_240	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There were two mounds that lay a little distance from each other, one was called Boel and the other was called Bas. My father knew where they were, and he told about them. Then there was a girl who disappeared and many years passed. One day somebody met her, he knew her, and she came running really fast. Then he said, “Good day, Boel, you sure seem to be busy, stay and talk to me a bit.” – “I don’t have time,” she says, “I’m coming from Boel and have to go to Bas to prepare a birthing bed.”
DSnr_I_286	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A hundred years ago, a really big tomcat had come to Boller water mill and he bit all the other cats to death, and he ate everything he could get. A half a year went by, and then a man came there driving mill grain from Ronnebjærg in Vrejlev, and he says to the mill hand, “It was strange. Just as I came over Ronnebjærg bridge, a cat came running out of the mound there, which is right beside the road (it is just to the northern and western side) and says to me: Please say to Jafet when you get to Boller mill that Dafet is dead." Then the cat that was walking about in there says: “Then I'd better go,” and then it went west from Boller out to the mound. Then they didn't see the cat any more, and people were glad about that because that cat had been really horrible about eating and stealing. But you can probably figure out that those gentlemen in the mound had been fighting and therefore one of them had left the mound as long as the other one was alive.
DSnr_I_324	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a guy who was called Svend and he lived at a farm in Lørslev, it's gone now. One day he was up here near Ilbjærge plowing, and he had four animals before the plow. The boy drove two of the animals and the father was plowing. When they had plowed for a while, the boy says, "Hey, father, father." -- "What is it?" says the father. "Is there fire where there's smoke?" -- "Yes there is," says the father. "Well then," boy could he ever swear, "the gray nag has caught fire." They plow another two or three times across the field again. When they come past a little mound that was out on the field--it's called Byghøj, but it's been practically plowed under and it'll soon be gone--a hand reaches up from the mound with a broken peel board. The man had his plow axe and some nails and so he took it and repaired it. When it was done, he puts it down where he'd gotten it and it immediately disappeared. He goes home at noon and comes back in the afternoon. Immediately, a hand pops up out of the mound holding a white plate with a fresh warm piece of buttered bread, and he stopped and started eating it. But the boy wouldn't eat any. It was good for the man, but the boy became thin and died before the autumn.
DSnr_I_370	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A minister over in Horne complained all the time that they used too much food for the people on the farm; and he could never keep his hired hands if that continued. This was at least a hundred years ago. There were two or three large mounds on the parsonage’s field, and they believed that there were probably mound dwellers in them, but they didn’t know for sure. The minister had a lot of sheep that would graze and he had a shepherd who would guard them. The shepherd was lying up there on the mounds at lunch time one day, and then they ring to lunch down at the parsonage. Then they shout down inside the mound, since it turned out it was that mound that the mound dwellers were in, “Now they’re ringing down in the parsonage, now we need to get our hats out.” Then all these little hats come out of a little hole in the mound. The boy thought that these were some nice hats and so he shouts, “Let me have one too.” All the hats disappeared, all except one, and the boy got that one. Well, he put it on, and he gets up and goes home and was going to have his meal. He comes in and sits down at the table and keeps the hat on. Then he could see that all these little guys with hats on were sitting there in between all the people and ate just as fast as they could. None of the people could see them because they had their hats on. Well, he gets up again and nobody had seen him either. Then he comes home driving the sheep that evening, and the people say to him, “Why didn’t you come home and have your lunch today?” He was a real rough guy and he swore up and down he’d been there. Well they didn’t believe him because they hadn’t seen him. “Yes, there were also a lot more people at the table,” he said, “it was a group of little people up from the mound. You couldn’t see them because they had their hats on, and that's why you didn’t see me either.” Then the minister found out and the boy said to him: He could either see the hat or he could borrow it. So he wanted to borrow it. When the minister put the hat on, the people at the farm couldn’t see him either. Then the minister thought: there’s probably something about this hat. And so he shows up to lunch the next day. The ones from the mound had come as well and he saw how they ate much more than his people. Then he understood how the food was never enough, and since the minister was a wise man, he made it so that they couldn’t come and eat there any longer. Then the mound dwellers left the district because, since they didn’t get any food, they couldn’t stay there, and they didn’t notice them anymore.
DSnr_I_404	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a man over in Horne called Mikkel, he was used to always losing a lot of his animals. One day he started driving peat from a mound he had on his field back home to his dung heap. But the night after, when he’d already driven quite a few loads during the day, something comes to his window and shouts, “Miggel, Miggel.” Mikkel answers, “Yes, what is it?” The voice says he needed to thatch their house again, the one he’d taken the roof off of during the day, because they were freezing. No, Mikkel answers, he hadn’t done that, he hadn’t taken the roof off of anyone’s house. Yes, he’d taken peat from the hill. Well, Mikkel says, he wouldn’t bring the peat back, since he paid taxes and rent for the mound just as for his other property. Well, he’d better thatch their house again, otherwise it would go bad for him. The next morning Mikkel started driving some of it back to the mound again, and he leveled it and brought it back into shape. After that, every morning when Mikkel got up, there was a little hole in the window, just big enough for a four shilling piece to fit through, and every morning there was a four shilling piece in the window. That was to cover his expenses with the mound. About three or four days later, he was taking his afternoon nap, and someone comes to the window and shouts, “Miggel, Miggel, your foal is standing a bit to the north here, and has gotten tangled in its harness, and it is dying.” He jumped up in a hurry and saved the horse, and it got better even though it was really in bad shape. A little later he had yet another foal that had run into problems, it had fallen down into a ditch and was lying on its back and was just about dead. They came and told him that too, and it went on like this, and so after that time he never lost any horses, cows or anything, since he always was told when something was wrong.
DSnr_I_627	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There are two or three farms in Taars parish that they call Koldbroen, and a girl disappears from one of the farms. She was gone for five or six years and nobody knew what had happened to her. Now there was an old man on the farm, he was her father and also a pensioner, because the other daughter had gotten married and her husband had gotten the farm. So the old man was home alone one confirmation Sunday because his daughter and her husband were at church. Then the girl who’d disappeared comes in to him around eleven or twelve with a platter of warm meat and says, “Here’s some warm meat for you, dad.” – “Where are you now, my girl?” – “I live west of here in the mound,” she says. – “What do you do there?” – “I’m married and have three children.” – “Well, stay here now,” he says, “it's probably best that you stay here with us now that you’ve come back.” No, she wanted to go home to her children, and after that they never saw her again. The girl was called Ane and Anton Koldbroen comes from the family that lived in that farm. It was Anton’s grandmother who dug in the mound fifty years later, and the spade became completely bloody. Then she got scared and let it be. In the same mound there was a large hole in the middle and there were smaller holes around the edge, and they were big enough that you could put your fist down in them. The mound dwellers probably used the holes to go up.
DSnr_I_861	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There’s a mound on Borup field in Taars, where ten or twelve shepherds met one day and sat and talked, because the fields weren’t separated at that time, and so they drove their sheep together. Then there was a girl, she sat in the middle of a hole in the mound and had a gray scarf over her head. My mother was along and said later that it was the daughter of a cotter; she also said whose daughter it was. Then there’s shouting down in the mound, and the shepherds all heard it, because my mother talked about this often: “Hey, take the big skimming spoon and chase the silly gray girl from the smoke hole.” Then all of a sudden it was as if she’d been hit with skimmed fat from her head to her toe. Then they got out of there in a hurry and from that day on the shepherds never went up on that mound again.
DSnr_I_901	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There’s a mound east of Hjørring, just north of the eastern plantation, called Femhøj. There were mound trolls in it, and many times people saw at night that the mound stood on six or eight supports and that the trolls danced in there. Then one of these mound dwellers gets to talking with a man from Hjørring one night and says to him, “We’re moving tomorrow.” – “What?” says the man. “Yes, we can’t stay here because of the Hjørring ding-danger.” They went to Russia and that’s where all these little guys are still supposed to be. Those buggers were really bad about stealing, and then people started making the sign of the cross over everything, so they were forced to leave so they wouldn’t starve to death.
DSnr_II_B_130	Household spirits	My stepmother served at Anders Væver’s farm in Egaa for fourteen years. There was a nisse who lived in a hollow ash tree in the commons, and he went and fed both the horses and the cows. My stepmother was herself born on Christmas morning, and so she could see him. She often saw him in the alley when he had to go get water, and he said to her that she shouldn’t be afraid of him because he wouldn’t hurt her. Anders Væver said to some other men that he’d make a large bet with them that they couldn’t steal any apples from his garden. So they tried it. Some were supposed to go up into the apple tree and shake it, and the others would pick them up. But then a big animal came which looked like a fox and pushed them all to the side and all these roosters appeared and fluttered about the people who were up in the tree so they didn’t get any apples, and that was because of the nisse. This Anders Væver sat at the head of the table after he’d died and counted his money, and it sounded like sacks were being dragged about in the attic since he’d probably committed a crime by not measuring properly. Most of the animals died, and if the son hadn’t dragged the rest to Løgten and sold them there, then they all would have died. He had three children and one son, but they ended up so bad off all of them. The son was miserable with cancer that ate right through his entire throat. The children were quite rich at the start and had had enough money.
DSnr_II_B_203	Household spirits	They had a gaardbo (nisse) at Hvedsted, my mother’s grandmother remembered him. At that time they had wooden pitchforks, and when the farmhand went out and mucked the stalls in the morning, the gaardbo would sit up in the rafters with his feet hanging down. Then he gives the farmhand a box on the ears with one of his feet. Well the farmhand grabs the pitchfork and smacks the gaardbo’s foot with it. Then the gaardbo says, “I only got one, but you got three.” – “No,” says the farmhand, “Yeah, because there were three prongs on the pitchfork” says the gaardbo. In the evening, when they came home, they left a harrow out in the courtyard, and the next morning they found the farmhand lying naked on the harrow and he was half frozen to death. The gaardbo had flipped the harrow over so the teeth pointed up and the farmhand lay there on the sharp teeth, and he got quite sick after that trip. The gaardbo had thrown a sleep pin on him so that he couldn’t wake up until the farmer came and called him.
DSnr_II_B_212	Household spirits	There was a gaardbo in Stempegaard in Børglum parish—it was in one of the two farms that had that name, and he had a red cow he was supposed to take care of, and he procured food for it. Now there was a condition that he was to have sweet porridge with butter in it every evening and he got this for many years. But then one evening the farmwife wanted to play a little trick on him and so she put the butter on the bottom of the bowl and the porridge on top of it. Well, the gaardbo gets so angry that there wasn’t butter in the porridge and he goes out into the cow shed and kills the red cow. Then he goes back inside and is delighted with what he’s done. But when he’d eaten the porridge, he finds the butter at the bottom of the bowl and he now regrets what he’s done. Now he knew that over in Vollerup—that’s what those places north in Em parish are called—there was a red cow there exactly like the one that he’d killed. Then he puts the dead cow up on his shoulders and went over the heath that’s called Skrølløs heath between Stenbæk farm and Vollerup, it was filled with stones and other junk. He pulls the live cow out and carries the dead cow in and puts it in place of the other one, and then he went back again to Stempegaard with the live cow and put it in the barn. The next day he went and talked with himself, “Oh, yeah, Skrølløs heath was long, and the red cow heavy, oh my back, I carried it.” He went and complained, his back really hurt, and he went about whining.
DSnr_II_C_10	Traveling monsters	I heard Uen’s hunter one night. It was like a whole pack of dogs that howled. It lasted for a whole quarter of an hour that noise.
DSnr_II_C_91	Traveling monsters	In some mounds north of Sæby there was also a dragon and there were also some women along to dig her out.
DSnr_II_C_86	Traveling monsters	There was also a legend that there was supposed to be a dragon in Kloonhøj mound near Hjørring. They dug after a treasure and got hold of a gold ring on a chest. But when they spoke, the chest sank down into the mound again, but they kept the ring, and it was placed in St. Catherine’s church in Hjørring. The town is supposed to have gotten its name from this, since it was originally Højring.
DSnr_II_D_39	Water spirits	There were some people who came from Mols and the drove every Saturday morning to Randers with fish. They were supposed to go over Alling river. At times, the water could be well above the bridge, because the bridge was low, and there wasn’t any real run-off for the water. Every now and then people could hear a voice that said, “The time has come but not the man.” One morning a couple of folk from Æbeltoft came driving with fish, and it was really dark and murky, so they couldn’t see where they had to drive. Then the water took them. The man died quickly, but the woman screamed pitifully for quite a while, she continued for nearly an entire hour. Her skirts had probably kept her up. Those who lived in Fløvstrup could hear her, since she was carried by the current down there, but they couldn’t find her in time. When they found her body, they said that she’d been stopped by the root of an alder. My mother’s brother cried every time he told me that story.
DSnr_II_D_63	Water spirits	Captain Skjærul (Schiern) at Linderum farm was also called Captain Tæerløs because he had a corn on his toes. In his time there were two men from Taars who had villeinage at Linderum farm and they held the villeinage days twice a week. When they were to go home at night, they used to take a couple of the farm’s horses and ride part of the way home on them. But this night they weren’t accompanying each other, one of them wanted to walk home and the other wanted to ride. He also got hold of a horse, it was really easy to get, but the longer he rode, the higher up he sat, and finally he was way up in the sky. Finally he got wise to the fact that the horse had a pair of large horns and he got so frightened when he saw these horns that he let himself fall down and he fell into a thicket and other crap and he got knocked so hard that he was bedridden for an entire month. After that he didn’t like to ride.
DSnr_II_E_105	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	In the old days, there was an inn in the westernmost part of Ugilt parish at a place just east of Ilbro at the road into Ugilt. They had an old barrel of mead there which had a thingamajig in it, they called it a Basilisk, and it thrashed about in the barrel so that it could be heard an entire mile away. They were afraid that the barrel was going to break because, if that happened, then something really bad would happen. There was an old legend that said that when it smashed a barrel and saw people, they’d die immediately. They threw the barrel down the embankment west of the road out onto Spangerhede’s field. They could hear it knocking about in the barrel down there for quite a while, almost an entire year, but finally it got quiet and then that filth had died.
DSnr_II_E_65	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	When I lived in a house out in the Haarup woods—Krannestrup, my little boy Martinus lay one night and was really agitated. I though that he wanted to pee and reached out for him but my hand grabbed a snake instead. Then I jumped up and got the kids out of the bed and out into the kitchen, and then I killed the viper. It was so slippery, so slippery and I think it had been biting my son, because he’d been sick for three days, and he could otherwise eat a lot in those days. The man who owned the house came the next day and I showed him the snake. “Shit,” he said, “I’ve lain between both grass snakes and vipers, are you scared of that?” I was scared stiff and said that I wouldn’t continue to live in that house. That was the first Sunday after Saint Hans, but then in September I had my son Kristian. He lived to be only twenty weeks old and then he died of the shakes (cramps), and it was probably because of what came over me the night that I killed the viper.
DSnr_II_G_138	Religious legends	A boy and a girl had promised each other they’d love one another in life and in death. Then the boy dies and is buried. One evening the girl is out walking and then he comes riding up on a black horse but the saddle was very shiny. Then the boy says, Dead man rides erect The moon shines brightly Do not be afraid, little Maren! They accompany each other to the cemetery, he was riding there. Then she was to hold his horse for a little while. She felt that he was gone for quite a while and she wanted to go and look through the cemetery gate. Then she sees a huge black dog that was clawing at the ground as hard as it could; it was digging at the grave where the boy had been buried. The girl had thrown her apron over the saddle because she thought it looked so pretty. When she saw the dog tossing dirt into the air she gets so scared that she runs away down to the church house. There was a man who lived in that house and a corpse had just been brought there which was supposed to have been buried the day before but had come too late. When the girl comes inside to this man, she tells him what has happened to her. Then the man says, “Let’s turn this coffin around.” They turned the coffin that was standing there with the dead man in it around so that the head was pointing the other way. Soon thereafter there’s a knock on the door and the name of the man who is lying in the coffin is called, he’s supposed to open the door. But then the corpse answered that he was forbidden to do so, he’d been turned and so he couldn’t open the door. Now the girl stayed in the church house that night, but the next morning when the man went up to the cemetery to look for her apron he found it lying there, torn to pieces. She never saw the boy again. He wanted the girl along with him in the cemetery, to have her buried along with him.
DSnr_II_G_250	Religious legends	A man named Klavs owned Tornby-Bjærg and he had a farmhand who was called Jens. So one morning Klavs says to Jens that he should go out and break stones up on the mountain and so he did. Now after he’d broken a number of stones he gets to a big flat stone and when he picked it up he found a burial chamber underneath it. Then he noticed that there was an old man sitting down there sleeping with his arms around a chest. It was Holger Danske and he wakes up and says to the farmhand, “Give me your finger, I want to feel if there’s still power in the Danish blood.” Then the farmhand reaches a metal prybar out to him and Holger Danske crushes it to pieces. "Well, it isn’t too bad yet," Holger Danske says, "the Dane’s still have some bone," and then he said that the chest he was sitting on was filled with money and it was to be used to buy Denmark back when it fell into enemy hands.
DSnr_III_1380	Legends about treasure	There was a legend going around that there was an awful lot of money buried in Stovhøj mound, that’s the highest part of Ilbjærge. A group of people from Lørslev decided to go up there and dig, and they dug for several days. Finally they reach an enormous chest with a golden handle. There was an old woman along, and she yells when she sees it, “Hold on tight!” but then they didn’t get anything. Then the dragon said, Well, if she can’t stay in Stovhøj mound, then they’ll never pull me out of Sørup lake either The golden handle was brought over to Hjørring and was kept in the church, and now it's supposed to be walled up in the tower, that’s what they say. I heard that while I was in Hjørring.
DSnr_III_142	Heroes and their sport	There was a stone in Ugilt farm’s field, south of Ugilt church which was called Terkild’s stone. One year, the minister had a stone splitter splitting stones for him and then he came and said, “They’ve all been split except for Terkild’s stone.”—“Hm hm hm,” said the minister, “that stone is not to be split, let it be.”
DSnr_III_477	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Rude church was supposed to have been built on Bryggers-Knold, between where it is now and Alstrup. Two cattle were hitched to a stone, and where they lay the next morning, that’s where the church was to be built. The cattle lay there where the church now stands.
DSnr_III_478	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Todbjærg church was supposed to have stood on Krajbjærg field; but they couldn’t get anything to stay up, because it was torn down at night. Then they hitched two steers together and drove them off. They went to Todbjærg and lay down.
DSnr_III_564	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	There was a secret passage from Rosenholm underneath the church (the chapel there), and then it went underground all the way to Kalvø castle (Bregnet parish). The door to it was underneath the church in the southeast corner of the castle, and then it went in under the moat.
DSnr_IV_1113	Plague and illnesses	They say that when someone cuts himself with a knife and then throws the knife down so that it sticks in the ground, the blood stops.
DSnr_IV_290	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	There was a manor lord at Boller, he was really hard on his peasants, he made them ride the wooden horse and he used several other torture devices. Then he got sick and he died too. After him, a new owner arrived at Boller, but he couldn’t stay there because the other one went and haunted there, and he wouldn’t let him be in peace. They got a minister there to conjure him, and he got so far as to get him all the way to Boller water mill. It was at night, and they stood there and fought back and forth, because the manor lord was also somewhat learned [cunning]; neither one would give in. The miller noticed this and he stuck his head out of the roof and wanted to watch what was happening. Then the manor lord almost got power over the minister and the minister was about to be forced into the mill pond, but then the miller gets scared and pulls his head back in and creeps into the mill. Now the minister got the power and was lucky enough to knock the ghost down. The reason was that they were supposed to be the only two there while this was going on.
DSnr_IV_357	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	North and east of Sofiendal, up there where Old Farm now is, and nearby the lake that they called Pitte Lake, which is dried up now, there was a farm which was called Gravold, and you’re supposed to still be able to see its ruins. According to old talk, this farm was owned by this Ranild Jønson we’ve heard quite a bit about. On the southern side of Mos Lake there was another manor farm, and these two farms were decimated at the same time. They say that the two manor lords feuded with each other, and so they each decided to burn the other one's farm. It was to happen Christmas eve, since on that night, the farms would be guarded the least, because people sat about drinking and enjoying themselves and it was kind of strange that these two made the same decision to attack on the same night, and then they went off and met up, each coming from their own way around Mos Lake down here at Fuldbro mill. They didn’t recognize each other and continued on their way and were also lucky enough to set each other's farms on fire. Now when they each got home to their own place, their farms lay in ashes. Since that time, both Gravold and the other farm have been deserted.
DSnr_IV_440	Ministers	There was a minister who lived in Elling who was called Mr. Thomas. He was supposed to have been a remarkably capable minister, and also quite straight forward. He used to go about on the weekdays thatching with a cotter. One day they’d gone over to Raabjærg to thatch at a big farm close to Aalbæk, and then a stranger comes to the farm to visit. He knew the minister well but didn’t want people to know that right off. So he says, “Who are those two men you’ve got thatching?” “Well, one of them is called Thomas,” says the man, “but he’s given himself another name, he calls himself the Temmerbasse from Niib, and the other one is called Kræn Pedersen.”—“Hey, for christ sake,” says the stranger, “you’re no poor man’s minister, when it’s the Temmerbasse from Niib.” He said that to tease the minister, but the minister answered from up there on the house, “I sure am, because I’m just as good a minister for the rich as for the poor.” Well, then he could also get them to thatch his place. Sure, that could be arranged, and he got them to do it too. The minister had a coachman who was both wise and crazy. One day, when they were driving to Tolne church, which was at that time an annex, the coachman says to the minister, “There’s a girl going along the street, she’s my sweetheart, but I don’t really like her, because she’s both twisted and off kilter, what does Father think of her?” Yes, he thought she was nice enough. But the coachman didn’t think so and it ended up that he got another. Then it came time that he was going to get married to her, and then the minister says in the marriage vows, “Here the crow has found one like him, one that is neither twisted nor off kilter nor hooked on her ass.” The coachman got what was coming to him and after that they got a real set of marriage vows. Another time they were driving to Tolne, the minister said to the coachman, “I’d like it if you went out to the butcher who lives next to the church (he was called Daniel) and get a piece of meat for me while I say the mass.” He went, too, but the butcher said, that he could tell the minister that, when he’d paid for the last piece of meat he’d gotten, then he could get some more. Well, now the coachman comes into the church with this message and the minister was preaching from the Book of Daniel. Right then the minister says, “Well, what does Daniel say?” The coachman gets up in his seat and says, “Daniel said that when the minister had paid for what he’d received then he could get some more.” When they’re on their way home, the minister scolded him for saying that in church and having disturbed him during his sermon. But they worked it out.
DSnr_IV_452	Ministers	They had a minister in Rold who was called Karmark. He liked to go over to Skjellingbro and get drunk. One night he fell down on the road and remained lying there. Then the post came riding by and couldn’t get by him. He yelled at the figure, “If you’re a human then talk, but if you’re the devil get out of the way.” The minister didn’t answer because he was sleeping. The the mailman unhitched his rifle and would have shot him, but the rifle clicked three times, and then the minister woke up. Now the mailman believed that the Lord really wanted to spare his life. The same minister said, “When the Lord calls, and he says, Per! then I look around and think: Perhaps there’s another one here with the same name. But when he says: Peder Thommesen Karmark! then I have to go.”
DSnr_IV_469a	Ministers	There was a minister’s wife in Voldum, they called her Mr. Dorrit, she was a terrifying woman, and she hit her hired girls and starved them and was a terrible wife. She was first married to Mr. Niels, and then he died, and she married his successor, Master Laust. She had children with Niels Brun, and she and the children as well were so bad to Laust that he couldn’t stand them. One day, when he stood in the pulpit in Rude church, he said goodbye to his parishioners. He said that the Lord should take him now, because he couldn’t live here on earth because of his step-children and wife. And he died right after that and didn’t get up to the pulpit again. But he lay in his casket for fifteen years with red cheeks. Then his cheeks lost their color and people believed that he was supposed to have lived for those years, if he’d been allowed to live out his years. [When Dorrit was dead, she went again and was conjured down in the cellar. When the hired girls went down there, they were always afraid of touching or breaking the pole that had been driven into the ground above where Dorrit had been conjured down. They believed that she was there, and they were afraid that she would come up again.]
DSnr_IV_469b	Ministers	[There was a minister’s wife in Voldum, they called her Mr. Dorrit, she was a terrifying woman, and she hit her hired girls and starved them and was a terrible wife. She was first married to Mr. Niels, and then he died, and she married his successor, Master Laust. She had children with Niels Brun, and she and the children as well were so bad to Laust that he couldn’t stand them. One day, when he stood at the pulpit in Rude church, he said goodbye to his parishioners. He said that the Lord should take him now, because he couldn’t live here on earth because of his step-children and wife. And he died right after that and didn’t get up to the pulpit again. But he lay in his casket for fifteen years with red cheeks. Then his cheeks lost their color and people believed that he was supposed to have lived for those years, if he’d been allowed to live out his years.] When Dorrit was dead, she went again and was conjured down in the cellar. When the hired girls went down there, they were always afraid of touching or breaking the pole. They believed that she was there, and they were afraid that she would come up again.
DSnr_IV_574	Ministers	There was a minister in Mosbjærg, every night he went for a walk in the cemetery, and his wife questioned him about this. Well, there could be a soul that he could save from damnation, he says, and get it to confess. It was every night, whether it was raining, snowing or windy, it didn’t matter, and she was annoyed by this. Then she gets the coachman to put a white sheet over himself one night—my grandfather knew both the farmhand and the minister—and he runs ahead of the minister and goes out into the cemetery and runs in front of him from one grave to the next pretending to be a ghost. After the minister had gone and looked at this for a while, he says, “If you’re a person, then speak, but if you’re Satan, then get out of the way!” The farmhand doesn’t answer. The minister says this three times, and then he starts to read and is going to conjure him. Then the coachman shouts and says, “Father, Father, it's me.” – “God save me,” says the minister, “even if you were my own brother, I couldn’t save you.” When the coachman ha d sunk into the ground up to his ankles, the minister goes over to the parish clerk and he gets the keys and they go into the church and get the wine and bread and give it to the coachman, and then he conjured him all the way down. When the minister’s wife learned of this, she lost her mind.
DSnr_IV_657	Diverse people	Hede Mill lies over on Grumstrup Mark in Vedslet parish. It was owned in its time by a district bailiff, who was in charge of Hads district. The river is the boundary between the districts, and he had to build his house on the Hads district side of the river to remain in his jurisdiction, while the mill itself lay in Hjelmslev district. This same district bailiff knew so much about the law that people often sought him out to solve disputes, particularly poor people. At that time, the royal post was driven between Horsens and Aarhus, and it was supposed to go past Vedslet church. Then there was this man at a farm up on Baastrup Mark, which was called Bukballe, and he was going to go to Aarhus one day. So he goes down to the main road, but since the postal carrier comes by at the same time, he asks this postal carrier for a ride. But the postal carrier was a moody fellow, and the two must have had a bit of an argument, enough said, so he drives off, and the other one has to walk behind the wagon all the way to Aarhus. He walks quite quickly, and stays close to the wagon anyway, and so when the guy drives into the farm courtyard, and unhitches the horses, the man comes up, grabs one of the bridles out of his hand, and beats him silly with it in front of witnesses. It was a dangerous thing to do, to lay a hand on the Royal Post, and he was of course reported and had to go to court. The least punishment he could get off with was to spend three years at Bremerholm, and he might even have to spend the rest of his life there. Now they sought out all the wise people who knew about the law both in Aarhus and in Horsens, but nobody dared help him. Then there was a man who lived down here in the forest, who was called Jep, he went up to him and said, “Have you gone over to him at Hede Mill and asked his advice?” – “No, I haven’t, because I threatened him last year.” – “Well, I’ll try going over there and see what there is to do about this.” So he went over there. “Well, if it had been anybody else,” he says, “but I don’t think I want to help him, because he showed himself to be not so nice last year.” This man continues and finally he says, “Well, you can come down here tomorrow night, then I’ll let you know.” He left too. “Well, things aren’t too bad,” says the district bailiff, “you can tell the man that I’ll meet up for him next assembly day in Horsens, and he can bring a couple of men with him, if he wants.” So they meet too, and they go into a bar. The district bailiff had two men along himself. “You can eat and drink what you want, we’ll get it paid for.” Then he left, but a little later he came back with the postmaster and the town bailiff. Then he says to the man who’d been charged, “Here are the two men who have charged you, and you can go now, because you’re free.” “Whatever you’ve eaten,” he says to the others, “will be paid for by these two men.” Then that affair was done with. Jep went down to the district bailiff later and said, “How did you manage that? How could you save the man without having to go to court or to the assembly?” – “Well, I pointed out that they’d also broken the law. I had two men hide over by Vedslet church and watch when the post came, and all of a sudden, the day after you’d visited me, there was a royal sign on the wagon. That hadn’t been there before, and so they had to back off.” This happened during the time of Frederik the Sixth.
DSnr_IV_880	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There’s supposed to have been an inn in the house that’s a little east of Il-Bro on the southern side of the Ugilt road, and one who was called Skytte-Kræn lived there. He was supposed to be a bit given to witchcraft, and there’s a legend that he’d killed someone. People found the entire skeleton of a person and the heads of two others out in the yard.
DSnr_IV_963	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a manor lord at Kjølske who was called Ole Lånng, and he had swine out in the woods, because at that time there was a big woods at Kjølske. There were a lot of swine, and there was also a swineherd with them. But one day the swineherd and the swine disappeared, and the manor lord and his people looked in the woods and to the south, north, east and west, but they could find neither swineherd nor swine. It was like this for four months, and then the manor lord and his wife went for a walk in the woods, and then they heard music from somewhere out there. Then the manor lord says to his wife, “My swineherd isn’t dead yet, I can hear him playing.” Then the swineherd played like this, “Wolle Lånng, Wolle Lånng, your swineherd has been taken prisoner, all your swine have been slaughtered, except for the big spotted sow, and they’re taking her now, they’re taking her now.” When the manor lord came home to the farm he calls for his stable master and two or three farmhands jump up on horses and go out to ask all the inhabitants of Hallund parish for help, they were leaseholders at that time, and they were to meet at the farm the next morning at five, and then they were to go out and look in the woods. But they searched the woods three times before they found the robbers’ den. It was all the way down in the ground, and there was a huge birch bush over it and they could pull it back and forth and pull it over the entrance so that nobody could find it. The robbers were all gathered down there in the den and there was one person who was known from the area who was pretending to be a butcher. They’d driven about and sold all the pork from his swine except for this one spotted sow which had just been slaughtered. The swineherd hadn’t been hurt and he came to Kjølske again, but the robbers were all imprisoned and executed. The robbers’ den can still be seen to remind people about that, it's on a farmer’s field in Hallund, he’s called Lars Laden.
DSnr_IV_996	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a robber who lived in a mound southwest of Ugilt church. It's on the parsonage’s field and is still called Daniel’s mound, because the robber was called Daniel. He snatched people up and took their money and killed them, and he was supposed to have killed several hundred like that. This robber had gotten so strong because he’d eaten two children’s hearts, and if he’d eaten the third, then he would have been able to break iron and everything. But then they got a lot of people together and they overwhelmed him eventually and caught him, before he’d eaten the third heart. He’d actually put it in his mouth. Then they tried him very quickly and killed him immediately after.
DSnr_V_539b	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a Pastor Høeg who lived in Ugilt, he was the one who baptized me, and he had a daughter Kristine who was engaged to a farmhand who worked in the parsonage, he was called Kræn Raadsig. She got pregnant by him, but one evening there was a dance, it was at Christmastime, then she danced so much with my father that she had the child the next day, and the baby died. She and Kræn Raadsig were married a little after that and lived down in Bindslev parish. Then there was another farmhand who also worked in the parsonage, he was from Burskov in Ugilt, and Kræn Raadsig borrowed twenty-five daler from him. The parsonage madam was in on borrowing the money from him. Then this farmhand is drafted and has to go to Copenhagen but he doesn’t get the money before he leaves. Half a year later, he gets sick, winds up in the infirmary and dies. Well, the people at the parsonage inquire about his death in Copenhagen but they don’t do anything about paying the money back to his heirs. The madam especially should have taken care of this, and the farmhand’s family believed that the money had been paid and nobody could have believed otherwise. It is like this for a month but then a white ghost appears in the scullery of the parsonage, and the girls were terribly afraid of it. It continued to walk about out there every night for eight days, and the madam heard about it. Then one night she goes down there just at the moment it tended to come because she was going to show that she dared to go down there, she said. But then it took hold of her and squeezed her, and she got sick. Then the minister learned about this and he went down there the next evening and talked to it, and the next day they made good on the twenty-five daler. After that they didn’t see the ghost again and there was peace at the farm.
DSnr_V_889	Revenants in diverse places	There’s a farm in Ugilt called Dalsager. The man on the farm, the old Kræn Dalsager, he moved the main house three times to get rid of a ghost that haunted there. Every New Years eve a big black dog came and lay down in the scullery near the gutter. Those who saw him said that his eyes were like the clearest fire. They were supposed to have clean hay there every New Years eve for the dog and if the dog didn’t get it, then people couldn’t stay there at the farm. The dog would tip over the beds and throw them out of their beds and everything, and then he whined so he could be heard far away, there was quite a voice in that ghost. When it had shown itself several times, the man moved the house, that was the first time, but it was there again the next New Years eve. They lay down fresh hay in the scullery and then it was quiet. This ghost had such a reputation that none of the girls would go and put the hay down for it, and so Kræn moved the house a second time; now he was sure that it would work out. But it was still the same. The haunting continued and they had to put hay down there again. But then the man moved the house for the third time and a bit farther away and then they were free of that dog. Since then it's supposed to have been quiet at Dalsager. The last time that the farm was built up was in my time.
DSnr_VI_114	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Minister Fisker in Volstrup had been out conjuring one down, and he came away poorly from that. He had to agree with the devil that they should race over half a mile course. The minister had his coachman along and the wagon and everything, and he jumps up in the wagon, because they were going to drive on top while the devil was supposed to go underground. They were to go through an oak thicket and it wasn’t easy for the devil to tear his way through that. They could hear how the oak roots crackled in the ground, and if they’d been driving on a level field, then the minister would have lost. They drove from the cemetery to a place on the border of the parish between Volstrup and Hørby parish, that was half a mile, and when they got there, the minister was just a fathom ahead of the devil, and so he beat him. It was a matter of life and death, and the minister drove the two horses so hard that they never really were good for anything again but, if the devil had won, then the minister would have belonged to him.
DSnr_VI_130	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a man on Linderumgård [Linderum farm], he was the one there before Captain Skjærul, and he could never get an ox handler because there was a huge black ox that went about in the steer house, and they were scared of it. He had had four handlers that winter, and the fifth also wanted to leave. But he got him to stay there for eight days and see if there wasn’t a change. The handler bound the ox every single night, drove him into the ox stall, and tied him there but, in the morning, it was gone. Then he got quite upset and wanted to leave, he didn’t dare stay there any longer. Then the farmer says to him that he could come visit him that night, then he’d make him a harness that he could bind around the ox. The handler comes and he tosses him a cable that was made with four twisted wires and he was to put that around the neck of the ox and tie it in a special knot in it that he showed him, and then he was supposed to tie him up with that. The next morning the ox had turned into a large, black, slender calf, and it lay there in the harness. Then the handler goes to the barn and gets all the farmhands, they had to come and see this beautiful thing. They all come in to see it. Then he goes over and loosens the knot on the iron cable. Then the calf jumps up and runs out of the lower door. But at the same time, the calf farts and it can be heard all over the farm, and the smell wouldn’t go away for the next eight days. It never came back again, and then the farmer could get enough handlers.
DSnr_VI_191	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	The miller in Aastrup mill south and west of Hjørring gets sick and is lying at death’s door. He had eight hundred rixdollars in pure silver and he wanted them with him in the grave, and so he requested that they be placed in the coffin with him and this was done too. Now the minister comes down to the burial and he found out about this money. But now he won’t cast dirt on him unless they take the money out of the coffin. It's also taken out and he’s buried. But then that night, the miller had been buried during the day, a big black dog arrives down at Aastrup mill, and he made such a ruckus and tipped over the beds and threw the people out of them, and made so much noise that they couldn’t stay there. He wanted the money back. He kept up like that for eight days and it got worse and worse. They go to the minister and they have the money with them and want the grave opened so they could put the money down there so they could get some peace. But the minister said no, that couldn’t be done, but he said he’d come to Aastrup that evening. The revenant came at a certain stroke of the clock and the minister came too. They talked to each other, the minister and the revenant, but they couldn’t agree, and so the minister conjured him down near the embankment, and there’s a big flat stone that he was put underneath. Then they got peace at the mill. The road to Hjørring goes right over that embankment and the stone is easily recognized.
DSnr_VI_345	Cunning men and women and their activities	Eighty years ago a man lived on Knudsholmen in Ugilt, and they called him Iver Holmen. He was both a parish bailiff and a superintendent for a military district. Then one night one hundred and twenty feet of canvas disappeared and they looked far and wide for this canvas, but it couldn't be found. Then Iver goes to this here Bragholdt hag and wants her to show it again. He gets over there and also gets to talk to her and asks her advice. Then she says: “I'll tell you sure enough where your canvas is but you can come back tomorrow, it's pretty late now.” The man didn't like this, it was a long way from Holmen to Bragholdt, and he had to go over Åsted bridge north of the farm Egebjærg, it wasn't too nice to travel over it at night. But then he sees that the wall boards of the barn there at the farm are weak and a lot of them were down; so he decides to go into the barn and lie down. He lies down in some hay and packs himself in. Then during the night, two come into the barn, and one of them was the hag and then a little man. He can hear that she's good and drunk and she has a dishcloth in her hand which she smacks this little guy hard in the head with. He was supposed to tell her where the canvas was. But then he yells, “He hears! He hears!” She was so drunk that she didn't hear what the little man said and she continued to beat him so he had to tell her. It lay in a sink hole in the minister's field east of Holmen. So, as soon as they'd left the barn again, Iver Holm goes back home and finds his canvas and he was happy. But the next day, the repercussions came. A message arrived from her that he should come over, she wanted to talk to him. Then he had to pay what she wanted and he didn't get off easy before he was allowed to go home.
DSnr_VI_65	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	They had so many oxen at Baggesvogn. One winter, half of them died and then the countess thought that there was someone who had bewitched them. There was a hag on the estate they called Bragholdt's hag, she lived in Bragholdt and was a real witch and had Cyprianus. The countess borrows these books from her. Then an ox was slaughtered and many spells were cast. The countess had two women with her that night in the room where they cast spells with the ox. They call the devil in to them, he was to tell them who had cursed the oxen. But then they don't really know how they should speak to him and so it happened that the three women were torn apart into small stumps. In the morning they lay in there, both the countess and the two women, and their blood was spattered about on the walls. That was in 1808. My father remembered it as a child. One of the women had a son who worked at the farm as an ox handler. Just as it happened, three slashes appeared in the comforter over him, so it was just like it was going to tear it into three pieces. If the Bragholdt hag had also been there, then it would have gone well because she knew the spells really well.
JAH_I_212	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	As a satire about the previously used tool, there is the following story: The first thing I can remember is that they used leather ropes which were just like hemp rope is today, and when they had fallen to pieces, then they could be used with the corn thresher (plejl). They had stavseltræer or sejltræer [a wooden, lyre-shaped harness part] on the horses. It was the custom at the time, after they’d planted, that they’d drive to Nibe to get a load of herring. Then there was this guy who had a few large drams down there and it was the evening before he left town for home. Then when he came by Vogslev (Ugslev) church, there’s a big hill there south of the town which he had to go up, and there he got down and walked beside the wagon. Then it started to rain hard. Since he’d gotten a ways up the hill, he decided to get back up and drive, but the wagon had disappeared, and he couldn’t see anything on the horses other than the blankets and the bare harness part, since it was raining and it was dark. Now he had no idea what he should do, but so then he got up to ride on one of the horses, and then he rode home. So he gets home and takes the blankets and the harness parts off the horses and hangs them up on some large wooden racks on the north side of the barn that they had there to hang their tools on when they came back from the fields in the spring. He goes inside and tells his wife what’s happened, and that he’d have to go and get the wagon, but now it’d have to wait until the next day since the weather was so bad. But later in the day, the weather became dry and windy and, as the ropes dried up, the wagon came rolling in. The wagon had, in fact, remained on the road, and the ropes had simply stretched a great deal in the rain. When it was ten o’clock, his wagon and herring were back at the farm, it came into the farmyard to him. He used those leather ropes as long as he was alive, and he was called Ell-Lavst, probably named for his mother. His son was called Ell-Jens or Jens Nörgård, and he inherited them. A stump of the ropes was still left when Peder Tygesen became a man, and he had enough with which to tie his thresher.
JAH_I_263	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	The summer that the cow sickness was here, there was an incredible heat and stillness, so that everything died, and all of the grass withered, and the lake (Mos lake) was covered with a green layer, likely because the weather was so calm. As soon as the cattle ran loose and came down to the water, they’d die immediately and the only cattle that survived were the ones that could live off of the dew that fell.
JAH_I_37	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	They rode the nags into the woods at night. Jens Östergård from Ersted went out one morning to find his nag, but the boy hadn’t set them out where he’d asked them to, and he couldn’t find the nag. Now Jens Östergård got quite worked up, and Trude-Niels, who was out in the barn threshing, heard him say, “Satan should break your necks into a thousand pieces, you dog-headed bastards!”
JAH_I_383	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	There was an old one who was called Karen Indjarsdatter (Ingvarsdatter), she chased all the wolves away from the country. As far as I know she was from the town here. Somebody came toward her on the path down here near Torstedlund, and she came riding on the first one and had them all linked together. Then he says, “You’ve got quite a pack of trouble to ride on.” And she answered, “I should thank you a great deal for saying that, you saved my life with that because, if you’d called them by their true name, they would have torn me apart.” Then she rode on and showed them out into the ocean. But whether they drowned or went on to Sweden, I don’t know anything about that.
JAH_I_43	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	The town shepherd in Årestrup was named Båjj-Måtten, and he walked about in the morning yelling and making noise and blowing his horn, and those people who didn’t manage to get their head of cattle out early enough had to drive them out afterward. There was an old woman in Årestrup, and she had to drive her cattle out afterward, and that was a shame. When she’d gotten through the town, she found a piece of rope which was lying there, and she ran with that and hit her cattle with it, and encouraged them to hurry up. When she later had managed to get rid of the cattle, she was going to go home and churn butter. As soon as she starts churning, the band falls off of the churn, it had stood there and gotten too dry, it was a willow band that was around it. So now she takes this piece of rope and ties it around the churn instead of the band, and now she churns away. But she got so much cream, she poured it off, and the churn filled up again. She was completely surprised and tells her neighbor that she should come and see this sight with all this cream. It was a witch who had put the piece of rope down so that all the town’s cattle would walk over it, and then she’d come and take it and tie it around her churn. But now this woman had been late on it with her cattle that day and found the rope and then she had gotten the cream instead.
JAH_I_62	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	The Shepherd’s lament: The day is long, my clogs are heavy the sandwiches are small, and I have a long way to go often I get hit by a hazel staff I can never do enough early up and late to bed here the devil should serve as a hired boy 
JAH_I_84	Concerning earlier agricultural practices	In Rold their sphepherd's call was better than their minister's call [benefice].
JAH_II_102	From the time of villeinage	When their grain had ripened, they were supposed to send a message to the manor lord to come and get his tithe, and then the tithe taker would come and get it in the fields. But Kræn Hyldgård from Årestrup wouldn’t wait for this, he brought his grain whenever he wanted. Then he got a message from Lady Björn that he should go down to Buderupholm as she wanted to talk to him. “How is it, little Kræsten, that I don’t get any tithe from thee?” – She always used “thee” when speaking to the peasants. He shrugged his shoulders. “OK, well then I’ll send my wagon down to get it.” – “No, it’s a goddamn shame to send a horse and wagon after it,” answered Kræsten, “I’ll just put a rope around it and tie it to my back and carry it down here to the Mrs.” – “Don’t you have more grain than that, little Kræsten?” – No, then he swore, he didn’t. “Well, keep it then.” After that he never paid the tithe again. That was an easy way to get out of it, because what he said wasn’t in fact true.
JAH_II_141	From the time of villeinage	Kræn Hyldgård from Årestrup worked down at his brother’s, and they accused him of being half crazy, but he wasn’t so nuts that one. One time he had to go down to Torstedlund and he was going to be flogged since he’d insulted one of the servants down there. When he went in to see the district (birk) judge—it was Knud Tejl—he hawked a huge lungie onto the floor. “You were probably in town before this,” said Tejl. “Yep,” he says, “when I’ve had a dram like I had today, then goddammit I pay no attention to either high or low.” Then the district judge got angry and opened the door and kicked him out, he could go home now. My mother told me that, and she said that if he’d hit him, Kræn wouldn’t have held anything back and would have hit him back.
JAH_II_183	From the time of villeinage	There was a forest ranger in Espelund, which is usually called Skovhuset, who was called Jens Rebild. He’d seduced a girl, it might well have been his own wife who put him up to it, since she followed along to the church and opened the church door for her when she came and was supposed to confess. There were so many people in the church who wanted to hear how the minister would scold them. When they left the church, the wife took the girl by the arm and followed along with her down and out through the churchyard gate. Then she grabbed onto the back of her skirt and lifted it a bit in the air with these words: “Now you’ve seen her from the front, and you’ve also seen her from behind, now you can see her right in the ass.” Then the church-goers had gotten what they’d come for.
JAH_II_201	From the time of villeinage	The manor lord ordered every man on the manor farm to drive half a cord of wood to Hobro, and Skjel-Jens refused. He had, sure enough, two large, strong horses, but it was his old lady who probably made him do it, she was a bit crazy. Then the foreman came one day when they were baking and threw them out of their house, along with all their possessions, even the children’s clothing. They had eighteen living children. The wife wound up staying over with Skjel-Peder in Tveden, he was my grandfather, and there she sat with all the children in their hallway. They put the husband in jail; he was supposed to be there for two months, but he didn’t want to go home again, since he could imagine how bad things were, and so he stayed and died half a year later there in the jail. When they threw their possessions out, they also took a really nice grate for roasting herring, and the old lady said, “Yeah, you take that, Satan will roast your soul on it in hell.” She said to the foreman that she’d go to Copenhagen and talk to the king about this. He said he could accomplish more with his writing in two hours than she could accomplish in Copenhagen in two years. She really did travel to Copenhagen and also managed to talk to the king, but didn’t get anything out of it. He answered that he wasn't an absolute monarch. He in fact was, but he probably believed that he wasn’t the only one who made decisions. The same old lady said that she had eighteen children and that she could have had eighteen more, if she could have had made them. She had her children go up to the foreman’s office when he was there and shout, "Jörgen Petersen, Palteren, Pommergålten!” and then in addition they swore at him. This foreman lived in Hobro and was called Jörgen Peter Rommedahl, but he had an office in Rold and went there once in a while, but I don’t know for which manor farm he was the foreman. The man whom they chased away lived in Skjelhusene, the place that they call Mylenbjærg these days.
JAH_II_213	From the time of villeinage	Once the coachman from Klavsholm was driving the master and lady along Vissenbjærg way over on Funen, and there was a terrible snowstorm. Then they were supposed to drive through a gate where the gateposts were the jaw bones of a whale. But they couldn’t get through there, and the coachman had to put the privy councilor’s wife on his back and trudge off with her while the privy councilor stumbled along beside him as best he could. Then she says, “Bong wahrhaftig,” that was always the expression she used, “we’ll never make it to town.” ”Yes, we’ll make it to the town, your grace,” said the coachman, and the privy councilor went and huffed, ”Oh little mother, you’re sitting damn well (Let the devil come into me).” Then when they got to a house and wanted to look around, they thought that there weren’t any windows, they were actually on the other side. So they knocked on the door, and a little later the housewife came and opened the door and asked them in. ”Oh, Rasmus, we can’t possibly stay here tonight,” says the lord’s wife to the coachman. But when the housewife had set the table, she was so happy because it was nice and orderly and they also had nice, clean beds.
JAH_II_256	From the time of villeinage	Speitzer was really bad about beating his tenants. Then one day he’d beaten a big boy. He was the brother of Kræn Gatten. Kræn Hornum from Vester Hornum said that he saw it. The next day, when Kræn Gatten was at the farm doing his villeinage, and they’d harvested and they were raking, he stayed back a little bit, so that Speitzer would come over to him. It was down in a little depression. Then Speitzer comes over and says, “Listen, Kræsten, can you give me a light?” – “The devil should take you, what did you do to my brother yesterday?” He began to lash out at him with his staff and said, “Yeah, you can get some too, good buddy.” Then Kristen jumped on him but he couldn’t knock him over, since he was a fat, strong beast this here Speitzer. At that moment, Per Skytte [Rifleman Per] arrives. Then Kræn Gatten says, “If you’re a brave guy, then you’ll help me.” – “No, help me,” said Speitzer, “then I’ll give you my manor farm.” – “OK, I’ll help you,” says Per Skytte. Speitzer’s hat had come off, and he was bald, and Per smashed his rake down on his head, so that blood poured out of him, and then they knocked him out cold and stood on either side of him and kicked him on both sides and broke all his ribs. Now they thought that Speitzer was dead when he stopped moving and then they started to run off. But at the same time he lifted his head. “Haven’t you had enough yet?” they said, “you’ll get some more,” and so they took a stone and put his right hand on it and took another stone and smashed his hand with it. After that they each took a horse and rode off. Then scouts were sent out to find them. They also came close to them, they came to a place where one of them was. It was probably Per Skytte. Then the family where he was hiding put him into a closet. They had a little baby, who was on the floor, and when the scouts came in there to search, the little child goes and says, “Man in the cave, man in the cave,” but they didn’t really understand and the mother took the child and got it out of the way, so they didn’t find him. The fugitives went up to Holsten and got away that way. They say that Per Skytte later wound up living on Funen. But now it's Speitzer that we were supposed to hear about. The minister came to him, or maybe they send someone to get him, and he said, “I’ve told you before Speitzer. If you’ve got anything on your conscience, tell me, because you’ll probably not survive.” – “No, I’ll confess only to my God in Heaven, and not to you.” He got better but his right hand was never healthy again. He’d lost his right hand, they said, but he’d deserved Hell. Then he said goodbye to the farm and traveled off to some place else. The madam wanted so badly for him to die, but it didn’t happen. When he called for his wife, or for the young lady at the manor and they didn’t come, then he’d finally have to call for the cleaning woman whom he’d have sex with, and if nobody else would come, she would. Kirsten Hornum said that blood poured out of him and covered more than half a field when he was carried home. One time, all the servants had gone off to sleep, because they didn’t think he’d come. But then he was upon them before they knew it, and he didn’t say anything to them, he just began to lash them, and he continued to do so until they’d all gotten some. Then one of them said, “Usually the lightning comes before the thunder, but this time the thunder came before the lightning.”
JAH_II_271	From the time of villeinage	The old people said that there’s no worse tormentor of peasants than the son of a peasant. The district judge Knud Tejl from Torstedlund was also a terrible beast to the peasants, and he was himself from Tejlhus down there near Skjörping field. At that time, he was also the foreman over there in Torstedlund and he also had an office over in Årestrup. He had a brother who lived at home there in Skjörping, and he once had gone to visit him. They put out a chair for him, but when he stood up again, the lady of the house said to her daughter that she should take a brush and brush off the chair, because she thought that he looked so slovenly, and then when he left, she had her daughter run out with an eight shilling coin to give to him. He said no thanks, he wasn’t a beggar. Yeah, that was nice treatment to get in your own brother’s house. A farmer from Oplev, he was called Lars Jensen. He went down to Torstedlund to borrow a barrel of oats. But then the district judge beat him so badly that blood flowed down his arm. Then they threw him into a chicken coop and he lay in there for quite a while until they drove him to Aalborg and he was put into the army for eight years. His wife and children went to Årestrup to seek shelter, and then she went about begging. She had to do that. Her husband came home once in his uniform to visit his family, and they also went to church. He met the district judge there, but he wouldn’t greet him. When Knud Tejl was no longer to be the district judge, he went to Hjedsbæk, but he had some really long days there, because he took ill and lay in bed for quite a while. He finally hung himself with his bedsheets. His daughter, who came in and saw him hanging there, was really shaken up by that. I can tell another story from the time of that district judge. Two men were out walking near a little stone wall near a stream in the woods. Then one of them says, “What’s this lying here?” The other one says, “Well its probably some droppings from a cow." "No, it isn’t.” He pushed it aside a bit with his staff, and there was a child inside it. “What should we say about that girl who is lying sick (pregnant) up there in Skårup?” They could do nothing other than report this and then the girl was brought to the court in Årestrup. She was so sick when they drove off with her that she couldn’t take the wagon moving beneath her, and the coachman had quite a time getting out there in time. Then Tejl sentenced her to death and then he supposedly said, “We’ve now judged her head from her body, and if the king wants to put it back on, then he can.”
JAH_II_331	From the time of villeinage	Niels Mortensen from here in Ersted bought two farms from the war counselor at Nörlund for 1300 daler. When he was to go to Nibe to pay the money, a man in Torsted told a grocer in Nibe, “There walks a man with 1300 daler in his pocket.” – “Hah, I wouldn’t even consider entrusting him with a half pint.” He was dressed really poorly, in uncolored homespun.
JAH_II_358	From the time of villeinage	Those Ersted men lay out in the woods and stole, and they were vagabonds to boot. The man and the farmhand sat making clogs during the day, and the wife and the hired girl took care of the animals and the cattle. That was the custom when I was young, but now there isn’t a single farmer who makes a pair of clogs. Those langovrede clogs we call black clogs here and the basarer white clogs. The men wore long homespun jackets with neither cuffs nor collar, and they had large bags by their sides with metal buttons.
JAH_II_358	From the time of villeinage	From BJK 3.22: Those langovrede clogs we call black clogs here and the basarer white clogs.
JAH_II_413	From the time of villeinage	Kristen Sø could take the Hammel church bell and stand and ring it between his legs, yet it took six men to hoist it up using block and tackle when they were done building the tower. There came a contraption—it was a person—over from England, who was supposed to break horses, and he became a bit too brave, since he could knock any and everyone to the ground. While he was in Copenhagen, he offered five hundred daler to the person who could get him to the ground. So now the count and a couple of gentlemen get to talking about this, and the count says, “I have a man on my estate who can get him down.” So he sends for Kristen Sø. When he comes up to Frisenborg, the count says to him, “Listen, Kristen, you like to earn money by chance, so here’s a job, wouldn’t you like to try it? I’ll pay for your trip over there and your expenses, as long as it lasts.” – “Sure,” says Kristen, since he was cautious when he spoke, “but it depends on what the job is.” – “Well, now you’ll hear,” and so he tells him all about it. “Nahh,” says Kristen, “I don’t think I can do that, since I work too much and get too little food.” So we can hear that Kristen was a bit of a rogue. And the count became even more eager. “Oh, is it nothing more than that?” he says. “How many days do you think you need to live well for?” – “Well, I think I’d better have a fortnight.” – “OK, you come up here to the farm tomorrow,” and with that things were decided. Kristen now went and enjoyed himself during that fortnight and didn’t have to work. See, that wasn’t too bad. When he heads off, he says, “OK, I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll knock this fellow over.”—“OK, just do what you can, we can’t expect anymore than that,” says the count. And so they start fighting and the agreement was that they were supposed to knock each other to the ground three times. The English guy grabs a hold of him and he worked on Kristen so that it crunched. Finally he knocks him head over heels. Then he was going to start working on him again. Then Kristen says quite gently, “It isn’t worth working so hard since you’ve got to do this two more times.” He could understand enough Danish that he realized that Kristen was poking fun at him. This time he knocked him to his knees. But then Kristen got angry, because he hurt himself. Then they were going to go at it for the third time. But then people got to see how strong Kristen was. He grabbed the guy’s belt and drove him down toward the ground so that he never was much of a person after that. The lord was happy when he came home, and said, “That was really well done Kristen,” and he was also happy since he’d earned five hundred daler by chance. A man came from the west and wanted to find him. Kristen had no more land than was enough for a pair of oxen, and he went and plowed with them. He took hold of one of the plow horns and pointed the way with it. “Well, then I certainly don’t need to ask where I’d find the man.” 
JAH_III_456	Houses and life in them	There was a woman who was quite stingy towards her workers. She lived near a church and had the church key. She had the habit of going into the church every Saturday evening to say all her prayers for the whole week. Now she had gotten a new farmhand in November, and he wondered how he could teach her to give them better food. He had noticed her churchgoing and so he thought, “I'll trick her there.” One Saturday evening he’s in good enough time to get into the church before her and he sits down behind the altar. The old woman comes in and falls down onto the kneeler, spreads her hands out and says: “Oh, how well one lives.” “Yes, the devil feeds your body.” Now she gets a little hot around the ears, since she thought that it was someone from the other world. “Why do you say that, dear sir?” “Because you give your workers so little to eat.” “Oh, I'll improve myself.” “Well then I'll be merciful.” -- “But you see, I'm keeping all of that for my God.” -- “Well, otherwise the little one [Satan] will tear out both your eyes.” Then she hurried out of the church as fast as reins and bridle could hold. Since that time, she went to church along with other people, and her workers received fare like at the other farms.
JAH_IV_218	Social gatherings and parties	You probably know Kirsten, I was there when her daughter got married. It was a really nice wedding, and it was over in Randers. Kirsten gave her daughter a velvet blouse and a homespun shirt. When she put the velvet blouse over the homespun shirt, she was so pretty. When I got to Randers, there were some carriages driving by, so I didn’t know how I was going to get in to where they were holding the wedding. But then there was a servant who took my hand and, zip, I was inside. Then we drove up Store Gade (Big Street) and down Bitte Gade (Tiny Street), until the hats and the caps whirred past my eyes and I got as dizzy as a hen. Then we get into the church. Then when we got home again, we all sat down at the table and got something to eat. They poured, and I drank, and it went like that for quite a while. But then my daughter Sine came, “It isn’t good, the way you’re sitting there drinking mother." -- “Don’t worry, I’ll reach my goal,” I said.
JAH_IV_348	Social gatherings and parties	Wedding vows: Just as the hoopoe with its beautiful crown or the peacock with its gilded feathers and spotted legs, that is exactly how your hastily dolled up bride and groom appear to me today. Love burns in my heart for her, just like the cat when he sees a sausage, or the fox when he sees a sour cheese or a gray goose in his eyes, or in front of his eyes, you, the most beautiful among mankind’s daughters. But I am afraid that he will say, just as Moses says it in the fifth, backwards in the twenty-eighth, “You shall take wife, but others shall sleep with her.” Those are the words of the text. And so I ask you, you honorless and greatly scorned young man, Mikkel Husløs [Homeless], if you have asked counsel of your family, friends, the toll taker in Viborg or the police commander in Aalborg whether you should take the honorless and greatly scorned young woman, Sidsel Sluwp, who stands by your side? Then give each other your feet. – I ask you to keep your marriage so that it is not with you like the sow that walks on the street, when you scratch her underbelly, she lies down, or like the gray mare who stands on the hill, when she’s eaten her stomach full, she shits a trough full. But you should be wild and crazy, quick and snappy, bite and scratch about yourselves, then your sins will fall from you like cow shit tumbles off of high mountains. It was written in St. Paul’s tunic to the Romans, that toll, just as in your mother’s skirt in the third wrinkle from her bum. Amen!
JAH_IV_397	Social gatherings and parties	Kræn Tind from Skjørbæk went with the star. He sang, With this here star, that we now have here, could we alone remember that star, that the wise men from the east watched, when they went to find Jesus; and there where they saw that the star stood still was the house that Jesus was in But when King Herod heard this he became alarmed, and all those with him, and he called together all the learned men and asked each of them at which place Christ had been born They answered him, “In Judæa!” Then the wise ones left Herod again when he’d told them his wish, and the star which went steadily forward followed along until it stood still all over a house where with the light of the world our Savior lay in a manger.
JAH_IV_41	Social gatherings and parties	When they “rode summer” in a town, they decorated their hats with red bands and frills and they wore white shirts over their clothes. There was one whom they called “summer,” he was the absolutely finest, but the one whom they called “winter,” he was as poorly dressed as they could possibly make him. He was also called the ashfart. They either rode or walked about and then they begged for their banquet. They sang like this: Good day, good day, you brave Dane! May has come well We come to you here today We look forward to the sweet summer We have the summer with is here The winter is not so near to us We have the summer in our sack The winter is lying in Röddenbæk Yes, we’ve set us a maypole and we set that on Whitsun night And we did that with permission That it could grow in our farmer’s woods And we set it so high in the sky and everyone is looking forward to it in our town Our farmer is a good Dane He gives us money for brandy Our musician needs some money Because he’s wearing out his strings Our girls are like roses They give us a couple of shillings from their pockets Then when they’d gotten a drink, then they sang: Yes, now we give you as many thanks As there are stars in the heavens Now we’re leaving your farm we won’t come again this year But to those who wouldn’t give them anything, they’d sing in contrast: For those who have but won’t give Let the Devil beat them up and down And lie now down your lazy body and let fleas and lice eat you up Often they’d add: Your girls are like roses they sit in shit and can’t go anywhere In Rold, they’d sing the following verse after the ninth one: Ham hocks are such a terrible fare we’d much rather have an old cheese But if we can’t have the old cheese we’ll put the knife to the ham hocks They rode on Whitsun, and the party was held that afternoon.
JAH_IV_42	Social gatherings and parties	They made food for them out in the field at Bavnhöjen in Rold when they came back from riding the summer in the town. But once the mound folk who lived in the mound were offended by them. It was just like the mound was going to be tipped over on them, and the cooks’ pots got tipped over and they ran down off the mound, while their food and pots came tumbling down behind them. After that they didn’t make food out in the open in the field.
JAH_IV_48	Social gatherings and parties	Adam’s game has been played here at parties for as long as I can remember, and it's still played today. When they got tired of dancing around midnight, they’d start playing. It goes like this. All the girls stand in the middle of the floor and somebody links them together, they hold on to each others arms. The one who does that is Adam. Then they swing about on the floor while singing: Adam he had a wonderful party gathered all his daughters together and he gives each one of them a man who can carry away all their troubles. Get up, you junkers, and shake your head and take a girl out of our flock! Take neither the youngest, nor the oldest but the one who makes your heart happiest Then at the end they’d sing: Get up everyone and shake your head and take a girl out of our flock! Then the dance would become normal.
JAH_V_172	Life outdoors	There were some tough guys who lived here in the town. They’d fight and drink and tumble about, and the next day they’d make up by drinking a bottle of brændevin (distilled spirits). One could get brændevin in Årestrup at the weaver’s, and then they had enough gall to go to church. They’d sit there and drink on Sundays and get so drunk that they’d carry each other home. Old Jens Indersen (Ingvorsen), he was a big and strong guy, and his neighbor, Sören Östergård, who was lame and got drunk more easily, they lived over on the south side of the town, and then old Jens would put him up on his back and he’d set off with him, saying, “Now I’m riding, let the devil take me, your body over to Skjörping.” That’s how he’d answer when Sören asked him, “Where are we riding to?”
JAH_V_174	Life outdoors	Sören Östergård once went to the market in Nibe, and he’d bought some pots and plates and things like that. In addition, he’d gotten a load of herring, and then he came driving along with this stuff. But he’d gotten drunk, and the roads weren’t like they are now. And so he tips over. His wife was with him and his brother too. “What should we do now?” he says, “now the plates have broken.” – “Lets put the pieces of the plates in between the herring, and then we’ll tell our Ane that the herring crushed the plates.” – “Sure, we can do that,” says the brother, because he could tell that Sören had forgotten that his wife Ane was with them. They finally start driving again, but then he falls over backwards with his head in his wife’s lap, and then the brother has to take over the driving. “Hurry up so we can get home to my Ane, she always has wonderfully warm cabbage when I get home.” And there he was lying with his head in her lap.
JAH_V_212	Life outdoors	Big Lavst in Svejstrup had a sick pig. He went about down in the peat bogs and was incredibly dirty. Then he came to Peder Johansen. “I can only give you one piece of advice and, if that doesn’t help, I don’t know what else to do. You need to buy four shillings worth of green soap, and wash yourself with it and give the pig the water.” The pig died, but Lavst got washed clean. Now he was teased by everybody out on the moor since they hadn’t seen him that clean since he got married.
JAH_V_240	Life outdoors	My mother’s mother’s father was from Nysum Inn and had been off serving the king for eleven years. He was called Jens Smed. Then his mother dreamed that he was going to come home. She sat down one evening and began carding. Her husband said to her, “What, aren’t you going to bed?” – “No,” she says, “I’ll sit here until our Jens comes home.” He also came that same night, and they hadn’t heard from him in all those years, since they couldn’t write in those days. Yes, that innkeeper’s wife was a good dreamer. One time, some of her coins had disappeared, she needed some to give people change with when they bought a half pint at her place. Then she asks her husband if he’d taken her coins. He said that he hadn’t taken any. But that night she dreamed how it had happened. One day during the harvest she’d gone out to gather, an old man came in through the malt house, opened the kitchen door and went into the room. The innkeeper saw him, though, and followed behind him in stocking feet and wanted to see what he was doing. First he drank from one bottle, and then another, and then another. Finally he took some of the coins when he left, but he was caught by the innkeeper when he left. He shoved him around a bit, took the money from him and let him go. See, she’d dreamed that, and now the innkeeper had to admit it, he didn’t want to tell her about it before.
JAH_V_240	Life outdoors	My mother’s mother’s father was from Nysum Inn and had been off serving the king for eleven years. He was called Jens Smed. Then his mother dreamed that he was going to come home. She sat down one evening and began carding. Her husband said to her, “What, aren’t you going to bed?” – “No,” she says, “I’ll sit here until our Jens comes home.” He also came that same night, and they hadn’t heard from him in all those years, since they couldn’t write in those days. Yes, that innkeeper’s wife was a good dreamer. One time, some of her coins had disappeared, she needed some to give people change with when they bought a half pint at her place. Then she asks her husband if he’d taken her coins. He said that he hadn’t taken any. But that night she dreamed how it had happened. One day during the harvest she’d gone out to gather, an old man came in through the malt house, opened the kitchen door and went into the room. The innkeeper saw him, though, and followed behind him in stocking feet and wanted to see what he was doing. First he drank from one bottle, and then another, and then another. Finally he took some of the coins when he left, but he was caught by the innkeeper when he left. He shoved him around a bit, took the money from him and let him go. See, she’d dreamed that, and now the innkeeper had to admit it, he didn’t want to tell her about it before.
JAH_V_27	Life outdoors	At that time, they burned a lot of charcoal and sold that and the tree ash in Aalborg. Kræn Hyldgård once got 24 shillings for a bushel. When he came home, a neighbor said, ”How much did you get?” – “I didn’t get more than 24 shillings.” Yeah, that was far too little, he’d gotten two marks. “Well, then you must be quite happy, brother, that all that you had was ash.” That was a good answer, since he knew well that he was trying to feed him a lie.
JAH_V_357	Life outdoors	Once there was a couple of wanderers who lived up in Ry forest. They had their hang-out in the saw pits. It was Kyvling-Søren and one they called Jens Knop. They were in the habit of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. But they were hard. They chopped the breasts off of women and stabbed children to death with their knives. But then it got to be a bit too much, and the peasants got together and hunted them down at their own risk and cost. They shot Jens Knop but they couldn’t find Kyvling-Søren. They had chased him over Ry bridge, but then he jumped into the river and they hadn’t seen him since. They didn’t believe he’d drowned since he was a good swimmer, and so now they’d simply lost his track. So now they went along the riverside to make sure that he didn’t slip up into the woods again. As they lay there along the edge of the lake and talked about him, one of the millers comes over to them. Now as they’re lying there looking out over the lake, he says, ”That tuft of grass wasn’t there last night.” So one of the men grabs his rifle and shoots at the tuft of grass. And he hits him in the thick part of the arm, because he had his hand up and was holding this tuft of grass up over his head. They got hold of him and he was sent to the stockade over in Copenhagen. He was supposed to start off by getting twenty-seven lashes, him and one other guy. The other one was first, but he didn’t handle it well at all. Then Søren says, “If you give in after so little, then you’ve got to be kind of soft.” It was Søren’s turn next. His knees were bound to the stocks first and then his hands were bound to them. Now his back was stretched and he got whipped with nine separate whips that had been soaked in brine, and he got three lashes with each one. The last three whips the master could run his fingers down and the blood came pissing out of them. But they didn’t hear a word from him. Then he was in the stocks house for twenty-seven years, and he got out when he was an old man. He couldn’t do anything at that point, and he earned his keep by going around and singing and playing music for people. Among other things, he played a piece he called Kyvling-Søren’s piece, which is still played today occasionally. The last time that they caught him, they held him. But he’d been arrested a lot before and sat in jail. But they never could keep him an entire night and that was because he had a contraption, shaped like a dagger, and it could be used as a saw on its one side, and a file on the other. He had it in a holster and he hid it in his anus. With it he could saw the thickest iron bars like when we cut wood. But the last time they took it from him.
JAH_V_364	Life outdoors	Peder Hjort, Skjærslipper-Lassen and Bitte-Fanden plundered a man’s house over in Ersted. They came in through a window. The wife escaped out of her bed and slipped right through their legs. They got a hold of her kerchief and they bound her hands with it, but didn’t pay attention to whether they did so in the front or not. They grabbed her by the neck and banged her three times against the floor and then said, “Now she’s had enough.” The people there at the farm had baked the day before, and the loaves of bread were lying on the bench in front of the table, but they’d fallen when the robbers had climbed in through the window, and so there she lay among the loaves of bread and she got her hands free and crept about and got out in only her nightshirt. Then she ran over the ice in her bare feet to a man who lived a bit to the south. They beat up her husband who was in bed. They’d taken a fencepost and they beat him with it so both skin and hair hung off of it. There were no fewer than thirty-six stab wounds in his thigh. They wanted to tie his hands behind his back but couldn't in part because he was too strong and in part because his arms were too stiff, they couldn’t be bent. Then they discovered that the wife was gone, and so they got busy looking for money and wanted to get out of there. There were two wallets in the closet, one on each side, and they were both as thick as psalm books, and they weren’t locked. The robbers shook the money out of one of the wallets and flung it away and they took the other one with them. Then they ran off. One of them got dizzy along the way and they were going to cut his throat so he wouldn’t tell on them, but then another one got a hold of him and slapped him to his senses.
JAH_V_48	Life outdoors	The first workers who came to Konradsminde glassworks were Norwegians. Germans came later. The Norwegians were otherwise neat folk in appearance. They came once in a while in to Ersted to buy butter. Old Truukræn didn’t think much of their visits, but he was a bit crazy by the end. About Kold-Jens’s stepmother, he said: It’s strange that Kjæsten will have these Norwegians in her house, those shits, there was one of them who poked his head out and said to me, “I think your clothes are so ragged. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you have to have such ragged clothes.” But I chewed that guy out and said, “You’ve barely got a shirt that you can wear on your back.” Then he pulled his goddamn head back inside.
JAH_V_505	Life outdoors	There were two sisters who lived here in Oplev, one was rich and the other was poor. They lived in Jens Markussen’s and Anders Jensen’s farms, the two southern farms. The rich one was the oldest and the poor one was a such a pretty young woman. When the poor sister plowed, they had nobody to drive the plow other than a little girl, since at that time they used the old wheel plows with four in front. When they were going to harrow, the wife had to go herself with the nags, since they didn’t have a girl there except when they plowed. When they were utterly exhausted, she would have to go home and feed the cattle. This Jewish wandering merchant came one day to the poor sister when she’d come back from the fields and he showed her his wares and wanted to do business with her. She said that she wasn’t going to buy anything since she didn’t have any money. But he said that she should look around in the old chest with the iron bands that stood in there, she would probably find some money there. No, she knew that there wasn’t any. Well, he showed her one nice piece of clothing after another, as traveling merchants are wont to do. Yes, she really wanted them, but that didn’t really help matters. Then he gets her to try something on: here’s a piece of clothing that he’d give to her, if he could lie with her for a little while. These Jewish wandering merchants liked to do that too. She didn’t dare do that, because when her husband saw that she had the clothing, then he’d want to know where she’d gotten it from, since he knew that she didn’t have any money. Then he takes his wallet up with all these silver coins in it and tosses a shilling to her, she could have it and her husband wouldn’t need to know. When the woman saw that he had so many silver coins she looked at the sun and said, “No, it's noon now and my husband will come home. But I have another idea. Tonight he is going to the mill to get grain for the nags, then you should come and ask for shelter, and it will probably work out.” He liked this suggestion. She talks to her husband about this and tells him that it would be good to get a hold of the money. “Now you should stand out in the entry and greet him, and then you should get ready like you were going to the mill.” Well, then the wandering merchant came and wanted shelter there. No, their apartment wasn’t large enough to give people shelter there. Sure, they had enough room, he knew the place well. But they didn’t have anything to put on the bed, no he’d better go to the inn – there was an inn in Gravlev at that time. No, he couldn’t do that, because he had to head west the next morning. Well, then the husband finally let the wife take care of it. She was also hard to convince, but he was finally given permission. Then the husband puts on his long jacket, puts a sack under his arm and grabs a staff and asks his wife to feed the nags one more time, and then she was going to make some evening snacks for the wandering merchant. But it took a while and they weren’t done before the husband came home. The wandering merchant still had just gotten into bed, and now the husband grabs hold of the poor merchant. The wife wailed that he shouldn’t beat him like that. Well, he’d been standing outside and heard what he’d talked about to his wife and now he was going to kill them both. She runs at him to fight with him and the merchant grabs his clothes and runs out the door, which the man had opened. The husband ran after him and chases him down to the little woods in Gravlev. So he escaped with his life, but he’d lost his money and his box of wares too, and he didn’t dare go back to get it.
JAH_V_524	Life outdoors	There was a beggar king (beggar bailiff) in Nielstrup, and my father, who was in service at Stubdrup, wanted to play a trick on him once. “I’ll put on some old clothes,” he thought, “and pass myself off as a vagabond.” Now when the beggar bailiff came over the hill, he’d arranged it so that he could just make it into the farm where he served in Stubdrup, and then when the beggar bailiff got there, he says, “Was there a beggar just here?” – “Yes,” says the farmwife, “he ran off to Drostrup as fast as he could.” So then he ran over to the Drostrup farms and asked about him. “Yes,” they said, “he just went over to the other farm.” OK, so he went over there. “Yes,” said the farmwife, “he just left for Hallendrup.” Then the beggar bailiff ran off after him again, until he was wheezing. My father was still ahead of him, and so he ran back to Stubdrup and in to the other farm. The farmwife had made a wonderful soup for lunch. The vagabond says hello. The farmwife recognized my father immediately, and she says, “Oh sit down and have a spoonful of soup.” So he sat down and then the beggar bailiff arrived. “Oh, here you are you bastard. Let the devil chase you out of here.” – “No, sit down Rasmus,” says the farmwife, “and spoon up a spoonful of soup with him and figure this out.” The first spoonful that the beggar bailiff took, the other vagabond reached out and took the chunk from him, and he took it from his spoon like that several times. Then he thought, “Well, if I can’t have any soup, then I can take a piece of meat.” But my father took that too. Then the beggar bailiff got angry and grabbed my father by the scruff of the neck, he was going to throw him out. But when they got to the door, my father fell down in the foyer, and the beggar bailiff fell down on top of him. Then he began to shout that the beggar bailiff was going to kill him. “Oh God,” said the farmwife, “let him go Rasmus.” Finally he got up and then he ran over to the other farm and took his clothes off, and then he wasn’t a vagabond anymore. The beggar bailiff never found out who it was.
JAH_V_531	Life outdoors	There was one, they called her Sidsel Hæls [Heel], because she tied one of her legs up so that her heel was up by her ass, and then she made herself a pair of crutches and went around begging. But she couldn’t do this in the areas where they knew her, and she once went all the way over to Store-Restrup to beg. The foreman asked her where she was from, and after a while she admitted that she was from Årestrup. Then the foreman wrote to the district judge, Kalmar, and teased him a bit, that he allowed people like that go around begging. There weren’t any cripples like that on his manor. At first, they wouldn’t accept that she was one of theirs, but finally it became clear that this had to be Sidsel, and then she wound up being put on the wooden horse. She’d been incarcerated in Restrup for so long that she’d almost died and then to have this on top of it, that was a nice welcome for a woman like that. Immediately after that, Kalmar got sick and died. When they got to the church door with the body, Sidsel Hæls came and said both loud and clear, so that everyone could hear it, that she wished that he’d wake up in hell. 
JAH_V_535	Life outdoors	When a beggar had gone through a town and gotten alms, then the townsfolk were supposed to drive him to the nearest town, and the one who had the “poor board" had to do that. It was a seat plank on which had been counted a number of loads. Each town had their own plank, and when a man had driven he’d give the plank to his neighbor. If a beggar died on his wanderings, his burial had to be paid for by the town in which he died. There was an old tailor from Rold who died at our neighbor’s, he was the brother of the parish bailiff in Rold, that tailor. Hjorde-Jens, the guy whose house he’d died at, got his neighbor on the other side, Old Per, to help him carry the tailor out and they placed him up next to a stone wall, tied his bag on, and put a staff in his hand. The place was fairly high and so it was easy to see him. This happened early in the morning, before daylight, and when it became daylight, Hjorde-Jens came out and found him – at least it was supposed to appear that way – and he went to the alderman, they called him Truukræn, and told him about the Rold tailor, how it was. “Well,” he says, “that’s really bad.” He told his farmhand that he should harness the two gray horses to the dung wagon and drive off and get him. Then they drove him over to Rold and into the parish bailiff’s farm. “I’ve brought your brother,” said Truukræn, “he’s dead.” Well, the parish bailiff said, then they could take him back with them, and bury him. But then Truukræn jumped off the wagon and took hold of the one dung board and Byrri-Niels, who was with him, took hold of the other, and then they dumped the tailor out of the wagon with his bag, and his basket and his things, so that he fell down onto the ground, and then they jumped back up into the wagon and rode off. When they got to Try lake, they could hear that the drum was being beaten in Rold, so that the men could gather and talk about what they should do with the tailor. This here tailor went around sewing for people, but in the end he went around begging. He was shy with women. One place, he was sitting on the table sewing and the children were standing on the floor rocking a baby, while their mother was just out milking, and they tipped over her cradle and it landed on top of the baby. But the tailor wasn’t man enough to go over and help the little baby up, because it was a girl. When the mother came back in she said, “Couldn’t you have done the baby a favor and picked the cradle up, it could have lain there and suffocated?” But he answered, “Nah, I won’t mess with that shit, no sirree. If it had been a boy, then it would have been a totally different story.” Kold-Jen’s old mother wanted him to sew a dress for her, and then he was supposed to measure her. But he answered, “Get out of here, I can make it fit her.” He didn’t want to touch her. The same tailor could get all the town’s dogs to follow along behind him in a line. He talked well with them and patted them while he said, “Are you coming over here, my friend, you are my only friend in the world. Do you remember the time I helped you out when you’d stolen all those wonderful herrings, I knew it, but I didn’t say anything.”
JAH_V_539	Life outdoors	A vagabond came to my great grandfather’s mother’s house in Nielstrup and he asked for something. So she wanted to give him a piece of bread. But he answered, saying “Bread! If I took all the bread that I was offered, I could build a bridge between Nielstrup and Voldum.” – “Well, then you don’t need to beg, my lamb,” she says and then he got a taste of the mangle roller and then he went away.
JAH_V_540	Life outdoors	A vagabond came to a farm in Årestrup where Jens Smed lived and he wanted to beg. Jens Smed takes a cake and cuts a piece and gives it to him. But the vagabond threw it down onto the table and said he couldn’t eat bread without anything on it. – “You scoundrel, can’t you eat bread by itself? I’ve been places where we had to eat raw horse meat and be happy that we could get that.” He’d been a soldier for eleven years you see. He gave the vagabond a few smacks with a wheel spoke, and then he could go off with that.
JAH_V_541	Life outdoors	At another place in Ersted a vagabond came and begged. Then the farmwife gave him a couple of eggs and he put them in his bag with these words, “Wow, my bag really got fat because of those two eggs.” The husband was making clogs and when the beggar turned around and was about to go, he took the hunk of clog that he was chopping and smacked him on the back of the neck with it so that he flew flat on his face out the door.
JAH_V_543a	Life outdoors	A poor woman, who they called Svine-Karen, often came to beg at Nielstrup. One time she came to my great-grandparents’ parents and she was going about with a little child. The farmwife also had a child, and since she wanted to go to Randers, Karen says, “I can stay here and nurse your child in the meantime.” She stayed there that day and took care of the child. But later, when my great grandfather got bigger, the other boys would tease him and they said, “You’ve seen Svine-Karen’s watterpatter.” He’d get so angry about that. [Another time she came to Søndergård, where my great grandparents’ parents lived and asked to stay the night there, and she was given permission to do so. Then she said to the farmwife, “Can I cook some porridge and bake some pancakes that I can take with me tomorrow because I can’t chew bread?” She was given permission to do that as well. When she was done, she went out to a feed box, where she was going to lie that night, and she got a comforter and some sheets she was going to have over her. The farmer was out feeding the animals when she’d settled in, and then he heard how she prayed to Our Lord: “Oh sweet little Jesus, you should come and take me now, the world has abandoned me and humanity has abandoned me and now you can come and take me in the name of Jesus.” Then the man came in and said to his wife: “Now Svine-Karen will never be homeless again, because you should have heard how she just prayed to Our Lord tonight.” The wife agreed, but when they got up the next morning, Svine-Karen was lying there dead.]
JAH_V_543b	Life outdoors	[A poor woman, who they called Svine-Karen, often came to beg at Nielstrup. One time she came to my great-grandparents’ parents and she was going about with a little child. The farmwife also had a child, and since she wanted to go to Randers, Karen says, “I can stay here and nurse your child in the meantime.” She stayed there that day and took care of the child. But later, when my great grandfather got bigger, the other boys would tease him and they said, “You’ve seen Svine-Karen’s watterpatter.” He’d get so angry about that.] Another time she came to Søndergård, where my great grandparents’ parents lived, and asked to stay the night there, and she was given permission to do so. Then she said to the farmwife, “Can I cook some porridge and bake some pancakes that I can take with me tomorrow because I can’t chew bread?” She was given permission to do that as well. When she was done, she went out to a feed box, where she was going to lie that night, and she got a comforter and some sheets she was going to have over her. The farmer was out feeding the animals when she’d settled in, and then he heard how she prayed to Our Lord: “Oh sweet little Jesus, you should come and take me now, the world has abandoned me and humanity has abandoned me and now you can come and take me in the name of Jesus.” Then the man came in and said to his wife: “Now Svine-Karen will never be homeless again, because you should have heard how she just prayed to Our Lord tonight.” The wife agreed, but when they got up the next morning, Svine-Karen was lying there dead.
JAH_V_558	Life outdoors	Out to the west by a mill there was a gypsy who had fallen in love with the miller’s daughter, and she ran off to the country with him. She could have inherited the mill if she’d left him alone, but now her parents disinherited her. Then the two stopped getting along and often quarreled. One day he came to my father’s place near Rude church, and then he says to my mother, “Have you seen Gertrude, mother?” – “No, I haven’t.” – “She’s gone her way, she’s taken all our possessions, she’s taken the backpack, she’s taken the side bag, and she’s even taken the handbag, mother!” and then he cried. Several days later he came by with Gertrude, as happy as can be, now that they’d made up. My great grandmother cried for that poor woman when she came by there.
JAH_V_572	Life outdoors	A girl said that at her father's place--he lived in Rejstrup--a couple came in one night and asked for lodgings. The people at the farm brought some hay in and then they made a place for the couple on the floor in the living room. But when they woke up in the morning there were seventeen people there instead of just the two. There was one of them who always said, “God, let me be devoured by cancer.” My mother said that the last time she saw her, she was walking around with her finger in her larynx, that’s how much the cancer had eaten her, and when she’d drink, it would pour out of there.
JAH_V_574	Life outdoors	Two gypsy women came to Røved and asked for shelter for the night. But one of them got sick there and had a child and the people had to fetch both women and the midwife from the town. She stayed there a month after she’d had the baby, and then two men came with so much food and drink and other things, so they held a big feast for the townsfolk, all those that had helped them and cared for the woman in her birth bed. It was supposed to be a sort of childbirth banquet and the child was brought to the church at the same time. The feast was quite lively because there was both gambling and dancing. The townsfolk thought that it was strange that these gypsies could be so well off that they could hold such a large banquet for them. Afterward the men left with their wives and children.
JAH_V_579	Life outdoors	Wanderers always stayed at the farm where my mother was born, which was a like an informal inn, and they always bought themselves a half pint there. Once they were cooking apple soup, and they were doing this out in the barn, where they’d lit fire to some hay without worrying about how dangerous this was. But it never burned for that kind of people anyway. One of them was making the soup and the other one had been away to buy himself a half pint. Then the first one says, “Hey, give me a taste of your half pint, then I’ll give you some of my apple soup.” And he got permission, but then he drank the entire cup, and the other one started shouting at him about this. Then he says, “Shh! Be quiet. You can have all of my apple soup.” Then they came to blows with each other and beat each other bloody. My mother saw that fight.
JAH_V_612	Life outdoors	The same knacker from Hvalløs once helped out slaughtering a horse at Klasholm, and it was slaughtered in the dog yard. They had an enormous dog yard there and a huge number of dogs. So now they were going to get the horse’s body. Now when the knacker had stabbed the horse, it ran at him and was going to hurt him. He screamed and got in behind a tree, but the horse continued to run and kick at him until it died. The coachman was standing up in the barn loft and saw this, but he didn’t dare go down and help him even though he liked him quite a bit because, if he’d done that, he would have lost his job. The knacker, as I remember, was dishonest. The coachman said later that it looked horrible, because there was blood everywhere, and the horse jumped like a madman after the guy and if the horse had gotten behind that tree, then it would have been all over for him.
JAH_V_613	Life outdoors	A knacker and a gelder lived in Hvalløs. The knacker and his wife didn’t have any children, but the gelder had two, a daughter and a son. There was a farmhand in service at his paternal aunt’s, who owned a farm here in the town, and he liked to visit the gelder's place since there were always things going on there. But the knacker and the gelder didn’t get along, because the gelders wanted to be considered honest people, and the knacker always called them dishonest; he was allowed to go to the altar, but he had to drink from the bottom of the chalice, and when he was out working with other people, he had to sit at the end of the table and eat. One evening, the farmhand was over there, and the knacker's and the gelder’s people had both been in Randers the day before, and the gelder sat and told that they’d been in a fight with the knacker, and he was lying in Hvolbæk and he'd been hit like this and like that, and couldn’t even walk. The gelders sat and amused themselves with this. But just as they were sitting there like this, the knacker threw open the door and yelled, “Get out of here you devils!” And then they jumped up and each one grabbed a long knife, and there was a huge murderous fight out there. The lights were extinguished and the farmhand didn’t know what to do, so he grabbed the table and held it over him, and sat in a corner with it until the row had ended. Then he got up, put the table down and sat down at it, and the lights were lit again, and there he sat at the table like before. He didn’t want to let on that he’d crawled off to hide. But then he quickly said goodnight and got out of there as soon as he could. His paternal aunt never liked that he went over there, and he didn’t go there after that, he’d had enough.
JAH_V_624	Life outdoors	There was a tailor over in Voldum once, and he was at a farm in Alstrup sewing. Then some gypsies came, one was named Engel (Angel), and he was supposed to be the husband, and the other one was named Ingeborg. Then they say hello, and they asked for alms. While the wife was off getting it, the tailor says to them, “Where do you two come from?” – “What’s that?” they say. “I said, where do you go to church, where are you from?” – “What are you saying?” they say and add, “Let the red cock crow over you one day, little sheep (fåesen)! I wish you were in the millpond up to your head! I wish you sat howling on a rack, little sheep! I wish you were up on Blåksbjøre gagged and crushed!” At the same time, the farmwife comes in and she says, “What is that supposed to mean? On my blessed oath I want you out of here!” and she goes over and grabs a mangle roller, which was on a chest in the room, and she begins to beat them with it. Then they started telling her off again, but they left, and they lay down by the garden embankment and smoked tobacco, puffing away. When the farmwife sees this, she takes the mangle roller and goes in and brushes them with it again, because women in those days always used their mangle rollers, and then she drives them further away. When the farmwife comes inside, the tailor is curled up there shaking because he thought he was going to die.
JAH_V_66	Life outdoors	When these horse dealers came to Nysum Inn, somebody would go by horse to get Jens Smed from Årestrup, and then they wound up playing cards, since he was a really good card player, and then he could sit and win nearly all the money he needed to pay his taxes.
JAH_V_697	Life outdoors	Kristoffer Jennöww had a friend who was called Pjalt Johan, and he lived somewhere between Nielstrup and Hallendrup. His wife was called Kat-Ma-Elgårds. He went about and collected brass and copper and cats and cat skins. They killed the cats themselves. There was a man who lived next to him, and Pjalt Johan came and borrowed a mark from him every Monday morning, before he went out and traded, and he brought it back again every Sunday morning. He believed that that mark was lucky. It was my father he borrowed the mark from, so I know that it's true.
JAH_V_724	Life outdoors	Deaf Lars and a woman whom he had stayed one night in Mørke. He apparently wasn’t married to her, because he was separated from his real wife. He was a glazier and drove around here with that woman and then the children he’d had both with her and the other one. After they’d spent the night there, and the farmwife was out milking, the woman yells out to Lars, he was so deaf: “It’s not quite right here Lars, a hare ran through here last night.” “So what?” he said. “These poor people, they’re unlucky.” It was out in the barn that this conversation took place and the woman who is milking hears this, because they were talking loudly, and she runs in to her husband and says: “These people out here said so and so to each other, shouldn’t we find out what is going on?” Sure. Well, the farmwife goes out to them: “What is it you’ve been talking about? Are we unlucky?” Then Sidsel says yes. “What should we do?” Well, she’d tell them what to do. They should dig a hole by their bed, but they couldn’t tell anybody about it and they were to give her twenty rixdollars. Then they went around in town and borrowed the money and the woman started to dig near the bed. She made it seem as if she found a moleskin that was filled with stones there and that was to be burned, which they also did. But otherwise the people didn’t find out what kind of monster it was that was plaguing them. Sidsel said that she’d buried the money, but that wasn’t true; they’d taken the money and the people on the farm had to feed Sidsel and Lars and the kids for many days. Finally the townsmen noticed what was going on, and they made a big deal out of chasing Deaf Lars and his gang away. Sidsel Rollands was put in jail because she was the one responsible for the whole thing.
JAH_V_75	Life outdoors	In the past, there weren’t any small shops where you could by provisions as there are today. When it got to be spring, for a lot of smallholders, they didn’t have much food left. Then they’d walk over to those who did have some left, and they’d complain to them for quite a while. “It's never been as bad as it is this year,” they’d say, “with getting provisions, we don’t have even the worst food in our house.”
JAH_VI_176	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There was a guy named Axel, my great grandfather remembered him, he always walked about naked except for his chest and back, where he wore a sheepskin. In the summer he spent a lot of time lying about in people’s scrap heaps sleeping. One afternoon, while he’s lying there sleeping, a little pussy cat comes and bites onto his big toe. Now he was a really big guy, almost like a giant. So now when he wakes up, the pussy cat really bites down hard and he said, “Garrehu! Garrehu!” That was the only thing he said, and then he crushed the pussy cat with one blow. You’d think he couldn’t really speak properly.
JAH_VI_183	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	It was while Pastor Buhmann was minister in Voldum and Rude, he would always go into my grandfather’s house near Rude church and change his clothes. One day a man and a woman came in. Then the wife there at the house asks the woman visitor, “Where are you going today?” – “We want to bring our little boy to church.” – “Who is going to carry him?” – “I’ll do that, little Dårrit.” – “Well who is going to take his hat off?” – “Well, you’ll do that little Dårrit. I’m also going to be churched today.” – “Well, who is going to follow you to church, Jaahan?” – “Well, you’ll do that too little Dårrit.” “Well, I don’t know about that, if we can do all of that, Jaahan. Who is going to be the baptismal witness?” “Well Kræsten’s gone up to the church to get a hold of someone.” Then the housewife goes up to the minister, he was putting on his vestments and was going to go up to the church, they used to call the ministers “Father” in those days, and she says to him: “What does Father say to that? Jaahan has come and wants to bring her boy to church, and she wants to carry him herself and she wants me to take the cap off, and she also wants to be churched and have me stand beside her. Do you think we can do that, Father?” – “Yes, we can certainly do that Dårrit,” says the minister. So when they get up there and they’re standing by the baptismal font, she almost forgot what the child was named. When they left the church, she says, “Wow, you could easily have forgotten what the child was to be named, Jaahan.” Then Jaahan cleared her throat and spit and said, “It got caught in my throat little Dårrit.” Then she said to the boy, “Now little Kristjan, now you can say, di fåe hå wått di faje, di måwe di bæærmåwe.” “your father has been your baptismal witness and your mother your carrying mother (godmother).”
JAH_VI_225	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There were two brothers in Hadbjærg. One of them was to go out and hitch up the cows and then water them at a water hole. But they got mad and started to run off. Then he ran home to his brother and said, “You need to come out and help me with the cows, because I’ve hung the bad one onto the worst one, and now they're still lying in the shit and they’ve run off.” You could hear that that guy was a bit foolish.
JAH_VI_248	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There was supposed to be someone conjured down in Sørvad. Late one night, my mother was walking from Torstedlund and had to go by that place, and then she all of a sudden sees a strange glittering in front of her, and it continued for quite a while, until she finally got up to it. She went and thought, “Now he’s coming (the revenant),” but it wasn’t anything but the parish clerk from Årestrup, Niels Krafsen, who was walking along making sparks with his flint lighter the whole time. “You almost scared me to death,” he said, “I thought you were a revenant, and that’s why I kept making sparks. Now you can wait a bit and we can accompany each other.” No, she didn’t want to wait there, and so she went her way. It was strange that someone like the parish clerk was just as afraid of the revenant as my mother.
JAH_VI_527	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	A man over in Hajjbjøre wasn’t always crazy. One time he was in Rijjs and he was going to go to a milliner’s. He was wearing a large pair of clogs. He opens the door and sets his foot with this clog on it in. Then the milliner says, “Oh my, I’ve never anything like this.” Then he sets his other foot in also still with the clog on. “Well, here you’ve got something just like it.”
JAH_VI_639	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	The oldest parish clerk that I know of in Svejstrup was Niels Ring. He was first a servant for the manor lord at Venge farm and he appointed him to the position. He was so harsh that once when he punished a young girl, he lifted up her clothes and but her bare bottom up on top of a glowing wood-burning stove for so long that her skin was half burned off when she came down. But then he got too old and the children teased him, they filled his chair with pins. The next parish clerk was Søren Jul. He was a clever man, but strict, and when he got angry he’d throw all the boys together in a heap and then he’d walk all over them with his leather-soled clogs and then he’d yell, “You goddamn wolf children!” But regardless how strict he was, they still played tricks, they did those boys. One of them was called Mads, he’d been born up at his great grandmother’s house. So one day he’d gotten off to a bit of a late start, and when he got to school he wasn’t even finished with his breakfast, since he arrived chewing on a cheese rind and a piece of bread. When he gets there, the parish clerk had just started the lessons. Then his desk mate, Niels Rebslåer, sees his chance and while Mads is sitting there chewing on the cheese rind, he reaches out and shoves it down his throat. Now Mads was sitting there and couldn’t get the rind either up or down. The other children began to laugh and the parish clerk couldn’t control them. “What is going on?” he asks them gruffly. Immediately, Niels Rebslåer jumps up and says, “It's Mads, he’s cunning!” Regardless of how strict he was, the parish clerk couldn’t help laughing, but they both had to go and get spanked anyway.
JAH_VI_738	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Dean Cilius from Smårup said during a sermon, “Lord, you gave me lamb, but how were they? Some were white and black, red and damn foolish.” In a prayer for rain he said, “Lord, you gave us rain, but it fell in Nörlund woods and Sorte-Mose; the furthest drops barely reached Sundsig on my field, and because of this my rye now stands there with its laps by its ears.” He said to someone that he’d gone to give the last sacrament to, “I can see death approaching, and you’ll leave this witches’ feast.”
JAH_VI_738	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Provst Cilius from Smårup said during a sermon, “Lord, you gave me lamb, but how were they? Some were white and black, red and damn foolish.” In a prayer for rain he said, “Lord, you gave us rain, but it fell in Nörlund woods and Sorte-Mose; the furthest drops barely reached Sundsig on my field, and because of this my rye now stands there with its laps by its ears.” He said to someone that he’d gone to give the last sacrament to, “I can see death approaching, and you’ll leave this witches’ feast.”
JAH_VI_753	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	The old minister Katrup stood at the pulpit and told them that they shouldn’t offer his wife gifts when the children went to the minister. “A few days ago, Ka Bødkers came and gave my wife a nine year old rooster and a score rotten eggs. You can keep that kind of thing yourselves.”
JAH_VI_81	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	An old lady down here in Ersted, they called her the Crow woman (Kragekone), she had a bible that she said was written at the time that St. Peter and our Lord walked the earth.
JAH_VI_85	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There was an old man here in the area who’d convinced himself that he knew the bible quite well, and he asked my mother once if she knew the name of Adam’s second wife. Then she swore and said she certainly did, she was called Kjesten Mosskovs. She knew a man who was called Adam and he had a second wife.
JAT_II_149	From the time of villeinage	There was a little manor farm near Æbletoft, which was called Bogensholm, and there was a man who was invited to a gathering there, he was called Count-Niels. He was from Æbletoft and he was supposed to be there at this party as a fool or as a buffoon. So they were sitting there and had some punch, and somehow or other they wound up talking, and he buys the farm for a pittance. And so he wants it written down, but they didn’t have any paper close at hand. “We can write it on a piece of rolling paper,” he says. The next day he went to an attorney and showed it to him. “Yes, we can certainly use this.” Then he got the farm and later wound up owning a large part of Æbletoft.
JAT_II_194	From the time of villeinage	Sixty or seventy years ago there was a strong man out in Dronninglund forest, they called him big Kræn Buur. He was so strong that he could pull a tree up with its roots when it wasn't too big. He had the strength of six or eight men. He could load a tree onto a wagon by himself which two horses at that time couldn't pull; but the roads were also bad. So when people had come and chopped down a tree in a dale or on the side of a hill, they could harness their animals to one end and he could lift the other end up and carry it. He could carry the roots when the horses could only pull the top. Big was he, over six feet, and he'd been that big for quite a while.
JAT_II_200	From the time of villeinage	A bricklayer journeyman who was named Ketting worked here in Linderumgård thirty years ago. He was so strong that he could lift two horses at once. A belt was strapped around the horses and then he could go in between them and lift them. Once he bet the feed master at the farm, he was called Ammidsbøl, that he could pull a load of gravel from the pit with one hand that the horses couldn't pull. He won twenty rixdollars that way. He could lift a mortar tub up onto the wall which two men couldn't get off the ground. But he was also seventy-seven and a half inches tall.
JAT_II_56	From the time of villeinage	In 1806, there was a count named Feer at Baggesvogn. He was quite hard on his peasants and he tormented and harassed them with work. One day during the harvest all the peasants were gathered for villeinage and were supposed to drive the grain. There were two peasants who accompanied each other from Sindal and, as the countess was out walking in the woods, the one says to the other, “That's a beautiful woman.” – “Yes,” says the other, “that's a beautiful woman, it must be fantastic to sleep with one like that.” Then the first one says that he'd gladly give his horses and wagon in exchange for the chance. The countess out in the garden hears this. As soon as they had unloaded their wagons and were going to drive off again, the man gets a message that he was to go up to see her. Would he stand by what he'd said? Yes, he sure would, he says; but what was it he'd said? Yes, he'd give his horses and wagon to sleep with her. Then she tells the servant that he should unharness the man's horses and drive the wagon down into the courtyard. Then the man went in with her a little bit, it really wasn't too long, and then he thought he was going to get his horses and wagon back, but he didn't get them. Now he has to walk home, and so he’s walking along and complaining, saying: Well, the one was pretty much like the other, he didn't notice that there was any great change, it was still pretty much the same. The count was out in the field and he comes up to him as he's walking. He scolds him, why was he walking along and why didn't he have horses or a wagon? “Well,” he says, “the countess took it from me, because she said that my loads were smaller than the others', but I couldn't tell that there was any difference, I thought my loads were just as big as theirs.” “I see,” says the count, “that's no good, you can follow me home to the farm, then you'll get your horses and your wagon back.” Then they accompanied each other and come in to see the countess. “Listen here, my dear wife,” says the count, “is it true that you took the horses and wagon from this man?” “Yes, it is true.” “He says that his loads were smaller than those of the others.” “Yes, they were, too.” “Yes, but you can't be that strict,” says the count. “He is to have his horses and wagon back.” “OK, OK, he'll get them back.” He got his things and he could start driving grain again and then that was that.
JAT_III_1737	Houses and life in them	Sweet soup without any berries is called "regiment’s surprise" to make fun of them. Kåånds is made from oats and water, cooked for example with a pork bone. There’s no cabbage in it and it was also known as fat gruel.
JAT_III_213	Houses and life in them	They used to use pea bread, and that was rank, because they couldn’t raise rye, since they fields were clay; they had to go off to the sand fields near Torsager for rye. In the morning when they called people to breakfast and they opened the door, you could smell the pea bread out in the barn. My grandmother told me that her father told her that when the enemies had been here, they were happy to lie out by the stall dunghill and eat their pea bread, since they couldn’t come inside because of the enemies.
JAT_IV_189	Social gatherings and parties	In the old days, wedding banquets were held on Fridays, and on Saturday there was a second day of banqueting. And then on Sunday every man and woman in the banquet party met and drove to church and back together. Then there was a third day of banqueting. On that day, they were supposed to be served egg stew, that’s to say boiled beer with egg and toasted bread. On the first day, they were served meat stew and sow meat and roast and sister cakes (wheat cakes); on the second day soup and sauce meat, rice porridge and fish. In our district the provisioners served and then there were three waiters (smoner) and three hired girls (forgangs piger) who would help the provisioners by carrying the food in and serving it. The waiters competed with each other to see who could ride the fastest to the church, and the horses were about to collapse, and they rode back home just as fast and announced outside all the windows that the bridal pair were now married. Then they rode back to them. There was also an inviter. They used a poor woman for this. She was given a cup of oats at every farm and then she was supposed to wash the dishes and she was called the slat-op-kok. There was also a cook (female), just as there is now. When the provisioner brought the first platter of rice porridge in, they shot three shots outside the windows, and it was supposed to look like he got so scared that he fell down right on the threshold into the main room and spilled the platter with the porridge, but then they were lucky, it was only sand. He complained bitterly that this had happened. “That’s too bad,” he said, “they shot just as I came in.” – “You got scared,” said the guests, “Yes, and it wasn’t without a reason.” Then when they were supposed to dance; the groom was to be danced out of the party. At my great grandfather’s wedding, it was so frenetic that sweat poured off of him. The others lay on top of him out there on the floor, since there was a dance room out there. They really fought over him, because the young guys wanted to keep him, but the men wanted him, and then they wound up fighting while trying to put the red cap on his head.
JAT_IV_212	Social gatherings and parties	At one big birth celebration, they weren’t served anything but (buckwheat) gruel and fish as far as I can remember.
JAT_IV_217	Social gatherings and parties	When a woman was churched, all the women in the party would gather and their husbands would drive with them to the church. The woman who was being churched sat just like everybody else in the back of the narrow wagon in a corner chair (bøvlstol) with a wicker basket as a back rest. It could be slid right into the wagon and then bound tight.
JAT_IV_68	Social gatherings and parties	They were served sour cheese on platters at banquets. These were put out on the tables and they got good beer as well. They got that at night when they were going to go home, along with bread and roast ham that was nicely decorated with greens and paper flowers.
JAT_V_109	Life outdoors	In Søndergård in Nielstrup, where my grandfather was born, the controllers came and unharnessed their horses. Out in their scullery, they were distilling as much moonshine as they could. But the farmwife went out and greeted the visitors and asked them in and gave them coffee and bread, and she knew how to talk them up and to wrangle her way out of the situation so they didn’t search the house at all. Then they went around to the other farms and they confiscated the distilling equipment over at Per Snog’s farm, and then they came back with it.
JAT_V_18	Life outdoors	A girl came to a place where they had tailors. “I didn’t see any swine out here,” she said, “and ours are tied up.” – “What are you talking about?” they said. “Yes, I thought you were afraid of swine since you’ve crawled up on the table.”
JAT_VI_1040	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	I pray to our Lord for my own husvæssel until my death: my own apartment or quarters.
JAT_VI_1042	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	The largest towns I’ve seen; came alone with him. [I wanted a new dress, but then my father said, you can have a fray. With that he meant, you can’t have one.]
JAT_VI_1042	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	[The largest towns I’ve seen; came alone with him.] I wanted a new dress, but then my father said, you can have a fray. By saying that he wanted to say: you won't get one.
JAT_VI_1129	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	A girl once got a ride from the rogue from Mjels. Then he started talking to her and asked her if she knew the guy that they called the rogue from Mjels. No, but she’d heard about him, and he’d neither hurt nor helped her, and she started to tell him what she’d heard. Then he drove right out into the middle of the Mjels ford, and said, “Now you can get down and say: The rogue has both helped me and hurt me, because now I’ve given you a ride and now you can go wading.” 
JAT_VI_187	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There was a farmhand who couldn’t pronounce the letter “l”. My mother was over there sewing. There was going to be a wedding in the neighborhood, and she asked him if he was going to attend. “No, I can’t go over there before this evening, then I’m supposed to go up there with the sour cheese, since I don’t have anything to wear on my feet other than my cwogs.” He meant his wooden clogs. They served sour cheese on platters at that time at banquets. It was eaten along with good beer. Another time he said, “It was a good birth banquet, they got rice gruel and scrod, and apple dumplings afterward.”
JAT_VI_205	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There was a man who had some money, but it disappeared. So he went to a cunning man and wanted him to “show” the money again. He asked if he didn’t suspect any of his employees. Well, yes, he wasn’t without his suspicions. “Well, then I’ll come tomorrow at noon, and precisely at that time, you should gather all your employees for lunch.” So just as they were sitting there the next day, the man looks out into the courtyard and says, “OK, the cunning man is here now.” When he came in, he walked around and looked at them, and then he says to them that he is now going to cut a little stick of wood for each of them, and they need to take good care of them. And the stick of the one who stole the money would be an inch longer than everyone else’s the next morning. Then the girl who’d taken the money thought to herself that she’d make sure that this was a lie. She took a measuring stick and measured an inch and cut that much off of her stick. The next morning, when they all brought their sticks out, hers was an inch shorter than the others. Then they could see who’d taken the money.
JAT_V_320	Life outdoors	Elias was the first gypsy who settled in Tårs. He lived at Natmandsbank (The Nightman’s Hill) northwest of Tårs church. He came from down in the Hobro district. Jens Hansen, who was supposedly a farmer’s son from up in Tise, got to know Elias’s daughter and married her, and so he wound up living there as well. Elias was pretty well off, but he was also a bit of a snob and wanted people to respect him. Once he’d been in Hjörring to get a nag, which he was going to bring home and have slaughtered, and so now as he’s riding along the road on it and was a bit tipsy, he meets up with Cotter Jens Tårs from Ugilt up near Hvidevold, and Jens asks Elias, “I say my good man, can you spare a few shillings for a poor man?” – “Yes, I certainly can, I was once poor myself.” Jens Tårs then got a couple of shillings and then he ran up ahead and came up to him again down at Fuglsig vase (crossing) and says the same thing. Sure, Elias says sure and gives him a couple of shillings again, since he didn’t recognize him. The third time he came up to him near the music house, as Jens Tårs now knew who he should latch onto, and it was exactly like the other times, he got alms yet again. The music house is just east of Fuglsig and is named after Spille-Ole who lived there.
JAT_VI_781	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	There’s a large dale in Rold woods, they call it Vintønden, it runs from Sorte mose (black bog) to the west, and it is the boundary between Ravnkjeld and Årestrup parishes. It is also the language divide, and Rold river also marks the boundary. East from Sorte mose runs Skjeldale (Boundary dale). In Ræbild, they say “søen, bette, nøddes (cow house)”. In the north, in Hornum, they start saying: “kan” instead of “kand,” “hunen” instead of “hunden.”
JAT_VI_796	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Here in Ersted, they used to say: “En tuds, en kabuds, en trådsku, fladsken og gladsed, hwads, i Ædste (Ersted), Jakob.
JAT_VI_797	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	In Torsted, they say: Tåste, stårk, but here in Ersted, they say, Toste, stoerk.
JAT_VI_805	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Here (in Mejlby) they say “fonen” (furen), but in Skjødstrup, they say fåren.
JAT_VI_865	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Kirsten Marie Pedersdatter was born on the twenty-seventh of October, 1827 in Bodholm, Nielstrup, Rud, south of Rud church. Her father came from Nielstrup from a place called Sahule. It was moved by the grandfather out of the town and up to Sahulested. Her mother was born in the house that is still right by the church. Her father later bought a farm in Villendrup which Kirsten Marie's brother still has, and she was married from there. She has her stories from her mother and she had them from her father who was also from Nielstrup. At parties, he could gather all the people around him since he was such a good storyteller. Kirsten Marie married Niels Møller, and they still live on Hornslet mark, west of the station. One of her daughters has taken the teacher certification exam.
JAT_VI_896	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Jens Kristensen (in daily speech, called Bitte-Jens) was born the third of June 1825 in Ersted town. His mother was from Årestrup but his father was from Tveden. He has always lived here in the area, and he was only eight or nine years old when he had to start helping his father drill out clogs. His father was a clog maker and he has always lived off of doing that. When he got strong enough to handle it, Jens worked during harvest time with the harvest work. He took part in the war of 1848 and lived for many years in a house in Ersted, that is where I visited him, and five or six years ago he moved to the northwest of Årestrup to Hovbakhusene (Hovbaks houses). His father owned but a small house with one cow and five or six sheep. He learned his ballads from his mother, but she sang them all to one melody. In contrast, the father was a good singer and he learned the melodies from him. He also knew some ballads. Jens has sung many a ballad with Johan Pingel, who was first a road worker and later a railroad guard over in Ellidshøj. Jens calls everything that he tells a bunch of nonsense and not worth listening to, but no shame, he does not mean anything with it. His wife does not like all this old rubbish, and he does not like to open up in her presence. Luckily, she goes off to the neighbors with regularity. He is well attuned to the old mindset and the way the old people lived and he tells about it eagerly. I have also been out to Johan Pingel, but regrettably he has forgotten far too much.
JAT_VI_905	Our forebears' way of thinking and spiritual life	Jens Peter Pedersen was born the first of May, 1836 on Borup field in Tårs. His father was born in Tranum, Han herred, and told him a great deal of the stories he can tell. But both his father, mother and mother’s mother told a lot. The latter was from Tårs and was, by the way, the sister of bookseller Chr. Steen in Copenhagen, who ran away from home, probably to get out of working as a hired hand, came to Copenhagen and became a bookbinder apprentice. Jens Peter learned how to turn in Hjørring and has now lived in Ilbjærge in a little house for 26 years. He has always been unmarried, and he lives humbly. The last time we took leave, he had a really difficult time saying goodbye to me. I could clearly see that he wanted me to stay with him a bit longer, since he was quite interested in getting these old things written down. One evening, he came up to where I was staying at Lørslev school in the pouring rain and he sat the whole evening in wet clothes and told. He was used to difficulty, and a little rain didn’t do him any harm he said.
DS_I_1	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Nisser and mound dwellers and things like that came into being because our Lord threw the evil angels down from heaven, and then some of them fell on mountains (bjærge) and hills, and they became bjærgmænd (mound dwellers); some fell in forests and swamps and they became elves, and those that fell down into buildings became nisser. They are small devils every one of them. Where ever a farm had a nisse, they could always keep cattle and horses in good condition because the nisse went and stole from the neighbors and gave the food to his own farm’s animals.
DS_I_1033	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	The mound man would come and take little children from people and put his own in their place. This happened once to a woman who could clearly see that she had gotten the mound man’s child, since it stayed little, it just got fatter and fatter. She complained about this to everybody. But one day a woman came and gave her some good advice: “On Sunday and every day you sweep your floor, you should lay the child by the door, just like you were going to sweep it out, then the mound man will come soon with yours and take his own again,” she said. She did that, too, and it didn’t take too long before he came, but he was angry. “Look,” he said, “I didn’t take care of your child like you took care of my child.” With that he took his own and disappeared. The one who was happy, that was the woman who had gotten her own child again.
DS_I_1043	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a time when some children were born here who were crippled both in body and soul. There were in particular two children who were so terribly crippled and it isn’t too long ago, since I remember seeing one of them in my childhood, and I’m now almost forty-four. It was said that the elves had come and switched the children. There were some people here once who had taken their child along to the field and lain it on the ground. Then an elf woman came who had taken it and put her own in its place. The parents took the child home but were cruel to it. Then the elf woman came again with their child and wanted her child switched back, “because you hit mine and I kissed yours.”
DS_I_1051	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Once a little goblin came in to a farmer in his living room where the whole family was gathered to enjoy a pig which had been born the same day, but died shortly thereafter, and now had been put in a pan to be fried. The goblin said nothing when he came in and didn’t answer either when he was asked, and this puzzled people a great deal. Some thought that he was a little homeless boy, others a nisse, but they let him sit since it was a shame to chase him out if he were a poor boy and not too smart to offend him if he were a nisse. Now when the wife came in carrying the pig to the table, he burst out: “Widely I’ve traveled and much have I seen; I've seen Rold forest burn up, burn up, burn up three times, but I’ve never before seen a sausage with four legs and a snout.”
DS_I_1098	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Syvstykkehøjen (Seven pieces mound) lies out on Anders Sørensen's field in Viksnæs. One evening, a midwife was waiting for a call from a woman she was going to assist, and someone came and knocked. "Is that you, Per Skomager (Shoemaker)?," she said from inside. "Yes," came the answer, and so she went out, but it was the troll from Syvstekkehøjen. He put her on his back and carried her out to a carriage, and drove her right into the mound. There was a Christian woman in labor there, and she helped deliver her, and then she was driven home again and was well paid for her service.
DS_I_1122	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	My father said that just east of Vilsted school there was a mound and there were dwarves in it. It sank straight down, and then it left a water hole, called Swarris hole. The mound was also called Swarris mound. The woman at the farm also helped out when the woman in the mound gave birth. She really wanted her to help her. The mound man carried her into the mound. When they were done, the woman said: "Now you need to be careful, as soon as you come into your own foyer, you need to grab onto the door latch, otherwise he'll take you with him again." And so she grabbed on. Then he said, "The one who gave you that advice didn't hit you in the mouth (didn't give you bad advice)." Then he left, and he was angry.
DS_I_1124	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Once a midwife, whose name was Gjertrud Ruds, lived in Funder near Silkeborg. One time, a message came to her from a man whose name was Anders Borring, asking her to deliver his wife. The midwife left immediately, but along the way she met a large toad that said that she was the wife of a mound man, and asked her to deliver her as well when the time came, and the midwife promised to do so. A little while later, a mound man came to the midwife and asked her to come and help his wife as she'd promised. She followed the man and he brought her into a mound where she delivered his wife. When she was done and was going to leave, the mound man gave her a bag full of wood shavings. The midwife didn't really want them, but the mound man's wife asked her to take them, she'd be paid for her inconvenience, she said. The midwife took the bag, but when she got home and opened it, the wood shavings had turned into shiny silver coins.
DS_I_1128	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	When the mound dwellers got hold of a little girl from the human world through "changing," and she later became a mound man's wife, then she could not give birth to her children unless a Christian woman came and delivered her. That's how a little creature came riding to Vejvad in Vinding near Holstebro and wanted the woman there to come with him to his wife. The farmwife wasn't too excited about the trip, but the mound man said that she didn't need to be afraid as long as she sat on the horse differently than he did. She did that, and before she knew it, they were down at the mound man's place. She delivered the woman, and the man was so happy about that that he gave her a handful of wood shavings, she should save them so she could light the fire with them the next morning, he figured. The woman didn't understand what he meant, but she kept the shavings and when the mound man had pulled the horse up, sat up on it and asked her to get up as well, she did that, but she didn't forget to sit backwards since the mound man had sat down properly on the horse, and before she knew it, she was home again. When she looked at the shavings the next morning, they'd turned into heavy lumps of gold.
DS_I_1137	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Just to the east of Høje town in Lunde parish there's a large gravel mound they call Gammelhøj (Old Mound). A mound man lived there once and he brought a woman in the neighborhood into the mound to swaddle children. When the woman was finished and was to go home, the mound man gave her an apron full of coal. The woman didn't think it was worth the trouble to carry it home, and so she threw it away outside. But when she got home, much to her surprise and disappointment, she saw that it was gold that the mound man had given her for her inconvenience, since there was still a little gold dust clinging to her apron.
DS_I_1154	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Anders Bak's paternal grandfather and grandmother and a farmhand came driving one night from Aalborg and saw a fire at Sortehøj (Black Mound) and a whole flock of small beings that ran from the fire down to the field and back again. The men wanted the woman to hold the horses while they investigated what it was, but she wouldn't let them.
DS_I_1158	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a mound on our property called Hestehøj (Horse mound), and there had also been rumbling noises in there, but no one had seen any mound folk. On the other hand, they had seen a light that burned on it but, when they got close, it disappeared. I've seen the light too and gone after it. It isn't three weeks since our son came home and said the light was there again.
DS_I_1164	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A light burned every night at a mound north of Skotrup and west of Børglum kloster (monastery). One morning, someone dug there and since then no light has ever burned there. Supposedly it was Kristen Hejlesen's father who dug there and found a treasure; the mound was on his property. Before that, he was poor and miserable, but now he'd become the richest man on Börglum manor and exchanged sixteen thousand rixdollars when the bank law changed.
DS_I_1340	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	The dwarves in Sandalsbjærg have moved over to America. They'll stay there for a hundred years and then they'll come back again.
DS_I_1341	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Several years ago, some farmers drove from Solsted to Tønder with grain early in the morning. A little ways away they saw a whole group of little tiny people coming on a wagon from a distant mound. It appeared to be furniture and other possessions that they were bringing with them. The wagons and the horses were in scale to the people.
DS_I_1354	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A troll lived in Pigs mound near Torøhus. He was known by a lot of people. One time, a skipper met him out on the open sea, where the troll came sailing in a boot. He told the sailor that people on Fyn had become so wise that they made the sign of the cross over everything, so the trolls couldn't get anything to live off of. So that was why he was going to Norway where he didn't think people were so enlightened.
DS_I_1356	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a mound man up near Klanhøj on Flensted mark as well. They moved over to Ry forest when they couldn't stay there any longer. That was when churches were built here, and they couldn't stay because of the dingdanger.
DS_I_1358	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Once there was a skipper from Svendborg who sailed to Norway. On one of his trips over there he met one day a little short man with a broad brimmed hat on who came to him and asked where he was from. “From Svendborg.” “Oh, from Svendborg. I used to live there.” “How is it that you’ve come here?” asked the skipper. “Well,” answered the little man, “I lived in a little mound down there, and had it really good, and hung out with four merchants in the town; will you give them my regards? But then Morten Luther came, and then it rang, and I couldn’t stand to listen to that, so I traveled over here, and now I live near here in a mound real close by.” They parted then but then when the skipper came home and was to look up the merchants, he couldn’t find them or anybody who was called that. Then he went to the minister and they looked in the parish register, and found that it was three hundred years ago that these merchants had lived.
DS_I_1383	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A mound man lived once in Stovbak and he was going to move with his entire family since he couldn’t live there because of all the dingdangers. He went down to Anders Kusk to borrow a pair of oxen, but he didn’t really think much of saying yes, but he didn’t dare say no. The mound man got them but the next morning they lay and were dead, and in front of each lay a bushel of money to pay for them.
DS_I_1413	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There was a mound man over in Sale. A man who lived nearby was going to bring his child to church and he invited the mound man as well. He asked if Our Lord and St. Peder were going to be there. "Well, then I won't come, because I was out another time, and he threw a drumstick at me and broke one of my legs. But I'll give you a baptism gift anyway," and he gave a whole bag of money.
DS_I_1414	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	The boy invites the mound man to be the godfather. He had brought a bag full of stones along and said that Our Lord had given him a bag full of money. He gave him a half barrel sack full.
DS_I_143	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A troll lived in a mound on Horns field, and he had a black cow which grazed along with the cows of the farmer who lived near the mound. The hired boy who took care of the cows also had to take care of the troll’s cow but he also got paid for that because every day near the mound there would be a plate of pancakes with a two shilling piece on top. Then one year the farmer hired a boy who was really nasty. The first day he went out with the cows, the troll’s black cow also came along. The boy now went over to the mound to see if it was true what he’d heard that there was supposed to be a plate of pancakes with a two shilling piece on top there. Well, sure enough, it was true and the boy ate the pancakes and put the two shilling piece in his pocket. But then he unbuttoned his pants and did what he had to on the plate. From that day on, neither pancakes nor the two shilling piece appeared, but the black cow continued to appear, so the boy had to take care of the troll’s cow without any pay.
DS_I_265	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There's a cliff on the other side of Firebakke called Halds bakke (Hald's mound). One evening, some of the sheep at Klitgård had disappeared, and the farmwife wanted to get up early the next morning to look for them. As she's walking along, she meets an old woman who is walking carrying a bucket on her head. She says good morning. The woman didn't answer. "Where are you from?" She was from Halds bakke and was going down to Rygs bakke (Ryg's mound) to bake with her sister. It was an old woman who told that story, and it had happened to her mother, so that happened a hundred years ago. The mound dwellers in that mound sometimes put their linen out.
DS_I_270	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Once when I was driving from Kalundborg, I'd almost gotten to bridge at Ågerup mill, and it was dark as pitch. Then I noticed that something was sparkling down by the bridge. "That's good," I thought, "now I can get my pipe lit." I thought that maybe it was some people smoking. So I gave the horses a whack and soon reached the bridge. Well, it was someone smoking, sure enough, but it wasn't people. They were small little ones with dark sweaters and white pants, and each one of them had a silver plated pipe. They were puffing away and when the fire sparked I could see them well. They were walking along the side of the road, one behind the other, and they were presumably going to a party in a mound near there. I said good evening, but they didn't answer, and I didn't dare ask them for a light for my pipe, the horses were snorting and restless, and I let them run, so it didn't take long before I got away from that devilishness. But I wasn't really happy until I got home to mom.
DS_I_381	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	In the olden days there was a man in the Bjerre district whose field ran right up to a black hill in which a mound dweller lived. The man knew this well and one day, as he was plowing close to it, there was a peel board on top of the hill, and it was broken. So he tightly fastened the shaft with a wedge and put the peel board down again. The mound dweller was baking, and later that afternoon, when he came out to plow again, there was a little cake lying in the same place for him. He was to have it because he had repaired the peel board.
DS_I_382	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	I knew a man who said that in his younger years, when he worked at Løjt in Åbenrå, one morning before dawn, he was out walking in the field to move the horses, which stood tied up out on a grass field where there was a mound. At the foot of the mound lay a peel board that was broken. He took it home and fixed it, after which he went over and placed it down in the same place where he’d found it. Just before lunch, he went back out to the field to move and water the horses and there was a wonderful cake lying there; he got that because he had repaired the peel board. The mound woman had baked bread that morning. [Printed in an American magazine, Dannebrog]
DS_I_44	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	At dusk one time there was a group of boys up on a hill that was called Gildebjærg (in Høsterkøb). They were riding sleds down the hill down to a big swamp. As they were playing, a huge crowd of small black men came wandering up the hill; the boys ran home as fast as they could, and didn't go to get their sleds back until the next morning.
DS_I_50	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Down in Østervelling woods there was a big hill, which they called Mandbjærg, and there were mound dwellers in it. When I was a little boy, it happened that a woman from Østervelling who had been down in the meadow near Nørre river came walking up through the woods and then she saw two little boys running on the mound. Then she thought that it was her own boy and me and she called to us and then went around the mound, but then there was nobody to see. Then she went home, scolding the boys for being bad. When she got home, we were there and hadn’t gone anywhere. Then she realized that it was mound dwellers she had seen. They had red hats on and we wore ones like that at the time.
DS_I_542	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Half way between Martofte and Snave lies Peder Mose’s mound where dwarves used to live. One night, some young people went from Martofte to Snave to go to a Christmas party and they came close by the mound, and a daring young man among them had the impulse to call out: “Hey mound dwellers, do you want to come to a Christmas party in Snave?” Immediately they heard a yell from inside the mound: “Peder Mose get my hose (stockings), I’m going to Snave to a Christmas party!” But when they heard talking and a slamming of chest lids down there, they all got scared and hurried to Snave. A little later a little goblin appeared in the door and the people were even more surprised than they’d been before. But some of them invited him in and he also went in and joked around with them for a bit of the night.
DS_I_593	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	In Bedsted there's Tofthøj, and the owner started digging in it. Then he lost a nag and the next day a cow and then a short while later another cow. Then he came to think that maybe it was the mound's fault. He went up to dean Bentzon here and told him about it and asked him if he thought that it was punishment for that. He answered that since he thought that himself he should leave the mound alone, but if he didn't think that, then he wouldn't say anything. He went home and covered up the hole. Then the bad luck stopped. He instructed his son to preserve the mound and he did the same later for his son-in-law. Now it has been given to the state.
DS_I_639	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	One night, as a man passed by Store-Vårbjærg on Taftebjærg field, he saw that a whole group of little ones were dancing around the top of the mound. He went closer to watch their party, and now he also saw a number of large chests filled with gold and silver coins. The lids were open so that the money could be aired in the moon light. He wished he could have some of those coins, and when he saw his chance, he threw his knife into one of the chests. Quick as lightning, the little ones all disappeared with all the other chests, but they left the one that he'd thrown his knife into. As they disappeared into the mound, they threatened him. He hurried back to get horses and a wagon and some men to help him drive the chest home. He didn't pay much attention to their threats, he didn't think a bunch of little ones could do anything to him, but the next morning when he went out into the barn, all the cattle lay dead in their stalls.
DS_I_676	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Near Sorø, a man went and plowed over his mound. He was somewhat surprised by a path which he’d never seen before that went from the mound down to his house; but then he found a glove which was so big that the fingers could hold a barrel of seed, and the farm was going insolvent at the time. The man took the glove home that night. But at night a voice came from outside the window and said: “Gloves and friend, give me my glove again! Otherwise two of your horses, the biggest and best, will lie dead tomorrow out in the swamp.” The man hung the glove out on the end of a beam and a little later it was torn away so hard that the house almost tipped over. But after that time everything prospered on the farm.
DS_I_717	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	My mother said that the mound folk danced near Dakbjærg. When the sun was shining, they could see how the mound folk danced, it was so beautiful because it was just like watching beautiful dolls. They were out mowing during harvest and then there was a girl who had seen that, and she said to the others when they were going home to eat lunch: she would rather stay with the Dakbjærg women and dance with them while they went home. When they came back, they found her corpse, she had danced herself to death.
DS_I_748	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Between Virdsted and Vrove lies Vrove mound, where they say there used to be a lot of mound dwellers. One night, the minister from Vrove along with his coachman drove past the mound and then it raised itself up on four glowing poles and underneath it the mound dwellers danced. The coachman looked down at it, but the minister told him to watch the reins, since he was afraid that he [the coachman] would become elf-wild.
DS_I_755	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	At Galgebanke on Enner village commons, Tamdrup parish, there are still mound dwellers, and they hold a party every holiday evening and celebrate, and the mound rises up on tall pillars of fire and one can see the mound folk going in under the mound which is all lit up. They eat at long party tables and afterward they hold a dance.
DS_I_756	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A man from Ørum wanted to drive to Randers one day. When he was to go home again, it had gotten a bit late, and when late at night they saw a mound far off in the distance that was on four glowing poles, the horses stampeded and they tipped over. They got on their feet again and hadn't been injured. Then they were to go past the mound, and then his wife said to him that he should go over and see what it was. No, he didn't want to, there were two bridges that they had to cross, and then it could happen that the horses might stampede again.
DS_I_774	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A mound man and his family lived in Dagbjærg Dås. It happened once that a man who was riding by there got the impulse to ask the mound woman for a little to drink. She went in after the requested drink but her husband advised her to tap from the poisonous cask. The traveler heard this and, when the mound woman hands him the cup with the drink, he throws the contents over his shoulder and rides away with the cup in his hand, as fast as the horse can run. The mound woman tosses her breasts over her shoulder and ran after him as well she could. When he reached the place where Karup river cuts across the highway from Viborg to Holstebro, she was so close to him that she snatched a calk (hage) off one of the horse’s shoes and from that time on the place is called Hage bridge. The mound woman couldn’t cross over the running water and the man was saved. Later it turned out that a few drops of the drink had fallen on the horse’s rump and had taken off both hide and hair.
DS_I_796	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	The mound dwellers from Bjærg were related to those from Grønhøj. One Christmas eve, a man came driving from Randers, he was from Vinstrup and was called Ajs Josten. Then a woman came out of the mound and offered him a drink of beer from a silver cup but he tossed the beer out behind himself and said “giddy-up” and drove off since he wanted to keep the cup. There was a big rye field up to Vindstrup and he set out across it, it's not too far from the mound to the town and the mound troll couldn’t go over that but had to go around. He also got into the farm and got the gate closed before they got there. Then they had to go away and then he had the silver cup. It was put out on the table when Christmas eve came again, they were to have a drink from it. Then an old woman came and she wanted to stay there that night, that happened pretty often in those days, and then she was also to have a taste of the beer from the silver cup. But just at that moment, the door burst open and then the old woman was off with the silver mug without hesitation. “Easy come, easy go,” said the man, and then there was no more about that.
DS_I_807	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Every Christmas eve, the so-called Firhøj in Karlslunde parish stood on four red poles. The town's farmhands agreed that one of them should ride out to the mound, and he was given the fastest horse to ride. There was both music and dancing, and a troll came out with a large silver cup in his hands. The farmhand threw the wine away, but a drop fell on the horse's rump and burned both hair and hide away. He spurred the horse on, but the troll shouted, "Ride on the field up to the hillock!" When the troll reached the plowed field, he had to run back and forth as many times as the plow had gone there. When the farmhand got close to the church where the other farmhands were waiting for him, he shouted, "Open the church door!" Then he got in on consecrated ground. The troll threw his axe so far into the cemetery wall that it split, but he couldn't go any farther. That cup is still there at Karlslunde church.
DS_I_813	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A farmhand rode past the Pølse (Sausage) mounds near Kalvehave one night. One of them was up on poles, etc. When he rode off with the cup, a voice shouted from the mound, "Oh, One Leg ran off and took Gold Leg with him!" Others say that one ran after him and shouted, "Stop, gelding," but the farmhand answered each time, "Run, stallion!" He was barely inside his farmer's gates when they were right outside. Since he didn't dare keep the cup, he gave it to Kalvehave church.
DS_I_818	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Late one night, a farmhand from Boslunde rode from Skjelskør. When he got to Dyrehavsbakke, he saw that it was standing on four posts, and the trolls were busy dancing. He stopped to watch the fun; but then some trolls came out and offered him a drink in a gold cup. The farmhand accepted the cup, but he tossed the drink behind him and the horse, and then he took off as fast as he could with the cup in his hand. The trolls ran after him, and they got closer and closer. He rode onto the fields and that helped; he could ride across the fields, but when the trolls came to a furrow, they had to run around it. Despite that, they were very close to the farmhand when he got to Boslunde, but then he threw the cup over a church wall, and now it was on consecrated ground, so the trolls couldn't get it, they had to turn their noses around and go home. The next day it turned out that the horse had numerous scorched spots on its rump, it was some drops of the drink that had done that. The cup was used for a long time as the chalice in Boslunde church.
DS_I_832	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	On my father’s field in Skiffard there was a big dale, Dybdal, and on each side there were big hills. To the east is Bjærgbakken (Mountain hill), and when the farmhand plowed near there one day, he found a peel board which he repaired while he ate his sandwich. When he came back, a cake lay there and he ate a little bit of it and he also gave some to the girl who was spreading manure. But she got silly stupid because of it and when she got home, she said: “Can you hear how they’re playing out in the mound? I’ve got to go out to them.” She absolutely wanted to leave and the old man now saw that she ran out to the mound. There the mound dwellers tumbled about with her the entire night. She came back well enough the next morning but they had to keep her locked up after that to keep her from going out to the mound.
DS_I_860	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	When Højslev church was to be built, what they built during the day was torn down at night. It was discovered that the mound man, who lived nearby, did it and the workers made the deal with him that he should build the church and also put as much gold and silver somewhere in the church so that it could be rebuilt if it burned down or got destroyed, and then he’d get both the first and the last bride who were married in the church. He’s gotten the first bride. When they drove to the church, they watched out carefully for her and she also got home OK, but when she took the bridal wreath off her head, the mound man got the power to take her. She came to live with him but every day she went to a spring and fetched water. Her father spoke with her and wanted to free her but she answered that she was happy enough where she was. The path where the mound man walked with her is always green both in summer and winter, and on the north side of the church there is a stone on which a little hat is carved and inside that lies the treasure with which the church is to be rebuilt. Once they tried to break open the stone but the attempt failed.
DS_I_869	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There were some people who lived in Gudhjem right below a cliff, and they had a daughter who sang beautifully. She sang psalms so one could hear them far away, and that had also delighted the underground dwellers; they wanted to bring her home to themselves and they also were lucky enough to steal her. She disappeared all at once, and since then they could hear her singing inside the Hårkara cliff, that's a big cliff down by the sea.
DS_I_87	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	In Rongenbjærg in Tyrskind my father noticed some weird happenings. Many times when he had been lying out there at night or early in the morning grazing the horses, he heard chests being slammed shut inside it (the mound). Immediately, the horses would rear up and jump about and snort in their halters. Midways up the hill we dug for marl, we discovered a black corridor which didn’t open out on either side, and we found a little ball of yarn in the corridor. We thought that that was weird. Deep holes had been dug in the mounds and the Poles had put their horses in them when they were here.
DS_I_889	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	A mound man lived in a mound on Dejret field in Tved parish. A farm lay close to the mound there. One time the wife lay in her birthing bed; then the mound man came and dragged her into the mound. The dispirited man was advised to plow close to the mound. One night in wonderful moonlight the man went out to the mound and he saw that the mound dwellers were holding a dance outside of the mound. The mound man danced with the wife from the farm and she had let her hair down. As soon as she noticed her husband, she ran to him and they took off towards the farm. The mound dwellers, who ran after them, couldn’t catch them. They had a hard time getting over the plowed ground, they tripped about trying to get over the furrows. The man kept his wife but she was never quite right in her head since then.
DS_I_897	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	An old shepherd said that he had a sister who was the cowherd one place and she wound up dancing with the mound dwellers on the mounds. They convinced her to come again and dance with them once she'd gotten the cows in at night. Just as soon as she'd gotten the cows in, she threw the tethers and went off. They got a farmhand up on a stallion and he went after her, and he reached her just as she got to the mound and was to go in there. He got her up on the horse and off they went. Otherwise she never would have come back from them.
DS_I_898	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	There were two girls who walked past a mound out on Selle mark, and one of them was taken into the mound. Someone came out and took her and got her inside. They didn't know what had happened to her, but then the other girl who'd been with her could tell them. Then one evening, someone went and grabbed her, because the mound was up on four glowing poles then, and the mound dwellers danced underneath it. I've seen the girl who was in there. She really wanted to go back in there because it had been so nice in there with them, it was beyond all belief, she said.
DS_I_960	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Svend Felding lived at Sjelle Skovgård and traveled between there and Åkjær. Then one night he came past a mound and it was standing on a post, and the mound folk danced around it, and they had put their silver out. So he rode up and took it and rode off with it, but they ran after him. He rode out onto a rye field and they couldn't come after him there. Then they begged him to give them their silver back, and if he did he could have whatever he wanted. Then he asked to have the strength of twelve men. They promised him that, but then he wasn't to tell anyone how he'd gotten it because then he'd have to eat as much as twelve men. When he'd gotten that strong, the manor lord at Åkjær wanted to tempt him into revealing how it had happened, and then he said, "Well, if you'll feed me as long as I live, then I'll tell you." Ever since then, the manor lord had to feed him, and a pot was made so they could cook enough food for twelve men in it. It was called Svend Felding's breakfast pot and was in Åkjær until not so long ago.
DS_I_962	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	Svend Felding's tree, that he'd tied his horse to, stood down by Bilsbæk, but it was chopped down the spring before last, there were lots of iron rings in it. Svend lived in a house close to the stream. Søren Kusk said that the water in that stream was the clearest in the world.
DS_I_975	Mound dwellers (Hidden folk)	In a birthing house, after everything was done with, the midwife lay down next to the mother who lay with her newborn child in her arms, and the other women sat on another bed. Soon they all fell asleep since they had been at it for a long time; but the mother, who apparently wasn’t sleeping too soundly, wakes with some sort of rustling which she felt near her and she sees to her great horror that her child is gone. While she looks about, her eyes fall on the elf woman who is sitting on the threshold with the mother's child and is in the process of throwing her legs over the threshold; because of their short legs they couldn’t get over the threshold in any other way. Then the mother screamed loudly and cried with a loud voice: “That shall Jesus forbid you!” Then the elf woman dropped the child and disappeared. The mother jumped out of bed to get her child again and the midwife and the other women got so scared that they almost didn’t know what was going on. The father didn’t delay getting the minister and having the child baptized.
DS_II_A_106	Elves	Old Johanne said that there were elves in Havreballe forest. A farmhand, who was out looking for some cattle one afternoon, came across them and they danced with him, and he went down to them every day at a specific time and he showed people where he went down. It was an alder root. But when he was at home, he was really strange and he couldn’t get his act together. They needed three priests to read for him before they got him released from it. Then he was better after that, but he had to watch out not to go out there anymore.
DS_II_A_118	Elves	In another farm there were also a lot of elves who caused a great deal of commotion. Then one night the man came home and said that now he knew that they’d have peace in the farm, he had seen that the elves were moving over to his neighbor’s farm. From that day on, they were free of them too. Then there was a woman who couldn’t hear at all where they now were. But at night when the others slept she could hear that the elves tumbled about with the beer kegs because they were brewing at the time. Then, when they’d lived in that farm for a long time, one night the ferryman rowed back and forth over the sound without stop without knowing what he’d been rowing over and without being allowed to go ashore. He could feel that there was something in the boat each time, but he didn’t see anything. Finally, when he was at the other side yet again, one came up to him and put another hat on his head, and then he could see an enormous crowd standing on the beach. Not until then did he understand what he’d been sailing with. Then one of them came and gave him a full money bag, so the ferryman was from that day on a rich man. Since that night there haven’t been any elves on the island.
DS_II_A_131	Elves	A farmhand told me the following: His father worked in Tøjstrup and at that time the woods went all the way down to Tøjstrup town, now there’s practically a mile up to it. There in the woods there were elves who had hollow backs. They often came to him when he was a shepherd, and they wanted to steal his sandwich from him, that’s what they were after. They also went into town and they were bad about stealing down there and taking people's cats. It was said that they ate them. People had to be careful that their cats weren’t alone in the living room because otherwise they’d snatch them.
DS_II_A_132	Elves	A man in Hesselager close to Nyborg had a swamp in which there were elves. One day his wife baked and put the bread outside of the house in a dough trough; but the elves wanted them and took all of them. A little girl, who saw that, told the wife and she told her husband when he got home. Then he got really angry and started to dig in the swamp after them. He didn’t find them, and the elves became annoyed and bothered him in all sorts of ways, until finally they bothered him to death. After he died, no one noticed them any longer.
DS_II_A_149	Elves	There are stories from Laven, which is separated from Sejs, about elves. A small earthen hut was built by the charcoal piles where the people who were supposed to watch the charcoal piles could take shelter from the weather. There was often a fire burning in front of the hut, so they could warm themselves by it and also so they could have some light, and a man often saw elves come and warm themselves and dance around the fire. He wanted to try and scare them and so he took an ember out of the fire and threw it at one of them. But he has no idea what happened next. When he regained consciousness, his charcoal pile was split apart and he himself lay a ways away from the earthen hut and was almost frozen solid.
DS_II_A_17	Elves	The farmhands who went out in the fields and took care of the animals had made a fire of sticks to warm themselves by. It was over in Vester-Alling meadow close to a swampy area, where there were alder trees and springs. Then the elf women came to them and they looked so beautiful and pretty. But then the farmhands said to one of them, “Let me see if your back is like your front.” That’s what they had learned to say, and when they had asked that, she disappeared. They could hear that they said “Ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha!” out among the alders.
DS_II_A_26	Elves	An old woman who was called Ellen Bisp went to Birkfuldsdal to get her cow which was grazing there. When she got there, she noticed three small girls with white aprons. She had heard that some girls went there and collected juniper berries and she thought that it was them and said that they didn’t have to be afraid of her since she wouldn’t report them to the forest ranger. But when she’d said that, they suddenly disappeared from her sight and then she knew that they were elf maidens.
DS_II_A_32	Elves	The elf king is supposed to stay in those parts of the country where the country’s king has yet to go. That is supposed to be the case in Stevns province. About thirty years ago, the elf king made his way through one of the Tåstrup outlying farms and disturbed not only the people’s peace, but much more the geese’s peace because they (the geese) had to wander about for two or three hours after he’d gone through there, and they went about in pairs with the cry, “Kjæk, kjæk, kjæk!” If that was because they were forced to do so or not isn't known but the geese didn’t forget to nod whenever they passed the gate. Then one of the gates was moved somewhere else.
DS_II_A_50	Elves	Lamdrup cow pasture, Svindinge, was a big surplus area for common grazing for the Lamdrup townsmen one hundred years ago. Now it is partly wooded and partly cultivated. Back when the maids used to go out there to milk, there was a girl who once met a foreign man out there several times with whom she talked. It seemed odd to her and so she told the people at home about him. There was somebody who told her that the next time he came she should tell him to turn around. She did that, too, the next day and when she got to see his back, she discovered that his back looked like an alder stump. It was an elf whom she had come into contact with.
DS_II_A_59	Elves	A man was walking through a forest and a beautiful woman came up to him without him knowing from where. She was so beautiful, he'd never seen her equal. It was just about midday, and since the man had heard stories about elves, he didn't doubt that she must be an elf woman. She spoke nicely to him and tried to lure him into the woods, but the man was too smart for her, and finally he said: "Turn around and let me see if you are the same in the back as you are in the front." When she heard that, she went her way, and he saw that she was as hollow as a dough trough.
DS_II_A_74	Elves	A hired girl told a story about when she was fully grown, she had lain and slept in an alder swamp. But when she got up, she was disturbed in the head and went totally crazy. When she was twenty, she was baptized in the church, and got better immediately.
DS_II_A_76	Elves	In the woods on Bogø, the people’s cattle grazed in common, and when the maids who went out together to milk had milked their cows, they called to each other to walk home together. But one day when they were going to go home, one of the girls was missing and she wouldn’t answer no matter how much they called. Finally they walked around to try and find her and they found her finally sitting in an alder swamp quite confused. They managed with great difficulty to get her home and there she told them that a wonderfully nice man had come to her by the alder swamp and asked her if she would be his lover, and with his speech he’d entranced her so she couldn’t get away from him. He had also entranced her so she couldn’t answer when the other girls called to her. After that, she had to go down to the alder swamp each time they went out, but one time somebody advised her that when the elf king came again she should say to him three times, “Turn around so I can see if you're the same in back as in front.” She did that the next time and when she now saw that he was hollow in the back, she cried out: “No, damn it, you’re as hollow as a dough trough!” at which point he deserted her and, after that time, she had peace from him.
DS_II_A_91	Elves	On Alken field in Skanderborg lies Dakbjærg, which measures about twenty meters from the ground to the top. Several years ago, a group of elves lived there. Every night, when the sun had set, the mound was raised and put on large stones and then they danced. People who passed by could see them well enough, but they only got to see them from the front, where they looked quite nice. A shepherd from Alken who had been out putting the sheep down for the night, came by on his way home. He stopped to watch the dance. A little later an elf girl came and asked him to the dance and he went with her without thinking anything about it. The next morning some people passed by the mound and they found his body, he’d been danced to death by the elf girl.
DS_II_A_95	Elves	In Alling, there was a girl who was taking care of a cow, and them some elves came and danced with her, and she couldn't get away from them. She was just about totally out of her mind when people finally got to her.
DS_II_A_96	Elves	A bachelor, Jens Bovens, who was a shepherd out in the forest came by a place they called "the dead Alders." Then he didn't come home with the cows at midday and they were going to go out and look for him, and when they found him, he was totally crazy. The elves had danced with him, and since that time he didn't grow. He never got any bigger than a little boy.
DS_II_B_103	Household spirits	A thresher was supposed to go to a farm which was quite a distance from the town early one morning; he walked from Sandvig over to Skalsby. When he gets up to Rasmus Bo’s field he sees that there is a gray ram lying on its back in a ditch with all four legs in the air. The man goes over and lifts it up. When he has walked a little farther, he sees that there is exactly one like it lying there. He was a bit puzzled but he went over and righted it as well. Then when he’d walked a little farther again, the same fellow is lying there again. But then the man says: “No, now I’ll thank you, you tricked me twice, but you aren’t going to trick me a third time.” Now he knew what it was, and then the nisse laughed.
DS_II_B_11	Household spirits	When one wanted to catch a nisse, one would use the following procedure: One went out into the woods to cut down trees. With the sound of the falling tree, the nisser would come running as fast as they could to see how people managed that and they’d sit down next to them and would talk to them about both this and that. People at that time wanted to have a nisse in their house, and so they wanted to catch one. Then when they’d wedge the tree out, it often happened that the nisse’s little tail would get caught in the chink and then when they’d try to get the tail out, it would be caught. Then the nis was caught and in that way they caught a lot of nisser in the old days.
DS_II_B_141	Household spirits	The hired girl at Vorgård teased the gårdbuk (nisse). One day when they were baking, and the bread had been taken out of the oven, the gårdbuk came after her. She crawled into the oven, made a cross over her mouth and turned her apron around, then she figured she was safe. But then he said: “Yes, cross over the mouth, but little Niels can go in through the spout.” Now little Niels crawled in through the spout and crushed the girl to death. The girl didn’t think that he could crawl through such a little opening.
DS_II_B_146	Household spirits	In a farm in Kolby, there was a nisse who was used to regularly getting his milk and porridge every night and, because of that, every thing was OK at the farm. But all at once, the man decided that he didn’t want to give the nisse anything anymore; that was unwise of him because, from that point on, it went continuously downhill for him, so he became just as poor as he’d been wealthy before, and it was the nisse’s fault, since at night he carried stuff away from the farm and over to another farmer.
DS_II_B_15	Household spirits	A nisse lives in Besser church. He has his place in a bundle of cloth at the top of the church, but when they ring the church bell, he hides himself in a mound a little ways away. He occasionally plays one trick or another, usually singling out someone or other who has offended him. One night, when the bell ringer came to ring the sun down, Mr. Nis played a little trick on him. When he tried to start ringing the bell, it wouldn’t make a sound. The bell ringer discovered that there was a big piece of cloth tied around the clapper. While he’s standing wondering about this, he sees a little grinning face on top of the bell with a red hat on.
DS_II_B_18	Household spirits	There had been a harsh storm on the North Sea and many ships had nearly foundered. When it eventually became better weather, two ships met out on the sea and came so close to each other, that the people could shout to each other about where they came from and where their home harbor was and so on. At the same time, they hear that two nisser are shouting to each other from the tops of the masts, one on each ship, about how they had fared during the storm. The first one said: “I’ve had enough to do holding the jib stay, otherwise the mast would have fallen down.” When the people looked up to see about the voice, the nisse let go of the stay, which immediately fell down on deck, and he started to laugh hysterically. Now the people had something else to think about than to look for the nisse, because the mast nearly fell overboard. While they were busy getting the mast set again, the nisse saw his chance to take off down into the hold where they couldn’t find him.
DS_II_B_183	Household spirits	Between Børglum town over to Vollerup town there is a big heath called Skrolles heath. Places are built around it, and in one of the places there is a nisse who watches the man’s cows in the winter, so that those cows are much better off than those of the other farmers. But the nisse also wants his pay for that, he wants a bowl of sweet porridge with butter in it, and if it happens that there is too little, then he takes a little revenge. One night when he came as usual to get his porridge, he didn’t find any butter in it and naturally got quite upset, and immediately decided to avenge himself. He went down into the barn and got hold of the biggest and best cow there was, took it by the horns and wrung its neck. After he’d sat and gloated over this a while, he decided he’d better eat all of the porridge after all. Then he found the butter at the bottom of the bowl, because it had been hidden by one of the girls to trick him a little bit. Then he really regretted what he’d done and decided to make it right again. He took the dead cow on his shoulders and walked with it across the heath to another big farm where he knew that there was a cow of the same size and just as good, and he took the live cow on his shoulders and carried it back. Then, after he’d gotten it into the barn and had tied it up, he complained bitterly about his back: “Owww my back, Skrolles heath was long, and the red cow was so heavy, oww my back.” He said it so loud that the people down in the farm could hear it.
DS_II_B_185	Household spirits	There was another farm where another nis (nisse) lived. But then one fine day, the farmer and the nisse had a falling out, because the man went and insulted the nisse. As revenge for that, the nisse went and wrung the neck of the man's best cow. Now the man realized that it wouldn't do much good to deal with the nisse like that. He tried to reconcile with him, and they became good friends once again. Now the nisse also wanted to show his good side, and right the wrong. The next night he went and got a cow many many miles away and put it in the stall where the previous cow whose neck he had wrung had stood, and the new one was even quite a bit better.
DS_II_B_188	Household spirits	Jens Hårby at Hesthave had a very good relationship with the nisse. It was the custom to leave sweet porridge with lots of butter in it out on Christmas eve for him. Now there was a bit of mischief in Jens Hårby, and he pushes the butter all the way down to the bottom of the dish. Late at night, the nisse comes out to the porridge and he gets mad and he kills the best cow. After that he goes back to the porridge and finds the butter. Now he knew that there was a similar cow over in Mors, they looked exactly alike, and so he switches them. The girl couldn't tell the difference between the two when she went out to milk, but Jens Hårby could and he got the nisse to admit it. But they didn't suffer any loss, since it was a much better cow.
DS_II_B_20	Household spirits	My father’s neighbor, Johan Nielsen from Skårupøre near Svendborg, had a cutter which he anchored once at Dragør. As the skipper lay at night in his bunk and slept, he woke up when the hatch down to him was opened, and then he saw a little person like a nisse who said to him: “You will never lay at the big anchor again.” The next morning he went into Copenhagen to an anchor smith and traded his anchor away for a new one, but both he and his crew had to first swear that they knew of no problems with their anchor, and there weren't any to be seen either. But as soon as the anchor stock was knocked off, the anchor broke into two pieces.
DS_II_B_211	Household spirits	There was a farmer who lived in Dybbøl, who every evening would leave a bowl of porridge out on the mill stone for a little nisse who lived there at the farm. One evening, the girl had put the porridge on top and the butter on the bottom... Nothing else to do than to find a cow that was exactly like the one he'd killed. But it wasn't that easy to find one, and he first found one way up in Als. Nonetheless, he managed to have everything arranged by the next morning. When the girl was to water the cows, the cow couldn't find its stall. She got mad about that and hit it. Then the little nis came and said, "You mustn't hit it, because it isn't used to this," and with that he had to tell the girl everything.
DS_II_B_214	Household spirits	In Kristen Madsen’s farm in Vejlby, nissebuk has always had his place. When the boys didn’t tease him too much, he was very accommodating and wouldn’t harm a cat. If the man came home really late from the market, he could freely toss the reins, nis would unharness the horses. Out of thanks the wife gave him a new fur for the winter, but since then nis would never unharness the horses, and when Kristen Madsen yelled at him, he said: “Do you think I want to dirty my new clothes?”
DS_II_B_29	Household spirits	The Boeslunde town nisse lived in the farm where Jens Jensen’s widow now lives. The man there always had these incredibly fat horses. They never fed at bedtime, the nisse was to take care of that. When the man was lacking hay, the nisse stole from Sønderup. One time, they saw a load of hay come driving along from Sønderup to Boeslunde, but there were no horses pulling it. The people who saw it let the wagon pass by since they knew well enough that it was the nisse who was driving. A little later, the wagon bolted into Toftegård.
DS_II_B_34	Household spirits	A farmer in Dybbøl was really friendly with a group of small nisser, who lived nearby, and they constantly brought so much to the farm that there was great wealth there. When the man died, a little nisse came one day to the son and asked if he wanted to have the same arrangement that his father had had. The son wouldn’t answer that unless the nisse could tell him where his father was. The nisse could answer that well enough, his father was with them. “No,” said the son, “then I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” But now the nisse said: Well, if you don’t want that, then he’d also have to accept that they took everything away again which they had brought to his father in his time. The son asked them not to do it all at once, but little by little. The nisse promised to do this for his father’s sake. After that time, there was great poverty at the farm, and it has been like that ever since.
DS_II_B_36	Household spirits	A nisse lived in a farm in Kolby, he went and helped to take care of the animals, but one night, when he was feeding the horses, one of the horses kicked him. After that, the horse got thinner and thinner, and the people in the farm couldn’t understand why, since it was fed well. Finally they realize that nis might have a finger in the game and one night, after the farmhand had finished the feeding, he crept out into the barn. A little later, nis came along and took all the food away from the thin horse and carried it over to another as punishment because it had kicked him.
DS_II_B_4	Household spirits	Nisser are known all over the place. It’s said here that when a man makes more progress than others under similar circumstances, then he has a nisse. In a town in Nordfalster, two neighbors each had a nisse, but only one of the men made progress, whereas the other man continuously went backwards (economically); it was because one of the nisser was called “Jolly” and the other was called, “"Watch Out.”
DS_II_B_41	Household spirits	In Hårmark, there had once been two farms, each of which had a nisse. The nisser were treated well since there was often a bowl of milk set out in the hayloft for them, and on holidays they got porridge with a big pat of butter in it. Because of this, the nisser were very willing to serve and sought out all different ways to benefit their masters. Thus it was common that they tossed hay and sheaves down from the hayloft. Sometimes for a joke they would throw sheaves down on people who came into the barn at night. Sometimes, the nisser would also steal from the neighbors. Between the farms there was a pond and when that was iced over, one often saw them crossing over it with something they had swiped from the neighbor’s. It happened many times that they had both been out on similar errands and met on the way home out on the ice and on such occasions it often turned into an incredible fight, so that the plunder was scattered about all over the place.
DS_II_B_48	Household spirits	A man who was in need of fodder had a nisse, but it was one of those young nisser, who hadn’t really learned that much yet. He and the farmhand were good friends and would accompany each other all the time. Then one time they were to go steal fodder and they came to a barn. The nisse took far beyond all measure and then they left. After they had gone a little ways, the farmhand says: “Shouldn’t we take a rest?” What’s that? Well, he’d show him, and then he sat down. After they’d sat a while, the nisse says that if he’d known that there was something called to take a rest, then he’d have brought everything that was in the barn back to the farm.
DS_II_B_60	Household spirits	Nebbegård no longer stands where it used to, and the reason for that is the following: Nebbegård and Østergård both had a nisse. These two did not have good relations with each other because, to enrich their masters, they stole grain from each other. One night they wound up meeting each other, and each one had a giant cargo of stolen grain. Now they fought for a long time, but the end result was that the nisse from Nebbe had to give in and he was killed. Then the Ødsted nisse trounced all over Nebbe, so they were forced to move the farm a little ways away so the nisse wouldn’t have any power. They did that, and since then there was peace.
DS_II_C_104	Traveling monsters	A night raven is supposed to be someone who is buried at a T-shaped field marker and who has done something wrong. There are certain paths in the ground they follow before they come out. A girl had once been out doing the evening milking, and then she heard the night raven too, and she yelled at it. But then it came after her, and she hurried inside and locked the door. But the next morning, the door was completely covered with blood.
DS_II_C_106	Traveling monsters	When I was a little boy, I often heard tell of the nightraven, but I never saw it. The men went and got heather far away, and it was often quite late before they got home. One time late at night during the summer I went past a man who was going to get heather. Then we heard a bird that came from far out to the west and swung right in over us and it said, "Baw-u-u! baw-u-u!" so it echoed in the air. Another bird came after it that had more of a peep in its voice. "What was that?" I say. "Don't worry about it," he says. "That's the nightraven." -- "I'm not worrying about it, I'm just asking about it." Later I heard the old peoples' stories, that all those who committed suicide were to be buried in a T-shaped field divide, and they could dig or push a grain of sand aside each year so that, after many years, they could come up to the surface and fly off toward the holy grave, but they could only fly a certain distance each year. It could take many hundreds of years before they reached it.
DS_II_C_112	Traveling monsters	The night raven is someone who has been conjured. There's supposed to be one who was conjured out here in Gunrderupgård heath. I can't remember how many thousand rooster steps it is from the farm but every year, just before Christmas, there's a horrible noise and then it takes a step toward the farm. There were three like that who followed along with each other one evening before Christmas, and then there's a horrible wail. They ask each other what it could possibly be, they couldn't understand it, and they ran as fast as they could. Then they come to a place and they go in and tell them about it, they couldn't figure out what it could possibly be. "You were lucky you didn't get in its way; it's a horrible thing, and many people have had real problems with it." Then one of the farmhands asks what it is. That was the nightraven, he says. Another one was knocked out cold so many times because he'd encountered it; he was the cowhand at the farm, and he'd told this old man about it.
DS_II_C_118	Traveling monsters	It is common knowledge among the old people in the local parishes that Gjemsø in the old days was called Broby, but because of something that happened the name was changed. They say that one time a griffen, called a gam by the people, came flying and sat itself down on a tall mountain near the town, called Hellebjærg, and sat there for two days, and nobody dared leave their house or let their cattle out. After a while, they let a bull out on the road and it went and brayed, and the gam became aware of it, and swung down and grabbed him in his claws and flew up on the mountain again with him, and ate his blood and his flesh. After that, the gam flew off on his way. And since then the town is called Gamshøj and now, after normal usage, Gjemsø.
DS_II_C_24	Traveling monsters	Once there was a hunter, he was so eager to hunt, that he wished that he could hunt forever, then Our Lord could keep heaven. His wish was granted too, so one can hear him at night rush through the air, and his three dogs: Sink, Dink and Falli follow him with their glowing tongues hanging out of their mouths.
DS_II_C_25	Traveling monsters	A rifleman from Wojens in Salling wished that he could live and hunt here on the earth, then Our Lord could keep heaven. He's called Wojens hunter. I've heard him right over our farm at night. He sucks (blows), and his dogs howl.
DS_II_C_36	Traveling monsters	It is told that Valdemar Atterdag, under the name of Fynshoved man, made some hunting expeditions through the northern part of Fyn. He went through a farm in Egense on Hindsholm where there were two doors opposite each other, and at the time when people expected him, they left the doors open. When he came through the northernmost town, Norskov, on the trip to Fynshoved, he had gotten thirsty and he knocked on the door of a house to get something to drink. The woman opened the door and gave him a pitcher of beer (others say it was buttermilk) to drink. On his trips, Fynshoved man didn't forget to pay for what he received, and it was no different here. Since he didn't have any change, he said to the woman: "Go away with you, my horse will hit you!" The woman ran frightened inside, and at the same time there was a smack on the door. The next day the woman found a silver horseshoe embedded in the door. [Told by Knud Nielsen, Etterup, and told to him by his wife, who was from Hindsholm where the legend is commonly known.]
DS_II_C_68	Traveling monsters	A woman, who had just brewed beer and now stood and drank a cup of coffee, heard the sound of smacking lips behind her. It was three red dogs that were quenching their thirst. Then king Vollermand came in through the door, and she gave him a pitcher of milk for his own mouth and he reassured her and paid her by pouring glowing embers from the fire drawer into her apron.
DS_II_C_78	Traveling monsters	I've heard Howen's hunter. One time he'd gone after a flock of elf women. A person sat under a bridge and then these elf women came running over it. They came flapping along just like a flock of geese. The hunter came behind them, and his dogs panted, and he said, "Tohejj, tohejj!" It's an old legend that he's supposed to chase these women off, but the man who sat under the bridge didn't know whether he caught them or not.
DS_II_C_91	Traveling monsters	My mother's father and another man went down to the sea one morning and wanted to fish. Some more people were supposed to come, and since they'd gotten there too early, they lay down on the beach near the boats. Then two women come running along the beach from the east, and they turned and looked behind themselves. Now, they didn't see these two who were lying there, and then they said to each other: "He can't catch us, because he's lousy (has lice)" Not too much later someone comes riding along and he asked the men if they hadn't seen something. They say yes, they'd seen these two women, and they had said to each other that he couldn't catch them because he was lousy. Then he gets off the horse, pisses in his hands, and wipes himself with the water, and then he rides off again. It doesn't take too long before he comes back, and he had them with him on the back of his horse. They hung each to one side and were tied together by their hair.
DS_II_D_109	Water spirits	A man had been to the inn one fall evening and he went home afterward. Then there was an old horse walking in front of him. "Can't you wait a bit, we could walk together?" The horse doesn't answer, of course, but it did slow down. "That was good that you could wait up, perhaps you could help me, I have a lot to carry. Things are pretty bad tonight, and so you can carry my package and me too." Then he jumped up on the horse and rode into town. When they got to the cemetery, the horse became as big as a house, and the man wound up hanging onto the upper most branch of one of the big trees that are around the cemetery, then he had to get down from there however he could. He crawled down, but it hurt.
DS_II_D_16	Water spirits	One day a fisherman who was walking along the shore saw some mermaids. They had put their sealskins down by the shore and they were sunning themselves on the land. As soon as they saw him, they grabbed their skins and swam away, but one of them wasn’t as quick as the others, so the fisherman took her skin. Now she had to follow him home and become his wife, and they had four children together. But one day when the fisherman wasn’t home, the children found an old skin out by a shack and they showed this to their mother. As soon as she saw it, she ran down to the fjord, but she met her husband there. She asked him to be good to their children, and then she put the skin on and before the man could look around, she was way out in the water.
DS_II_D_33	Water spirits	Earlier, a mermaid, who lived in the Kattegat, let her twelve red cows and her red bull graze on the farmers’ fields. But then the farmers told the mermaid that she had to pay for the cows from then on. But she had nothing to pay with. Yes, they said, she had her belt, which shined of gold and silver. She gave that to them too, but it turned out to be nothing more than a rush. When the mermaid was to drive her cattle out to sea, she turned around and said: “Now, my red bull, now you wander as much as you want on the bottom,” which it did too, and that’s where drifting sandbanks come from.
DS_II_D_4	Water spirits	Merfolk certainly exist. In 1826, when the sea broke in, it had been such incredibly beautiful weather the day before. It was the day that they were supposed to have their Christmas dinner and so the fishermen had gone out and had really started to fish. Then there was one fisherman who was a little ways away from the others fishing. Then a mermaid comes up right next to his boat, and she pulls a sock off one foot and puts it on the other, and it looked so sad, she only had one sock, and she was switching it quickly from one foot to the other. But then he pulls a sock off one of his legs--he had undersocks on--and throws it to the mermaid. She snags it and goes under the water again. After she'd been down for a quarter of an hour or so, then she comes up right next to his boat: "Listen man who gave me the sock, you should hurry ashore, otherwise you'll wind up eating your Christmas dinner here tonight." Then he and his buddies hurried to get ashore, and just as soon as they had come ashore, the mermaid raised such huge a storm that everyone who was at sea drowned. But the man and his men were saved. That was the day the sea broke in.
DS_II_D_40	Water spirits	Ry River is very deep, and it is supposed to yell out each year: “The time has come, but the man has yet to come,” and then somebody drowns. One time, nobody had drowned for twelve years, but then it happened that twelve threshers who had been working at Birkelse during the winter were walking home at night, all twelve of them drowned. Because if it is carried over one or more years, then the river takes all of them it has due all at once.
DS_II_D_45	Water spirits	A river man lives in Odense river. Every year he requires a victim, and if it happens during a single year that nobody drowns, then he’ll make sure to take two the next year. There's a story that two small boys once went and played by the river banks and one of them fell into the water. “No, I want both of you, I didn’t get any last year,” and at the same time the other boy slipped out into the water and they both drowned. A couple of men who witnessed the accident from the other bank at a little distance wanted to try and help the boys but they came too late. The boys were drowned and they never found their bodies; the river man had held onto them. This was told to me in and around Odense by many people, among them my own mother and my aunt, Maren Kirstine Johansen, who lived in Dræby, and by old Madam Brun and Smith Rasmussen in Odense.
DS_II_D_48	Water spirits	Liver river, which runs a half mile west of Hjørring and drains into the ocean near Tornby, has a bad reputation. Every year, it craves a human life. Sometimes they've heard the following words come from the river: "The time has come, but not the man." Then it isn't too long before a person drowns, and the person who is chosen can't avoid that fate, since they'll have no rest until they come down to the river.
DS_II_D_72	Water spirits	One night down near Bækgren between Borup and Blans, a whole group of carding girls came and wanted to cross the river. It was swollen and the bridge was washed out and now they had no idea how they could get over. Then one of the girls exclaimed, “If only we had a horse, then we could ride over.” Immediately a gray horse appeared and stood next to them. One of the girls immediately got up on it and it turned out that there was plenty of room for more. So another one sat up on the horse, but there was just as much room as before. Now more girls got up, and all the while the animal grew, and got longer and longer so, after a while, all the carding girls had found a place on its back. When they were all up, the horse went out into the river with them. Until now, the girls hadn’t said a word out of shear amazement, but right in the middle of the river one of them exclaimed: “Jesus Christ’s cross, what a long horse!” At these words the beast disappeared out from under them, and all the girls lay in the middle of the water. Most people believe that it was “a troll” which they had ridden on and it had to yield when the cross was named.
DS_II_D_73	Water spirits	One evening, ten or so girls were walking home from the carding house, and then they had to cross Borup stream. Now, they knew ahead of time that the bridge had washed out, and they went and discussed this: "If only there's a horse standing down there that will ride us over the stream." And when they got down there, a big black horse was standing in the water. Then they got up on it, one after the other, and there was still room for more. Then the first one looked back and said, "Jesus Christ's cross, what a long horse!" Then the horse threw them all into the stream and disappeared.
DS_II_D_77	Water spirits	Some farmhands and girls from Vium wanted to go to a dance in Torning. They took the road over the so-called west bridge, a ford near the aforementioned town. When they got there, it was high water, so they couldn’t get over the foot bridge. They discussed how they were going to get across. While they stood there, they discovered a headless horse; one of the bravest sat up on the horse and more followed his example... The horse grew so long that its front part reached the opposite bank, while the back side stood dry on the other side. While they were now waiting like that, one exclaimed: “Jesus Christ, now I’ve never seen so long a horse!” As soon as that was said, the horse broke in the middle and the farmhands and girls were dumped into the water.
DS_II_D_8	Water spirits	Once there was a sailor from Borre who was out sailing near Søbjærg. He found a big glove there, which he took and had its pair made in Borre, and he put them both down where he had found the first one. A little while later, when he sailed from Borre, he heard a loud voice yell when he came past Søbjærg: "Listen, my glove friend, put your skiff in at Borre, since Tolk is shivering and the oaks in Norway are creaking." The skipper lay in at Borre again and immediately after a storm came up, and no one had ever seen anything like it, and all the ships that were out at sea were destroyed. Borre is a town on Møen to which people sailed in the old days. Søbjærg was at the time a mound out in the lake, but now it is surrounded by meadow. It is between Sømose and Klinten. "Tolk" is the name of the water in Grönsund (Green Sound); it predicts bad weather for the people of Møen. This was told by Kirsten Andersdatter from Borre who learned it from her father.
DS_II_D_99	Water spirits	Fifty years ago, a farmhand who had been a cavalry soldier went out often at night to look for some horses and he had a rope in his pocket with a stick in it which he used for a bit. When it he came across a band of horses, he gladly got up on the back of one of them. Once he found a mottled horse which was very beautiful. He sat up on it but it rode with him out into a mill pond so that he had to let himself drift back to the bank. The horse disappeared into the pond with a huge snort when he had gotten off. Since then he never took horses to ride on again.
DS_II_D_99	Water spirits	Fifty years ago, a farm hand who had been a soldier often went out at night to look for horses, and he had a rope in his pocket with a little stick in it, which he used as a bit. When it happened that he found a flock of horses, he would gladly get up on one of them. One time, he found a mottled horse that was really beautiful. He got up on it, but it rode with him out into a millpond, so he had to get off at the bank, and the horse disappeared into the millpond with a loud roar, when he had gotten off. Since then, he never took another horse to ride.
DS_II_E_108	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	The body of a viper is good against poison and against tympanitis in cattle. That's why when the farmhands went to the swamp in the old days with the sharp peat shovel in their hand, they never hesitated to decapitate the vipers, they pulled the skin off it and put it up under their hatband, where it sat and wriggled until evening, because a snake doesn't die before sundown.
DS_II_E_115	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	A woman in Madum told me that her father had known a man who one day had been out harvesting grain near a river and out of habit he wound up injuring a viper there. At noontime, he lay down to sleep, but no sooner had he lain down than a viper came and wanted to hit him. He noticed that it was just like the one he'd injured, and it wanted revenge, and so he took it and threw over to the other side of the river, and so then he figured that it was well out of the way, and so he lay quietly down to sleep again, but he woke with the hit of a viper bite, and so it got its revenge anyway.
DS_II_E_117	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	A man who was called Niels Krog and was my neighbor went out on the heath and watched the sheep. There were a huge number of vipers and almost every night they bit a sheep. He was really bad about killing them, and therefore they really hated him. He had a staff with which he smacked them. Then there was a woman who taught him to say to the first one he met: “If you’ll let me mine be, I’ll let you yours be.” After that he left them alone and they him. It was here in Kloster heath it happened.
DS_II_E_119	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	When you get the fat from a white viper, you become clairvoyant. A little girl could see that a cow that had just come from the bull was with calf. There was one guy who had killed a white viper so the vipers always chased him. Down in Himmerland there's a cunning woman who heals with viper meat. Pastor Worm, who was the minister here, said that he once came into Rold school, and there were two small girls from a nearby farm who had been sick for a while, the one had already started school, but the other one hadn't. Then Worm asks the sister how things were with her. Well, she was sick. What advice had they taken? They ate viper meat, she said. "Why haven't you and your sister gotten better?" -- "Well she talked while she ate it." They got it on their sandwiches. Kræ Mon here in Gudum eats vipers. He cuts the head and tail and stomach off, dries them in the sun, and then they're just as good as salted eel.
DS_II_E_125	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	One shouldn't kill grass snakes and vipers, since the more you hate that kind of trash, the more of it you see. That belief used to be quite common, and they also used to think that grass snakes and toads could milk the cows, and they thought that they wanted to eat food with the children.
DS_II_E_136	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Grass snakes force toads to hatch their eggs.
DS_II_E_142	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Brøndsted mill has always been filled with grass snakes, and so it was one day that both of old Søren Møller's sons wanted to go out and shoot them, as the snakes were laying there sunning themselves round about on the ground by the big alder trees. When the old man heard the shots, he comes out to them and says, "Boys, be careful! They've been here since before my time and they'll be here after, look up at the trees and hurry out of there!" And when they looked up, the trees were full of grass snakes, hanging on all the branches. They hadn't noticed that.
DS_II_E_144	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	A farmhand once met a pair of grass snakes that were slithering about, and he killed one of them. But after that, the other one wouldn't leave him alone, wherever he was, it followed him, and finally he died. I've heard that if you kill a viper king, the vipers will never leave you alone, you could be sure that you'd get bitten.
DS_II_E_158	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	A farmhand had caught a viper king and he had it boiled in a pot. But a boy licked the fat. Come out ... One pulling a cow, that had been to the bull. It didn't need to go there any more, since now it was carrying a black mottled calf. Now the farmhand got angry and shouted, "Where have you been?" -- "I haven't been anywhere." -- "Have you been in the kitchen?" Well, the boy didn't really want to admit it, but he had to, and now he had gotten the wisdom.
DS_II_E_160	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	The white viper can become a lindorm if it gets a chance to continue to grow but nobody sees it. There was a tiny little thicket in the heath near Underliden mountain, it was also called Pirrup thicket, and a farmhand had cut himself a switch in the thicket. Then he comes to Copenhagen to work, and he meets a man on the road, who takes this switch and looks at it. Then he asks him where he'd cut it. Well, he answered, I cut it in a place where I was allowed to cut. Then the other one asks if he couldn't be allowed to see the place where he'd cut the switch. The farmhand agreed to that, but they couldn't do it now, it was in Vendsyssel, and he was in Copenhagen. Well, he'd be given free to travel, says the man, if he could show precisely from which branch he had cut the switch. Yes, he was certain he could do that, but he wasn't sure it would fit the switch, since he'd cut a piece from the switch. That didn't matter, just as long as he could show him the branch and the tree, then they'd go on the trip for that. They went off and came to the place and he showed him the branch. Then the strange man blew into the branch and, at that moment, a whole bunch of vipers came up around them. Then the farmhand got scared and would have run away, but the other one said he shouldn't be scared, he promised him that they wouldn't do anything to him. Finally, the white viper came up, and he took it, and they traveled off again.
DS_II_E_163	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Sometimes, early in the spring, one can see a whole lot of grass snakes hanging along the fences, there can be several hundred. They are seeking advice, the king grass snake sits right in the middle of them, but it isn't too easy to see him. But whoever could kill the king snake and eat the fat, he would become very rich and wise. A boy by the name of Anders went around asking for a little bit of food, and came through the forest where a king grass snake lived. He didn't think about it, but cut himself a hazel switch to support himself, and went on his way. One day he came to a wise minister who asked where he'd gotten the switch. He told him. The minister offered that he could stay there and get good food and a warm bed to sleep in at night if he'd show him the place. The boy promised he would, and the next day they went there. The minister told him that he should go home now, because now he could handle it alone. After that, he led the king snake up, and he carried it home and cooked it in a big pot. The next day, the boy came out to the kitchen where the pot stood, and he wasn't hungry, but since there was a bread crust on the table, he took it and dipped it in the fat that was floating on top, and ate it. At that moment the minister came and chased him out the door. "Things were good for you," he said, "but now you took what I wanted, so now you can get lost, now you've also become far wiser than me." The boy became so incredibly wise (cunning) and rich as well, so he traveled up to the forest's edge and bought himself a farm that was called Brødgård [Bread farm], and there was a lot of talk about this Anders Brødgård.
DS_II_E_170	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Not too many years ago, a man lived in Vendsyssel who went by the name “Hals minister.” It was said about him that he was gifted with foresight, he could see what there was inside a person and, as soon he saw that, he could also say what would happen in the future. He was supposed to have said that he got his wisdom in the following way: When he was a little boy it happened one day that he came home hungry from the field and when he didn’t find any people at home, he went into the dining room by himself to make himself a sandwich. A small pot that was standing on one of the shelves caught his eye, in it was some wonderfully tasty fat, and he ate it on a piece of bread. But when his mother came home, she immediately missed the fat in the pot, she asked him if he’d eaten it, to which he answered yes. “You shouldn’t have done that,” and now she told him that the fat was from a big white viper, it was the king of the vipers. In the olden days, when there were far more vipers than there are now days, the shepherds who watched the cattle out on the bog often saw viper nests. The vipers sat in there in a moss tussock in an uncountable mass and stuck their heads into the air and in the middle of the nest there was one, much bigger than the others, with a white head and that was the viper king.
DS_II_E_210	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	When a rooster gets to be seven years old, it lays an egg. If it is hatched, a devil comes out of it that will take the hens. You can't tell the difference between that rooster egg and regular hen eggs.
DS_II_E_211	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	The basilisk is a bird that has a hole in its right wing, and when a person looks into the hole, the person dies. It can also kill people by looking at them. When a rooster reached nine years old, it would lay an egg, and from that would come a basilisk.
DS_II_E_214	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	When they have a large mead barrel, and they let the mead get too old and don't tap it, then a basilisk develops, and it smashes the barrel to pieces, and then the people it looks at die.
DS_II_E_217	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	My grandmother said that if one can get a basilisk to look at its reflection down in a well so that it sees itself, then it will die. Rooster eggs are no bigger than dove eggs.
DS_II_E_22	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Lindkjær is the name of a big peat bog which belongs to the Ravnholdt estate. In olden days there was supposed to be a big lindorm in the bog, and it’s described like a terrible monster. It was the size of a hitching post or loading stock, and nobody dared get near to its lair. A man who once got too close to the bog was pursued by the terrible snake all the way to Ryslinge, which is about a mile from there. In his despair, the man climbed up into the church tower there and the lindorm couldn’t follow him. It attempted to knock the church over with its tail but couldn’t do it. The man, who with great fright saw that it was hitting the church and that it reached nearly up to the sound holes when it stood on its tail, escaped alive from there. Finally, a sharpshooter from Ravnholt was supposed to have shot the lindorm and thus freed the district of it.
DS_II_E_22	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Lindkjær is the name of a large peat swamp that belongs to the Ravnholt estate. In the old days there was supposed to have been a lindorm in that swamp, and it is described as a horrible monster. It was as big as a log used to hold down a hayload, or a roof timber, and no one dared go near where it lived. A man who once got too close to the swamp was chased by the serpent all the way to Ryslinge, several kilometers away. There, out of need, the man crawled up into the church tower and the lindorm couldn't follow him up there. It tried to knock the church over with its tail, but it couldn't do that either. The man who'd fearfully seen the serpent lashing at the church and seen the tail reach nearly to the sound holes, got away with his life. Finally, a sharpshooter from Ravnholt shot the serpent and freed the district from it.
DS_II_E_42	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	In Hvidbjærg church at Tyholm there was once a lindorm, and when it got so big that it could reach around the church, they believed that the church would be toppled. Then it was important to get it killed. But there was nobody who dared go up against it. Then they decided to use a bull calf, and raise it on newly milked milk for three years. The people in Hvidbjærg provided the milk for that communally and during that time nobody dared go into the church. Now when the time was up, the bull had become big and strong and was to fight the monster. Then the bull was let into the church and the people stood in a crowd outside to find out the end. There was an incredible row and the bull snorted so loud that the church shook but after a while everything grew quiet in there and some of the bravest crawled up to the windows to see if the monster had been killed. Then they saw that both the lindorm and the bull lay dead and swam in their own blood. Then they opened the church door in a rush and dragged the dead bodies out. They got the lindorm down to the fjord and into a boat and they sailed with it to a little island, and buried it there and that island has been called Lindø ever since.
DS_II_E_48	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	My old grandfather told me when I was a child that the parish people came one Sunday to Toksværd church on Sjælland, and there they found a frightening monster, which was called a lindorm, lying outside the door. Nobody dared get near it, so that day they had to go home with great sorrow without being able to go to church. Only one of the men went up in the tower and took a hard shot at the monster, but everything bounced off its thick skin. They got a bull calf brought over to the parsonage and the parish people brought milk and blood for it to drink. Over the course of a few months it grew so strong that it became completely uncontrollable and finally smashed the stall door, then it jumped the cemetery wall and tore the monster to death. During the time that the calf was growing, they went to church by making a door in the north side and the other one was walled up. Now the entrance is on the west end.
DS_II_E_91	Wiverns and small creepy-crawlies	Over in Jutland there lived a man who could drive out both rats and mice and since the people on Samsø were plagued with those kind of things, he was sent for and asked if he couldn’t come and practice his art. Sure enough he’d do that, but to protect himself against a lindorm, if one was to be found over there, he requested that a big bonfire be lit and kept burning as well as a strong horse be kept saddled and ready. The man now began his sport; but then a lindorm came at him from over in Lindholm. He got up on the horse and when the lindorm was close to him he rode right through the fire. As soon as the lindorm saw that, it followed in quick pursuit. He repeated this so many times that finally the lindorm got burned and died from that. The next year the man came over here again and he wanted to go and see the place where he’d defeated the lindorm; but while he went and kicked at the pieces of it, he got a bone splinter in his foot, and died from that. There is an old saying that the person who kills a lindorm may not come back to the place where the killing took place because that will cost him his life.
DS_II_F_1	Werewolves and nightmares	When a woman is pregnant for the first time and is afraid of the birthing pains, she can escape them whenever she wants. Before the day, she should go where there's a horse skeleton or a horse placenta and set it up. If she crawls through there three times in the name of the devil, she will never feel any labor pains; but there is a curse that attaches to her first born, the child will be half animal; if it is a boy, he will become a werewolf, but if it is a girl, she will become a mare. These poor little ones look like other children except that their eyebrows grow together over their nose. But they are also born with a hairy spot between their shoulders; and the mother tries to hide it quite conscientiously while the child is young, but when it gets bigger, then she tells it what the spot means and then the child has to be careful not to get undressed in front of others. When the child is fully grown, the curse of the animal comes out; as soon as it gets dark, the unlucky one goes away from other people, and the spot grows bigger until the whole body is covered with hair and it takes on the animal shape. Then there's a werewolf or a mare there, depending on whether it is a man or a woman who is cursed. The werewolf goes out to see if he can find a pregnant woman; if he can and if he can tear the fetus alive from the woman and kill it, then his curse is lifted and he is like other people from then on. When a werewolf goes out, it limps about on three legs, while the fourth sticks out back like a tail. Dogs are always mean to a poor person like that, and always chase him, barking and howling, and since it can only limp on three legs, the dogs have an easy time catching it; it has to try to escape through thick bushes and thorns, where the dogs don't dare go after it. You can always see on a werewolf person when the dogs have been after him, since he has all sorts of scratches on his face. A werewolf can also be released from his unfortunate circumstances if someone, while he is in his normal shape, says to him that he is a werewolf. One doesn't know that much about the shape of the mare, except that it is a little furry creature. The mare most often tries to get in where men are sleeping, but it can also decide to "ride" women. It can only come in through the keyhole or through a hole drilled in the door, the ceiling, the window or some other wood, and so one has to be careful to plug all holes like that if one wants to avoid being ridden by the mare (nightmares). One can also protect against the mare by placing one's clogs with the heels in, because the mare cannot come up into a bed unless it can step properly into the clogs first. The riding consists of a very painful pressure on the chest all the way up to the throat, it is just like one is going to be strangled. This feeling comes from the mare sitting on top of the blanket right over one's heart, and even though the mare is little, it is incredibly heavy when it lies on one like that. If one is afraid of the mare, one should get a round hand sieve (såld) and set it up so that it can fall down over the mare and catch it, but one needs to use a rope or whatever one wants to use, so that as soon as the mare lies down, that the sieve can fall just by making a small movement, since once it has lain down, then it is impossible to move even a finger; the only thing one can move during the riding is one's eyes. All of a sudden, before one realizes it, the mare is gone, one doesn't notice it come in, nor that it leaves one's bedroom. If one can get catch a mare in the manner mentioned, the mare is released from its curse, because it does not have the strength to throw the sieve aside until it has counted all the holes in the bottom of it; but it cannot do that. When the first rays of the day hit it, it turns into a person immediately, and then it will never be a mare again. It probably is not just a few pregnant women who believe in werewolves and, because of that, do not dare go outside when it gets dark.
DS_II_F_101	Werewolves and nightmares	There was a place where the farmhand could lie in his bed and hear when the mare was on the horses. But as soon as he yelled “Fyllifyl!” then it got off of them. But then it wasn’t too long before it came back and wanted to get up on the horse again. He noticed that it stood and lurked and wanted to come when he had gone to bed. Then he talked to the farmer about how bad it was and how the horses were about to waste away because of it. They’d heard that if one threw a pail of water on it, then it would go away. So then one night he and the farmer stood there with a pail of water and when they heard it come, they threw it on the horse. Then a naked woman was standing there, “Oh, why did you do that, I have to go over both lakes and salt water to get to my small children.” Then they helped her get home and she didn’t wind up going as a mare any longer.
DS_II_F_104	Werewolves and nightmares	One time a stablehand in Åker went out into the stable and there’s a mare and it’s skittish and very ill at ease. He stands and looks at it a bit, and he decides to go up to it and feel its mane. And he feels something like the beginning of a mare lock. He feels about some more and notices something just like a darning needle, but it was so soft that he could bend it. Then he pulled it out and went back into the stable with it. Yes, it was a darning needle with an eyelet sure enough, but he could bend it completely over itself. He put the point in through the eyelet and tossed it like that down into the dung heap. The next morning when he came out into the stable, he sees to his great surprise that the next door neighbor’s wife is lying and kicking about down in the dung heap with her legs up behind her head and she couldn’t get out of there.
DS_II_F_106	Werewolves and nightmares	To make sure that the mare does not ride the plow, it should always be placed with the hitch turned toward the east.
DS_II_F_15	Werewolves and nightmares	There used to be talk that if a farmhand took the skin that the foal lies in when a mare foals (the placenta) and walks through it, he could turn into a wolf. There was a farmhand who had done it, and then he and his master were in the meadow haying. Then it came over him, and he turned into a wolf, and he went over and ripped the foal to death and tore a big part off of it. A little later he came back and turned into a farmhand again and lay down next to the master and complained that he didn’t feel good, at which point the man said: “No wonder, since you’ve torn my foal apart.” They called this kind of an animal a werewolf. One probably has to do something more or say something other than just crawling through that skin, but I don’t know what.
DS_II_F_18	Werewolves and nightmares	A man and a woman, both young people, drove one winter night in overcast weather at midnight home from a visit. They sat alone in the wagon. Then the man says to the woman that he has to get off for a little bit and that she’d have to hold the horses. But before he got off, he took a hand-knit yellow scarf from his neck and tossed it to her, while he said that if something came, she should hit at it hard with that. Then he hops down from the wagon on the left side and goes into the woods. Soon thereafter a werewolf comes back, puts its forelegs up on the nearest front wheel and makes like it wants to come up into the wagon. She lashes out as hard as she can with the scarf for several minutes. Suddenly the animal makes an about face, scoots off into the bushes and disappears. Shortly thereafter the man comes back, gets up into the wagon and drives home. When they got into the living room, and the woman had lit a candle, she saw that there was a yellow woolen thread between the man’s teeth. Then she says, “But Per, you’re a werewolf.” “Yes, but not anymore, since now I am saved, Maren!.”
DS_II_F_18	Werewolves and nightmares	A man and a woman, both young, were driving home one winter night at midnight after a visit. Then the man says to the woman, that he needed to get off for a bit, and she would have to hold the horses. But before he got down, he took a home knit, yellow woolen scarf from his throat and tossed it to her, and said that if anything came, she should hit at it as hard as she could with it. Then he jumps off the wagon to the left and goes into the woods; shortly afterwards, a werewolf comes back and puts its forelegs up on the near front wheel and makes like it wants to get into the wagon. She hits at it as well hard as she can with the scarf for several minutes. All of a sudden, the animal turns around and disappears into the bushes. A little later, the man comes back, gets into the wagon and drives home. When they come into the living room, and the woman got a lamp lit, she saw that there was a yellow woolen thread in the man's teeth. Then she says, "But Per, you are a werewolf." -- "Well, not any more, because now I am saved Maren!"
DS_II_F_2	Werewolves and nightmares	A werewolf looked like a normal wolf except that it only had three legs. It was a cursed man, who during the day was like everyone else, but on certain nights became a werewolf and wandered widely about. A person could be freed from this unfortunate condition by eating a child's heart. Pregnant women therefore would only under great duress walk alone at night, but even if they had but a little boy with them, then the werewolf had no power. In the same way, a werewolf could be freed if someone said to it when it attacked a pregnant woman, "You're a werewolf!"
DS_II_F_32	Werewolves and nightmares	There was a man and a farmhand who were out on the heath and digging peat besides the swamp. Then the man says to the farmhand: “Let's take a real nap today, because peat diggers are allowed that.” This man had become enemies with his neighbor. That guy had an old mare nag which stood with her foal nearby. So now after they’ve lain down to sleep, the man gets up and walks away, but the farmhand notices that the man has gone. He thought that he’d gone off to work, but then he sees that one hell of a big wolf is coming, and it jumps up on the foal. Then the farmhand thought: “That would be a real shame, if it’s going to go and tear the man’s foal apart.” With that he grabs his scythe and wants to go and save the foal, but as soon as he gets there, the wolf rips the throat out of the foal, and he chases the wolf away, but the foal was dead. The farmhand was really sad about this and went and looked about and the man was gone and there was nobody to see. He thought about going over to the other man to tell him that the foal was dead. But in the meantime he sees that the man he’d been digging peat with comes up from the left side of the hill, where they had lain down. “Where’ve you been?” says the farmhand. “I’ve been alone on the other side by myself.” “No you haven’t” says the farmhand, “That’s a lie, and you’re a werewolf and a devil and I’m a witness that you tore the man’s foal apart.” Just as soon as it's revealed, then they can’t become it anymore, says the legend.
DS_II_F_35	Werewolves and nightmares	A cotter, whose wife was pregnant, came home one evening after work. The door was locked so he had a hard time getting in, but the earth was dug up one place under the foundation sill. When he came into the main room, his wife was lying on the bed and was dead, and her belly was ripped open. Then the poor man knew who had done it, and he looked about the house, and found the werewolf sitting in the muck pile, eating the baby.
DS_II_F_4	Werewolves and nightmares	When girls crawl naked through a foal's skin, then they'll have children just as easily as a jade foals… The werewolf goes about in the shape of a wild animal or a big dog and digs itself in under the foundation stones of a house.
DS_II_F_50	Werewolves and nightmares	Women with eyebrows that grow together will most often become mares. One writes the mare cross over the horses in the stable. A cross like that is a six-pointed star and is written in one stroke just as mentioned in number 58 (DS II F 58).
DS_II_F_54	Werewolves and nightmares	Against mare ride (nightmares), one sticks a knife in the bed post at night. If there is blood on the knife, then the mare has been there at night. 
DS_II_F_58	Werewolves and nightmares	Against being mare ridden, it is of utmost importance to draw three so-called mare crosses on the bed alcove door. Each cross is made by writing one stroke at once, so that it makes five sharp angles, and the whole cross has the shape of a five-pointed star.
DS_II_F_62	Werewolves and nightmares	A mare or a werewolf can be saved by naming the (person's) name, or if one can plug up the keyhole, when it's inside, and catch it.
DS_II_F_65	Werewolves and nightmares	A farmhand and a hired boy shared a room, but the farmhand was always tormented by nightmares. So one evening he bored a hole all the way through the door post and said to the boy: "When it gets on top of me, jump quickly up and jam this stick in the hole," and with that he gave him a stopper, he had cut it so that it just fit the hole. When it came again at night, the boy did just as the farmhand had told him to. They lit a candle and they saw that there was a naked lady standing in the middle of the room. When they pulled the stick out of the door post, she disappeared.
DS_II_F_65	Werewolves and nightmares	A farm hand and a boy were asleep in a room together, but the farm hand was always plagued with nightmares. Then one night he bores a hole completely through the door post and then says to the boy: “When it gets up on me now, you should quickly jump up and drive this peg into the hole.” and with that he handed him a stopper he had just cut so that it fit the hole. Then when it came again that night, the boy did just as the farm hand had told him. Then they lit a candle and saw that there was a naked woman standing there in the middle of the room. As soon as they pulled the peg out of the door post, she disappeared.
DS_II_F_7	Werewolves and nightmares	The werewolf tore sheep and calves to death and attacked the cows so that blood would run from their udders. Once a lamb disappeared everyday from the town’s herdsman one place, and people thought that it was a wolf or a fox that was doing it. But the woman didn’t really believe her husband and hung her old red shirt over the lamb. She took care that all the lambs came in, but one disappeared nevertheless, and when the man came in for dinner, she saw threads from her red shirt stuck in between his teeth. There’s a saying about people whose eyebrows have grown together over their nose: “He could become a werewolf.”
DS_II_F_71	Werewolves and nightmares	A farmhand who was seriously plagued by nightmares got the hired boy to help him one night. He blocked all the holes into the room except for one because the mare was supposed to come in through it, he thought. Then the boy was to get up when he noticed something was wrong and block that hole too. Then he was to call to the farmhand so he could come to himself again. The boy did this too, and in the morning there was a girl with them in the bed. Nobody knew her and she didn’t know where she had come from or anything else for that matter. The farmhand was the son of the farm owner and he married the girl and inherited the farm and they had a lot of kids together. Then one day he wanted to show her the hole that she had come in through and then she scooted back out of it and he never saw her again.
DS_II_F_73	Werewolves and nightmares	If you take a bucket of cold water and throw it on a person who is tormented by nightmares, the moment that he is troubled by it, then the person doing the loving (riding) will become visible, and then one can happily discover who it is. There's a story about a queen who loved horses. In particular, she had one horse that was the dearest of all to her, and she was busy with it both when she was awake and asleep. The stall hand noticed that things weren't right with the horse, and he thought it was ridden by a mare. So he grabbed a bucket of water and threw it on it, and see: now the queen was sitting on its back.
DS_II_F_8	Werewolves and nightmares	If the eyebrows have grown together over a man's nose, then it's a werewolf.
DS_II_G_102	Religious legends	Two farmhands are out digging peat, and then they lie down after they've had their lunch, and the first one falls asleep immediately. Then the second one sees that a white mouse runs out of his mouth, and there's a stream and it runs over there and it scurries about there, and so the second farmhand gets up and goes over and lays his shovel over the stream, it was a long, hooked shovel. Then the mouse runs over. On the other side, there was a big ant hill with horse ants, and the mouse runs into the ant hill. A little later it comes out and runs back into the mouth of the first farmhand. The second farmhand doesn't say a thing. "I had such a bad dream, and was in great danger," says the first farmhand. "What happened?" says the second one. "I had to get over a large body of water, and I couldn't, but then something came and laid a bridge, and I went over it, and over on the other side there was so much money, it was incredible the amount of money there was." The second farmhand still kept quiet and didn't say anything and they went home. Later, the second farmhand went back and dug the ant hill aside, and there he finds a pot filled with money. He took that and kept it for himself.
DS_II_G_106	Religious legends	Two farmhands were out digging peat, and then they lay down to take their midday nap. Then a mouse ran out of the mouth of one of the farmhands, and then it came back again, and then the other one held his hand in front of the other one's mouth, so it couldn't get in, and then he died.
DS_II_G_107	Religious legends	Two farmhands were talking out on the heath about what was going on at home. The one says to the other that he could see what was going on, and he asked him just not to move. Then he lay down to sleep, and the other saw that a white mouse ran out of his mouth. After a while, the mouse came back and ran into the mouth of the sleeping farmhand, who then woke up and could say for certain what was happening at home.
DS_II_G_219	Religious legends	Once there were a pair who were engaged some place in Jutland, and a short while before their wedding day, the man died. The girl went about mourning him quite a bit. She worked for a parish clerk who lived a little ways outside of town close to the church, and one evening she'd been in town on an errand and was walking home again when she saw someone on horseback riding towards her on the way from the cemetery. The moon was shining clearly and she could see that it was her beloved. When the rider came close to her, he sang, "The moon shines brightly, the dead one rides sickly, aren't you afraid?" The girl stood stock still out of fright and the rider sang the same thing again, but when he began to sing it a third time, she started running home. When the rider saw that, he jumped off his horse and ran after her, but she managed to slam the door before he reached her and she could hear from inside how he stood outside scraping on the door.
DS_II_G_221	Religious legends	A farmhand and a girl got engaged once. The farmhand journeyed off abroad in the meantime, after promising his beloved that he would come and get her on a specific day. He died before then, but she knew nothing about it. Finally, the day came, and he came riding up too, and she followed happily along with him. She sat in front up on the horse and he was behind her, and now they went at a fast trot through unknown areas. It was a beautiful clear moonlit night that night so they could see their shadows on the ground, and the dead one sang, "The moon shines brightly, the dead ride upright, aren't you scared my little girl?" He had certainly seemed strange to her on the trip, but she answered, "Why should I be afraid when I am with you?" After they had ridden for a while, they came to a cemetery, and he got off the horse there and disappeared. Later, she discovered that was where he had died and was buried.
DS_II_G_266	Religious legends	A person who was mute came into a grocer's house who was lying on his deathbed, it was just at the moment that the spirit was going to leave him. Then the mute begins to howl and complain and make noises and shout. A little later, he goes into a market town, and at the same moment a soldier comes riding by quickly. Then his horse trips and he broke his neck. When the mute saw that, he claps his hands and is so happy and pleased that it is alarming. When people saw how he was enjoying himself, they wanted to know why. Then a prayer was said at the pulpit asking the Lord to open the mute's mouth so he could talk. The prayer was answered and then he said, "When I got to the grocer, the devil was sitting at the head of his bed and took his soul, because he had cheated people in all sorts of ways with his weights and measures. But the soldier, when he fell from his horse and slammed into the ground, he gave a deep sigh to our Lord, and then an angel came from heaven and took his soul and went off to heaven with it."
DS_II_G_317	Religious legends	Over here in Sønderup in Vammen parish there's a big mound out in the swamp, they call it Gjørrighøj, and Holger Danske is supposed to have lived there. Others say that he lived on Fovlum kjær on an island they call Sortholm. There was a castle there too, I've noticed that many times.
DS_II_G_323	Religious legends	Holger Danske is supposed to sit and sleep under one of the Almind hills until Denmark is in need. Until the Turk waters his horse in Kongeåen (King River), then he'll come.
DS_II_G_324	Religious legends	Holger Danske sits in a mound somewhere. My mother said that he sat out in a giant mound in Lovns parish, and there were all sorts of entrances and passages down to him. Every year, they are supposed to give him their hand, because he wants to feel if there is still power in the Danish blood, and then they reach a steel pole down to him, they don't dare reach a hand down. He is supposed to come up and fight for Denmark one more time.
DS_II_G_334	Religious legends	Holger Danske is supposed to sit by a stone wall somewhere here in Denmark, and when the enemies come, by the end there are not supposed to be any more men than can stand around the circumference of a barrel band. Then a thorn bush is supposed to grow up out of Viborg lake, and Holger is supposed to come and tie his horse to that and then water his horse in the lake. Then he will assemble all the twelve-year-old boys and together they will drive the enemies out with flint stones.
DS_II_G_339	Religious legends	The Turk will use Viborg cathedral as a horse stall.
DS_II_G_340	Religious legends	A hawthorn bush is supposed to grow up out of Viborg Lake, and the Danish king is supposed to tie his horse to it when he cannot manage any longer, and then he is to go into the lake and drown himself. They say that the bush has already grown. The enemies are supposed to be the Germans. But Denmark is supposed to finally win the battle with twelve-year-old boys and sixty-year-old men, all the others in between are supposed to have been killed.
DS_II_G_351	Religious legends	In Brud lake in Brædstrup, a birch is supposed to grow, and the Turkish king is supposed to tie his horse there. Some say that the birch is already there.
DS_II_G_87	Religious legends	The Jerusalem's cobbler must rest every Sunday under a harrow.
DS_II_G_88	Religious legends	The Jerusalem's Cobbler can only rest on Christmas eve and he sits on the plows and breaks them in two, when he rests after all his efforts during the rest of the year. That's why you need to bring your plows in so they won't break.
DS_II_G_89	Religious legends	The Jerusalem's Cobbler can only rest one time a year, and then it has to be on a plow, if he can find one to sit on Christmas eve. At the other times of the year, he can't rest, and that's why people have tended to take their plows in before Christmas, because they didn't want him sitting on them. Some have claimed to have seen him that night and his clothes were covered with green moss.
DS_II_H_428	Death portents	Little Hanne Vævers from Bjarselv was the kitchen helper at a funeral. It was a four or six year old child who had died. She stayed the night, and during the night, after the body had been buried, she felt something and said the next morning, "A child is going to leave here soon again." She'd heard driving in the courtyard, just like when the body was driven away the day before. A child died fourteen days later there, too. It wasn't sick except for a single night.
DS_II_H_430	Death portents	One night a farmhand who worked at Kragelund had gone away from home. When he got back, he looked into the courtyard and saw lots of wagons, but it lasted only a moment, and then everything was gone again. A little while later, the man who the farmhand worked for died. He saw something like that at another place he worked and someone at the farm died shortly afterward too.
DS_II_H_484	Death portents	My grandmother was out with her uncle on the church road from Brabrand to True. Just as they were walking along, he said, "Go to the side, little girl," and then he took hold of her and brought her over to the other side of the road. They stood still there by the side of the road and he took his cap off. After they'd stood there a little while, he said, "Well, we can walk now." When she wanted to know what it was, he said that it was a funeral procession that had gone by.
DS_II_J_70	Lights and portents	Maren Plovmand from Tustrupmark tells the following story: My brother Niels and another farmhand, who was called Per, were supposed to drive swine out to the beechnuts in Løvenholms forest in the fall. They were riding and when they had gotten the swine out to their place, they wanted to get some hazel switches to take home to use to make baskets. So they cut a good many switches and bound them together with a thin piece of hazel, lay one across each one of the horses and rode back. They had these shaggy caps on with stiff shades that stuck out and a copper rim on both the hat and the brim. As they are riding along, Niels says: "Your hat is on fire, Per." -- "I don't get that." he says and looks around. "But your beard and hair are also on fire." Then Niels says, "Your whip is on fire too." -- "No matter. I am not letting them go until I have to. Let us say the Lord's Prayer." They did that, but it didn't help, and now they rode silently along, quite afraid. They saw this as a punishment for having stolen the switches. Finally they came to Nörager. There is a little stream there that they had to cross, and as they ride over it, Niels looks back and he sees a glowing wheel, spinning away from the stream and along the road they had come on. After that, everything was over, and they got home to Tustrup safe and sound. Niels didn't want to go in to the house and went immediately to bed in the farmhands' room. But Per wanted to go in and get something to eat. He got sick and didn't sleep at all that night, but Niels slept well.
DS_III_122	Heroes and their sport	Until just a few years ago, there was a large stone out in Nørre-Lem heath that was called Simon's stone, and it was said to have been thrown there by a troll over on the Tylland side who wanted to knock Rødding church down, but it was too heavy for him and the stone landed out in the heath. After a while, people cleaved pieces off of it and took them away, and when Bustrup barn burned down after a lightning strike a few years ago, the rest of the stone was bought by the owner of Bustrup and brought back to the farm and used to rebuild the barn. It was a good thirty loads. You could see the marks of the troll's fingers in the stone.
DS_III_1233	Legends about farms and towns	A farm supposedly once stood near Damsgård swamp in Vesterheden. Then it happened that they slaughtered their pig and decided to play a trick on the minister... They put the pig in a bed and spread a sheet over it. Then the minister asked where the sick one was, and then they lifted the sheet and showed him the pig. But that trick had bad consequences for them. Because as soon as the minister saw what they wanted to do to him, he left the room and went to his wagon, and the farm and everything in it began to sink. In his haste, the minister had forgotten his book on the table; the table didn't sink before the minister had gotten his book. Then everything disappeared into the ground.
DS_III_1238	Legends about farms and towns	Up between the Hammer hills in Hammer parish there is a big swamp covered with a thin layer of grass, but there is no bottom to be found for the first forty feet. A farm was supposed to have lain there once, the owner of which had played a joke on the minister the same way as so many other places. The minister drove himself there, and he drove himself from there, but when he got a little bit away from the farm, he asked his driver if he could see the farm. He answered that he could just see the chimneys, and a little later he couldn't see anything at all.
DS_III_128	Heroes and their sport	In Langkjær near Andrup there is a stone that requires four to six farmhands to lift it. It was supposed to have been thrown once by a giant from Hjerndrup at Steppinge church, but only made it three quarters of the way. Traces of the giant's fingers can be clearly seen in the rock.
DS_III_215	Heroes and their sport	Karby church has two bells because, from the very beginning, it had been decided that it was to be a market town. When the church was finished and they began to ring the bells, the trolls got so angry and upset that they wanted to tear the church down immediately, but they didn't have the power to do that. The people were now going to start building a harbor, but the trolls got their revenge there, because no matter how hard people worked during the day, it was destroyed at night, so it was impossible for them to get a harbor and that's why Karby became what it is today, namely a small rural town.
DS_III_2164	Legends about treasure	A light is seen burning occasionally somewhere out in the field, and there is some sort of treasure hidden out there they say. It’s bad to harm such a light if you happen upon it. There was this forest ranger who saw a light like that out in Nordtorpe—a forest east of Kvændrup town—and he went over to it and swung at it with his staff, but then he couldn’t get away from there again. When he got free, his mouth was pulled askew up under one ear, and it was a long time before he was back to his normal self.
DS_III_2168	Legends about treasure	A light burned out on Skjørbækshede field as well. A farmhand from Stendrup who was walking home from Skjørbækshede one night saw the light, went after it and came up to it. He knew well enough that one is supposed to put iron down at the place where the light burns, but he had neither knife nor flint and iron with him, but he figured out a plan. He hit one of his clogs with the other until it splintered, put the tacks into the ground and went home in stocking feet. The next day, he went out to find his treasure, and he found it sure enough, but the jackpot wasn’t too big, since it was only four shillings. A light can burn for four shillings, but not for anything less.
DS_III_2175	Legends about treasure	I went and was a shepherd in Fristrup enge, that was in the Stigborg meadows. There had once been a gate, but now there wasn’t, just a broken place that went through. At the time, I was still childish enough to go to the other boys and ask them what that blue light out there was. When I mentioned it to them, it went out, so I probably wasn't supposed to talk about it. There must have been money buried there, because it was a blue light, and when it’s blue, then it’s money.
DS_III_2180	Legends about treasure	A farmhand worked at a farm in Dronninglund, and he was there for three years. Every time he was out and came home at night, he saw a light out on their garden wall. So one winter, when they'd finished threshing early and didn’t have anything to do, the son in the farm said to the farmhand: “Can you go out and dig up the garden wall." So he took a shovel and went out there and began to dig peat at the foot of the wall. Just when he dug up a peat divot, some big shillings tumbled out of the peat. He looked a bit closer and found some thirty and something. Then he went in and told the widow that. “Ahh,” she says, “now it’s been discovered. My husband lost a leather purse with sixty daler in it, and he was never able to find it. He looked in the feed bins, in the compost heap, in the outhouses, since he thought he had lost it in one of those places." But the farmhand never saw the light again. It was odd that they never found any more of the money. They have no idea how the money came to lie out there by the garden wall but the man most likely was out there on a call of nature.
DS_III_2198	Legends about treasure	Out on Lundbjærg field there are three mounds. One night many years ago two men from Copenhagen came to the house of a forest ranger and said to the old forest ranger and his people: “Can you show us that mound which lies east of Værum Øled, since it is supposed to have more riches in it than the king’s treasure room." They had read about this in some old books over in Copenhagen. Then the old people thought: “My lord, we could get something out of this." They served the traveling gentlemen well, and showed them one of the other two mounds the next day, and not the right one. The strangers dug in the mound for many days, but didn’t find a thing and went back to Copenhagen again. When they were good and gone, the old forest ranger dug in the right mound where the treasure was, and they found a bunch of gold and silver as well as a large, rusty knight’s sword. They carried all of it home to their little house, and were delighted with their wealth. But when night came, there was such a rummaging about and commotion, that they couldn’t stay in the cottage, and they had to stay up the whole night. The next day, there was nothing wrong, but as soon as it got dark, the same rummaging about began. It lasted like that for three nights, then the man went off and asked the advice of a cunning man. He told them that they should take the sword and carry it back up there and bury it, that would probably help. So they did that and it helped as soon as they got rid of the sword, and now they had become rich.
DS_III_2211	Legends about treasure	Many years ago, some people sat about and amused themselves by telling stories about all sorts of things. One of them fished a lot in the river, and he told this: “A couple of days ago, while I was drifting about in my boat and was poling myself along, I found something in the water which on closer inspection I discovered to be an iron-clad chest — as you know since you were there,” he said to his neighbor. “But we couldn’t get it up that time, and so today we decided to give it a try." Another man listened to the fisherman’s story with indifference. “Hmm...” he said, “it probably was nothing more than a big stone or the like.” In the meantime, he researched exactly where the place was. The teller, who regretted his indiscretion, set out to get the chest up the next day, but everything had happened the night before. They were all from Brede, and they found out that the old coins that were found had been exchanged in Copenhagen. One could trace wealth in that family since then.
DS_III_2228	Legends about treasure	Old Ulv went and took care of the town’s livestock. Then he came across a churn full of money, it was lying out in Store-mose (big swamp) or Gjedsbæk swamp. But he couldn’t carry it from there, so he put his clogs and his shepherd’s staff next to it, and went to Bække to get some people to help. When they came and wanted to go out there, they came across his clogs and staff by Bække mill. The money is still out there now, but it’ll be found someday and then it will belong to the family of the man who found it first.
DS_III_2233	Legends about treasure	My mother wanted to go from Vole to Flensted in foggy weather. Then she got lost, and then she came to a stone with red letters on it, but she couldn’t read them. Then my mother’s brother Jens Mikkelsen was watching sheep on the same field. One day he finds a hole down into the ground, and when he stretches his staff down into the hole, there is something that jingles, just like it could be silver coins. So now he wants to check it out, but first he wanted to make sure that the sheep didn’t wander into harm, and when he saw that he’d have to go out and get them, he left his staff in the hole, and his clogs next to it. When he got back, he couldn’t find any of his things. The ground where this happened is called Korsbakken. In the same field there was a flat stone, which was about thirty inches on each side, and there was a couple of inches of sod on top of it. I could just scrape over it with the plow. I never looked at it, but it was easy to see where it was, because during the summer when everything was covered with grass, the grass on it died. Finally I came to think about that, at that time I'd heard a lot of talk about a treasure, and so I wanted to check the stone out, but then we couldn’t find it. It had sunk down. I’ve dug for it later but I’ve never been able to find it. It’ll probably come to light at some point, but it's possible that the person who is supposed to find it hasn’t been born yet.
DS_III_2252	Legends about treasure	Three men dug for a treasure in Jyvenshede (Øksenhede). They dug three times. The last time, one of them said, “Hold on tight, while I spit on my hands!" Then the chest took off, and just before it disappeared it said: “Now I’ll strand thirty-six feet down in Jebjærg."
DS_III_2256	Legends about treasure	A treasure is buried in the castle courtyard near Bellinge, but it's not easy to get hold of, because from the moment one begins to dig for it and until one has got it home, one may not speak a word. Some men from the area once tried to dig it up, and they had also gotten hold of the kettle, which was filled with money, and they had gotten it up to the edge of the hole, which they had dug, but then one of them couldn’t stay quiet any longer because of his happiness over the unbelievable amount of money that there had to be in the kettle. “It’s tremendous how heavy this thing is!” he said, and as soon as that was said, the kettle fell away from them and sank far deeper than it had been before, and they had to go home with empty hands. People living now have seen lights burning on the castle courtyard, and since the light probably burns over the treasure, it should be possible to find it even now.
DS_III_2292	Legends about treasure	Out in Ajt there are so many mounds, and among them is one called Kongehøj (King’s mound). They believed that there was a king buried there. Then the men from Ajt agreed to dig in the mound to see if they could find a treasure. They dug and all sorts of things appeared, first a dog, and he ran and hopped a long time, but they continued to dig. Finally, they got close to the treasure, and then a large red rooster came up. They had gotten hold of the chest and were in the process of heaving it up out of the hole. The rooster ran about and did all sorts of tricks and then it let loose a huge fart. Then one of the men says: “That was one helluva fart for a rooster." Then it was over. People dug a bit in some mounds not too far from there, which are called Klovnhøje, they thought that the rooster had run off over there with the treasure, and so they started there. But it was over, there was nothing to find.
DS_III_2296	Legends about treasure	Stjærnehøj (Star mound) is in the southwestern end of Ulfborg orchard. It's a very visibly raised mound, and one can see that a lot of people have dug in it, but the yield has only been a single stone axe. It was said, otherwise, that there is a treasure hidden in it. One time the men from the Lysbæk farms wanted to try and find it and were well underway with the work. They had gotten so far that they saw the rim of a giant kettle; but then one of them noticed that their farms were ablaze. They stumbled from the mound running as fast as they could, but soon they discovered that it was simply an illusion. The treasure had immediately disappeared however.
DS_III_2302	Legends about treasure	Three men from Avning had decided to go up and dig in the middle Thorsbakke (Thor’s hills), which lies a little northeast of the church, to try and find gold. Now one of them was a bit of a fool and the others warned him not to talk. When it was twelve o’clock, they began to dig. Finally, they came upon something, but immediately the man began to laugh really hard. The others looked very curiously at him, as if to say, “What is it?” — “Well, well, I’ve seen a lot in my days, but never before have I seen a wagon drawn by four roosters, and that just came driving down past here.” — Then it was all over. Another time they wanted to try it and they went over to a cobbler to get him to help, but he didn’t want to come along. So they went out there alone and began to dig but found nothing besides a rotten horse thigh that night. They took that along with them and, on the way home, and tossed it into the cobbler’s front room to humiliate him. But sorry! The next day it was pure gold.
DS_III_2316	Legends about treasure	One time the people in Lørslev, in Ugilt parish, wanted to dig Stovhøj out, it's over in Ilbjærge. They had seen a dragon rise up over the mound at night from time to time, surrounded by flames. They came to a chest, and immediately all the men began lifting it. Finally they had it at the edge of the pit, but a woman who was also holding onto it was careless enough to shout: "Hold on tight now." At the same moment, the chest fell out of their grip, and they only got to keep one of the chest's handles. From the dragon they now heard a voice: "Now I am thirty feet down in the ground. If I can't stay in Stovhøj, then you will never get me up out of Sørup lake." That lake lies about a mile southwest of Tårs church. During bad weather, the dragon could be seen in the lake like a lightning bolt.
DS_III_2326	Legends about treasure	The farms Nørholt and Brovang are in Skjærn parish. Many people had seen a light on Nørholt’s fields, and it was common knowledge that there was a treasure buried there. Two men had often talked about making an attempt at finding it and one night one of them was supposed to stand in the courtyard of Nørholt farm while the other went after the light, and then the one in the courtyard was to blow a whistle when the one walking toward the light reached it, since the light disappeared for the person who approached it, but burned just as clearly for the person who stood at a distance. Niels Brovang went with a staff in his hand and when he heard the whistle he planted the staff in the ground. A little after Niels Nørholt and his hired girl came with spades and shovels, and they began digging with great energy. Finally they banged into something hard, and it turned out to be the cover of a chest. One of them jumped down now and got hold of a shaggy dog. He wanted to run away out of shear fright, but the girl was more courageous, she took her scarf off her head and spread it on the grass, took off her apron and grabbed the dog with it. Then it said, when she had laid it on the scarf: “Because you took me so well and laid me down so softly, you shall have permission to take the treasure." Now she went down into the hole again and took hold of a pitcher that was so heavy that she barely could lift it up. When they got home, it turned out that the pitcher was full of gold coins. Then the two farmers split it amongst themselves and gave the girl a small sum for her hitherto unknown courage.
DS_III_2412	Legends about treasure	There was old talk of a spade that was made with nine blows and when you put it down at night it would be moved to the place where gold is supposed to be buried and then you could dig it up. That kind of spade was made of wood and if there was a knot, it could remain and be used as a foot tread. You took a tree branch which could be used for that, and then you were supposed to cut three blows on it three Thursdays in a row, two blows in the front and one in the back each time, and when the three Thursdays had passed, and the nine blows finished, the blade was supposed to be finished. My father went to a man and wanted to have a spade like that made. Well, he’d do that. “But I have to cut the three blows each day in the name of the devil, and I’ll gladly do that. Then after that I’ll have to go to bed and get up for the three weeks in the name of the devil." When my father heard that, he said: “I certainly don’t want to have you do that." So nothing came of that work.
DS_III_2440	Legends about treasure	A man (who as far as I remember was called Bang) came to one of Scheeler’s manor farms in Jutland, and stayed there overnight. He had a dream that a figure appeared by his bed at about midnight and told him that a treasure had been walled in above the door in an iron chest, and that the ruling Count Scheel had a gold key which fit it, and told him how the stones were arranged there, so it would be easier for him to find. The next day he continued his journey and in the stagecoach he told the dream to the person sitting next to him. A year later he coincidentally met up with Count Scheel and began to talk to him about this matter. The Count said that he had, as a matter of fact, received a small gold key from his grandmother, but what it fit, he had never known. He went home now and had the archway inspected, but found only an empty room and tracks suggesting that it had been recently searched. What supported this even more was that the man from the stagecoach bought a large manor farm down by Slesvig shortly after, although he had never been known as a wealthy man.
DS_III_527	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Many times people have told about a church bell which was intended for Feldballe church and was to be sailed across Øje (Øww) Lake, but it fell off the boat and sank in the lake. Many have maintained that they have often heard it ringing down there on holidays.
DS_III_529	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Many years ago, the church bells in Kværndrup were to be repaired, since they weren’t really ringing properly. They contracted with a Mr. Essi to do the repairs and he was given some silver and brass to patch the bells with. In the meantime, he pocketed this good stuff and patched them with copper and lead instead. When they went to ring the bells, they were far too dead in their sound, and so they pulled harder and harder in the ropes and finally the pulling was so violent that one of the bells knocked itself loose and flew out of the sound holes, and flew all the way over the town and finally down into “Dybe Mæ,” a marsh west of Kvændrup which belongs to Egeskov farm. The weird thing about it was that while the bell was flying over the town, it sang the following verse, which revealed Essing's swindel: “Silver and brass has Mr. Essi hidden, Copper and lead, that’s what he put in!” Now three or four young men were sent out to look for the bell, and they found the hole where it was and got a rope put around it. They had already gotten it up to the surface when one of the young men swore that now they had it; but as soon as he said that, the bell went down to the bottom, and since then nobody has seen or heard from it.
DS_III_531	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	South of the highway between Nyborg and Ringe in Jens Andersen's field across the way from Bæksmeden’s house there is a small swamp, which is called Bell swamp or Bell sump. The following is told concerning the origin of that name: During the time when the bell tower was above the western church arch, one day while they were ringing for a corpse, the bell rope was torn out of the hands of the man who was ringing, and the bell flew out of the sound holes and sank down in the named swamp, where it is said to ring on the high holy days. During the time that they were moving the tower, they often heard a sound from the swamp as if they were ringing a bell in the distance.
DS_III_533	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Some say that when the ship ran aground in the fjord, they couldn’t get over it, so they had to throw one of the bells overboard. Others say that the bell was lost when it was to be carried from the ship to land. The bell has a wonderful melancholy clang on holy nights and it calls after the other one, which answers from the bottom of the fjord.
DS_III_535	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	They were supposed to get a church bell here in Tåning, and it was sailed across the sea along with the bells for Ovsted and Tandrup. The ship ran into difficulty at sea, they probably had too big a cargo, and so they tossed the Tåning bell overboard. But the other two made it ashore and were hung in their steeples. The one in Tandrup is a massive bell and has a beautiful sound; they can hear it all the way to Elling. By the way, there have been two bells in Tandrup.
DS_III_81	Heroes and their sport	Out in Dalby field, west of the town, there's a mound called Elnebjærg; it isn't tall but it is long, and stretches to the south and north. They say that two women stood up there and had a contest to see who could throw a stone the farthest. The one stone can be found out in a man's garden in Dalby, the other in a field and that one was brought into town and used as part of a stone wall. In each of the stones there are five holes, like the tips of large fingers, though not very deep.
DS_III_880	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	Ny-kirke (New church) was supposed to have been built in the middle of the parish... Then they began to build it in another place, but that got torn down as well. They started at a third place, but it was the same thing. Finally, they raised two calves on sweet milk until they were a year old, and then they were hitched to a new wagon. The next morning they found them at the current church's location.
DS_III_898	Churches and their construction. Monasteries, holy springs, etc.	The Tvilum church building collapsed twice. Then they decided to hitch two steers together with a rope and let them go. The church was to stand where they found them lying the next morning. They lay down in a morass, and then there was an old man who said, "Well, I doubted (tvilte) that." And that's where the church got its name.
DS_IV_1120	Ministers	Up here in the parsonage there used to be a minister who was called Black Jens. He was really bad about walking in the cemetery at night, and his wife felt that this was improper. So she gets the driver to put a sheet over himself to frighten him. Then the minister yells: “Are you a human, then talk, if you are Satan, then yield!” He said this three times. The farmhand waits too long to answer and, when he looks around, he is in the ground up to his knees. It was near the end of the barn that this happened, and then he says: “It is me, Father.” “Now it’s too late, I can’t save you.” He went in and got wine and bread and gave him the last rites and then conjured him down. It’s at that place just where you turn into the parsonage.
DS_IV_1121	Ministers	A minister had the habit of going up to the church every night and holding services, but his wife was really against this, so she convinced their farmhand to frighten the minister from going up there. “If you are a human, then speak, if you are a devil, then flee!” The farmhand got so scared by this that he ran away, but the minister’s wife convinced him to try it again. The next night when the minister went to the church again, the farmhand showed up in an ox hide and stood upright in the door of the church, but when the minister came out and saw him he began to conjure him down at the place instead of being frightened by him. Now when the farmhand had almost been conjured completely down, he said “Father, Father, it's me.” The minister, who now recognized him, became quite saddened by this, but he couldn’t conjure him back again, but he prayed for his soul at which point he sank completely down. The minister was now allowed to go unhindered to the church and hold his services at night.
DS_IV_1161	Ministers	A minister in Vislev (he lived at the end of the last century) drove home one night. All of a sudden the wagon wouldn’t move. The minister said to the farmhand who was driving that he should get off and put one of the rear wheels up in the wagon. When he'd done that, they drove quickly home, and when they stopped in the parsonage, the minister told the farmhand to drive the wagon out into the duck pond and let it stand there. In the morning they saw that there was an old woman holding the wagon instead of the removed fourth wheel.
DS_IV_1239	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Between Tjærborg and Træsborg north of Vadgård and in Bondegård’s field lie Hellegård hill and Borregård hill. There used to be two forts there. The enemies attacked the man at the last one and stabbed him to death until his innards ran out. Then he said: “Now it's best, little children, that you make an end of it.” His wife was called Buurgier, and she followed them outside when they left. When they came out, they wiped off their bloody daggers in her apron. Then they took the road towards Hellegård. They came across some shepherds who fled. The farmer fled from them too out into a stone pile. “Is the fox in here?” they yelled, and stuck their spears into the pile and stabbed him to death. That’s how Hellegård fell, and the hill is named after him even now.
DS_IV_1242	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A bishop had confiscated all the property from a widow. Her son had been abroad, and when he came home along with another man, the widow put food on the table for them. But the most important part of the meal was missing, and that was the bread. When the son asked the reason why, the mother said that the bread had been taken by the bishop, and they could go get it there. The son and the stranger then rode over there and avenged themselves on the bishop by murdering him in Hvidbjærg church.
DS_IV_1249	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Tangågård used to belong to Peder Okse. A later owner had three sons and three daughters, but the sons were kidnapped by robbers who lived in a cave closer to Frørup. One day the three girls were in Frørup church; but when they went home, they were ambushed by three robbers who took their clothes and jewels from them. Meanwhile these robbers came to the girls’ father’s farm a little later and wanted to sell the loot, but they were caught there and then it turned out that they were the sons who had disappeared.
DS_IV_1253	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There were two girls from Egens who went to Bregnet church. They were from the farm called Munkens sted (the monk’s place). But when they went into the forest, robbers came after them, it was near a stream in Kalvø woods, which is still called Røverbækken (Robber stream). But they got away from them and were saved. In thanks, they built their father Egens church. He took out his book of psalms and let a page of it fly to the wind, and where it fell, that’s where the church was to be built. That’s why Egens church lies a bit outside of the town.
DS_IV_1287	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Karl Pølse (Karl Sausage) robbed a lot along the beach. He lured the ships ashore by lighting a fire up in the tower room when it was bad weather. The sailors mistook this for Skagen's light and, in that manner, many ships ran aground off of Hirtshals. In the daytime, Karl Pølse would go to the beach to see if there were any stranded people and, if there were, he took whatever valuables he found and killed the people. One time a ship stranded, and a man had come ashore from it with a chest. The man appeared to be a clergyman. When Karl noticed that the stranger was taking great care of the chest, he assumed that there was gold or the like inside it. He killed him and took the chest home in order to break it open. When he got it opened, there was only a copper chain link in it. But Karl Pølse believed that there was gold inside it and the smith had to file on it, but it didn’t help at all, since it was copper and remained copper. Karl Pølse got so mad at this that he took the link and tossed it out into the pit. But for him, it was just like the chain link bound him, so he couldn’t do anything. He sent for minister Mads from Horne, who also came out there and got Karl released from the chain link, but he had to build a chapel for the sin he’d committed, and that’s the current Asdal church. In addition, Mr. Mads found out that the chain link was the same one that St. Peter had been chained in. Mr. Mads forbade Karl Pølse from robbing at the beach anymore, maybe so that he could get more for himself. Karl continued anyways, but then the tower burned down one night, since the fire had been built too big in the tower room. When Mr. Mads heard that, he went out to Karl Pølse and told him that it was a punishment from heaven.
DS_IV_1289	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a man in the Harbo islands, who plundered and killed a person who was stranded. Just before the person died, he uttered a curse that would affect his children, they would die suddenly just like he was dying now. That man had three sons, and they drowned in a storm at sea. The third one lived in Vrist and died in a similar manner. It was a stormy night, the sea was so high that there was a danger that the boats that had been dragged far up on the beach would be torn away. People wanted to pull them over the low cliffs and for that reason had to fill them with sand, because otherwise the wind would have taken them when they got them totally up. The man who we’re talking about helped with one of the boats, but before it came up, the wind took it in such a way that he wound up under it and was crushed. A messenger was immediately sent to his farm and his wife came out and met the people who were carrying him home almost halfway. He was still alive but died shortly after.
DS_IV_1307	Robbers, murderers and thieves	It was so overgrown with woods in Nørre-Hjarup that when there was going to be a wedding, two young men had to go ahead and cut down branches so that they wouldn’t take the bride’s crown off, and when they came to a clearing, which is still today called Skovende (end of the woods), they had to stop and wait for the bride to come. Øster-Løgum town wasn’t as pretty then as it is now. One time, at a wedding in Hjarup, one of the young men who was supposed to go ahead like that had been previously engaged to the bride and, when the newlywed couple were driving back from the church, the two young men jumped up on the back of the wedding carriage and drove with them home to the wedding farm. When the guests were done eating, the dancing as usual began upstairs. Then the bridegroom came forward and said, “Each and everyone from the whole town is welcome in my house and gets free food and drink except for Tagefæl, he can’t come along.” The bridegroom had just said these words when the young man who had been the previous lover of the bride comes running in with an axe in his hand and cleaves the bridegroom’s forehead, and at the same time grabs the bride and runs with her down to Hjarup river to the pool, which is still called Semphøl after the murderer, he was an immigrant German and was called Semptafel. The pool is twenty-four feet deep and they both drowned there.
DS_IV_131	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	It happened once that a farmhand who was traveling along a road came into a farm somewhere near Kolding. It was on toward nightfall, so he asked for lodgings and he got them. In the meantime, the farmer had a pretty daughter, whom the farmhand decided he wanted, and he made an agreement with her, so he got to sleep with her that night. Once the thing had happened, the girl began to complain, which she had a reason to, but the farmhand comforted her and said, "Oh, don't take it so hard, sure I'm going to leave after breakfast, but if you get pregnant, you can always go up to Koldinghus fort and ask for Hans with the long nose, that's where I usually am." Well, the farmhand said goodbye and went on his way. Three quarters of a year later, the girl gave birth to a big boy, and the parents felt that it was sad that they didn't know anything about the father, but the daughter was cheerful and felt that she'd be able to find him. When she'd gotten better, and the boy had been baptized, she got up early one morning, took her boy in her apron, and went to Koldinghus fort. When she got to the gate and saw the guards, she almost died of fright, but when she told them who she wanted to see, they smiled buttery smiles and let her pass. She went into the courtyard of the fort and there were so many fine people, that she didn't know who to turn to. Finally, a funny little fellow came up to her and wanted to see what she had in her apron. "Ah, ah," he said, laughing, "who is to have that lad?" -- "Hans with the long nose."-- "Oh, has he been there again? The boy sure looks like him. Come with me my girl, we'll find him." She followed him into a large room. The little man asked a guard there if the king was in his room. Now the girl started to get hot around the ears, but before she knew it, she was in a magnificent room in front of a man she immediately figured was the king. "Now Hans," said the court fool, who'd shown the girl the way, "here comes one of your many lovers, and she has a whole apron full of boys with long noses." When the girl had composed herself a bit, she saw that the king was the same man who had slept at their place. When the king had gotten a good look at the girl and the boy, he was willing to take responsibility for them. He gave her a farm to own and to pass down that was right near her home. Later, she got married and according to what is said, the farm is still owned by her descendants.
DS_IV_1343	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A farmhand from Rishjarup was over visiting his sweetheart one day, she was in service in Brunde. They were strolling across Egelund field and through Ris woods and they talked about their future and their wedding. But they couldn’t agree on how they should arrange their affairs in the future. The girl says: “You can probably understand, little Hans, that we have to have our wedding soon, given the circumstances I find myself in.” He answered: “I don’t have any money and I can’t support a wife yet.” The result of their conversation was that he said: “I’ll show you that you’re going to have to go by what I want.” At that moment he took a knife out of his pocket and after a fight for life and death he got the upper hand and killed her with fifteen stab wounds. Some passersby found her lying by the side of the road. The next morning, they picked him up at his mother’s who lived here in town and he was decapitated the next year near Nybbøl stockade. That happened in 1802.
DS_IV_1349	Robbers, murderers and thieves	An old Norwegian once came to Søgård (Lake farm) on Holmsland to beg. He’d been to the farm before on the same errand, and the mistress of the farm did not take kindly to him. When she saw that he was coming now, she ran over and let the watchdogs loose. The Norwegian couldn’t move from the spot now because of the dogs and meanwhile the mistress stood in the door and laughed with all her might. The Norwegian bit his lip over this crude joke and since he could both “bless” and “show again,” he yelled to the mistress while pointing at a linden tree that stood nearby: “If that tree could talk, then you’d shut up.” Later, they dug under the linden tree and there they found the bodies of two little boys. The mistress admitted that they were hers, she had killed them herself, and so she was later executed.
DS_IV_1371	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Rokkergyden (Rakkergyden; Rakker alley) stretches from Trunderup town in Kværndrup parish west toward the Svendborg-Odense road. Close to the alley north of town is Rokker swamp, which is now a meadow, and right up next to that, down toward Stervbo farm, is a pond where a human skull has lain for a long time. It has come to light several times when the pond has been cleaned, but they've always tossed it back again when the work was done. Old people say that there have been other skeleton parts in the pond, for example a rib cage, and all of that is supposed to have come from a Jew--a wandering peddler--who had been killed and his chest of wares stolen. Some say that it was the townsfolk who robbed him and threw the dead body into Rakker swamp. A headless man walks between the pond and Rakker alley, and that's supposed to be the revenant of the murdered Jew, but that seems to be a later addition.
DS_IV_1376	Robbers, murderers and thieves	It was in 1812 when the Cossacks were here, that two Jews came to Fårhus Inn late one night. They had come by wagon and had all their wares with them. The inn was owned by two brothers and a sister, and they soon paid off their large debt, just as two good horses were sold by the innkeepers at Flensborg market three days after the Jews had arrived. Three years later, they sold the inn and settled in Øster-Løgum, where each of the brothers bought a farm. The sister stayed married and was still poor, but when she needed money, and they sat playing cards in Øster-Løgum Inn, she would go to them and say, "I need some money." -- "Well, it doesn't matter to us that you're our sister," they answered. "Well," she says, "I don't want to beg for it, and if you won't do it, then I know something else I can do. You know darn well what you were party to." Then they each reached into their pockets and gave her some money. "You always have such a strange way about coming for money," they said. "Well, I need to use the methods that I can, since you won't do it by yourselves." -- "Just go." -- "Sure, I'll go for now." When one of the brothers had died and was to be buried, the minister said, "Lord save me from saying what this man confessed in his last moment, as many of his family is here by the graveside, but we hope that he will be blessed." In 1867 something was found in a copper kettle down in the swamp near Fårehus, bones and green clothes, and everything pointed toward it being here that the two Jews had been dumped. The physician from Åbenrå declared that they were human bones and the skulls looked like the Jews' heads too. Strange enough, there had been strong omens there ahead of time. There had been screaming and moaning and in my youth no one dared go past that swamp. But when the things were dug up, the omens stopped.
DS_IV_1378	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A peddler was killed down here in Åsted, that’s not too far from here. They had sat and played cards with him and won a good deal of money from him, but then they decided that they wanted all of it from him yet still be decent folk. They got him up to the mill and they got him into a bed but the mill people knew nothing about this. Later, they hung him in the same guestroom. The miller's people found the body but it wasn’t revealed who had done it until one of the culprits, who lived in Tise, admitted it just before he died.
DS_IV_1381	Robbers, murderers and thieves	One day the fourth Friday after Easter, a man and his wife from Enerisgård were going to church and there was an old woman at home to take care of the house while they were gone. She saw a lot of blood spots on both an old recliner, which was in the wood-burning stove nook, and in their front room and outside of the door. When they got home, she asked about it. They pretended that they had been slaughtering a chicken and it had flown around in there, and it was the blood from that that she had seen. But it was actually a peddler who had been killed. The man who was supposed to have done it was called Laust and his father Hans Eneris was also involved. Laust was never healthy after that and went around and was so wretched. When Hans Eneris was to be buried, another son who was called Anders Rognsbjærg and lived in Brejning came home for the funeral and Laust was supposed to drive. When they wanted to get through the farm portal with the corpse, the horses stood totally still. “Let me drive,” said Anders and took the reins. Then the horses reared up and jumped and then they could drive. After that, there has always been haunting at that farm. But that portal that they drove through has also been walled up and now the old house has been torn down.
DS_IV_1384	Robbers, murderers and thieves	One time, a wealthy lord came and stayed at an inn, and the innkeepers saw that he had a lot of money in his wallet. They couldn't bear to see that, so they got up at night and chopped him to death.Then there was a little child who went and sang, "My father and my mother have slaughtered a magnificent lord tonight, now we will have roast to eat, and sausages for lunch." The wife said to her husband, "That child will do us harm, you better go down and drown her." Then the child sang: "I'll go to school and not ask for any bread," and now he couldn't drown her. Well, then they lit the fire in the oven so they could burn her. At that moment, two horse dealers came into the inn and then the child goes over and complains to them and says, "My father wants to drown me, and my mother to burn me, won't you take me with you?" They answer: "That's just childish nonsense," since they couldn't believe that they intended to do that, since she was their only child. Then when they came down to a stream that they had to cross, they couldn't get the horses across no matter what they tried. "Let's ride up there again," they say, "maybe the child can tell us what to do." When they got up to the inn, the people had shut the doors tight, and they had to knock loudly on it. Would they give them a glass of beer? Well, the wife said she didn't have time right now, but they continued to intrude on them, it was a public inn and they wanted to come in. Then she had to open up, and there the child lay and was all burned up, and her mouth was quite black. That the innkeepers came to regret that you can pretty much imagine.
DS_IV_1388	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a peddler or a Hamburg-Jew, who walked about the area and he was killed. It was here in Obbestrup, Gunderup parish that it happened and the peddler was on his way to Nøvling. The peddler gets a farmhand to come along with him from there to show him the way, and then the farmhand kills him and robbed him of what he had. Before the farmhand killed the Jew, seven gray geese flew by. Then the Jew says: “They’ll be my witness, that you killed me.” The farmhand then ran away and was gone for twenty years. Then he came back to the same farm where he'd worked, but they didn’t recognize him. At that point he had become a really rich horse trader and it was at harvest time that he arrived. They asked him to help them harvest and he did. Then they harvested on the place where he had buried the Jew. Then these seven gray geese come from the east and go towards the west and then the wife says, “God save us, the gray geese are coming too early, I’m afraid they’ll eat the oats.” But there was a gander among them and he says to the horse dealer: “There where you’re walking, that’s where you killed St. Peder.” Then the horse dealer admitted it on the spot and he was executed on the spot where he had earlier buried the other one, and he was also thrown into the ground in the same place. Nothing grew on that place, it didn’t matter what they planted, nothing would grow there. It’s still a barren place to this day.
DS_IV_1391	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A farmhand once lost his temper and killed a hired boy and buried him out in the field. The boy was missed but no one had any suspicions about the farmhand and several years passed. Then it happened that they had seeded the field where the dead boy lay buried. When the seed was mowed, the farmhand was at the very front of the mowing line, and his scythe got caught in something, and it stuck to the scythe. When he looked to see what it was, it was a human bone, and when he took it off the scythe, blood bled out of the bone. Now he admitted what he had done to the other people and suffered his punishment for his misdeed.
DS_IV_1400	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A grocer rode from Ringkjøbing to Varde with three hundred ducats in his carpet bag. He was found murdered and plundered in a dale, which is called Nærrild dale in Lyne parish, where the partitioned manor farm Østergård now is. They tried to get on the trail of the culprit but to no avail. A long time later several men sat together in Lyne Inn one night. They started to talk about their hunting experiences, and one after the other they told about great shots that they had made. Then one man who had been sitting and listening spoke up and said: “All of that is nothing compared to what I can tell. The best shot I’ve ever made was once when I was hunting in Nærrild dale, because I killed a black cock there who had three hundred golden feathers in his tail.” At that moment, three drops of blood fell from his nose onto the table. One of the men jumped up and shouted: “It was you who shot the grocer!” The sinner now admitted his crime and suffered the punishment he had earned.
DS_IV_1405	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Down here to the north there was a smith's wife and their journeyman smith who had become good friends. Then they wanted to get the smith out of the way, and they figured out an easy way to get rid of him: the journeyman made a large nail and said that he'd drive it into the man's head. They did it too, while the smith lay sleeping. She held the nail and he hit with the hammer. The whole thing went quietly and well. Twenty years later, the same gravedigger, who had dug the smith's grave, happened to dig him up again and found his head. Then the head of the nail could be seen, it was sticking out of the skull. He thinks over the affair, and realizes that the smith was buried there. So he goes to the minister and reports what he has discovered. He says, "Bring the head here,"-- the parsonage was in town right next to the church. Then the minister puts the head in his room and sends for the woman. "How long ago is it that your previous husband died?" -- "Oh, well it\s probably twenty years ago."--"Is it that long ago? Would you recognize him if you saw him?"--"Yes, I certainly could." Then the minister took the cloth off the skull and showed it to her. "Yes, that's right enough." she says. "What happened with that nail?" Well, she told him everything and they were punished, and were executed, both the woman and the journeyman.
DS_IV_1406	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A smith and his wife lived well together and were hardworking folks, but then he fell ill and lay in bed for two years. They had a journeyman, and he could take care of the work, so the customers continued to come there. The woman felt that it cost too much with her husband lying about and finally became nasty toward him. At the same time, she became closer to the journeyman, and they decided to kill the man. The journeyman was to make a long nail for her, and she convinced him that she was going to bang it in some place so she could hang something on it. After he'd made it, she talked to him about banging it into the smith's head, and then they would have each other. She held the nail and he hit it, and then they got married and lived together for thirty years. Then one day, the gravedigger was digging at the cemetery, as he so often did, and he dug up the skull with the nail in it, and he realized that something had been covered up here. He carried the skull down to the minister, and the gravedigger was so old that he could remember who was buried there. The minister sends for the woman and asks if she could recognize her husband. No, there was no reason to talk about that since he'd been dead for thirty years. Then he came with the skull and showed it to her, and then she could recognize him. They both got to suffer their punishment here in this life, both the journeyman and the wife.
DS_IV_1407	Robbers, murderers and thieves	This happened down in Ferslev, a peddler wound up spending the night. As he was lying there in the bed, with his head resting on one side, the farmer's wife goes and puts a ladle they had on the fire and melts lead in it and pours the lead down in his ear. He dies and is buried, and they keep the things the peddler had. It goes like this for a while, and then the grave is dug up again. The gravedigger puts the head aside, because it was so heavy and he could see the lead in the head. He tells the minister about it, and the minister asks people if anyone could remember who had been buried there. Then there was a really old woman, she says that in such and such a farm, a peddler had gotten lodgings, and he had died suddenly that night. Then the minister asks if anyone from that farm who was there when the peddler had come was still alive. Yes, the woman was still alive, she was a pensioner. The minister wrapped the skull in a scarf and then he followed along with a couple of men out there. When they come in, he asks her if she didn't know that head. Well, she confessed immediately and explained the whole event and how she'd done it. Then she was driven to Aalborg and put in the courthouse. The next morning she was dead, but how she'd died, there were no questions about that.
DS_IV_1447	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There were robbers in Bedsted heath, and they had a robber's den with ropes across the road. There's still a green spot out there called the Robbers' Den.
DS_IV_1449	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Between Kloster and Hald on the monastery property in Kloster forest there are two hollows, one on each side of the road, and the slope nearby where the hollows are is called Røverstuebakke (Robber den hill). There were robbers there, and they strung a chain with bells on it over the road…
DS_IV_1451	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was supposed to have been robbers in Rørbæk forest in Vester parish. It is said that they had a rope tied across the road that went through the forest. When somebody touched it, a bell rang down in their den, at which point they’d fly up and attack the traveler. One time a man came driving down the road with his wife and children. The robbers noticed this, so they attacked them and killed them all except for the little child, whom they didn't have the heart to kill. But a little bit later a robber, who had been away, and who was called Jørgen, came home. When he saw the child he said: “What’s this youngster; I’ll soon nick him!” at which point he grabbed the child and killed it. After that time, all the other robbers called him “Jørgen Nick.”
DS_IV_146	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	In Skørping parish, in Buderupholm forest, there's a place called Skørping holme, and it is surrounded by moats and walls. During Queen Margrete's time, there was supposed to have been a robber band that worked out of a well-fortified fort. On Sunday, they would go to one of the nearby churches where they pretended to be very pious; but on the way home they would rob and plunder widely. No one could take them on since they were too strong for the poorly armed peasants. In their need, the local peasantry sent a call for help to Queen Margrete. She came with a well-armed group one Sunday when the robbers were at church. So they wouldn't realize something was up, she had her troops put their horseshoes on backwards so that the heel faced forward, and they rode into the robbers' fort that way. When they got back, the robbers couldn't see anything other than horse tracks going out of the fort, so they thought they were their own, and they rode into the fort without worry. But here they got such a warm reception from the Queen's knights that they never went on any more expeditions; and while this was going on, Margrete sat on a mound outside of the fort where she could observe everything. The fort was destroyed, but the field and the ruins of the walls can still be seen, as well as the mound where the Queen watched the events, and to this day it still carries the name the Queen's Mound.
DS_IV_1466	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Jens Langkniv (Longknife) lived in Dalstrup in Harre. A man from Harre had gotten lost while driving and had gone into a forest. Then he saw a light and he drove towards it. Then he came to a house and he went in there. But there was Jens Langkniv, and he could tell that things were wrong. Then he said: "I've apparently come to the wrong house."--"Yes, me too," said Jens Langkniv. "I'd like to know where the correct road away from here is, since I certainly don't belong here." Jens Langkniv complained just as bitterly as the man. Then he shows him the right road. "Now you need to drive as fast as you can, and I'll go in and talk to them." Jens did that too, and the other man got safely home, and he told them at home how he'd been in with Jens Langkniv there and had gotten safely away. But it was because he was his neighbor. Otherwise Jens Langkniv was in league with the other robbers.
DS_IV_1466	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Jens Langkniv (Jens Longknife) lived in Dalstrup in Harre (parish). A man from Harre had gotten lost and driven into the woods. Then he saw a light and drove towards it. Then he came to a house and he went inside. But there was Jens Langkniv and he realized that things were not good. Then he said: “I think I’ve come into the wrong house,” — “Well, me too,” said Jens Langkniv. “I’d really like to know where the right way away from here is, since I can see that I shouldn’t be here.” Jens Langkniv complained just as strongly as the man. Then he shows him the right way. “Now drive as fast as you can, and now I’ll go in and talk to them.” Jens did it too and so the other man luckily got safely home. He told them at home how he had been in the company of Jens Langkniv but had gotten out OK. But it was because he was his neighbor. Otherwise Jens Langkniv was in cahoots with the other robbers.
DS_IV_1467	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Jens Langkniv (Longknife) lived in Hvivelstov mound west of Navtrup church. There was a road from the sound up to Navtrup and then on to the east, and he plundered those who traveled this road. He had threads over the road, and bells down in the mound that rang. He and his assistants went in and stole things up here in Navtrup. He was so strong that he could pick up a tree that they used to block the entrance of the cave, and in that way there would be an opening so the others could crawl out and take what they wanted. One time one of them got crushed between the side wall and the tree and lay stuck there.
DS_IV_1470	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Ramten mill is in Nimtoft where a lot of rich people used to live. Many years ago there was a miller who also had ships at sea. The mill belonged at that time to Mejlgård, and the manor lord there was accused of both robbing people on the highways himself and being connected to a robber band that lodged in Nørre province. Even though the miller paid his debts promptly each due date, the manor lord always looked at him with an evil eye, probably because of the miller’s wealth. Then it happened one night that the robbers attacked the mill, beat up the man and his wife and, after they had plundered everything that there was, they set fire to the farm. The miller complained to the manor lord, who was his master, even though he suspected that the manor lord was behind it and, as he anticipated, the manor lord did nothing about the case. But several years later, a robber band was caught in Fjeld forest, and they were decapitated near Skindvad up in Nørre province. Before they were executed, they admitted that they had committed the break-in at Ramten mill after consultation with the manor lord, and he had paid them something to commit the crime. The mill doesn’t exist any more, but the mill pond is there. For many years, it was just a little farm, but now it has been made into a stamping mill.
DS_IV_1478	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A man from down south here, from Hornum, had sold a couple of steers and was to deliver them to an innkeeper in Vammen. When he gets there, there's a fine man sitting in the taproom, and he watches as the man got paid for the steers. Then they were going to drink on the deal, and the fine man wanted to have a toddy with them. When they were done with that, he said, "Let's have three more, so I can have something to spit with when I go through the forest." At the time, Lindum forest had a bad reputation. Then they accompanied each other, and the man had a really nasty dog with him. Then the fine man says: "Would that dog hurt anyone?"--"You bet it would," says the man. Then the fine man pulls out a rapier and chops the head off the dog. "Will you now give me the money for the steers?" He was willing to do that. He counts them out on a tree trunk. "But now you could do me the favor of chopping off my right hand so that my wife can see that I encountered some nasty people. But hit really hard so that it won't sting too much." Then he swings, but the other one pulls his hand back, so that the rapier gets stuck in the tree trunk. The robber stands there and reaches for something in his pocket. At that moment, the other one grabs him and ties him up with his stockings. Then he feels in the robber's pockets and finds a little whistle, that's what the robber was looking for to call his buddies. "Will you follow me now!" -- No, he wouldn't, so he smacked him five or six times, and that helped, now he'd come. They go to the parish bailiff and he admits that they were three robbers altogether. Then he shows them where the other two are, and all three of them are caught.
DS_IV_1481	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Between Varde and Øllevad there are some mounds and some sunken roads where in the olden days there used to be robbers and the place is still called Røverkjælder (Robber Cellar). The manor lord from Endrupholm came riding by there one night. They had a rope over the road, and bells which rang down in the den so they could hear that he was coming and they jumped out and wanted to grab him but only got hold of the horse’s tail. Then the man takes out his saber and slashes back out at the one who was holding onto the tail and chops his hand off. Afterward, he rides as fast as the horse can run since he wants to get to Varde. But when he gets close, the road is completely flooded with water. He turns the horse around and rides to Gjellerup and asks at a farm if he can bring his horse in and stay there. A little boy and his mother come out and say that he can do that. But at the same time the boy says: “Mother, mother! My father’s hand is hanging there in the horse’s tail.” He recognized it by a ring. In the blink of an eye, the manor lord jumps back up on the horse and rides again to Varde. He prays to God and promises that if he makes it safely over the water that he’ll build a choir box for Varde church. The choir box is really supposed to have been built by him.
DS_IV_1490	Robbers, murderers and thieves	The robbers in Hjordekjelde had bells over the road. A peddler had come to Hoved Inn and had gotten a room there. Sometime during the night, he had gone to his room when a girl came and said to him that he should leave quickly, otherwise something terrible would happen, “and it has to be quickly, but I want to come too.” Well, his best horse was down in the barn. She’d get it out. She had some long stockings and she puts them on the horses hooves. As soon as they had gotten a little bit away, the dogs came after them. They let it out a bit and reached Vedslet church. Then there was a ladder up to the bell and they scrambled up that and pulled it up after them, but they had to let the horse run free. Now they had to stay there until it was daytime and people came along the road because they were surrounded by robbers. Then they escaped from that danger, and when they started out again, he took the girl with him. The innkeeper there in Hoved was in cahoots with the robbers there in Hjordekjelde of course.
DS_IV_151	Small kings and their feuds. Kings. Enemy invasions	A stone that has now been cloven on the field near Egholm castle's ramparts is called Queen Margrete's stone.
DS_IV_1510	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A peddler arrived at Klode mill and went about there and was in the area for several days. It was an elderly couple who lived there. The hired girl got suspicious of him since he wandered about and looked so closely at everything, and one day when he got his knife sharpened they started to think the worst. Therefore they kept a watch out, and the miller’s wife had an axe nearby at night, and her husband had a knife. One night the peddler broke in and wanted to kill them. The husband got exactly what he had coming, but the wife called out for the farmhand, even though they didn’t have one, to attack the robber so he got scared and jumped out of the upper door in the scullery. In his haste, he lost a silver button, and they found it. Then another man took it around to various inns in the area and other such places that peddlers seek out. Finally he met the man who had the same buttons on his jacket. He talked to him and asked him if he wasn’t missing a button. No, he said, no. “Well, well let’s take a look, since I've got one here that matches those.” The others in the room helped him see, and he was missing one sure enough. Then he was grabbed and put out on a rack out there on the heath near the inn where he had killed the other man.
DS_IV_1512	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There’s a story about some robbers who were supposed to be the descendants of those who were in the robber dens in Borris. In Wåtkjær, all the people were at church one day, except an old woman. Then she sees the robbers coming and she quickly locks the doors. A little boy who was walking outside, they threatened to kill him, unless she opened up. Then she let them in and one of them went over to an old chest. She was told to open it. Then she convinced one of the robbers that there was money in a bag in the chest so the man rummages down in it, but she takes his legs and tosses him down on his head into it and then locks the chest. So then she had gotten rid of him and at the same time the people came back from church. A message was sent over to Lundenæs and they brought their people and caught them.
DS_IV_1518	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There used to be a farm called Hjelmslev on Illerup field up near Hemstok and that’s where the whole district gets its name, since it's supposed to be the center of it. The man at the farm was called Hjelm. There’s no farm now, just a well. One Sunday afternoon a potter came driving by there. The people had gone to church. He’s allowed to stay there, and he let his horses out to graze. The wagon stood next to a pond and when it got to be evening, the people noticed that the potter went over to the wagon and spoke quietly. Then they realized what kind of a person he was. Then when he had gone off to bed, they went out and tipped the wagon out into the pond and then the robbers drowned. I’ve been to that spring once, and there was a house not too far from there which was called the Hjelmslev house.
DS_IV_1535	Robbers, murderers and thieves	A man, who lived south of Nibe, he told about how his parents had a field which went all the way up to Nibe field, and he had worked there as a shepherd out on the heath and had seen that there were seven graves in which seven robbers were buried. Those robbers had gone into a farmer one Christmas eve, and he quickly realized what kind of people they were, since they each had a rifle. So then they sat down at the table, and it was set for them, and they got both food and drink. But in the meantime the farmer sent his wife out the back way and she went over to a manor farm, which is called Lundbæk. There were soldiers stationed there at that time, but there were only six, and those six didn’t dare take on such a task. So they sent a messenger over to Øland, they also had six. It happened rather luckily that the fjord was frozen so they could get across it on the ice. While his wife was away, the man went and poured well for his guests. They had put down their flintlock rifles, and so he filled the glasses all the way up so that they spilled over and with that opportunity he spilled some on the rifles. When the other soldiers came from Øland, they were eleven all together and they stood outside and yelled hurrah! Then the robbers grabbed their rifles and wanted to shoot but they couldn’t because the man had spilled moonshine on the gunpowder. All seven of them were caught and then they were executed and buried out on the heath.
DS_IV_1566	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Many years ago before the new highway was built across Fyn from Middelfart to Bogense, the road went between these two towns north of Båring, through Båring woods along the road from the Kattegat, which stretches in towards town and is called Båring road. The part of the Båring woods that the road went through was called Kragelund and a robber gang had its den here.They had pulled a rope across the road to hear when people traveled by, and they hung bells on the rope near the den which rang as soon as the ropes were touched. Then the robbers jumped out and plundered and killed those people who came by. Once they got hold of a girl but she was so beautiful that they didn’t have the heart to kill her and they brought her along to their den. She was there for a long time and did the robbers’ work in the den and made like she was quite happy being there. Then one time she asked permission to go home to a baby shower at her sister’s house. The robbers didn’t really want to let her go, but they finally said yes if she promised not to talk to any people about where she was (living), and she promised that too. There was a big party at her sister’s house and when people saw her, they asked her a lot of questions since she had been away so long, but she never said a word. After the meal people went out to take a look around and she also went out. But in one of the stalls there was a support beam, and she went over to it and held it with both her arms and she told it — or rather sang — what she didn’t say to other people: “In Båring woods, in Kragelund there lie the robbers seventeen I’m saying it to neither man nor beast but only to this support beam.” People listened well to what she said and a little bit later when she went home to the robber den, they gave her a little bag of meal and cut a little hole in the bottom, so when she walked she drew a path with meal right to the robbers’ hideaway. They were taken by surprise and caught all together and then executed.
DS_IV_1584	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There were twelve robbers in Ry woods and their leader was the thirteenth. A road went through the woods and they had strung up a rope with bells on it so they could hear when somebody came by. They had made a pact with the devil and he was supposed to teach them what they needed to do so they could fly. They had to get hold of a pregnant woman and cut the child out of her, and if it was a male child, they were supposed to take its heart and eat it, then they could fly. So they killed thirteen women, but there were girls in all of them, and they didn’t get much out of that. Finally there was a man who was called Store-Johan (Big Johan) who was in cahoots with them and he sold them his wife. They tied her stark-naked to a tree and were going to cut into her. But at that moment some riflemen from a manor farm came riding by and they chased them away and then the robbers and the man were caught. The woman died and it turned out that she was carrying two boys, but now they didn’t get anything out of that. There’s a ballad about that, which I’ve heard, but I don’t know if it has been printed.
DS_IV_1588	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Lange-Margrete was a gypsy and killed pregnant women and ate the hearts of the children, since she believed that, once she had managed to eat seven of them, she could become invisible. But she only managed to get six. Then she was caught and put down in a cellar hole under the west wing of Nørre Vosborg’s main building and later decapitated. That hole is called Lange-Margrete’s hole to this very day.
DS_IV_1591	Robbers, murderers and thieves	There was a mound a little bit to the west of Kratgården in Ugilt, called Daniel's mound. A robber who was called Daniel was supposed to have lived in it. The farmhands from Linderumgård went up and kept company with him a bit, and then they decided one night for fun to tie each others' legs up and whoever could get up while they were tied up was the strongest and most ferocious. The farmhands let themselves be bound first and they tried to get up, and they were tied up and let go like that, one after the other. Finally, Daniel was tied up, but then they wouldn't let him go again. He asked them to untie him until he finished swallowing what he had in his pocket. It was a child's heart. He'd already swallowed two and he believed that if he could eat three unborn boy baby's hearts, then no one would be able to defeat him. But they wouldn't untie him. He was executed and, according to what they say, buried in the cemetery where his grave is in the southeast corner. There was a little round mound there they called Daniel's grave.
DS_IV_1593	Robbers, murderers and thieves	Daniel was probably emprisoned for life, we didn't hear that he was executed. They felt about in his pockets and found that heart he had talked about, the one that he was missing.
DS_IV_1594	Robbers, murderers and thieves	In the old days, there was a big thicket out on Linderumgård's field, in Ugilt parish, where a robber stayed, he called himself Stærke-Olger (Strong Olger) or Stærke-Ole (Strong Ole). He robbed and plundered whenever he got the chance, but he was especially known for targeting pregnant women. That's why the men one time armed themselves, surrounded the entire forest and caught him, When they'd gotten the better of him and tied him up, he shouted: "It's a good thing you caught me, because after this, rope wouldn't have been able to bind me or hold me, because I've already eaten the hearts of six unborn children, and I was only missing the seventh before I'd have become invincible."
DS_IV_1608	Robbers, murderers and thieves	When thieves broke in at night, they had a “thief finger.” They’d take it from a thief in the gallows, and they could light it in their throats, when they put it down there. Then it would light up just like a candle and wherever it stood and burned, people couldn’t wake up there. They went over to them and said: “If you’re sleeping, then you’ll have time to sleep, but if you’re not asleep, then something bad will happen to you.” This happened one place, a thief broke in and came and said that. The man wasn’t sleeping, but he got so scared that he pretended to be asleep and lay and watched as they took his money. The thief also had a big long knife lying on the table.
DS_IV_1678	Plague and illnesses	A bishop who is believed to have brought the plague to the country lies buried in the bishop’s grave in Sjørring cemetery. There had been a storm for several days, but then the weather got better. Two men from Dollerup wanted to go to the beach to scavenge, and there they found the remains of a deck house in which there was a well-dressed man. They wanted to kill him at first, but he begged them to let him live and bring him to the minister. They take him and lead him to Sjørring church and get there just as the minister and the congregation were coming out of the church. The minister now blesses him and immediately afterward the man dies. The flesh falls from his bones and most of the people who were present get sick and die. But before he died, he explained that he was a bishop from Antwerp and was going to Børglum parish to be bishop. But he didn’t get there, now his grave was to be in Sjørring. The two men who carried him there survived the plague. For twelve or thirteen months a fog lay over the area and during that time the plague raged. There was a belief that anyone who saw the sun could live and therefore they kept those who they could outside, but most people were so bad off they couldn’t be outside.
DS_IV_1679	Plague and illnesses	The plague was supposed to have come ashore west of Sjørring with a ship, and it broke out when people came out from church after they had buried the shipwrecked. The minister keeled over first, just as he stood and tossed dirt on the corpses. It took them really fast: they sneezed three times and then they died. That is where the custom of saying "God bless you," comes from. People who were afflicted became totally black and the grass also became black, that’s where the name "The Black Death" comes from. Over the bishop’s grave there is an old strange headstone with a bishop’s staff engraved on it.
DS_IV_1680	Plague and illnesses	During the time of the black death, a foreign ship stranded on the west side of Thy. Most of the crew was dead, but some came ashore alive, among them a bishop from England, who held back from the people who lived there by the shore when they approached. He let it be known from a distance that the plague had raged aboard their ship and that he and the others who had made it ashore were sick and inevitably would die and so he warned them from coming any nearer. The people paid no attention to the warning and the result was that they were infected and then the plague spread even wider and also here in this country it resulted in great destruction. The legend tells lastly that the dead bishop was buried here in the cemetery. One can find another reminder of that sorrowful time there in the cemetery in a depression immediately to the south west of the church, which is still called the plague hole, where there are no traces of old graves even when their closest relatives have their graves at the cemetery.
DS_IV_1681	Plague and illnesses	A ship stranded along the North Sea coast. It came sailing quietly along and people noticed that there was something not quite right with it. So the people from the area (Vestboer) went off down to it to try and catch something; they managed to do that too since there was a big cargo aboard the ship, but the entire crew was dead. They began to grab and take what there was, but they they should have realized that there was something wrong, since the entire crew was dead, and it wasn’t too long before they all got sick and the disease drifted in over the entire country. See, that’s how the black plague came.
DS_IV_1682	Plague and illnesses	A woman from Nedre-Hornbæk had gone to Randers with her two sons. When they were on their way home again, and just as they stepped out of Videmølle vold and had come back on the Hornbæk property, she heard that it was ringing underneath them in the ground. So one of the boys ran home to get a shovel and he dug where it was ringing, and now it began to chime, and it chimed for three hours. Not too long after, the black plague broke out. It broke out first in Randers and they believe it was brought there by ship.
DS_IV_1683	Plague and illnesses	They tell that in Ulvborg parish and several other places in west Jutland that the plague came floating like a big black cloud one day when the people stood outside of the church. In Rødding in Salling they say that one day the people had come out of Krejbjærg church, and they saw a large cloud come floating in. The minister, who was supposed to be the same Rødding minister about whom so much was told and who saved the Randers minister from the Evil One, said that it was the plague that was coming, "but now we should all go into the church and pray that it won’t come to us." So they did that and that’s what happened since nobody from Rødding and Krejbjærg parishes died of the plague.
DS_IV_1684	Plague and illnesses	When the minister came out of the church, the people said, "What’s that?" — "It's the black plague." — "Let’s go in again and pray it away from us." My father told that story.
DS_IV_1686	Plague and illnesses	The black plague passed in front of windows like a shadow.
DS_IV_1687	Plague and illnesses	When the plague came, it announced itself like a blue apron flying through the air.
DS_IV_1690	Plague and illnesses	In mid Sjælland the old people used to say that when people died of the Black Death, they sneezed incessantly in their last moments. When the dying person began to sneeze, relatives and friends knew that it was the death and then they said, "God bless you!" Since that time, that wish has been used when people sneeze.
DS_IV_1695	Plague and illnesses	When the plague was here, the old people say that there was a girl, the only one for a great, great distance, who went and followed along with a cow and nursed from it for seven or eight years. She was only a few years old when she started following along with it, and she became completely wild. They could stand and dig a grave, and then they could stay in the grave they were digging. They could actually die after the first sneezing fit they got. That’s where the custom of saying "God bless!" comes from.
DS_IV_1696	Plague and illnesses	So many died in Linå of the Black Plague that there were only two children left. They were just big enough that they could walk alone, and so they went each on their side of the stream that flowed through the village, but they couldn’t cross it, and so they stood there and talked together.
DS_IV_1702	Plague and illnesses	When the black plague raged in Jutland, only one person was left in Roum parish. He waited for death just like everybody else, and so he dug himself a grave in the cemetery, which he planned to lie down next to when the sickness attacked him, hoping that a survivor would at some point push him into the grave. But he never had use for the grave since he survived the plague.
DS_IV_1705	Plague and illnesses	During the time of the plague, the ones from the farms Ajstrup, Røgind and Gamskjær drove the dead to the cemetery. One time a man had gotten a really big cargo in which there was one who wasn’t quite dead yet. When they drove near Tingvad past some woods, he gets hold of a tree branch and pulls himself out of the wagon and gets off into the woods and he continues to live there. It isn’t all open, there are still some trees over there by Tingvad. Near Halskov and Bådsgård it was once thick with woods. On the east side of Kobberup cemetery there is a plague pit. It is overgrown with heather, and the place is just as high as the surrounding area.
DS_IV_1707	Plague and illnesses	During the time when the plague raged here, all the people on Hjan island died except for one, and that was an old woman who was left. She was almost unable to get all the dead buried since she was both old and weak. Finally people came over to the island, and the first thing they looked for was to see if they could find clay to build houses out of. After the plague, there were a lot of villages in which there wasn’t a single person. But then some figured out that they could light fires at night to find each other. A lot went off to church or to work in the fields or to town but died before they got home. The sickness started with sneezing, and when the sick person had sneezed three times, he was dead. The corpse quickly became black, and therefore the plague got the name the black death. Since that time, it's been the custom to say to someone who sneezes: God bless you. I also heard told that the person who dug graves at Rårup cemetery could stand and see when they came with a corpse from Klejs village (in the same parish) and then get to the grave first before the corpse they were bringing from Klejs.
DS_IV_1711	Plague and illnesses	During the black death, all the people in Øster-Løgum parish died except for three young men who had walled themselves into a vaulted door in the farm which is now owned by Nis Madsen in Havslund. They had brought food and water along for six months. But every eight days they went outside the house and raised a piece of fresh meat up on a long pole. It hung there until they came again and then it was taken down. For a long time, it was completely rotten and black when it came down, and that was a sign that the plague was still in the air. It continued like that until the meat was fresh when they took it down again because then there was no longer any danger. Then they said to one another: "Now we’ll go and see to our neighbors." At that time there were twelve farms just like now. But they went from house to house and found only dead people and animals. They wandered from village to village like this in the whole parish. People lay dead in the fields by plows and gates, and there was nothing else alive except for eagles and beasts of prey. Houses stood empty for twenty-five to thirty years after that. A minister was brought out from Åbenrå to the church, and he said a prayer of thanksgiving for the end of the plague.
DS_IV_1728	Plague and illnesses	After the time of the plague, there was but a single solitary woman in Gjerlev village, and she became acquainted with a man from way out west, out there from Gassum or Hvedsten. When he was supposed to come, she was sweeping cobwebs down, and the plague was still in the house, and it quickly took her and she lay dead when he came. It was odd enough that she was to die after all.
DS_IV_1729	Plague and illnesses	So many people had died because of the plague that there was only one person left here in the area. So then he asked himself what he should do. He goes over to the top of Ilbjærgene from where you can count eighteen church spires, and from there he could see down into Mosbjærg parish. There was a small hut down there from which smoke was coming and so he decided to go down there. It was an old woman who was still alive. The two got married and stayed with each other, and they were the only ones here in the area. She had driven all the dead away and had only had one oxen to drive them away with, but she couldn’t get sick because she smoked a chalk pipe.
DS_IV_1749	Plague and illnesses	In Bræsten and Skibet there was not more than a single person alive after the plague in each parish, and it was a young man and a little girl. There was forest over practically the entire area, and they had a hard time finding each other. So they rang the church bells, he the one in Bræsten and she the one in Skibet and they went after the sound. He found her on top of a high hill where she sat crying, and that hill is still called Crying hill (Grædebjærg). Others say that they met each other on a hill between Vilstrup and Ruu which is called Glass mountain (Glasbjærg). They got married and it is said that the area’s population descends from them.
DS_IV_1755	Plague and illnesses	After the plague there were only two women left in one area. One morning they go out into their cabbage patch, and there they find the corpse of a man and they bring him in because, when they turned him over, they noticed there was life in the body. When he was inside, he comes completely back to life and he gets better. It was at the house of a widow and her daughter, and the daughter married him. There were no people in all the surrounding areas except these three people, and so the population there in that area descended from them. This happened somewhere here in Jutland.
DS_IV_1762	Plague and illnesses	During the time when the plague was here, wherever there were people, they rang the church bells. But they stopped after a while in many places. There was an old woman in Hjernsvig and her daughter, they lived in a little house, and they survived the plague. But then down in Tyland there was also a young man who survived and nobody knew anything about him. And so he wanted to go out and find other people, but he didn’t think that it would be worth it to go north, since he knew that the plague had come from the north. So he thought that he’d better search to the east or to the south. So he set out, but it took many days and he didn’t meet any people. Finally one day he noticed that there was smoke coming from a little house. So he went there and it was there that this widow and her daughter lived. They had stayed inside since they didn’t dare go outside as long as the plague lasted. He comes to them and settles down with them and the two young ones get married. All the Hejnsvig dwellers descend from these two.
DS_IV_1777	Plague and illnesses	When the plague raged in Ust, they believed that it was a revenge against the parish, and they sought advice for this. They were told that the disease couldn’t be stopped unless a child was buried alive. So they were supposed to cast lots for who should provide the child. But instead they bought a poor child for that purpose. The child was put down in the grave with a sandwich in its hand, and then they began to toss dirt on it. Then the child said: "You’re throwing dirt on my sandwich," and that was the last they heard from the child.
DS_IV_1778	Plague and illnesses	There's a mound in Flovtrup in Selde parish called Drengshøj (Boy's mound). There's a legend that a boy was buried alive there during the time of the black plague so that the town could be spared from the plague.
DS_IV_1783	Plague and illnesses	A man from Langerimt in Als parish near Hadsund told me one day that when he was a little boy, he had been sold in Hurup Inn to some travelers. His father had finished the deal and the money was to be paid. The travelers explained that they were going to put him in a barrel by the North Sea with a pretzel in his hand so that the sea wouldn’t flood the land. It wasn’t a small sum that was promised for the boy, but in the meantime Jep Jensen came by, he was the school teacher in Hurup, and there was a different turn of events. He took the boy, who was called Jakob Nielsen, along home with him, yelled at the father and the deal fell through.
DS_IV_1788	Plague and illnesses	There was a pious god-fearing monk who lived in Snæverris woods near Birkendegård who had adopted a little girl and given her a lamb as a playmate, and they were always together. Then it happened that three men, who suffered from a really bad disease, came to the monk to be cured. "Yes, I can cure you, but it will cost you a sacrifice of someone who has yet learned how to sacrifice," said the monk, "so can’t I avoid doing this?" No, he couldn’t. "So dig a grave!" And the three men started. Then he called to the little girl and said to her, "Can you get your lamb to jump down in that grave?" — "Well, that’s easy," she said gladly and called for the lamb, which immediately jumped down. "Toss earth on it now!" the monk said to the men, and so it was buried, but the men were cured instantly.
DS_IV_1787	Plague and illnesses	When the bishop of Børglum had banished Hvidbjærg church, some say for seven years, others for eight years, they were to bury a person alive to get the banishment lifted. Then a boy was bought from a poor woman and they gave him a nice sandwich and some shillings to go up and see how big the pit was. They had made the proper arrangement with the people who were digging it, and when he came, they pushed him in and started filling it up. The last thing they heard from him was, "You're making my sandwich dirty! You're making my sandwich dirty!" It's said that the two men were never quite altogether there again, and for several years one could hear the boy's cries at night.
DS_IV_2015	Plague and illnesses	There was a girl who had a really terrible toothache. Then she was told that she should put some church dirt in a cloth and put it next to them, she was to get it from a cemetery at midnight. But she couldn't get anyone to go up there and get it, they were all afraid. Finally, a hired hand stepped forward, he felt that he was the bravest. But when he got to the cemetery wall, his courage failed him, and he didn't dare go in there either. When he was on the way back, he went in and took some dirt from their garden and he gave her that. Then her toothache stopped. A little later, the farmhand left that farm and got work at another place. He was gone for three or four years, but came back to the town for a visit. Then he also wanted to go in and visit with the people he'd worked for. "Well, how are things with your tooth?" he says to the girl, "has it been bad again since?" No, she thanked him because he'd done that daring thing. He told her what the dirt was. As soon as she heard that, the tooth was bad again.
DS_IV_2016	Plague and illnesses	Old Kirsten in Frankerup, Udby parish, got rid of toothaches by poking the tooth with a newly made horseshoe nail and then banging the nail into a hitching post.
DS_IV_2018	Plague and illnesses	For toothache: You cut a sliver from a willow growing on uncultivated land and poke the teeth with it, put the sliver back and tie it up.
DS_IV_489	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	There was a knight named Ranke in Rårup who rode between there and Blanke, as he had properties in both places. There's still a spot there that's named Rankehøj after him.
DS_IV_691	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	Many years ago, a manor lord lived at Grovballegård in Svostrup, and he really tormented his peasants. After a while, he died and, on the day of his funeral, his body was followed to the grave by an unusually large number of people who were all happy. But when the group came out of the church, their happiness turned into horror because on one of the stall doors sat the manor lord and he was crowing like a rooster. From that point on, things were really bad with haunting in the farm. Finally, they sent for the Grønbæk minister because he could conjure the ghost. He got it down in a swamp near the farm and rammed a post down through it. The post stood there for many years, and they say that when anyone rocked it, a voice from below would shout, "Rock it up better! Rock it up better!"
DS_IV_744	Manor lords, ladies and misstresses	They say that Lady Ida at Langesø haunted so bad after she'd died. She drove at night from Vigerslev cemetery, where she was buried, home to Langesø on a carriage pulled by four black horses with glowing tongues hanging out of their mouths. She had to go through Rue, but there was a man who lived there in the pump house who didn't like all this haunting and driving past his house at night. He spread linseed on the road in front of his house so she couldn't drive over it. She couldn't get past it either, and then there was a huge tumult in the house so that they almost couldn't stay there, because she had to go through the house instead. Then the man didn't spread any linseed anymore, since it was worse when she had to go through the house than when she drove past. She continued with her nightly journey; but finally it got to be too bad there at Langesø, since she made such a commotion at the farm there at night that she was about to turn everything upside down. But then there was a minister Balslev in Hårslev, he was so wise (cunning) that he could conjure. They got him to conjure Lady Ida. He conjured her in Sortemose near Langesø. He had his books with him, but when he took the first one and wanted to start reading, she knocked it away from him, and the same thing happened with the next one he took, but she had to let him keep the third one. A post was then rammed down through her, and it is still out in the swamp to this day. If someone happens to knock into the post or rock it, then one hears a voice from below that says, "Rock hard." They say that if there was a party and someone started talking about the workers and said that they were just as good people as them, then Lady Ida would say, "Even if all the ecclesiastics allow the workers to go to Heaven, my son Jakob and I will not allow that."
DS_V_1002	Revenants and their conjuring	There was an old town herdsman in the town Aså who got his pay as long as he lived. There where he'd stayed, that's where he visited after he died, and he stood and scraped at a post in the barn. A careless lad got work there. Then the others told him that he shouldn't go out at such and such a time because that was when the herdsman came. "Well, I really want to talk to him," said this here lad. He goes out and the herdsman was there. "What are you doing here?" the lad said quite freely to him. "I'm looking for a twenty-four shilling piece." Then he went off and sat down on a rock way out on the heath. The boy followed behind him. "What are you sitting here for?" -- "Here is where my pay is." The boy went home now, and the next day he went out to the post in the barn. There was a split in it, and a twenty-four shilling piece tumbled out of that. "Well, then there must also be something to look for out by that stone," he thought. He had made a note of where the stone was, and then he went out to it one day and wanted to look around. He digs a bit underneath it and finds a sock and inside it was a whole lot of silver coins, several ten shilling pieces, that were used and considered as marks and stamped as twelve shilling pieces, and rigsorter (royal pieces) and two mark pieces and six shilling pieces, and some small change, but there was a lot. He took the sock with him and hid the money, and when he was free he bought himself a farm and became a rich man from the Aså herdsman's money. And since then they didn't see the revenant.
DS_V_1007	Revenants and their conjuring	A soldier, who was working at a farm, got sick and died there. He had six daler in his trunk in a special place so that people could not find them easily.Then he had a younger brother who was lying up in a room at home, and he could see him at night standing fiddling with his trunk, which had been placed in the main room. It had been brought home and placed there. This boy then tells the others about what he'd seen. "Ask him what he wants," his parents said. He didn't dare do that, but then he got his father in there one night. He could see him too, and he asks him what he wants. Well, he'd hidden some money between the inner shelf and the walls of the trunk. The next day, the father examined the place and found the money and since then they never saw him again.
DS_V_1016	Revenants and their conjuring	An old couple lived many years ago at the farm Torsmark near Brønderslev, and they loved each other so much that they wished that neither should survive the other. They also had their wish fulfilled, since they both died at the same time. But, nevertheless, after they'd died, one saw them walk arm in arm up the road which went from the cemetery to Torsmark, the doors in the farm opened as if by themselves and they strolled in, clothed in long white clothes. In the bedroom they stopped by the door, the same way they came in. The owner of the farm had the minister fetched so they could find out from the revenants what they were looking for and when they appeared one night, the minister addressed them with these words: “My soul praises God,” at which point they both answered, “Mine does too.” “What are you walking here for then?” asked the minister. The wife began to speak and said that she had hidden twenty-four twenty-four shilling coins (576 shillings) in a sock tree which was hidden under the bed. “When you lift the big stone which is loose,” she said, “then you’ll find the treasure.” At which point they both disappeared. The next day they looked under the bed and found the money sure enough, just as the dead woman had said. From that point on, the two old people had peace in the grave, since no one ever saw them walk to the farm to repeat their nightly visit.
DS_V_1026	Female revenants	One morning, I was standing in the kitchen in the Brovst parsonage baking muffins when I saw a woman in a red knit sweater wearing a big funny hat and a large checked apron standing outside the window. So I get scared and tear off into the dining room. The old woman who was supposed to help me out had to go get the baking forms for me since I didn’t dare. As soon as I came out to the kitchen, she was standing outside the window again. The madam had seen her the night before up in a long corridor and she thought that it was her sister.
DS_V_1091	Female revenants	In one farm, a dead woman walked again a lot, even though there was only one hired girl who could see her, but she saw her often. The revenant always went about in a room where there was a cupboard with silverware and she stood there and rummaged about in it. One time the girls were baking, the girl saw the woman again and yelled to another girl who was standing with a pot in her hand in the way of the dead woman, that she should hurry out of the way, but the girl wasn’t prepared to do that and the dead woman bumped into her and she dropped the pot and she got very sick. But she didn’t see anything.
DS_V_1106	Female revenants	A widower married his second wife in Gjøl, that was my aunt (mother’s sister). She had had a lover before and he walked in on them one day and said, Good day! and she greeted him as well but otherwise they didn’t have anything to say to each other. The man was nevertheless upset about that visit and when they were to go to bed, he lay across the bed so that she practically couldn’t get into it with him and she had to sleep on the outside of the bed and watch the child. It was one he had had with his first wife. It started to cry and then she said to herself that it should be allowed to cry because it was his child and not hers. Then the real mother came and lay over the bed until the child was quiet. The wife now sat up in bed and told her that she should go to her resting place since the child would not suffer as long as she was alive. The child never was quite right, but was big and strong anyways.
DS_V_1111	Female revenants	In a farm in Adslev a woman died and left her little children. When they later got an evil stepmother, she visited them every night to care for them. After twelve o’clock, they saw her wander about in the house and among other things lie over the crib to nurse her youngest child. They sought out the local minister to rid them of this monster, and he advised them to strew linseed about the farm and, since then, they haven’t seen any hauntings on that farm.
DS_V_1157	Female revenants	A woman died before she managed to give birth and since then they never got peace because of her. She went amid the stubble [in the fields] and they heard her cry: “I got too little for one and not nearly enough for two.” Then they told the minister about this, he requested some of the unborn child’s clothes, which he laid out amid the stubble, and then the disturbance ceased. The minister believed that she had given birth to two children in the grave, since those who don’t give birth when they’re alive give birth in the grave, that’s what the old sayings say.
DS_V_1158	Female revenants	A pregnant woman had died, and she got a bottle of water and some baby clothes in her grave with her; but when her delivery date came, she walked again and caused a terrible disturbance. But then a brave farmhand asked her why she was haunting. "I need more baby clothes. I only have enough for one child, not two." So he cut a strip off of his shirt and both of his stockings. Then there was peace.
DS_V_116	Revenants and their conjuring	Near the Royal Lerskov Orchard there is a pond, which is called Klarvand (Clear pond). The pond hasn’t always been there, it’s been filled up with a large number of fallen trees since then, and there must have been a big forest there in the olden days. Per Jensen from Øster Løgum was out there once and then he saw a gigantic man get up all of a sudden, he had hooks on his clothes instead of buttons and looked quite odd. But now while Per began to look at him, he roared so loud that the church tower in Øster Løgum cracked.
DS_V_1164	Female revenants	A farmhand had seduced a girl here in the parsonage in Svejstrup, and she died and was buried without having delivered. Then there was never peace in the parsonage because she would come and wanted linen for her child. Pastor Petersen had to make that situation right.
DS_V_1171	Female revenants	A minister’s daughter in Borre was secretly engaged with the driver and had gotten pregnant by him. When the minister discovered this relationship, he forced the driver to drive her to Copenhagen. They started off then, were brought over by the ferry from Koster and had gotten a good ways into Sjælland. Then the girl gets sick and is going to give birth, and so the driver wants to drive into a farm along the road; but the girl’s brother, who was also along, took the reins from him and continued driving despite his sister’s labor screams, and she finally died on the road. Now he had to turn around and start on the road home; but when he and the driver got home, the girl had already been home for a long time, and after that one could see her walking around the parsonage just like when she was alive, until she was finally conjured down in the cellar, and they drove a post through her. An old woman who recently died told me that, in her youth, she had often seen the post, which was driven into the cellar floor and nobody dared to touch it, so it's likely still there unless people have become more daring since that time. The same woman often told that when she was working as a hired girl at Borre parsonage, the minister had a chaplain with the name Engelsted who could do a lot more than the ministers today, and he also had the black book. One Sunday, while the chaplain was in the church saying the service, she went into his room to clean up and she looked a little bit in a book that was lying on the table. When she had first started reading she couldn’t stop but had to continue, and did so with increasing interest and zeal. She had not read very long before the chaplain came running in and tore the book away from her and boxed her on the ear and said: “What would you have done if ‘the Old One’ had come!” at which point he began reading in the book, most likely to keep ‘the Old One’ away. But later she found out that the chaplain had stopped preaching, said “Amen,” gotten down off the pulpit and gone home before he was even half finished with his sermon, so he must have been able to feel somehow or other that there was something wrong at home.
DS_V_1182	Female revenants	A girl in Søndergård in Øsløs had had a baby in secret and had thrown the baby to the dogs. A little later there was a great disturbance among the horses and the cows in the stalls, and the dogs howled out in the yard. There was also haunting in an attic room there. Another girl, who was called Sanne, could see that kind of thing and she went out to try and meet it, but it kept going away from her. Then she went to the minister and asked him to give her some advice so she could talk to the revenant. He said that when she went out to meet it, she should say: It can happen in the name of Jesus. One night she met it well enough but she made the big mistake of saying: “Well, can it happen in the name of Jesus.” At the same moment, she sank to the ground from a hit. Since then, her health failed and a doctor’s help was sought out but it didn’t help. The revenant was later shown out of the farm and into the southwest corner of the field. It can still be noticed at certain times out there, and also in the attic room.
DS_V_1195	Female revenants	A woman died in a farm in Dokkedal, Mov Parish, and she showed herself every noon at a specific place in one of the rooms and always as a black shape. Because of that, the room stood empty for a long time, since nobody dared go in there, until one time a man, who understood this kind of thing, got the revenant up and requested to know why she stood there. The man found out that the dead woman, when she was alive, had secretly had a child when she was a young girl, which she had killed and buried under the floor stones in that place where she now walked after death. The man promised to fulfill her wish that the child would be dug up and moved to the cemetery, and then the shape disappeared. The floor was broken up in the specified place and the child’s skeleton was found and buried at the cemetery. After that time the revenant was no longer seen.
DS_V_1265	Female revenants	There was a farmhand who worked for a farmer, but if it was in Hvilshøj or in Kraghede, I can’t say. The farmer was a bad one to drink. One day he wanted to go to Sundby with grain, and the farmhand was supposed to come along. Then he drank too much and the farmhand had to drive the wagon home, but the man lay in the back and was drunk. When they got to Jerslev bridge near Hvilshøj and the farmhand looks down into the river, there is a woman who stood swirling about in the water with her arms. “What the devil is this?” says the farmhand. Then she gets up and runs over and jumps up on one of the jades, and then it’s a runaway horse. The next day they went out and then they found a child that had been drowned in the river. That woman had probably drowned the child and then drowned herself afterward. But there is nothing told about that. I think it was a portent that the child was to be found. It’s supposed to be a true story.
DS_V_129	Revenants and their conjuring	Last year in November, it was between four and five o’clock in the morning, and it wasn’t too dark, since there were some stars out, I went over to J. Jensen to slaughter a pig for him. So then my dog came running, just as I passed by the east cemetery gate really close to Skjold school, he came running between my legs and whimpered. I looked around to find out what was wrong with him, and then I saw a tall white shape come out of the cemetery gate and turn in beyond the cooperative store, around the west side of the house. It had a normal, even gait. I went a few steps to see where the shape was going, but then there was nothing to see. Immediately I thought that somebody there would die soon. So I went into the house, since the woman there was going off to the same man. When the light was lit, I had such a strange feeling and I was just about to get sick, but I didn’t say anything at that time. I’ve seen things like that often.
DS_V_1307	Female revenants	Many years ago there was a poor cotter in Lyngs who had a threshing grounds in Mærkdal, but he went home to his family almost every night and went again early the next morning to his work. Then one night when he was walking home, two beautiful young women came and started to follow him, but nobody said a word. When they came to Bavnvang, he was tired and sat down next to Bavnhøj to rest a bit; but before he could look around, the young women had disappeared. When he got up again to leave, he said: “Little misses, shall we walk together again.” Nobody answered but a headless horse came up to his side and followed him all the way to his door. After that, he went a different way.
DS_V_133	Revenants and their conjuring	When Paul Væver was a boy, he and a girl went together to a house out on Dalby field. When they got to the woods near Skelenborg, they saw a big white person. Poul Væver’s father drove along the same road together with another farmer, and the white person showed himself for them too. But they had an ungelded horse (stallion) pulling their wagon, so they couldn’t be thrown into the ditch. When the white person came to town, one person said, “Look, there comes that damn Satan!,” but the other person said that he should shut up.
DS_V_1376	Female revenants	One night a farmhand asks me if I didn’t want to go over to Egebjærg, and then we could walk together. After a while, we’re supposed to go home and we go along together over past the bleaching ground over near Hostrup main farm. Then the farmhand sees a woman. “That’s probably the servant girl”, he says, “who is out to get something that’s been bleached. Be quiet,” he says, “then we can follow her!” Then she comes over and looks right into his face, and she was so chalk white and was dressed in all white clothes. It gives me a terrible scare, and I take a step aside, and then I go into the big room, and after I’ve sat there a while, I go up to my room. The young lady continues to follow the farmhand up to his room and smacks him out cold in front of his room and, when he gets into his room, she smacks him out cold again and tears at him so that he is wripped out of his clothes. He was also afraid of getting into bed because of her, and his clogs rattled really loudly. It was a young woman who had killed her child out in the bleaching yard and had her walk up toward Skakkenborg mound out in the field.
DS_V_1389	Female revenants	A girl walked along a road one night. A little ahead of her she saw a shape walking. She thought it looked like her boyfriend, and so she yelled that he should wait, but there was no answer and the shape continued to walk. She walked faster now, but it also went faster. Then she yelled and asked him to wait, he usually waited for her and walked with her. Then the shape stopped but when she got there, she noticed it was someone else, who asked if she could say the “Our Father.” She did that, and the shape disappeared. The girl got sick shortly thereafter and died.
DS_V_1390	Female revenants	A woman had been in Hornum one night and then she met a young man along the road. She was a little bit saucy and so she says: “Can I sleep with you, my boy?” He didn’t answer. But that night there was somebody in bed with her. She decided to sit in a chair and wait the night out there, but he sat under the chair and then it tipped over with her in it. She complained about it the next morning to other people, but they said that she was hopeless. Then she went to their minister and he said that there was no danger. Now he would write a letter and she should put it askew over her room door with a nail. Then she was free and the letter disappeared by itself.
DS_V_1417	Revenants on ill-gotten land	There is a land surveyor who haunts near Torsbjærg, west of Vorde church. He had placed some boundaries incorrectly. Many people have heard him dragging his chain every night. One dark morning, I was supposed to move the horses and I was on my way home, I heard a horrible rattling of a chain. Now I'd heard the old stories and never been as scared as I was then. But when I got closer to it, I discovered it was the minister's dog.
DS_V_1422	Revenants on ill-gotten land	Mailman Niels Pedersen in Vejle says that near Dalhus up in Vejen forest, at the boundary between Vejen and Malt, one can every now and then hear the rattling of chains at night. The boundary between the parishes is wrong, and because of that, a land surveyor supposedly goes there with his chains.
DS_V_1443	Revenants on ill-gotten land	At the beginning of this century, when the fields were partitioned, an authorized surveyor came to Stistrup in Fovlum. His name was Holm (Skov, Foss?) and he engaged in a swindle with the partitioning. A man and his two sons had gotten into a disagreement with a neighbor about the proper boundary. That was on Stistrup outer field. The man and his sons were out there and were so gruff that they finally got it the way they wanted it. But when the surveyor got down to the town pond in Fovlum, he also did a little swindle there too, and at the northern end of the pond, everyone can see, even to this day, that it isn't the way it should be. There was an old embankment around the pond, and I was born right near it, so I know quite a bit about the affair. It is easy to see in the outer field that there's also been a mistake. That land surveyor walks again on Stistrup road toward Fovlum, and anyone who goes on that stretch of road while he is out walking loses their way. One hears a pathetic voice that says, "Pull the chain and hold the post. Stistrup outer field and Fovlum town pond!"
DS_V_1454	Revenants on ill-gotten land	It was at the time when the fields were partitioned, there was one who lived in Skindbjærg and he gives his farmhand a rixdollar to move the marker into his neighbor’s field. The farmhand was supposed to move the marker twelve feet, that was an acre, and the neighbor was called Mads Sørensen. The farmhand moved there from Knud in November and moved to Horsens, and the next summer he got typhus and died. Then when he was buried he sought his way back to Knud’s place. When Knud came out at night, the farmhand stood right there, chalk white, outside the door. Knud knew what it meant and he closed the door again. But after that, every time he watered the jades in the evening, they saw that he came up again, just as chalk white, and the people were scared of him. Knud had to go up to the minister now and get him down there. They called the parish clerk Grejs Grå and he was the driver for the minister from Skindbjærg. When they had been down there a little bit, the ghost appears. This here Mads Sørensen had been told to come along with a chevron, since he was supposed to be there to move the marker back again. Then when the revenant had come, the parish clerk says to the minister, that he should go out to him. Well, he really didn’t want to. Then he’ll do it, says the parish clerk, and then he went out to him. Then after they’d talked together, the parish clerk says to Mads Sørensen and Knud that they could come now. The parish clerk follows the dead farmhand now to the place where he had dug the hole and then to where he had moved the marker from. They continued that way until they had done the entire dividing line. Then the ghost says when they get to the end of the line: “If you will forgive me, God will forgive you.” Mads said yes, and then immediately the other one disappeared. Then when they were going to go home, the minister says to the parish clerk: Now he could get up in his seat, because he was his master. The minister used to say “du” (a less formal form of the second person pronoun) to him, now he said “I” (a more formal form of the second person pronoun).
DS_V_146	Revenants and their conjuring	A hired boy on Skjersø went one night towards a hillside on the top of which there was a church. As he walked, it seemed to him that the hillside began to glide down towards him and, all of a sudden, a man in a long black robe with a black head was standing there beside him. The boy made room for him and went down into the road ditch, and they continued walking like that until they reached the top of the hill, then the wind turned and the man disappeared and everything was like it usually was. The boy is still alive and is a man and believes this himself.
DS_V_1477	Revenants on ill-gotten land	They say that people who did wrong during the partitioning period by moving posts that were placed as boundary markers have to wander the fields after their death with a bundle of posts and shout so that people in the whole district can hear it, "Here are the plow furrows and proper boundaries."
DS_V_1484	Revenants on ill-gotten land	I've heard tell that an owner of Gisselfeldt or Bregentved had convinced a couple of men to take some earth from his garden and put it in their shoes and then go to another man's land that this manor lord wanted, and swear that they were standing on Gisselfeld earth. They didn't get any peace in their graves either, and they go about shouting, "Here is the proper boundary!" and they have to keep doing that until the unfairly won land is given back to its proper owner.
DS_V_1501	Revenants on ill-gotten land	In a place in Salling near a field marker, travelers along the road had often heard someone cry out: “Where can I set it down?” but nobody dared answer him. One night, a little boy, who was accompanying his father over to the field near there, also heard the voice, and the boy asked the father permission to answer if they heard the cry again. The father hurried to correct the boy by promising him a severe beating if he tried doing something like that, “since” he added “no one can know, if you answer, whether or not you’ll end up having more to do with the revenant than you’d want to.” A little later they heard the cry, “Where can I set it down?” and without thinking the boy said: “Set it down where you’re standing!” “Thanks,” came the answer and, after that, it was never heard again. The people in the area thought that the one who had cried out had probably moved a marker when he was alive, and that’s why he couldn’t get peace in the grave until that matter was righted.
DS_V_1507	Revenants on ill-gotten land	For many years at certain times, a land surveyor went again in Jebjærg heath. He went and shouted, "Where should I put one, and where should I put the other?" Then there was a boy who heard this and he said: "Put it where you took it, in the name of the devil!" -- "I should have gotten that answer many years ago, then I would have been saved."
DS_V_1545	Revenants on ill-gotten land	They’ve heard somebody going out in Vesterkjær just west of Mollerup and fighting at night. It's the field markers that they are fighting about, and they say it's a couple of men who were called Kræn Pejersen and Kræn Rask. One time I came driving from Skanderborg at midnight, and when I got to this side of Bomholtshule, I heard something driving and plowing about three fields over from the road. I sat and watched it as I drove home along the highway, I saw the plow animals well enough, and they went as clearly as when our animals go and plow, but people, I didn’t see any. The couplings clinked, just like when oxen go with a chain up to the coupling of a plow. When it got to the woods, it turned and came back again. I almost said “Good evening” to it, before I figured out what it really was.
DS_V_1546	Revenants on ill-gotten land	A man from Tørring, Ras Poulsen, was at a wedding at Jon’s out on Jævngyde field, and when he went home at night and came to Rander Krog, there was someone plowing. Then he had to go and plow for it, and wasn’t free before daybreak. He had to plow all night. When day broke, all of it disappeared and he didn’t know where it had gone. “Then I went home, damn it.”
DS_V_155	Revenants and their conjuring	Just as the sun had set, I saw in the southern part of the dale two human forms, a very big farmhand and a miserable little woman, who were walking west. He took hold of her and leaned over her and they plodded along like that. It got thick before my eyes and when it got lighter, I saw them. But what they were talking about, I don’t know. I went to the south right towards them but they continued off to the west. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground and I noticed immediately that my tracks were really clear in the snow but you couldn’t see theirs, and then I realized that it was some sort of evilness.
DS_V_1588	Revenants on ill-gotten land	Many years ago, there was a foreman at Bramstrup, a mile from Odense, who was called Maes or Markus Kalv, and he ran the farm for an old widow who at that time was the owner of it. That foreman was a horrible tyrant toward the lease holders, he always went out to harass and punish them and confiscate their possessions. There was a forest that, at the time, belonged to the peasants in Volderslev, and it was called Lunden, and it bordered on Langholm, a forest that belonged to Bramstrup. Markus Kalv couldn't bear that the peasants had this forest, and he tried to steal it from them unjustly. He took dirt from the farm's field and put it in his boots, etc. and then swore to the holy trinity that the earth on which he stood as well as the branches that hung over his head belonged to the lady at Bramstrup. When he'd done this, he went home to the lady at Bramstrup and said, "Lund and Langholm are now yours." But the old lady became frightened and answered, "If Lund and Langholm are mine, then the pains of hell are yours." He died some years later, but had no peace in the grave, he still walks to this very day in Langholm and lets himself be heard at night at different times of year with a terrible voice that resembles neither that of a human nor an animal. Many older people from the area will confirm that Markus Kalv is still to be found in Langholm .
DS_V_177	Revenants and their conjuring	A woman in Holev in Fyn tells the following story: “When I was a child, I was driving one time at dusk with my father’s brother on the road between Rynkeby and Revninge. Just as we’re driving along, the horses stopped dead in their tracks and wouldn’t take another step; my uncle whipped them but that didn’t help, we didn’t move, we stopped there for about half an hour. Then uncle jumped quickly off the wagon, went around to the horses and made a spark, then he got back up into the wagon and then the horse could go and ever since then nothing has ever gone wrong whenever we drive past that place. One night, me and uncle came walking along the same road and when we came to the place where the horses had stopped, I saw that there was a tall shape without a head in a grayish white cape right in front of us on the road. I nudged uncle and said to him quietly: “What’s that?” He said: “Be quiet, I see that shape every night I walk here, but that kind of thing doesn’t do anything when we mind our own business.” It was that shape that had met the horses so they couldn’t go forward but we couldn’t see it so early at night.
DS_V_215	Revenants and their conjuring	Old Kræn Mejlhede’s father was out one night to move the animals. When he was coming back and was going to cross the road, he heard down by the wall a loud rustling and then a headless horse came along the road, and the rider was also headless. They went off towards the town, and steam came far out of the horse’s nose. “I hurried on home, since I got scared,” he said when he told about it.
DS_V_234	Revenants and their conjuring	My master once told me the following: In my youth I was out one summer night walking with a girl out in the woods. All at once I saw a little ways ahead of me that a man was riding a horse and had the reins of another in his hands and he was coming towards me. I stepped aside with the girl in between some trees and stood there while he rode past with the two horses. Even though it was totally quiet, I could not hear the slightest sound of the horses’ hoof beats on the ground, everything glided silently past us, and I truly believe it was a revenant.
DS_V_248	Revenants and their conjuring	At Drenderupgård in Ødis parish, at the northern end of the eastern barn wing, there's an open hole that can't be covered by any roof. It has often been filled, but it gets opened up again every night. They say that a carriage with four black horses often drives up to the door.
DS_V_255	Revenants and their conjuring	Beneath the sound holes on Ovtrup church tower's west side, there's a small hole that can never be walled over, since every time that's been done, a large piece of the wall immediately cracked and fell out. After many failed attempts at covering it, they have given up.
DS_V_289	Revenants and their conjuring	My mother was out one night with her son Kristen. Just as they came past the culvert they saw a big carriage coming towards them. Then my mother says: “I wonder if that is the Brøndum minister who is coming driving? What is he doing here?” When they came closer to each other, she could see that that wasn’t the case, because there was a pair of black horses in front of the carriage but they weren’t any thicker than a couple of foals which could be slapped together, and the driver sat and slouched on the bench as if he was asleep. Kristen said that he saw someone inside the carriage but my mother didn’t see him. They didn’t see anymore of it and [the ghosts] went on their way home to the hill where they had been buried.
DS_V_331	Revenants and their conjuring	There is a farm in Tøving which is called Tinghøjgård and an old man used to live there, he went about dressed oddly, he always went about in old spotted leather pants and a big woolen sweater which hung and flopped about him, and finally an old round hat on his head. That same old man went and hanged himself and, ever since, they said that he haunted at the farm and went about at the farm just as he had when he was alive. My grandfather got a lease on that farm. There was a really big living room, and in the back there were two beds which were paneled in but, in the front, there was the door to the front room and the kitchen door right beside each other. My mother and their serving girl lay in one of the beds. One night about midnight, my mother was lying awake and the moon was shining in so she could see everything, then all of a sudden a shape came in through the door. She clearly recognized that it was the old man, she had seen him many times and it seemed like he walked in and stood there. She didn’t see the door open, but he went so quietly over the floor and looked around. She thought she could clearly hear that he sighed. Finally it went out the kitchen door. They could never keep their barn door closed at night and they could hear it banging regardless how often they closed it.
DS_V_359	Revenants and their conjuring	In Ry mill there was once a miller’s wife who hanged herself. Why she did it, no one knew, but everyone knew that she walked again. Often it sounded like all the grinding mills had been started all at once in the middle of the night. Then when the miller’s apprentice came up to check, everything was quiet. Soon she carried out her nightly spooking with the beds. She pulled the comforters off the people who lay in them. Yes, it got so bad, that they saw her at lunchtime at the table, where she served food to the people as she used to while she was alive. But as soon as someone talked about her, when she was visible in one place or another, she disappeared. Finally, according to what they say, she was conjured down in the river, under the mill bridge. An old man, who worked for her as a farmhand while she was alive later told the following: Seven years after the miller’s wife hanged herself, I was lying in my bed at home and was wide awake. Then I heard something that was rustling across the floor and all of a sudden there was a chalk white shape standing by my bed and it smiled at me. I didn’t get scared at all, even though I could see who it was. “Yes,” she says, “You can certainly believe that I’ve had a terribly hard time since I died, but now I’m fine, so fine. I left here seven years too early and I’ve had to suffer terribly because of that.” “God almighty,” I yelled, “Can I shake your hand. Oh God, how you make me happy.” But then she smiled at me again, waved to me with her right hand and then she was gone.
DS_V_37	Revenants and their conjuring	My grandmother lived in Jerslev. One night, before it had gotten dark, she had to run an errand south of Jerslev village, and there's quite a swamp there. She sees a really big horse and thinks it's her neighbor's because they had one like that. But when she tries to shoo it off the road, and claps her hands at it, it turns into a really big herd of sheep. Then she felt the earth move under her like a sling, and then she ran home as fast as she could.
DS_V_384	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a woman who had drowned herself in Skals river. Ever since, she has walked again and there were many who had seen her revenant. Either it was her red shirt or her red sleeves, one could see them. Then there was a man who wanted to talk to her so that she could have peace in her grave. But when he came to her and named her by name, she said to him: “It won’t help; just as many years that I died before I was supposed to, that’s how many years I will wander about the place where I killed myself.”
DS_V_386	Revenants and their conjuring	A cobbler in Andrup was bad to his wife and she decided to drown herself. They had three children and the littlest was in the crib. She went three times from the house to the lake, and finally she pulled her skirts up over her head, stamped a hole in the ice with her feet and put herself down. They could see by her her footprints how she had wandered back and forth, and the husband later said that if the child hadn’t been quiet, then she wouldn’t have done it. Later they often saw her revenant and heard her at Christmas time complain so loudly out there. Two sewing girls who walked across the lake on the ice met her with her skirt over her head and when they got to Glenstrup they got sick.
DS_V_39	Revenants and their conjuring	A man in Endelave was out in a marsh (out to the north in the direction of the point) hunting. As soon as he'd shot his first shot, he hears a horrible noise and racket. The man got scared and hurried back home, but he hadn't run very far before a calf with a pair of big red eyes jumped up on his back and threw its forelegs around his neck. Finally he remembered that he'd heard that all haunts had to yield in the face of sharp metal, and he pulled out his pocket knife and stabbed at the calf with it, and it immediately left him.
DS_V_39	Revenants and their conjuring	A man from Endelave was out shooting near a swamp (towards the northern end of it near the little peninsula). As soon as he had shot his first shot he heard a terrible noise and rumbling. The man got scared and hurried off home, but he hadn’t run very far before a calf with a pair of big red eyes jumped up on his back and threw its forelegs about his neck. Finally he remembered that he’d heard that all hauntings have to yield to sharp metal and so he got out his pocket knife and stabbed at the calf with it, which immediately abandoned him.
DS_V_57	Revenants and their conjuring	Once a mill near Dørup burned and a girl got burned in there and they said that she walked again. Every night there was a huge commotion in the outlying farm buildings and noises in the farm, and then a big black dog ran through the barn. A joiner who was sleeping in one of the rooms saw the dog come along a thin plank and wondered quite a bit about that. People had also seen the miller come out with a lantern in his hand. In the end, he wound up selling the farm because of the dog. They said that the miller had burned the mill himself and it was his fault that the girl was burned in.
DS_V_412	Revenants and their conjuring	Once there was a dead person buried east of Klemmensgård in Bratten. The dead one was apparently really predisposed to drink since every year when they brewed Christmas beer in Klemmensgård something always went wrong, either the bottom fell out of the tub or the tap came off the keg or the keg bands burst and the beer spilled and the dead person was blamed for that. But the corpse was dug up and they haven’t lost any beer since then.
DS_V_42	Revenants and their conjuring	Jens Madsen knew an old smith who lived near the road through Kolby. At night, he frequently saw large flocks of swine running through Kolby and on south toward Visborg. These were the well-known Visborg swine that haven't been seen in recent years.
DS_V_421	Revenants and their conjuring	At Bavnehøj mill, the farmhand disappeared suddenly. People believed that somebody had killed him and burned his body in the baker’s oven. Since then, it was haunted there and a little later the owner sold the mill. The new owner’s brother visited there and was going to sleep there at night. He woke up to see two people fighting by the bed. All the doors and windows had sprung open and there was a huge commotion.
DS_V_43	Revenants and their conjuring	There's a headless sow with some piglets that walks on Ravnsbakke in Grindslev.
DS_V_433	Revenants and their conjuring	Madam Ribert in Nanderup killed her driver and tossed his body in a water hole out in the swamp. There is still a stone down there which one can slide up and down; but it has never been taken up. Old Buchwalt wanted to get it up, but Laust Ladefoged said no, it wouldn’t turn out well for him, and so he let it be, and nobody has touched it since. She had also killed a little child out in the barn, they claimed, and they believed that she had hidden it in that stone like a chest and then gotten the driver to drive it out to the swamp, but since she was afraid that he couldn’t keep her secret, she pushed him backwards into the water hole and drove him down too. I’ve gone about in the swamp and speared pike and run across that stone many many times; it sounds so hollow. It’s just a little east of Nanderup in Jærnkilde. Every seventh year she comes driving through the barn and then out and about and down along the farm. Then all the doors spring open. They heard it not too long ago. She was conjured down near Vilsund, and she raced the minister to the sound, him above ground and her under the ground, but he came too late and said: “If it hadn’t been Bjærgby sand and Sundby clay, I probably could have taken care of myself.”
DS_V_45	Revenants and their conjuring	Once my father and my paternal aunt Else here from Møltrup had gone out to look for some calves. They came to a three-way fork in the road, and then they came across the calves without knowing how, but when they looked closer, it was a big, white, headless steer. Else got so scared that she fell to her knees, and he said: "Quickly say the Our Father and I'll put my vest on backwards." When they'd done that, they ran home, and then they hurried up and made sure to stir in the fire before they went inside.
DS_V_47	Revenants and their conjuring	My great grandfather was named Fanøe and was a district clerk. He lived in Hovgårds mill, and rode twice a week to the assembly. It alternated between Løkken and Nørre-Sundby. At that time, there was no highway, and one night while he was riding home from Sundby and came out into the Atrup meadows, a steer came after him. He couldn't ride fast enough that it couldn't follow him, and it continued like that for a good mile. When he got to the eastern-most edge of West meadow, it stayed there. My great grandfather believed that it was Lucifer himself he had fallen in with and believed that it didn't go back to its flock.
DS_V_477	Revenants and their conjuring	In a farm up in Sjællands odde, about forty years ago, there was really bad haunting. Once the people had a little foal which stood in a little barn and it was exactly there that the haunting was the worst. They noticed now that in the barn there was a little nook that both the mare and the foal avoided quite precisely, and it was also impossible for people to chase the animals into it. The people thought that something must be hidden in that nook because of things that weren’t quite right there. So they broke up the floor and dug down in the ground where they found a human skeleton. They gathered the bones together and carried them up to the cemetery and buried them there and since that time there has never been a haunting in the farm.
DS_V_482	Revenants and their conjuring	A robber from Skanderborg was decapitated in Odder. The head lay in the street and was abused and, because of this, the minister took it home and put it up in his attic. The result of that, in the meanwhile, was that the parsonage became haunted, so that every night at twelve, all the doors and gates sprang open. They buried the head then; but it kept coming back. A farmhand who worked in the parsonage told that story and he had also seen the head.
DS_V_49	Revenants and their conjuring	There was haunting in a house north of Vislev. Every night, six or seven calves came and the people couldn't be there because of them. Then they got pastor Clausen from Nørre-Fardrup, and then they got peace. I knew the farmhand who drove for him. Someone would come and grab hold of the reins and take one of the wheels off, but he paid no attention to that. Then the minister came and said, "Drive now in the name of Jesus..."
DS_V_513	Revenants and their conjuring	There was once an old district governor in Skanderborg, who was called Grabe, and he did all sorts of black arts that people weren’t too happy about. When he was dead, they weren’t free of him in Skanderborg, he wandered about and made difficulties some times. Then they decided to have him conjured, and they got hold of Slanter-Laust from Blegind, people used him a lot in those days, and when he came and found out about how it all hung together, he said: “Well, he’s dangerous and not easy to deal with; but I can probably stop him a bit.” They had to go out into the park and find an out-of-the-way place where they could hide him away. But now, since the minister had declared that he was that dangerous, people realized they hadn’t gotten rid of him since he was so close by. Then he asks if there’s anybody who knows the area well, where it would be the most difficult for the district governor to ride or however else he’d be traveling about. Then there were a couple of guys who’d been out here with the royal huntsmen a couple of times on Tåning field, and they thought it would be difficult out there and then Grabe was to be put down there. That water hole isn’t too far from here and it’s an incredibly large depression which at that time was completely inaccessible. Grabe drives out there with four black horses in front of his carriage, back and forth.
DS_V_520	Revenants and their conjuring	When the district bailiff from Harris died, there was some talk about him walking again and they say that on the day of his funeral he arrived back at his house before the funeral procession. That same night, there was a loud knock at the door of the parsonage in Brede, and the serving girl opened the door, but nobody was there. There was a second knock, even louder than the first but, once again, there was nobody there. Then the minister said to the girl: “If there is a third knock, I’ll go out myself.” Soon there was a louder knock than before, and the minister went to open the door himself, and the girl, who was listening, recognized the bailiff’s voice who said: “My case has been lost.” The bailiff's riding horse, which had been sold after his death, was found almost every morning covered with foam from the nightly ride its previous owner (the bailiff) used it for.
DS_V_62	Revenants and their conjuring	Søren Tind had to go fetch the doctor for his landlord once. That was all the way in Randers. When he got to Fladbro, a big dog fell in with him and followed along with him for a little bit of the way, but then it went on past him. It had eyes that were so big they were like fire. He was so sick when he got to Randers, that he thought that he had smashed up all of his guts.
DS_V_67	Revenants and their conjuring	Once when old Jens Daniel was on his way home from work and went over the Tindinge hills on Tjørnelunde field, a little dog came up to him and looked pathetic and looked pitifully up at him. J. D. picked it up and put it in his jacket and was going to bring it home because it looked like it was hungry and cold. But as he was walking along and taking care of the dog, it seemed to get bigger and bigger, and its eyes got so red, they were like coals. Then J. D. got scared and threw the dog and at that very moment he got a smack on the head so hard that he lost his hat and never found it again. The dog disappeared at once too.
DS_V_686	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a revenant at a manor farm that would never leave people alone. One evening, a poor man came and asked for lodgings. No, that wasn't possible, since that night a whole group of ministers were going to gather there. He said that he could perhaps be of service, and so they gave him a little room and a thin little candle. The ministers sat each one in their own room with a large candle and books in front of them. He sat down by the fireplace with the candle in front of him and he put a little book on the mantlepiece. Then he took a little knife and a stick out of his pocket, whittled a shaving and threw it into the fire, and said, "Now he is getting up." With the next piece: "Now he is at the cemetery gate." Next: "Now he is at the gate." With that they heard the dogs howl, and then the door flew open and the revenant raced from room to room like a wind and blew out the ministers' candles and left them in the dark. But he couldn't blow out the beggar's candle. Then he began to read. Etc.
DS_V_690	Revenants and their conjuring	Minister Patberg from Jebjærg, who is well known in Salling for his ability to conjure, had to go one night and conjure a ghost. The minister drove and when he got close to the place where the ghost went, he says to his coachman that he should wait there with the wagon and not be bothered by anything he saw or heard. A little after the minister left, the coachman hears an incredible noise, and since it continues for a long time, he thinks that the minister is probably having difficulties, so he takes the wagon whip in hand and rushes off to help the minister. But when he gets almost up to the minister, he [the minister] yells at him to stay away, because otherwise he can’t get power over the ghost. Finally the minister is finished and he comes over to the farmhand; he then says to him: “If you ever in the future drive on this road where we’re stopped, it will cost you your life.” The farmhand remembered the warning for a while but then one night when he was coming home from market in Skive, he thinks that it’s quite a way to go just to avoid the forbidden road, he drives in on it but then tips over and breaks his neck.
DS_V_694	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a place that was also plagued with revenants, and so they assembled several ministers who were to read him down into the ground, but the revenant let the ministers hear about various sins they had committed. Then they got hold of an old student, and the revenant reminded him of a theft. He answered, "The baker wouldn't give me anything to eat, and I did it so I could survive, as I was very hungry..." Then he conjured him down. Several years later, the revenant came up out of the ground in the form of a night raven and flew out the window, and they haven't noticed him since.
DS_V_700	Revenants and their conjuring	Minister Ole Schytte from Vallekilde had an accord with the devil and because of that he went again and haunted in the parsonage in the shape of a white calf. When the calf appeared one night at the farm, the current minister, dean Bech, sent his hired girl up to the church to get three books and then he said to his farmhand, Jørgen, that he should take the calf by the ear and drag it out into the meadow in the parsonage’s field and then he was to come back. When the minister got outside of the gate, he met the hired girl with the books, which he then took under his arm and went down to the meadow and said to Jørgen, who was standing there with the calf: “Now you can go home and, with God’s help, I’ll be back in the parsonage just as soon as you.” When Jørgen had made it a ways down the road, he stood still and listened, and he heard the minister say: “Now you have knocked two books away from me, and if you can knock the third away from me, then you’re more than a match for me.” Jørgen got scared now and hurried along, but soon afterward he heard a strange loud noise and, a moment later, the minister caught up with him so they accompanied each other back to the farm. Jørgen saw then that he had a book under his arm and it was the bible. Since then, there has never been haunting in the parsonage. The place is now called Mariemose, and Jørgen’s widow still lives in the parish.
DS_V_713	Revenants and their conjuring	In Jebjærg there was a curate who was called Nielsen. He was driving over to Hjerk parsonage to visit, and when he drove back over Tinggårds bridge in Vium, the back wheel wouldn't turn because the devil was holding onto it. Then the curate said to his farmhand that he should get off and take the wheel and put it up in the wagon, and that's how they drove home. Then the curate wanted to try to conjure the devil, but he couldn't get him to go down. He took fourteen days off, and sent a message to a neighboring minister that he should come and help him. When the day came, the curate had his farmhand drive over and get the minister. When he got up in the wagon, the minister said to the farmhand that he mustn't speak to him, and when they got to Vium Tinggårds bridge, he ordered the farmhand to drive as fast as he could because the devil was ahead of them. When they got to a little house outside of Jebjærg, the curate was already fighting the Evil One there. The minister went to his aid and they chased the devil over to the curate's garden wall where he was conjured down, and a big stone was placed over him. That stone was moved away just a few years ago, and that was a monument to the devil. There were a bunch of Roman numerals on it.
DS_V_714	Revenants and their conjuring	This here Rosendal from Rødding was incredibly good at conjuring. There was a thicket near Hummelgård in Krejbjærg, and a man walked again there. He apparently came from a manor farm that had lain not too far from there. The farm was called Krøgeborg, and there are still some ruins from the old castle. It was horrible when that ghost came up again. Then the minister had to go over there and conjure him. The driver could feel a great unease, and heard that big words were being spoken. Then he takes a whip from the wagon and wants to go out and smack the old one with it. But he injured the minister so bad by doing that that the minister had to race the Evil One to Krejbjærg church. When he got there, the Evil One stuck his head up out of that little dale south and west of the church and gave a loud roar and disappeared when he saw that the minister had come first. One can still see down in the thicket where he was conjured down, there's actually a green spot there.
DS_V_715	Revenants and their conjuring	A revenant once walked in Hummelgård thicket. The minister met him out there one night, and then they agreed that the one who got to Krejbjærg church first had won. The minister had to go over land and the revenant underground. Then the revenant hit its head on a large rock down there underground, and it took a while to get going again, since it had to go around it. Then the minister reached the church first, but when the revenant was so close that it grabbed the minister's back wheel when they got to the church.
DS_V_728	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a minister in Spentrup who was good at conjuring. One night he had driven out to a house where he was supposed to conjure a ghost. He drove as fast as he could until the wagon got so heavy that the horses could no longer pull it, he got off when the minister told him to and put the one wheel in the wagon. Now things went smoothly until they got close to home, but then the farmhand went and put the wheel on again. It was too soon, because when they got into the parsonage, the minister noticed that things were wrong, and he told the farmhand that he should hurry and get the horses into their stalls and not come out before he called for him. But the farmhand was curious and then there was something really bad and evil that tipped the barn over when it left, but it didn't get any power over the minister.
DS_V_728	Revenants and their conjuring	There was also a minister who was good at conjuring in Spentrup. One night he had driven out to a house where he was supposed to conjure a ghost. He drove as fast as he could until the wagon became so heavy that the horses couldn’t pull it. He got out according to the minister’s orders and put one of the wheels into the wagon. Now it went well until they got quite close to home, but then the farm hand went and put the wheel on again. It was too soon, since when they got into the parsonage, the minister noticed that something was wrong, and said to the farm hand that he should hurry and get the horses into the barn and to not come out of there until he called for him. But the farm hand was curious and looked out and then there was some evilness (haunting) which tipped the barn over before it went away, but it didn’t get any power over the minister.
DS_V_730	Revenants and their conjuring	Old Blicher from Spentrup had driven to a farm in Gassum once where the people could neither spin nor take care of household work without being disturbed by a ghost. It also pulled the comforters off of them at night. Therefore they asked pastor Blicher to conjure the ghost, and he promised he’d do that, but he said that they shouldn’t worry about anything before he came. His farmhand, Kristen, was supposed to drive for him, and he said to him that he couldn’t drive back until he came and hit him on the shoulder with the words: “Drive now in Jesus’s name.” The driver sat on the wagon and heard something that howled in the farm. Then something came and sat in the wagon and said: “Drive now, Kristen.” But he didn’t drive. A second time and a third time. Then the minister came and said the right words. Now while they drove home, they came past Kjellerup mill and there is a big hill there. “You’re whipping the horses so hard,” says the minister. Well, they couldn’t pull the wagon. “Take the back wheel off then.” When they got into the parsonage, the minister says again: “Be faithful to me now, little Kristen. Uncouple the horses and then go in and go to bed.” But when Kristen got into bed, he wanted to get up and see, since there was a great howling and row out there. Then it took the roof off of the barn and set it down squarely beside it. The next morning the minister said: “We could have avoided that, Kristen, if you had listened to me.”
DS_V_733	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a minister who was to conjure a man, and on the way home, the horses stood still, so he couldn't drive away from the spot. Then he took one of the back wheels... As soon as the horses were inside, he was not to open the door, but was to go to bed. He couldn't control himself, but looked out, and then the roof of the house picked up right there, and the wagon tipped over.
DS_V_744	Revenants and their conjuring	In Em in Mors there was a revenant that walked out in the fields and they couldn’t keep their farm animals calm because of it. It went so far that the revenant sometimes came into the farm at sunset. Then the farmer went to the minister in Øster Assels and he came and told his farmhand to drive him over there. Next the minister showed him a place where he was supposed to wait and he was supposed to stay at that place until the minister came again, however long that was. While the farmhand waited, he thought he heard the minister complaining. Then the moon rose and he could see that the minister lay on the ground a little bit away. He went over and called to him. The minister said that that was bad for him. “Now I’m lost.” With that he got up and drove with the farmhand home and the next day he drowned himself in a marl pit out in the back yard.
DS_V_804	Revenants and their conjuring	People saw a revenant at Kundby cemetery, even during the day, and it would complain and sometimes put its arms on the wall. One evening, Pastor Busch asked to have his horse saddled but not tied. They could see the minister walking back and forth past the windows in there and finally a message came from the Kundby minister that Pastor Busch should come as quickly as possible. It wasn't long before he got there, and both of the ministers went up to the cemetery that night, and from then on, no one heard from the revenant again.
DS_V_809	Revenants and their conjuring	There's a story about a minister on Bornholm who, one night, when he was driving home past the cemetery, noticed that things weren't quite right in there. He told his coachman to stop while he went in there, and he said that if he didn't come back before the lantern they had with them burned out, he should drive, since he wouldn't be coming back ever again. The coachman did as he was asked, but he saw a terrible sight there in the cemetery. He could see the minister standing there conjuring someone down, who was standing on the bottom of a barrel, and fire was all around them. Later, when the lantern was just about to go out, the minister came running with his tongue hanging out and they drove home. The same story is told about another minister with the one difference that he put a candle in his room and said that if he didn't come back before it burned out then he'd never come back again.
DS_V_855	Revenants and their conjuring	There was one who was supposed to sit in the church for an entire night, and the minister scratched a circle in the floor around her with a lightning pole. She was tempted many times that night, but they couldn't come inside the circle, and she sat completely still and only said: "I praise my God!"
DS_V_860	Revenants and their conjuring	There was always fun and games in the church in Lund in Skåne, and the chairs lay about, all knocked over. The minister could not figure out what it could be, and wanted to discover what was doing it. But he didn't dare stay in the church himself and discover what it was. Then there was a poor cobbler in the town, he offers him a big payment if he would go up there and stay the night. Well, the cobbler said he was willing to do that, but he wanted a candle with him, and then he wanted the minister to write the Lord's prayer in a big circle around him, and then he wasn't to leave the circle until the minister came and said, "Come now in Jesus Christ's name." He intended to sit inside the circle and cobble. As soon as he'd gotten into the church and started working, someone comes who looks like the minister. He says, "Come in name." No, he wouldn't go, because God's name hadn't been there. A little while later, so many came into the church, and there was a minister who went up to the pulpit. Now more ministers came up to the cobbler and said, "Come in name." He wouldn't leave the circle and stayed sitting there. Finally, they came and wanted to sell him a hide. Then he reaches out with his staff, they were to put the hide on that, and then he pulled it in to where he was. The next day, the minister came and said, "Come now in Jesus Christ's name." Now he wasn't scared of following him. Then he showed the minister the hide and it was that of a corpse. The hide was attached to the church door, and then the haunting stopped. But they couldn't totally rebuild the church anyway, there were some stones they couldn't get to lie correctly.
DS_V_864	Revenants and their conjuring	A man was offered fifteen bushels of oats to stay the night over in a church. The man wanted to earn the oats so he let himself be locked in the church where he immediately went and sat down beneath the church bell. At midnight, someone came and said: "If you hadn't sat down beneath the holy God's ding dang, you would have suffered earning those fifteen bushels of oats."
DS_V_900	Revenants and their conjuring	They dug up a skeleton at Astrup cemetery and there was long hair on its head. He was put up against the church’s wall and people called him Skaris. He was supposed to lean up against the wall, and everybody who had committed an offense had to go up and kiss him. Then there was a daring farmhand from the town who wanted to go up and give him a sandwich, but then Skaris jumps on his back and rides him down through the town. When they got down to the east, past the town, then Skaris flew off of him and into a house, and then there was a huge row in the house. Skaris disappeared completely in there, there was nothing to see of him in there. After that time, there was haunting in that house. It was later torn down since nobody wanted it, and the garden was later attached to a farm.
DS_V_913	Revenants and their conjuring	It was just before Christmas, a man went to Aalborg early one morning and came past a gallows where a thief hung. At night, when he went home, he had had a nice big dram and was a bit drunk. Then he yells up to the thief: “What are you hanging there and dangling for? It would be better if you came down and visited me Christmas eve.” He drives along and comes home to his bed. Then the alcohol starts to wear off and he says to his wife: “I think I made a mistake tonight.” “What was that?” she says. “When I drove past the gallows, I yelled out to the dead guy that he should come down and visit me Christmas eve.” “Well, you shouldn’t have done that, now we’ll see what happens.” Christmas eve comes and sure enough someone comes and knocks on the door. The man welcomes him and he’s supposed to sit at the end of the table, and there was a big meal set out for him. It looked like he ate, but he didn’t swallow any of it. When he was done, he thanked them and wanted to leave. “Well, now you’ll probably come up and visit me New Year’s eve,” he said. The man was a little spooked by the visit and he immediately says yes. Then he goes to the minister and wants to hear what the father will say about it and he tells him the whole story. The minister advises him that he should say, “I come in God’s name, and I will also leave in God’s name.” He plods up there New Year’s eve and when he hears a clink, his eyes change for him, and it's like he's in a really nice apartment. He says what he had decided on, though, that he comes etc. He’s served food and drink and then wants to go. But then the dead guy stops him and says, “Who taught you that? If you hadn’t said that, then I would’ve toyed with you, since you had no right to talk to me when you drove past.” Then there was a bang again and now he stood out by the gallows and then he sweated it home as fast as he could.
DS_V_956	Revenants and their conjuring	An old woman in Havrum died and went again. They had many children and among them was one who wasn’t really smart and couldn’t speak very well. The other children were not supposed to get any inheritance until their father died, but she had decided that she (the little girl) should have a little more. While she was alive, she had made bedsheets for the children, just like other people, and then she had sewn a little leather pouch in one of the corners. In the leather pouch she had hidden four hundred daler for her, but it hadn’t yet been revealed. Then she came many nights when it was twelve o’clock, and went and stood by these sheets. They locked up as best they could at night, but she came in anyways. The husband woke several times and saw her, and they were so afraid of her. They had noticed that she stood and picked at this comforter and they tore it open. Then they found a little note with the girl’s name on it and then they found the leather pouch and opened it up. The girl got the money and then the dead woman didn’t come anymore.
DS_V_97	Revenants and their conjuring	A man told me himself that it was a clear moonlit night about midnight, he was walking along the road to Tyregod church. A little bit away from the church, he saw something walking towards him in the middle of the road, and he thought it was a big dog, but when he got closer to it, it looked a lot like a gray sheep. He moved to the side of the road and it walked quickly down the middle of the street right past him, and he could clearly see that it had red eyes which were glowing. He got a little hot around the ears, even though it didn’t do anything to him, but he continued along the way to Hindskov. Others are also supposed to have seen that figure like a sheep.
DS_V_972	Revenants and their conjuring	Once there was an old woman in Størtum who died, she had lived with her son and his wife. After she had been buried, she went again and she was dressed all in white, she went and rummaged about in the bed by the children and out in the barn. Then they looked in the bed and found some balls of yarn and in the barn there was a red skirt that had belonged to the deceased. They took it and hung it in the kitchen, but then the revenant appeared there. One time, when the son's wife went out to the kitchen with a pail of milk, she was standing there. She got so scared that she dropped the milk. She asked the minister if it would be alright if she spoke with her. The minister said that she certainly could, but that she should bring a book of psalms with her, since she would probably wind up promising the ghost something and the ghost would ask her to give her her hand on it, but she should not give her her hand but rather hand her the psalm book. So she asked the revenant once, "What are you looking for, mother?" -- "Five shillings in the red skirt, then I can have peace in the ground, but promise me that you will give them to my daughter, and give me your hand on that." She handed her the psalm book, and the ghost grabbed it so hard that it left a mark. They cut the skirt up and found five shillings sewn into the waistband. Then they didn't see her anymore.
DS_VI_1004	Cunning men and women and their activities	The Black Smith in Nørre-Tranders could stop a pair of run away horses. He did that once up here by the mill. A couple of guys were driving with a man from Klarup and then they also stopped in at the mill. The horses were standing in front of the wagon at the time, and then they stampeded. The man who owned them was sitting inside and got very upset, but then the smith, who was also sitting inside there said, "It won't help, let me go outside." He went outside quickly, and then the horses stopped at the first farm to the east of the mill. "Now we can go in and have us another dram," said the smith, and the horses kept standing there too until they came for them. Another time, it was the smith's wife who did it, since she could do it too, she could. It was a couple of horses pulling a load of hay. She said, "Wait a bit, you aren't supposed to go that way," and then they stood there down on Utrup road by Jens Rytter's place. The Black Smith was also a good animal doctor too.
DS_VI_1078	Cunning men and women and their activities	Klemmen in Sorte Mose could show again. My grandparents had some money stolen from them, and so granddad went over to him. Klemmen asked him what time the money had disappeared and he told him. Well, he might be able to show the money again, but if any of it had been given away or spent, then the money would not be able to be recovered. Three or four days later, on a Friday night, they were supposed to look around the foundation stones under their dining room window. They found the money too, except for a few marks and shillings. One day, Klemmen sat in the living room and said, "I can feel that there's someone out in the forest who is planning to steal some wood, I better go out there and check." And he met the thief too, he was still standing there with the wood. "Well, I'll release you now but if you do it again, bad things will happen to you."
DS_VI_1199	Cunning men and women and their activities	One time, a house in Vilstrup caught fire. They shouted for help and people streamed there to put it out, but they couldn't get the fire under control since it had already spread to most of the roof. Then the minister came. He calmly walked around the fire once and when he'd done that, the fire was out.
DS_VI_1204	Cunning men and women and their activities	Once there was a fire in the big Vildmose (Wild Swamp) that had burned for three years without being put out. Then pastor Jermiin put an end to it, he drove out to the swamp and walked around the fire. When it reached the spot where the minister had walked, it went out, and then it wasn't too long before the whole fire was out.
DS_VI_1206	Cunning men and women and their activities	A farm in Hallund that was called Lunden caught fire once. As soon as they discovered the fire, they sent for pastor Jermiin from Øster-Brønderslev, who also arrived before it had burned too much. Everyone knew that he could put fire out with words, but there was one person there who doubted that, that was Kristen Hansen from Hellum and he said, "It won't help, pastor, the fire can't be put out." -- "What are you saying, man?" said the minister, and the fire went out immediately.
DS_VI_122	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Poul Lyne in Sønderskov had sworn himself to the devil. One time he was supposed to go to a birthing over in Ty and it was during the winter. When they drove off, there was a dog lying in the back of the wagon. Then when they were going to go home, they wanted to drive over the ice. But then they came to a big crack, and the driver didn’t dare drive over it. “Drive ahead, damn you! [lit.: for the devil]" yelled Paul. “No, I will not drive in his name, I will drive in Jesus’s name.” Then he drove, but everything sank under the ice. The farmhand came up and came ashore alive. He said he could hear the horses breathing down there. After that time, Paul Lyne walked again and they could hear him coming in his high boots. He was conjured down by a curate in Gudum.
DS_VI_1251	Cunning men and women and their activities	A Norwegian, who could chase rats away, came to Thisted and they wanted him to chase their rats away. He took on the job in return for a certain payment from each household. But there was one man who wouldn't pay. Then the Norwegian called all the rats and drove them down into the Limfjord. But the man who didn't pay, he got to keep his rats, and they had lots of babies, and so they spread to the surrounding area once again. If that man had paid, then all of Thisted would have been free of rats.
DS_VI_1252	Cunning men and women and their activities	There were so many rats and other pests at Gjøl. Then a Finlap came to the island, and they're cunning, that kind of person. He promised to drive both rats and mice from the land, if they promised that there were no serpents (lindorm) in the mountain. They promised that, and so he made a bonfire and called all the varmints to him and read for them, and they came just as quickly and went into the fire. Then it took a while, but then the lindorm came tumbling out like a wheel and took the Norwegian and they both tumbled into the fire because he didn't have any power over that.
DS_VI_141	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	It is said about a manor lord from Rask in Hvirring that he occasionally visited the devil in his abode. One night late the order came to the driver to get the carriage ready. The lord, the lady, and more people got up in it and when the driver asked where he was supposed to drive, the lord answered, “Follow the black dog.” The road was wide and level and it wasn’t too long before they stopped by a big castle lit by many lanterns with an iron gate in front which immediately opened, and on the stairway stood the Old One laughing. He greeted them and brought them inside. Finally they came out and were directed by the black dog back to their home.
DS_VI_144	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was also a certain manor lord at Søby Søgård who had made an agreement with the Evil One: the devil would indulge the manor lord for a certain amount of time, but then he would possess the lord both hide and hair. Now when the time drew near for the devil to come get him, the manor lord had no idea what to do to get free. Finally, he decided to have his rooms covered with down comforters. Now, when the time had come, the devil came and it only helped a little bit that there were soft comforters that could cushion the sinner, since now the manor lord was danced about the room so that soon there wasn't a stump of either him or the comforters left. The blood that spattered about on the walls can never be covered over and one can still see it now.
DS_VI_144	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was also a manor lord at Søby Søgård who had made an agreement with the Evil One that the Devil would indulge him for a while and, because of that, the Devil could have possession of him with skin and hair later. Now when the time approached when the Devil was supposed to come get him, he didn’t have the slightest idea how to get free. Finally he came up with the idea of covering his entire room with down comforters. Now when his time had run out, the Devil came sure enough and it only helped a little bit that the soft comforters could cushion the sinner, because now he danced around the room with him so that soon there wasn’t a stump left of neither the comforters nor the manor lord. The blood, which splattered about on the walls, can never be cleaned off and can even be seen now.
DS_VI_150	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A manor lord lived at the manor Skovsbo, and he was in league with the devil. One Sunday morning, while the lady was at church, he asked his servant to go out and look and see if a small black cloud wasn't approaching on the horizon. The servant went out, but came back and said there weren't any clouds to see. A little later, the manor lord asked him to go out again, and this time the servant reported that there was a strange black cloud rising over the manor. "Well," said the manor lord, "go up to your room and stay there until the lady returns from church." The servant went, but a moment later he heard a commotion from the manor lord's chamber. Curious, he tiptoed out to the hall and the master's door. It was locked, and when he wanted to bend down and look through the keyhole, he got his eye poked out. Horrified, he ran down the stairs to yell for help, but he became even more horrified when he saw his master's right hand lying on the stairs. The people who came streaming to the house broke open the door to the fateful room. It was empty, but on the floor were large puddles of the manor lord's blood, and the walls and the ceiling were covered with bright blood red splashes. The manor lord was gone, but the devil couldn't take his right hand, since that had been given away at the altar.
DS_VI_21	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Many years ago, there was a miller at Seest mill who was a doppelgänger (double walker). Often, people knew for sure that he had gone to market or was working many miles from home, and yet they saw him walking about in the outlying buildings or out in the fields. They didn't like him, because they could never relax since he often was two places at the same time. The mill often ran in the middle of the night, and when people got up to investigate, it was nothing.
DS_VI_216	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	You can't burn Cyprianus.
DS_VI_222	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	The third one to get hold of a Cyprianus would not be able to get rid of it. There was a smith in Regtrup near Klavsholm, he was called Anders Lyng, and he had gotten it, but unluckily, he was the third, and nothing he did to get rid of it helped. Before he came to Regtrup, he had lived in another town called Matrup, and he had moved to get rid of the Cyprianus. When he'd sold the house, he bound it to a hitching post and left. But when he got to Regtrup, it was lying on the table in his new house. When he saw it, he got so angry, that he went to the smith and started the fire and then he put it in the fire, and it seemed to him that it was burned to ashes. But when he came into his living room, he found it on the table once again. From that time on, he had bad luck with him all the time.
DS_VI_222	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	The third person to get Cyprianus couldn’t get rid of it. There was a smith in Regtrup near Klausholm, he was called Anders Lyng, and he had gotten it, but was unluckily the third owner, and everything he did to get rid of it didn’t help. Before he came to Regtrup, he had lived in another town which was called Matrup and he had moved to get away from the Cyprianus. When he had sold the house, he had nailed it to a hitching post and left. But when he got to Regtrup, it was lying on the table in his new lodgings. When he saw it again, he got so upset that he went and set the smithy on fire and took it and threw it in the fire and it seemed to him that it was burned to ashes. But when he came into his living room, he found it again on the table. From that point on he always had bad luck.
DS_VI_240	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a minister over in Angel, he had a Cyprianus. Then a boy came and was to be instructed by him, and he was called Jakob. One day the minister sat and read, and the boy sneaked up behind him and read behind him in the book. Then the minister asked if he wanted to learn what was written there. Yes, he wanted to. Then he taught him that it was in fact from the Cyprianus. One day when the minister was in the church, Jakob started in on it himself and started to read on his own. Then an owl came into the room and soon after another and then more, and they flew about in the room. He continued to read and then a toad came hopping into the room, then another and finally there was a whole flock. When they were gone and he continued reading, grass snakes came in and that also turned into a huge mass of snakes. In the meantime, the minister stood at the pulpit, but then he noticed that an owl came flying by with regularity outside. He realized that there must be something wrong happening at home and he hurried as best he could to get home and he got home and went into the study, just as the whole nest of grass snakes came slithering in. The boy had, out of fright, put the book down and didn’t know what he should do with himself. The minister saw immediately what was going on and started to read back so they were driven away once more. The minister said now that he should thank God that he came early because, if the snakes had disappeared, then the troll himself would have come and then there would have been no helping him. Now he would teach him how one could go about reading them away. The boy continued to live with the minister and got the book after him, but I can’t remember how he used it. When Jakob got old, he could get the devil to show himself whenever he wanted to see him. One day his son asked if he couldn’t see him. Then they were out one day standing by a road and digging and then Jakob says to him that he should watch out because that afternoon the devil would walk by. Then different people came and walked by and finally a high class gentleman came by. Just when he had passed, the old one said: “Did you see him?” “Well, who?” “Him, the one you wanted to see.” “Well, where is he?” “Didn’t you see, he walked past here.” Then he turned around quickly, but then there was nobody to see.
DS_VI_315	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	One time, Mr. Jens drove from Kirkholm to Klakring, and he got the devil up for a ride, he hung on back in the wagon like a large poodle, and the horses couldn't pull the wagon any longer. Then the driver had to take the left back wheel off, and now the devil had to carry the wagon.
DS_VI_323	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	The wise minister in Snoldelev had an old driver who sometimes stopped and rested in Damhus Inn, near where the people from Brøndbyvester had a piece of road they were responsible for repairing. He told a story that one time when they had been out on a trip (probably to see about some sort of witchcraft), the horses all of a sudden became stubborn, reared, and wouldn't go anywhere. Then the minister says to him, "Grab hold of the reins with your right hand as far out as you can." The driver did that, but it didn't help. "Get down and take the harness off the far horse." He did that. "Can't you see anything on the back of the wagon?" the minister said again. Well, now the driver could clearly see that there was a devil sitting in the back there. "Take off the right back wheel and put it up in the wagon, and then drive as fast as you can home." When they got home to the parsonage, the minister said, "Now, can you leave, because now you've gotten something for your difficulties." That was to the devil, he said that, because it was him who had to be the fourth wheel for the wagon after the wheel had been taken off. Since then, nothing ever went wrong when they were out driving. Hr. Andr. Tamdrup Rachlou was the minister here from 1769-1789 and again from 1802-1811.
DS_VI_326	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	One night many years ago, I drove through Charlottenlund forest in Kragelund, and it was maybe around midnight. I had heard that there was haunting in the forest at night, but I didn’t worry about that, because people say so much. But now as I’m driving along, a coal black man comes out of the woods and throws himself under one of the back wheels, and then the wagon immediately came to a complete standstill, the horses couldn’t budge it one step farther. I had heard that when you turn the harness on the horse, then the haunting has no more power; so I did that and it also helped because I drove along without seeing the black man anymore.
DS_VI_33	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Once there was a minister in Højelse who, according to what people said, could be two places at once. One day the minister went off to Copenhagen and was to be away for a while. Then one of his hired girls, who wanted some fruit or another in the garden, she went down there and was just about to pluck it. At that moment, the minister came walking up. She had to take off. That happened many times.
DS_VI_345	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A man rode out on the heath one night outside of Kjærbølling along with his horses to put them out to graze. When he was on his way home, he saw someone walking in front of him and he thought it was a neighbor so he called out to him; but the other one continued to walk and the man said then: “Can’t you wait, damn you (literally: for the devil!)” Now the other man waited; but when the other man got there, he discovered that it was the devil, who he now had to accompany. The next night he was supposed to go out to him again, but his wife and children wouldn’t let him go. Then there was such a row that they thought that the barn had tipped over, so the man had to go out. The next day, he went over to minister Bang in Vilstrup in Skibet parish and asked him to help him get rid of the Evil One’s company. Then the minister taught him a verse that he was to read for the Evil One the next time he went out to him. In addition, he told him to carry a plowshare in his hand and when the devil asked him to give him his hand, he was to give him the plowshare instead. The man did this, too, when he went out to him the next night, and the devil grabbed it so hard that he kept a piece of the plowshare in his hand. Ever since then he didn’t have to go out to the Evil One at night, but he got sick and wasn’t fit for anything ever again.
DS_VI_427	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A hired girl had gotten pregnant. She decided that, after she gave birth, she would kill the child. When the time came for her to have the child, she went out to the barn with her female boss. The girl had the baby without any pain, and then the woman says, "Lay the child by your right breast before you kill it." The girl did that, and then she couldn't kill the child. Then the woman and the girl both saw a black cock jump up on a support beam and crow, "If I'd known that, then I wouldn't have held your back as well as I did."
DS_VI_430	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Two farmhands wanted to try hanging themselves for fun. They drew lots as to who was to hang himself first, and the one who got the lot stood up on a milk stool, bound a rope around a beam, put his neck inside the noose and said to his buddy: "Now I'll kick the stool away, but when I begin to struggle, put the stool under me again." The other farmhand stood there with the stool in his hands and wanted to keep close watch, but at the same moment, a white hare came running very slowly through the barn. The farmhand thought he could catch it, but he couldn't, and when he finally gave up the chase exhausted and came back to the hanging one, he was dead. It was probably the Devil in a hare's shape that wanted to lure the living farmhand away.
DS_VI_431	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	In the old days, there was one who had hung himself in Rold forest. The boys went and worked as shepherds just like in other places, and then they wanted to try hanging themselves. The one who was up hanging, the others were supposed to help down. But they made an agreement with him, that they weren't supposed to let him down until he'd made his water. So, three had been up hanging, but when the fourth was up hanging, a rooster comes by, pulling a large load of hay. All of the others fell down in amazement at that sight, and they forgot to get him down, and so he hung and died.
DS_VI_434	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	They've heard suicides cry in a mother's womb. Some could see when a suicide was nearby, and could say to others as he passed by: We won't see him anymore. One could see that a black dog was following them and that the devil was haunting them until he got them. One man thought about hanging himself, but had second thoughts about it when he felt something jump on his back and pull him down. He managed to name God's name, and it hopped off and he was saved. A girl wanted to drown herself. She was already down by the water to feel if it was cold. No, it was almost lukewarm, and the meadow had a strange shimmer, she'd never seen anything like it. She wanted to die, but first she wanted to say her Our Father. When she said amen, she heard a horrible scream that echoed across the meadow, and everything lost its beautiful gleam. The water was no longer warm either, and the girl hurried home.
DS_VI_471	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	In an inn in Sønderjylland, some farmhands sat around playing cards and they were swearing tremendously. Just as they were sitting there enjoying themselves, a strange man comes in and he winds up playing with them; but he played so well that he beat them every time. In the middle of a hand, one of the farmhands drops the ace of clubs on the floor but when they got the candle to look for it, they saw that the strange man had a horse's hoof. Now they could pretty much see who it was that they were dealing with and so they secretly sent the hired girl off to get the minister, but continued to play just like there was nothing wrong. A little later the minister came in through the door with the bible under his arm and said, “Good evening everybody except for one!” Then the strange man asked who it was and the minister said: “It’s you, you wretch!” The stranger began to beg that he had to go now, if he couldn’t be allowed to leave up through the chimney. “No” says the minister, “That’s way too big a place for you to go through.” And then he cut a little hole in the window putty near the glass and said that now he had to go out that way. The devil, because that’s who it was, turned into smoke and traveled out through the hole, but then there was such a stink after he left, that they couldn’t bear to stay in the room. After that time the farmhands stopped playing cards and swearing, and the inn got the name, “The Ace of Clubs Inn”.
DS_VI_478	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	One evening, a group of farmhands were gathered in Lyndelse Inn on Fyn. They were enjoying themselves playing cards. As they were sitting there, someone came in and started playing with them. After they had played for a while, they got into a fight. In his excitement, the dealer dropped some cards on the floor. He wanted to bend down to pick them up, but now he saw that the foreigner had a shaggy leg with a horse's hoof on the end, so he was the devil himself. They sent someone to get the Stenløse minister with the request that he come and drive him out. The minister came. He poked a hole in the window with a pin and he drove the devil out of the inn through that hole.
DS_VI_48	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	The Freemasons are supposed to work on the tower of Babel after they die. They never become poor, because they always find money in their beds. They always die suddenly. Those who commit offenses or reveal any of the secrets, they get a needle poked into their portrait, and then they die. That's what happened to one who lived up in Trudslev.
DS_VI_592	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A man in the farm in Nørup hanged himself and, after they had gotten him buried, there was nobody who would live in the farm because every night, as soon as the sun had gone down, a black dog came and just touched the door so that it sprung open. Then it ran through the house from one end to the other and knocked the doors open. It was as if the cattle knew when it came because they got restless as soon as it had knocked the door open. The cattle that were tied up in the barn tore at their bits and mooed as if they were completely crazy, and if any of them could tear themselves free, they would and run out of the farm. After a couple of nights like that, there was nobody who would stay there and those animals that weren’t moved died in their stalls. The man had said that the Evil One could come and get him; he was really bad about swearing in general. Therefore they believed that it was the Evil One who tumbled about in there. They had to tear the farm down and move it out onto the field, and since then they didn’t see anything more of the black dog.
DS_VI_66	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	A farmer on Bornholm was a Freemason, and so the devil was supposed to get him--because he is supposed to get all Freemasons. When he went to communion, he didn't take bread or wine. When he was dead and was to be buried and they brought his corpse to the church, the lid of the casket burst open and there was nothing in there but a black ox hide. The devil had taken him.
DS_VI_68	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	It was told about pastor Trap in Tårs that he was a Freemason, and that is why he knew when he was going to die. One day, he asked his driver to hitch up the wagon, and he climbed up and asked him to drive over to Boller manor farm. When he got into the farm he was supposed to drive a figure eight around the large linden trees according to old custom, and thus turn the horses around and then drive back the way that he had come, without paying attention to anything. But imagine their surprise at Boller when, just as they stood there with happy faces ready to greet the minister, the driver turned the horses around and drove off as fast as the horses could go; the minister had asked the driver to let the horses run since they were in a hurry. As soon as they had gotten home, the minister went in and lay down on his bed and was dead. He just wanted to say goodbye to his friends in Boller that way, since it was his last day alive. The person who told this story had, as a child, known the minister.
DS_VI_720	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was a man who was called Svanbjærg, he never missed a shot when hunting wild things. One time another man saw him shooting at a hare, but it was already so far away that there was no way he could hit it, and he didn’t shoot straight at it either. Nevertheless he came with the hare, it had been felled by the shot. That same man also liked to fish. Then he fished one time in Mørk Lake, a little deep lake out on Vest heath, some people believe it is bottomless. But then it went wrong for him. Because that time he got a red spotted calf in his net and it tore it to pieces for him, and he had to go home that day with unfinished business. He believed that the calf was the devil.
DS_VI_75	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Those who go to the Black School run out of it when they are done since the one who comes out last belongs to the devil. There was once a minister who came out last but he was wise enough to tell the devil that he could take his shadow first and had to be happy with that. The minister didn’t have a shadow after that, and the devil often put it on and went around with it, so people thought that they saw the minister out in the field and other places, even though he was at home in his house at the same time.
DS_VI_87	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	Jørgen Birkebæk only buttoned the top part of his vest, and people said that he had made a pact with the Evil One that he could come and take him when he'd finished dressing but, because of that, he never finished putting on his clothes. He was a hard one to get a straight answer from. "How is your buckwheat this year, Jørgen?" -- "Triangular." -- "What does that give you?" -- "As much as we thresh from it." He was supposed to sell a steer at Kollemorten market. "What did you feed it [What did you hold it with]?" -- "Rope." -- "But what do you want for it?" -- "Money." -- "Sure, but how much?" -- "As much as we can agree on."
DS_VI_882	Cunning men and women and their activities	I was down to see the cunning woman in Vindblæs to have some coins that had gone missing for a man here in Gjedsted shown again. But she wouldn't and she showed me the door. "Well, little madam, please excuse me but..." I began again and wanted to tell her a bit more. But she interrupted me immediately, "No, I don't want to fight the devil twenty-four times for two hours each time over such a little thing. Sure my father did it, and I have the same books that my father had, but I don't want to have anything to do with that."
DS_VI_886	Cunning men and women and their activities	At a place over here in Handest, they'd gone down to Vindblæs and the cunning woman there to ask for advice about an illness. When they came home, they threw the prescription away. Then the hired girl was sitting outside in the evening milking and a piece of paper flew into the bucket, and it was the prescription. She hadn't been with them down there, so it was strange that it came to her. One time two doctors and the district bailiff came down to the woman in Vindblæs to arrest her. But she asked them to go home and delouse themselves. When they got home, they were so covered with lice that they had to go back to her to get rid of them.
DS_VI_898	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was an old woman who lived down in the Alstrup hills, they called her Skytte-Sofi, and they thought that she could do witchcraft. Then some canvas was stolen from Anders Holmen in Ugilt, and he goes over to her to get her to show it again. She promised to do it too. Then he was supposed to come back the next day, but then it had started raining when he was supposed to go home, and since they had a little building where there was some hay, he went in there and burrowed himself into the hay. Out in the night, the old woman comes in and calls a little boy to her, and she asks him about this canvas. He doesn't want to tell her. "They hear. They hear." he says, but she had a little switch, and she hit him with that, and then he had to tell her and said that it sat hidden under a slope in a peat pit and a goose feather had been placed to mark where the canvas was. Then the devil was allowed to go and then when he was gone, Anders Holmen made sure to leave too. He found the canvas at the place where the boy had said it was.
DS_VI_899	Cunning men and women and their activities	Jens Plovgård lived at a place out by the western sea, maybe in Ramme, and he was a real genuine witch. One time there was a man over in Store-Ty who came to him because he had some pigs who had gotten lost--it was at the time when pigs were grazed. When he got there, Jens Plovgård wasn't home but his wife thought that he would come home that evening so he could wait, and she suggested that he go and lay down out in the barn. He goes out there too. During the night, Jens Plovgård comes home, and his wife told him about this man from Ty who had been there. But she doesn't tell him that he is out in the barn. So Jens Plovgård goes out to the barn too, and calls the devil to him and asks him where the pigs had gotten off to. The Evil One tells him that the man's neighbor had killed them and buried them in a sand dune he had near the farm. The man from Ty lies there listening to this and then he thinks that he could just as well go home. But he didn't get all the way home, since Jens Plovgård had sent someone after him, and he had to go back and get the proper message from him.
DS_VI_900	Cunning men and women and their activities	There was a man from Ty whose pigs had disappeared. He went to Jens Plovgård in Ramme to ask about them. It was night when he got there and Plovgård wasn't home. The wife showed him out to the barn, he could sleep there that night. When Jens got home late that night, his wife told him about the foreign man and what his errand was. He went out to the barn where he called the Black One forth and asked him about the pigs. The man, who was lying out there, saw and heard everything, he heard what was said, they were lying in his neighbor's dung heap. Then the man left before daybreak and went home to Ty, since he'd heard where they were himself.
DS_VI_926	Cunning men and women and their activities	An old Norwegian walked about here in the area and he was cunning. There were so many moles here in the fields. Then my great grandfather complained to him about that. Then he answered that he could show them to a place so they wouldn't go everywhere. So then he made it so that, for many years, there weren't any moles except for one place just to the north of the mounds that are out to the north here. The same Norwegian predicted that there were sixty thousand rixdollars buried in the middle mound.
DS_VI_95	About the Devil and being in league with the Devil	There was an old woman who had sold her soul to the devil. Then her time was up, and the devil had gotten so far that he was combing her hair with a glowing comb, and it didn't help if she whined or sang, now she was to go with him. At that moment, a student came in who had gone to the black school and asked on her behalf if she couldn't be given an extension until the stump of candle that was burning on the table had burned out. The Evil One agreed to that, but then the student took the candle, put it out, and hid it, and then the devil had to leave without having finished his business.
DS_VII_106	Witches and their sport	There was an old woman here in town who was called Lisbet and they accused her of being a witch. Then there was a place where the cows were being milked during the night. The people wanted to take care of them, but they couldn't do anything. Then one morning when the milkmaids were to go out and milk, they saw a hare that ran down through the ditch and disappeared, but what became of it, they didn't know. The girls got scared and thought that it was Lisbet. Now the old ones have said that if you see a hare like that and name it by name, then the witch will stand in front of you buck naked. But if you say the wrong name, it is very dangerous, because then they can bewitch you and turn you into a monster. That's why no one dared do it, but Lisbet seemed like a witch, since she was always so friendly and obsequious.
DS_VII_110	Witches and their sport	When the fishermen on Vanø brought their catch in early in the morning, they usually saw a gull which flew over and snapped up one of the best eels and disappeared with it over behind Fiirbjærg. Later they saw a woman, who was suspected of being a witch, come out from the other side of the hill. Another witch could turn herself into a hare. When the hunter came after it, he’d catch nothing that day, he could hunt as much as he wanted. The minister went to visit her once to investigate this case, and asked her if it was true that she could run like a hare. She at first wouldn’t talk about it, but finally she said that if he couldn’t see it on her when she went to to communion, then he was a bad minister. She couldn’t swallow the bread, you see.
DS_VII_1179	Witches and their sport	Their calves in Aggersbøl died. They got three red dots over their nose and then they died. Our neighbor worked there at the time and saw it. Then they sent for the cunning man in Smidstrup. He came there in the evening and stayed the night. In the morning, he came running in to the people before it was light and before they had gotten up, and was wearing only his underwear and said, "You have visitors." Well, they didn't know anything about that. Then they went to check the house. They did that and they found an old woman who had come into their female pensioner through a back door, and it was her best friend. Now he wanted to see her before she saw him, and then she was not to come that way any more. She had to leave by the door, and when she got out, she looked through all the windows, but he hid behind a post until he saw her. She kept looking through the windows, but the moment he saw her, then he stood out in the open and said that she could see him now. After that time, she could never come to the farm except by the church road, and then through the gate and then the main door. She tried to come in all sorts of other places but couldn't. No one found out what kind of tricks the cunning man had done, but since then nothing died at the farm.
DS_VII_1180	Witches and their sport	A man who worked at Voermark told me the following: When I worked there, we always had misfortune with our calves; after they had grown a bit, they would often be lying dead in their stalls the next morning. We got the cunning man from Frørup; he come one evening when it was really dark and rainy. I offered to follow him out there and around with a lantern, he was supposed to put something under the threshold of each stall where there were animals; but he didn't want me along, he went out alone. When he was done, I was to drive him to Frørup; I didn't want to since it was so dark. I told him that he could stay until the next day. He answered no. "If I am not out of the farm by twelve o'clock, things will go wrong." I had to leave with him; but after that time, our calves did well. He had forgotten a place though, and that was the sheep house, and so now it affected the lambs, until we moved that house, and then everything was OK.
DS_VII_1183	Witches and their sport	Sometimes it happens at farms that a newborn calf that is put in a manger alone dies before it can be put into a stall. The best defense against that is to get someone to give you a calf. But this kind of misfortune can also be due to certain things, and the situation can be improved by getting rid of these things. That's how a man once went and sought help from a cunning woman and he told her that his calves died if they stood in such and such a stall, and he asked her for advice. Yes, there were reasons for that, he should go ahead and clean the calf stall, they would likely find a carved runner stone, they should take that away, because as long as it was there, no calf would be able to live in the stall, but he must not stop until he found the stone, because it was quite certain it was there. The man went home with this message and immediately began cleaning the calf stall, but he dug and dug and didn't find a stone. Finally, after a long while, when he had gotten down four feet, he sure enough found a long, thin, carved stone. That was now taken away and after that not a single calf died in the stall.
DS_VII_119	Witches and their sport	An old woman lived over by Wår bridge, they called her Karen Rut, and she could do all sorts of things like change herself into a hare, and she made a lot of trips to Skagen in that shape. She went about like that for many years, but she didn't do any other acts of witchcraft.
DS_VII_128	Witches and their sport	Ane Husted up here could also do witchcraft and turn herself into a hare. She went out on people's fields at night and in their stalls and in their kitchens. But she finally met her bane because of that. They shot at her many times, but it never bit. Finally they shot the hare lame in one of its back legs, and then Ane Husted got really hurt in one of her legs, and lay for quite a while before she died. They finally got fire under her at last, and it is fourteen or fifteen years since she died. She had her money in stockings and pots that were buried in the kitchen.
DS_VII_129	Witches and their sport	In Ty there was a hare which went and sniffed around peoples’ houses and was running about everywhere, they could almost walk up to it. Then they realized that it was best if they made the situation right, so the man loads his rifle and shoots at it. The hare gets hit in the one thigh and runs limping away. He watched where it ran and it scooted in through the hen hole in a little house. Then he wanted to go in there and see. The woman of the house was sitting next to the wood burning stove complaining that it hurt so much in one of her thighs, she had fallen and hit herself so. So then he went home and said to his wife that the hare wouldn’t be coming around anymore. 
DS_VII_1357	Witches and their sport	A woman lived in Bjerge, Bjerge district, she could witch, and many people had seen that she could milk using two forks. Sometimes when she was to have milk she'd let her black milk can, which she was going to put the milk in, walk along in front of her. Then she didn't have to carry it, and then she could walk and knit stockings in the meantime. But not everything she did was good. There was a farm called Easter farm where a number of cows died without them knowing what was going on. Then the man started to think that there must be some witch or another who was causing this misfortune with his cattle. Well, what does he do, he goes and gets in touch with a cunning man and asks his advice. The cunning man knew right away what to do, and told the man that he should take nine different types of wood and burn them in a bonfire. Then the one who was at fault in the cows' death would come, but they had to be careful that she didn't see the fire. They did as the cunning man had advised them to, and then the witch from Bjerge quickly came over there. She complained and howled and wanted to come inside, but they had to be careful that she didn't come in and see the fire, because then her pain would be gone immediately. The witch had to stay outside, and she was tormented and got so hot that she jumped into the dung heap to cool herself down. Finally, the nine kinds of wood were burned up, and then the witch could run home again; but she could never hurt Easter farm again.
DS_VII_1399	Witches and their sport	All of a sudden, a woman in Assendrup, Værslev couldn’t get cream from her two cows. She went to a cunning woman and got the advice to buy a new unused pot without bargaining over the price (keeping quiet), fill it with milk and, still keeping quiet, put it over the hearth on a hot glowing fire, put an unused straw broom outside the door and then lock it, because the cows were bewitched, and the guilty one had to appear soon under some pretext. But the guilty person was not to be allowed inside under any circumstances and the pot should be tipped over. All of these instructions were followed precisely and the witch was immediately at the door asking for a pail of milk for her father who had become so ill that she was afraid that he’d die before nightfall. But begging and pleading didn't help, the pot was tipped over and, with a scream, she took off home. The next day she lay and was practically scalded to death.
DS_VII_141	Witches and their sport	There was an old woman in Martofte who was called Ma Østergårds. She was very good at selling butter, but one time when she came to Kjærteminde with her butter, she had taken the wrong container (eighth), and they kept taking from it there, it couldn't be emptied. They broke it into pieces, and then there was a large toad in the bottom, that was what was making the butter. A farmhand worked in the same woman's farm, they called him Lars Rytter, and he had a disagreement with her. Then one evening, he came walking along on his way home, and came past Kristen Andersen's house, when a cat came and jumped up on him and scratched his face. Then he says, "You aren't going to hurt me too bad, since I know, the devil chain me up, that you are Ma Østergårds." Then the cat disappeared. It happened in old Lars Madsen's farm, since that was his wife and Mads Larsen's mother.
DS_VII_1418	Witches and their sport	An old woman lived near Copenhagen and she was very wise. Nearby lived a man who was afraid of her and believed that she could witch. One time, he was supposed to go to Copenhagen and then the old woman wanted to send a message with him but he said no. Then she said that he’d come to regret that, his red horse could easily be hit with something. At night when he came home, he told this to the farmhand and then the farmhand went out to spend the night in the stall with the horse. When he had stood there a little while, the woman came and put something into the stall with the horse. Then the farmhand grabbed her, killed her and buried her outside of the farm. He planted a tree there and it's standing on Brøndby hill to this very day.
DS_VII_143	Witches and their sport	A man accused another man’s wife of being a witch. Then the other man wanted his wife’s reputation cleared so he summoned the other man and his wife. When they came into court, a dog came to the door and scratched at it. Nobody would open the door for it, but then Anders Allehånde said: “If you won’t open up, then I will.” Then he opened the door. Then the dog came in and then Anders welcomed it and said her name. He said: “Welcome, Maren!” Then the woman who was summoned stood there naked beside her husband, and they could see that she was a witch.
DS_VII_144	Witches and their sport	There was a man called Anders Allehånde who lived in Østrup. He was cunning, but he wasn't as cunning as Kristen Madsen. Then there was a grocer from Hjørring, they called him Niels Gryt, and the cunning man accused his wife of being a witch. That's enough, it goes bad, the grocer gets angry, and the district bailiff and lots of other important people are brought together, and Anders Allehånde is to be sentenced to lose his right hand and his fingers. Now when they were done with all that, and he was sentenced to this, then a large dog comes to the door with big clear eyes, and scratches at it. "If you won't let the dog in," he says, "then I will." Then he called the grocer's wife by name and when he did that, she was standing there buck naked in there with them, and the grocer took his cloak and threw it over her. Now Anders Allehånde was saved, because they could see what kind of a wife the grocer had. After that time, Anders couldn't remember anything.
DS_VII_145	Witches and their sport	An old man in Lild parish went to visit some friends one Saint Hans eve. He had to cross a heath that had a bad reputation. In particular, there was a place where there had been a farm that had been moved because of the sand drifts. When he got there, he was really frightened and read his Our Father. All at once, he saw a flock of hares that were running about among the piles of gravel playing. He could tell right away that they weren't really hares since their back legs couldn't bend. He made a decision at once. He went over to the flock and named a woman who was from a neighboring farm who was known as a witch. At once, the woman was standing there and said, "That's the worst thing that anyone has ever done to me." She disappeared after that, and a little later she was dead. But the man didn't get away from that well. When he got to where he was going, he was sick, and was bedridden for a long time after.
DS_VII_1478	Human and cattle illnesses	It was old Mads Jensen in Risby, he was riding along the road once. Then someone shot at him, and the bullet hit him, but it only went through his sweater and nightshirt. Then he took the bullet, and rode back with it to the man who had shot and said, "Don't trouble yourself with shooting at me any more." The man was utterly surprised when he got his bullet back. But Rasmus (Mads) Jensen had been born in a victory shirt, and he had kept it.
DS_VII_1481	Human and cattle illnesses	An old smith's wife said that one of her children had been born in a lucky shirt, but he is incredibly poor.
DS_VII_1482	Human and cattle illnesses	The one who is born in a victory shirt cannot be overpowered. Holger Danske was born in one of those.
DS_VII_1488	Human and cattle illnesses	An old man from Holmen told me that Frederik the Seventh was born in a victory shirt, that's why victory and luck were with him. The membrane one is born in is supposed to have the shape of a shirt.
DS_VII_149	Witches and their sport	The same minister's wife in Hassing who had used the farmhand as a horse when she rode to Troms church, and finally been shod with iron horseshoes on her hands and feet, she had also done things in her previous husband's day. He was a curate, but whether it was more than the title that he carried, I'll leave unsaid. Then there was a wedding there in the parish to which he had been invited as well. While the guests were sitting at the tables, a white cat came in and walked back and forth across the floor. One of the guests, who knew more than the average person, said to one of the others: "Please step aside, and let the curate's wife pass." But as soon as he'd said that, she was standing there as naked as the day she was born instead of the cat. As soon as her husband saw that, he sank down under the table where he was sitting and died.
DS_VII_167	Witches and their sport	Judge Fisher from Vestervig drove one day on the highway and met an old Norwegian there, who went around begging. He stopped and asked him to get up in the wagon, because now he was under arrest for vagrancy. “Oh, no”, says the Norwegian, “let me go, because your honor’s horses can't pull me.” “Well, I don’t think there’ll be any problem with that, just get up in the wagon.” After making a few objections, the Norwegian gets up in the wagon next to the coachman. But however much the coachman whipped the horses, they wouldn’t budge from the spot, and then the judge had to ask him to get down off the wagon again.
DS_VII_176	Witches and their sport	Pastor Åboe in Kragelund believed quite a bit in the cunning folk. As soon as one of his animals got sick, he sent for the cunning woman who lived in town and she could read over it and bless it. A minister in Gjødvad didn't think that way, because one day when he wasn't home and a cow got sick, his people sent for the cunning woman, and the cow got better, but when he heard that, he said: I would have rather lost the cow than have it cured that way.
DS_VII_176	Witches and their sport	The old minister Åboe from Kragelund believed in the folk healers. Regardless of how sick an animal got, he sent for a woman folk healer, who lived over in the town, and she could read over it and bless it. A minister in Gjødvad was of a different mind, because one day when he wasn’t home and a cow got sick, the people sent for the woman folk healer and the cow got better, but when he heard that, he said: he would rather have lost the cow then that it should be cured in that manner.
DS_VII_237	Witches and their sport	In Visby near Trøjborg there was a woman who many suspected of being a witch. Our neighbor claimed that he had proved this allegation by playing a little game with her. She came once, and when she was leaving, he said, “God be with you!” Then she came back again and couldn’t leave. Now they talked about inconsequential things and she left again, but he repeated the words from the first time and then she stood there again and had to turn around again. He did that three times, and three times she came back, but then he got sort of scared and the fourth time he said only goodbye so she could leave. They also say that two needles or pieces of straw, placed in the shape of a cross on the threshold, has an effect so that no witch can cross the threshold until they’re taken away. When this woman was dead, a person came and put a twelve shilling coin in the open mouth of her corpse which, on the day of burial, was retrieved early and, green and horrid as the coin was, was to be put into some moonshine, which a drunk was supposed to drink so he’d become disgusted with moonshine.
DS_VII_268	Witches and their sport	A witch lived over on Katrup mark. She was a little lame, and she'd gotten that way by being shot with a silver button when she was in the shape of a hare. People didn't dare loan her anything that could be turned, like a churn, sieve or measure, because then they thought that she could take their butter from the cream, so they wouldn't be able to churn. She could take milk by milking at home.
DS_VII_296	Witches and their sport	There was a man who lived in Skjørping who had all his calves bewitched by a witch who sniffed about and made trouble there in the area. He sent for a cunning man who came and inspected the house and discovered that witch fat had been smeared on all the posts. When he'd seen that, he knew what to do. First, he got all of the witch fat together, and after he had closed and stopped up all the doors and windows, he threw the fat on the fire, but if the witch managed to see the flames, then all his efforts would have been wasted. While this was going on in the house, the same witch was out in the swamp gathering hay. All of a sudden, she began screaming and running as fast as she could; but because she couldn't see the flames, her face got terribly burned.
DS_VII_304	Witches and their sport	The witches are supposed to gather on St. Hans eve at Breum Spring east of the Grinderslev monastery church by the road which goes over to Langesgård. That was before they’d go off to Troms church. They were supposed to dance there and there was one who sat and played on an old horse’s head. When they had good cats, they could also ride on them over there. Because of that, everybody in the neighborhood always marked their cats in their ears, because when the cats were marked, then the witches couldn’t take them.
DS_VII_310	Witches and their sport	It was one Midsummer’s eve, there was a farmhand who had been off playing at a holiday party and, as he was walking home, he comes past a big flock down in the meadow who were taking communion down there and they drank from an old horse bone. He began to play for them and a woman came over to him and said: “You’ll be ashamed of this tomorrow.” Then he recognized that she was his neighbor, and when he got up the next morning and went out into the barn, one of his best horses was lying there dead. He went over to her then and when she realized that he had recognized her, she paid for the horse and asked him not to talk to other people about it.
DS_VII_335	Witches and their sport	On Saint Hans night (St. John's night, June 24th), the witches ride on their broomsticks to Tromsø, Bloksbjærg or Hekkenfeldt.
DS_VII_336	Witches and their sport	The witches ride to Bloksbjærg on Midsummer night.
DS_VII_423	Witches and their sport	Frederik Glarmester was a cowhand at Vilhelmsborg, he said that his mother was a troll (witch), she had to go to Troms church every Voldborg eve (Midsummer’s eve). When he had become a big boy he decided that he also wanted to try that ride. He rode on a broomstick and his mother rode on a rake. But he hadn’t really caught what she had said and then he said: “Up and down and up and down” and then he continued to the top of the chimney and then down again, and he continued like that until it daybreak, and the ride wore all his clothes off of him, his shirt and his pants, so there wasn’t a stitch of clothes left on him when he finally got free and could go his way.
DS_VII_426	Witches and their sport	The witches ride on cats on St. Hans Eve (St. John's Eve; midsummer) to Troms church. In the old days, people were supposed to keep their cats indoors that night, so the witches wouldn’t have them to ride on. I heard tell that they found a cat with a bridle on the next morning, it was ridden to death. A witch who went through the chimney said: “Up and out and no places against.” The hired girl heard her say that and also wanted to try. She said: “Up and out and everyplace against.” She banged herself to death in the chimney.
DS_VII_435	Witches and their sport	The witches rode to Bloksbjærg on midsummer night on oven rake shafts. The hag in one farm said, "Quickly over all the treetops." The farmhand at the farm wanted to follow her, but he hadn't heard correctly, and said, "Quickly through all the treetops." That's why he got badly scratched up before he got to Bloksbjærg.
DS_VII_436	Witches and their sport	A woman was a witch and one time she was supposed to go to Troms church. Then she took a stick and a bottle, rubbed the shaft with what was in the bottle, and said, "Up and out!" The shaft immediately flew up the chimney and continued on with her. The girl had noticed what the woman had done, and she took another stick, rubbed it and got up on it to ride. But then she said, "Up and down!" Then it went straight up to the tippy top of the chimney and then down again, and it kept going up and down like that until the woman came back.
DS_VII_443	Witches and their sport	A minister had a chief farmhand and every morning when he woke up, he was so tired and he was so sore in his limbs, he felt like he had being doing the hardest work. Then he sought the advice of a cunning man, who told him the reason for his illness. It was namely the minister’s wife who threw sleep on him and, by putting a witch bridle on him, she turned him into a horse and then rode him to Troms. He was so tired from that the next morning and had sore limbs. Then he advised him that the next St. Hans eve when he lay down in bed, he should rub his neck down hard into the pillow and continue to do that even if he fell asleep. He tried that. During the night he woke up and he was standing by a church and had a bridle in his hand, it was tied to the church hitching post, and round about stood a huge crowd of horses, who were tied in the same way. A little later the minister’s wife came out of the church and he threw the bridle over her head, following the cunning man’s advice, and immediately she was changed into a beautiful black mare. He sat himself up to ride and rode home to the parsonage. He got there at dawn and when the minister came out of the door to greet the rider, he wasn’t just a little surprised when he saw that it was his own chief farmhand who came riding. Then he told the minister that he’d bought this beautiful black mare, and didn’t the minister want to buy it from him. Yes, he liked it and then the deal was made. The farmhand asked next if he shouldn’t ride it over to the smith and have the mare shod, because it needed it. The minister consented to that and when the farmhand came back with it, he pulled the bridle off and the minister’s wife stood there with horseshoes on her hands and feet.
DS_VII_506	Witches and their sport	There was a farmer in Åsum near Odense, he had worked in his youth as a farmhand in the town, and in the same farm there was also a big hired boy. Then one Mortens eve the farmhand asks the boy if he wants to earn some money. Yes, the boy wanted to. Then he’d get eight shillings if he’d go to the church and run around it three times and each time yell into the keyhole, “I want to belong to the devil!” When he got to the door the third time, a white form with fire coming out of its mouth appeared. It was the farmhand who had put a sheet over himself and some rotted wood in his mouth. The boy didn’t yell the third time, but went crazy from the experience.
DS_VII_517	Witches and their sport	I knew a woman who was probably from the Århus area. She said that there had been a witch in her home. A young girl asked her as a joke to teach her how to do witchcraft. She took her up to the attic. In one of the posts there was a round hole, and the witch had a staff which fit into it. She told the girl that she should put the staff in the hole and go the wrong way around with it and say: “Now I run around the pole, my God, my Lord, I will abandon.” But the girl said instead: “Now I run around the pole, my God, my Lord will me protect!” Then the witch became furious and the girl did not become a witch.
DS_VII_527	Witches and their sport	There was a full fledged witch in Hundslev near Kjerteminde. One time, a girl who she was to cure of a disease visited her and the witch cured her too. When the girl had been cured, the witch asked her if she didn't want to learn witchcraft, to which the girl answered yes. The witch then came with a hare's head on a platter and the girl was to kiss it, otherwise she couldn't become a witch. But even though the hare's head was detached from its body, it stared at her so horribly that the girl didn't dare kiss it, and so it didn't amount to anything with her becoming a witch. In contrast, the witch had a daughter who learned the craft from her mother. They had small children at one of the places where the girl worked, and they were being pulled in a wagon across the floor. Then the girl, who was a witch, said that she could make the wagon go by itself. Then the ones who were pulling it let go and then the wagon drove back and forth on the floor. Finally, it started going really fast and the girl who had started it going couldn't stop it again; she got scared and ran home to her mother in Hundslev and the wagon didn't stop until she got home. The old witch went out walking once on Hindsholm near Hverringe manor, and she was accompanied by a farmhand. Next to the road where the witch and the farmhand were walking were the manor's fields where they were plowing with seven plows. The witch now says to the farmhand that she could make all seven plows stand still all at once. The farmhand thought that that was impossible but, at that moment, six of the plows stood still, the seventh, by contrast, continued to plow. The farmhand asked why the one kept plowing. The witch answered, "That's because there's flying rowan in it, and so I don't have any power over it."
DS_VII_574	Witches and their sport	A confirmation student in Erslev went to the Tødsø minister. They were watering their cows at the parsonage, and she sits in the confirmation classroom and says: what would they give her to get those cows to dance. Well, she couldn't do that. Yes, she certainly could. "I can also sit in here and milk milk from the cows." No, that couldn't be done. Yes, well if she was given an awl and a bowl. Then the minister came in and the others told him what the girl had said. "Can you do that, my girl?" Then the awl is fetched and the bowl too, and then she started milking. After she had milked for a while, she didn't want to anymore, because now blood started to come. Then he wanted to know who had taught her that. It was an old woman. She had put two cat tails in the oven and when she got one more, then she'd be fully taught. Then the minister had her re-baptized and then that was over, now she couldn't do things like that anymore.
DS_VII_576	Witches and their sport	A minister who was very poor once lived here in Glenstrup. His wife had complained for a long time that they had too little milk, they had a hard time getting butter and other such things. But then one day the minister comes out into the farm and his daughter is sitting by an elder bush and is milking milk out of the elder. Naturally, the minister’s wife was a witch, and she had sent her out to milk, but the minister knew nothing about this. The minister came from the field and saw this. “What’s that you’re sitting and doing here, my girl?” he says, “Who asked you to do this?” Her mother had, but now the cow couldn’t give any more milk, because now there came blood. Yes, she should continue as long as something came, if it was either blood or milk. Then she continued and then the cow died. It was supposedly a farmer’s cow here in the town. The minister got so upset about it, that he lost his health and died a little later. The elder stands in the parsonage even now, it stands a little apart in the western corner of the cabbage patch.
DS_VII_577	Witches and their sport	A man went and harrowed out on the field and a young girl who he had went along side and took care of the cattle. Then she happened to mention that she could milk from a harrow's tooth. Well, he'd like to see that, she could go ahead and milk from the red cow. She milked too, but then she said that she was afraid that it would die. "That doesn't matter," says the man, "The cow is mine and if dies, don't worry about it." She milked now so that it foamed. "Now blood is coming," she said. After that he wanted the girl to tell him who had taught her how to do that. Well, her grandmother had.
DS_VII_584	Witches and their sport	In Ajstrup near Brønderslev there was a witch who took a man's milk by milking through her garters. Since the witch often ran about the farm in the shape of a hare, Hals Præst gave them the advice that they should shoot it with a silver button. Then one evening the hare was shot so that it dragged one of its legs behind it and the next day the witch was bedridden and had broken her thigh. She said she'd fallen down out by the well.
DS_VII_588	Witches and their sport	A woman in Understed could do witchcraft and she usually turned her son into a fox and sent him over to another parish to steal geese. A man in a farm over there had heard tell of this and when he sees a suspicious fox come creeping about he says to it, “So, is it you, little Jens?” Then the fox became a boy with a red scarf on his head, and it was the witch’s son. A man walked by the witch’s house and she was standing in the doorway with a piggin (a small wooden pail with one stave extended upward as a handle) and made motions in the air like she was milking. Milk came in streams through the air, so it was foaming all over the piggin. As soon as she saw the man, she ran inside and slammed the door behind her. The same woman had a little boy who said to the other boys: “Well, mom can milk Nørgård’s cows with two pegs, but it can also happen that she gets nothing but shit.”
DS_VII_591	Witches and their sport	Ove's wife in Randum near Løgstør was good at doing witchcraft. She had the finger of a glove hanging over her bed, and when she pulled on it, she got her bucket filled with milk, but she said at the same time, "Now I'm milking Per Nielsen's cow," and the milk then went from the cow to her.
DS_VII_592	Witches and their sport	An old woman named Barbara had a reputation for being a witch. When the girls went out to milk at noon, she sat behind a fence and milked some wooden pins, and by doing that she took the milk from the cows, so the farmers didn't get any.
DS_VII_608	Witches and their sport	Jens Plovgård's wife Maren in Ramme was also a witch and when she was going to churn, she put the empty churn in the room and then she said, "Now, in God's name, a spoonful from each man and a bowlful from Rammegård." Then the churn would be filled and she'd get wonderful butter. One day, when she wasn't home, her daughter was going to churn, but she was more demanding than her mother and said, "A bowlful from each man and a bucketful from Rammegård." She wound up standing there with cream half way up her waist.
DS_VII_609	Witches and their sport	A woman from Bedsted used to say, when she was churning: "Butter from Hørup and butter from Grurup and butter in my little churn." She continued like that, and she that's how she pulled butter to herself from the different places in the area.
DS_VII_612	Witches and their sport	An Larses was churning once while a tailor watched. When she stepped out for a moment, he noticed a little note on the churn. He took it off and put it in his pocket. When she came back in, the butter poured out of his pockets. That's the way she took butter from the other women in town. When she put the note on, she said, "A spoonful of butter from each woman."
DS_VII_664	Witches and their sport	One day we couldn’t get butter and churned for two or three days. The cream was viscous and good for nothing so we couldn’t even use it for pancakes, but had to throw it away. Then an old Norwegian who went about with beehives comes by and he wants to beg for something to eat. My mother gave him some sour milk to spoon up and a bite of bread as well. “This is some fine milk,” he says now as he’s sitting there. Yes, the milk was good enough, she says snappishly. He says it one more time. “But we get nothing out of it,” she says, “no matter how good it is.” Yes, he could see that well enough. But now he’d give them some advice. They should get a piece of iron forged with three holes in it. Then they should take some sulfur and drip it into each barrel they had. After that, they should get the iron glowing hot and pour the milk over the iron into each barrel. “Then I think that the person who did this will get their nose warmed. If that doesn’t help, I’ll make it so it does help, but I don’t really want to do that.” It helped too.
DS_VII_690	Witches and their sport	A witch was supposed to be burned, but if she could round up all the wolves in Denmark and go off with them, then she was to be left in peace. So she bound them together and went off to Norway with them, and she rode on the first one over the sea. They're still there, and we got rid of them here.
DS_VII_696	Witches and their sport	An old woman comes riding with the wolves. Then she meets a man, and when he sees the pack, he says, "That's more than a few foals that you have." If he had said wolf, they would have torn her to pieces.
DS_VII_700	Witches and their sport	An old woman from here in Vendsyssel drove the wolves away. She bound them together with a red iron cable, and then she got up on one of them and rode off and then went out into the North Sea. When anyone met her, they were to congratulate her on her foals, they couldn't say wolves, because then they would eat her up. Someone came up to her too, and he said well enough, "Congratulations with your many foals."
DSnr_VI_534	Witches and their sport	On Voldborg eve (Walpurgis eve; April 30) all the witches are supposed to ride to Troms church to meet. There was a farmhand who worked for a woman who was a witch. Now he had heard about the witches’ ride and decided to watch her that night to see if it really was true that she was going to make this trip. And sure enough, she sneaked out into the barn and smeared one of the steers on all its limbs with a salve which she had in a little pot. He watched carefully where she put the pot down. Then she went and got up on the steer and said: “Here out and here away!” and then the steer took off with her. Then the farmhand took the salve pot and went out and smeared the other steer and got up on it. But he couldn’t really remember what he was supposed to say, and then he said: “Here up and here down!” and immediately it began hopping up and down with him, so that he was about to have his innards smashed to pieces. But then he remembered the right words and said: “Here out and here away!” and immediately the steer took off with him. When he got to the church, he stood outside and saw how the witches’ grandfather sat inside there and poured them wine from a gold horn. When he noticed that they were soon going to be done with their get together, he got up on his steer and took the other one's reins in his hands and said: “Here out and here away!” at which point he took off with both steers, and then he was home before daybreak. But it was several years before his employer came back from that trip.
DSnr_V_539a	Revenants and their conjuring	There was a Pastor Høeg who lived in Ugilt, he was the one who baptized me, and he had a daughter Kristine who was engaged to a farmhand who worked in the parsonage, he was called Kræn Raadsig. She got pregnant by him, but one evening there was a dance, it was at Christmastime, then she danced so much with my father that she had the child the next day, and the baby died. She and Kræn Raadsig were married a little after that and lived down in Bindslev parish. Then there was another farmhand who also worked in the parsonage, he was from Burskov in Ugilt, and Kræn Raadsig borrowed twenty-five daler from him. The parsonage madam was in on borrowing the money from him. Then this farmhand is drafted and has to go to Copenhagen but he doesn’t get the money before he leaves. Half a year later, he gets sick, winds up in the infirmary and dies. Well, the people at the parsonage inquire about his death in Copenhagen but they don’t do anything about paying the money back to his heirs. The madam especially should have taken care of this, and the farmhand’s family believed that the money had been paid and nobody could have believed otherwise. It is like this for a month but then a white ghost appears in the scullery of the parsonage, and the girls were terribly afraid of it. It continued to walk about out there every night for eight days, and the madam heard about it. Then one night she goes down there just at the moment it tended to come because she was going to show that she dared to go down there, she said. But then it took hold of her and squeezed her, and she got sick. Then the minister learned about this and he went down there the next evening and talked to it, and the next day they made good on the twenty-five daler. After that they didn’t see the ghost again and there was peace at the farm.
DS_II_J_248	Lights and portents	One time, a man stood in his doorway in Mølby, Spandet parish, and it was a little bit before the sun set. Then he saw a house fully engulfed in flames. Just as he called to his wife and the others that they had to see this, it was all over. Now he became convinced that the Verresig house was going to burn, and he told others about it, and the man who lived there was quite upset by that story. But the man in Mølby died, and then the man in Verresig died, and the house was still standing. About eighty years after the fire had been seen the house burned one day just before sunset.
DS_II_G_93	Religious legends	Jerusalem’s Cobbler went about with a pair of shoes slung over his shoulder. They saw him walk across Lågård meadow in Tise to the east of the hills. The last they saw of him, he was no bigger than a mouse.
DS_II_G_94	Religious legends	About sixty years ago, the marsh that now belongs to Sebberkloster (Sebber monastery) was a big morass filled with ponds and streams. Early one morning, a man walked along the road from Barmer township to Store Ajstrup which is now an annex of Sebber but used to belong to Lundby. He saw a man floating above the marsh, and as far as the man could tell, he was carrying a large load of cobbler’s work on his back. He didn’t touch the ground with his feet, and he couldn’t have anyway as there wasn’t as much as a dry spot that a bird could land on. That was the Jerusalem’s Cobbler.
DS_II_G_95	Religious legends	Someone from Himmerland said that one day a man came to a place in Himmerland, and he was so old that his clothes were covered with moss, and he stood the whole time shifting from one foot to the other, that’s how sore they were, but he didn’t say anything. They offered him a sandwich, but he didn’t take it. Then the man of the house went in to get a shilling for him, but when he came back out, the old man had disappeared. They looked about, but he was nowhere to be seen, and then they had no doubt that that had been the Jerusalem’s Cobbler.
DS_II_J_306	Lights and portents	An old man from Tøndering named Per Sig had been out walking one evening off to the east, and came through some hollows. There he heard such a strange whistle and rumbling that he got half scared. When he got home, he said, “Now we’re going to have war, because I’ve heard a portent of the enemies, it was just like in 1864, when the artillery drove along.” It wasn’t for war, but a portent for the railroad, which passes a little ways from his house.
DS_II_G_90	Religious legends	Here in the area they felt so bad for the Jerusalem’s Cobbler that they left their plows outside during Christmas so that he’d have some place to rest. “We feel so bad for him, that poor fool!” I’ve heard lot’s of people say, “he needs to have a place to rest when he comes through here.”
DS_V_820	Revenants and their conjuring	Several years ago in Kragelund, a woman hung herself in a sheep pen. At that time, there was a minister in the parish named Ermandinger. After she had been buried, the minister decided that he wanted to conjure her up to find out how she was doing. So he went out and conjured her up, and she appeared like a black spirit up above him. To the question how she was doing, she answered that she was doing fine as long as it wasn’t fear of Judgment Day. C. H. Ermandinger 1697-1745. F. C. Ermandinger 1745-1778
DS_VI_973	Cunning men and women and their activities	When bees swarm, one should say: You little fly, do not fly away from me, you have just as little power to fly from me as the minister has to empty his stomach. In the name of Lord the Father, etc. and then an Our Father. I read (said) that one time, and the bees calmed down too.
DS_VII_1612	Human and cattle illnesses	For modsot (a disease characterized by exhaustion), it is normal to let oneself be measured. Last year I met an old woman who had been weak for quite a while on the way to Søvind. It surprised me to see her so far from home and I asked her where she’d been. “Out to visit the Bødker woman in Søvind to get measured for modsot.” I asked how that was done, and she told me that the woman measured her with a thread: a) from head to toe, b) around her waist, c) down her left arm, and then she bound a knot on the thread and then tied it to her left leg where it was to stay for three days.
DS_VII_597	Witches and their sport	There was an old woman who lived in Billum about whom they said that she could poke a little hole in a milk bucket and then milk would flow into it. We had a dean here by the name of Sehested who said to her that she could gather just as much butter as all the other village women. She answered that she had nothing other than what she had gotten by god and honor. Then he says: “I didn’t say that you didn’t have it by god and honor, I didn’t say that.”
JAH_II_253	From the time of villeinage	Hr. Speitzer at Örndrup was not well liked by the peasants because of his harshness. That led to him being attacked by two farmhands out on the heath once when he was on his way home from Løgstør, they crushed his right hand between two stones, and then they fled. He sold the farm in 1777 and supposedly met one of the farmhands on the street in Copenhagen later. The farmhand got away, though, and apparently came to Rendsborg where he became an innkeeper. He was called Kristen Roed and was the brother of the current farm owner in Sjørup, Kristen Roed's paternal grandfather.
JAH_II_254	From the time of villeinage	It isn’t terribly long ago that there was a manor lord who lived at Örndrup whom they called Speitzer. He was so terribly hard on his peasants, that they could barely stand it. So there was a group of his people who agreed to kill him or, at the very least, beat him badly, and one day they surrounded him out in the field and two farmhands jumped on him. They didn’t manage to kill him, but he did get his hands smashed badly. The perpetrators fled to Hamburg—one of them later came back again. The same Speitzer owned Vår and Aggersborggård. He continued to be just as hard on his peasants, and one day he punished some people quite terribly. But a little later, the people at Vår saw one day that there was a stranger following along with Speitzer at the farm. The stranger looked kind of odd, but the people didn’t pay him much mind, they doffed their hats and greeted him, as one did. Speitzer and this stranger now go and talk together, but no one could figure out what it was all about. The people only heard that Speitzer finally said, “That’s what I – then he swore – thought.” At the same time, he and the stranger were climbing a steep stone staircase, and made as if they were going to go into the castle. But just as they get to the top stair, they hear a scream and they see Speitzer fall backwards down the stairs, and then he was alone – the stranger had disappeared like a shooting star. Now Speitzer lay there and was dead, but if he was completely gone then I can’t say for sure; I think so. After his death he continued to wander around the district, especially between Vår and Aggersborggård. He wanted to cross the fjord, and the fishermen who were out there during the summer and fall and fished at night, both heard and saw him not once but many times. He looked like a big, black, ugly bird, and he shouted and yelled, and it was terrifying to hear, but the “beast” was after him. One time there were a couple of young fishermen who talked badly about him one night; but then he was there immediately, and this devilry tumbled the boat so hard that the fishermen nearly went down and home. There were, as we know, a whole group of meadows down along the southern side of the fjord, from Aggersund and all the way to Nibe. Speitzer wanted his fingers in all those meadows, and he wrote to the king that, if he were allowed to have them, he would cover them with steel and let his lads dance over them. The King studies this letter a bit and he was about to let Speitzer have the meadows. But the king had a fool as was the custom in the old days; he was also to have a word about this, and he wasn’t as crazy as the king. He said that the steel that the meadows were to be covered with were hay scythes, and the lads who were going to dance over them were Speitzer’s villeinage peasants, and when the king got that explanation, he wouldn’t let Speitzer have the meadows.
JAH_II_255	From the time of villeinage	The farmhands in Aggersborg parish agreed to hurt Mads Speitzer at Aggersborggård. One evening, they encountered him near the cemetery wall and they grabbed him, put one of his hands on a stone, took another stone and crushed it. The manager saw that, and they caught one of the farmhands whom he’d recognized and arrested him back at the farm. The other farmhands wondered where he was, and so they went home to get pry bars and other tools to get him out. He was down in the cellar and could answer them. So they began to dig out the cobblestones outside. Speitzer and the manager noticed that and so they went and released the farmhand voluntarily. That same night, all the farmhands fled the parish, because they knew that they’d all be punished as a group the next day, and they were never heard from again.
JAH_II_412	From the time of villeinage	One time, Kristen Sø from Voldby tried his strength against England’s strongest man. The count at Frisenborg was in Copenhagen and was also up to visit the king. Here he met an English general with whom he fell into conversation. The general told him that he had a man who was so strong that nobody could beat him, and so they called him the “Giant Wrestler.” Then the count says that on his estate there was a man he didn’t think the Giant Wrestler could beat, but the general thought it would be easy. The end of it was that the count sent a message to Frisenborg, and the general sent a message to England, that the two strong men were to meet in Copenhagen and try their strength. The day arrived, and they take hold of one another. First, Kristen Sø sank to his knees, but then he says, “Hold on! You have to remember that I’m an old man, let’s get a good grip on each other!” but that time Kristen Sø laid the Englishman flat out on the ground, and then he said: “Let’s try that again.” The Englishman had to take one more trip to the ground. For that piece of work, Kristen Sø got two hundred rixdollars from the count.
JAH_II_414	From the time of villeinage	A person from Copenhagen had driven over to visit the count at Frisenborg. Then he tells him about his coachman, that he was so strong that no one could knock him to the ground. Then the count says that there was someone on his manor that he believed could do it. Now they made a big bet about it. Kristen Sø was sent for without delay and he came immediately. The count asked if he wanted to earn his outstanding debt today. Well, he didn’t think he could earn it today because he was about seventy rixdollars in arrears. Well, it was like this and that, and if he could lay the driver to the ground, his debt was forgiven but, if not, he had to pay within the month. Well, he’d see what he could do. They go out into the castle courtyard, and they grab hold of one another. It wasn’t cobblestone there, and with the first grasp, the one from Copenhagen gets Kristen down on one knee. But then Kristen stood up and immediately tossed the coachman away, just as when you toss a boy. Then he asked him if wanted to try again. No, the coachman didn’t want to do that any more. Then the count asks Kristen how it was that he let him force him down on one knee. He’d tell him. He’d gotten into it with a lot of others, but he had never had to use more than half of his strength, and certainly never all of it. But here was the best one he’d encountered in a long time, and so he had to use all his strength. The count won the bet, and Kristen’s debt was forgiven. The count had a riding horse, they couldn’t shoe it, and so they sent for, you know, this guy Kristen Sø. The count asks him if he can hold the horse up while the smith shod it. Sure, but he couldn’t be responsible if the horse got hurt. That didn't matter, said the count, it was paid for, he’d take the loss himself. Well, he holds and the smith shod it, but when he let go, the horse's one thigh had gone out of joint, and the horse could neither kick nor stand.The villeinage folk they had their parties out on the fields, and they were supposed to have a certain number of kegs of beer to drink. They sent a message up and asked if they could have more. Yes, they could have as much as a man could carry. Well, they were pretty smart, so they send Kristen Sø off to get it. He takes a cask under each arm, and a half barrel in each hand, and then they had plenty for their party. Kristen Sø had a couple of cows, and one day he had someone drive his dung out to the fields. This man said that he shouldn’t put too much on the wagon, because his horses couldn’t pull it all out of the dung pool—it was apparently a very deep hole. Well, if there was nothing else to do about that, then Kristen said that he could pull it out himself. And he did that too each time, and the man would harness his horses up at the top of the hole.
JAT_II_192	From the time of villeinage	A poor boy was sent out onto the fields to look for some run away cattle in sleet and bad weather. As he walked out there soaking wet and hungry, he comes to a mound. Then a mound woman comes and gives him a spoonful of porridge. It tasted so amazingly good that he asked for one more, and he got it too. But he couldn’t have a third, said the mound woman, because then he’d get too strong. He had now become so unusually strong, and he was the strongest man in Kåstrup.
DS_II_F_90	Werewolves and nightmares	A mare charm was to be written over each horse so that the mare wouldn’t ride it. It is an eight-pointed star drawn in one stroke.
DS_II_F_94	Werewolves and nightmares	To prevent the mare from riding horses, one need only place a lock from the mane in the place between the stalls, and then it will ride in there.
DS_II_F_95	Werewolves and nightmares	For mare riding (nightmares) in horses it is good to take some bricks from another person without permission and hang them above the horses’ stalls.
DS_II_F_93	Werewolves and nightmares	When the mare wants to ride a horse, all one needs to do is to hang a stone with a hole in it above the horse's rear end, then she has no power over it.