Popular Tales from the Norse: With an Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular TalesSo he put the quern on the table, and bade it first of all grind lights, then a table-cloth, then meat, then ale, and so on till they had got everything that was nice for Christmas fare. He had only to speak the word, and the quern ground out what he wanted. The old dame stood by blessing her stars, and kept on asking where he had got this wonderful quern, but he wouldn't tell her. |
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Common terms and phrases
Æsir Æsop apple Aryan race asked began billy-goat birds Boots brothers Bushy Bride castle clothes Dapplegrim daugh daughter door Dragon drink Farmer Weathersky fast father fell fetch flew Freyja Frost Giants gave Giant glad gold Goody Grizzel Hacon half the kingdom head heard hill horse Jack king king's palace knew lassie lived look Lord Peter lovely Master Thief Mastermaid mind mother never night Norseman North Wind Odin Ogre old dame old hag old witch once Peter the Pedlar Prince Princess pulled queen quern rode round sack scarce seven foals Shortshanks silver sleep soon Squire stood SUN AND WEST tell thing thither thought threw told took Troll turned twelve twelve wild ducks walked wanted White Bear wife wished wonder wood
Popular passages
Page xiv - Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled In gloom profound — an ocean without light — The germ that still lay covered in the husk Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat. Then first came love upon it, the new spring Of mind — yea, poets in their hearts discerned, Pondering, this bond between created things, And uncreated.
Page 213 - Good day!" answered the North Wind, for his voice was loud and gruff, "and thanks for coming to see me. What do you want?" "Oh!" answered the lad, "I only wished to ask you to be so good as to let me have back that meal you took from me on the safe steps, for we haven't much to live on; and if you're to go on snapping up the morsel we have, there'll be nothing for it but to starve.
Page lii - See what pretty playthings, mother!' cries the Giant's daughter, as she unties her apron, and shows her a plough, and horses, and peasant. 'Back with them this instant,' cries the mother in wrath, 'and put them down as carefully as you can, for these playthings can do our race great harm, and when these come we must budge.' 'What sort of an earthworm is this?' said one Giant to another, when they met a man as they walked. 'These are the earthworms that will one day eat us up, brother,' answered the...
Page 267 - THE SUN AND WEST o' THE MOON, and now she wants to ask you if you ever were there, and can tell her the way, for she would be so glad to find him again.
Page xxi - Harold's body-guard, had made his bravery odious to very many of his fellow-soldiers by the zeal with which he surpassed them in the discharge of his duty. This man once, when talking tipsily over his cups, had boasted that he was so skilled an archer that he could hit the smallest apple placed a long way off on a wand at the first shot ; which talk, caught up at first by the ears of backbiters, soon came to the hearing of the king. Now, mark how the wickedness of the king turned the confidence of...
Page xii - They have been the prominent actors in the great drama of history, and have carried to their fullest growth all the elements of active life with which our nature is endowed.
Page 270 - ... him up. Next morning as soon as day broke, came the Princess with the long nose, and drove her out again. So in the daytime she sat down under the castle windows and began to card with her golden carding-comb, and the same thing happened.
Page xlvii - I would not lie for any man's estate. But to return to what I was saying. When he became a wolf, he began howling, and fled into the woods. At first I hardly knew where I was, and afterwards, when I went to take up his clothes, they were turned into stone. Who then died with fear but I? Yet I drew my sword, and went cutting the air right and left, till I reached the villa of my sweetheart. I entered the court-yard. I almost breathed my last, the sweat ran down my neck, my eyes were dim, and I thought...
Page 252 - THAT tripping over my bridge?" roared the Troll. "Oh, it is only I, the tiniest billy-goat Gruff; and I'm going up to the hill-side to make myself fat," said the billy-goat, with such a small voice. "Now, I'm coming to gobble you up,
Page 83 - So he went about rubbing and wiping all the benches and tables with his new arm, but he kept the other all the while behind his back. The wife she had got one new shoe, and she went stamping and sliding with it up against the stools and chairs, saying, "How untidy it is here! Everything is out of its place!" Then they called out to their daughter to come down and put things to rights; but the daughter she had got a new cap; so she put her head in at the door, and kept nodding and nodding, first to...