And up there also sure enough was Seimke.
She looked old and angular as she bent over the reindeer-skin that she was spreading out in the sunny weather. But she peeped beneath her arm as quick and nimble as a cat with kittens, and the sun shone upon her, and lit up her face and pitch-black hair.
She leaped up so briskly, and shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked down at him. Her dog barked, but she quieted it so that the Gan-Finn should mark nothing.
Then a strange longing came over him, and he put ashore.
He stood beside her, and she threw her arms over her head, and laughed and shook and nestled close up to him, and cried and pleaded, and didn’t know what to do with herself, and ducked down upon his bosom, and threw herself on his neck, and kissed and fondled him, and wouldn’t let him go.
But the Gan-Finn had noticed that there was something amiss, and sat all the time in his furs, and mumbled and muttered to the Gan-flies, so that Jack dare not get between him and the doorway.
The Finn was angry.
Since there had been such a changing about of boats over all Nordland, and there was no more sale for his fair winds, he was quite ruined, he complained. He was now so poor that he would very soon have to go about and beg his bread. And of all his reindeer he had only a single doe left, who went about there by the house.
Then Seimke crept behind Jack, and whispered to him to bid for this doe. Then she put the reindeer-skin around her, and stood inside the Gamme door in the smoke, so that the Gan-Finn only saw the grey skin, and fancied it was the reindeer they were bringing in.
Then Jack laid his hand upon Seimke’s neck, and began to bid.
The pointed cap ducked and nodded, and the Finn spat in the warm air; but sell his reindeer he would not.
Jack raised his price.
But the Finn heaved up the ashes all about him, and threatened and shrieked. The flies came as thick as snow-flakes; the Finn’s furry wrappings were alive with them.
Jack bid and bid till it reached a whole bushel load of silver, and the Finn was ready to jump out of his skins.
Then he stuck his head under his furs again, and mumbled and jöjked till the amount rose to seven bushels of silver.
Then the Gan-Finn laughed till he nearly split. He thought the reindeer would cost the purchaser a pretty penny.
But Jack lifted Seimke up, and sprang down with her to his boat, and held the reindeer-skin behind him, against the Gan-Finn.
And they put off from land, and went to sea.
Seimke was so happy, and smote her hands together, and took her turn at the oars.
The northern light shot out like a comb, all greeny-red and fiery, and licked and played upon her face. She talked to it, and fought it with her hands, and her eyes sparkled. She used both tongue and mouth and rapid gestures as she exchanged words with it.
Then it grew dark, and she lay on his bosom, so that he could feel her warm breath. Her black hair lay right over him, and she was as soft and warm to the touch as a ptarmigan when it is frightened and its blood throbs.
Jack put the reindeer-skin over Seimke, and the boat rocked them to and fro on the heavy sea as if it were a cradle.
They sailed on and on till night-fall; they sailed on and on till they saw neither headland nor island nor sea-bird in the outer skerries more.
1.This untranslatable word is a derivative of the Icelandic Gandr, and means magic of the black or malefic sort.
2.The northernmost province of Norway, right within the Arctic circle.
3.The huts peculiar to the Norwegian Finns.
4.To sing songs (here magic songs), as the Finns do. Possibly derived from the Finnish verb joikuu, which means monotonous chanting.
5.The Norse Kverva Syni is to delude the sight by magic spells.
6.I.e., the boat he (Jack) wanted to build.
7.A mountain between Sweden and Norway.
8.I.e., the boat he would be building.
9.Meaning that he would never have a chance of building the new sort of boat that his mind was bent on.
10.The Finn’s hut.
11.Tvinde Knuder. When the Finn tied one magic knot, he raised a gale, so two knots
would give a tempest.
12.I.e., where the Gan-Finn let out the wind.
13.An eight-oared boat.
14.A place where sea-birds’ eggs abound.
15.A contraction of Sexæring, i.e., a boat with six oars.
16.Eng. dialect word (the Norse is staur) meaning impediments of any kind.
17.Daudvatn (Dan. Dödvand), water in which there is no motion.
A NOTE ON THE SOURCES
The stories in this book were collected, translated, and published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They have been excerpted from the following publications, all of which are in the public domain. The stories from Yule-Tide Stories were originally published in Eventyr og Folkesagen fra Jylland, forfalte af Carit Etlar, Kjöb, by Carit Etlar. The stories in Mighty Mikko were translated from various sources, which are not specified by the author.
Arnason, Jón, Icelandic Legends. Translated by George E. J. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon. London: Richard Bentley, 1864. Internet Archive, 2009. https://archive.org/details/icelandiclegend02powegoog.
Asbjörnson, P. Ch., Christmas Fireside Stories or Round the Yule Log: Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales. Translated H. L. Brækstad. London and Edinburgh: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Limited, 1919. Internet Archive, 2007. https://archive.org/details/christmasfiresid00asbj.
Asbjörnson, P. Ch., Tales from the Fjeld: A Series of Popular Tales from the Norse. Translated by Sir George Dasent, D.C.L. London: Gibbings & Company Limited, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896. Internet Archive, 2009. https://archive.org/details/cu31924079597849.
Djurklou, Baron G., Fairy Tales from the Swedish. Translated by H. L. Brækstad. London: William Heinemann, 1901. Internet Archive, 2008. https://archive.org/details/fairytalesfromsw00djurrich.
Fillmore, Parker, Mighty Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922. Internet Archive, 2007. https://archive.org/details/mightymikkobooko00fill.
Lie, Jonas, Weird Tales from Northern Seas. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1893. Internet Archive, 2008. https://archive.org/details/weirdtalesfromn00liegoog.
Yule-Tide Stories: A Collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions from the Swedish, Danish, and German. Edited by Benjamin Thorpe. London: George Bell & Sons, 1910. Internet Archive, 2007. https://archive.org/details/yuletidestoriesc00thor.
SOURCES
“All I Possess!”
From Fairy Tales from the Swedish, by Baron G. Djurklou, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
The Boy Who Did Not Know What Fear Was
From Icelandic Legends, by Jón Arnason, translated by George E. J. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon.
Death and the Doctor
From Tales from the Fjeld, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by Sir George Dasent, D.C.L.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
From Christmas Fireside Stories or Round the Yule Log, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
The Forest Bride
From Mighty Mikko, by Parker Fillmore.
The Giant Who Had No Heart
From Christmas Fireside Stories or Round the Yule Log, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
Hildur, the Queen of the Elves
From Icelandic Legends, by Jón Arnason, translated by George E. J. Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon.
The Honest Penny
From Tales of the Fjeld, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by Sir George Dasent, D.C.L.
Jack of Sjöholm and the Gan-Finn
From Weird Tales from Northern Seas, by Jonas Lie, translated by R. Nisbet Bain.
The Magician’s Pupil
From Yule-Tide Stories, edited by Benjamin Thorpe.
Mighty Mikko
From Mighty Mikko, by Parker Fillmore.
Old Nick and the Girl
From Fairy Tales from the Swedish, by Baron G. Djurklou, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
The Old Woman and the Tramp
From Fairy Tales from the Swedish, by Baron G. Djurklou, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
Toller’s Neighbours
From Yule-Tide Stories, edited by Benjamin Thorpe.
The True Bride
From Mighty Mikko, by Parker Fillmore.
The Way of the World
From Tales from the Fjeld, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by Sir George Dasent, D.C.L.
The Widow’s Son
From Christmas Fireside Stories or Round the Yule Log, by P. Ch. Asbjörnson, translated by H. L. Brækstad.
ULLA THYNELL is an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer based in Helsinki, Finland.
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