IN NORTHERN MISTS 



common application with its present meaning, and not a 

 special designation for brownies. It only occurs there as applied 

 to the Skraelings of Wineland, Markland, and Greenland. 

 Again, the Skraelings in Greenland are called " troll " or 

 " trollkonur " in the Icelandic narratives, and in the descrip- 

 tions of the Wineland voyages demoniacal properties are 

 attributed to them as to the underground folk. In the fight 

 with the Skraelings they frightened Karlsevne and his people 

 not only with the great magic ball,^ but also by glamour. 

 And in the " Gronlendinga-^attr " it is related that when 

 the Skraelings came for the second time to trade with 

 Karlsevne, 



"his wife Gudrid was sitting within the door by the cradle of her son 

 Snorre, and there walked in a woman in a black gown, rather low in stature, 

 and she had a band on her head, and light-brown hair, was pale and big-eyed, 

 so that no one had seen such big eyes in any human head. She went up to 

 where Gudrid sat, and said: ' What is thy name? ' Says she, * My name is Gud- 

 rid, and what is thy name?' 'My name is Gudrid,' says she. Then Gudrid, 

 the mistress of the house, stretched out her hand to her, and she sat down be- 

 side her; but then it happened at the same time that Gudrid heard a great 

 crash ['brest mikinn,' cf. the noise or crash of the great ball in the Saga of 

 Eric the Red] and that the woman disappeared, and at the same moment a 

 Skrsling was slain by one of Karlsevne's servants, because he had tried to 

 take their weapons, and they [the Skraelings] went away as quickly as pos- 

 sible; but they left their clothes and wares behind them. No one had seen 

 this woman but Gudrid." 2 



This phantasmal Gudrid is obviously a gnome or under- 

 ground woman; and as she makes both her appearance and 

 disappearance together with the Skraelings, it is reasonable to 

 suppose that they, too, were of the same kind, like the illusions 

 in the battle with the Skraelings. It is further to be remarked 

 that she is short, and has extraordinarily large eyes, exactly 

 as is said of the Skraelings and of huldre- and troll-folk (cf. Vol. I, 

 p. 327), and also of pygmies. 



1 It is, perhaps, of importance, as Prof. Torp has mentioned to me, that the 

 word " bla " is more often used than " svart " (black) when speaking of trolls 

 and magic, as an uncanny color. This may have been a common Germanic 

 trait; cf. Rolf Blue-beard. 



- Gronl. hist. Mind., i. p. 242; G. Storm, 1891, p. 68. 



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