IN NORTHERN MISTS 



has a tale of a prehistoric king of the Britons called 

 Herla.i 



To him came a fairy- or elf-king, " rex pygmaeorum," with a huge head, 

 thick hair, and big eyes; the pygmy-king foretells to King Herla something 

 that is to happen, and when this is fulfilled King Herla promises as a mark 

 of gratitude to be present at his wedding. The moment the pygmy-king turns 

 his back he vanishes. Herla comes to the wedding of the fairy-king. Enter- 

 ing a vast cave he comes through darkness to the banqueting-hall inside the 

 mountain, lighted by a multitude of lamps, where he is splendidly entertained. 

 When he returns, believing he has been away for three days, he discovers that 

 he has been absent for several hundred years. 



This is a typical elf-myth, with many of the features 

 characteristic of elves and fairies: the low stature, the big, 

 hairy head with large eyes, the gift of prophecy, and the 

 power of making themselves invisible in an instant, their 

 dwelling in caves and mountains far from the light of day, 

 the way thither through darkness and mist, the rapid dis- 

 appearance of time in the fairy world, etc. But we recognize 

 most of these, and even more fairy features, precisely in the 

 Icelandic descriptions of the Skraslings in Wineland, Markland, 

 and Greenland, as appears from what is said about them on 

 pp. 12 f. ; and when, for instance, ugly hair (" ilt har ") and 

 big eyes are expressly attributed to the Skra^lings, this applies 

 neither to Indians nor Eskimo, but it applies exactly to fairies. 

 Further, we may point to the Skraelings of Markland being gov- 

 erned by kings (cf. p. 20), which again does not apply either 

 to Indians or to Eskimo, while the elves and huldrefolk have 

 kings. It was mentioned earlier (p. 20) that the name " Vas- 

 tilldi " or " Vethilldi " may be Vaetthildr, compounded of the 

 word " vaettr," or " vettr " (fairy). 



Everything points in the same direction, that the Skraelings 

 of Wineland, Markland, and Greenland were regarded as a kind 

 of fairy people. Nor can this surprise us when we consider 

 that even the Lapps of Finmark, who lived so near to 

 and were so well known by the Norwegians, were regarded as 



1 Cf. Gualteri Mapes, De nugis curialium. Ed. by Thomas Wright, 1850, 

 pp. 14, ff. 

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