58 Norivay and the Norwegians 



from smaller villages or from solitary farms, each bring- 

 ing its contingent of young men and girls dressed in 

 holiday costume to take part in the festival. 



No land seems more suited as a home for the creatures 

 of popular superstition than this land ; and till the 

 other day almost, we may believe (from the Folk-Tales 

 that have been handed down to us) these frowning 

 cliffs and sequestered valleys were still for the peasant 

 inhabited by the beings who figure in most Teutonic 

 mythologies ; that on the hills dwelt Thursar (Monsters) 

 or Trolls ; in the valleys or beneath the earth dwelt 

 jEIfar, elves, and fairies. The celebrated Swedish water- 

 fall Trollhattan (the Troll's hat) is a reminiscence of the 

 belief in this race of giants and witches; so are the well- 

 known Trolltinder (the Trold's needles) which are the 

 most remarkable feature of the Eomsdal in Norway. 

 And there are many other places which bear names com- 

 pounded of Troll or Trold. Troldvand, near one of the 

 arms of the Jostedal glacier, surrounded by rocky walls, 

 and reached through a deep and gloomy ravine, is one 

 of the many lakes at the bottom of which a witch- 

 woman dwells or dwelt, and to which heroes have been 

 known to descend for the sake of fightincj with the 

 ogress. There are one or two more place-names con- 

 founded with ' trold ' in this neighbourhood, i.e. close to 

 the Jostedalsbraj. Troldkirketind, one of the scenes of 

 the Witches' Sabbath of the Norwegians, overlooks the 

 Norddalstjord and the Slyngsfjord. Besides the Troll- 

 tinder before mentioned, there is a Troldstol (witches' 

 chair) and another Troldvand (witches' lake) in this 

 same neighbourhood ; that is to say, we pass them on 

 our journey from Molde to the Eomsdal. Many other 



