superior to the much-vaunted peasants of Björnstjerne Björnson. But it is when Lie tells us some of the wild legends of his native province, Nordland, some of the grim tales on which he himself was brought up, so to speak, that he is perhaps most vivid and enthralling. The folk-lore of those lonely sub-arctic tracts is in keeping with the savagery of nature. We rarely, if ever, hear of friendly elves or companionable gnomes there. The supernatural beings that haunt those shores and seas are, for the most part, malignant and malefic. They seem to hate man. They love to mock his toils, and sport with his despair. In his very first romance, "_Den Fremsynte_," Lie relates two of these weird tales (Nos. 1 and 3 of the present selection). Another tale, in which many of the superstitious beliefs and wild imaginings of the Nordland fishermen are skilfully grouped together to form the background of a charming love-story, entitled "Finn Blood," I have borrowed from the volume of "_Fortællinger og Skildringer_," published in 1872. The remaining eight stories are selected from the book "_Trold_," which was the event of the Christmas publishing season at Christiania in 1891. Last Christmas a second series of "_Trold_" came out, but it is distinctly inferior to the former one. R.N.B. * * * * * CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG II. JACK OF SJÖHÖLM AND THE GAN-FINN III. TUG OF WAR IV. "THE EARTH DRAWS" V. THE CORMORANTS OF ANDVÆR VI. ISAAC AND THE PARSON OF BRÖNÖ VII. THE WIND-GNOME VIII. THE HULDREFISH IX. FINN BLOOD X. THE HOMESTEAD WESTWARD IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS XI. "IT'S ME!" * * * * * _THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG_ [Illustration: _THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG._] THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG On Kvalholm, down in Helgeland,[1] dwelt a poor fisherman, Elias by name, with his wife Karen, who had been in service at the parson's over at Alstad. They had built them a hut here, and he used to go out fishing by the day about the Lofotens. There could be very little doubt that the lonely Kvalholm was haunted. Whenever her husband was away, Karen heard all manner of uncanny shrieks and noises, which could mean no good. One day, when she was up on the hillside, mowing grass to serve as winter fodder for their couple of sheep, she heard, quite plainly, a chattering on the strand beneath the hill, but look over she durst not. They had a child every year, but that was no burden, for they were both thrifty, hard-working folks. When seven years had gone by, there were six children in the house; but that same autumn Elias had scraped together so much that he thought he might now venture to buy a _Sexæring_,[2] and henceforward go fishing in his own boat. One day, as he was walking along with a _Kvejtepig_[3] in his hand, and thinking the matter over, he unexpectedly came upon a monstrous seal, which lay sunning itself right behind a rock on the strand, and was as much surprised to see the man as the man was to see the seal. But Elias was not slack; from the top of the rock on which he stood, he hurled the long heavy Kvejtepig right into the monster's back, just below the neck. The seal immediately rose up on its tail right into the air as high as a boat's mast, and looked so evilly and viciously at him with its bloodshot eyes, at the same time showing its grinning teeth, that Elias thought he should...