The Isle Of Udröst [The Norwegian Fairy Book]
Once upon a time there lived at Vaerö, not far from Röst, a poor fisherman, named Isaac. He had nothing but a boat and a couple of goats, which his wife fed as well as she could with fish leavings, and with the grass she was able to gather on the surrounding hills; but his whole hut was full of hungry children. Yet he was always satisfied with what God sent him. The only thing that worried him was his inability to live at peace with his neighbor. The latter was a rich man, thought himself entitled to far more than such a beggarly fellow as Isaac, and wanted to get him out of the way, in order to take for himself the anchorage before Isaac’s hut.
One day Isaac had
put out a few miles to sea to fish, when suddenly a dark fog fell, and in a
flash such a tremendous storm broke, that he had to throw all his fish
overboard in order to lighten ship and save his life. Even then it was very
hard to keep the boat afloat; but he steered a careful course between and
across the mountainous waves, which seemed ready to swallow him from moment to
moment. After he had kept on for five or six hours in this manner, he thought that
he ought to touch land somewhere. But time went by, and the storm and fog grew
worse and worse. Then he began to realize that either he was steering out to
sea, or that the wind had veered, and at last he made sure the latter was the
case; for he sailed on and on without a sight of land. Suddenly he heard a
hideous cry from the stern of the boat, and felt certain that it was the drang , who was singing his death-song. Then he prayed God
to guard his wife and children, for he thought his last hour had come. As he
sat there and prayed, he made out something black; but when his boat drew
nearer, he noticed that it was only three cormorants, sitting on a piece of
drift-wood and—swish! he had passed them. Thus he sailed for a long time, and
grew so hungry, so thirsty and so weary that he did not know what to do; for
the most part he sat with the rudder in his hand and slept. But all of a sudden
the boat ran up on a beach and stopped. Then Isaac opened his eyes. The sun
broke through the fog, and shone on a beautiful land. Its hills and mountains
were green to their very tops, fields and meadows lay among their slopes, and
he seemed to
breathe a fragrance of flowers and grass sweeter than any he had ever known
before.
“God be praised,
now I am safe, for this is Udröst!” said Isaac to himself. Directly ahead of
him lay a field of barley, with ears so large and heavy that he had never seen
their like, and through the barley-field a narrow path led to a green
turf-roofed cottage of clay, that rose above the field, and on the roof of the
cottage grazed a white goat with gilded horns, and an udder as large as that of
the largest cow. Before the door sat a little man clad in blue, puffing away at
a little pipe. He had a beard so long and so large that it hung far down upon
his breast.
“Welcome to Udröst,
Isaac!” said the man.
“Good day to you,
father,” said Isaac, “and do you know me?”
“It might be that I
do,” said the man. “I suppose you want to stay here overnight?”
“That would suit me
very well, father,” was Isaac’s reply.
“The trouble is
with my sons, for they cannot bear the smell of a Christian,” answered the man.
“Did you meet them?”
“No, I only met
three cormorants, who were sitting on a piece of drift-wood and croaking,” was
Isaac’s reply.
“Well, those were
my sons,” said the man, and emptied his pipe, “and now come into the house, for
I think you must be hungry and thirsty.”
“I’ll take that
liberty, father,” said Isaac.
When the man opened
the door, everything within was so beautiful that Isaac could not get over his
admiration. He had never seen anything like it. The table was covered with the
finest dishes, bowls of cream, and salmon and game, and liver dumplings with
syrup, and cheese as well, and there were whole piles of doughnuts, and there
was mead, and everything else that is good. Isaac ate and drank bravely, and
yet his plate was never empty; and no matter how much he drank, his glass was
always full. The man neither ate much nor said much; but suddenly they heard a
noise and clamor before the house, and the man went out. After a time
he returned with his three sons, and Isaac trembled inwardly when they came
through the door; but their father must have quieted them, for they were very
friendly and amiable, and told Isaac he must use his guest-right, and sit down
and drink with them; for Isaac had risen to leave the table, saying he had
satisfied his hunger. But he gave in to them, and they drank mead together, and
became good friends. And they said that Isaac must go fishing with them, so
that he would have something to take with him when he went home.
The first time they
put out a great storm was raging. One of the sons sat at the rudder, the second
at the bow, and the third in the middle; and Isaac had to work with the
bailing-can until he dripped perspiration. They sailed as though they were mad.
They never reefed a sail, and when the boat was full of water, they danced on
the crests of the waves, and slid down them so that the water in the stern
spurted up like a fountain. After a time the storm subsided, and they began to
fish. And the sea was so full of fish that they could not even put out an
anchor, since mountains of fish were piled up beneath them. The sons of Udröst
drew up one fish after another. Isaac knew his business; but he had taken along
his own fishing-tackle, and as soon as a fish bit he let go again, and at last
he had caught not a single one. When the boat was filled, they sailed home
again to Udröst, and the sons cleaned the fish, and laid them on the stands.
Meanwhile Isaac had complained to their father of his poor luck. The man
promised that he should do better next time, and gave him a couple of hooks;
and the next time they went out to fish, Isaac caught just as many as the
others, and when they reached home, he was given three stands of fish as his
share.
At length Isaac
began to get homesick, and when he was about to leave, the man made him a
present of a new fishing-boat, full of meal, and tackle and other useful
things. Isaac thanked him repeatedly, and the man invited him to come back when
the season opened again, since he himself was going to take a cargo to Bergen,
in the second stevne , [1] and Isaac could go along and sell
his fish there himself. Isaac was more than willing, and asked him what course
he should set when he again wanted to reach Udröst. “All you need do is to
follow the cormorant when he heads for the open sea, then you will be on the right course,” said the man.
“Good luck on your way!”
But when Isaac got
underway, and looked around, there was no Udröst in sight; far and wide, all
around him, he saw no more than the ocean.
When the time came,
Isaac sailed to join the man of Udröst’s fishing-craft. But such a craft he had
never seen before. It was two hails long, so that when the steersman, who was
on look-out in the stern, wanted to call out something to the rower, the latter
could not hear him. So they had stationed another man in the middle of the
ship, close by the mast, who had to relay the steersman’s call to the rower,
and even he had to shout as loudly as he could in order to make himself heard.
Isaac’s share was
laid down in the forepart of the boat; and he himself took down the fish from
the stands; yet he could not understand how it was that the stands were
continually filled with fresh fish, no matter how many he took away, and when
he sailed away they were still as full as ever. When he reached Bergen, he sold
his fish, and got so much money for them that he was able to buy a new schooner,
completely fitted out, and with a cargo to boot, as the man of Udröst had
advised him. Late in the evening, when he was about to sail for home, the man
came aboard and told him never to forget those who survived his neighbor, for
his neighbor himself had died; and then he wished Isaac all possible success
and good fortune for his schooner, in advance. “All is well, and all stands
firm that towers in the air,” said he, and what he meant was that there was one
aboard whom none could see, but who would support the mast on his back, if need
be.
Since that time
fortune was Isaac’s friend. And well he knew why this was so, and never forgot
to prepare something good for whoever held the winter watch, when the schooner
was drawn up on land in the fall. And every Christmas night there was the glow
and shimmer of light, the sound of fiddles and music, of laughter and
merriment, and of dancing on the deserted schooner.
“The Island of Udröst”
(Asbjörnsen, Huldreeventyr , Part I, p. 259, from
Nordland, narrator not specified) is a legendary paradise, which appears at the
moment of extremest peril to the Norsemen helplessly shipwrecked in the stormy
sea. The Norsemen, whose fields near the boisterous waves yield but a niggardly
return, cannot say too much regarding its lavish fruitfulness and its abiding
peace. Udröst is almost an Isle of the Blest, an Avalon, to the fisherfolk
whose lives are passed in want and constant danger.
[1] A fleet of ships that set sail together from Nordland to Bergen to sell fish.
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