Penultimate text in this amusing collection, and what a wedding it describes:
“Was that not a bridal procession coming straight out of the mossy mountain wall? Two gleaming white horses came first. On one sat a bride so fine and proud, and both bride and horse were bedecked in silver and gold. On the other sat the bridegroom, small and thin, dark-skinned, and clothed magnificently. After these two white horses came two wild brown stallions with handsome groomsmen in the saddle. Afterwards came carriages and horses in a long, long column. And fiddle players played such a beautiful melody. A strange thing was that the horses all limped as one on their left forelegs; indeed, it suited the tempo of the beautiful melody so well that Erik nearly guffawed. Yet at the same time he shuddered quite uncannily, for he suddenly saw what appeared to be a church down in the field, close by the river. The procession halted in front of the church, and small bells began to peal, and they sounded like fine cowbells. The procession dismounted their horses and climbed out of their carriages and assembled themselves beautifully. Then the fiddle players started playing the melody at full volume. And when now the procession went up the church steps to enter the church, Erik began to laugh so that it echoed in the mountains, for – look at that – the bride and the groom and the kitchen master and the groomsmen and the fiddlers and all the others limped. Some limped on their right leg, others on their left, and some on both legs; it was a strange sight, how they limped away from each other and towards each other. And yet they all kept time with the music. And each woman bore a tail like a cow’s tail, which also swayed back and forth in time. Or perhaps they were merely the girls’ beautiful long plaits.”
(First draft – please excuse any mess.)
#folktales #folklore @norwegianfolktales
)
