The Sower Girl

Once upon a time there lived a priest in the Northland who raised a girl Had. parsonage, where the priest likes to take his cows and sheep in the summer Under the supervision of a sideline girl and a shepherd. Nursing daughter had grown older, she had to do the housekeeping on the President and she did just as well as any other work; for she was a clever woman, pretty to look at and quick in many things. That is why many rich men promoted their hand; The pastor once spoke a basket with his foster daughter about this chapter and advised her to get married, Because, he said, he was an old man and could therefore not Always a support. Meaning is far from such things; satisfied as it is, and not everyone finds happiness in marriage. So nothing further has been said about this for the time being.

When part of the winter had passed, it seemed to the people when Start to become a little rounded under the belt, and the closer it came to spring, the rounder she became. In the spring, her foster father spoke to her again; he now asked her to to say openly and honestly how it would actually be ordered with her; You certainly expect a child, he said, and that's why it would be best that she would not move to Säter this summer. However, she denied that she was expecting a child, that she lacked nothing, and that her work on the Säter would do this summer just as she had done before the pastor saw that he could not get anything out of her and therefore left her will; accompanied them to the seed, not to leave them alone, and that They promised him solemnly.

Up on the Säter the girl was merry and happy, and it passed a time without anything happening. People watched her very carefully and never left them alone.

Then it happened one evening that the shepherd missed all the sheep and cows, and everyone who could use his legs had to join the sower left, only the sower girl remained alone. It was slowly with the search of the people, a thick fog descended, and Therefore, they did not find the cattle until morning. When they returned to When we got home, the sower girl was up and unusually quick and light on their feet. After some time had passed, it was seen that they was no longer as round as it used to be; but as it had happened, the One did not know, nor did one now find that their roundness was so had been like a woman expecting a child.

In the autumn they returned home from the sower, men and cattle, and then the priest saw that the girl had a slimmer figure than she had had the previous winter. He penetrated the remaining Säterleute and asked them whether they had acted against his orders and They told him how it had been would have been that they had left it only once to to search for missing dairy cattle. The priest became angry and wished them the great distress because they had acted against his command; Besides, he would have suspected this in the spring, when the sower girl them Seats pulled.

The next winter, a man came to ask for the pastor’s foster daughter wanted to marry him; but she did not want to know anything about his suitor; Pastor, however, said that nothing prevented her from marrying him; because everyone would agree to praise him and he would come from a good family. He had taken over his father’s farm last spring, and his mother would have her retirement pension with him. This suitor therefore got no rejection, whether with the girl's will or without it. Their wedding was celebrated in the spring at the priest's. But before the The bride was dressed in her wedding dress, she said to her groom: »Since you are marrying me against my will, I am now taking away your Promise that you will never host a winter guest without me to have informed us of this beforehand, otherwise you will suffer ill fate!« The man promised her that.

Then the wedding was celebrated, and she went with her master home and took over the household, but without any particular enthusiasm; because She was never happy, and her face was always gloomy, although she the man carried her on his hands and hardly allowed her to put her hand in cold water. Every summer she sat at home while the others were busy with the hay in the meadow, and always their Mother-in-law to cheer her up and help her prepare the food to help. Sometimes they sat and knitted and spun, and The old woman then told legends to entertain her daughter-in-law.

Once, when she had finished her story, the old woman said to her daughter-in-law that she had to tell something now. But the other replied that she knew no legends; however, when the old woman continued to she finally promised to tell the only legend she knew. tell, and it began like this:

»Once upon a time there lived a sower girl. Not far from the sower lay large rocks that she often passed by. In them lived a beautiful, young Huldremann, whom she soon met, and love arose between the two. He was so good and kind to the girls that he never refused her anything and always submitted to her will in everything. The end of the story was that the sower girl, when a time had passed was expecting a child. When she returned to the sower the next summer her brother pressed her to find out whether she was in blessed circumstances; but she denied this and went up to the Satterthwaite, as she used to do. But her Lord asked those who were with her the sower never to leave them alone, and they promised him this. Nevertheless, they left her once to look for the cattle, and then She was in labor pains. Then her lover came to her and sat by her side and helped her at the birth, and then he washed and swaddled the child. But before he went away with the boy, he let her drink from a glass, and that was the sweetest drink I ever ...« here she dropped the ball of she was knitting, from her hand; she bent down and corrected herself – »that she had ever tasted, I wanted to say, and then she was healthy and free from all consequences. From then on, the Huldremann and the girl never returned; against her will she was taken to a married another man, but her mind was always set on her first loved ones, and from that time on she never saw a happy day. And now the story is over.«

Her mother-in-law thanked her for the story and kept it in memory. So a time passed again without anything happening; the Woman went about as usual and carried her sorrow, but always she was good and loving towards their master.

One summer, when the hay harvest was already well underway, two Men, one larger and one smaller, to the farmer in the field. They both had wide-brimmed hats on their heads, so that one could only could see indistinctly into his face. The taller one took the word and asked the farmer for shelter for the winter. The farmer replied that he nobody without his wife knowing about it, and said that he wanted to talk to her about this matter first. The man asked him, but not to speak so clumsily as if such a resolute Man was so under the thumb of his wife that he could not Little things like feeding two people for a winter The end result was that the farmer promised them winter shelter without first asking his wife had.

In the evening the strangers came home with the farmer; room and asked her to stay there. Then he went to his woman and told her how things were. The woman was very unwilling and said that that would have been your first request and Probably the last one. alone, it would also be his business to decide what would happen to her Stay in winter; and then it was no longer spoken.

Now everything was quiet until the couple went to communion in the autumn It was customary then, as it is still today in various Areas in Iceland is the case that those who become the tables of the Mister want to go to everyone in the yard, kiss them and they Forgive for your offenses. the winter guests had given up until this day and never had let them see in front of them, and again this time she did not go to them to to say goodbye.

The spouses continued. Heimackers, the farmer asked his wife: »You have our Winter guests also said goodbye? "She replied:" No. "He asked her, but not to act as godless, to continue without beforehand To have said goodbye. »In most things you show that you don't pay much attention to me, firstly in the fact that you receive these men without asking me, and now that you are forcing me want to kiss her. However, I will obey you, but you must take the consequences upon yourself; for my life and that of all Probably yours too.«

She now returned home and because it took so long to She came back, the farmer also turned and went where he Winter guests can be found expected, and also found them in their chamber.

Then he saw how the larger winter guest had wrapped his wife and lay with her on the floor; and both of their hearts were broken with grief. But the other guest stood crying next to them when the farmer entered; Immediately after that he disappeared without anyone knowing where to go war.

But everyone now knew what the wife of her mother -in -law had said that the larger stranger had been the Huldremann, whom she had met on the Säter, but that the other, the had disappeared, had been her son.


Footnotes:

[1] Seats = Alm.