Part Nine of Folk Tales of Denmark draws both of its tales from Svend Grundtvig's third gathering of Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (1861), recovered for this shelf from a public scan of the printed volume. (The Danish tales are read here part by part, tale by tale — this is not the whole of Grundtvig's great gathering, and no completeness is claimed beyond what is read here.)
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
The Three Good Counsels (in Danish, De tre gode Raad) — a dying father leaves his only son three counsels: do not visit your friends too often; do not hold anything too dear when you sell; do not fetch your bride from too far away. The son breaks all three, one by one, and keeps the proofs on his loft: the three salt herrings his cooling friends sent him home with; the hide of the horse he priced too high, held off every bidder for, and found dead in its stable unsold — no hand harmed the horse; it is the lesson of the price held too long; and the shift of the far-away bride, whose sweetness hid a foul mouth and a faithless night that he witnessed, disguised as a beggar in her father's own oven, before he sent her home. Then he marries in his own parish, trains his whole farm to his rule that everything must go in a hurry, and wins all three piles of the dowry money when his wife — taught by an old woman's counsel — comes running at his first call. The tale is read as written, down to its tokens on the loft beam.
The Ale of the Trolls (in Danish, Troldens Øl) — a short legend from the Roskilde district. The troll-folk in the hill on Peder Andersen's land run out of ale at their wedding, and borrow a cask from the farmer, who has lately brewed. Some nights later the cask comes back with a gift in it: draw as much as you will, and it will never empty — if no one ever looks inside. A new maid cannot rest until she knows how it can be that they never brew and yet always have ale — and what she sees in the cask ends the gift for good. The legend is read as written, frogs and all.
Chapters:
01:12 — The Three Good Counsels
17:18 — The Ale of the Trolls
Source: Svend Grundtvig, Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (Old Danish Memories in the Mouths of the Folk), vol. III (Copenhagen, 1861), no. 21, "De tre gode Raad," from the Flensburg district; and the same volume's gathering of folk legends, no. 107, tale 14, "Troldens Øl," from the Roskilde district. The English here is our own translation from the Danish, made for this shelf. Narrated by Morgana. Music: opening theme, the separator between the tales, and closing theme, "Urgent Rhythms" (instrumental).
Thank you for listening — Part 10 of the Danish tales follows on this shelf; The Mill at the Bottom of the Sea, from Evald Tang Kristensen's Jutland collection, stands gated and ready for it.
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