THE HULDREFISH[1]
It was such an odd trout that Nona hauled in at the end of hisfishing-line. Large and fat, red spotted and shiny, it sprawled andsquirmed, with its dirty yellow belly above the water, to wriggle offthe hook. And when he got it into the boat, and took it off the hook, hesaw that it had only two small slits where the eyes should have been.
It must be a huldrefish, thought one of the boatmen, for rumour had itthat that lake was one of those which had a double bottom.
But Nona didn't trouble his head very much about what sort of a fish itwas, so long as it was a big one. He was ravenously hungry, and bawledto them to row as rapidly as possible ashore so as to get it cooked.
He had been sitting the whole afternoon with empty lines out in themountain lake there; but as for the trout, it was only an hour ago sinceit had been steering its way through the water with its rudder of atail, and allowed itself to be fooled by a hook, and already it laycooked red there on the dish.
But now Nona recollected about the strange eyes, and felt for them, andpricked away at its head with his fork. There was nothing but slitsoutside, and yet there was a sort of hard eyeball inside. The head wasstrangely shaped, and looked very peculiar in many respects.
He was vexed that he had not examined it more closely before it wascooked; it was not so easy now to make out what it really was. It hadtasted first-rate, however, and that was something.
But at night there was, as it were, a gleam of bright water before hiseyes, and he lay half asleep, thinking of the odd fish he had pulled up.
He was in his boat again, he thought, and it seemed to him as if hishands felt the fish wriggling and sprawling for its life, and shootingits snout backwards and forwards to get off the hook.
All at once it grew so heavy and strong that it drew the boat after itby the line.
It went along at a frightful speed, while the lake gradually diminished,as it were, and dried up.
There was an irresistible sucking of the water in the direction the fishwent, which was towards a hole at the bottom of the lake like a funnel,and right into this hole went the boat.
It glided for a long time in a sort of twilight along a subterraneanriver, which dashed and splashed about him. The air that met him was, atfirst, chilly and cellar-like; gradually, however, it grew milder andmilder, and warmer and warmer.
The stream now flowed along calmly and quietly, and broadened outcontinually till it fell into a large lake.
Beyond the borders of this lake, but only half visible in the gloom,stretched swamps and morasses, where he heard sounds as of huge beastswading and trampling. Serpent like they rose and writhed with a crashingand splashing and snorting amidst the tepid mud and mire.
By the phosphorescent gleams he saw various fishes close to his boat,but all of them lacked eyes.
And he caught glimpses of the outlines of gigantic sea-serpentsstretching far away into the darkness. He now understood that it wasfrom down here that they pop up their heads off the coast in the dogdays when the sea is warm.
The lindworm, with its flat head and duck's beak, darted after fish, andcrept up to the surface of the earth through the slimy ways of mire andmarsh.
Through the warm and choking gloom there came, from time to time, acooling chilling blast from the cold curves and winds of the slimy andslippery greenish lichworm,[2] which bores its way through the earth andeats away the coffins that are rotting in the churchyards.
Horrible shapeless monsters, with streaming manes, such as are said tosometimes appear in mountain tarns, writhed and wallowed and seizedtheir prey in the fens and marshes.
And he caught glimpses of all sorts of humanlike creatures, such asfishermen and sailors meet and marvel at on the sea, and landsmen seeoutside the elfin mounds.
And, besides, that there was a soft whizzing and an endless hovering andswarming of beings, whose shapes were nevertheless invisible to the eyeof man.
Then the boat glided into miry pulpy water, where her course tendeddownwards, and where the earth-vault above darkened as it sank lower andlower.
All at once a blinding strip of light shot down from a bright blue slithigh, high, above him.
A stuffy vapour stood round about him. The water was as yellow andturbid as that which comes out of steam boilers.
And he called to mind the peculiar tepid undrinkable water which bubblesup by the side of artesian wells. It was quite hot. Up there they wereboring down to a world of warm watercourses and liquid strata beneaththe earth's crust.
Heat as from an oven rose up from the huge abysses and dizzying clefts,whilst mighty steaming waterfalls roared and shook the ground.
All at once he felt as if his body were breaking loose, freeing itself,and rising in the air. He had a feeling of infinite lightness, of awondrous capability for floating in higher atmospheres and recoveringequilibrium.
And, before he knew how it was, he found himself up on the earth again.
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[1] _Hulder, huldre_, a name for anything elfin or gnomish. Compare_Icel. Hulda_, a hiding, covering. It implies the invisibility of theelfin race.
[2] _Ligorm_, serpent that eats the dead. If we have Lichfield andlichgate, we may have lichworm too.
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_FINN BLOOD_
_FINN BLOOD._]