Short Fiction · Chapter
The Homestead Westward in the Blue Mountains explained
A farmer's son, a drummer traveling to Moen for maneuvers, rests in the mountains and is lured by supernatural maidens.
What happens
A farmer's son, a drummer traveling to Moen for maneuvers, rests in the mountains and is lured by supernatural maidens. He chases one who stole his drumsticks into a homestead where five girls—Randi, Brandi, Gyri, Gunna, and a golden-red-haired girl—tempt him with dancing, music, and promises. An older female figure warns him that all is glamour and that the girls are homeless spirits. She instructs him to escape at sunrise. He follows her advice, flees over the fence, and returns to the valley, vowing never to drum for girls again.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural and Folklore
The chapter is steeped in Norwegian folk belief, with mountain maidens, a serpent, and a warning about glamour and enchantment.
Transformation and Identity
The maidens shift between playful, seductive, and threatening behaviors, and the swain's identity as a drummer is challenged by the supernatural encounter.
Fate and Free Will
The swain is lured by fate-like enchantment but exercises free will to escape, heeding the warning of the older female spirit.
Characters to notice
- Swain
The farmer's son and drummer who is lured into the Blue Mountains by supernatural maidens.
- The Finns
The five mountain maidens (Randi, Brandi, Gyri, Gunna, and the golden-red-haired girl) who tempt the swain with dancing, music, and enchantment.
- The Finn God
The old man who guards the swain in the hayloft, representing the supernatural authority of the mountain spirits.
Key passages
“For these three hundred years have I been blowing the langelur here in the summer evenings far and wide, but never has it drawn anyone westward hither into the Blue Mountains.”
For three hundred years I have played the long trumpet in the summer evenings, but no one has ever been lured here before.
The older female spirit reveals the rarity of the swain's arrival and the supernatural nature of the homestead.
“And let me tell thee that we are all homeless and houseless, and all thou seest here is but glitter and glamour.”
We are all without homes, and everything you see here is just an illusion.
She warns the swain that the homestead and maidens are not real, but magical deceptions.
“But never would he play rat-tat-tat and beat the tattoo before the lasses again, lest he should find himself westwards in the Blue Mountains before he was well aware of it.”
He vowed never to drum for girls again, afraid he might be lured back to the Blue Mountains.
The swain learns from his experience and changes his behavior to avoid further supernatural entrapment.