of Norwegian life and character in the rough than anything that can be
found elsewhere in the literature. Indeed, Lie's skippers and mates are
as superior to Kjelland's, for instance, as the peasants of Jens Tvedt
(a writer, by the way, still unknown beyond his native land) are
superior to the much-vaunted peasants of Björnstjerne Björnson.

But it is when Lie tells us some of the wild legends of his native
province, Nordland, some of the grim tales on which he himself was
brought up, so to speak, that he is perhaps most vivid and enthralling.
The folk-lore of those lonely sub-arctic tracts is in keeping with the
savagery of nature. We rarely, if ever, hear of friendly elves or
companionable gnomes there. The supernatural beings that haunt those
shores and seas are, for the most part, malignant and malefic. They seem
to hate man. They love to mock his toils, and sport with his despair. In
his very first romance, "_Den Fremsynte_," Lie relates two of these
weird tales (Nos. 1 and 3 of the present selection). Another tale, in
which many of the superstitious beliefs and wild imaginings of the
Nordland fishermen are skilfully grouped together to form the background
of a charming love-story, entitled "Finn Blood," I have borrowed from
the volume of "_Fortællinger og Skildringer_," published in 1872. The
remaining eight stories are selected from the book "_Trold_," which was
the event of the Christmas publishing season at Christiania in 1891.
Last Christmas a second series of "_Trold_" came out, but it is
distinctly inferior to the former one.

R.N.B.


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