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Chap. XL.
LIDEN KIRSTEN’S GRAVE.
163
the aisles, all most tastefully whitewashed. On entering
the churchyard, to the right you will observe a long
Liden Kirsten’s Grave.
narrow sepulchral stone, hewn out of solid granite.
Mark, it is broken towards the centre, and with a little
imagination you may descry the print of a horse’s shoe.
The inscription, “ Habet tumulus cum fratre sororem,”
is still pointed out by those who from long habit know
where to find it. On the stone, some twelve feet long,
are engraved two crosses; a headstone at each end.
Two bodies sleep calmly within—their names known
to every peasant in Denmark, old and young, rich and
poor. All men have read and many wrept over the sad
story of Liden Kirsten and her lover I’rince Boris.
I cannot do better than at once give you a résumé
from the ballad,—a ballad sung in all the dialects of
the North, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and
the Faroe Isles, in the Gaelic of the Orkneys; and
again, in a different form, it appears in the Scotch under
the title of ‘ Sweet Willie.’ * We will now commence
our story:—
“ King Valdemar and Sofie,f they sat before the board,
Under the roses two.
They ‘ snackedt’—conversed together—full many a word.”
* “ She hadna well gane thro’ the reel, nor yet well on the green,
Till sho fell down at Willie’s feet, as cauld as any stane.”
Again :—
“ The tane was buried in Mary’s Kirk, the tither in Mary’s Quier.
Out of the tane there grew a birk, and of the tither a brier.”
t Sofie, queen of Valdemar the Great, was daughter of Dulce Vla-
M 2
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