by Edwin Sidney Hartland
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A Pomeranian tradition relates the adventure of an officer who was much troubled by the nightmare. He caught her in the usual manner and wedded her, although he could not persuade her to say whence she came. After some years she induced her husband to open the holes he had stopped up; and the next morning she had disappeared. But he found written in chalk on the table the words: ?If thou wilt seek me, the Commander of London is my father.? He sought her in London and found her; and having taken the precaution to rechristen her he lived happily with her ever after.[201] This is the only instance I have met with where the nightmare-wife is recovered. It would be interesting to know why England is assigned as the home of these perturbed spirits.
[185] Burton, ?Nights,? vol. viii. p. 7.
[186] Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 69, quoting Afzelius; Haltrich, p. 15; Hapgood, p. 214; Meier, ?Volksmärchen,? p. 39; Baring-Gould, p. 575. No authority is given by Mr. Baring-Gould, and I have been unable to trace the Hessian tale; but I rely on his correctness. He also cites an incoherent Swan-maiden tale from Castrén, of which he manages to make more sense than I can (Castrén, ?Altaischen Völker,? p. 172). In an Irish tale Oengus, the son of the Dagda, falls in love, through a dream, with Caer ib Ormaith, who is one year in the form of a swan and the next in human shape. After union with her he seems to have undergone the same alternation of form (Revue Celtique, vol. iii. p. 342, from a MS. in the British Museum).
[187] Schreck, p. 35; Vernaleken, pp. 274, 287; Jones and Kropf, p. 95; ?Bahar-Danush,? vol. ii. p. 213 (an abstract of this story will be found in Keightley, p. 20); Burton, ?Nights,? vol. v. p. 344; Steere, p. 349; Cavallius, p. 175, freely translated by Thorpe, ?Yule-Tide Stories,? p. 158. Mr. Morris turns the doves into swans. Cf. a South-Slavonic tale from Varazdina, Krauss, vol. i. p. 409.
[188] Brett, ?Legends and Myths,? p. 29. This legend is told with further details by Im Thurn, p. 381.
[189] Rink, p. 145; Prym und Socin, p. 51.
[190] Knoop, p. 104.
[191] ?F. L. Espań.? vol. i. p. 187.
[192] Keightley, p. 169, from Hibbert, ?Description of the Shetland Islands?; Wratislaw, p. 290; ?F. L. Journal,? vol. vi. p. 165. As a point of resemblance with the Lady of the Van Pool, quoted further on, it may be noted that these seal-women (the legend of their capture is a common one in the Shetland Islands) had the power to conjure up from the deep a superior breed of horned cattle, many of whose offspring are still to be seen (Dr. Karl Blind in ?Contemp. Rev.? 1881, quoted by Mac Ritchie, p. 4).
[193] Kirby, p. 319; ?Arch. Rev.? vol. ii. p. 90; Schmidt, p. 133; Bent, p. 13; Von Hahn, vol. i. p. 295 (cf. vol. ii. p. 82); Garnett, p. 352, translating Dozon's ?Chansons Populaires Bulgares?; Cosquin, vol. ii. p. 18. Cf. Ralston, ?Tibetan Tales,? p. 53; Landes, p. 123; Comparetti, vol. i. p. 212, translated ?F. L. Record,? vol. ii. p. 12; Grimm, ?Tales,? vol. ii. p. 331; Poestion, p. 55; Vernaleken, p. 274; Pitré, vol. iv. p. 140; Sastri, p. 80.
