Scandinavian Spooks

[lemming13]

I've found a rather interesting collection of Scandinavian tales: Weird Tales From Northern Seas, from the Danish of Jonas Lie, translated in 1893 by R Nisbet Bain and illustrated by Laurence Housman. According to the intro, Lie was famous especially for his nautical stories, and what I've read so far is certainly very convincingly maritime. The stories are: -
The Fisherman and the Draug (the only one I've read through to the end so far, as I've been like a kid in a sweetshop with a hundred quid note since I started in on Kindle): a fisherman unwittingly attacks a sea-demon (a draug) in the shape of a seal, and it takes a terrible revenge. A long but rather eerie piece, especially where the fisherman is forced to endure the slow, torturous drowning of his loved ones.
Jack of Sjoholm and the Gan-Finn.
Tug of War
"The Earth Draws"
The Cormorants of Andvaer
Isaac and the Parson of Brono
The Wind-Gome
The Huldjiefish
Finn Blood
The Homestead Westward in the Blue Mountains
"It's Me!"

[lemming13]

Got sidetracked from this by the arrival of my copy of The Drug, but finally -
Jack of Sjoholm and the Gan-Finn: a long tale which begins with the titular hero setting out on a fishing trip with his comrades. After a great deal of bad luck, he winds up shipwrecked, the sole survivor, on the shores of Finland. Taken in by an ancient Finnish shaman and his young female attendant, he has to battle sorcery and sex appeal to get away. Reaching home with the aid of a draug demon, he begins to build a new type of boat which is faster and safer, the design of which he has been fomenting during captivity with the shaman. But his efforts are thwarted again by magic (since the Finnish shamans depend for a living on selling their weather control spells to the Danish and Norwegian fishermen) until the draug returns and they make a deal in which the demon gets to complete one boat in seven, in return for the secret of manufacturing them to requirement. Jack later has cause to sincerely regret this deal...
This is a terrific story, almost a novella, with Jack very much a modern Odysseus. The evil Finnish witchcraft is described with great gusto and atmosphere, as is the voyage with the draug, but it really hits its stride with the consequences of Jack's ill-considered contract with the demon. Vengeful drowned spirits, glowing with sea-phosphorescence - The Fog has nothing on this. A cracking tale, and with a hero who is surprisingly complex.

[dem bones]

Thanks for posting on this one, lemming. the only two i've read are Elias And The Draug and The Earth Draws (revived by Roald Dahl and Hugh Lamb respectively) and that so long ago i can't remember which one i liked and which did nothing for me whatsoever. Even your Elias ... synopsis doesn't ring any bells. That will be another pair for the depressingly massive to read/ re-read pile then ...

[lemming13]

Actually I was puzzled to find the only ones included in an English anthology had been the Draug tale and The Earth Draws; the first is pretty good, but the second is really just a fairytale, and nothing like the best. Finished them all off while cooking tea, so while they're still fresh in mind:
Tug Of War - a short and nasty little tale of the struggle over a lad between the draug he had offended and his fishermen comrades. Needless to say, it does not end well.
The Earth Draws - a man finds a magical place where he can access uncanny storage drawers in the side of a cliff, filled with valuable goods; but the price of access is that he is wooed by a peculiar girl of inhuman origin, and lured away from his normal life to her fairyland. Would be a run of the mill fairytale if not for the way Lie invokes the impact of this strangeness on the man's family.
The Cormorants of Andvaer - another fairytale (a young girl wooed by many, but who will only wed the one who brings her a betrothal ring from a deadly rock, and who will only spend one day with her bridegroom), but with a few eerie resonances to it, and a decidedly creepy ending.
Isaac and the Parson of Brono - a highly enjoyable, and rather stomach-churning, tale of a fisherman, the piecemeal recovery of his drowned brother, and a stiff-necked parson who refuses burial to the bits. Now there's one for anthologising!
The Wind-Gnome - again, this has the hallmarks of a genuine folktale, but Lie does have a way of making something special of them, and this one really does read exceptionally well. A daring young man risks his neck to make his fortune and in consequence captures the services of the Wind-Gnome, a powerful spirit with control over the winds. As a result he becomes extremely powerful, since those who obey him always prosper, and those who resist die. It works out well till his daughter marries a man who resist his father-in-law's authority.
The Huldjefish - this is more of a vision or dream-tale than anything else, since it doesn't follow a plot to a conclusion, but it does remind me very much of Lovecraft in it's depiction of a ghastly, slimy world below ours, inhabited by monstrosities.
Finn Blood - a well-crafted little tale of racism, a Nordic Romeo and Juliet, and Finnish witchcraft. A young man grows up side by side with a Finn girl whom he comes to love, but he is slowly turned away from her by the racist attitudes of his family and peers, until he is shipwrecked and finds himself at the mercy of the Mermaid King and his daughter.
The Homestead Westward in the Blue Mountains - a bit confusing in parts, but definitely a fairytale, and a cautionary one, in which a young man learns the consequence of giving chase to the first flirtatious lass you come across while journeying away from home. Comic fantasy.
It's Me! - another folk tale, this one relates how a giantess in disguise takes up residence with a trader's family as a servant, and comes close to supplanting his wife and ruling the roost, till she inadvertently reveals there is something very unusual about her anatomy. A wry tale commenting on vanity and favouritism.

On the whole I'd describe Lie's tales as the Brothers Grimm rewritten by Poe and Lovecraft. Interesting stuff, and I'd really like to see his work make an appearance in a more mass-market anthology - Isaac and the Parson, Tug of War, or The Cormorants of Andvaer would all merit an airing, as well as the Fisherman and the Draug.