“Father and uncle Jens came walking from Nyke, to go home for the weekend. The fjord was impassable by boat, so they had to go by foot. And so late in the year, there was ice beneath the new snow.
“As they were about to climb the ridge between Gustad and Kobbvågen, uncle Jens missed the path, and fell down the steep edge. And he should surely have lost his health, had he not been so lucky that he ended up on a mountain ledge, close to the jekt-store in Kobbvågen.
“Lars Ellingsa’s jekt had been brought up into storage for the winter season, and uncle Jens could clearly see a burning light in the cabin. He leaned out from the ledge as best he could, so that he could manage to look through the window in the cabin; and then he saw four handsomely bedecked menfolk sat around the table, drinking hot toddys, and smoking long pipes.
“In the midst of the table stood a lit tallow candle in a brass candle stick, and the red heat glowed from the crack in the stove door.
“Uncle Jens didn’t recognise any of those sitting at the table, and he wondered about what manner of fellows they might be, who had sought refuge in the jekt cabin so late in the day. He doubted they were folk from the village. But he couldn’t remember hearing that Lars Ellingsa’s jekt was haunted, so they were probably Christian folk, even if he didn’t recognise them.
“Just like that, one of the fellows got up and went to the cabinet, and pulled out a rolled up map, and spread it out on the table.
“They were busy, the four of them, pointing at the map with the tips of their pipes, and talking and gesticulating, and uncle Jens thought it clear they were pointing at the sea around Stad; but he was not entirely sure in this matter, for even though it was not so far, even so, there was a distance between the ledge and the jekt. Three of the fellows were completely bald, with long grey beards, uncle Jens said, and the fourth appeared to be years younger, and he had both his hair and a beard. And he acted as host, filling the glasses from punch jug, and making them drink while the toddy was still warm.
“As soon as father had come down from the ridge, he stopped, listening for cries of pain from uncle Jens. But when he heard nothing, and could see nothing, for it was dark, he put both hands to his mouth and cried:
“‘Brother Jens, where are you?’
“‘I lie here on the ledge on the mountain, close above the jekt,’ answered uncle Jens. And immediately he said it, the light went out, and the jekt stood dark and extinct of people.
—•—
“When father had got uncle Jens down from the ledge, and heard what he had seen, they took the long plank father had used to reach the ledge, pushed it up against the jekt, and clambered aboard. They lighted matches, looking for signs of footprints, but the deck lay white with snow, with trace of neither bird nor folk.
“Then they went astern to the cabin. The door was locked, but father had a key that went into the lock. Inside the cabin it was dark and cold, and the stove was ice cold to the touch.
“So they went out of the cabin and locked up behind them. And they put the plank on the ground next to the jekt, where father had taken it from.
“When they came home and had taken some food and changed to dry footwear, they went into grandfather’s tennant’s cabin, and mentioned to him what uncle Jens had experienced.
“‘You’ve seen the jekt-tofte,’ said grandfather. ‘They have a habit of visiting one another while the jekt is in storage. And if I had seen them, then perhaps I would have been able to tell you which jekt they belonged to.
“‘I have seen the light myself, in the jekt-store in Kobbvågen, one late evening I came walking past on my way to Gustad. But I didn’t stare through the glass like you did. And you mustn’t forget to thank Our Lord, that you came from it without harm or marks on your body.’
“That’s what grandfather said. But when father and uncle Jens were should trade their fish in June, grandfather advised them not to send the fish to Bergen with Lars Ellingsa. They should rather sell it to one of the traders, he said.
“And well it was; for Lars Ellingsa’s jekt turned over on its way to Bergen, and if I am not mistaken, the accident happened in the sea close to Stad.
“And now it’s your turn, Marius, and then we’ve all told something.”
—•—
“No, I don’t know anything to tell,” said Marius, “except that father said that the subterraneans used jekts and sailed to Bergen just like we do. They had their merchants, as we had ours. And the same had those who dwelt in the mountains; but now all the trolls were turned to stone.
“But one thing that’s true is that west of our boathouse at home on the farm I’m from, the subterraneans had their boat place. And we heard clearly, both father and I, that they set the boats out and pulled them ashore.
“There was a steep rock wall beyond the other folk’s boat places, and there I heard it playing inside the mountain. It was still mid-August, and it was twilight at night, and there was so much seafire in the sea. I sat on the rocks by our boathouse, and I remember my thoughts being so sad. I was like a stranger upon the earth, and I admit that I longed to go back to where I belonged.
“Then it began to play inside the steep mountain. It was a melody, and everything I felt within my own bosom, was brought out in the melody by he who played.
“Father had also heard it playing in the mountain, when he was young. But it wasn’t the same melody they played for me. For you understand that you can never get a melody that comes to you in that way out of your memory while you live.
“But now I want to ask all of you who are sitting here about something I have gone and reflected on for myself. Do you think the subterraneans are giving up fembørings and jekts, and going over to motorised vessels, just like we have? I ask; for once in the West Fjord, when we came from Synnatur with Johanne Marianne, I thought I clearly glimpsed a trawler alongside ours. It was not quite visible to the eye, but there it was, and I thought I heard the stroke of the engine.
“I was just as awake as I am now, and the trawler followed us until we were in the middle of the fjord. Then it took another course and I lost touch with it.
“The other time I saw something I couldn’t understand was this year, when we came from Finnmark. We went through the sound at Risøy, and it was sunny and completely still, and you, Mekkel Aronsa, lay napping after dinner; and so did the others aboard. But I was standing at the wheel.
“Suddenly, I see three trawlers to port, in a row; and it was as if they were made of air and not of wood and steel, so unreasonably fine and light they were.
“There were folk aboard all three of them, and their load and tackle were on deck, and I was about to go and wake you, Mekkel Aronsa, and ask you to come and see the fine craft, but then they disappeared right before my sight, and three black cormorants flew there where the trawlers had been.
“And now I ask again: Do you think they were the subterraneans’ trawlers I saw? Because if they were, then those folk have come far ahead of us in making their boats pretty. For I can never tell with words, how damned beautifully they behaved in the water.”
“There you ask more than we can answer,” said old Rubert Rubertsa. But if you want to know my opinion, Marius, then I have no doubt but that the subterraneans can do anything they want to. And I believe that in many ways they are ahead of us. And who knows if they weren’t the first to go over to the new way of fishing, and that it is rather we who have learned from them? For knowledge, Marius, it comes from so many places.
“But have you considered that it’ll soon be time to get up? And here we sit at the top of the mountain, just like the reindeer, when it seeks the cooling wind to rid itself of horseflies and flies!”
—•—
Then everyone realized that the day’s many chores awaited, and then they hurried to gather their baggage together and agree on who should carry what.
The menfolk went before, as the fern forest, which covered most of the scree beneath Skarvasstind peak, was gray with the night’s dew, and it was only reasonable that they took the worst of it.
The grassy meadows away from the screes lay against the morning sun; the path they followed was nice and firm. Birds twittered for the new day, all over the meadows, and brass bells jangled angrily when the sheep, frightened awake by the treading of the path, jumped up from their slumber and ran.
Far below them, the bay and the trawler lay in deep shadow, and the path made many turns before they reached it.
But old Rubert Rubertsa couldn’t be bothered with all the turns. He sat down on his trouser bottom and let himself slide down the incline, reaching the bay long before the others.
—•—
When they were well aboard, Marius started the engine, and took hold of the steering wheel.
But Mekkel Aronsa and his friends lit their cigarettes and were proper fellows on the dewy deck, which quickly dried, as the trawler came out from from the shade of the enclosed bay and on to the open fjord, which glittered blue in the sun and the fresh morning breeze.
The women moved close together on the edge of the main hatch, amusing themselves by looking at the farms they passed by, and the smoke that began to bubble up from the chimneys, signalling that people were up.
But when the trawler approached Sørviken, old Rubert came away from the menfolk and made faces to Kari Aronste that he wanted to talk to her; and she came to hear what the matter was.
“It’s just what I want for you,” he said, pushing his cigarette to the other side of his mouth, “that if you’re thinking of changing, Kari Aronste, then you mustn’t forget, that I am a handy fellow at my most mature age, so to say. You won’t be in want of help with me, in any kind of way. And so you’ll certainly be better served by me than by some city vagrant, who wants your dowry with no sense of how attractive you are yourself.”
But Kari Aronste had turned every thought of marriage out of her mind from the very hour and moment the subterranean’s silver spoons had warned her of danger. She begged Rubert Rubertsa’s pardon; but now she had determined to die unmarried, and meet the sweetheart of her youth, as pure and as innocent as she was when he left her and went in to the blessing of Our Lord.
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