hen Count of Oldenburg was hunting in the forest
of Bernefeuer. He had followed a roe from that forest to the Osenberg,
and had distanced all his attendants. It was the twentieth of July, the
weather was hot, and the count thirsty. He cried out for a draught of
water, and had scarcely uttered the words, when the hill opened and a
beautiful damsel appeared and offered him drink in this horn. Not liking
the look of the beverage, he declined to drink. Whereupon she pressed
him to do so, assuring him that it would go well with him and his
thenceforth, and with the whole house of Oldenburg; but if the count
would not believe her and drink there would be no unity from that time
in the Oldenburg family. He had no faith in her words, and poured out
the drink, which took the hair off his horse wherever it splashed him,
and galloped away with the horn.[116]

Other drinking-horns, of which precisely analogous tales are told, are
still to be seen in Norway. Of the one at Halsteengaard it is related
that the posterity of the robber, down to the ninth generation, were
afflicted, as a penalty, with some bodily blemish. This horn is
described as holding nearly three quarts, and as being encircled by a
strong gilt copper ring, about three inches broad, on which, in monkish
characters, are to be read the names of the Three Kings of Cologne,
Melchior, Baltazar, and Caspar. It is further ornamented with a small
gilt copper plate, forming the setting of an oval crystal. Another horn,
preserved in the museum at Arendal, was obtained in a similar manner. A
father, pursuing his daughter and her lover, was stopped by a troll, and
offered drink in it. Instead of drinking, he cast out the contents, with
the usual result, and put spurs to his horse. He was counselled by
another troll, who was not on good terms with the first, to ride through
the rye and not through the wheat; but even when his pursuer was impeded
by the tall rye-stalks, only the crowing of the cock before dawn rescued
him. The vessel is encircled by three silver gilt rings, bearing an
inscription, which seems not quite correctly reported, as follows:
"Potum servorum benedic deus alme tuorum reliquam unus benede le un
Caspar Melchior Baltazar."[117]

The legend of which I am treating attaches also to a number of sacred
chalices. At Aagerup, in Zealand, is one of these. The thief, nearly
overtaken by the trolls he had robbed, prayed to God in his distress,
and vowed to bestow the c