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32 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
number of details which can be checked against historical records.
Obviously, no rigorous method exists for sorting out the different
elements in traditional stories for which no historical documentation
survives. But it is the author's hope that this case-study will
aid others in the difficult task of distinguishing the possibly true
from the definitely false in the wealth of historical legend in
Scandinavia and elsewhere.
Notes
1 Regnskab for Vider¢ Sogn 1694·1789, f. 9, Kirkeinspektionsarkiv VIII, Sjellands
Landsarkiv, Copenhagen.
2 It was a common female task to trample on woollens in a urine tub (tvagtunna)
to clear the grease from the wool. Such a tub in actual use is depicted in a late
eighteenth-century sketch, reproduced in Mondul (1977, part 3, 9). It would be
easy for any strong man to put a woman into a vessel of this kind. It may be,
however, that what was meant was a storage vessel such as the tub now standing
in the porch of the dower house in Kalvalio in Miovagur. It would be very hard
for a single unaided man to duck a struggling woman into a high-sided barrel like
this. For the candlestick, see Degn (1934, 130) and Horskjer (1970, 177-8).
3 Heilskov (1938, 160-3); Birket Smith (1894, 221); and a typescript by H. Friis­
Petersen, Studenterne ved Kobenhavns Universitet 1668-1739 in the Statsbibliotek
and the Rigsarkiv, Copenhagen. (I am indebted to Dr. Povl Skarup of Arhus
University for the foregoing references.) See also Andersen (1895, 424) and Degn
(1934, 130-1).
4 Peder Arhboe was very diligent in defending his stepdaughter's interests, and
active also in the redemption of land which Bente or her mother had sold, but over
which they still had odel rights. See GS ff. 85-93, and P ff. 42-5 and other later
Vagar sections.
s Andersen (1895, 423); Petersen (1963, 360). The poem runs as follows (Jakobsen
1961-4, 170):
Min smukke,
min dukke,
min lyst og min del!
min jordiske engel og sedeste sjell
du haver betaget mit hjerte og alt
med dine gebeerder og yndig gestalt.
Dine hender ere hvide og blede som uld,
din hals er som perler, dit har er som guld.
6 The Vagar affidavits dated 12 September 1718, Bente's 1720 petitions, the letter
to Raben in reply by Anders Morten Surland, and other relevant documentation,
are all in SIB. The text of the passage quoted runs as follows:
Om hand var gal dend tiid her maatte holdis vagt over hannem det veed vii iche
men Gud i Himmelen ved det, men at hand anstillede sig som et rasende Meniske
der er sante og udj sine Pnedicher sagde her Peder, I siger Preesten er gal, nei,
Presten er iche gal hand haver bedre forstand end nogen af dem der siger hand
er gal.
7 The undertaking appears in GS f. 91. It is quoted against Peder Arhboe in GM
ff. 72-3.