ng district, away near Skagen, in the north of Jutland,
speaking with geographical precision. It is now an enormous bog, and
an account of it can be read in descriptions of the country. This
place was once the bottom of the sea; but the waters have receded, and
the ground has risen. It stretches itself for miles on all sides,
surrounded by wet meadows and pools of water, by peat-bogs,
cloudberries, and miserable stunted trees. A heavy mist almost always
hangs over this place, and about seventy years ago wolves were found
there. It is rightly called, the wild morass; and one may imagine how
savage it must have been, and how much swamp and sea must have existed
there a thousand years ago. Yes, in these respects the same was to be
seen there as is to be seen now. The rushes had the same height, the
same sort of long leaves, and blue-brown, feather-like flowers that
they bear now; the birch tree stood with its white bark, and delicate
drooping leaves, as now; and, in regard to the living creatures, the
flies had the same sort of crape clothing as they wear now; and the
storks' bodies were white, with black and red stockings. Mankind, on
the contrary, at that time wore coats cut in another fashion from what
they do in our days; but every one of them, serf or huntsman,
whosoever he might be who trod upon the quagmire, fared a thousand
years ago as they fare now: one step forward--they fell in, and sank
down to the MUD-KING, as _he_ was called who reigned below in the
great morass kingdom. Very little is known about his government; but
that is, perhaps, a good thing.

Near the bog, close by Liimfjorden, lay the Viking's loghouse of three
stories high, and with a tower and stone cellars. The storks had
built their nest upon the roof of this dwelling. The female stork sat
upon her eggs, and felt certain they would be all hatched.

One evening the male stork remained out very long, and when he came
home he looked rumpled and flurried.

"I have something very terrible to tell thee," he said to the female
stork.

"Thou hadst better keep it to thyself," said she. "Remember I am
sitting upon the eggs: a fright might do me harm, and the eggs might
be injured."

"But it _must_ be told thee," he replied. "She has come here--the
daughter of our host in Egypt. She has ventured the long journey up
hither, and she is lost."

"She who is of the fairies' race? Speak, then! Thou knowest that I
cannot bear suspense while I am sitting."