The Aged Bride (Danish Tradition)

At a marriage at Nørre Broby near Odense, the bride during a dance left the apartment and walked without reflection towards a mount in the adjacent field, where at the same time there were dancing and merriment among the Elf-folk. On reaching the mount, she saw that it was standing on red pillars, and at the same moment an Elf came and presented to her a cup of wine. She took the cup, and having emptied it, suffered herself to join in a dance. When the dance was ended she bethought herself of her husband and hastened home. Here it appeared to her that everything in and about the place was changed, and on entering the village, she recognized neither house nor farm, and heard nothing of the noisy mirth of the wedding. At length she found herself standing before her husband’s dwelling, but on entering saw no one whom she knew, and no one who knew her. One old woman only, on hearing the bride’s lamentation, exclaimed: “Is it then you, who a hundred years ago disappeared at my grandfather’s brother’s wedding?” At these words the aged bride fell down and instantly expired.