Note 22 — Chapter X · DEPARTURE FROM TORJEDAHL.

Esberne Snorre is the Danish Faust. In no country whatever was the reformation popular among the peasantry, and therefore the popular legends invariably assign the leaders and causes of it to the devil, as in the case of Faust himself, who, whatever Goëthe may say, really was a very respectable tradesman, and had no more to do with the devil than is involved in the invention of that art which became so powerful an instrument in the hands of reformers—printing. Esberne Snorre was what very few of the Danish Reformers were, a really good and conscientious man, who might well have built the Church of Kallendborg, or even have given his eyes for it. Nevertheless, pre-eminently before all the reformers, the devil carries him off bodily in every legend of the time, just as he did Faust.