Note 342 — 41 HIND ETIN

This trait, corresponding to the prohibition in the Norse ballads of bowing when the holy name is pronounced, occurs frequently in tradition, as might be expected. In a Swedish merman-ballad, 'Necken,' Afzelius, III, 133, the nix, who has attended to church the lady whom he is about to kidnap, makes off with his best speed when the priest reads the benediction. See, further, Árnason's Íslenzkar þjóðsögur, I, 73 f; Maurer's Isländische Volksagen, 19 f; Liebrecht, Gervasius, p. 26, LVII, and p. 126, note (Grundtvig).