Swiss Fairy Tales
Copyright© 2025 by William Elliot Griffis
Chapter 19: The Palace Under the Waves
Fashions change in the fairy world, as well as among mortals who live on the earth. The Swiss water fairies, called Undines, at times grew tired of living down below the surface of the lakes and rivers. When restless, they longed to mingle in the village gatherings. They wanted to hear the lively music of the young men and maidens, as they sang and danced. Their favorite time for waltzes and cotillions was on moonlight nights.
So it became quite common, at these times, for the fairy maids and swains to swim up to the shore. Then these Undines changed themselves into girls and young men. They put on clothes, that were deep green, the color of the waves. Slipping in among the dancers, they joined in the fun and merry making. In this manner, many a lad romped with a water fairy and even kissed her, thinking she was or might be his sweetheart; for, in the dim light of the moon, it was not always easy to see clearly the face of one’s partner. Many a lassie received an embrace, or a salute on the lips, from a lively dancer, whom she supposed was a new comer. He might not be well known in the village, she thought, though he appeared graceful and dressed very nicely, in sea green, gauzy clothes.
Yet no matter how hard these Undines might try to get their clothes entirely dry, they could never wring the water out wholly of their garments, so that they were always more or less damp. If they had changed their form too quickly, their clothes would drip, and make spots on the floor, or ground. Often the village folk felt dampness, on their limbs below the knees. Yet few ever gave the matter a second thought, for their minds were wholly set on having a good time, and they had it.
Sometimes the lady fairies started rather late in the evening to take their swim to the lake shore. Fearing to lose some of the fun, and thinking they might even find the dancing all over, and the people gone home to bed, they were in a great hurry, while on the strand, to change into the form of mortals and put on their human clothes. So it happened that, when they joined in the dance, one sharp-eyed fellow, who was playing the violin for the measures, noticed that something was wrong. In fact, he was so surprised, that he suddenly stopped fiddling. Then, instantly, everybody dropped arms and stood looking around at the musician’s stand, to see what was the matter. In a moment, it was as quiet as a church aisle, when the parson was praying.
What he saw made his eyes big and round. Then, most impolitely—as some of the girls thought—he pointed to a maiden’s green petticoat, that was beneath her outer dress and that had come a little below her frock. It was dripping with water. Again, after looking with searching eyes at another, and a third, he screamed out:
“Folks and fellow villagers! Don’t you know you’ve got the Undines among you? Look there, and there, and there!” Then he pointed, with his fiddle bow, to some of the prettiest of the female dancers. “Just feel the hem of their skirts, and you’ll know what sort of guests have been dancing with you tonight.”
Whereupon, every young man turned his female partner round, and some of them, most ungallantly, flapped their hands on their lower skirts. Feeling and finding that these were very damp, four or five of them at once lifted up their hands, which were wringing wet, and shook off the drops.
One bold fellow even went behind, and seized the tail of his partner’s petticoat. She seemed to be the sloppiest-looking girl in the whole party, and he actually wrung out a half pint of water.
Thereupon, a tall handsome fellow, leader of the Undine party of a half dozen or so, put his two fingers in his mouth and gave a sort of whistle. At once, all the Undines shouted and ran down to the water’s edge. There, they stopped a minute or two, on the lake beach, and then leaped below the waves and disappeared. It sounded as if six big seals had made a dive.
One villager, who pretended to be an Undine, ran quickly after these water sprites and saw them for a moment on the shore, when they changed their form before resuming their old shapes.
He came back to tell a wonderful tale of what he had seen. When he examined the clothes they had left behind, he found that though they looked shiny, in the moonlight, the stuff was only that of some water plants like sea weed.
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