宜人的r根岛俯瞰波罗的海的海水，一直到波美拉尼亚海岸的银白色沙滩;在兰宾镇，一个小男孩和一个女仆一起摘草地上的花，在海浪中玩耍。他们相貌相似，但程度不同:他是安普曼家的长子，她是磨坊主的孩子。从前，r根岛上到处都是小矮人和巨魔，棕色脸的小地球人，没有灵魂的人;在r根的岛上，每找到一个行走在空气和阳光下的男人和女人，就有一个巨魔在地下。一天早晨，小姑娘碰巧在精灵和半兽人出没的九座山上散步。那一天，在下面的大麦地里，收割的人已经知道空气中有邪恶的声音，听到了小喇叭的吹响。她没有回来;在田野和树林里寻找她都是徒劳的:他们喊她往东，喊她往西，但她没有再来。“她在下边的棕色小矮人中间。”那些年老又聪明的梦中妻子们说。大家开始祈祷，做弥撒，兰宾的教堂的钟声也敲响了。 Five years her father mourned her; and then John Deitrich said: "I will find my little playmate, be she alive or dead." He watched among the Nine Hills, he heard the Brown Dwarfs sing, And saw them dance by moonlight merrily in a ring. And when their gay-robed leader tossed up his cap of red, Young Deitrich caught it as it fell, and thrust it on his head. The Troll came crouching at his feet and wept for lack of it. "Oh, give me back my magic cap, for your great head unfit!" "Nay," Deitrich said; "the Dwarf who throws his charmëd cap away, Must serve its finder at his will, and for his folly pay. "You stole my pretty Lisbeth, and hid her in the earth; And you shall ope the door of glass and let me lead her forth." "She will not come; she's one of us; she's mine!" the Brown Dwarf said; "The day is set, the cake is baked, to-morrow we shall wed." "The fell fiend fetch thee!" Deitrich cried, "and keep thy foul tongue still. Quick! open, to thy evil world, the glass door of the hill!" The Dwarf obeyed; and youth and Troll down the long stairway passed, And saw in dim and sunless light a country strange and vast. Weird, rich, and wonderful, he saw the elfin under-land, -- Its palaces of precious stones, its streets of golden sand. He came unto a banquet-hall with tables richly spread, Where a young maiden served to him the red wine and the bread. How fair she seemed among the Trolls so ugly and so wild! Yet pale and very sorrowful, like one who never smiled! Her low, sweet voice, her gold-brown hair, her tender blue eyes seemed Like something he had seen elsewhere or something he had dreamed. He looked; he clasped her in his arms; he knew the long-lost one; "O Lisbeth! See thy playmate -- I am the Amptman's son!" She leaned her fair head on his breast, and through her sobs she spoke: "Oh, take me from this evil place, and from the elfin folk! "And let me tread the grass-green fields and smell the flowers again, And feel the soft wind on my cheek and hear the dropping rain! "And oh, to hear the singing bird, the rustling of the tree, The lowing cows, the bleat of sheep, the voices of the sea; "And oh, upon my father's knee to set beside the door, And hear the bell of vespers ring in Rambin church once more!" He kissed her cheek, he kissed her lips; the Brown Dwarf groaned to see, And tore his tangled hair and ground his long teeth angrily. But Deitrich said: "For five long years this tender Christian maid Has served you in your evil world, and well must she be paid! "Haste! -- hither bring me precious gems, the richest in your store; Then when we pass the gate of glass, you'll take your cap once more." No choice was left the baffled Troll, and, murmuring, he obeyed, And filled the pockets of the youth and apron of the maid. They left the dreadful under-land and passed the gate of glass; They felt the sunshine's warm caress, they trod the soft, green grass. And when, beneath, they saw the Dwarf stretch up to them his brown And crooked claw-like fingers, they tossed his red cap down. Oh, never shone so bright a sun, was never sky so blue, As hand in hand they homeward walked the pleasant meadows through! And never sang the birds so sweet in Rambin's woods before, And never washed the waves so soft along the Baltic shore; And when beneath his door-yard trees the father met his child, The bells rung out their merriest peal, the folks with joy ran wild. And soon from Rambin's holy church the twain came forth as one, The Amptman kissed a daughter, the miller blest a son. John Deitrich's fame went far