Cauldron of the Underjordiske
In Danish legend the underjordiske, the folk who live inside burial mounds and under the fields, are said to borrow pots, kettles, and spoons from farmhouses, as when a mound-man calls, lend me kettle and spoon, while I cook lamb soup under the hill. They always return what they borrow, and those who refused their request brought misfortune on the household. The motif is recorded in Evald Tang Kristensen's great collections of Jutland legends. The borrowed cauldron is a reminder that the hidden folk and the farmers shared a domestic world of borrowed pots and bargains kept.