THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Sometimes the hill-men went fishing in the fjords: if you saw them, and rowed out to the place afterwards, you would land a very good catch.  The fishermen would sometimes see the lights of the fairy fleet, and if they waited until the fairies had gone, and then shot their nets on the same ground, they would soon be returning to port (as their prayer says) “with the living and the dead in the boat.”  The hill-men sometimes carried small children away (people to-day are very definite about this, and dozens of cases are cited) but were always kind to the little ones, and usually brought them home after a few days.  Sometimes wanderers vanished mysteriously among the mountains, and it was said that they had elected to join the hildumenn.

Williamson/Atlantic