ABSTRACT
IT has been said in the preceding chapter that twenty-four vast rivers flow from the highest mountains of Norway and Sweden into one lake, Vanern; and, although they enter it hissing loudly and eddying, the mountains obstruct them in such a wide, round chain that in all their passage they can find only this single exit. Here the water issues with such a speed and roar that it may be heard more than twenty Italian miles away. 1 In the vernacular it is called Trollhätten, that is, the demon’s hood, perhaps because of the terror inspired by the thunderous noise it makes as it drops into the marshy flats, or because under its headlong fall a notorious cave of robbers is to be found. 2
24 great rivers enter one lake
Huge noise Trollhatten
Robbers’ cave
