"The Cavern of Steenfoll," subtitled "A Scottish Legend," is a dark and lovely tale from the pen of German Romantic writer Wilhelm Hauff. If you've been following my research on Evening Tales for the Winter, then it will also be a familiar tale to you; for it is a scene-for-scene retelling of "The Nikkur Holl" by Scottish author R. P. Gillies.
I first noticed it while looking up another tale from that anthology in Everett Bleiler's Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983). Bleiler noted the similarity between the two stories, though he did not know who wrote "The Nikkur Holl". Once I saw the connection, I had to investigate, thinking perhaps that Gillies, who was a enthusiast and translator of German literature, might have translated or adapted Hauff's story without attribution. People were pretty loose about attributions in the early 19th century.
Nope. In fact, Gillies' story cycle Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, from which "The Nikkur Holl" was taken, had been translated into German around 1826-1827, and scholar David Blamires confirms that Hauff took the story from Gillies. My apologies for doubting you, Mr. Gillies.
Before his tragically early death from typhoid fever at age 24, Hauff had begun to make a name for himself as a historical novelist; but he is best known for his Märchen, a term commonly translated as fairy tale. While "The Cavern of Steenfoll" is certainly folkloric, I don't think it's what people would think of as a fairy tale; more like a ghost story. Perhaps that's why, as Blamires notes, this particular story doesn't appear much in English.
"The Cavern of Steenfoll" comes from Hauff's third collection, The Inn in the Spessart (1827), a story cycle where the characters of the framing story share tales to pass the time. I wrote a more detailed post about Hauff and The Inn in the Spessart on Multo, so for now I'll just say that the version I'm sharing with you is from an 1886 translation of Hauff's Tales by one S. Mendel, Professor of Modern Languages at Weymouth College.
Gillies' version is the original, of course, but Hauff's rendition is also quite good. It's shorter and faster-paced than Gillies', as well. If you like, you can compare them both and decide which you like better.
Enjoy!
Reference
Blamires, David, "The Fairytales of Wilhelm Hauff," chapter from Telling Tales: The Impact of Germany on English Children's Books 1780-1918 (2009). [JSTOR link (open access)]