The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
A Troll had once taken up his abode near the village of Kund, in the
high bank on which the church now stands; but when the people about
there had become pious, and went constantly to church, the Troll was
dreadfully annoyed by their almost incessant ringing of bells in the
steeple of the church. He was at last obliged, in consequence of it,
to take his departure; for nothing has more contributed to the
emigration of the Troll-folk out of the country than the increasing
piety of the people, and their taking to bell-ringing. The Troll of
Kund accordingly quitted the country, and went over to Funen, where he
lived for some time in peace and quiet.
Now it chanced that a man who had lately settled in the town of Kund,
coming to Funen on business, met on the road with this same Troll:
"Where do you live?" said the Troll to him. Now there was nothing
whatever about the Troll unlike a man, so he answered him, as was the
truth, "I am from the town of Kund." "So?" said the Troll. "I don't know
you, then! And yet I think I know every man in Kund. Will you, however,"
continued he, "just be so kind to take a letter from me back with you to
Kund?" The man said, of course, he had no objection. The Troll then
thrust the letter into his pocket, and charged him strictly not to take
it out till he came to Kund church, and then to throw it over the
churchyard wall, and the person for whom it was intended would get it.
The Troll then went away in great haste, and with him the letter went
entirely out of the man's mind. But when he was come back to Zealand
he sat down by the meadow where Tiis Lake now is, and suddenly
recollected the Troll's letter. He felt a great desire to look at it
at least. So he took it out of his pocket, and sat a while with it in
his hands, when suddenly there began to dribble a little water out of
the seal. The letter now unfolded itself, and the water came out
faster and faster, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the poor
man was enabled to save his life; for the malicious Troll had enclosed
an entire lake in the letter. The Troll, it is plain, had thought to
avenge himself on Kund church by destroying it in this manner; but God
ordered it so that the lake chanced to run out in the great meadow
where it now flows.[175]
_A Farmer tricks a Troll._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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