The Genre of Trolls - Doria

to intrude on the wedding and save his daughter by throwing an axe over
her head:
100
He va’ ingang i bundfolk, som hág en gröbb, som va 1 år gámbel o so föla märren e
grott hästföl, som dom lova’ at gröbbun sku’ få om e sku’ vál stórt. Men gröbbun försvann
so int dom hitta un, o va bot i 14 år. To va e in kvéld en böjsartjelg, som kom o
böjst ligg’ der o he lova’ dom un. To dom sku’ gá ligg so byrja hästin stamp’ o dunder i
stalle, men böjsartjeljin sa’ åt bundin at an sku’ kle’ op sé, o ta liyxen op armin o gá ut o
säss’ op hästryddjin o lét hästin gá hvart an vil utan tömar. Han júl som tjeljen vila. To
an kóm op ryddjin so strekt hästin ti skogs tér di kom åt en skogsbast. Tér höt an spelas
o dansas men to hästin vrenstja, so fleög dören upp. In i stugun va brölop o gobbin
kasta yxen sin uvi hóve óv brúden so un fasna i väddjen, o to fór dem óv allihóp, so brúden
lömna ömsand in me altihóp. Bruden va gobbinas dóter, som sku’ jift se me e bergtroll,
ter hág dom bo gull o silvertjeril, som dom to’ allihóp o so säis dom op hästin, o
so bar e óv me sama fart hajm tebák. (R II 328; cf. Klintberg 2002:174)
Once there was a peasant couple who had a girl who was one year old, and then the
mare foaled a grey foal which they promised the girl would get, if it grew up. But the
girl disappeared so that they didn’t find her, and was missing for 14 years. Then one
evening there was a beggar woman who came and asked to sleep there, and they promised
her that. When they were going to sleep, the horse started pawing the ground and
making a racket in the stable, but the beggar woman told the peasant to dress up and
take the scythe-axe on his arm, and go outside and mount the horse and let it roam
wherever it wanted without reins. He did as the woman wanted. When he had mounted,
the horse ran into the forest where they came near a forest bath-house. There he
heard music and dancing, but when the horse was restive the door flew up. There was
a wedding in the cottage, and the old man threw his axe over the bride’s head so that it
was stuck in the wall, and then all of them disappeared, leaving the bride alone inside
with everything. The bride was the old man’s daughter who was going to marry a hill
troll; there they had both gold and silver vessels, all of which they took, and they
mounted the horse, and they returned back home with the same speed.
The family became wealthy overnight after rescuing the gold and silver
vessels left behind by the trolls. The axe, being made of steel, is a classic
protection against supranormal beings (Raudvere 1993: 194).
The distress caused by supernatural abductions is illustrated in another
story in which a woman has brought her child along as she goes to work in
the forest. The child disappears, and the mother falls into despair and starts
searching for it, but fails to find it. When she catches sight of two footprints
in the sand on a hill, she realizes that the troll has been about, and
makes the parson retrieve the child by preaching outside the troll’s dwelling
(R II 325).
Description of the Troll Tradition