The Genre of Trolls - Doria

in that case it sets the tone of the narrative, since the conflict between man
and troll has already been introduced. In a tale of the stolen drinking-vessel
the troll abducted a servant girl from a manor every Easter, and although
everyone knew where it was hiding, nobody managed to rescue them. Once
the manservant followed the troll and he was warmly received. The abducted
servant girls gave him a drink which he did not imbibe; rather he threw
the beverage away, and it burned the horse’s hide. Then he stole the cup,
riding home with the irate trolls in pursuit and throwing the loot to his
master. The trolls killed him and the horse before he reached the stable,
and proceeded to negotiate with the owner of the manor who decided to
keep the cup for himself. Their request denied, the trolls foretold that the
manor would burn thrice. Now all the maids returned home, but very soon
after that, the manor was ablaze (SLS 226: 150–151). It is interesting to note
that the manservant abandons the girls he has explicitly come to liberate as
soon as he gets his hands on the valuable cup. Material gain overrides romantic
heroism, and this might be the reason why such a gruesome end is
accorded him. The rescue motif, as Inger Lövkrona calls it in her dissertation
Det bortrövade dryckeskärlet (‘The Stolen Drinking Vessel’), occurs in
some variants from Jutland, Denmark and Halland, Sweden (Lövkrona
1982: 98–99), but the rescue is actually completed in those texts. Here it is
more of a pretext for robbing the trolls.
The trolls might abduct humans for more sinister purposes too. Some
trolls have a taste for human flesh, and a very obese man called Smöbuk
(Butterbelly) is repeatedly being taken by the troll to furnish the main ingredient
for its festive soup. Butterbelly manages to escape twice, but the
third time he is to be slaughtered by the troll’s daughter (in the Swedish
original, sm. is a contraction of smöbuk, tr. of trulli):
nu va an glad å sku hav fremmand. så leng an sku va bårt åsta bjud sku trullis dåutrun
slakt sm., men un kunna int. så sku sm. vis inar å la inar pu benktjin. sm. skar huvu åv
inar å kåuka såpun pu in. men tärtil tr. kåm heim, la sm. dåutrus huvu under feldin, så
ansikte ståu åp. sm. öyst åp såpun å laga färdit pu båuli, men jömd se sölv me dören. tr.
kåm heim me fremand set å bjöud dem ti båule tå e va färdit. dåutrun tråud dem lå å
såvd. dem åt duktit å sm. [sic] sat bara å smaka å sa “smöbuks såppa smaka bra” men
smöbuk sat innan-fö dörin o sa “dåutrus såpun smaka bra” tr. vart arg å sku ta livi åv
sm. men sm. tåu ståbban å kasta ihäl truli å tå va e slut me he. (SLS 37, 9: 21–22)
Now he [the troll] was happy and was going to have guests. While he was away giving
invitations, the troll’s daughter would slaughter Butterbelly, but she didn’t know how to
Interaction between the Realms 103