The Genre of Trolls - Doria

does not complete the disjunction of the human and the supernatural
sphere; the separation is still begun by the human thief, and it is equally
deficient as in the former variant. However, the trolls are now assuming
the status of dissociators. After killing the perpetrator and his horse, they
have an altercation with his master, demanding their cup back. The man is
indisposed to surrender it, and opts to keep it. Then the trolls utter a curse,
predicting that the manor will burn thrice, and disappear. Their prophecy
is soon fulfilled (SLS 226: 150–151).
3.4.4 Impersonal Phenomena Dissociate
Time is the most common impersonal phenomenon effecting a separation.
Dawn appears to banish the trolls in one narrative (Nyland 1887, 77), and
the boy enthralled by two beautiful female trolls is not released before the
witching hour has passed (SLS 80: 46–47). An abducted boy must spend
three days in the domain of the troll until he is set free (SLS 319: 31–32).
These times and periods are all accorded a special importance in folk tradition:
dawn is the boundary between night and day, and the hour between
midnight and 1 a.m. marks the transition to a new date; Jochum Stattin has
argued that their symbolic significance derives from their intangibility and
vague definition (Stattin 1992: 53). The number three possesses magical
qualities, which extend to the disconnection of worlds.
The extraordinary power of church bells springs from their association
with the Christian faith, but it may also be attributed to the fact that the
church bells dominated the soundscape of agrarian society. An old woman
being held by the trolls does not escape them until the bells usher in the
Sunday service (R I 86: 2–3), and an abducted boy is liberated from the
troll when his parents let the bells toll for him in the belief that he is dead
(Hembygden 1910: 145).
The sun may complete or perform a dissociation in some texts. A girl
who has been living with a troll finally runs away to her native home, and is
liberated from the troll with the aid of the sun:
när trolle sen va borta, for flikkan sjelv bort o im ti modron. so va flikkan redd för trolle,
o gomman mä. o so stoppa dom opp alm o klädär kringom spisståndarn so en e likna
gomman. när trolle kom, so sparka e til e tär o sa: “är är ti eta, o dotron din lidär injin
nöd!” som an sparka til almgomman, so rykt almn o klädren opp i tatji, o trolle börja ondersöka
e tär an o drögd so lengi, en solen rann opp, o so sprakk an (SLS 202 Sagor I, 8)
Breaking the Contact 127