The Genre of Trolls - Doria

128
Later when the troll was away, the girl herself went away and home to her mother. The
girl was afraid of the troll, and so was the old woman. And they stuffed hay and clothes
around the poker so that it looked like the old woman. When the troll came, it kicked
that and said: “Here’s to eat, and your daughter has nothing to complain of!” As it
kicked the straw woman, the hay and the clothes flew up into the roof, and the troll
started investigating that and tarried so long that the sun rose, and it exploded.
A cat similarly leaves the final execution of the troll to the sun in K. P.
Pettersson’s record, a variant of AT 545 The Cat as Helper:
Tå e blej mörkt sän, så gaf se kattn åf i väg ti slotte, för han visst än trolle brúka va bort
om nättena, men huld se i slotte om dagana; för si han vá, som all troll pa vá, rädd för
dagsljúse. Tå kattn kåm ti slotte, så vá e som’n hadd trott: trolle va bort o hadd, tå int e
ansåg se behöf va rädd föri än ná’n sku koma di, lämna dörar o pórtar ypy på vid gáfvel.
Kattn gick så in o stängd pórtana fast ett ’se inifrån, o stoppa en limpo, som’n hitta
i slotte, i nykylhole, o så sästist’n sjölf innanför pórtn vänt tärt trolle sku koma heim.
Kattn visst nó han än inga trolle sku tola solen o fundéra bara på ti få trolle drögt utanföri
tärt solen sku stick opp, so sku e nó vá slút mé’n tå.
Alldejlis riktit! Som kattn hadd biräkna så gick e å. Om moron i gråningen så kåm
trollkárn, en ryslit stóran gubb, hejm o sku in fórt, för han hadd vari o försinka se lite
för längi bort: men så va pórtn faststängd o i lås, så än’n blej stá utanföri. Trolle burja
sen sök i fickona sin, om’n sku há ná’n nykyl ti ypn mé. Han lyckast há å, som’n hitta
tislút, men så va nykylhole faststoppa, så än int nykyln gick in, o i bråskon o ífvern sán
ti få ypy o slipp in, so blej’n drögd bara mejr o märkt int sjölf – arg som’n vá – än sólen
just stack se opp o génast som un skejn på’n så to hejla troll-fán o sprack “tvärsåf midtiklyf”,
som Háfri Ville sá tå byxorna sprack, o tär blej’n. (SLS 31, 141: 110–111)
When it became dark, the cat went off to the castle, for he knew that the troll used to
be away at night, but stayed in the castle during the day; ’cause it was, as all trolls tend
to be, afraid of daylight. When the cat came to the castle, it was as he had thought: the
troll was away and had, as it didn’t think it needed to be afraid that someone would
come there, left the doors and gates wide open. The cat went in and closed the gates
behind himself from the inside, and put a loaf he found in the castle in the key hole,
and then he sat himself inside the gate to wait ’till the troll would come home. The cat,
he knew that the troll wouldn’t stand the sun and just pondered getting the troll
detained outside ’till the sun rose, and then it would certainly be finished.
Quite right! Things did turn out as the cat had calculated. In the morning at dawn
the troll man, an awfully large old man, came home and needed to get in fast, fast, as it
had lingered a bit too long; but then the gate was closed and locked, so that it remained
to stand outside. The troll started searching its pockets, if it’d have some key to open
with. It managed to have [one] too that it found eventually, but then the key hole was
blocked, so that the key didn’t go in, and in the hurry and eagerness to open and get inside,
it just lingered more and didn’t notice itself—angry that it was—that the sun just
rose and immediately as it shone on it the whole troll-devil exploded “divided, split in
two”, as Háfri Ville said when his pants split, and there it remained.
Description of the Troll Tradition