The Genre of Trolls - Doria

story itself speaks of imbibing the soul water. The utilization of the remains
of the dead in both harmful and beneficent magic is reported in many records,
but they are usually employed to ensure hunting or fishing luck, to
cure diseases, or to cause people or cattle harm (cf. Finlands 1931: 57–60).
As a manner of achieving second sight it is a parallel to other supernatural
methods current in the popular explanations of how wise men and women
procured their knowledge (see Tillhagen 1977: 56–63). Structurally, it exhibits
the following sequence:
The everyday world – Consumption of the soul water – Second sight – Death – ?
This is a complicated text, containing many mysteries. The final stage for
example can only be represented by a question mark; a deprivation of second
sight is unlikely in light of the introduction, which specifies that the
potency of the soul water is dependent on its collection at the moment of
death, the instant when the sight of the everyday world is transformed into
the vision of the afterlife. The poor man would not lose his second sight,
but he would relinquish his normal vision. Hence he would have to grapple
with only one form of sight.
The position of mediator between the living and the dead is depicted as
a fairly prized one in the paratexte, but in the narrative it evolves into a
curse. Examining the world the man is cast into, it is an existence of
doubleness and superimposition he is not prepared to handle. The gift of
foresight demands a strong psyche in the encounter with the otherworld,
and the piety required of the seer or seeress functions as a safeguard for his
or her mental health, quite in line with the words of hymn 116, written by
Martin Luther, in the Finland-Swedish hymnal of 1886:
15) Wår Gud är oss en wäldig borg,
Han är wår sköld och wärja,
Han hjelper oss af nöd och sorg,
Som wilja oss besnärja.
Nu mörkrets furste wred
Han will oss trampa ned;
Stor magt och mycken list
Hans rustning är för wisst:
På jord ej fins hans like.
A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper sure amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing:
for still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
with power and malice great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth he has no equal.
Blindness and Illumination 161