The Genre of Trolls - Doria

ather the other way around; on this point the Biblical and folklore texts
agree. In the version supplied by St. Matthew, unbelief emerges as the
dominant theme:
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3) Då gingo Lärjungarne til Jesum afsides, och sade: hwi kunde icke wi drifwa honom ut?
Jesus sade till dem: För eder otros skull. Sannerliga säger jag eder: Om I hafwen trona
som et senapskorn, så mågen I säga til detta berget: Gack hädan dit bort, och det skall
gå; och eder warder intet omöjeligit. Men detta slaget går inte ut, utan med bön och
fasto. (Matt. 17: 19–21)
3) Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to
yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
(Matthew 17: 19–21)
The intertextual relations between the folk narrative (text 1) and the two
Gospel texts (texts 2–3)—relationships established thematically as well as
through the Christian religious sphere invoked by all of them—create a
foundation for an implicit critique of clergymen. Less charitable opinions
of the moral principles and religious fervour of clerics are certainly compatible
with the mixed feelings concerning parsons and clerks current among
the parishioners of Vörå. The Devil himself appeared in a parson’s form
and “lords”, the group to which clerics belonged, were not always held in
very high regard (Wolf-Knuts 1991: 132; Wolf-Knuts 1992: 113; for the anticlerical
aspects of these texts, see chapter 5.2). Without actually naming
unbelief as the cause of the parson’s somewhat disgraceful failing, the text
resonates with the grave implications of the Biblical intertext, and points to
the possibility of such an interpretation. If the audience of the narrative
linked it to its Biblical counterparts, the intertextual connection most in
line with the folk story would be those Gospel texts describing failed expulsions.
This connection made, the listeners might also recall the reason
for the failure of the exorcism, the lack of faith, and transpose it to the folklore
text. Clergymen were accused of many things in folklore: trickery,
greed, fornication and adultery, theft, uncouth manners and stupidity (Finlands
1920: 207–210, 236–277), but they were seldom explicitly denounced as
godless. It might have been sensitive to openly level this accusation at
them, or the collectors may not have gained access to this kind of folklore.
Intertextuality as Social Critique