The Genre of Trolls - Doria

lev hon så dåligt klädd. När nu prästen fick veta detta, hade han flickan att följa med
sig till trollens boning. Han befallde nu trollen att lämna stället, men då började de
gråta, och frågade, om de skulle få låsa dörren, och taga nycklarna med sig. Då berättas det
att de flögo därifrån som två svarta fåglar. (SLS 338: 21–22)
5) There are many narratives of brownies and trolls. I have heard many old tales about
such [things]. Once it was told that a girl was abducted by the trolls. On Sundays they let
her go to church, but required that she should leave church before the parson had pronounced
“Lord bless us” . She did this, but one Sunday she stayed. Then the enchantment was broken
and she got free. Before, she thought she was dressed as finely as a princess, but suddenly she
was so badly dressed. Now when the parson got to know this, he made the girl follow
him to the dwelling of the trolls. He commanded the trolls to leave the place, but then
they started crying, and asked if they could lock the door and take the keys with them. Then
it is told that they flew away like two black birds.
The girl’s shameful loss of dignity is yet again emphasized, and Elna Källbacka’s
comment captures the situation neatly: “Before, she thought she was
dressed as finely as a princess, but suddenly she was so badly dressed”. The mention
of princess immediately associates the narrative to the wonder tale and
the distinguished apparel so typical for it. Unlike his colleagues, this parson
does not experience any diminution of his status: his faith is unshakable
and the banishment executed with skill and rapidity. The black birds were
also connected to the Devil in the tradition of Vörå. In a tale of The Youth
Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is (AT 326), the king tests the boy by
asking him to sleep overnight in a haunted castle, a proposition he readily
agrees to:
6) han steig åpp å byra ragas på med jevlan ijen. ti slut fikk han tan gammlast jevulin i
tsjellarin. han gammlast vila löst, å åm an sku slipp löst, låva an, at dem sku far tedan
allihåup. påjtsjin sleppt löst an. dem fåur tedan allihåup å va såm svart kårpan. (SLS 37,
74: 159–160)
6) He rose and started brawling with the devils again. Eventually he got the oldest devil
into the cellar. The oldest wanted [to be] released, and if he were released, he promised
that all of them would leave. The boy released him. All of them left and were like
black ravens.
This text also tells of a banishment, performed by a layman in a rather
dauntless fashion. The playful element recurs in the troll texts, but the
targets of ridicule are different; here it is the devils who are subjected to the
disrespectful treatment of the boy, while the parsons are chastised by the
trolls in the other stories (texts 1, 5). This divergence is articulated through
The Sins of an Exorcist 187