The Genre of Trolls - Doria

in his hand as a staff. As yet again some time had passed, the king started to go around
fidgeting and being sorrowful. This time too Little Matt asked what was the matter
with him. The king answered him that two princesses had disappeared, and they didn’t
know where they had gone. Then Little Matt thought he would go looking for them.
The king let him go. When he departed, he walked through forests and the wilds, but
was without food, for he thought he’d soon find them. When he had wandered through
forests and the wilderness, he came to a marsh, where an old man was sitting and fishing
in a boat by the shore. “Do you want to come and wrestle with me?”, the old man
asked. “Yes, I’ll come”, Little Matt said, and they fought, but Little Matt won. They
were then reconciled and agreed to accompany each other. The old man followed him,
and they started roaming together. Already on the very same day, while they were strolling,
they met an old man who was ploughing by himself in the woods. He asked them
if they didn’t want to plough with him. They thought it made no difference and started
ploughing with him. For each day they ploughed six square miles. When they got
hungry they made the old man, who was sitting and fishing, cook. He then went to the
forest and came back with an ox which he put in the pot. While he was cooking an old
man came and wanted to have a taste and complained he was very hungry. The old
man thus removed a piece of leg and gave him to taste. As he got to taste he ate all that
was in the pot and went his way. The second day, when they once again ploughed six
square miles, the old man who was the head of the household went to cook. He also
went into the forest for an ox which he slaughtered and put in the pot and started cooking.
As he was cooking an old man came in and wanted to have a taste. The one who
was cooking wouldn’t have given him a taste, but he complained he was terribly hungry.
When he got to taste, he ate all that was in the pot and ran away. The third day,
when they once more had ploughed six square miles and started feeling hungry, Little
Matt went to cook. First he went into the forest for an ox which he slaughtered and
put in the pot. As he was occupied with cooking, an old man came in and begged to
get a taste of what he had cooked. Little Matt didn’t want to give, but when that old
man grumbled and complained he was hungry, he removed a piece of leg and gave him
to taste. When he was to taste, he ate all that was in the pot. As Little Matt saw that
he was angry, and they started wrestling, but Little Matt, he won and the old man
rushed out and ran into the woods, and Little Matt behind him and the other old men
as well. When they came to a burning mound, and the old man ran past it and Little
Matt after, then he fell into it, it just said “splash” once, and there were those princesses
that he was looking for. Those two other men then let down a basket, so that he hauled
those princesses up, but when they had hauled them up, they filled the hole and Little
Matt was left alone there. He tried working himself upward, but he couldn’t manage it.
As he didn’t get up, he went to that ploughed field for the iron bar so that he would be
able to work himself upward. When he had worked himself up, he took away those
princesses and went home with them. As he got home, he was married to the eldest
and after the king’s death [he] ruled in his city and [in his] stead, and ruled for seven
hundred years after his death.
Here entextualization is effected through the use of special formulae, a key
to performance (Bauman 1984: 21): Once introduces the performance, he
Genre 229