The Genre of Trolls - Doria

ance to the dwelling of the troll. Some who have passed the place in the dark have seen the
door open and the hill shining within with light and riches. For some the dwelling of the troll
has seemed like a shop with costly items stacked on the shelves.
Despite the fact that the formulations are obviously Tegengren’s own, his
interpretation is valid. Some records from the parish of Vörå do exhibit
such a “mercantile” conception of the supranormal realm; there is a definite
showroom quality to several of the otherworldly domains portrayed in my
material. The resplendent chambers of the troll bride are therefore firmly
rooted in tradition, as is the appearance of the lady herself, which is attested
by a number of collected texts. During one of his field trips, Jakob
Edvard Wefvar was informed of the locals’ encounters with three female
supernatural beings living in a hill nearby:
6) På Kondivor bjerg (Kondivorberg är beläget 2 (?) ryska verst … från Jörala by i Vörå)
så’ ejngang in kvinnu, to ’un sökt et’ kåonan trí mamselder sit’ övast på bjergspitsin o
sjung. He dé va’ midt i nattin, o sku’ ha’ stjédd’ fy’ na sjiuti’ år sidan. In ádrun gang so
mött’ folk i Jöral’ iutanfy’ in bundgål, Nikul kallad, trí mamselder. To ’an fréga’ åt dem,
’vadan dem va’ hejm, so svara’ dem: “från Kondivor bjerg.” (R II 204)
6) On the hill of Kondivor (the hill of Kondivor lies 2 Russian versts … from the village
of Jörala in Vörå) a woman once saw three damsels sitting on the top of the rock singing,
while she was looking for the cows. That was in the middle of the night, and is reputed
to have occurred some 70 years ago. Another time folk met three damsels in Jöral outside
a farmhouse called Nikul. When he asked them where they came from, they answered:
“From the hill of Kondivor.”
Here the women are merely called damsels (mamseller), but that is sufficient
to pin-point their origin—it should be noted that mamsell also implies social
distinction: urban bourgeois women were addressed in this manner.
Similarly, the Devil was sometimes called lord (Wolf-Knuts 1992: 113), as
were his underlings (SLS 28, 19: 88). The encounter is also peaceful: the
humans have glimpsed the denizens of the otherworld at a favourable moment.
All have not been so lucky, but it is sometimes their own fault. One
who has only himself to blame for stirring up their wrath is the boy in the
next narrative (cf. chapter 4.1):
7) in ánnan påjk råka två gránna mámselder tär på vejin [vid Isomäkiberget]. tå an ha gá
åm dem, så tåu an åpp in stein å kasta bákett dem. mámseldran vart tå föárga på an å
lága, så an int hitta heim élu vita vart åt e var an jikk in i skåujin, men hitta int ut tíbak,
fö an va skåuks taji. an hört kérrjuli å fåltsji, såm råupa ett an; men an va int stånd til
Parody 237