The Genre of Trolls - Doria

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svar éli se dem. tå an ha gai in pa dagar, så råka an mámseldren ijénn tå bad an dem, he
dem sku vis an på véjin. tem sa tå: “du sku int ha vári ílak, så sku du int ha bihöva va
jär. men tå du béder nu, så ska du slipp jan, å så fösvánn dem, å påjtsjin va bára fast i
lánnsvéjin. (SLS 22: 16–17)
7) Another boy met two fine damsels there on the road [by the Great Hill]. When he
had passed them, he picked up a stone and threw it after them. The damsels were then
angry with him and made sure he didn’t find a way home or know in which direction it
was. He went into the forest, but couldn’t find his way back, for he was taken by the
forest. He heard cart wheels and the people calling for him; but he wasn’t able to respond
or see them. After he had walked a couple of days, he met the damsels again.
Then he asked them to show him to the road. Therefore they said: “you shouldn’t have
been naughty, then you wouldn’t have had to be here, but since you’re asking now, you’ll
get out of here[”], and they disappeared, and the boy was just stuck on the main road.
The more ominous aspects of the fine damsels are beginning to emerge.
Johan Alén was able to tap the multifarious meanings ascribed to the image
of the fine damsel and use it in the verbal construction of his heroine. By
insistently refusing to openly address the issue of connotation in his narrative,
there is a permanent oscillation between the positive and the negative
associations of the troll bride; this fundamental ambivalence is perpetuated
beyond the boundaries of the text. The climax of indeterminacy in regard
to the heroine’s looks arrives after the divulgence of her true nature. A
power intermittently utilized by trolls is namely the art of illusion, or possibly
shape-changing, and the implications of that capacity are explored in
the following account from Vörå (cf. chapter 7):
8) He va’ ejngang in pojk, som in bjergtrullflikku vila by’ frí til. Injin så in, iutom pojtsjin.
Han briuka gá et’ vejin o spasjär me’ in o tala’ ejtt o anna. Hun sá he ’an int’ sku’
tal’ om va’ dem braska me’ varáder. Sliutligen byra’ un kom tíd, tär ’an båodd’, men injin,
iutom han så’ ’in. He va leng’ förrän han upptekt’ he ’un vila jift se’ me’ an. Sidan
tala’ an om vem an umjigs me’ o sá: “int sír ni ’in men to ja’ rör handin me’ sídun, so
ska’ ni vit’ he ’un je’ tär. Ja’ får int’ sej; fy’ to fysvinder ’un.” Når un sidan kom e kveld,
so röld pojtsjin handin me’ sídun, o to vist’ dem, he ’un va’ tär. To pojtsjin jåol’ he, so
fata’ hosbundin, som va’ pojtsjis fár eldbrandin iur spísin o slåo til, tär pojtsjin vist …
vann un ståo, o slåo lårbejne óv ’in. To vast ’un synli, ’o he va’ én gambel mensk. (R II 70)
8) Once upon a time there was a boy whom a hill troll girl wanted to start wooing. Nobody
saw her except the boy. He used to walk along the road and stroll with her and
talk of one thing or another. She said he shouldn’t mention what they were chatting
about among themselves. Eventually she started coming to where he lived, but nobody
saw her except him. It was long before he discovered she wanted to marry him. Then
he mentioned whom he was seeing and said: “you won’t see her, but when I move my
Genre, Parody, Chronotopes and Novelization: the Wonder Tales of Johan Alén