The Genre of Trolls - Doria

y 1868 at the latest. However, this does not imply that the clergy necessarily
resisted this reform; some were dedicated advocates of it. Preparations
for the introduction of municipal administration were made in Vörå
in 1867, when crop failure and starvation necessitated the reform. Municipal
administration was linked to raised taxes for persons with high incomes,
and the parish councils resisted taking immediate action for implementing
the law, but the crisis and the costs of poor relief quickened the
pace (Nykvist 1979a: 219–221; Åkerblom 1963: 191–194).
As for other religious writings, a variety of authors and works are reported
to have been read in the parish of Vörå. Ingvar Dahlbacka has compiled
a table on the devotional literature in use in Swedish Ostrobothnia in the
19th century, based on interviews conducted by Tor Krook and a questionnaire
prepared by W. A. Schmidt for the Archive of Church History at
Åbo Akademi University. The exposition of the catechism published by
Svebilius has already been mentioned, as well as Sions sånger and Sionsharpan.
In addition to these, the parishioners cherished Martin Luther’s
works; Johann Arndt’s Fyra Anderika Böcker om En Sann Christendom (Vier
Bücher von Wahren Christentum) and Paradisets lustgård (Paradies-Gärtlein);
Anders Nohrborg’s Den Fallna Menniskans Salighets-Ordning (‘The Order
of Salvation of Fallen Man’); Anders Björkqvist’s Trones öfning till Saligheten
(‘Faith’s Exercise toward Salvation’); Kosteliga Honungsdroppar… (A
Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ: or a Word of Advice to all Saints
and Sinners) by John Wilcox; Nådens ordning (Evangelische Gnadenordnung)
by David Hollatz; En ropandes röst i öknen (‘A Voice Crying in the Desert’)
by Petter Topp; the sermons of Lorens Christoffer Retzius and Lars
Linderoth; and the works of John Bunyan and Johann Jacob Rambach
(Dahlbacka 1987: 286–287). All of these are included in Osmo Tiililä’s thorough
investigation of the devotional literature of the Pietists in Finland,
even though some of the writers do not belong to this specific revivalist
tradition. Hence the works read in Vörå fit into a larger Finnish and European
context.
One problem in discussing the individual reading of religious literature is
of course whether people actually understood what they were reading.
Some form of basic literacy had been fairly common since the mid-18th
century, but the emphasis was mostly on memorization and on reading well
in a more mechanical sense, not on interpretation of the text read (Näsman
1979: 45; Nykvist 1979b: 309; cf. Wolf-Knuts 1991: 44). Two comments may
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