The Mythology of Fairies. Thomas Keightley

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      DWARFS OR TROLLS

       Table of Contents

      Ther bygde folk i the bärg,

       Quinnor och män, för mycken duerf.

       Hist. Alex. Mac. Suedice.

      Within the hills folk did won,

       Women and men, dwarfs many a one.

      The more usual appellation of the Dwarfs is Troll or Trold,150 a word originally significant of any evil spirit,151 giant monster, magician,152 or evil person; but now in a good measure divested of its ill senses, for the Trolls are not in general regarded as noxious or malignant beings.

      The Trolls are represented as dwelling inside of hills, mounds, and hillocks—whence they are also called Hill-people (Bjergfolk)—sometimes in single families, sometimes in societies. In the ballads they are described as having kings over them, but never so in the popular legend. Their character seems gradually to have sunk down to the level of the peasantry, in proportion as the belief in them was consigned to the same class. They are regarded as extremely rich for when, on great occasions of festivity, they have their hills raised up on red pillars, people that have chanced to be passing by have seen them shoving large chests full of money to and fro, and opening and clapping down the lids of them. Their hill-dwellings are very magnificent inside. "They live," said one of Mr. Arndt's guides, "in fine houses of gold and crystal. My father saw them once in the night, when the hill was open on St. John's night. They were dancing and drinking, and it seemed to him as if they were making signs to him to go to them, but his horse snorted, and carried him away, whether he would or no. There is a great number of them in the Guldberg (Goldhill), and they have brought into it all the gold and silver that people buried in the great Russian war."153

      They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse with mankind. But they have a sad propensity to thieving, not only stealing provisions, but even women and children.

      They marry, have children, bake and brew, just as the peasant himself does. A farmer one day met a hill-man and his wife, and a whole squad of stumpy little children, in his fields;154 and people used often to see the children of the man who lived in the hill of Kund, in Jutland, climbing up the hill, and rolling down after one another, with shouts of laughter.

      The Trolls have a great dislike to noise, probably from a recollection of the time when Thor used to be flinging his hammer after them; so that the hanging of bells in the churches has driven them almost all out of the country. The people of Ebeltoft were once sadly plagued by them, as they plundered their pantries in a most unconscionable manner; so they consulted a very wise and pious man; and his advice was, that they should hang a bell in the steeple of the church. They did so, and they were soon eased of the Trolls.155

      These beings have some very extraordinary and useful properties; they can, for instance, go about invisibly,156 or turn themselves into any shape; they can foresee future events; they can confer prosperity, or the contrary, on a family; they can bestow bodily strength on any one; and, in short, perform numerous feats beyond the power of man.

      Of personal beauty they have not much to boast: the Ebeltoft Dwarfs, mentioned above, were often seen, and they had immoderate humps on their backs, and long crooked noses. They were dressed in gray jackets,157 and they wore pointed red caps. Old people in Zealand say, that when the Trolls were in the country, they used to go from their hill to the village of Gudmandstrup through the Stone-meadow, and that people, when passing that way, used to meet great tall men in long black clothes. Some have foolishly spoken to them, and wished them good evening, but they never got any other answer than that the Trolls hurried past them, saying, Mi! mi! mi! mi!

      Thanks to the industry of Mr. Thiele, who has been indefatigable in collecting the traditions of his native country, we are furnished with ample accounts of the Trolls; and the following legends will fully illustrate what we have written concerning them.158

      We commence with the Swedish ballads of the Hill-kings, as in dignity and antiquity they take precedence of the legends.

      Sir Thynne.

      And it was the knight Sir Thynnè,

       He was a knight so grave;

       Whether he were on foot or on horse,

       He was a knight so brave.159

      And it was the knight Sir Thynnè

       Went the hart and the hind to shoot,

       So he saw Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,

       At the green linden's foot.

      And it was Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,

       Unto her handmaid she cried,

       "Go fetch my gold harp hither to me,

       Sir Thynnè I'll draw to my side."

      The first stroke on her gold harp she struck,

       So sweetly she made it ring,

       The wild beasts in the wood and field

       They forgot whither they would spring.

      The next stroke on her gold harp she struck,

       So sweetly she made it ring,

       The little gray hawk that sat on the bough,

       He spread out both his wings.

      The third stroke on her gold harp she struck,

       So sweetly she made it ring,

       The little fish that went in the stream,

       He forgot whither he would swim.

      Then flowered the mead, then leafed all,

       'Twas caused by the runic lay;160 Sir Thynnè he struck his spurs in his horse, He no longer could hold him away.

      And it was the knight Sir Thynnè,

       From his horse he springs hastily,

       So goeth he to Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter,

       All under the green linden tree.

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