The Troll's Daughter () is a Danish folktale from

Svend Grundtvig Svend Hersleb Grundtvig (9 September 1824 – 14 July 1883) was a Danish literary historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first systematic collectors of Danish traditional music, and he was especially interested in Danish folk songs. He ...

's collection (1876), whose English translation was published by

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

in '' The Pink Fairy Book'' (1897).

Textual notes

The Danish original "Troldens datter" is included in

's ''Danske folkeæventyr'' (1876). Evald Tang Kristensen also published a version in 1884, noting that his transcribed text was collected before Gruntvig's publication.

's translation "The Troll's Daughter" occurs in

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

anthology '' The Pink Fairy Book'', though he does not elaborate on his source beyond that it was "from the Danish". Ruth Manning-Sanders included it, as "The Troll's Little Daughter", in '' A Book of Ogres and Trolls''.

Synopsis

A stranger gives an employment to a boy offering him

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an Imperial unit, imperial and United States customary units, US customary unit of volume, based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was used mostly for agriculture, agricultural pr ...

s () of money at the end of each year for

three 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

years, provided he obeyed instructions absolutely. And the boy agrees. The youth's employer turned out to be a

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

who had dominion over the creatures of the great forest (and even kings of men, as it later turns out). The first day, the youth's assignment was to feed the wild animals in the forest, the wolves, bears, deer, and hare, which the troll had tied up. The following day, the troll transformed him into a hare and set him wild to run the year long. Every hunter tried to get him, as the only animal in the forest, but no dog could catch him and no gun shoot him. At the end of the year, the youth returned and earned 1 bushel (''skjæppe''). The youth's assignment was similar the second year. He fed the animals, was transformed into a

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

, evaded hunters for a year, earning 2 bushels as promised. The final year, he was transformed into a fish. Deep in the sea, he found a glass castle () inhabited by a lonely, beautiful maiden. By remembering the

incantation An incantation, spell, charm, enchantment, or bewitchery is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung, or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremonial ri ...

the troll had used, he turned back into human form and befriended her, and during the time spent together he grew into a man who was no longer a lad (). As time drew near for the troll to come collect him, the maiden warned that he would have to revert to fish-form to survive the journey through sea. She revealed herself to be the imprisoned daughter of the troll, and proceeded to describe a detailed plan which the youth must follow in order for them to be reunited as couple: The young man was to enter the service of a king, who was going to lose his head for being unable to repay his debt to the troll. He should offer the king a loan to clear the debt (six bushels of coins which the youth had earned), and in return, insist on accompanying the king as the fool, or royal jester, and purposely break the windows or whatever to draw the troll's ire. Consequently, even when the loan has been discharged, the troll will hold the king responsible for the damages and sentence him to death, unless three questions could be correctly answered. The daughter even predicted the questions, which would be 1) "Where's my daughter ?" and "Do you know her?" (identify her from among all her likenesses), 2) "Where is my heart?" and 3) "Would you know the fish?" (identify the fish that contains his heart). And with that, they would have the means to kill the troll. The youth became the king's stableman (), then all went as the daughter planned, and she was there to indicate which fish contained the troll's heart. The youth cut open the fish, then sliced the heart; the troll fell dead and turned into flint-stones (). This destroyed all the bonds the troll had from the kings in debt to him, and freed all the wild animals. The youth married the maiden. All the kings freed from the troll's debt hailed him as their emperor.

Parallels

When the Danish youth must solve the riddle of discovering the true daughter of the Troll among the fake shadows, she is among the last of the maiden shown to him; likewise in a Russian wonder-tale, Sadko chooses the river nymph Chernava who is the very last of three batches of one hundred maidens shown him by the Sea Tsar. This common motif shared by the two tales was pointed out by

Axel Olrik Axel Olrik (3 July 1864 – 17 February 1917) was a Denmark, Danish folklore, folklorist and scholar of mediaeval historiography, and a pioneer in the methodical study of oral narrative. Olrik was born in Frederiksberg, the son of the artist H ...

. The means of the troll's defeat is reminiscent of the tale type AT 302 "The Ogre's (Devil's) Heart in the Egg", as noted by Carsten Høgh.

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * *

External links