Once upon a time there lived a man in Finnmark who caught a polar bear and took it to Denmark to the royal court. It so happened that Christmas found him on the way. He stopped near Mount Dovre, where there was a single house in which lived a man named Halvor. And so the traveler asked the owner if he and the polar bear could spend the night in the house.
- God forbid! - exclaimed the owner. “We can’t let anyone in for the night, because we ourselves are left without a roof over our heads.” Every year at Christmas, trolls come to our house and celebrate all night, and there are so many of them that we have nowhere to step and have to leave the house ourselves.
- Well, then you can let us spend the night. The bear will lie down under the stove, and I can sleep in the closet,” said the traveler.
And he begged the owner for so long that he finally begged, and he let him spend the night. And the owner and his whole family packed up and left home. But before leaving, they set a rich table, putting out sweet Christmas porridge, fish, various sausages, and everything tasty that should be served to dear guests.
So what do you think? Indeed, trolls came to the house - old, young, and children. Some had long tails, others had shorter ones, and some were even tailless. And many had long, long noses. And they all ate, drank and tried everything that was on the table.
Suddenly one little troll saw a white skin under the stove. And so this troll boy took the sausage, stuck a fork in it and went to the stove to fry the sausage over the fire. Then he leaned over to the bear and asked:
- Kitty, kitty, do you want sausages?
And he puts a hot fork right in the bear’s nose. The bear woke up, jumped up, and howled, and then all the trolls, one after another, rushed out of the house. Everyone ran away - the big-nosed, the tailed, the tailless, the old, the young, and the children.
A year later, poor Halvor, as always before Christmas, went into the forest to chop wood in order to properly heat the stove for the arrival of the trolls. He chops and chops, and suddenly a terrible voice comes from the forest and calls him:
- Halvor! Halvor!" "I'm here,” Halvor replies. A voice asks:
-Where is your big cat?
“At home,” Halvor answers. — It lies under the stove. She lambed and brought six kittens. And they are all already bigger than her and even more evil than her.
- Then we will never come to you again! - shouted the troll.
Since then, the trolls have not eaten the sweet Christmas porridge in Halvor's house in Dovre.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru