On the island of Zealand, in the middle of the Dragsholm forest, there stood a high mountain. There lived an old troll in that mountain, and he struck fear into the entire area. And during the daytime people avoided this place, and at dusk they didn’t set their noses there at all. True, sometimes there was a need for some traveler to pass the troll mountain. Then he spat three times over his shoulder and threw a handful of salt towards the mountain. People say that there is no better remedy for evil spirits than salt. Only she, apparently, does not always help, because the troll killed a lot of people in that forest.
He raged like this for many years, and yet the end came for him. And a peasant boy, the son of a poor widow, defeated him with his intelligence and ingenuity.
Here's how it all turned out.
The guy's name was Kristoffer, and he lived with his mother in a thin house in a forest clearing, not far from Troll Mountain. They lived meagerly, the only wealth they had was that of a skinny little cow, and even that one didn’t have enough food. Day after day, Kristoffer used to cut the grass with a sickle in order to store hay for the cattle for the winter. And in the summer he drove the cow out onto the lawn to graze. But is there a lot of grass on the lawn? The cow nibbles here and there, but her belly is still empty. How many times did Kristoffer try to drive the cow further into the forest to graze, but the widow still wouldn’t let him. She was afraid that the troll would destroy both the guy and the cattle.
Once Kristoffer disobeyed his mother and wandered into the thicket with a cow. “It’s no good my mother is scaring me with a troll,” he thought. “There’s probably no trace of him here.”
He walked like this for an hour, then another - lo and behold, a wide clearing opened up to him, and in the clearing - a high mountain. And the grass here was so thick and juicy that it was nice to look at. The little cow immediately pounced on the grass, and Kristoffer lounged on the lawn and started playing on his horn.
Suddenly the wind blew through the forest, thunder rumbled, the mountain parted - and a troll crawled out of it. And he was so terrible that it’s impossible to say. His hands are like logs, his beard spreads along the ground, his head rests on the clouds. The troll saw Christopher and shouted in a thunderous voice:
-Where did you come from?
But Kristoffer stands neither alive nor dead and cannot utter a word. He took a deep breath and answered the troll:
- And...and...from d...d...home...
-Where is your house?
- N-n-n-a-op-p-p-ear...
- Why did you come here?
- Yes, here... to herd a cow...
The troll heard this and became completely enraged. Hisses, purrs, snorts, stomps his feet, shakes his fists.
- Look what you thought! - he shouts. - Herd a cow in someone else's meadow! Take your cattle and get out of here as quickly as possible! If you get caught again, you'll have to blame yourself. I'll tear you to pieces! I'll throw you behind the clouds!
Kristoffer pulled the cow across the back with a twig, and they both took off running at full speed.
And when the guy returned home, he felt ashamed that the troll had brought such fear to him. And he decided to outwit the troll.
The next morning he got ready to go into the forest again, asked his mother for a piece of cottage cheese and put it in his bosom. And in the forest he found a bird’s nest, grabbed a birdie there and also hid it in his bosom. So he came to the troll mountain, drove the cow to graze, and he lay down on the hill and started playing on the horn.
Suddenly the wind blew through the forest, thunder rumbled, the mountain parted - and a troll crawled out of it. He saw Kristoffer and became completely enraged. Hisses, purrs, snorts, stomps his feet, shakes his fists.
-Are you here again? - shouts. - Well, look at me!
Out of anger, the troll grabbed a block of stone and squeezed it in his fist so much that only a handful of sand was left of it.
“I’ll crush you too if you come here and disturb my sleep!” - he shouts to Kristoffer.
And Kristoffer doesn't even blink an eye.
“You are strong, but you’re still far from me,” he says to the troll. “I’ll squeeze the stone, and there will be only one wet spot left.”
He bent down as if to pick up a stone, and slowly took the cottage cheese out from his bosom and squeezed it with his hand as hard as he could. The whey came out of the cottage cheese.
And the troll shouts again:
“I’ll throw you right behind the clouds, so much so that you won’t even come back to earth!”
The troll grabbed a stone and threw it into the sky! Kristoffer began to count. I counted to one hundred and thirty-two, and then the stone crashed to the ground.
“You’re a good thrower,” Kristoffer says to the troll, “but the stone still fell to the ground!” Now watch me throw.
The guy seemed to bend over for a stone, and he slowly took the bird out of his bosom and threw it up. The birdie soared up into the sky - that was all they saw! But the troll blindly thought it was a stone. He, like all unclean people, saw poorly in daylight. The troll began to count, and Kristoffer laughed:
- Don't bother. Even if you count a century, the stone will not return to the earth.
The troll became thoughtful and blinked his eyes. “Hey,” he decided, “the guy turns out to be stronger than me!” And he says to Kristoffer:
- Let's join me as workers!
- Why not go? says Kristoffer. “If you give me good wages, I won’t refuse.”
“Your payment will be five dalers and food for the cow for the whole winter.”
They shook hands and agreed that Christopher would appear to the troll at sunset. Kristoffer came home and told his mother that he had hired himself as a worker for the troll. The widow clasped her hands and cried:
- What have you done, son! Or you don’t know: whoever gets to the troll will never see the white light and will not return to people!
And Kristoffer just chuckles:
- Nothing, mother! Maybe everything will be okay!
He gathered his things into a bundle, put on a warm fur jacket - his father's only inheritance - and quietly went into the forest. And the troll is already waiting for him.
- Well, tell me, what should I do? - Kristoffer asks him.
- Let's go get some water from the stream. Kirsten will be brewing beer today.
And Kirsten kept house for the troll. And she was so dirty and shaggy that it was scary to look at her. The troll took her as a young girl from her father and mother into his service and imprisoned her forever in his grief. And even though three hundred years had passed since that time, Kirsten remained just as young, because those who live with the trolls do not age a single day.
The troll began to get ready for the water and dragged two huge buckets from the mountain.
“Here are the buckets,” he says to Kristoffer. - You take one, and I will take the other.
And Kristoffer sees that he can’t even lift an empty bucket, let alone one filled with water. He says to the troll:
“Can you get a lot of water in these buckets?” Let's better bring the whole stream home at once!
- And that’s it! - the troll was happy. “I’ll go tell Kirsten.”
He threw the bucket away and ran back to the mountain. And then he came back and said:
“Kirsten didn’t order the whole stream to be dragged.” He says there will be nowhere to put the water.
“But I won’t go for such a little thing!” - Kristoffer answers. “I thought you really had something worthwhile for me!”
He put his hands in his pockets, turned and walked away.
The troll felt ashamed that he didn’t have enough work for Christopher. He took the buckets and trudged to the stream himself. The troll brought water and said to Kristoffer:
- Let's go to the swamp, we need to haul peat for the stove.
They took a wicker basket, and each one could hold five people. Kristoffer barely dragged the empty basket to the swamp. And there are whole mountains of peat. Kristoffer looked at them and said to the troll:
- Why drag such a small thing, wouldn’t it be better to drag the whole swamp at once?
- And that’s true! - the troll was happy. “I’ll run and tell Kirsten.”
Then he returned and said:
“Kirsten didn’t order the whole swamp to be dragged.” She says she has nowhere to put so much peat.
“Well, then I won’t get my hands dirty,” Kristoffer replies. “I thought you really had something worth doing for me.”
And again the troll felt ashamed. He filled two baskets with peat and carried them home himself. And Kristoffer put his hands in his pockets and walks next to him, whistling.
They returned home, and by that time the sun had risen, and the troll had gone to bed. Trolls cannot stand daylight, and when all the good people are working, they sleep.
Meanwhile, Kirsten sat down at the spinning wheel, and Kristoffer sat next to her. He didn’t want to sleep - it didn’t hurt that he had worked too hard today. Here Kirsten is spinning, and her unkempt hair is still falling into the spinning wheel. She runs her hand over her face, and black stripes remain on her cheeks. Kristoffer began to mock her, and Kirsten got angry and said:
- Why are you showing all your teeth? I was glad to see you. I thought there would be someone to exchange a word with. After all, there hasn’t been a single human soul here for three hundred years.
“You should wash your face and comb your hair,” Kristoffer answers her. “If only I wouldn’t mock you.”
And then Kirsten told him that the troll had been wooing her for a long time, and she told him that she would not give consent until she washed her face and combed her hair. So now she walks around unkempt and grimy, just to avoid marrying a troll.
“Well, then you’ll have to be patient until I’m done with him,” said Kristoffer.
In the evening the troll woke up and told Kristoffer to go with him into the forest to collect firewood.
- Where are the axes? - asks the guy.
“We don’t need axes,” the troll answers, “I pull trees right out of the ground by the roots.”
“And that’s right, it’s better that way,” says Kristoffer.
They came to the forest and began to choose trees. They see a huge tree standing, its trunk three times around.
“This will do,” says the troll. And Kristoffer laughs:
- A kind of splinter? Well, no, choose, choose. They went further through the forest and saw another tree.
And its trunk is such that even six people cannot grasp it. Kristoffer pointed at him: “We’ll take this.”
“You, master, drag from below, and I will help you from above,” he says to the troll.
The troll was happy. “Here,” he thinks, “that’s great! We’ll pull from both ends at once. How come I didn’t think of this before?”
Kristoffer climbed to the very top of his head, sat down comfortably on a branch and began to look at the stars in the sky. And the troll below grunts and grunts, sniffles and sniffles, and cannot pull out the tree. Kristoffer just shouts at him:
- Well, more fun, more fun, master! Or is there not enough strength?
The troll drawls, purrs, snorts. The tree already creaks and sways, but does not fall.
Kristoffer provokes the troll again:
- Push up, master! Things are looking up!
The troll got angry, spat on his paws, tried it on, and then exploded! The tree fell to the ground. Kristoffer barely managed to jump off him.
- Well, master, which end will you carry it from? - he asks the troll. “Will you take the roots or the top?”
- Uff! - the troll puffs. - Wait! Let me at least catch my breath a little first!
And Kristoffer is surprised:
- Look, I’m not even a bit tired!
The troll is sitting on a fallen tree, unable to catch his breath. Then he caught his breath and said:
“I’ll take the roots, and you’ll take the top.” It seemed to him that it would be easier this way.
And Kristoffer ran from the other side, hid behind the leaves, sat on a branch and shouted:
- Hey! Got it, master! Let's get it!
The troll dragged the entire tree. He purrs, puffs, and is exhausted.
And Kristoffer shouts to himself:
- Have fun, master! Otherwise we won’t make it until daylight!
“What a guy!” the troll marvels. “And where does he have so much strength?” In the end, the troll could not stand it and begged:
- Let’s take a little rest!
“As you know, master,” Kristoffer replies. “For me, it would be possible to do without rest at all.”
The troll is resting and keeps looking at the worker. And he sits there doing fine, as if he hadn’t worked at all. And the troll harbored a fierce grudge against him. They do not like the unclean if someone is stronger than them. A little later they got ready to move on.
“Now I’ll pull you by the top of your head,” says the troll. “It seemed easier for you.”
And Kristoffer ran from the other side, hid behind the butt, sat down on a branch and began whistling a song. And again the troll dragged the whole tree himself. He drags, strains, stumbles at every step. It was with great effort that he reached his mountain.
- What a job! - the troll pant.
And Kristoffer answers:
- Well, work is like work. Just right for healthy guys like you and me.
- And all my bones ache so much. I'm afraid I've overstrained myself.
The troll fell onto the bed and fell asleep like the dead.
The troll slept for many days and nights, while Kristoffer talked with Kirsten and helped her with her work.
Finally the troll woke up, crawled out of the mountain, and held a golden club in his hand.
“Let’s have some fun,” he says to Kristoffer, “let’s throw this club up in the air - who’s higher?”
“Go ahead,” Kristoffer agreed. -Don’t you feel sorry for your club?
- How so? - the troll is surprised.
- Or have you forgotten how I throw? I’ll launch her into the sky - and remember her name!
The troll even opened his mouth in fright. It never even occurred to him! He grabbed his club and quickly dragged it into the cave. And Kristoffer is happy about it. After all, he can’t even lift the troll’s left club, let alone throw it into the sky!
A little later the troll called Kristoffer into the forest to collect nuts. They put each basket on their back, went into the forest and climbed into the dense hazel grove. Then Kristoffer noticed a dry stream not far from the hazel tree, and at the bottom it was full of pebbles the size of walnuts.
“Let’s race to collect,” he says to the troll.
- OK! - the troll agreed.
They got down to business. The troll prowls through the bushes, collecting nuts. And Kristoffer picked up a basket full of pebbles, covered the top with nuts - and that’s it!
The troll was amazed that Kristoffer got the job done so quickly. He lowered his basket to the ground and stood there, wiping away the sweat with his paw.
- Look, master, what a strange bird! - Kristoffer shouts.
- Where, where? — the troll began to turn his head in all directions to see the bird, and in the meantime Kristoffer replaced the baskets. He took it for himself with nuts, and slipped mine with stones to the troll.
The troll looked and looked around, and then said:
- I don’t see any bird.
- She flew away a long time ago! - Christopher answers. - Well, okay, let her. Let's better crack some nuts.
“Go ahead,” the troll agreed.
They sat down on a hillock, placed the baskets in front of them, picked up a handful of nuts and began to click. Kristoffer spits out the shells and crunches the kernels. And the troll broke off all his teeth - he couldn’t crack the nut.
- Nothing, master! - Kristoffer consoles. — The harder the shell, the sweeter the nut.
The troll gnawed on the pebbles, gnawed, and in the end he got angry and kicked the basket! So all the nuts scattered on the ground.
- I don’t need this rubbish! - shouted the troll. - Get some sleep too!
Kristoffer shook the nuts out of the basket onto the ground, and they had to go home empty-handed.
Only from these stone nuts did the troll’s teeth hurt, so much so that he could not see the white light. The troll howled and whined:
- Oh-oh-oh, how painful it is! Do you know, Kristoffer, any remedies for toothache?
“I know,” Kristoffer answers. - But this remedy is not for the weak.
The troll got cold feet. If Kristoffer himself says so, then he, the troll, will certainly not be able to endure this treatment. The worker is much stronger than him! Now the troll has realized this!
Only the pain did not subside. The troll became completely unbearable and had to agree to treatment. Then Kristoffer brought him to the hearth and said:
- Take some water into your mouth, put your head in the fire and hold it until the water boils.
The troll stuck his face into the fireplace and scorched all the fur. He strengthened himself, strengthened himself, and then howled! And Kristoffer pretended to be a simpleton.
- Don’t you feel any better? - he asks the troll.
“My teeth felt better, but I burned my whole face!” - shouts the troll.
“I told you that this remedy is not for the weak,” Kristoffer answers.
This treatment did not do the troll any good. He became even more ill and went to bed.
He lay there for many days and all this time he thought about how he could kill Kristoffer from the world. And he decided to use cunning to kill him. He no longer relied on his own strength! He talked about this matter with Kirsten and told her that he wanted to kill the worker when he was sleeping. And Kirsten called Kristoffer aside and said:
- Be careful! The troll wants to cut your head off, sleepy one. Kristoffer just laughed in response:
- Well, let him try!
He took a clay pot, put his red nightcap on it, put it on the pillow and covered it half with a blanket. Let the troll think that this is his head. And he hid under the bed and snored loudly, as if he was sleeping. The troll waited for the time, quietly took the ax, crept to the bed and grabbed the pot with the butt! The pot broke into small shards. The troll purred with joy and crawled into his lair. Only at sunset does Kristoff come to him and say:
- Well, master, what kind of work will you assign me?
The troll's eyes bulged and his mouth opened. And Kristoffer yawns loudly and stretches:
“I didn’t sleep well today.” Some rubbish fell on my head. Or maybe I dreamed it?
From then on, the troll lost all hope. He realized that there was nothing he could do to get past this guy. The troll was deprived of sleep and peace, and kept thinking about how he could defeat the worker. Meanwhile, Kristoffer was sleeping soundly, eating to his heart's content, and kicking ass.
And then one day the troll says to the maid:
“I decided, Kirsten, to feed our worker to death so that his belly would burst.” You just need to find out from him what food he likes most.
And Kirsten ran to Kristoffer and said:
- The troll wants you to eat yourself to death. If he asks you what food you like best, you say porridge with milk. He himself loves her madly, so maybe he’ll burst from gluttony sooner.
A day later the troll says to Kristoffer:
- I decided, brother, to throw a feast like a mountain. I'll treat you to glory! What food do you like best?
“Porridge with milk,” says Kristoffer.
- Hee-hee-hee! “Well, I love her more than anything in the world!” the troll squealed. “We’ll enjoy ourselves today. How much can you eat?”
“I can overcome two cauldrons,” says Kristoffer.
Although the troll never ate more than one cauldron of porridge at a time, he decided to keep up with Kristoffer and ordered Kirsten to cook four cauldrons of porridge.
“Just make sure the porridge isn’t crumbly,” he said. “Hard grains make your belly swell, and maybe the worker will burst sooner.”
Kristoffer found a huge bag, tied it in front, and threw his father’s jacket on top so that it would not be visible. He came to the troll, and the troll was waiting for him at the pot of porridge. The troll saw that Kristoffer was wearing a new jacket and grinned. He thought that he had dressed himself up like that for the sake of a treat; therefore wants to respect the owner.
They sat down by the cauldron. The troll is on one side, and Kristoffer is on the other - so that only his head sticks out above the cauldron. The troll eats the porridge until his ears crack, but Kristoffer doesn’t bring the spoon to his mouth and unnoticedly throws the porridge into the bag.
- Well, is the porridge good? - asks the troll.
“It’s good, it’s good, but it’s not enough.” I would like another boiler or two. Otherwise you’ll just spoil your teeth.
The troll was afraid that Kristoffer would gobble it all up by himself, and he leaned even harder on the porridge. And that’s all Kristoffer needs. A little later the troll fell away from the cauldron and threw the spoon.
- Phew, well, I'm full!
- Eh, no! That's no good! - says Kristoffer. - I’m not full yet, so you, owner, support the company.
They started eating the porridge again and ate until the spoons reached the bottom. Suddenly the troll grabbed his belly and screamed in a voice that was not his own:
- Oh-oh, I can’t take it anymore! I ate myself to death! I'm about to burst!
“And, to tell the truth, I’m fed up,” says Kristoffer. “But no one can feed me.” I know the remedy.
- What remedy? - the troll wheezes. - Speak quickly! I feel my death is near!
Kristoffer took a knife, cut the bag in the middle, and all the porridge fell out of it.
- Do you see? I cut my belly... Do the same, and then eat as much as your heart desires.
The troll shook with fear. Where have you seen this, to rip open your own belly?
And Kristoffer encourages him:
- Well, be brave, master! By God, it doesn't hurt at all!
But it will become so easy right away! - He handed the troll a knife; and says: “Just try it, master.” I count to three: one, two, three!
And as soon as Kristoffer counted to three, the troll stabbed himself in the belly with a knife and cut it from top to bottom. He roared so loudly that the mountains around him trembled, he fell, and the spirit was gone from him. And Kristoffer shouted:
- Hey, Kirsten! Get here quickly! Your groom has died! Now you can wash yourself and comb your hair.
They fetched water and heated it on the fireplace. And then Kristoffer rolled up his sleeves and began to wash Kirsten. He rubbed and scrubbed it for three days and three nights. And then he wrapped Kirsten in ten blankets so that she wouldn’t catch a cold out of habit and put her on the bed to rest. At first, Kirsten shivered from the cold, and then little by little she moved away and warmed up. She got up, put on her beautiful dress that she had brought from her father and mother, and became so beautiful and beautiful that Kristoff could not take his eyes off her.
They collected all the gold, silver and precious stones that the troll kept and left the mountain. The mountain closed behind us, and the entrance to it immediately closed, as if it had never been there.
They walked, walked through the forest and came to the house where Kristoffer’s mother lived. They looked - and the house had already fallen apart and was overgrown with grass, and there was not a single living soul in it. After all, Kristoffer imagined that he had only served the trolls for a month, but in fact, a whole fifty years had passed. The trolls keep a completely different account of time. None of Kristoffer’s relatives and fellow countrymen were left alive either. Kristoffer married Kirsten, they bought a manor and lived happily until their death.
And in the troll kingdom such a rumor spread: the hero Kristoffer has appeared among the people, and not a single troll can control him. The trolls were seized with fierce fear, and all the troll evil spirits fled from those places where they could see.
And from that time on, people could walk into the Dragsholm Forest both day and night without fear.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru