Once upon a time, in the town of Vog, in the Gudbran Valley, there lived a poor man with his wife. They had so many children that there was not enough stew and porridge for everyone. Therefore, the eldest two boys often had to wander from village to village to earn money or beg for a piece of bread.
So, traveling with a bag on their shoulders, the boys learned all the mountain paths and forest paths.
One day they were about to go to Hedal Forest.
They heard that bird catchers, falcon hunters, had built a hut there, not far from the town of Mel. The boys wanted to look at the birds and, if possible, find out how they were lured and caught.
The brothers knew the shortest route to Hedal.
They turned off the road and went straight through the forest.
It was late autumn, when the forests and mountains become deserted.
The girls who graze cattle in the mountain pastures in the summer are already at home at this time, warming themselves in front of the stove, spinning wool freshly taken from the sheep, and embroidering their trousseau, while their shepherd’s huts in the mountains stand empty and boarded up.
So the boys had nowhere to eat or rest on the way.
The autumn day is short. The barely trodden path was barely visible, and soon the boys completely lost it.
While they were looking for a path, it began to get dark. The bird catchers' hut was nowhere to be seen. The boys were alone in the dense thicket of the Hedal Forest. And the darkness all around thickened more and more.
Night has fallen.
The boys thought and thought and decided that there was no way they could get out of here before dawn. We have to spend the night in the forest. They collected a whole bunch of brushwood and pine cones and made a fire. Then, with a small hatchet, which was in the elder brother’s belt, they chopped up fir branches and made a hut from them. They made their bed out of heather and soft moss, since there was more than enough of both around.
After that, they lay down closer to each other to make it warmer, and immediately fell asleep, because they were pretty tired during the day. It is not known how long they slept, an hour or two, but suddenly they woke up at once, as if someone had woken them up. The tall pines above their heads bent and made noise as if during a storm. And above the tops of the pines something was heavily puffing, snoring, snorting...
Who is this - some huge scary beast or, even worse, a forest spirit, a troll?
The boys froze.
At this time, somewhere above the pines there was a crash, as if thunder had rolled across the sky, and a voice, creaky, like damp wood, said:
- Smells like a man!
Then the ground seemed to tremble and someone’s steps were heard.
The steps were so heavy that the stones split from them, and the ship's pines trembled from top to root.
- Trolls! - the older boy said to the younger one.
- Oh, I'm afraid!.. What should we do? - said the younger one.
“Stand here under the pine tree,” said the elder, “and as soon as the trolls come here, grab our bags and run away as fast as you can.” And I'll take the ax and stay here. Maybe we won't get lost.
Before he could say this, the old trees near them parted like small bushes, and trolls appeared.
They were huge - taller than the tallest pines - and they walked closely behind each other, placing their hands on each other's shoulders.
There were three of them, but they only had one eye. All three of them had one single eye, and they took turns inserting it into the eye socket, which was on each of their foreheads.
Now a round eye, as bright as the moon, shone in the forehead of the front troll. He was the guide, and the other two followed him.
- Run! - the older brother whispered to the younger one. - But not too far. Hide over there in the windfall and watch me deal with them. They look from above, and with one more eye. Where can they see what is happening under their feet!..
The younger one started to run, and the trolls followed him.
Then the older boy jumped out from behind the trees and, swinging with all his might, hit the heel of the troll who was walking behind with his hatchet. The troll actually roared in pain. He screamed in such a terrible voice that the guide even shuddered and dropped his only precious eye from the eye socket.
The boy deftly caught it on the fly and was away.
The eye was the size of a clay pot and as bright as a full moon. The boy looked through it and saw everything around him clearly: every heather bush, every pine cone, every pebble on the ground. It was as if it was not a black night, but a white day.
And the trolls stood, afraid to move, frightened, blind, and could not understand what had happened to them. Finally they realized that someone had stolen their only eye.
They began to growl, curse, rummage among the pines and spruces with long, gnarled fingers, but they could not catch the boy.
“I’m not afraid of you, trolls,” he shouted boldly. “I’m the only one who now has three eyes, and the three of you have none.” And I also have an axe. Before you catch me, I will chop you into pieces with my ax like dry wood.
- Watch out, boy! - the trolls shouted. “Give us our eye, otherwise we will turn you into stone or a stump.”
“Well,” said the boy, “this is your witchcraft business.” But still you will never get your eye again.
The trolls fell silent - they realized that they could not intimidate this boy with any threats, and decided to get along well with him. They promised him gold, and silver, and everything else he wanted, if he would return the eye to them. The boy liked it.
- Fine! - he said. - Go to your home and bring here enough gold and silver so that my brother and I can fill our travel bags to the top. Yes, besides, grab us a good steel bow each. Then I will give you your eye. Until then, you won’t see a single eye or anything else.
The trolls even ground their teeth in anger.
- Bad boy! - they said. “How will we get home without our eye?”
- And that’s your business. You know how to do magic!
Then the trolls took turns calling their mistress.
And then from afar, from behind the mountains, someone’s voice responded, like the howl of the autumn wind.
It was the forest mistress, the old troll, who heard her name called and responded.
One of the trolls folded his hands like a trumpet and shouted across the rivers and mountains to quickly bring two steel bows and two full buckets of silver and gold to the Hedal Forest.
A little time passed, and the earth began to hum, the trees began to rustle, and began to crackle. It was the forest mistress who came running to the call of the trolls with bows and buckets full of gold and silver.
Having found out what was the matter, she was so angry that she pulled out a large pine tree by the roots and broke it over her knee, as if it were not a hundred-year-old pine tree, but a dry twig. Then she pulled out a long green hair from her head and began to use it like a rope to catch the boy. But the trolls, who wanted to quickly get their treasure back, began to persuade her not to touch this boy. He stings like a wasp, and he is so cunning that, for good measure, he will come up with some new trick and take away her eye too.
The forest mistress growled like an angry bear, but did not argue. She threw two steel bows and both buckets - with gold and silver - on the ground and ran back to the mountains, jumping over spruce and pine trees as she ran.
And the trolls stood in front of the boy and extended their gnarled hands to him.
- Well, give it back!!! Give it back!..” they said.
- Okay, take it! - said the boy and gave the trolls their eyes.
They laughed with joy and, shaking the ground, ran after the forest mistress. When the trolls disappeared behind the mountains, the sun emerged from behind the mountains.
The boys filled bags with gold and silver, slung steel bows over their shoulders and, grabbing new buckets of shiny copper, walked home cheerfully.
Since then, no one has ever heard of trolls roaming Hedal Forest.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru