In Ordal they say that a long time ago there lived a guy who married a huldra.
The farm where that guy was from was located on the outskirts, and the Huldras often visited there. They usually came to cook food in the kitchen. Sometimes the Huldras brought children with them - apparently they had no one to leave them with.
One day, the underground people came to the farm to bake cakes, and it so happened that the owner’s son, a single guy, was at home at that time. He noticed that the huldra and her young daughter walked into the kitchen, and he followed them in.
And the huldra mother walks around the kitchen from the hearth to the table, from the table to the hearth - and the guy thought it was so funny that he began to fool around, following the huldra like a shadow, and doing all sorts of tricks with his scarf. Here the huldra could not stand it and said to the guy:
“If you accidentally touch me, you’ll have to marry me.”
The guy just laughed in response, and go ahead and throw your scarf over the young huldrat.
“Well,” the mother said sadly, “now she is yours, and you are free to do whatever you want with her, but remember: how you treat your wife is how you will live.”
She said and left.
The newlyweds got engaged, and only then did the guy realize that his bride had a tail, and he was about to drive her away, but the priest performed a baptismal ceremony on the girl - without this he did not agree to marry the newlyweds - and her tail fell off as soon as she touched the holy water.
And so they had a wedding. When the young couple returned from church, three cows came to the farm from the forest - such large cows had never been seen in those parts - and they themselves stood in the barn.
And the guy and his young wife began to live on the farm. At first they got along well with each other, but the guy just couldn’t get out of his head that his wife was a huldra, and every day he treated her worse and worse.
Once a guy was working in a forge; he needed to forge new horseshoes for a horse. Then his wife comes to him and says that guests have arrived, and the owner needs to go out into the yard to receive and greet them. But the guy couldn’t handle it - he wanted to finish all the work first. Then the wife grabbed the red-hot horseshoe with her bare hands and stretched it into an iron strip.
“I would do the same with you, but I love you,” she says to her husband.
Since then, he changed, became kind and affectionate with his wife, and they lived happily until the end of their days.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru