In Grimstung there lived a shepherd, smart and hard-working. Once he was missing sheep, went to look for them in the wasteland and found them, but at the same time he saw a skessa troll running towards him. She quickly approached him, grabbed him and carried him to her lair.
Her old and very ugly mother was there. They treated him very well, but he didn't like it there, although he didn't see any way to escape from them.
In the summer they broke brushwood for a fire, and on Christmas night they both told him to light a fire under a pot of meat and pretended to be asleep. He rustled loudly with brushwood to check if they were sleeping, because he didn’t believe them. On the second night of Christmas they told him to do the same thing. He noticed that the old woman was sleeping soundly, but her daughter was not. On the third night of Christmas everything went exactly the same. They both fell fast asleep.
Then he immediately jumped up and ran away. The shepherd did not stop until he came to Grimstunga. Some young man ran up to him, but he immediately went to the bell tower and began to ring furiously for everyone to come out. And the skessa came to the slope above the farm and sat down there. He hurriedly related his adventures.
When dawn broke, the skessa was found at the top of the slope, dead. The poor thing died from childbirth. The shepherd became very famous after this. He lived in Grimstung for a long time, and the priest gave his daughter to him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru