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I would like to dedicate this thread to everything Troll, Elves, and Giants. My intention is to have this thread to be interactive. Posts can be poems, stories, drawings, videos, even articles and newspaper clippings, landmarks and anything I have forgotten to mention.
Ok, I will begin:
From Norway
The Old Troll And The Handshake
There was once a man who went up on Skorve - a big mountain - to look for his horse, but he db could not find it. Then, all at once, a thick fog surrounded him, so he could not seehis hand in front of his face. But suddenly, as he was walking, he came out into a green field. He thought this was strange because he knew his way around the mountain well, and he had never seen anything but rockpiles and boggy hollows there before. A little farther on, he came to a farm with many buildings, just like any other farm. Outside he saw an old man, who was down on his knees, cutting and chopping wood. Our man went over to him and asked if he had seen anything about a horse.
"Ask my father, " said the old fellow. "He's sitting inside by the hearth."
The man went in, and there he saw a very old fellow who sat in front of the hearth, cooking bacon on a stick. His head jerked to and fro, and his hands shook, and he looked like a dry fir tree full of lichens. The man asked about his horse which was gone. But he replied, "Ask my father, he's hanging in the horn on the wall." The man looked over at the wall, and there hung a mighty big horn, and in the horn was a man who was so old that he could neither see nor walk.
"Oh, poor you, " said the man in the horn, "you're looking for your horse. We had to take it and shut it in, for it got into our field; but it hasn't suffered any harm. But where are you from? "
"From Seljord," said the man.
"Are folk from Seljord just as strong now as they were in the old days. Give me your hand so I can see if there's still marrow in your fingers, " said the old one in the horn. But the one that was sitting by the hearth said that if the Seljord man wanted his hand back in one piece afterward he should hand the old fellow in the horn an iron bar that was standing there. He did so, and the old fellow squeezed the iron bar so hard that water oozed out of it.
"Ha!" he said. "There's nothing but ewe's milk in the fingers of folk from Seljord nowadays. It was different in the old days. Haven't you ever heard of me? I'm called Skaane, and I'm the one who built Seljord Church for St. Olav. I was living in Bringsaas then, but when the big bell came in the church, I had to move. I was strong, but St. Olav was stronger than me."
When the Seljord man was leaving, they warned him not to look behind him but hurry back the same way he had come. His horse had become so fat and fine that it fairly shone. "Thanks for the loan," said the old fellow. "Thanks yourself, " said the man, and seating himself on the horse he said, "Now, in God's name then." But, when he turned to look around, he saw nothing but the big mountain, and it was as black and grey as it always had been.
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