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The Trolls in Hedale Forest

Up at a place in Vaage, i Gudbrandsdalen, there lived once upon a time in the days of old a poor couple. They had many children, and two of the sons who were about half grown-up had to be always roaming about the country begging. So that they were well acquainted with all the highways and byways, and they also knew the short cut into Hedale.

It happened once that they wanted to go thither, but at the same time they heard that some falconers had built themselves a hut at Maela, and how so they wished to kill two birds with one stone, and see the birds and how they are taken, and so they took the cut across Longmoss. But you must know that it was far towards the autumn and so the milkmaids had all gone home from the huts, and they could neither get shelter nor food. Then they had to keep straight on for Hedale, but the path was a mere track, and when night fell they lost it;and worse they could not find the falconers' hut either. And before they knew where they were, they found themselves in the very depths of the forest. As soon as they saw they could not get on, they began to break boughs, lit a fire and guilt themselves a bower of branches, for they had a hand-axe with them. And after that, they plucked heather and moss and made themselves a bed. So a little while after they had lain down, they heard something which sniffed and snuffed so with its nose. Then the boys picked up their ears and listened sharp to hear whether it were wild beasts or wood Trolls, and just then something snuffed up the air louder than ever, and said – There's a smell of Christian blood here!

At the same time they heard such a heavy footfall that the earth shook under it, and then they knew well enough the Trolls must be about. « Heaven help us! What shall we do?!» Said the younger boy to his brother.

«Oh! You must stand as you are under the fir, and be ready to take our bags and run away when you see them coming; as for me I will take the hand- axe» said the other.

All at once they saw the Trolls coming at them like mad, and they were so tall and stout their heads were just as high as the fir-tops. But it was a good thing they had only one eye between them all three, and that they used turn and turn about.

They had a hole in their foreheads into which they put it, and turned and twisted it with their hands. The one that went first he must have it to see his way, and the others weren't behind and took hold of the first. «Take up the traps» said the elder boy.. «But don't run away too far, but see how things go, as they carry their eye so high aloft they'll find it hard to see me when I get behind them»

Yes! The brother ran before and the Trolls after him, meanwhile the elder got behind them and chopped the hindmost Troll with this axe on the ankle, so that the Troll gave an awful shriek, and the foremost Troll got so afraid he was all of a shake and dropped the eye. But the boy was not slow to snap it up. It was bigger than two quarts pots put together, and so clear and bright, that though it was pitch dark, everything was as clear as day as soon as he looked through it.

When the trolls saw he had taken their eye and done one of them harm, they began to threaten him with all the evil in the world if he didn't give back the eye at once.

« I don't care a farthing for Trolls and threats» said the boy. « Now I've got three eyes to my self and you three have got none, and besides two of you have to carry the third.»