Children Stories - Charcoal Nils And The Troll-woman

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Charcoal Nils And The Troll-woman

from The Swedish Fairy Book

In the old days there lived on a headland that juts out into the
northwestern corner of Lake Rasval, in the neighborhood of the Linde
mining-district, a charcoal-burner named Nils, generally known as
Charcoal Nils. He let a farm-hand attend to his little plot of land,
and he himself made his home in the forest, where he chopped wood in
the summer and burned it to charcoal in the winter. Yet no matter how
hard he struggled, his work was unblessed with reward, and no one ever
spoke of him save as poor Charcoal Nils.

One day, when he was on the opposite shore of the lake, near the
gloomy Harsberg, a strange woman came up to him, and asked whether he
needed some one to help him with his charcoal burning.

"Yes, indeed," said he, "help would be welcome." So she began to
gather blocks of wood and tree-trunks, more than Charcoal Nils could
have dragged together with his horse, and by noon there was enough
wood for a new kiln. When evening came, she asked the charcoal-burner
whether he were satisfied with the day's work she had done, and if
she were to come back the next day.

That suited the charcoal-burner perfectly, and she came back the next
day and all the following ones. And when the kiln had been burned out
she helped Nils clear it, and never before had he had such a quantity
of charcoal, nor charcoal of so fine a quality.

So she became his wife and lived with him in the wood for three years.
They had three children, yet this worried Nils but little, seeing that
she looked after them, and they gave him no trouble.

But when the fourth year came, she grew more exacting, and insisted on
going back to his home with him, and living with him there. Nils
wished to hear nothing about this; yet since she was so useful to him
in his charcoal-burning, he did not betray his feelings, and said he
would think it over.

It happened one Sunday that he went to church--where he had not been
for many years, and what he heard there brought up thoughts he had not
known since the innocent days of his childhood. He began to wonder
whether there were not some hocus-pocus about the charcoal-burning,
and whether it were not due to the forest woman, who aided him so
willingly.

Preoccupied with this and other thoughts, he forgot while returning to
his kiln, that he had promised the strange woman at the very
beginning, when she had first helped him, that, whenever he had been
home and was returning to the kiln, he would rap three times with his
ax against an old pine-tree not far from it. On this occasion, as we
have said, he forgot the sign, and as a result he saw something that
nearly robbed him of his wits.

As he drew near the kiln, he saw it all aflame, and around it stood
the three children and their mother, and they were clearing out the
kiln. They were pulling down and putting out so that flames, smoke and
ashes whirled sky-high, but instead of the spruce-branches that were
generally used to put out the fire, they had bushy tails which they
dipped in the snow!

When Charcoal Nils had looked on for a while, he slunk back to the old
pine-tree, and made its trunk echo to the sound of his three
ax-strokes till one could hear them on the Harsberg. Then he went to
the kiln, as though he had seen nothing, and all went on as before.
The kiln was glowing with a handsome, even glow, and the tall woman
was about and working as usual.

As soon as she saw Charcoal Nils, she came back with her pressing
demand that he take her home to his little house, and that they live
there.

"Yes, that shall come about," said Nils to console her, and turned
back home to fetch a horse. But instead he went out on the headline
of Kallernaes, on the eastern shore of Lake Rasval, where a wise man
lived, and asked the latter what he should do.

The old man advised him to go home and hitch his horse to his
charcoal-wagon, but to hitch the horse in such wise that there would
be not a single loop either in the harness or traces. Then he was to
mount the horse and ride back to the kiln without stopping, have the
troll-woman and her children get into the wagon, and at once drive out
on the ice with them.

The charcoal-burner did as the old man told him, saddled his horse,
paying strict attention that there were no loops in saddle or bridle,
rode across the ice through the wood to his kiln, and told the
troll-woman and her children to get in. Then he quickly turned back
through the wood, out on the ice, and there let his horse run as fast
as he could. When he reached the middle of the lake, he saw a pack of
wolves running along in the direction of Aboda-land, at the northern
end of the lake, and heading for the ice. Then he tore the
saddle-harness from the traces, so that the wagon with the troll-folk
was left standing on the bare ice, and rode as fast as his horse could
carry him for the opposite shore. When the trolls saw the wolves they
began to scream.

"Turn back, turn back!" cried the mother. "And if you will not for my
sake, then at least do so for the sake of Vipa (Peewee), your youngest
daughter!" But Charcoal Nils rode for the shore without looking back.
Then he heard the troll-woman calling on others for aid.

"Brother in the Harsberg,
Sister in Stripa,
Cousin in Ringfels;
Take the loop and pull!"

"There is no loop to pull!" came the answer from deep within the
Harsberg. "Then catch him at Harkallarn." "He is not riding in that
direction." The reply came from Ringfels.

And indeed Charcoal Nils did not ride in that direction; but over
stick and stone straight to his own home. Yet when he reached his own
courtyard, the horse fell, and a shot from the trolls tore away a
corner of the stable. Nils shortly after fell sick, and had to lie
a-bed for a number of weeks. When he was well again he sold his forest
land, and worked the little farm by the cottage until his death. So
that was one occasion when the troll-folk came off second best.

NOTE

In "Charcoal Nils and the Troll-Woman" (Hofberg, p. 148. From
Vestmanland) we have the story of a strange union. Malicious as
the troll-folk are, when a marriage takes place between a
troll-woman and a human being, the woman is beyond reproach,
good and kind, the only reproach that can be made her is that
she is not a Christian.

Next: The Three Dogs
Previous: Tales Of The Trolls

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