Wednesday 4 June 2008

T of Trolls of Norway.


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Thinking of the letter “T” The Trolls of Norway come into my mind.

Well I can tell you something about the Trolls! They are not as bad as they look. They have a great family life with many children, grand children and great-grand children and even … Well let’s not make it too complicated. A fact is that they become very old and wiser as they grow older. Once a year they have a family reunion at the summer solstice on the 21st of June. It is a wonderful time and the troll children have been looking forward to this party for a long time. During the days before Summer Solstice the Trolls come from all over Norway and they all travel in the direction of Troldhaugen near Bergen. Troldhaugen means Hill of the Trolls. All the way to this enchanting place they sing songs composed by Edward Grieg, who once lived here in the wonderful house on the hill. They sing as a tribute to this man who composed the most beautiful music of Norway.
When they arrive here they first have a bite to eat and they exchange all the news, ideas and stories . It’s getting late and the smallest troll children cannot keep their eyes open even if they love to hear the tales told by Great-great-great-grandfather ( G.G. for short). Never mind he tells the stories which are fit for children, the next day.
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And so it happens the next morning. “ Come children, I am going to tell you a history lesson”, says G.G. “Oh no!” cry all the troll children, “We don’t want any history lessons, we want a nice story! Please, G.G.!”
“Well”, says G.G.,: ”This story is very important! It’s about a little troll boy who wouldn’t listen to his parents at all, no matter what they asked him to do or not to do. His name was Per. He did what he liked to do and took what he wanted to have. You know, like those people among us who won’t change anymore, because they are used to take and do whatever they want. Well one day Per went for a walk, picking flowers. Not one or two, oh no, hundreds of them! Every flowering bush he found was stripped bare. What did he do with all the flowers? Nothing, After a while he threw them away, just like that.
Suddenly he saw a beautiful butterfly. He thought: ’That’s something I want to catch!’ He followed the butterfly and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t catch it.
After an hour or so, he noticed he had come to a strange place. He didn’t see the butterfly anymore, instead he saw a beautiful lady. She said: ‘ I am the flower fairy. You have done a very bad thing! I am going to teach you a lesson, you shall never forget. I’ll turn you into a frog. You will stay that way until you realize that you can’t pick flowers at random. You have to listen What the other frogs tell you!’
So it happened. Per turned into a frog. He saw many other frogs. They were all moaning, and when Per asked what the matter was, they told him that they were hungry. They eat insects and there weren’t any for there were no flowers. A little troll boy had picked them. No flowers, no insects. No flowers, no berries, or any other fruit….Then Per understood what he had done. He jumped up and down and croaked to draw the attention of the fairy. She turned him back into the little troll boy, who until this day has never picked any flowers again !”says G.G. And he knows best, for he was that little troll boy Per.


Don't forget to visit mrs.Nesbitt to see the other great posts.

32 comments:

Neva said...

I did not know this about Trolls....what a great story....
Mine is up here and here.

Texas Travelers said...

Great story. It was fun. Thanks for sharing the story.

The Tide has Turned in Texas.
Come visit,
Troy and Martha

Juliana RW said...

nice story...

My T post in here Thanks

Petunia said...

It is great to read about Norway what other think about us:)
The life of the trollfamily is not so different from other family life is it?


Petunia's ABC

Unknown said...

Fantastic and informative Troll post - great stuff!

Gary
Bodge's Bulletin

Reader Wil said...

Thanks Neva! Well trolls keep surprising me all the time too!

Reader Wil said...

Texas travelers thank you for visiting. You live in a beautiful country Troy and Martha!

Reader Wil said...

I love the tulips of Picturing of life!

Reader Wil said...

No Petunia the trolls are just like you and me only they get older.

Reader Wil said...

Hi Gary. I never saw trolls in G.B. only ex-vikings.Thanks for the visit.

Rune Eide said...

What else can I do but applaud - no standing ovation!!

Especially since Troldhaugen is not far off...

ArneA said...

Thank you for the story.
First I thought it was about Peer Gynt, but now I believe it is about our Finance Minister Kristin who are taking the max of oil out of the earth, selling to high prices, putting the money into companies abroad and will not increase the health system, teaching situation and common infrastructure in Norway.
Or?...... was it only about a GG Troll

Reader Wil said...

I know Runee! I envy you!

Reader Wil said...

Arnea, I think your finance minister must be a friend of ours! Or are they both bewitched by G.G?

nonizamboni said...

I was breathless reading G.G.'s story about Per. Lovely and so was the illustration. I'll be back to read the rest of your troll series.
Thanks for sharing--happy Wednesday!

Patty said...

What wonderful stories about the trolls and their families. Thanks for sharing.

Reader Wil said...

Hi Nonizamboni Thanks. I was at your blog to and enjoyed seeing it!

Reader Wil said...

Hi Patty, you probably recognized the troll stories from my first blog at efx2. I lost all other posts but fortunately my daughter had printed these for me.Thanks for the visit. Don't you want to join this game?

Pat said...

Thanks for your visit to Belgrade this morning! I just love trolls, and had several troll "dolls" when I was a little girl....

Reader Wil said...

Thank you Bibi. We also loved trolls and always bought a troll when we were in Norway.

Unknown said...

Great Post. Thanks for sharng

Jane Hards Photography said...

Tis was definitely a fun post. Excellent story and choice.

Reader Wil said...

Thank you For the people! Thank you Babooshka too.

Granny Smith said...

What an utterly delightful story! I see from your profile that we share many of the same tastes in music as well as having other things in common. I'm glad we have been introduced by Mrs. Nesbitt.

Liz Hinds said...

What a wise story!

kRiZcPEc said...

thanks for the story-telling, great post.

Reader Wil said...

For the people Thanks for the visit!

Reader Wil said...

Granny Smith Thanks for the visit! I believe indeed that we have a lot in common! And we are probably the same generation! I hope to see you more!

Reader Wil said...

Thanks Liz from Wales(? ) I have often been in Wales and it could also have been the country where trolls live.

Reader Wil said...

Thanks Kriz cpec! I was impressed with your message on your blog!

Pernille said...

Yes trolls are mostly very kind. But the huge trolls can be very bad. They can steel kids if they find them alone somwhere. We also have to fight for our life if we meet them.
We have many trolls. The small trolls, they are mostly very kind, the big and bad trolls and the very small trolls who live under the ground and look after us. So if we shall throw out some hot water, we have to warn them about that. If not they get angry and can do bad things to us.
And we have many many more trolls with other names. Huldra is one of them. She is very very beautiful and if she see a man in the eyes, the man will follow her and never come back. hahaha. And we have Nøkken, he sit on a stone in a stream. He's very good to play at flutes. You can be so hypnotised of his play that you go out in the water and drown.

So you see we have a lot of them. The children grow up with the storyes of the trolls. And they are really exited about the storyes.

Have a wonderful day and remeber to be nice to the trolls;)

Reader Wil said...

Thank you Pernille for all the information of the mystic world. I love stories about trolls, witches, gnomes and huldras. I was so fortunate to see a huldra when I made a trip in the Flåm train. The train stopped near Kjosfossen. All passengers got out and then we heard enchanting music and saw two women singing. They had tails when we looked closer. All women among the passengers stayed calm, but I don't know, I had the feeling that the men acted a bit strange. Actually I don't know if all the men returned back in the hotel. Actually I thought that one or two of them were missing, or were they??