Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/101

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

NEVER MIND THE MONEY


THERE was once a man who had three daughters, each of whom was married to a mountain troll. Their father once wished to pay them a visit, and before he went away his wife handed him a rather dry loaf of bread. When he had walked along for a while he became tired and hungry, so he seated himself on the eastern slope of a hill, and commenced eating his dry bread. The hill was suddenly opened, and his oldest daughter appeared before him, saying: "Why do you not come in and see me, father?" "Well," answered her father, "had I known that you were living here, and if I had seen any entrance, I should have walked in."

Soon afterwards the troll returned home. His wife told him that her father had come, and asked him to go and buy meat for a soup. "Oh, we may have that much more easily," said he, whereupon he ran a large iron nail into a heavy piece of timber and knocked his head against it, tearing large pieces of meat out of his cheeks. He seemed to suffer no inconvenience from this, and they all had a

67