An Old Folk-Tale from Jutland


Oudrup Hede, Jutland

Folk Tales
The real folk-tales have existed for thousands of years, only for the last two hundred years some of these treasures have been collected by folklorists before they were completely forgotten.
The folklorist Evald Tang Kristensen (1843-1929) was the most important Danish collector of folk-tales. He was a school teacher, but at that time a school teacher got a lousy pay, so in summer he had to take care of his little farm too. Only in winter he spent his time walking on foot from place to place in all kinds of weather, mile after mile across the heath in rain and mud, overnighting by the peasants. He was able to make shy people open up and tell him their stories.

For more than 50 years he collected folk-tales, ballads, fairy-tales, legends, history and biographies from about 6.500 informants, mainly from the poor. The result were many books , in the first many years financed by himself and printed in small impression. The interest for folklore was limited at that time, but later it became highly treasured and still is. We owe him a lot. In 1888 he got some aid from the Danish State, and he gave up his job as a school teacher devoting his life to folklore collection. This little folk-tale is told to him by a peasant woman Inger Olesdatter from Øster Ørum near Horsens. It is from the book "Eventyr fra Jylland II".


Girl with sheep, Heather Hill

TINY-VIRP.
Once upon a time was a little girl, named Virp, and people called her Tiny-Virp. When she had to go out to work, she got a job in the vicarage. She had to take care of the sheep out into the heath. The first day she came out there she saw a silver ram, when she sat down to eat her food, it stood upon a hill. She drove the sheep together and then she run up and took the silver ram and ran home to the vicarage with it. When she came into the yard, they closed and shuttered the gate, while Tiny-Virp went singing in the yard.
Clump, clump,clump! The big troll came to the gate and said:
"Listen, little Virp! did you take my silver ram?"
"Yes, I did!"
"Will you come more often?"
"You never can tell," she said.
Then they let a canonshot sound through the gate. Clump, clump, clump! then the big troll ran.
The next day, when she came out into the heath with her sheep, she sat upon the hill to eat her food. Then she saw a golden ram, it stood upon the hill. Virp drove the sheep together, took the golden ram and ran home to the vicarage with it. And they closed and shuttered the gate, while Tiny-Virp went singing in the yard.
Clump,clump,clump! then the big troll came.
"Listen little Virp! Did you take my silver ram and my golden ram?"
"Yes, I did."
"Will you come more often?"
"You never can tell" said Tiny-Virp.
Then they let a canonshot sound through the gate. Clump, clump, clump! then the big troll ran.
The third day, when she came out upon the heath with her sheep, it rained cats and dogs. When she sat down to eat her food, she saw that the big troll's old mother was out by the well to fetch some water, and she wore a light cape, and it repelled water, and it shone so that it was light all around. Then Tiny-Virp run and pushed the old woman down into the well, but she took the light cap and wore it, and then she run home to the vicarage, after she had driven the sheep together. They closed and locked the gate and Tiny-Virp went singing in the yard.
Clump, clump, clump! then the big troll came.
"Listen, little Virp! did you take my silver ram and my golden ram and my light cape and pushed my mother into the well?"
"Yes I did," said Tiny-Virp.
"Will you come more often?"
"You never can tell."
Clump, clump, clump! then the big troll ran, when they fired a canonshot out through the gate.
The fourth day when she came out into the heath with the sheep, the weather was fine, and the troll's window was open. In the windowsill was a jingle stick, he jingled it when he summoned all the big trolls. She took it when she sat down to eat her food. She drove the sheep together and run home to the vicarage with the jingle stick. They both closed and shuttered the gate and then Tiny-Virp went singing in the yard.
Clump, clump, clump! then the big troll came running.
"Listen little Virp! Did you take my silver ram and my golden ram and my light cape and pushed my mother into the well and now took my jingle stick?"
"Yes I did," said Tiny-Virp.
"Will you come more often?"
"You never can tell," she said, and then they let a canonshot sound through the gate. Then the big troll got scared, and clump, clump, clump! he ran again.
The fitfth day when she came out into the heath with her sheep, the big troll's window was open, and a gold harmonica lay inside. Now she reached out for it, but she was cheated, for the big troll stood inside and took her hand and drew her inside. Now he had caught her and he wanted to slaughter her as a punishment, because she had taken all those things from him. But he thought she was to skinny for slaughtering, she had to be fed up. So he put her into a dark room, and there she had to live from prunes and raisins and black sausage, then he thought she would be fat. When some days had passed by, she had to put a finger out through a hole he had drilled in the door, then he would prick it with a needle, so he could see the blood, if she then was fat enough. But she wrapped sausage skin around her finger so that the blood could not come out, and it did not come out, no matter how much he pricked.
Finally he decided that she had to be slaughtered. He asked his wife to light a fire in the oven and fry Tiny-Virp there, while he went around to summon the big trolls for a feast. He had to do it now since Tiny-Virp had taken his jingle stick.
The wife began to light a fire in the oven, and she fired much more than when she was baking. Then she asked little Virp if it was hot enough.
"No it is not at all hot enough," said Tiny-Virp.
Then she fired much more.
Yes, it was not hot enough yet, but now it had to do. Then Tiny-Virp had to go into the oven, but she did not understand, she said, how to do it. If just the woman would show her. Then the woman had to show her. She sat down upon the baking spade and told her how to sit. But then Tiny-Virp took hold of the baking spade, pushed the woman into the oven and closed the oven door.
Then she ran home to the vicarage and said that they had to bring all the carriages they had, in order to get hold of the big troll's gold and silver, before he came home. For now no one was at home in the hill. Then they came with eight carriages, seven pair of horses and a pair of bullocks for the eighth carriage. Then they took all the goods, the big troll had. And at last Tiny-Virp took the wife's night cap and filled it with hay, and she put it in the bed and pulled the duvet over it, so that only the top was to see, and it looked as if it was the wife who was in the bed. Then they drove home to the vicarage and put shutters for the gate doors.
Soon after the big troll came home, but he could not find his wife. Finally he thought that he saw her lying in the bed for he could see the tip of her night cap.
"Now I am here," the big troll shouted. She did not answer.
"Did you fry Tiny-Virp?" No, she did not answer.
Then he hooted louder:
"Did you fry Tiny-Virp?" No, there was no answer.
"If you do not answer me then you shall get a slap in the head!" But it did not help at all.
Then he slapped the night cap so that the hay fell out all over the floor, for now he was angry.
But if it was not wrong before then it became wrong now, for he could see that there was some madness about it. He ran to take a look at the oven. There he found his wife who was completely fried.
Clump, clump, clump! then he ran to the vicarage. Then Tiny-Virp went singing in the yard.
"Listen Tiny-Virp! Did you take my silver ram and my golden ram and my light cape and pushed my mother into the well and took my jingle stick and stole all my silver and gold and pushed my wife into the oven?"
"Yes I did," Tiny Virp said.
"Will you come more often?"
"There is nothing more to come for," she said, and then they fired a canonshot through the gate, so that the big troll got scared. Clump, clump, clump! it said, and then he ran home.

Source: Evald Tang Kristensen "Eventyr fra Jylland II" (edited & published 1998)
(This folk-tale Tiny-Virp (Danish title : Bitte-Virp) is translated by Grethe Bachmann for this blog)

photo 2007 & 2008: grethe bachmann, Heather Hill, Zealand