Trolls

I'm sure you know about trolls, but did you know that they come from Norway? They live in the mountains and most of them avoid the daylight, because if the sun falls on them they turn into stone. I found that some of them turn into wood, too, because we found a lot of wooden trolls in the mountains. Hamilton Bear, who came with us, had to hard stare a few.

The Huldra must have found a way of coping with sunshine. They are female trolls who live high in the mountains, but they are rather keen on mortal young men. A Huldra girl beautifies herself, puts on a long dress to hide her tail, and flirts, sings and dances until some poor lad is captivated. Too late, he discovers that his beloved has a long tail and a habit of hiding in caves.

Leaving Ulvik to go the Balestrand, we travelled on the very popular funicular railway through the mountains, stopping at a, yes, how did you know, a waterfall, a real wild, roaring polar bear cub of a waterfall, no, it was more like a whole family of polar bear cubs rolling down the mountain. Then the singing started.

We heard a clear, female voice singing what sounded like a folk song. Then she appeared at a distance, with long blonde hair and a red dress, the Huldra girl, dancing beside the waterfall, beckoning the young men toward her. She disappeared, then we saw her again, walking along the broken down walls of a mountain. But romance is dead, and her charms didn't work on the men in the company. Perhaps something about a camera lens destroys her influence, or maybe Hamilton gave her a hard stare. But I held on tight to Tony, just in case.