On the estates of Ljungby there lies a large stone called Maglestone,
under which the Trolls, in olden times, were wont to assemble and, with
dancing and games, celebrate their Christmas.
One Christmas night Lady Cissela Ulfstand, sitting in her mansion,
listening to the merry-making of the Trolls under the stone, and
curious to have a better knowledge of these mysterious mountain people,
assembled her menservants and promised the best horse in her stables to
him who would ride to Maglestone, at Vesper hour, and bring her a full
account of the doings there.
One of her swains, a daring young fellow, accepted the offer, and a
little later set out on his way. Arriving at the stone, he discovered
it lifted from the ground, supported on pillars of gold, and under it
the Trolls in the midst of their revelry.
Upon discovering the horseman a young Troll woman, leaving the others,
approached him bearing a drinking horn and pipe. These, upon reaching
his side, she placed in the young man’s hand, with directions to first
drink from the horn to the health of the Mountain King, then blow three
times on the pipe, at the same time whispering some words of caution in
his ears, whereupon he threw the contents of the horn over his shoulder
and set off at the utmost speed, over fields and meadows, toward home.
The Trolls followed him closely with great clamor, but he flew before
them across the drawbridge, which was at once pulled up, and proceeded
to place the horn and pipe in the hands of his mistress.
Outside, across the moat, the Trolls now stood, promising Lady Cissela
great happiness and riches if she would return to them their horn and
pipe, and declaring that, otherwise, great misfortune and destruction
would overtake her and her family, and that it should go especially
hard with the young man who had dared to deprive them of the precious
articles. True to the predictions, the young man died on the third day
thereafter and the horse which he rode fell dead a day later.
During the war of 1645 Field Marshal Gustaf Horn, whose headquarters
were at Fjelkinge, having heard this story, and wishing to see the horn
and pipe, requested that they be brought to him. The possessor, Axel
Gyllerstierna, who then owned Ljungby, forwarded them, accompanied with
earnest prayers that they be returned to him as soon as possible.
Horn’s curiosity was soon satisfied, and he felt no desire to retain
them longer in his possession, for while he did he was disturbed every
night by unseemly noises about his quarters, which ceased, when, under
the escort of a company of cavalry, he sent them back to Ljungby.
Ten years later there took place a still more wonderful circumstance.
Henrik Nilsson, the priest at Ljungby, borrowed the strange articles
for the purpose of showing them to his brothers-in-law who were then
visiting him. During the night the priest’s mother-in-law, Lady Anna
Conradi, who was one of the family, was awakened by the light of a
candle in her room. The bed curtains were drawn back and upon her bed a
basket was dropped wherein sat five small children, who in chorus set
up a cry:
“O you, who are noted for your kindness, please return to us our horn!”
To her question why they desired it and what value it had to them, they
answered:
“For our people’s sake.”
When she would no longer listen to their pleading they departed, saying
they would come again three nights later.
On Thursday night, and the third following their first visit, there was
again a light in her room. When Lady Anna drew back the bed curtain she
discovered her chamber occupied by a great number of little men, and
among them the Troll King himself, approaching her under a canopy of
silver cloth upheld on silver poles borne by four servants. His skin
was a dark brown and his hair, of which only a tuft was left on his
forehead and one by each ear, black and woolly. Softly he neared the
bed, holding forth a horn richly adorned with gold chains and massive
gold buttons, which he proffered the lady in exchange for the genuine
horn. But she was not to be persuaded, and consigned them to God, if
they belonged to him, and to the devil, if they were his offspring,
whereupon the Trolls quietly and sorrowfully departed.
Soon thereafter it was reported that a peasant’s child had been carried
off by the Trolls. By means of ringing the church bells it was,
however, returned to its mother. The boy related that the Trolls were
not pretty, but had large noses and mouths; that the man under
Maglestone was called Klausa and his wife Otta. That they sucked the
moisture from the food of mankind and so sustained themselves; that
they obeyed one king; that they were often at variance with each other,
also, that they spoke the language of the country. Lord Chancellor
Coyet, who published, “A Narrative of Ljungby Horn and Pipe,” dated
February 11, 1692, says that he knew this boy, who was then
twenty-seven years old, also his mother, but admits that both were
disposed to superstition and that their understandings were as feeble
as their bodies.