A Finn in the forests of Säfsen, having for a long time suffered ill
luck with his flock, determined, let the cost be what it would, to
find, through a Lapp well versed in the arts of the Trolls, a remedy
for the evil he was enduring.
To this end he set out for the home of his to-be-deliverer, and after a
long and fatiguing journey through the wilderness, he came at last to a
Lapp hut which, with no little quaking, he entered, and there found a
man busied with a fire upon the floor.
The Lapp who, through his connection with the Trolls, already knew the
purpose of the visit, and very much flattered thereby, greeted his
guest kindly, and said:
“Good morning, Juga, my boy, are you here? I can give you news from
home. Everything goes well there. I was there yesterday.”
The Finn was terribly frightened at the discovery that he was
recognized, but now more when he heard that the Lapp had made the same
journey forth and back in one day, that had cost him so many days of
wandering.
With assurance of friendship, the Lapp quieted his fears, and
continued:
“I had a little matter to attend to yesterday at your home, and sat
upon the housetop when your wife went over the garden, but I saw she
did not know me, for she threatened me with the house key.”
The Finn now made known his errand, and received for answer that his
animals were even now doing as well as he could wish. The presents
brought by the Finn greatly strengthened their pleasant relations, and
the Lapp agreed willingly to initiate him into the mysteries of
Trolldom.
When the Finn reached home, the incidents of his journey were
circumstantially related to his wife, even to the Lapp’s account of his
visit, and the threats with the house key.
“Yes, I remember now,” said she, “that a magpie sat upon the roof the
same day that the animals seemed to revive, but I believed it to be an
unlucky bird, therefore tried to frighten it away with the key.”
The Finn and his wife now understood that it was their friend, who had
transformed himself thus in order to do them a service, and from that
time held these creatures in great veneration.