Danish: The Ale of the Trolls

IN a homestead near Roskilde there once lived a man named Peter Anderson, and in a hillock on his farm dwelt a number of trolls. They were celebrating a wedding one day, and late at night they ran out of ale. Then a troll went to the peasant, who had brewed ale not long since, knocked at his door and said, "Will you help me out, and loan me a cask of ale, Peter Anderson? I will bring it back again when we have brewed."

"Who are you and where do you live?" asked the peasant.

"I am the man from the hillock over there," said the troll.

"Yes, go down into the cellar and help yourself to a cask," said the peasant. The troll got the ale and went home with it.

A few nights later the troll came to the house again and knocked. The peasant woke up and asked, "Who is knocking?"

"It is I," said the troll, "I am bringing back the ale I borrowed from you. I have put it in the cellar and am going to reward you for being so obliging. If you take care not to look in the cask, you can draw from it as long as you wish, and it will never grow empty."

For a long time all went well; they drew and drew and there was always ale in the cask, and no one ever looked into it. But one day they had a new maid, and she could not understand how it could be that there was never any ale brewed; and yet there was always ale on hand. So she determined to look into the cask, to see whether it would not soon be empty. But what was her fright when she saw that the cask was full of toads. And from that moment on there was no more ale in it.