ritta-Stina in Toknejala told how a troll had come to a certain place around
here and left a changeling for a human infant. She took the child and put her
own in its place. But then a wise old lady came by, and she advised them to
beat the changeling three nights in a row. On the third Thursday night, the
troll came in. "I haven't been as mean to your child as you have to mine,"
she said. And so she left the human child and took back her own.
From Värmland.
Without her knowing it, a woman had her child exchanged by the trolls before she had a chance to make it Christian (i.e., by baptism). Well, she sent for a godmother who was to take the child to church and other godparents and made preparations for the celebration as best she could. Now when the godmother came riding to church with the baby in her lap on the way to thebaptism, there was a little troll-child sitting on a rock by the side of the road. As they rode by, the troll-child said:
"Kille Kopp, where are you going?"
The changeling, who lay on the woman';s knee, replied "I am off to the church to become a Christian." But when the woman heard the little baby on her knee begin to talk, she knew something was wrong. She was frightened and turned home. And when she got home she explained everything and told them the child must be a changeling. Then they all decided that the best course was to fire up the oven and burn the troll-baby. Well, they fired up the oven and when the coals were as red as could be, they put the child in a pan and pretended they were about to throw him in. But at that moment the troll-woman came in, snathed up the baby, and threw the child down in a heap.
From Småland.
A man was supposed to leave on a journey in the morning. His wife was named Sara, and she had just had a child. And when he was riding off and had just reached the pear tree, he heard someone chopping on a piece of wood. And he stopped and he heard people saying:
"Sara's breasts are like this, Sara's arms are like this, Sara's legs are like this." When he heard people talking like that as they were chopping wood, he turned back. When he came home, he met them in the entry hall with Sara, and they had put the wooden figure in the bed in place of the human.
She had not yet formally re-entered the church.
The farm still exists.
From Skåne.
