When Esbern Snare was about
building a church in Kalundborg, he saw clearly that his means were not fully
adequate to the task. But a troll came to him and offered his services; and
Esbern Snare made an agreement with him on these conditions, that he should
be able to tell the troll's name when the church was finished; or in case
he could not, that he should give him his heart and his eyes.
The work now went on rapidly,
and the troll set the church on stone pillars; but when all was nearly done,
and there was only half a pillar wanting in the church, Esbern began to get
frightened, for the name of the troll was yet unknown to him.
One day he was going about
the fields all alone, and in great anxiety on account of the perilous state
he was in; when, tired, and depressed, by reason of his exceeding grief and
affliction, he laid him down on Ulshøj bank to rest himself a while. While
he was lying there, he heard a troll-woman within the hill saying these words:
Lie still, baby mine!
Tomorrow cometh Fin,
Father thine,
And giveth thee
Esbern Snare's
eyes and heart
to play with.
When Esbern heard this, he
recovered his spirits, and went back to the church. The troll was just then
coming with the half pillar that was wanting from the church; but when Esbern
saw him, he hailed him by his name, and called him "Fin." The troll was so
enraged at this, that he went off with the half pillar through the air, and
this is the reason that the church has but three pillars and a half.
Source: Thomas Keightley,
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various
Countries (London: H. G. Gohn, 1850), pp. 116-117. This story is also
told by H. A. Guerber in his Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas
(London: George G. Harrap and Company, 1909), pp. 240-241, and in a ballad
entitled "Kallundborg Church" by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892).
Notes : Kalundborg (also spelled
Kallundborg) is a city in North-West Sjælland (Zealand). Esbern Snare's
famous church, the Frue Kirke, built in 1170, is still extant. This story
has close parallels with the myth of the building of Asgard's Walls as well
as the well known tradition of gaining power through knowledge of a "true
name".
The female troll's verse in
Danish runs:
Tie stille, barn min!
Imorgen kommer Fin,
Fa'er din,
Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares
øine og hjerte
at lege med.