During the eighteenth century, one autumn Old
Tore and Marte, who lived in Austaana in Kvitseid, were having a lot of difficulty
getting help with the harvest. Their large, beautiful field was ripe - so
ripe that the grain was falling to the ground. Yet there was not one
person they could hire to do the mowing for them. They thought they might
have to ask their neighbours for help with the harvest, as folk often did
in those days if they were in need. So Tore and Marte brewed ale and baked
bread - enough for a feast. They brewed in the out buildings; and on
the evening before the neighbours were expected to visit and start work in
the fields, the beer was already ready in the tub. During that night, the
couple heard the sound of work being done in the field - and the sounds of
many feet walking and treading in the out buildings. And they could also hear
voices which seemed to say -
"All can mow, but none tie a cross. We tie it
best, And soon we can rest."
The next morning the people of Austaana had a
big surprise - the whole field, large as it was, had been mown. But the sheaves
had been tied in such a way that no one in the area had seen before. Since
that time onward, it has been called a "straight tie". The normal way of making
a tie was in the form of a cross, but the Tusse would not tie it that way.
When Tore and Marte went to the out buildings
to fetch the ale, it was all gone bar a little of the dregs. The Tusse had
quaffed the drink as pay for their work -When Marte empied the dregs from
the tub she discovered three or four silver spoons at the bottom, left behind
by the Tusse.. These spoons have been handed down at the farm from generation
to generation and are engraved with the name Tore.
Source : A tale collected by Kjetil A. Flatin
in Norway (1930). Retold here by Shaun D. L. Brassfield-Thorpe