--- title: "The Ash Lad and the Troll" story_id: "1e49ab59-3f17-415a-8d52-a71af3748561" text_id: "70819656-272b-46ad-98d6-672a1daf848b" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-ash-lad-and-the-troll" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-ash-lad-and-the-troll" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Ash Lad and the Troll > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-ash-lad-and-the-troll) Version: Modernized In this Norwegian folktale, a poor farmer sends his sons into the woods to cut timber, but a huge troll frightens the two eldest away. Their youngest brother, the Ash Lad, decides to try. He takes some food and sets off. How can he face an opponent so much stronger than himself? **Content warning:** This tale contains death threats against a boy and a troll fatally injuring himself. Once upon a time there was a farmer with three sons. He had little money and was old and weak, but his sons would do no work. A fine large wood belonged to the farm, and one day the father told his sons to go and chop wood, and try to pay off some of his debts. Well, after a long talk he got them to set off, and the eldest was to go first. But when he was deep in the wood and began chopping at a mossy old fir, what should he see coming towards him but a great sturdy Troll! “If you chop trees in my wood”, said the Troll, “I’ll kill you!” When the lad heard that, he threw the axe down, and ran off home as fast as his legs could carry him. He arrived out of breath and told them what had happened. But his father called him “hare-heart”, a coward. No Troll would ever have scared him away from chopping wood when he was young, he said. Next day the second son’s turn came, and the same thing happened to him. He had barely struck three blows at the fir before the Troll came to him too, and said: “If you chop trees in my wood, I’ll kill you.” The lad dared not so much as look at him, but threw down the axe, took to his heels, and came scampering home just like his brother. So when he got home, his father was angry again, and said no Troll had ever scared him when he was young. The third day the Ash Lad wanted to set off. “You, indeed!” said the two elder brothers; “you’ll do it bravely, no doubt! You, who have hardly ever set foot outside the door.” The Ash Lad said nothing to this, but only begged them to give him a good supply of food. His mother had no cheese, so she set the pot on the fire to make him a little. He put it into a shoulder bag and set off. When he had chopped a little wood, the Troll came to him too, and said: “If you chop trees in my wood, I’ll kill you.” But the lad was not slow; he pulled his cheese out of the bag in a flash, and squeezed it till the whey, the watery liquid in the cheese, spurted out. “Hold your tongue!” he cried to the Troll, “or I’ll squeeze you as I squeeze the water out of this white stone.” ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5852e1d0-42f1-43d7-a07f-96737f696384) “No, dear friend!” said the Troll, “only spare me, and I’ll help you chop wood.” Well, on those terms the lad was willing to spare him, and the Troll chopped so vigorously that they felled and cut up huge, huge piles of timber—in a single day. But as evening drew near, the Troll said: “Now you’d better come home with me, for my house is nearer than yours.” The lad was quite willing. When they reached the Troll’s house, the Troll was to light the fire while the lad fetched water for their porridge. But the two iron pails were so big and heavy that he could not even lift them off the ground. “Pooh!” said the lad, “it isn’t worth touching these finger bowls, tiny dishes for rinsing your fingertips: I’ll just go and fetch the spring itself.” “No, no, dear friend!” said the Troll; “I can’t afford to lose my spring; you just light the fire, and I’ll go and fetch the water.” So when he came back with the water, they set to and boiled up a great pot of porridge. “It’s all the same to me”, said the lad; “but if you agree, we’ll have an eating contest!” “With all my heart”, said the Troll, for he thought he could surely eat as much as the boy. So they sat down. Without the Troll noticing, the lad hung his bag in front of him. He spooned more porridge into the bag than he ate. When it was full, he took his knife and slit it open. The Troll looked on all the while, but never said a word. So when they had eaten a good bit longer, the Troll laid down his spoon, saying, “No! I can’t eat another bite.” “But you must eat”, said the youth; “I’m only half done; why don’t you try my trick to make more room? You’ll be able to eat then as much as you please.” “But doesn’t it hurt terribly?” asked the Troll. “Oh”, said the youth, “hardly at all.” The Troll tried to copy the lad’s trick, but hurt himself so badly that he died. The lad took all the silver and gold he found in the hillside and carried it home. As you may guess, it went a long way towards paying off the debt. ## Modernization notes - So the Troll did as the lad said, and then you must know very well that he lost his life; but the lad took all the silver and gold that he found in the hill-side, and went home with it, and you may fancy it went a great way to pay → The Troll tried to copy the lad’s trick, but hurt himself so badly that he died. The lad took all the silver and gold he found in the hillside and carried it home. As you may guess, it went a long way towards paying: Exceptional softening for children: the fatal injury is stated clearly, without describing the wound. The deception and the troll’s death remain, and the original is preserved. - do as I did, and cut a hole in your paunch → try my trick to make more room: Exceptional softening for children: the boy still deceives the troll with his bag trick, but the explicit instruction to wound his belly is omitted. The troll’s fatal attempt to imitate him remains in the story, and the original is preserved. - many, many fathoms in the → huge, huge piles of timber—in a single: Here “fathoms” refers to a quantity of cut wood. Large piles keep that sense; this passage does not describe a distance. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Popular Tales from the Norse, 1859, Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh - collector: Peter Christen Asbjørnsen - collector: Jørgen Moe - translator: George Webbe Dasent ## Illustration [Theodor Kittelsen](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5852e1d0-42f1-43d7-a07f-96737f696384) — Eventyrbog for Børn. Norske Folkeeventyr, I, 1883, Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, København ## Reading music Peer Gynt — In the Hall of the Mountain King Edvard Grieg Czech National Symphony Orchestra (orchestra) Musopen (source) [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ## Quiz ### How were Asbjørnsen and Moe's first published tales presented in 1841? - In a single twenty-volume encyclopedia - On large posters - In separate booklets (Correct answer) Norway's famous collectors Asbjørnsen and Moe began publishing their folktales in 1841. The stories first appeared in separate booklets. [Store norske leksikon — Asbjørnsen og Moe](https://snl.no/Asbj%C3%B8rnsen_og_Moe) ### Asbjørnsen collected stories, but what else did he study? - Nature (Correct answer) - Opera composition - Railway engineering Asbjørnsen studied nature as well as stories. The collector who helped preserve the troll tales was also a naturalist. [Store norske leksikon — Peter Christen Asbjørnsen](https://snl.no/Peter_Christen_Asbj%C3%B8rnsen) ### When milk becomes cheese, what is the liquid separated from the curds called? - Vinegar - Whey (Correct answer) - Olive oil Cheese begins by separating milk into solid curds and liquid whey. Squeezing a soft cheese can therefore release real liquid. [Science Learning Hub — The science of cheese](https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/827-the-science-of-cheese) ### What can a tree's growth rings help scientists study? - The number of birds that nested in it - The names of people who planted it - Its age and past weather (Correct answer) A cut tree can reveal a calendar. In temperate climates, its growth rings help scientists work out its age and study past weather. [National Park Service — Dendrochronology](https://www.nps.gov/articles/archeology-dendrochronology.htm) ### Before this tale was printed, how did Jørgen Moe hear it in 1838? - From a radio broadcast - From a storyteller in Norway (Correct answer) - From a silent film Jørgen Moe wrote down the tale in 1838 after hearing Lars Hansen Svendserud in Hole, Norway. It first appeared in print in 1843. This is one documented telling of a story with many variants. [Store norske leksikon — Askeladden](https://snl.no/askeladden) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/the-ash-lad-and-the-troll?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)