Life in Lapland - the wilderness across the top of Scandinavia - had a changeless quality.  Summer after summer the Laplanders let their reindeer
herds roam free in the mountains of the western coast ;each year when a chill returned to the land, they gathered the animals in and drove them east to the bag-laced plateau - called the " vidda " - where the herds and their guardians settled in for the season of darkness.

In the old days, the Lapps rarely ventured north toward the Arctic coast : 
The were hardy people but all of them knew about the land called Trollbotn,
or Troll Bottom, a wind swept wasteland haunted by huge, murderous beings.
No Laplander cared to face these trolls, some three-headed, some with more hideous deformities, all malevolent and filled with hatred towards humankind.  But, unfortunately, a woman and her son once were forced to cross the boundaries into the troll's territory.

This is their tale ;

Because she watched him, she saw him die....

A massive figure leaped upon him and knocked him to the ground.  A knife of bone flashed up and down, in rhythm, plattering blood in the air.  No sound was made by the herder, he twitched and then lay still.  When the creature stopped moving - a giant troll - he turned towards Mari, who stood paralyzed in the door of their house.  The troll looked a lot like a human but was twice as big.
Over hunched shoulders, a very white head gleamed bare.  On its forehead
there was a stiff, curving horn of flesh and from his gapping mouth grew
yellow fanglike teeth.

The troll shambled towards Mari, the dagger in his hand and saliva dripping
from its mouth.  He did not stab her - he raised he free hand to strike her and
that was the last thing Mari saw for a long time ...

When she regained consciousness, she found herself trussed and slung over
the troll's shoulder.  Mari had no idea where they were headed or how long
and far they traveled.

The journey ended at a hut half-buried in the snow high in the mountains.
Within its darkconfines, the troll set Mari down and tied her to a post by a length of thong.  Although she had some freedom of movement, her hands remained tied.  The creature started a fire and studied the woman with his dark, dull and empty eyes.  " Pretty, " he grunted.  " Wife."  Then he fumbled with his four fingers at her skirt.  Mari replied;
" My son will follow us and when he finds us, he will kill you for killing his father, and for taking me away."

The troll laughed so much that the horn quivered.  In a groaning mumble, it chanted its power, explaining that her son was bound to fail.  Its soul, was hidden in an egg in a hen in a sheep in a cask on a fire-rimmed island of ice beyond the North Cape, and a body without a soul could not die.

Mari started to cry about the death of her husband, about the son that she would never see again and for being held by something that was no more than an animal itself.  The troll suddenly said : "Food" and left Mari alone.  She quieted at once when a low whistle echoed through the chamber.
Nils strode into the room.  " I followed the track," Nils said.   "Now we will leave this land."  Nils tried to cut the rope but realized that it was troll-made, and no human could cut them. He had to kill the troll to set his mother free.

Mari told her son where the troll's soul was and he set off to find it.
The troll returned with the food.  It paused at the entrance, Swinging its heavy
head from side to side and working its nostrils.  " Man smell, " it said.

Weeks went by and Mari and the troll fell into a routine.  Each day the troll
went hunting, leaving Mari at least the gift of solitude.  He never untied Mari to
eat herself, and therefore he had to feed her with is clawlike hands.  Sometimes
it fumbled at her clothing but backed away as soon as she fixed her eyes on its face.

Slowly time went by and one day the trolls behavior changed.  He strucked blindly at Mari and with a guttered cry he swung around and crawled out into the snow.  His breath became a horrible liquid wheezing, and black matter bubbled at its lips.

A miracle followed :  The thongs fell away and Mari was set free.  She went to the door and saw the troll lying on the ground, drooling its lifeblood onto the
snow.  She did not know where to go, so she hid herself in the chamber.

Within days, Nils returned and told her that the animals helped him to find the troll's soul.  Mother and son marveled.  They left Trollbotn and took up life among their own kind, far away from that place of evil magic.