The Cat on the Dovrefell

Long ago, a man up in Finnmark caught a great white bear, which he meant to take as a gift to the King of Denmark. On his way, he reached the Dovrefell mountains right around Christmas Eve, and there he stopped at a cottage where a man named Halvor lived. He asked Halvor whether he and his bear could have a roof over their heads for the night.

“I wish I could help you, truly I do,” said Halvor, “but we can’t give anyone shelter just now. Every Christmas Eve a whole pack of trolls comes down on us, and we have to clear out ourselves. We don’t even have a house to sleep in, never mind one to lend.”

“Oh, if that’s all,” said the traveler, “you can easily lend me your house. My bear can lie under the stove over there, and I’ll sleep in the side room.”

He begged so hard that in the end Halvor said yes. So the family moved out, but first they got everything ready for the trolls. They set the tables with rice porridge, boiled fish, sausages and every other good thing, just as for any grand feast.

When all was ready, down came the trolls. Some were big and some were small. Some had long tails and some had no tails at all, and some had long, long noses. They ate and drank and tasted a bit of everything.

Then one of the little trolls spotted the white bear lying under the stove. He stuck a piece of sausage on a fork, went over and poked it right up against the bear’s nose. “Kitty, kitty, want some sausage?” he squealed.

The white bear rose up with a growl and chased the whole pack of them out of the house, big ones and little ones alike.

A year later, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Halvor was out in the forest chopping firewood for the holidays, because he expected the trolls to come back. As he worked away, he heard a voice calling through the trees: “Halvor! Halvor!”

“Yes?” said Halvor. “Here I am.”

“Have you still got that big cat of yours?”

“I certainly have,” said Halvor. “She’s lying at home under the stove, and what’s more, she’s had seven kittens, and they’re much bigger and fiercer than she is.”

“Oh, then we’ll never come to your house any more!” bellowed the troll from deep in the woods. And he kept his word, for ever since then the trolls have not eaten their Christmas porridge with Halvor on the Dovrefell.

About this story

“The Cat on the Dovrefell” comes from Popular Tales from the Norse, George Webbe Dasent’s 1859 English translation of the Norwegian folk tales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. The Dovrefell is a high mountain range in central Norway, long said to be the home of trolls.

In this tale, the trolls’ annual visit makes Christmas Eve a night of supernatural disruption. The joke of the story is that the trolls never figure out that the “cat” is a polar bear, and Halvor is happy to let them keep believing it.

Read the original: Popular Tales from the Norse (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 6–8 — a Christmas Eve feast, a pack of greedy trolls and a very big “kitty” under the stove.

Halvor borrows the troll’s own mistake

The bear frightens the trolls once; Halvor’s invented kittens keep the fear alive a year later. He does not correct their word “cat”, because that error gives him room to enlarge the threat. The second encounter is won with an answer rather than another chase.

Continue the conversation

Write one question a doubtful troll could ask about the seven kittens, then a reply Halvor might invent. Explain which part of the first night’s experience would make the troll believe him.

Questions to ask

• Why did Halvor’s family leave their house every Christmas Eve?
• What did the little troll think the white bear was?
• How did Halvor trick the trolls into staying away?

Related stories

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff — another Norwegian troll who meets his match
• The Husband Who Was to Mind the House — another funny Norwegian folk tale
• The Lad Who Went to the North Wind — more from Asbjørnsen and Moe