Ballad (Brace's tr.).

In his anger at being thus scornfully refused, the giant swore
vengeance, and soon after he shot a great flint arrow from his bow
at the maiden, who dwelt eighty miles away. Another lover, Torge,
also a giant, seeing her peril and wishing to protect her, flung
his hat at the speeding arrow. This hat was a thousand feet high
and proportionately broad and thick, nevertheless the arrow pierced
the headgear, falling short, however, of its aim. Senjemand, seeing
that he had failed, and fearing the wrath of Torge, mounted his steed
and prepared to ride off as quickly as possible; but the sun, rising
just then above the horizon, turned him into stone, together with the
arrow and Torge's hat, the huge pile being known as the Torghatten
mountain. The people still point to an obelisk which they say is the
stone arrow; to a hole in the mountain, 289 feet high and 88 feet wide,
which they say is the aperture made by the arrow in its flight through
the hat; and to the horseman on Senjen Island, apparently riding a
colossal steed and drawing the folds of his wide cavalry cloak closely
about him. As for the nun whose singing had so disturbed Senjemand, she
was petrified too, and never troubled any one with her psalmody again.

The Giant and the Church Bells

Another legend relates that one of the mountain giants, annoyed by
the ringing of church bells more than fifty miles away, once caught
up a huge rock, which he hurled at the sacred building. Fortunately
it fell short and broke in two. Ever since then, the peasants say
that the trolls come on Christmas Eve to raise the largest piece of
stone upon golden pillars, and to dance and feast beneath it. A lady,
wishing to know whether this tale were true, once sent her groom
to the place. The trolls came forward and hospitably offered him a
drink from a horn mounted in gold and ornamented with runes. Seizing
the horn, the groom flung its contents away and dashed off with it
at a mad gallop, closely pursued by the trolls, from whom he escaped
only by passing through a stubble field and over running water. Some
of their number visited the lady on the morrow to claim this horn,
and when she refused to part with it they laid a curse upon her,
declaring that her castle would be burned down every time the horn
should be removed. The prediction has thrice been fulfilled, and now
the family guard the relic with superstitious care. A similar drinking
vessel, obta