The Old Dame and Her Hen

The Old Dame and Her Hen is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in "Norske Folkeeventyr". [George Webbe Dasent, "Popular Tales from the Norse", [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/olddamehen.html "The Old Dame and Her Hen"] Edinburgh: David Douglass, 1888.]

The Brothers Grimm noted its relationship to "Fitcher's Bird". [Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Household Tales" [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/46fitchersbird.html "Fitcher's Bird" Notes] ]

ynopsis

An old woman had three daughters. One day, she sent the oldest to find their hen; the girl heard a voice call from a cleft in the rock that the hen was in the hill, and when she went to look, she fell in. She went through many fine rooms, but finally came to an ugly man of the hill-folk, who asked her to be his sweetheart, and she refused, so he killed her. The woman sent the middle daughter after her sister, and she might as well look for the hen as well, but it went with her as with her sister. Finally, the woman sent the youngest daughter after her sisters and the hen, but although it happened to her as to her sisters, she realized what had happened, and agreed to be his sweetheart.

One day, she became woeful and told the man that her mother had neither food nor drink. The man told her that she could not go, but if she filled a sack with food and drink, he would bring it to her mother. The youngest daughter filled the sack with gold and silver and put a little food on top to hide it. She forbade him to look into it; after while, he thought it was so heavy that he would look, but she shouted after him that she saw what he did.

A billy goat fell into the hill, and the man killed it. The youngest daughter complained that it could have kept her company, so that man used ointment to bring it back to life. When the man left, she used the ointment to bring her oldest sister back to life, put her in a sack with some food over her, and told the man he had to carry her mother more food. When he went to look inside the sack, the girl in it shouted that she saw him, and taking her for the girl in the hill, he thought she had sharp eyes and went. Then the youngest daughter sent back the next sister the same way.

Soon after, the girl told the man not to come back until twelve, because she felt ill and would not have dinner ready before then. Then she dressed up a broom as herself, ran off to her mother, and got a sharpshooter to stay with them. The man came back and demanded his supper; when the broom did not answer, he struck and realized what had happened; then he saw the bodies of her sisters were missing as well. Raging, he came after them, but the sharp shooter scared him off. He went back, but just as he was to go below ground, the sun rose, and he turned to stone.

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