Folklore i Perry
Dei var no ein heil del av dei gamle som kom ifrå Noreg, som hadde overtru. Det var ikkje heilt det same dei hadde alle. Det var ulikt på forkjellige stader. For somme var nissen viktig, men helst var det no bergtroll. Underjordiske kalla dei somme av dei. Det var ein del som var så ille at dei prakstiserte det her.

Det var ei gammal kjerring her borte. På julaftan så måtte ho laga eit stort kors av tjøre over stalldøra – løedøra – slik at ikkje dei skulle koma.

Og så var det to gamle kjerringar som var usamde om det dei kalla trollkatten. Dei trudde begge på dette. Og så sa den eine då, ser du, at den andre hadde trena trolkatten slik at han stal mjølka ut av kua hennar slik at ikkje ho fekk nok. Denne trollkatten var noko dei laga. Dei samla hår som dei hadde felt, kvinnene veit du. Når dei har mykje hår, så samlar dei hår og dei avklipte neglene og sa noko slag formular som dei hadde for å få dette til å verka, då.

Språkleg omarbeidd av BB og NTØ

Opptak 23. april 1938. Informant: Fødd nær Dalyville, Wisconsin, 1855. Forfedrane kom frå nær Lillehammer i 1850.

Trykt i Einar Haugen: The Norwegian Language in America, Vol. II, s. 487-488, Indiana University Press, 1969

Publisert med løyve frå Indiana University Press, 6/3/2002

Folklore in Perry
There was a great many of the old people who came from Norway who were superstitious. It wasn’t quite the same beliefs they all had. It was different in different in different parts. Some were mostly conserned about the ‘nisse’, some places it was the ‘trolls’; now it was this, and now it was that. ‘Underground people’ they called some of them. Some people were so bad that they practiced it here.

There was an old woman over here. On Christmas Eve she had to paint a huge cross of tar over the stabledoor – the barn door – so that they wouldn’t come.

And then there were two old women who were in disagreement over what they called ‘troll cat’. They both believed in it. And then one of them said, you see, that the other one had trained the troll cat so that it stole milk out of her cows, so that she couldn’t get any. And this troll cat was something they made; they gathered hair which they had shed – women, you know, when they have lots of hair, they gather hair and nails that have been cut off and said some kind of formulas they had in order to make this effective you see.

Recorded April 23, 1938. Informant: Born near Dalyville, Wisconsin, in 1855. His ancestors came from near Lillehammer in 1850.

Printed in Einar Haugen: The Norwegian Language in America, Vol. II, p. 487 - 488, Indiana University Press, 1969.

Published with the permission of Indiana University Press, 6/3/2002