The
comet
Jarl Longtail troll lives at the very top of Gold Mountain, in a house he built himself. It is shaped like half a globe and painted gray, so that people who see it just think it is a strange rock formation at the top of the mountain. There's a long telescope sticking out from the globe, and Jarl's strange house is surrounded by many kinds of strange objects. There's a device with three wheels, a means of transportation which Jarl calls a “snyrkel.” Through scientific experimentation, he has concluded that it is not particularly sensible to use the snyrkel when going down mountain slopes. But the snyrkel is an excellent form of transportation on flat fields.
Another of his inventions is an apparently ordinary-looking wooden box. But inside the wooden box is a piece of intricately ordered machinery. This is Jarl's time-machine, but since it still needs a number of adjustments, he doesn't recommend that anyone try it yet. Of course, he has himself tried to travel through time, but for reasons which remain unclear managed only to lose his short-term memory for four hours.
Jarl is always in the process of developing something new and exciting and which is to the benefit of the other trolls. He also uses his magic to develop inventions. Jarl can fetch down light from the stars and put the light in lamps so that it lights up the trolls' homes. Because of this, the other trolls tend to say that Jarl invented the light.
It was this troll's scientific wisdom which saved all of Trollhufsa when the danger was at its worst. One cold clear winter's night, Jarl sat up late looking at the stars through his telescope, when all at once he discovered an entirely new star in the sky. He was very enthusiastic about this, and named the star Orathin. (That is a Troll-Latin word. 'Ora' means eye and 'thin' comes from the word light/giving light. Knowledge of Latin is quite widespread among learned trolls, and they to use words which are as complicated as possible. Mostly to impress other trolls, really.)
The next night, Jarl took another look at his star. It had gotten even bigger. In the days which followed, the star grew even bigger, so that in the end the other trolls could see it clearly without a telescope. That was when Jarl realized that it was no ordinary star. He locked himself into his globe, buried himself in his books, scratched his head and thought until he nearly dislocated his brain, and finally came to a clear conclusion: Orathin was not a star. It was a comet. And unfortunately it looked like it was going to hit Trollhufsa within three days.
When this became known among the other trolls, they knew that they would have to leave their village. With great sorrow they began to pack to leave the home they had had for hundreds of years. But one troll wasn't packing. They could see Jarl walking round and round up there with a quill pen and paper, as he was obviously doing sums, calculating and computing various astronomical calculations. The next day hammering, sawing and banging could be heard up on the mountain. The trolls caught glimpses of Jarl as he trudged around with winches, planks, rope and all manner of strange objects. When the trolls could no longer control their curiosity and asked what he was doing, he smiled secretively.
The third night came, and now the trolls could even see the comet during the day. They no longer dared to stay in the village, and most of them sought refuge with the elves in Mistvale. The trolls looked towards Trollhufsa, and the light shining from the comet lit up the winter night. It was clear to everyone that the comet could hit the village at any second. Many of the trolls shut their eyes and plugged their ears, for there was sure to be a huge bang.
But nothing happened.
Instead there was a strange swishing sound, and the comet – which had disappeared behind Witchwood – shot up again. It flew up from the ground, high up into the air and back into space where it had come from. The trolls had no idea of what had happened, but Jarl – who had climbed up a tree in Mistvale – cheered and waved his arms in the air.
When the trolls returned to the village, they understood why. Good troll that he was, Jarl had built an enormous slingshot. It had caught the comet in a magic net, and shot it back into space with enormous strength.
So it was easy to pick a new chieftain that year: it was Jarl Longtail troll, who with his wisdom and knowledge saved Trollhufsa from destruction by the comet.
Did you like the story? You will find more stories from Trollhufsa at Clara's Story Place.