Tale #54 – The Woman Wants Something for the Button

Even though the world cup is still going on – and is still eating the bit of time I have besides university and job – let’s have a folktale today with no connection to any world cup participant. This one is from Lapland.

The Woman Wants Something for the Button

Once upon a time an old man lived in a miserable hut with his old wife. They were so poor that they had not a single thing of worth but for a golden button on top of the woman’s spindle.

Lapland's coat of arms

It was the man’s habit to go either hunting or fishing every day to provide for their basic livelihood.

Not far from the hut, there was a big hill. And people believed that there lived an elf inside who was called Kidhus and who one should be wary off.

Once, the man was going hunting as was his habit while the woman stayed home after her own habit. As the weather was beautiful on that day, she took her spindle outside and spun for a time. Then it happened that the golden button fell off the spindle and rolled so far away that the woman could no longer follow his path with her eyes. She was very unhappy about it and searched every but alas, she could not find it.

As the man came back home, she told him about her misfortune. Her husband guessed that it might have been Kidhus who took the button. It would be just like him to do so. The man made to go off again and he told his wife that he would go to Kidhus either to reclaim the button or to demand something else in its stead. The woman’s eyes got bigger and bigger as she heard him talk like this.

But the man went off and made straight for the hill in which Kidhus lived. With his thick stick he knocked long and hard upon the hill. Finally Kidhus said:

“Who is knocking on my house?”

The old man replied:

“It is the old man, the poor blighter,
My wife wants something for the button.”

Kidhus asked what he demanded for the button. The man asked for a cow that gave 10 litres of milk a day. Kidhus granted him his wish and so the man brought the cow back to his wife.

On the next day, after the woman had milked the cow in the morning and in the evening and had filled all her buckets with milk, she wanted to prepare porridge. But then she remembered that she had no flour for porridge. She went to her husband and asked him to go to Kidhus a second time and ask for flour. The man went to Kidhus again and, as before, he knocked with his stick upon the hill. Kidhus said:

“Who is knocking on my house?”

The old man answered:

“It is the old man, the poor blighter,
My wife wants something for the button.”

Kidhus queried what he demanded. The man asked for a little flour because his wife would like to make porridge. Kidhus gave the man a barrel full of flour which the latter took home where his wife made the porridge.

When the porridge was done, the man and his wife sat at the table and ate from it. When they were full and sated, there was still quiet a lot of porridge left. And so they began to think about what to do with the left-over. It seemed best to them to bring it to the Virgin Mary. But soon they realised that this would not be an easy undertaking. They therefore decided to ask Kidhus for a ladder which reached into the sky and thought that was not asking too much for the button.

The old man went off again and knocked on Kidhus’ hill. As he had done before, Khidus asked: “Who is knocking on my house?” The man replied as he had done earlier:

“It is the old man, the poor blighter,
My wife wants something for the button.”

Now Kidhus become angered and he said: “Is the miserable button still not paid for, then?” The old man only asked more urgently and said that he wanted to bring the rest of his porridge to the Virgin Mary.

At last, Kidhus agreed, gave him the ladder and raised it up for him. The man was very happy about it and went home to his wife to tell her all about it.

They immediately got travel-ready and took the pot of porridge with them. But as they had climbed quiet a bit up the ladder, dizziness caught them, they lost their balance and fell from the ladder, shattering their skulls.

Brain and porridge flew every where but where bits of their brain rained down onto the stones, they became white spots. And where the bits of porridge hit, yellow spots appeared. Even today, you can see these two kinds of spots on the stones.

Copyright for the tale’s translation: TaleTellerin (source)
Copyright for the image: Lapland’s coat of arms

*****

For an elf of whom one should be wary, this Kidhus sure is a push-over.😀