DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52552#0108
92
THE THUNDERWEAPON
87. Common people formerly had queer notions about
thunderstorms. They had no fear of the lightning, for it never
caused fire. It often happened that a house or tree was struck
by lightning, but it did not catch fire—it was only split.
Thunder {Toren), on the other hand, inspired many people
with fear. But neither the thunder nor the lightning was the
chief agent at work in a thunderstorm, but stones which shot
down from the sky, the so-called torestene {i.e. thunderstones).
It was the thunderstone which shivered houses and trees without
setting them on fire. The thunderstone is a whitish-grey, long
oval stone, in shape like a hen’s egg. Sometimes one was lucky
enough to find them after a thunderstorm. As such a find was
rare it was deemed correspondingly lucky, for the thunderstone
was regarded as a powerful amulet for the prevention and cure
of various diseases ; in fact, it is kept as such by a few old
people to this day. Everyone knew what caused the thunder ;
it was simply that trolls were at large and the thunder therefore
came and hurled thunderstones at them to destroy them. One
of my boatmen, during a sail on Nordfjord, told me the
following tale. On a fine summer morning he had got up early,
and going out into the yard, had looked up across the country-
side. To his great surprise he saw a number of trolls in the
fields. They looked almost like pigs and were gambolling
about merrily. But it was not long before the thunder came on
violently. It struck the trolls in their midst; they in terror
scampered about in all directions to find their way into their
holes again. Now one, now another dived into his hole. When
no more trolls were in sight the thunder ceased. The man at
once went off to the place where the trolls had appeared in
order to find thunderstones, but he had no fortune. From the
neighbourhood of Stat on the west coast of Norway. [Com-
municated by Aug. Koren, chief physician, in a special number
of the Morgenbladet, June 28, 1896 (D.F.S.).]
88. Torelod (or torestein or dynesteiri), smooth, rounded
stones, formerly believed to be produced by the lightning:
Nordhordland, Sondfjord, Ryfylke, Sondhordland, Hardang,
Voss, Sogn: Aasen’s and Ross’s Norwegian dictionaries. In
THE THUNDERWEAPON
87. Common people formerly had queer notions about
thunderstorms. They had no fear of the lightning, for it never
caused fire. It often happened that a house or tree was struck
by lightning, but it did not catch fire—it was only split.
Thunder {Toren), on the other hand, inspired many people
with fear. But neither the thunder nor the lightning was the
chief agent at work in a thunderstorm, but stones which shot
down from the sky, the so-called torestene {i.e. thunderstones).
It was the thunderstone which shivered houses and trees without
setting them on fire. The thunderstone is a whitish-grey, long
oval stone, in shape like a hen’s egg. Sometimes one was lucky
enough to find them after a thunderstorm. As such a find was
rare it was deemed correspondingly lucky, for the thunderstone
was regarded as a powerful amulet for the prevention and cure
of various diseases ; in fact, it is kept as such by a few old
people to this day. Everyone knew what caused the thunder ;
it was simply that trolls were at large and the thunder therefore
came and hurled thunderstones at them to destroy them. One
of my boatmen, during a sail on Nordfjord, told me the
following tale. On a fine summer morning he had got up early,
and going out into the yard, had looked up across the country-
side. To his great surprise he saw a number of trolls in the
fields. They looked almost like pigs and were gambolling
about merrily. But it was not long before the thunder came on
violently. It struck the trolls in their midst; they in terror
scampered about in all directions to find their way into their
holes again. Now one, now another dived into his hole. When
no more trolls were in sight the thunder ceased. The man at
once went off to the place where the trolls had appeared in
order to find thunderstones, but he had no fortune. From the
neighbourhood of Stat on the west coast of Norway. [Com-
municated by Aug. Koren, chief physician, in a special number
of the Morgenbladet, June 28, 1896 (D.F.S.).]
88. Torelod (or torestein or dynesteiri), smooth, rounded
stones, formerly believed to be produced by the lightning:
Nordhordland, Sondfjord, Ryfylke, Sondhordland, Hardang,
Voss, Sogn: Aasen’s and Ross’s Norwegian dictionaries. In