de rød, the red horse or mare. In this version the water takes the place of the fire.
Nivla as a troll-name, name of a troll-child, may, if not formed simply to rhyme with Tivla, be set alongside No. nyvel, m., a small, insignificant person (Aa.), a good-for-nothing (R.).
D. A fourth Fetlar version runs as follows:
Du at rides de red
and rins de grey,
tell Tivla taitta (Taitta)
at Vārna vaitta (Vaitta)
is fa’en i’ de fire and brunt her.
Vaitta, troll-name, is certainly identical with the troll-name “Vatte”, which appears in Danish myths and especially in the myth here treated of the troll who sends a message.
Taitta, Tatta, troll-name, a further designation of the troll Tivla. Possibly derived from *tatti, No. tatte, m., nipple, unless the word has been coined for the purpose of rhyming with Vatta. Cf. vatta in the following line from Um.: Di rua vatta mega sustri, given me with no other explanation than that it was just what the troll said (Andrew Anderson, Baltasound).
Vārna Vatta: Vatta, daughter of Varni or Varna? Connected with the giant’s name Vǫrnir or the mythical man’s name Varinn?
The troll-child in the horn. (Us., orig. Fe.?)
A troll-wife sat milking her cow in a stall when she heard the following warning cry: Hə‘mpi hōrni hɔi mɩnni kɔ̆m karəl mi mɔ̆gg. Whereupon she cried: “O døl and hwæ̆n! dat is my bairn at is fa’en i’ de fire and is brunt her”, whereupon she quickly went out of the byre, leaving the milk-pail behind.
No doubt, here is a mingling of two different troll myths, because the milker’s answer properly belongs to the story of “The Troll’s Message”, while the lines Himpi, etc., belong to the tale of “The troll-child in the horn”, being a dialogue between a troll-wife and her child.
A man found a horn, took it home and hung it on the wall. Then a voice was heard outside saying: “Himpi hōrni häi”, or “humpi hōrni hɔu”, whereupon the troll-child in the horn cried: “My midder kaller o’ me” [- - käᶅ··ərəmi·, käᶅ·ərəmi̇̄·], my mother calls me, *(mín móðir) kaller á mik. A variant form is: “Dat is my midder kallin [käᶅɩn] on me”. Both these versions were noted down in Fetlar. It seems as if “karəl mi mŏg” is another and more corrupt Shetlandic form of “kallar á mik” — kallar by metathesis of ll and r becoming [karəl]. mog is a Shetl.-Norn form of “mik”, me, which is found again in the Hildina ballad (“moch”) and in the rhyme of “The Crow and the Crab” (“mog”). “mi mog”, doubtless with added English “me” as mog was no longer understood.
