Doubting Salmon
Welcome to another adventure from the Thousand Acre Woods deep within Trollheim of the NJ Pine Belt! Tales Chronicled by Jonathan Hulton... That' me! Today's tale, Karl plays a trick on the Great Horned Serpent.
One day Karl turned into an otter and tried to get the best of the Great Horned Serpent.
He was swimming within the Disappearing Pond, playing with a salmon.
Where the salmon came from, don't ask me…
Never ever thinkin' there was danger in the water, he was drinkin', just guzzling it down.
When the Great Horned Serpent came skulking by, thinking of just stealing that salmon.
Karl was tossing the fish in the air where its scales caught the sun forming a rainbow.
He was thinking about jumping in the air and catching it in his mouth, but that would be like trying to catch a dandelion seed blowing in the wind with your tongue.
If he shrunk down to snatch it, he feared Bjorn might be hiding somewhere and snatch him.
What if he caught the otter, he then could force him to give up his fish.
So he wiggled his tail over and under the otter and pulled him down. Then he kept his hold, but let him up to breathe.
"Mr. Otter," the serpent called. "I want your salmon that you have there."
"Why should—" With that the serpent pulled him under again with his fish.
"That's why…" Karl answered his own question.
"OK, I will cook it for you—it will be a great loss for me, since this is the fish of wisdom."
Fish of wisdom thought the serpent, he had truly gained something. "What is this fish of wisdom?"
"Whoever eats it will gain the knowledge of the universe."
The serpent was pleased with his find.
So Karl cooked it up, and made sure to have some grease fall on his finger; which he then stuck in his mouth to soothe.
Then after the serpent ate the fish, he wasn't any smarter.
"Sorry, I must have taken the power when I sucked my thumb after burning it."
Then the Great Horned lifted him up to swallow him.
"Wait!" yelled Karl. "If you spare me, I will give you a ring that daily makes nine pounds of gold and nine more rings with the same power.
"I got the ring from a pickerel I trapped like you had caught me."
"OK, fetch it."
From the folds of his neck he produced the ring and slipped it on the end of his tail.
Ever wonder why dragons horde gold and princesses that they can't use—me too…
The serpent was cursed now—with that much gold and the ring to rule them all, nobody escapes the gravity of the situation which pulls you like an avalanche. A gravity that pulls nine of your generations to despair.
"I know of a cave you can hide your wealth in, if you swim through the aquifer you can pop up the spring at Union Clay Mines; then it's a quick slither across the beach to get inside.
The serpent liked this idea.
So Karl turned into a giant and walked the nine miles in three strides
He dug three pits from the water to the mine and covered them with pine needles and waited within the first one.
So when he passed over Karl, who shrunk back down, he tickled his belly, ever so mercilessly, that his coils fell and wiggled into the first two pits, taking his full weight leaving Karl safe to grab the ring when it fell off and collect the salmon when he regurgitated it. Karl was still laughing when he put the salmon back in the lake and paid him with the ring for his help.
Fiction/ Illustrated Fantasy/ Mythology / Scandinavian Myth/ Norse Sagas / Scandinavian Folk Lore / Coffee Table Book
Paperback: $45 | Hardcover: $65 | PDF eBook $5
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Following the Harry N. Abrams, Inc. tradition of the series that created Brian Froud's and Alan Lee's Faeries and Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, we present you with what would have been the next book in the series: Trolls: A Compendium. Trolls—do you think you know what they are? Could you be wrong?
Trolls within Scandinavian lore, myth, saga, fantasy, and folktales are actually anything magical within our northern neighbor's culture. Richly illustrated in this volume are the tales of faeries, dwarves, nissen, huldras, gods, Jotuns, draugar, ghosts, and more. Also, this book introduces our readers to the world of Trollheim, populated by Nattrolls that escaped the 17th-century Swedish colony within the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Narrated by Christopher Jonathan Hulton, who lives in the Thousand Acre Woods just after the Civil War, their tales are filled with Native American lore and tales of their neighbor, the Jersey Devil.
Preview: Google Books
Hardcover: $65.00
PDF (non-flowable, best on tablet, desktop, or laptop) eBook: Download a copy onto your device today! Only $5.00