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The Devil's Time
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, Nobbi, and Pops follow Sammy Buck to meet the Old Scratch, through the dark woods of the Pines behind Whitesbog, at the witching hour, to tune his fiddle.
Karl was heading to Jacobsen's grist and sawmill complex northeast of the White's cranberry bogs before South Boundary Road. He was traveling with Pops, Nobbi, and Sammy Buck after an all-nighter at Platt's Tavern on the old Tuckerton Stage Road. Halfway to the mill's falls, he was second-guessing his choice to follow them.
He was deep in his cups—which was nothing new. In fact, after leaving the bar, Karl tripped over the tollhouse, tipping it over with its toll man. Was his decision safe, or even practical for that matter?
They were heading to the falls so Sammy could get his fiddle tuned by Fossegrim. On the way, they had to steal one of Mr. White's lambs to offer the Troll at the falls. It was getting close to three in the morning, and they didn't have time to butcher him and make a mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is so lean to pay the Troll. Three lambs to be delivered on Thursday for three weeks was his usual payment whenever the fiddle went out of tune.
Tonight, amidst the bleating, Karl was wishing for the silence of the lambs. He couldn't remember if his friend stared at goats or sheep…To make matters worse, they were meeting the devil at the crossroads between the two races at the mills. Karl made a stupid bet. He bet old Sammy Buck couldn't beat the devil twice.
Karl met Nobbi outside of the tavern and tricked him into following along with a bag of apples. He thought a ten-pointer might add a little protection that night. Also, every adventure could use a questing beast… Pops came to officiate the contest. Plus, all that root beer was going to keep him up all night.
So here they were, walking through the pines to meet the devil at three a.m.
Not one of Karl's smartest choices, he was thinking with the small quadrant of his brain that was still functioning, which got quickly overruled by that brain cell, that was never the same after being kicked by Peggy Clevenger's mule. The tyranny of the minority.
As they came upon the gristmill, Sammy dragged the lamb to the falls. Once he got to the edge, Fossegrim lifted his head out of the water and swam to the shore.
He took the lamb, and we followed him to a pen filled with sheep.
There were several taverns in the Pines and even more fiddlers—all hoping to outplay Sammy. Fossegrim was going broke feeding all of these sheep before he could eat them. Many just jumped the fence.
Karl suggested getting a goat related to Tooth-Gnasher or Tooth-Grinder instead. They could be killed, eaten, and resurrected in that order. Sometimes, they began to resurrect while you were still digesting them. It could give you horrible heartburn. He suggested that feeding two goats would be cheaper than feeding a herd of sheep. The old Troll took his idea under consideration.
Fossegrim tuned his fiddle, and we were off to the crossroads.
It was dark, and were walking into a mist.
The screech owls were screeching, Nobbi was snorting, and the bats dove for Karl. The temperature dropped drastically, for it was the luminal point between the darkest part of the day and the return of the light.
Then we got to the crossroads, and Nist jumped out at us.
She is Gast's, the Jersey Devil, wife.
"What are you doing here?" asked Sammy.
"Well, with all of these fiddlers, Old Scratch is busy taking souls, so he was looking to outsource some of the labor—I cannot fiddle, so you win again." Nist isn't a devil but a Gastornis. One of the parliament of large flightless birdlike dinosaurs that haunt these woods…
Pops smacked Old Sammy upside the head!
Nobbi tossed Karl off the trail with his antlers, and Pops rode Nobbi back to Fox Hollow.
If you like this tale, hit the share button below or just even tell your friend the old fashion way, with your mouth. Come back next week for our next tale.
We just released our first collection of Trollheim stories in print. It is available on this website at www.salemhousepress.com and Barnes & Noble. Pick up your copy today, pretty please with sugar on top...
Fiction/ Illustrated Fantasy/ Mythology / Scandinavian Myth/ Norse Sagas / Scandinavian Folk Lore / Coffee Table Book
Paperback: $45 | Hardcover: $65 | PDF eBook $5
Buy now link...
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