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What is My Bag
Welcome to another adventure from the Thousand Acre Woods deep within Trollheim of the NJ Pine Belt! Tales Chronicled by Jonathan Hulton... That's me! Today's tale, Bjorn is complaining about carrying a sack for his father until the Jersey Devil robbed it.
We were walking from Trollheim to bring Mrs. Clevenger a sack of Jimsonweed. Bjorn was complaining about carrying the sack, again, for his father. He was in a sour mood and had not been happy since his daughter was fighting with him, as teenagers do. He hated that sack.
In the back shed of her Pine Tavern, she has her apothecary, and she was experimenting with an old absinthe recipe. Plus, she mixes up teas for the Lenape meteu or beson. They are the men that heal the soul.
All humor aside, Karl is an adept psychologist. Beyond his skill as our bard, his fairytales prescriptions hone in on the hole in your heart or mind. As a mixologist, only Gramps excels him. Karl is always consulting the beson on their herbal mixture he compares with recipes from the berserkers and ulfserkers.
So Karl, Bosco, and Nobbi had joined us.
We were following the trail northeast of the Disappearing Pond, traveling through the graveyard past the circumvented mound of an elder—when Gast burst through the woods and grabbed Bjorn's sack.
Bjorn just stood still, looked both ways, and squinted out of his dishumor. The Great Horned Serpent was watching. He thought of playing a trick on Bjorn. Which he would normally love, but he has trouble kicking people when they're down. So he shook his head and sunk down between the dead cedars back into the creek.
Karl was the first to give chase. Gramps and he spent a lot of time cultivating that crop.
Nobbi the whitetail was the fastest and I'm sure he could get Gast to agree to ten of his points on any argument. Bosco kept stride with Karl. Bjorn shrugged, grew taller than the trees, and placed me on his shoulder. His strides kept up with Nobbi.
We were coming up on where the Tuckerton Line passed Eagle's Nest Pond. The 4:00 was blowing its whistle for the brick company to speed up their cable car to their siding. I could hear the pistons still churning past the siding as we gave chase along the rails. Everyone gave berth to the 4-6-4 Baldwin to pass, but Gast jumped astride a passenger car and rode it like a horse, leaving Nobbi in its dust.
As Bjorn and I crossed in front of the pond, the Great Horned Serpent stretched out across the trail, tripping Bjorn. He could not pass up twice an opportunity to trip up Bjorn.
I went flying, turning into an eagle. I almost caught Gast when he escaped as a hummingbird with the shrunken sack in his mouth.
He flew down through the trees and turned into a hare as I pursued as a champion greyhound from Ong's Hat. I swiped his tail, and he almost lost the sack that began to enlarge and shoot out of his mouth.
Then he jumped into Forge Pond as a salmon and I followed as an otter, just missing the Ferrago Forge's undershot wheel as we went over the falls.
I gave chase through the Cedar Creek's serpentine bends till we approached Dover Forge. As Gast went to leap over the falls, Bjorn caught him.
Bjorn, still in his gigantic form, had cut the corner from the Tuckerton Rail to Dover in four steps. He could see us through the trees as he cut us off up ahead and was sitting silently waiting for us.
Gast regained his normal appearance and coughed up the sack.
When Bjorn saw his sack lying there, he shouted with joy.
“That is happiness. You have found it, haven’t you?” said Gast. "Plus, only when we lose something do we truly learn to appreciate it. So, don't lose your daughter over the small things."
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
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