"Tsju pus, vil du ned av bordet!" is a
Norwegian fairy tale from
Asbjørnsen and Moe's collections (1841-1844). It was found at
Project Runeberg and translated to English by
me for E2.
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There was once a boy who went out to propose, far off in a side valley. Everything was old-fashioned at the house he came to; they lived in an old "smoke house"1, where the smoke went up and the light came down through the hatch. There was a girl living there who was ready to marry, and she was so beautiful that many men wanted her; but she had her issues as well.
They received the boy well. However, while they were setting the table with lefse and flat bread and ham and sour cream porridge and a big, solid block of butter, someone's clothing was torn, and they wanted to mend it quickly. They needed a needle, but they couldn't find one. Then the wife of the house said "You have to look as well, daughter, you have such good vision."
Yes, she started looking high and low. Finally, she looked up the hatch pole2. "There it is," she said. "All the way up by the hatch." There wasn't a man alive that would be able to see the needle all the way up there. Now, the needle came down, the clothes were mended and everything was fine, and the girl went over to sit down. But they had a yellow cat in the house; she thought it sat on the table now - but she mistook the butter for the cat - so she hit the butter so it splashed into the wall: "Shoo, go down from the table, puss!
That was a girl with good vision, that.
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Go here if you want more fairy tales.
A great thanks to toalight for explaining the point of this tale!
Notes:
1: A house with an open fire in the middle of the floor, where the smoke goes up through a hatch in the ceiling.
2: The pole to open and close the hatch with.