[Collected in Hjelmeland, Norway, about 1880, by T. Mauland]
On Steintland farm, in Hjelmeland, there was a tunkall in the old days. Many people lived on the farm, but all the houses stood close together as was the custom on the big farms at that time. A little apart from the houses stood a sheepcote, and there the tunkall usually stayed. Whenever people went by this sheepcote in the evening, they could hear him grunting like a pig. There was an old shack on the farm, and in it was a bed that always stood ready for the tunkall. Otherwise no one else lived in this shack. There was no bedding in the bed, only some straw sweepings, and if there was not anything to lie on, they could hear the tunkall wailing and carrying on something awful. In the evening at ten o'clock they heard him go in, and they heard him get up and fix the bed in the morning. It always looked as if a dog had been lying there.
Once there were two girls who did not believe what was said about this tunkall, and so they were not afraid to go in and lie down in another bed that stood in the same shack. They lay there a long time before they heard anything, but all at once they heard someone come in through the door. It opened and closed the way it does when a human being goes through a door. Then everything was quiet, and they heard no more until the next morning at four A.M. Then they heard the straw rustling, and it sounded as if a dog had sprung out on the floor. The door opened and closed, as it had done the night before, but they saw nothing.
An old woman on the farm said that she could both hear and see the tunkall. Yes, she often talked with him, for they were really good friends. When this old woman became sick, they heard the tunkall crying and wailing, and when she died, the tunkall disappeared, and no one has ever seen him since.
On Tengisdal farm, in Hylsfjord, there was also a tunkall who stayed in a shack like that. Whenever strangers came to the farm and were to sleep there, they were usually thrown out onto the floor as soon as they had gone to bed. The farmer was called Njadl. He was an unusually strong fellow, and wanted to be the master of his own house, so once he decided to go to bed in this shack. As soon as he lay down, the tunkall took hold of him and wanted to throw him out. But Njadl put up a fight. He took his knife and slashed and carved in the air about him, and he stabbed at the walls with all his might. Then the tunkall became frightened and ran out in the pigpen to hide. Njadl went after him. He did not want the tunkall there either, and he did not stop until he had chased the tunkall away from the farm. When he was some distance away, the tunkall looked back and cried. For a while after that they could hear him sobbing and wailing all over the farm.
At another farm they told about a boy who was on his way to a farm after dark when a troll came after him. The boy was brave, he was, and thought he could manage the troll when he went back. On the way back the gardvord went with him, and so the troll did not dare come near him. But if he had not done that, it is not so easy to tell how it would have turned out.