MALLIE AND THE TROW

(folk tale from the Shetland Islands, told by Lawrence Tulloch, recorded by Bob McGeady)

I heard it from Stanley Robertson when we were eating breakfast in Bob Pegg's house in Strathpeffer. Stanley had heard it from George Peterson of Papa Stour/Brae but where George got it from I have no idea. (Lawrence)



Mallie was a widow who lived with her three sons. They were all big healthy young men, two of them were teenagers and their mother found it very hard to feed them. They were very poor, money was in very short supply since the man of the house had been lost at sea.

At the start of every winter they had a few potatoes, a small barrel of salted herrings and a boll (140lbs) of oatmeal. As the boys got bigger Mallie found it harder and harder to make this scanty supply of food last all winter.

There came the time, the winter still had a distance to go, when the last of herring was taken from the barrel and last of the meal was taken from the girner. As they ate this frugal meal Malie explained that they had no more food left and hungry days lay ahead.

The following day the boys were all as hungry as ever and there was no food.

“What are we going to do?” asked the oldest son.

“We shall have to become beggars, there is nothing else for it.” he was told.

The old woman who lived close by always seemed to have plenty so the same boy volunteered to go and ask her. He knocked on her door and she came and answered it.

“All our food has been eaten, we are all going hungry, please can you give us something to eat?” he pleaded.

He could see into the kitchen of the house, he could see that the cupboard door was open and the shelves were laden with food. There was bread, cheese, cooked meat, oatmeal, flour, tea, coffee and jar after jar of jam and preserves, the cupboard was filled to overflowing.

The old woman gave the boy a withering look.

“Go away, how dare to come to my door begging, I have nothing to give you and do not come back or it will be worse for you.”

He came back home to his mother and his brothers crying. He was a big boy and crying was for babies but he was so hungry and he could not understand how that woman could be so hard and unkind.

“Some folk are like that, son,” his mother said. “Be pleased that we are different.”

Late in the afternoon a knock came to the door and standing on the doorstep was a little old man with grey hair and twinkling blue eyes but he was dressed in rags.

“Can you give me something to eat? he asked. I have been on the road for two days without any food at all.”

Mallie explained to him that they had no food either but he was welcome to come in and warm himself by the fire. The old man thanked her and came in to the kitchen. After he had settled down and was speaking to the boys Mallie went to the herring barrel.

There were no herring in it, she knew that but there was some brine. She went to the meal girner and, using a small brush made from the grass, bent that grew near the shore, she swept the corners of the box, the lid and the bottom.

Mallie was surprised at how much she got from the girner, she took it and mixed it with the brine. It was enough that everyone got a small amount in a cup but Mallie had hardly any for herself.

The old man sat by the fire and asked if he could stay with them overnight.

“We have no bed for you but you are welcome to stay by the fire. We have plenty of peats so at least you can be warm,” Mallie replied.

The following morning one of the boys went to the well for a bucket of water and each of them had a drink. The old man took his departure and he thanked the family for their hospitality.

They all said goodbye and the old man walked away. The boys had gone back indoors and Mallie was about to in and shut the door when the man turned back and spoke again to Mallie.

“That meal and brine that we had last night, was that really the very last of your food?” he asked. Mallie told him that it was the last and she had no idea what they would have from now on. The old man considered for a time and then said.

“It is a very special person who will share the very last that they have.”

With that he turned and walked away. Inside there was a gloom settling over the house. Mallie hated to see the boys so hungry and they were trying very hard not to complain. The fire burned down low and one of the boys went to the stack for a basketful of peats.

At least they could be warm he thought. When he came back Mallie stoked up the fire. The peats were quite big and Mallie broke one in two. Something fell from the peat and tinkled on the floor.

When Mallie picked it up she saw that it was a gold coin. She broke another peat and out came another gold coin. Every peat proved to have a gold coin inside it and Mallie knew that the old man that visited was a trow and this was his way of saying thanks.

There was no more hunger for Mallie and the boys, they could buy anything they wanted. This did not go unnoticed, the old woman who refused to help them was curious to know where Mallie’s money came from.

She spied on the family and saw Mallie breaking peats and picking up the coins. The woman waited until after dark and stole peats from Mallie’s peat stack. She was not content with basketful, she took several and brought them into her kitchen.

However when she broke a peat no coin appeared. Instead a mouse dropped to the floor and scuttled away looking for a place to hide. She broke open another and another but she looked in vain for gold coins, all she got was more and more mice.

The mice multiplied like mad and soon the house was overrun with them. They got into her larder and they devoured every morsel of food that she had. In no time she had nothing to eat, the mice had consumed everything.

She endured two days of hunger and misery and then she was reduced to begging. She knew that Mallie now had plenty so she came to Mallie’s door and she was greeted by the same boy that she had turned away from her door.

The old woman told him that mice had over run her home, she had no food, she was very hungry and could they please give her something.

“I will give you exactly the same as you gave me when we had nothing,” he told her and slammed the door in her face.

Mallie asked him who he was speaking to.

“It was that old woman from next door,” he said. “She has the cheek to ask us for food and I have not forgotten how she treated me when I asked her for food.”

“Have you forgotten that I told you ?” Mallie asked him. “I told you that we were not like her.

She opened the door and called the old woman back.

“Come in,” she said. “Come in and sit by the fire and you can share the food that I am cooking. As long as we have any food you shall never go hungry.”