"The Old Dame and her Hen" is the English title given by Dasent[1] to the Norwegian folk tale, Asbjørnsen and Moe’s number 35.

The tale's original title, "Høna tripper i berget" is more accurately rendered "The Hen is Tripping in the Mountain", as given in Reidar Thoralf Christiansen's translation.

But "Høna tripper i berget" was the title in Jorgen Moe's manuscript from 1838, after Lars Hansen Svendserud [no] of Ringerike.

The youngest daughter too fell down the chute, but prudently did some exploring, so that when she opened the hatch-door to the cellar she discovered her dead sisters inside.

[d] The youngest made the troll carry the middle sister the same way, except it was a great deal heavier this time because she stuffed the sack with gold and silver as well.

Then she stuffed straw into her clothes, and propped up the figure by the hearth, making the dummy look like it was holding a stirring-stick (tvare, pictured right) in its hand.

The troll came back to his home demanded his supper; when the straw-woman did not answer, he struck and realized what had happened; then he saw the bodies of her sisters were missing as well.

[1] A discussion of the Norwegian variants in English occurs in the piece written by Reidar Thoralf Christiansen for the festschrift to Stith Thompson (1957).

[5] The antagonist may be a giant (Rise) instead of a troll, and indeed, Norwegian scholars often class the tale group under the title "Risen og de tre søstre".

[12] Campbell did not print the Scottish variant in full, but noted it was the same as "The History of Mr. Greenwood" among Peter Buchan's collected papers, unpublished at the time, but later appearing in 1908.