Legend from the area
Trolls in Oustrup Forest
The trolls were dying out, people said in the 1840s. But in Oustrup Forest they could still be found - and every sensible man carried a rowan twig in his pocket.
When Pastor Lindberg wrote down the area's legends in the 1840s, he was told that "the troll-folk" were dying out. People thought they knew why: the trolls lived in the burial mounds, and most of the mounds had been dug into, ploughed down or disturbed in other ways. So the trolls moved on - or died out.
But they weren't entirely gone. Here and there they could still be quite malicious. A bog in Karleby parish was called Troldemosen - the Troll Bog. And in Oustrup Forest, not far from Byskov, trolls were still to be found.
The maj-røntol
Fortunately there was a remedy against them. You could sing loudly as you walked through the forest - that helped a little. But the surest protection was a maj-røntol: a small twig from a rowan tree, cut in the month of May. Hold it in your mouth, and the trolls could do you no harm.
On Falster the rowan was called maj-ræn or maj-ræn-træ, and according to Lindberg every "sensible" man always carried such a twig on him, ready in case it should become necessary.
The rowan has altogether been a powerful tree in Nordic folk belief. It was used as protection against witchcraft, witches and evil beings - over the stable door, in the boat and in the pocket.
The forests of North Falster
Oustrup Forest and Hannenov Forest are joined together and form one of Falster's great woodland areas. Today there are marked bridle paths through them - see riding in the area. If you ride out there, bring a rowan twig. You never know. And in the Hannenov part, watch out for the elf-folk too.
Source: J.K. Lindberg's recorded legends, reprinted in Ketty Lykke Jensen, Ønslev og Eskilstrup Sogne (2009), p. 186. Retold.