Agnetha who was raised by a Troll

Once upon a time a Troll mother, called Trolletha, while giving birth, lost her child and so she went out and, making herself invisible, stole a human baby from a house, a little girl called Agnetha.
"You are a troll now, little one", she said to the baby as she carried it off back to her cave in the forest, "And I shall teach you to look and act and talk and be just like a troll".
And as Agnetha was growing up her Troll mother told her that she was a Troll just like her.
But Agnetha, even as a very young child, always had her doubts.
"How can Trolletha be my mother", she thought to herself, "We are so different. For she has hair upon her body while my skin is soft and smooth; she has large muscles while I am slim and slender and she is ferocious and likes fighting and hunting while I like gentle things like dancing and singing and picking wild flowers".
But all the same Agnetha knew no other mother apart from Trolletha and no other life and so she meekly accepted her life in the Trolls cave.
Over time, however, Agnetha grew into a beautiful young woman and one day, while she was in the forest a handsome, young viking prince named Edric came riding past upon his horse and seeing her and being entranced by her beauty got off of his horse to speak to her.
Agnetha had never seen another human before, however, and at first she was afraid, hiding herself behind a tree.
"What manner of creature are you?", she asked, timidly, "I know every creature in the forest but I have never seen one like you before".
"I", said the Prince, confused, "But I am a creature just like you?".
"You are a Troll too?", she asked, becoming less afraid.
The Prince laughed, thinking that Agnetha was making a joke.
"A Troll?", he said, "No, I'm a human, like you".
"A human?", said Agnetha, shaking her head, "No, no. I'm not a human. I'm a troll. My mother is a Trollmaiden".
The Prince couldn't believe what Agnetha was saying.
"But you can't be a Troll", he said, "Trolls are hairy and big and ugly. You're a beautiful woman".
But then, Agnetha, confused and frightened by what the Prince was saying ran off back to her Trollmothers cave and the Prince worried that he had upset her ran after her to apologize.
However, when Trolletha saw the Prince, she grabbed hold of him.
The Prince tried to wrestle free of the Troll but her arms were so big and broad and muscular that they held him in a grip as firm as a vice and then the Troll threw the Prince into a cage and locked its door with a key.
"I shall have you for supper", she said, licking her lips and smiling as she went into her cave and started to prepare her cooking pot to cook the prince.
But then the Prince pleaded with Agnetha.
"Please, fair maiden", he said, "Have pity upon me. I did not mean to scare you. Please do not let that monster eat me".
"But that monster, as you call her, is my mother", said Agnetha.
"No, it cannot be", said the Prince, shaking his head, "That foul creature has decieved you. You cannot be her child for she is a troll and you are a woman".
Just then however, the Prince remembered something and, reaching under his shirt collar he took a pendant off from around his neck that was shaped like an eye within a heart.
"This pendant", he said, "My mother gave it to me. It is the eye of Odin and she says that it has the power to reveal the truth to anyone who wears it".
Then reaching out through the bars of his cage he held it out for her.
"Please put it on and you'll see that I'm telling the truth", he said.
So, warily, Agnetha took hold of the pendant and placed it around her own neck.
When she did however, something remarkable happened, the eye within the pendant starting to glow, within her heart Agnetha saw that what the prince had been telling her was true; she saw how Trolletha had abducted her from her cot when only an infant and how she had lied to her and kept her a prisoner all her life.
"All my life", she said, "Has been a lie".
But then the Prince pleaded with her again to let him go.
"How?", she asked, "My mother...I mean... Trolletha has the key to the cage".
But then the Prince remembered the horse he had left in the forest.
"My horse", he said, "Go to it and get my sword that is tied up upon the saddle. Atleast, if I cannot escape this cage, you can give me a weapon to defend myself".
And so Agnetha ran off into the forest as fast as she could and, finding the Princes loyal stallion just where he had left it, she untied his sword from its saddle.
Before she could bring it back to him, however, Trolletha came back out of her cave and, laughing wickedly, started to open up her cage with her rattling keys.
Then she dragged the poor prince out of the cage and, though he fought and struggled bravely, she was far too strong for him and without much difficulty she managed to drag him into her cave where, upon a table the prince saw a large butchers knife.
And picking up the butchers knife the Troll was just about to kill the prince with it when Agnetha returned holding the Princes sword.
But there was no time to give him the sword.
"What am I to do?", she wondered, her heart panicking.
But then the eye within the heart shaped pendant that the Prince had given her started to glow and, when it did, suddenly she knew exactly what she must do.
Raising up his sword herself, she ran towards Trolletha and, just as the Troll was about to slay the Prince, thrust the blade of the sword into her back, piercing the Trollmaidens evil heart.
And the moment the Trolls heart was pierced, she was killed and, as Trolls do when they die, she turned instantly to stone.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the Prince rose to his feet.
"You saved my life", he said to her, "Thank you".
"You gave me back mine", said Agnetha, smiling.
But then, because Agnetha did not know who her real parents were, she went home with the Prince to his castle in Sweden and then,after living there for a time as his guest they fell deeply in love and becoming married in a viking wedding on longship covered in gold and diamonds, they lived happily ever after.