The Story of the Master Thief - Ancient Norse Folktale

Sadly, there are stories and tales of old, once taught and handed down from one generation to the next, that are slipping away from the consciousness of modern minds, destined to be lost to future generations if we are not careful. One such ancient Norse folktale in danger of being lost is -- The Story of the Master Thief.

Throughout many cultures across the world, stories of trickery and deception are common story lines around the campfires that kept away the boogie man's of yesterday, namely the wild animals, and other things unseen or imagined -- in a world before flash lights,lanterns, television, and computers.

Many of these mythical tales and legends, revolved around animal characters, or clever humans. They evoked common themes about loyalty, greed, subterfuge, and innocence lost.

Scandinavian folk tales (those from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland), like those of other cultures, were remarkably similar to those told by other peoples. Moreover, some have compared this Norse tale to that of other nations. These nations of these peoples were widely separated and could not have borrowed these tales from each other -- yet, essentially, they are very similar versions of the same story. One interesting old time theory, is that all nations long ago were one, from which the people afterward separated, and went to different lands for their final settlements. Hence, the evolvement of similar versions of the same stories in what amounts to world stories.

Another correlation that has been made about such similar tales of folklore, is that all the different ideas of God (or a higher Deity) held by different nations, compare much in the same way.

Here is my recollection of one version of this ancient Norse story, about a clever master thief. As an advocate of the preservation of folklore for all peoples of the world -- I hope that it is one that you both enjoy and share.

In this ancient Norse tale, the master thief is a farmer’s trainee, servant, or hired hand. In his land, there is a gang or society of thieves, and the apprentice thief begs to become a member.

The thieves pledge to admit him to their group, only if he can succeed in stealing an ox from the farmer, as the man is driving three oxen, one-by-one, to market. The other thieves tell him, the deed must be done without the farmer’s knowledge, and curiously decently, without harming him in any way.

So the novice thief, hoping to impress his new found friends, puts a silver buckled shoe along the farmer’s path. The farmer notices it, but left it where he saw it, and never even touched it. Who needs an odd shoe, without it’s mate? It would be of no use to him.

Well, upon seeing this, the novice thief cleverly picks up the shoe and runs around by a different road, that puts him ahead of his employer, and again placed the shoe in the farmer‘s path.

Now, the second shoe grabs the farmer’s attention, so he ties his ox to the fence and finally picks up the shoe and decides to go back to find the shoe’s mate. Naturally, the want-to-be thief, steals the ox and takes it back to his thieving friends that he is trying to impress.

Of course, they urge him to get a second ox from the farmer, who is by now back to driving his remaining oxen to the market.

This time the apprentice thief, disguises himself. He puts a rope around his body under his arms, and pretends to hang himself on a roadside tree directly in the farmer’s path. The farmer sees someone hung in the tree, but hardly even looks at it. His mind was on the loss of his ox and to him, besides there was nothing you can do for someone who is dead.

After the farmer has moved on out of sight, the thief unties himself and again takes a different short cut of a road. He again pretends to hang himself in a tree that the farmer will surely pass. Again, the farmer gives this event no evidence of any real concern.

Unbeknown to the thief, the farmer really did take note, but thinks perhaps he’s unlucky or bewitched. After traveling awhile down the road, and thinking upon those two unfortunate souls, he feels both curious and remorse. He decides to return to see if they are still hanging.

He ties up his second ox and of course, the young thief leads it away also. The other thieves in the gang then demand that he steal the last and third ox to prove himself worthy of their companionship.

By now, the farmer knows something is up and he decides he’ll teach whoever is doing this a lesson if he can figure it out. However, before he can think on this further, he hears the bellowing of his missing oxen and hurries towards them, after securing the third ox. While he unsuccessfully looks for them, the young thief now has all three in his possession.

Naturally, being successful in capturing all three oxen, the young thief impresses the older gang of thieves and is taken into their council. They then decide to not let this newcomer out do them in the ways of thieving, and take off to show that they are more successful than he.

The young thief, who was wiser than all of them, then returned his master’s oxen . He also smartly carried off all of the valuables and goods that the thieves had hidden in their den. Recognizing his cleverness, the farmer is impressed. Soon after he married the farmer’s daughter.

Many folk tales such as this one, have common themes -- a thief of wonderful cunning, his successes and escapades, and then ending in a final honor -- a popular ancient folk story line that transcends nationalities.

Similarly to the loss of a spoken language, cultural traditions, and music -- the loss of ancient folklore and traditional oral stories, legends, and myths is something we all want to preserve.

Fortunately, this tale has been preserved, although perhaps is not as well known outside the Nordic countries. It was collected early published in a number of versions, even made popular by The Brothers Grimm.

Thanks to the Internet, which might be compared to the old campfires of bygone years -- we can keep alive the world stories that many people once knew. They don't have to be forgotten, nor do they have to be limited, as in this case, to their country of origin -- the Nordic countries. Nor, do they have to be left on the Internet to simply be read -- learn them and share them, your kids will be amazed.