“The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf.” Scandinavian folk & fairy tales: tales from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, edited by Claire Booss, New York: Avenel Books, 1984, pp. 393-398.

Tale Summary

There was once a poor girl with a bad disposition named Ingé, who often got away with cruel things because she was pretty. At her mother’s request she was taken to the house of some rich people who treated her as their own child, which only increased her arrogance. One day her patroness encouraged her to see her parents again. She agreed, but only to show off her appearance in her hometown. She was ashamed of how poor her mother was and left. Some time later she was again encouraged to visit, and her patroness gave her a loaf of bread to give to her mother. On the way to the house, Ingé had to cross over some water, but was too arrogant to get her feet wet and so she put the loaf down to step on instead. When she did this, the ground swallowed her up and she was brought to the realm of the Mud Witch, where she was punished alongside many other sinners. She was stiff as a board, only able to move her eyes, with her foot still stuck in the loaf as flies climbed on her and the tears of her grieving mother dripped onto her from above. Because someone had seen her disappear into the earth, everyone above ground knew what she had done, and she became the subject of a children’s song warning against being cruel. She could hear everyone she knew, including her caretakers, talk about what a uniquely unpleasant individual she was and was very hurt by it. Time passed and she could hear an innocent child’s reaction to hearing Ingé’s story; it was the first time she had heard someone express pity towards her. Many years later, that young child was an elderly woman on her deathbed, and remembered how when she was younger she shed tears for Ingé, and prayed for her. When the old woman passed away, she was able to see how much the girl had suffered, and prayed and wept more for her in heaven. Ingé was granted mercy and her shape was transformed into a small bird. The bird was shy and hid itself in an old wall, unable to produce a sound, but marveled at the beauty of the world. During Christmas-time a nearby peasant placed corn outside for the birds, and on Christmas morning, the bird emerged from the hole in the wall to perform its first good deed on earth. Throughout the course of the cold, hard winter, the bird collected many crumbs and seeds to give to all of the other hungry birds. Finally, when the amount of morsels that were found and given equalled the weight of the loaf of bread that Ingé had trod on, the bird’s wings turned white and it flew into the sky, and it was never to be seen again.