So they threw a wedding, and reveled and made merry, and fired off shots to scare away the troll hags.

In the old communities, throwing a wedding traditionally implied several days of costly and complex festivity, involving a network of customs and beliefs bearing different religious and social functions. If the primary purpose was to protect the bride and groom from temptations and dangers at a critical time, the church’s blessing simply did not bend. As the threats came from beings in which only the folk belief knew the means of defense.

Especially on the wedding day, the bride in particular found herself in a precarious situation. From the very moment she got up that day, and until she returned from church, the subterraneans crept about, trying to lure her from the wedding and into the mountain. Some stories tell of the girl voluntarily surrendering to the Mountain King. Other stories have a more heartbreaking approach; according to a legend from Notodden, a municipality in the southeastern part of Norway, the bride where on her way to the stave church of Heddal for the ceremony. As the bridal procession passed the mountain, the bride suddenly disappeared – the creatures got to her, locking her up in the stones. In order to call her back, the bells of the local church bells were put into use – however, the bell rope broke, and all to be heard from the girl was a distant cry from the innermost part of the mountain.

To prevent this from happening, the entourage was always arranged so that the bride along the way was surrounded by at least two bridal friends, who shot scarecrows over her head with pistols and guns, accompanied by shrieking and yelling from the other guests, making sure she was not captured by the mountain creatures, or – if passing a bridge – pulled underwater by the dreadful neck. As an extra safety precaution, the bride, as well as the groom, had a few silver shillings in their shoes, as the use of silver was known to scare the subterraneans away. If travelling by boat, the wedding couple with company was always situated in the first vessel, while blasts from the shotgun crackled and shrieked around them. 

Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude (1848). Brudeferden i Hardanger 

(Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord). 

The Norwegian National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

Source:

• Ørnulf Hodne (1999). Norsk Folketro. Cappelen