Plot
The troll is trying to convince Sir Mannelig (Swedish: Herr Mannelig) to marry her. She showers him with gifts but he refuses her, because he realizes that she is not a Christian woman but a troll (a Satanic creature). She is desperate about her failure, because winning Sir Mannelig would have "freed her of her torment" (presumably of the curse of living as a troll).
Read more about this topic: Herr Mannelig
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)