Here is background info on my story.—Aaron
This tale was collected in the mid‑1800s by the great Norwegian folklorist Jörgen Moe. It appears in a number of collections, including Folktales of Norway, edited by Reidar Christiansen, University of Chicago Press, 1964 (as “Mop Head”); and East o’ the Sun & West o’ the Moon, translated by George Webbe Dasent, Dover, New York, 1970 (as “Tatterhood”). Variants have been found in Sweden, Iceland, and Ireland.