Odin and Punga first met in the local village where Punga had been happily living in a basket of potatoes. The little Jerusalem cricket was always offended when people called him a potato bug. Even though he was living in a basket of potatoes, his favorite foods were dead plants and tiny insects. In fact, Punga was not even a real cricket. He was actually a member of the clever and noisy katydid family whose ancestors had dug burrows in planet Ode’s soil for millions of years. The trolls called Jerusalem crickets “Punga,” which meant “the god of ugly things.”
On a trip to the village to trade for food, Odin had heard a slight drumming, strange but pleasant, coming from a basket of potatoes. As he approached the basket, an obnoxious troll had already found Punga, drumming happily as he nibbled on a potato. Disgusted at the sight of his bulbous and shiny body, the troll had thrown him on the ground and called to his friends to come and watch him kill the frightful insect. It is hard to believe that trolls actually can think of other creatures as ugly and scary but, in fact, most trolls regard Jerusalem crickets as exactly that.
When provoked, Jerusalem crickets resist with strong kicking and scratching and sometimes a fierce bite with their powerful mandibles; but the hapless potato bug lay defenseless on the ground while a mean troll poked him with a stick. Before the simple- minded troll could step on Punga, Odin, who had seen the senseless cruelty, grabbed Punga and saved his life. The other trolls made fun of, and even threatened, Odin for saving the little creature. Odin, who respected all life, believed Punga was harmless and stood his ground while the frightened cricket crawled into his hairy beard to hide. Although still a young troll, he was already, like his father, tall with powerful hands and unusual strength. The other trolls let him be when they understood he was determined to stop them.
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Odin returned to his home on Mt. Grieg with Punga hidden in his whiskers. His mother and sister, Laelia, stood back with disgust at the sight of his big, bald head and small, beady eyes, but admired the decorative black and beige bands that circled his bulbous belly.
Soon after Punga’s arrival, they noticed that their cave was free of tiny crawling pests. The little cricket’s nocturnal eyes allowed him to spend nights hunting the other insects roaming in and out of the cave’s dark crevices. In time, they accepted the portly insect’s odd ways.
Deeply grateful for his kindness, Punga became Odin’s best friend. Although Odin did not know it at the time, Punga would become his voice of wisdom and his counselor in time of grief.