A Norwegian tradition?

My six-year-old daughter lost her top front tooth yesterday. This is her bedside table last night. Yes, there is a connection. The cheese slice, torn into rat-sized bite pieces, is for the Norwegian tooth mouse. The tooth is lying at the bottom of the plastic cup of water; the mouse apparently can swim. Lest the mouse be under any illusion about whether the cheese was free or not, she left two folded fifty kroner notes under the cheese to remind him to leave money. The silver thing is a tooth-holder her little brother received as a present when he was born; it was presumably there simply to impress the mouse who may or may not have wanted to use it to check its reflection.

Her mother went off to Book Group, reminding herself to get change for a fifty, very confused, bemused, and certain that some Norwegian person would illuminate the whole Norwegian tooth mouse theory. 

No one had ever heard of it.

Thankfully the tooth fairy ignored all this mouse pandering and quietly took the tooth away and placed coins under my daughter’s pillow. My daughter’s first words this morning, as she looked at her table and reached under her pillow for her coins were, ‘Oh the mouse didn’t come and eat the cheese. So there IS a tooth fairy.’

The mouse theory came from her teacher at school apparently. I’ll be investigating further but am happy to have passed the test. Now must go throw some dried-out cheese in the bin and put a tooth away for posterity.