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Troll
A few trolls, gathered around a campfire.
Artist not identified.A troll is a member of a fearsome
humanoid race from Scandinavian folklore, and its predecessor
Norse mythology, as in "The Three Billy Goats Gruff
," the well-known Scandinavian folk tale in which
a troll living under a bridge torments some billy goats
that want to cross. Grendel in the poem Beowulf is a closely
similar creature. The word "Troll" is possibly
derived from an old norse word meaning magic, cf. Swedish
trolla Danish and Norwegian trylle ("perform magic
tricks").
What is refered to as giants (jotnar)
in Norse mythology, who were sometimes called trolls as
well, have their closest mythological descendant in the
trolls in Scandinavian folklore, where "troll"
and "giant" are many times used synonymous.
Trolls In Scandinavian Folklore
Statue of a troll at the Norwegian pavillion
in Epcot, Disney World
Trolls with an abducted princess (John Bauer, 1915)
Trolls with a changeling they have raised (John Bauer,
1913)
Sticker often found on older SAAB automobiles.According
to a 1908 cyclopedia: "Trolls are Dwarfs of Northern
mythology, living in hills or mounds; they are represented
as stumpy, misshapen, and humpbacked, inclined to thieving,
and fond of carrying off children or substituting one
of their own offspring for that of a human mother. They
are called hill-people, and are especially averse to noise,
from a recollection of the time when Thor used to throw
his hammer at them."
In Sweden there are many places that
are named after trolls, such as the town Trollhättan
(Troll's hood) and the legendary mountain Trollkyrka (Troll
church).
Trolls are one of the most frequent creatures
of Scandinavian fairy tales and more common than elves,
dwarves, witches and giants (in the fairy tales, there
is no clear-cut line between witches and female trolls,
nor between male trolls and giants). They come in any
size and can be as huge as giants or as small as dwarves.
They are often regarded as having poor intellect (especially
the males, whereas the females, trollkonor, may be quite
cunning), great strength, big noses, long arms, and as
being hairy and not very beautiful (Once again, females
often constitute the exception, with female trolls frequently
being quite comely). In Scandinavian fairy tales trolls
sometimes turn to stone if exposed to sunlight. (This
weakness is shared by Norse svartálfar (black elves)
and dwarves.) Again, like many other species in Scandinavian
folklore, they are said to reside in underground complexes,
accessible from underneath large boulders in the forests
or in the mountains. These boulders can be raised upon
pillars of gold. In their living quarters, they hoard
gold and treasures.
The trolls sometimes abduct people to
live as slaves or at least prisoners among them (in the
fairy tales, they are especially fond of robbing princesses).
These poor souls are known as bergtagna ("those taken
to/by the mountain"), which also is the modern Scandinavian
word for mesmerized. When (if) these people are let out
from the trolls' captivity, they does not seem to remember
anything from the time underground. Occasionally, the
trolls even steal a new-born baby, leaving their own offspring
– a changeling – in return.
Another popular image is that of the
troll (or giant) that throws large rocks on a church,
demonstrating his hatred for Christianity. In Sweden,
a large stone lying about seemingly randomly in the country
(actually a remnant of the ice age) is called a "jättekast"
(giant throw). The trolls were often considered enemies
of the Church and sometimes even in league with the Devil,
and could as such be scared or repelled with crucifixes,
prayers or the sound of church bells.
Tales also recollect of various kinds
of trolls, depending on their habitat. We have the sea
trolls (who could give both bad and good luck to fishermen,
depending on whether you indulged them with treats), the
subterranean mountain trolls, hassling tiny-trolls as
well as the humongous though sluggish Elder Troll ("Gammeltrollet").
In this context, the common troll should probably be dubbed
a forest troll.
The following excerpts from the Danish
Ballad of Eline of Villenskov describe the physical aspects
of trolls within Scandinavian mythology:
There were seven and a hundred Trolls,
They were both ugly and grim,
A visit they would the farmer make,
Both eat and drink with him.
Out then spake the tinyest Troll,
No bigger than an emmet was he,
Hither is come a Christian man,
And manage him will I surelie.
In a story in the Edda the poet Bragi
Boddason encounters a troll-woman who hails him with this
verse.
They call me Troll;
Gnawer of the Moon,
Giant of the Gale-blasts,
Curse of the rain-hall,
Companion of the Sibyl,
Nightroaming hag,
Swallower of the loaf of heaven.
What is a Troll but that?
Young Scandinavian children usually
understand the concept of trolls, and a way to teach children
to brush their teeth is to tell them to get rid of the
very small "tooth trolls" that otherwise will
make holes in their teeth. This is a pedagogic device
used to explain bacteria by the Norwegian author Torbjørn
Egner in his story "Karius og Baktus".
Camilla Asplund Ingemark's, The Genre
of Trolls. The Case of a Finland-Swedish Folk Belief Tradition
is the first doctoral dissertation on traditional forest
trolls received in Finland. Her research describes trolls
according to the folklore of Swedish-speaking Finns. Ingemark
compares the style and content of Troll tales folklore
with biblical stories.
In Shetland and Orkney tales, trolls
are called trowe.
Trolls In Nordic Art, Music And Literature
Troll pondering its age. (Theodor Kittelsen,
1911)
Troll statue in the forest near Geilo, NorwayEdvard Grieg,
Norway's greatest composer, wrote several pieces about
Trolls. In the Hall of the Mountain King, and March Of
The Trolls, are two examples of this theme. Regarding
his motivations, Grieg wrote: "The peculiar in life
was what made me wild and mad...dwarf power and untamed
wildness...audacious and bizarre fantasy." Grieg's
former home, Troldhaugen ("The Troll's Hill"),
is now a museum.
Like Grieg, conductor Johan Halvorsen
was a nationalist Norwegian composer. He wrote, The Princess
and the Giant Troll, The Trolls enter the Blue Mountain,
and Dance of the Little Trolls.
Geirr Tveitt was heavily influenced by
Grieg's romanticism and cultural exploration of Scandinavian
folklore and Norwegian folk-music. Tveitt's Troll Tunes,
includes works such as Troll-Tuned Hardanger Fiddle, and
The Boy With The Troll-Treasure. Tragically, 80% of Tveitt's
oeuvre was destroyed in a fire.
In Swedish children's literature, trolls
are not naturally evil, but primitive and misunderstood.
Their misdeeds are due to a combination of basic and common
human traits, such as envy, pride, greed, naïveté,
ignorance and stupidity. In some early 20th century fairy
tales, by Elsa Beskow, trolls are also depicted as an
aboriginal race of hunters and gatherers who are fleeing
the encroaching human civilisation. Where man makes a
road, the trolls disappear.
The Swedish-speaking Finnish author Tove
Jansson has reached a world-wide audience with her Moomintrolls.
In the genre of paleofiction, the distinguished
Swedish-speaking Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén
has entertained the theory (e.g. in Dance of the Tiger)
that trolls are a distant memory of an encounter with
Neanderthals by our Cro-Magnon ancestors ~40 kya during
their migration into northern Europe. Spanish paleoanthropologist
Juan Luis Arsuaga provides evidence for these types of
encounters in his book, The Neanderthal's Necklace. The
theory that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon's occupied the
same area of Europe at the same time in history has been
confirmed by fossil evidence. Neanderthals may well have
lived into historical times and may be remembered as trolls,
but there is little evidence for this theory. Other researchers
believe that they just refer to neighboring tribes.
Troll Dolls
A much more harmless variant of trolls
are troll dolls, a type of toy doll that became a fad
after its creation in 1959 by Danish Woodcutter Thomas
Dam. The fad underwent a revival in the early and mid-1970s,
with many motorists hanging small plastic troll dolls
from their front windshield or mirror. Although retaining
the fabled ugliness of trolls, troll dolls are also cute
and cuddly, according to some tastes. Some people collect
them, they come in many colors and styles, with garish
colored hair that sticks up on their heads, and some of
the later ones having jewels imbedded in their bellies.
American Trolls
"The Troll." A statue under
the north end of the Aurora Bridge in the Fremont neighborhood
of Seattle, Washington, USA.Scandinavian folk-tales involving
trolls such as "Three Billy Goats Gruff" are
familiar to other European and European-derived cultures.
In the US and Canada, the old belief in trolls is parallelled
by a modern belief in Bigfoot and Sasquatch. Many statues
of trolls adorn the downtown business district of Mount
Horeb, Wisconsin, leading to the town being dubbed The
Troll Capital. There is also a neighborhood on the northeast
side of Fargo, North Dakota which is named Trollwood.
In the David the Gnome animation series,
trolls persecute gnomes.
In the TV mini-series The 10th Kingdom,
trolls are the ruling race of the 3rd kingdom, having
large pointy ears and noses, wild hair, poor intelligence
and a love of shoes and leather.
Modern Fantasy Trolls
In Literature
In J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth,
trolls are very large (around 9 feet tall) and immensely
strong humanoids of poor intellect. They are divided in
many kinds: hill trolls, mountain trolls, snow trolls,
cave trolls and stone trolls which turn to stone when
exposed to sunlight. In The Lord of the Rings, a new breed
appears, called the Olog-hai. Unlike the old trolls, they
are capable of movement under sunlight.
In the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett,
trolls are large creatures who are composed of, and eat,
rock. They have a cultural tendency towards violence,
and their intelligence is inversely proportional to the
temperature, making them quite unintelligent in warm climates.
Their size increases with age, from pebbles to mountains.
They have had a bad reputation of eating people, but this
stereotype is untrue, as trolls are unable to digest anything
but rock; they do, however, have to pay special attention
to avoid unintentionally crushing humans to a pulp in
order to become socially acceptable. The bar 'The Mended
Drum' has trolls for security. They are called "splatters"
because when a trolls tries to bounce a human, they tend
to make them splatter.
In the world of Harry Potter, trolls
are giant monsters that kill everyone they encounter.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Harry and
Ron Weasley save Hermione Granger from a full-grown mountain
troll. In the film, the troll was animated with computer-generated
imagery. There are a few other subsequent mentions of
trolls; for example it was rumored that Harry's Firebolt,
which Dolores Umbridge "confiscated" was guarded
by trolls. "Security trolls" are also mentioned
in several places - apparently they can be hired as guards.
In Games
Two Jungle Trolls from the MMORPG World of Warcraft.In
the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, trolls are
tall and skinny monsters with large, pointy noses and
green skin. In D&D, trolls steadily regenerate all
damage unless it is caused by acid or fire. (This version
of troll originated with the Poul Anderson story Three
Hearts and Three Lions.)
In the Earthdawn role-playing game, trolls
are a tall, muscular and honorable race which players
can role-play. Earthdawn trolls have curling horns like
goats, lots of body hair and enlarged lower canines.
In the Shadowrun role-playing game, trolls
are also a race available to player characters.
In computer games with a fantasy theme,
trolls appear in many shapes and dispositions. In one
of the most successful MMORPG, EverQuest, trolls are one
of the choices for players to assume as their character.
In Dark Age of Camelot, trolls are also a player race
but appear more like a rock golem although they appear
among the ranks of the Norse "Midgard" side.
Most computer games adopt the Dungeons
& Dragons type of troll, with regeneration of some
sort.
Warhammer Trolls are similar to Dungeons
& Dragons Trolls. In additon, they have highly corrosive
stomach acid that can dissolve anything from flesh and
bone to rocks and metals. There are many different varieties
of Troll, such as slimy River Trolls and magic resistant
Stone Trolls. Trolls are rather stupid, and are typically
allied with Orcs.
In the Warcraft series of PC games from
Blizzard Entertainment, Trolls are an agile, mohawk-sporting,
sentient race. They are savages, wielding axes and spears
and practicing voodoo. There are five varieties of trolls
in Warcraft. The green Forest Trolls of Zul'Aman (the
Hinterlands), the icy blue Ice Trolls of Northrend and
Khaz Modan, the large Dark Trolls of Ashenvale, the mysterious
Desert Trolls of Tanaris, and the numerous Jungle Trolls.
Of the many tribes of Jungle Trolls, the Darkspear Tribe
was exiled from their native Stranglethorn Vale, and allied
with the Horde when their new island home came under attack.
The Trolls of Warcraft are different from most representations
of Trolls in that they are extremely clever and are one
of the craftier races in the game.
Games Simon the Sorcerer and King's Quest
portray trolls that guard bridges, who are repelled with
the help of goats (a reference to the folk tale). In The
Secret of Monkey Island, the main character Guybrush Threepwood
encounters a troll who does not allow him to use a bridge.
Shortly after, it is revealed that the troll is just a
man, resembling George Lucas, in a costume.
In Heavy Metal Music
Troll metal is black metal music dealing with trolls,
goblins and related subjects. Finntroll is one of the
most famous troll metal bands. Singing Trolls relate their
hate of humans, especially Christians, which is for them
a plague to eradicate - and to eat.
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