Ogres and Goblins and Trolls, Oh My! - Part 3

The long awaited, final chapter - it's troll time, baby! If you were hoping to learn about ogres and goblins, then you need to backtrack to Parts 1 and 2. They're awesome and super importantly educational. And as a plus - it's great material to bring up at a party to impress!

Well, I don't know about you, but when I hear 'trolls' I think of Scandinavian bridges, toys with the long colorful hair, and the big galoots that Bilbo tricks early on in The Hobbit. Oh, and more recently, the little guys in Frozen. When you think about it, they are a pretty big part of our lives! Time to learn more; let's dig in.

Trolls first became a thing in Norse Mythology, so, think Odin and Thor. Norse Mythology was the religious practice for the North Germanic people (not just 'Scandinavia', but Nordic Countries, which include Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, and many surrounding islands) until Christianization occurred in the region, which took place between the 8th and 12th centuries (though, the reindeer-herding Sami people of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland lasted until the 18th century). Anyways, trolls at this time lived in mountainous or rocky areas and sometimes in caves, were said to live in little family groups, and were generally not nice to folk. 'Trolls' in Norse Mythology could also at different times be synonymous with demons, frost giants (cool), witches, black people (sad, but those were the times), mountain-dwellers, big ugly fellas, ghosts, Berserkers, brunnmigi (Norse mythology large beasts who pee in wells, yup), magical boars (WHAT?), or even werewolves - bad dudes, basically. And so, as you can tell, very often trolls (of whatever variety) had magical powers. Interesting! I really need to start thinking of trolls as magical beings; I like it.

Later, trolls left the realm of Norse mythology, and became a part of general Scandinavian/Nordic folklore. Definitely influenced by historical Christianization events - trolls were described specifically as non-Christians and very dangerous to people. Sometimes they were ugly creatures and dumb (galoots from Hobbit), and sometimes they were just like ordinary humans - but they were always non-Christian - oh no! Watch out!

So, this is the point in time where the dumb trolls began to change to stone when contacted by sunlight. Lots of stone/mountain/hill landmarks in Nordic countries are therefore named after trolls. It was agreed that they were not solitary, and lived in family groups, and were nasty to humans. The non-Christian thing is portrayed by the fact that trolls could be scared away by church bells ringing in your town. The old Norse Mythology still seemed to kick in every once in a while, as indicated by the fact that lighting (Thor!) could also scare trolls away. There is a bit of an ogre cross-over too, as trolls were known to eat people. Lesson time folks - when writing a fantasy story with bad guys, when in doubt, just make your evil minion creatures eat people, and the fact that they are bad will be solidified with your reader.

While the vast majority of the time trolls are big and strong creatures, in Denmark the 'troll folk' are smaller-than-human mountain dwellers. And actually, I came across quite a few pieces of artwork with really adorable little trolls from Danish sources. A very sweet Danish folktale involves a cute little troll from the hills saving the day by providing a magical cask of ale that never goes empty. What a nice fella! There are lots of Danish folk tales, pretty easy to come across, with little trolls who do magic. Very nice and sweet and cute. It seems to me that the Frozen trolls were probably inspired by these Danish troll folk.

Tolkien decided to go a different way than the Danes, and in The Hobbit had very brutish, large trolls who didn't do any magic that I can recall, and who just wanted to eat the dwarves. These were Stone Trolls. Outside of The Hobbit, Tolkien created the species of Hill-Trolls, Cave Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Snow Trolls, and Olag-hai. Look, Tolkien didn't mess around when it came to world-building. They probably all had their own languages too.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling wrote about a 'wild mountain troll', which was big, slow, dumb, and destructive. This seems to be very Stone Troll-inspired. I'm sure it's quite possible most people think of trolls in this way, though, Frozen might have changed people's minds. Hmmmm. I am really curious - what do you all out there first picture when you think of trolls?

Troll dolls (with the long colorful hair!) were created in 1959 by Thomas Dam, who was from Denmark; of course! The place with the cute trolls! In 2013, DreamWorks Animation purchased the rights of the troll dolls from Thomas Dam, and subsequently made a movie; I didn't see it, but there ya go. Dam was a woodcutter and made the very first few dolls for his children and their friends out of wood, but once they got so popular, he started making them out of plastic. Troll dolls were the most popular in the U.S. from 1963 to 1965, which really surprises me because I had a ton in the late-80's / early 90s. Huh.

So, we gotta cover the concept of trolls and bridges, which bring me to the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, which was published in 1841 as a Norwegian fairy tale. While it was written down in 1841 by some folk tale collectors, the true origin of this previously orally-shared story could not be found, at least by me. This and other Norwegian fairy tales got translated into English in 1859 and it started a bit of a craze, and 'trolls' first became a thing that English-speakers knew about. This is why, despite the HUGE variety of trolls in old Norse Mythology (remember the magical boars and frost giants and the beasts who peed in wells?), the rest of the world mostly stuck with the image of the brute living under the bridge (who wants to eat people!). And it all started with this momentous tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. This fairy tale had a pivotal role for the world's understanding of trolls.

For those who don't remember - in the story, three goats, who are related in various ways depending on the version of the story, need to cross a bridge to get to some wonderful grass on the other side. I feel like it must be noted that in the original Norwegian, the family name of the goats was 'Bruse', not 'Gruff'. Anyways, the big dilemma in the story has to do with the big, hungry troll who lives under the bridge and eats anything that crosses over. So, we've got a big, bad, non-Danish troll here, folks. The first goat convinces the troll to wait for the fatter goat that will be along soon; the second goat says the same. And then the third goat rams the troll with his horns and knocks him into the river where he floats away. Hurray!

Interestingly, this great story of the goat-hero gets a lot of traction in video games. King's Quest from 1983 features a troll on a bridge, and the way to get across is to lure a goat to the bridge; the goat gets pissed-off at seeing the troll and butts it into the river! Similar things are done in Magicland Dizzy of 1990 and Simon the Sorcerer of 1993. There is a bit of an Easter Egg in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim of 2011; there is a stone bridge that has three goats on top, and if you look under the bridge, there will be a dead troll. Cool! The Gruff boys have been mighty popular! (at least with the nerd crowd!)

Authors also love a nice nerdy Three Billy Goats Gruff reference. Stephen King refers to the story in 'It'. Neil Gaiman re-wrote the fairy tale using humans instead of goats. And Jim Butcher puts the goats into his 10th book of the Dresden Files! I loved those books, but sadly can't remember the Gruff boys showing up! And of course, more authors besides. It seems this Norse fairy tale has had a huge impact on the concepts that trolls live under bridges and that goats can defeat them. How cool is that?

So what did we learn? Originally, trolls could be almost anything, but were also almost always magical. Trolls can be big brutes, or cute magical little helpful fellas. Also, that incorporating a good goat-troll Easter Egg into your fantasy book would be a fabulous, nerdy idea. I love it! Please comment about how you picture trolls. And let me know if you were as surprised as I was to learn how important the Three Billy Goats Gruff has been for troll lore, world-wide.

P.S. Oh my gosh, I'm outdated. Maelstrom, the ride in 'Norway' in Epcot Center in Disney ran from 1988 until 2014. It was replaced in 2016 by a Frozen ride (I've not taken it; ugh, no offense, but this makes me so sad). Maelstrom was a dive into Norway culture as you rode in a Viking longship with dragons at the head! A three-headed troll yelled 'Back, back over the falls!', and used magic (yup, magic!) to send you over a 28-foot waterfall. This flume drop was the very first to exist at Disney. Side note, the little Norway cultural film they showed you at the end of the ride was shot with the exact same camera that filmed Lawrence of Arabia (Nifty!). Anyways, if you've been on the Frozen ride, please let me know about trolls. Also, click on that hyperlink above, grab a drink, and get all nostalgic as you spend 7 minutes pretending to be on the Maelstrom at Epcot.

P.P.S. Ok, I had to know, and I looked up the new Frozen Ever After ride in Norway at Epcot. Ok, it's cute, and there are cute little (ahem, Danish) trolls in it. I like it too. :)