In the world of the internet, a troll is an unpleasant person who starts arguments, upsets people and tries to provoke an emotional response. But where did the idea of calling such individuals ‘trolls’ come from?
Trolls can be found everywhere in modern literature, from the Artimus Fowl series to Lord of the Rings. They are also featured in computer games such as World of Warcraft. But what exactly is a troll?
Legends
Perhaps the most famous was the seatroll Grendel in the Beowulf saga. In Scandinavian folklore, trolls were small human-like beings, of incredible old age. They were extremely ugly and slowwitted, with limited intelligence. In other legends they were referred to as immensely powerful giants with long noses and cannibalistic tendencies. These characteristics are shown in one well-known story about trolls, The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Some legends said that trolls possessed powerful magical skills. They lived in burial mounds, mountains and caves in small family groups and were always hostile and unfriendly towards humans. Trolls were feared because they rejected religion and hid from the sunlight.
Trolls were thought to live far away from humans because they could not stand the sound of church bells ringing. Sometimes, trolls would actually destroy a church and would attack lonely farms and cottages, occasionally kidnapping human babies and replacing them with troll ones, called ‘changelings’.
Trolls vs Thor
One of the greatest enemies of the trolls in mythology was Thor, god of thunder, who used lightning bolts to fight them. According to Norse legend, trolls would fight Thor at Ragnarök, the battle at the end of the world.
But do trolls really exist? In the USA in the 1950s, citizens of New York heard the sound of an army marching underground and fear of a ‘troll invasion’ filled the streets. In Scandinavia there are many misshapen and strange rocks, often in isolated places. They look like living creatures and some say that they are trolls, turned to stone as they fled from the sunlight.
What do you think?