Trolls! These legendary creatures excite our imagination and any good Viking tale must have great trolls, right? There are many types of trolls. The Old Norse word is used to denote various beings, such as a jötunn (giant or mountain-dweller), a witch, an abnormally strong or large or ugly person, an evil spirit, a ghost, a magical boar, a heathen demi-god, a demon, or a berserker. In mythology, the jötnar or trolls dwelled in isolated mountains, rocks, and caves, sometimes live together (usually as father-and-daughter or mother-and-son). The word troll became a collective term for supernatural beings who should be respected and avoided rather than worshipped. In Norwegian traditions, tales are told about both the larger trolls and the Huldrefolk (“hidden-folk”), and a distinction is made between the two. Trolls are sometimes “little people” or cats in folklore. Smaller trolls are often thought to live in burial mounds and in mountains in folk tradition. Troll could later have become specialized as a description of the larger, more menacing Jötunn-kind whereas Huldrefolk may have developed as the term for smaller trolls. In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are frequently described as extremely old or very strong, but slow and dim-witted, and sometimes as man-eaters or giants that turning to stone upon contact with sunlight. Sometimes trolls are described as looking much the same as humans, without any particularly hideous appearance, but living far away from human habitation and generally having a form of social organization, not solitary beings. Trolls were dangerous, in the habit of bergtagning (‘kidnapping’; literally “mountain-taking”) and overrunning a farm or estate. A Scandinavian folk belief that lightning frightens away trolls and jötnar appears in numerous folktales and may be a late reflection of the god Thor’s role in fighting such beings. Large local stones are sometimes described as the product of a troll’s toss. The origins of particular landmarks, such as particular stones, are ascribed to trolls who turned to stone upon exposure to sunlight.
“They call me a troll,
moon of the dwelling Hrungnir
Giant’s wealth sucker,
Storm-sun’s bale
beloved follower of the seeress,
guardian of the Corpse fiord
swallower of the heaven wheel.
What’s a troll if not that?”