Fern Flower
Published on October 18, 2019

Troll

  • Skessy
  • Torogi
  • Trold

Regions of expansion

Sweden 1
Sweden

Description

The word comes from the Swedish "troll" — charm, witchcraft. This is a supernatural creature from Scandinavian mythology. They are mountain spirits associated with a stone, usually hostile to man. 

In mythology, trolls are not only huge giants, similar to ogres, but also small, gnome-like creatures that usually live in caves (such trolls were usually called forest trolls). The details of the image of trolls in folklore strongly depend on the ethnicity. Sometimes they are described in a variety of ways, even in the same legend.

Most often trolls are ugly creatures, from three to eight meters tall (sometimes they can change their size), almost always an attribute of the appearance of a troll in the images is a very large nose. They have the nature of a stone (they are born from a rock), turn into a stone in the sun. Sometimes they are described as shaggy or hairy. They eat meat. They often devour people. They live one by one in caves, forests or under bridges.

Trolls under bridges are somewhat different from the usual ones. In particular, they can appear in the sun, do not eat people, respect money, are greedy for human women (they do not see food in them). There are legends about the children of trolls and human women.

Troll in popular culture