Thursday 25 September 2008

My Norwegian Trolls, only the good ones, of course!!!




Whenever I go to Norway I buy one or two trolls, troll books or picture postcards. I have come to love these guys. Mind you only the good ones of course!!

Whereas the large, ogrish trolls often appear as a solitary being, the "small" trolls were thought to be social beings who lived together, much like humans except out in the forest. They kept animals, cooked and baked, were excellent at crafts and held great feasts. Like many other species in Scandinavian folklore, they were said to reside in underground complexes, accessible from underneath large boulders in the forests or in the mountains. These boulders could be raised upon pillars of gold. In their living quarters, they hoard gold and treasures. Opinion varied as to whether or not the trolls were thoroughly bad or not, but often they treated people as they were treated. Trolls could cause great harm if vindictive or playful, though, and regardless of other things they were always heathen. Trolls were also great thieves, and liked to steal from the food that the farmers had stored. They could enter the homes invisibly during feasts and eat from the plates so that there was not enough food, or spoil the making of beer and bread so that it failed or did not end up plentiful enough.

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9 comments:

Reader Wil said...

B. Roan

You have a fine collection of trolls. Thank you for the lesson. I only knew them from the troll dolls which were popular too many years ago. They all look a little scary to me, but some in your post do look nice. BJ

raccoonlover1963/Lisa Myers said...

Hi Wil. Your trolls are so cute. I like the girl troll magnet. Love the hair!
Lisa

Rambling Woods said...

Cute..I remember collecting troll dolls when I was a kid...

Nydia said...

Oh, how cute!!!! I loved the heart-shaped slideshow, you have a bunch of lovely trolls!

Kisses from Nydia.

Dina said...

Interesting stuff!

Janice Thomson said...

A unique item to collect. I only knew of the troll dolls too - didn't realize there were so many different kinds.

Gretchen said...

Love it! Troll dolls were really popular when I was a kid. Wish I still had them.

kjpweb said...

They are funny! Nice collection!
Cheers, Klaus

ADMIN said...

I love little trolls. I like to scatter them around the yard. Your collection is really nice!