Stories about trolls first appeared in the Scandinavian countries, each with their own: Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, and later they appeared even in the distant Faroe Islands. And the biggest trolls come from Iceland. According to legends, these creatures have always frightened the locals with their appearance and witchcraft abilities.
They lived everywhere - in castles, underground palaces, caves, forests or under bridges. People had something to fear: some hostile trolls are dangerous enemies, strong and cruel.
They brought the villagers a lot of torment and misfortune, lured people to death or stole sleeping babies from their beds. The troll is an insidious deceiver living in constant darkness and attacking defenseless settlements at night.
In Norway, it was believed that trolls were strikingly different from each other in appearance and character; some are giants, others are tiny creatures; some are friendly to people, others, on the contrary, burn with real anger towards them. However, they also have common features, at least external ones: a large hooked nose, four fingers on each hand and leg, disheveled hair and a ponytail that looks more like a cow. Trolls can also take the form of a dog, a black goat, or a friendly man with a tail.
In addition to hair, monsters usually have moss, grass, bushes, and even trees on their heads. Yes, and sometimes there were different numbers of heads - the more of them, the older the troll. And not only older, but also more attractive, since the abundance of heads lured female creatures, who in Norway were called gygrs. The lifespan of the trolls has remained a mystery.
They lived in the dense Norwegian and Swedish forests. They also had relatives: in Iceland (they were called threshers there), as well as in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. The trolls hid their dwellings safely in mountain caves, inside hills, mounds of stones and even in burrows underground. Some preferred to live alone, sometimes occupying the space of an entire mountain, while others created families or united into tribes.
Some trolls have formed kingdoms with clear hierarchies and verticals of power. They rebuilt huge underground complexes with palaces and a system of labyrinths, as, for example, in the Dovr Mountains, where the famous Peer Gynt, the hero of the play of the same name by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, visited.
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In their caves, the mountain trolls hid countless treasures - gold and precious stones - and loved to show off their accumulated wealth to people. According to legend, on the darkest nights, they raised crystal palaces mounted on golden columns to the surface and rolled out huge chests for everyone to see, then opening them, then slamming the lids, trying to attract the attention of random travelers. Although I would hardly want to see them: bulging eyes, wide-open mouths, swollen noses sniffing in search of a human scent.
The trolls who lived under the bridges kept aloof. As a rule, these were loners who built a bridge for themselves and took a fee from anyone who wanted to cross it. They differed from other fellows by their complete indifference to the sun's rays. It was possible to destroy these creatures only by destroying their bridge, a carefully guarded "shrine". There is also a belief that trolls can sometimes leave the old bridge in order to start building a new one.
In the southwest of Norway, in the province of Rugaland, there were small trolls, in appearance resembling the hobbits from the works of Tolkien. They built separate cave houses for themselves, grouping them into whole villages. These creatures were engaged in farming and crafts, and sometimes they were not averse to sharing their tricks with people. However, trusting them was not worth it: these trolls are born thieves, and strive to steal something at every opportunity.
From time to time they made night forays into the barns and storerooms of nearby villages, from where they carried sacks of grain and kegs of young beer. And sometimes they were unnoticed at feasts, not disdaining to steal food directly from other people's plates.
However, the innocent tricks of the southern trolls were no match for what their northern brothers from the provinces of Sogn og Fyurane, More og Rumsdal and Trende lag did. They were the ones who were accused of cannibalism and other sins, such as stealing cattle and swapping babies. There was a belief that only human blood, especially Christian blood, could warm these cold and insensitive monsters. And they tried to get it by any means.
However, many people who got to the trolls managed to avoid death. Some could be in captivity for only a few minutes, others months or even years. The abducted people were called enchanted or carried off to the mountains. The same was said about those who were able to get out of the troll dungeons. True, the person who was saved could no longer return to his usual way of life. He completely lost his mind from the horror experienced in the underground lair.
For men who had their wives stolen, trolls often planted living dolls, similar to those stolen as two drops of water. However, such dolls soon began to wither and die without giving themselves away. And while the husband mourned the death of the impostor, the real wife shed tears, buried alive in the darkness and dampness of the cave. She was forced to cook a stew of moss, bones and pieces of meat, mercilessly beaten and scolded at the slightest pretext.
When the troll decided to take a prisoner as a wife, a magic ointment was rubbed into her skin, from which the face darkened, covered with wrinkles and pockmarks, the nose became like an onion, the body was covered with hair, the voice became coarse, and a tail pecked in the lower back. The character of the unhappy woman also changed: gradually she turned into a voracious, mindless troll, losing the last chance to return to the human world filled with sun and love.
In order not to fall into eternal captivity to the trolls, one should also beware of their closest relatives - huldr. Outwardly, they looked like seductive young maidens with a shock of blond hair. Their only difference from people is their tails, carefully hidden under fluffy skirts.
You could meet huldra high in the mountains or in the thicket of the forest, where she walked with the reindeer, singing songs. It was with her beautiful voice that the seductress lured young people who easily succumbed to her charms.
Huldra's love spell lasted for years, and during this time the young man turned into a real slave, serving the entire magical family. When he bothered the capricious maiden, she let him go free, and the former lover could wander through the dense forest day and night, trying in vain to remember where he came from and what happened to him. And if Huldra herself fell in love with a man and got married with him in church, then she lost her tail and became an ordinary woman.
Many Norwegians still believe in the existence of the huldr in the Sognefjord mountains in central Norway. It is there, on the ledges of the picturesque Schossossen waterfall, next to the Flåm Railway, that theatrical performances are held every summer: girls in huldr costume sing in bewitching voices, willingly or unwillingly seducing visiting tourists.
In numerous legends and tales, trolls never leave their possessions and do not like random guests very much. When the hero meets an evil creature on the forest paths, he can only rely on his ingenuity. The most famous hero of such legends is called Espen Askelad, which means Espen Zamarashka.
Once, when he went to the forest to chop wood, a terrible troll suddenly appeared out of nowhere and threatened to kill the boy if he didn't get out of his forest. But Askelad was not at a loss: he took a piece of cheese out of the bag, squeezed it with all his might and said to the troll: "If you interfere with me, then I will crush you like this stone!"
Seeing how strong the guy is, the stupid troll got scared to death and began to help him cut down the forest. When they had enough firewood, the troll invited the man over for dinner. There they cooked porridge, and Askelad invited the troll to argue which of them would eat more. He immediately agreed, because he was sure that he had no equal in eating porridge. And the cunning Askelad put a sack on his knees and, when he himself had eaten to the full, began to throw the porridge into the sack.
And when he was full, he cut it in the middle with a knife. Meanwhile, the troll ate so much that he could not swallow a single spoon. Then the man said: “Do as I do, cut your belly! Then you can eat twice as much! The stupid troll did just that. And then he died. And Askelad took his treasures and went home.
Trolls sometimes appear among humans in human form. When a traveler meets a troll, he may not immediately guess who he is dealing with, but, suspecting something was wrong, in no case should he shake the hand of the stranger. There is a legend about this. There was a boy named Dove. One day he was sent to herd horses somewhere near Bakke in the Rivedal Valley. On the way back, he met an unknown man. He could not see it in any way, because it was early morning and not yet fully dawn.
When the stranger spoke to him, the boy asked him who he was and where he was from. He replied that he was from Bakke, and his name was Dove. The boy was very surprised and even confused when he heard such an answer. And the stranger gave him his hand to say hello. But Dove got scared and instead of a hand held out a horseshoe to him.
The stranger shook it and immediately disappeared. When the boy looked at the horseshoe, it was completely flattened. So, thanks to his resourcefulness, he was able to return home safe and sound.
In all legends, one of the important features of the trolls is noted: they all have a strength that is many times greater than that of ordinary mortals. But there is a right to this advantage. Even small children know well about her: if you ask the troll a riddle, he will certainly begin to solve it.
If the troll cannot solve the riddle, then he will die, and having found the answer, he will ask his own, and if this time you yourself cannot solve the riddle, then there will be big trouble. If you managed to solve the riddle, you should try to keep the troll busy with questions until dawn, because with the first rays of the sun it will turn into stone.
How else can you outsmart a malevolent creature? If it was possible to recognize a troll encountered in the field before he guessed about it, you must run away from him, and so that the tracks form a cross with plow furrows on the arable land. If the meeting took place in the gorge, you must invite the troll to follow you to the light: in the bright sun it will turn to stone.
But the main thing is to know how to handle it. Firstly, to keep the secret of the name, and secondly, not to accept any treat from him. Once captured by the troll, it is necessary to find out his name, using any tricks to gain power over him and thereby force the release of the captive.
Trolls cannot stand the ringing of church bells. If the church is far away, then the bell is brought closer to the place from which they want to drive them out - there they ring. Many Christian attributes, such as a pectoral cross or a psalter, are also capable of scaring them off. They protect from monsters and any objects made of steel, as well as mistletoe flowers and fires kindled at city crossroads.
It is very rare to meet a troll today. Modern researchers of paranormal phenomena believe that with the arrival of Christianity in the northern European lands, most of the magical inhabitants of forests, mountains and valleys simply disappeared or left somewhere.
“People lost respect for the poor cave dwellers, barbarously invaded their territory, erected churches everywhere, from the ringing of the bells of which they fled wherever they looked,” says Norwegian journalist and researcher Dag Stole Hansen. He does not exclude that the trolls are still hiding somewhere in the mountains, under moss-covered rocks, protecting their unthinkable riches and amazing knowledge about our world from people. However, not everyone succeeds in finding them and establishing contact.
Another researcher, John Michael Grier from the USA, agrees with the Norwegian journalist. He puts the trolls on a par with the fairies, gnomes and elves who once lived in the forests of Western Europe. Information about them was preserved not only in fairy tales, but also in historical documents dating back to the Middle Ages. Moreover, in many texts, Grier notes, "there is an ordinary attitude towards such phenomena, as if all these creatures were part of people's daily life." So why did they disappear?
According to one version, the magical creatures had their own reasons for leaving. According to the other, they could only exist in the wild, so the construction of cities and the spread of agriculture forced them to leave their usual places. With the emergence of scientific thinking, another point of view emerged, according to which there never really was a magic tribe.
However, in the early stages, this opinion met with fierce opposition. From the early 1550s to 1750s, the existence of otherworldly phenomena was the subject of fierce controversy. Many realized that the new scientific ideology posed a great danger to the spiritual approach to the universe. Therefore, many visionaries sought to prove that non-material phenomena also exist.
The same paranormal researcher Hansen says: “Modern Norwegians know about trolls only from children's stories and computer games. And once farmers and hunters not only saw them with their own eyes, but also closely communicated in everyday life. Some trolls hurt people, while others turned out to be kind and helpful neighbors.
They shared the secrets of witchcraft and witchcraft, taught to live in harmony with nature. After all, the very root of the word "troll" means something related to magic: "magic" in Norwegian sounds like "trollskap". "Maybe someday we will be able to get into this magical land and meet real trolls - children and heirs of great nature …