Comments on: MythShow.com 09: Trolls and Ogres Defined

By: Megan

Megan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:24:01 +0000

To all who are interested in trolls, I would like to recommend a novel by a Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo “Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi” (Not before sundown, 2000). Although I prefer Asbjørnen and Moe’s trolltales, I advise everone to read the story about modern trolls in Finland. They are so much different to the Norwegian trolls
By the way, there is an awesome book “For noen troll” by Birger Sivertsen that covers not only trolls, but also other mythological creatures such as witches, trollcats, devils, or water sprites.

By: Gregory

Gregory — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:32:41 +0000

Sachin, Thanks for pointing this out. I edited the link to point to a live site.

By: Sachin

Sachin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:10:11 +0000

that spoken lore podcast is no longer available , please remove that link

thanks

By: Gregory

Gregory — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:33:22 +0000

Thanks for the great post and the links. I hope my Norwegian pronunciations were okay.

Thanks, Greg

By: L-M

L-M — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:22:39 +0000

Thank you for that extensive answer! The part about trolls was pretty much familiar territory. Which I guess shouldn’t come as a surprise since from what you said that folklore seem to originate from these parts. But ogres was all new territory. Thanks again!

I certainly agree that old fairy tales can be scary or violent. The troll story that I remember best from my childhood is “Gutten som kappåt med trollet” or “Askeladden som kappåt med trollet” (Askeladden is a common character in Norwegian fairy tales), very badly translated is something like “The boy who had an eating contest with the troll”. The fairy tales boils down to Askeladden (the boy) challenging the troll to an eating contest. Askeladden fools the troll by hiding a sack under his clothing and putting most of his food in the sack. When the sack is full Askeladden pretends to stab himself in the stomach (but really stabs the sack), he encourages the troll to do the same. As you mentioned the intelligence of trolls isn’t high, so you can pretty much guess what happens next. If you happen to speak Norwegian here is a link to that fairy tale: http://norsknettskole.no/fag/ressurser/itstud/fuv/siritorstensen/askeladden.htm

On this subject I feel I should mention the artwork by Theodor Kittelsen. He’s famous for his fairy tale illustrations here in Norway. http://folk.ntnu.no/ongstad/Meg/Kunst/Theodor%20Kittelsen/Theodor%20Kittelsen.html If you follow the link that says “Troll-tegninger” you’ll see various troll drawings by him. I also love his drawings of Pesta (literally means She-plague). http://folk.ntnu.no/ongstad/Meg/Kunst/Theodor%20Kittelsen/Svartedauen/Pesta%20i%20trappen.html During the Black Plague Pesta was seen as the dead incarnate. She carried with her a broom and a rake. If she used the rake when she visited a home some people where allowed to live, but if she used the broom all life was swept up.