R
Rune Allnor
Guest
If such a creature exists, it would be a pirhana...
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article923120.ece
It is true that a troll under a bridge plays an important part
in one particular saga, but as far as I know, it's only in that
one saga it lives under a bridge.
A "troll" is a creature from Norwegian folklore, that was malicious,
stupid and that existed in nature. There were several forms of trolls,
the "classical trolls" lived inside the mountains, while other forms,
like "nřkken" and "draugen", lived in rivers or ponds in the forests,
or ate sea. It was the 19th century drawer Theodor Kittelsen who
established the shape of the "classical troll" in his illustrations
of the folklore sagas, collected by Asbjřrnsen and Moe (the Norwegian
equivalents of the brothers Grimm).
If you google for "troll kittelsen" you will find some of Kittelsen's
classical illustrations. My objections to his illustrations are that
the trolls are generally shown too small (they are literally the sizes
of mountains) and that his trolls are "forest trolls" as found in the
south-east parts of Norway.
There is a saga about a bunch of trolls in the nortern parts of Norway,
that are "documented" in the landscape. One day, the troll "Vĺgakallen"
felt a bit, well, horny. He knew there was bunch of maidens nearby,
so quite naturally he went off to make there aquaintance. The maidens
weren't awfully interested in any close encounter with this raving
madman, so they ran off towards the south. The whole thing was about
to take on an ugly twist, when the troll king "Suliskongen" got
aware of the situation. "Vĺgakallen" was just about to fire an arrow
after the fairest maid, "Lekamřya", but "Suliskongen" managed to
throw his hat to intercept the arrow. The arrow went straight through
the hat but missed the maiden. Just as this happened, the sun rose
above the horizon, and trolls don't stand to sunlight. The whole bunch
petrified.
"Vĺgakallen" became one peak of the Lofoten mountains west of Bodř.
"Suliskongen" petrified some 100 km due east of Bodř, and is now a
peak near the Swedish border, near the village Sulitjelma (the short
form of the name is Sulis). The bunch of the maids are known as the
"Seven Sisters" peaks near Sandnessjřen, while the hat with the hole
through it became "Torghatten" island near Brřnnřysund. The fair maid
"Lekamřya" made it some 100 km south of Brřnnřysund, at the border
between provinces Nord-Trřndelag and Nordland, before she petrified.
All the town and village names should be easy to find on a decent
map of Norway.
They are all there to see, if you travel by the coastliner.
so the common denominator of trolls, is that they are stupid,
malicious, and don't survive getting exposed to scrutiny in
bright sunlight.
Rune