Myths and Legends

Trolls

Trolls are creatures from north mythology, and in the north there is still tons of legends and stories told to children about these. Trolls roam a pig part of the northern folklore in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. These creatures could variate from peaceful to sneaky, evil and dangerous. They like building things of rocks and metal and often live in caves and huts in the forest. 

Early stories described trolls as giants who lived in castles and roamed during the night. When exposed to sunlight, trolls turned to stone. The stone crags of a place called Trold-Tindterne (Troll Peaks) in central Norway are said to be two of trolls that once fought a great battle—until sunrise them and turned them to stone. Over time, trolls came to be portrayed about the size of humans or, in some cases, as small as dwarfs.

Old folklore tell stories of how the trolls would sometimes sneak into houses doing the night and take human children and switch them up with changelings (creatures that looked like humans) or troll babies. If you ended up with a changeling or troll baby, the only way of getting your own child back, was to go out into the woods before sundown and leave the baby in a tree. The next morning your own child would supposedly be the one in the tree and the changeling or troll would be returned to the rightful parents.

Many folktales also tell of bargains between trolls and humans in which the humans must outwit the trolls or suffer fates. In one such story, a man named Esbern loved a girl whose father would not let his marry until Esbern built a fine church. A troll agreed to build the church for Esbern on the condition that if Esbern could not discover the troll's name by the time the job was done, the troll would have Esbern's eyes and his soul. Try as he might, Esbern could not learn the troll's name. He was in despair until the girl he loved prayed for him. At that moment Esbern heard the troll's wife singing to her baby, and her song contained the name of her husband. After the people of northern Europe to Christianity, many of their stories featured prayer as a weapon against trolls.