Long before the rise of the
kingdoms of men, the Nordic Trolls had built an enormous Troll
Empire.
After centuries of war and
hate; an alliance of elves and humans, aided by Thor, the Thunder
God; finally dealt a crushing blow to the empire when they defeated
the great Troll army at the foot of the Scandinavian Mountains,
near what is now Lillehammer. The empire did not recover from the
defeat, and the Trolls never rose as one nation again. Yet some
forest trolls survived, each generation nurturing their hatred of
the elves, men & lightning in the dark forests of the north,
for thousands of years.
Trolls are not isolated to Norway, however. Trolls
are indigenous to almost all climates & live all over the
globe. They vary in size from dwarfish to gigantic & appearance
from vaguely man-like & hairy (Bigfoot could very well,
actually be a troll) to frog-skinned & barely humanoid. All
Trolls do share some common traits however:
- • Trolls are
grotesque (by the standards of Elves & Men) & walk upright
with a stooped stature & an awkward gait.
- • Trolls have great strength, even small ones,
& are surprisingly agile for how awkward & clumsy they
appear to be.
- They are scavengers & are almost always
ravenously hungry.
Troll behavior has become more that of hyenas, rather than actually
evil & in modern times are more preoccupied with
self-preservation & keeping a
low-profile.
- Trolls regenerate (like lizards), but at an
astounding rate. A common method of Troll procreation is to simply
cut a Troll in two & each half will “heal” into a
full-grown copy of the original.
- All trolls are allergic to sunlight, in
varying degrees. To some, it is fatal. Nordic legend
says that lone boulders in clearings are trolls that were caught
out in the open by the coming of dawn & turned to
stone.
There are many misconceptions about Trolls, like
that they live under bridges & eat goats or that they are
brutish, non-intelligent behemoths, like Ogres. While a Troll may
take refuge under a bridge to avoid being out in the direct
sunlight, they rather subterranean lairs in isolated areas,
preferably densely wooded (except in the case of Desert Trolls)
& while roasted goat would be a delicious meal, Trolls will eat
anything (including children, dogs or discarded Domino’s
Pizza).
Trolls, whereas are not
bright, are extremely cunning & devious. Again, a Troll may see
a bridge as an opportune locale for an ambush of the unwary.
Another common Norwegian saying is: Troll Magik Twists Trails. Removing or moving trail markers,
camouflaging trails or holes with leaves & trampling out false
trails are all favorite Troll-tactics in order to misdirect hikers,
travelers & (more recently) geocachers into carefully laid
traps.
The greatest
advantage that these woodland tricksters have, however is that
most people don’t
believe they exist.
Trolls are now adapting to geocaching quite well. They have been
known to move caches, remove desirable items, “moisten”
logbooks [Well, how do you THINK they do it?] & place
lodestones near caches in order to create electromagnetic
“bounce” & disorient geocachers. Some even place
caches specifically to lure geocachers into these traps. They
survive by scavenging & preying on the
unsuspecting
Trolls are best avoided altogether, but if
one finds oneself lost in the woods, the victim of an uncooperative
GPS unit or a cache that has been ransacked it may very well be the
work of a Troll. It’s probably best to make an offing of some
token or foodstuff & maybe it will placate the creature into
letting you find your way out & leave. A Troll has been spotted
frequenting this vicinity. Is it worth risking a run in with a
Troll, in order to sign the logbook? Go, if you must, but Beware
the Troll.