An examination of Neil Gaiman's short story "Troll Bridge," by
Jason Erik Lundberg:
Jack starts off as a rambunctious seven-year-old, eager to shed his
shoes and the other trappings of the school year and anxious to
explore. One day, he discovers a path through the wood near his
house and decides to follow it. It travels in a straight line,
while the landscape around him changes as he walks, almost as if by
magic. After a while, he comes to the bridge, and after he
trip-traps over it, the troll who lives underneath comes out and
bluntly states that he's going to eat Jack's life.
Thinking quickly, Jack explains that
You don't want to eat my life. Not yet. I—I'm only
seven. I haven't lived at all yet. There are books I haven't read
yet. I've never been on an aeroplane. I can't whistle yet—not
really. Why don't you let me go? When I'm older and bigger and more
of a meal I'll come back to you.
The troll ponders this for a moment, then agrees. Jack runs home
to the relative safety of his family.
Flash-forward to Jack at fifteen. He has just discovered punk
rock and revels in this discovery with his best friend Louise, with
whom he is madly in love. After one night of listening to the
Stranglers on Louise's record player, she decides to walk him back
to his house, a ten-minute stroll away. They get there and talk in
the driveway, then he offers to escort her back to her house. After
getting there, they decide to just keep on walking, and they find a
path that rolls through the wood. They take the path down to an old
brick bridge, and he starts to kiss her. But then she freezes, and
the troll appears. They've taken the same path Jack took as a
child, and love-stricken as he was, he didn't even realize it.
The troll again threatens to eat Jack's life and is glad to find
out Jack has learned to whistle, since the troll never could. Jack
again pleads for his life, stating that he's never even had sex yet
or gone to America. In a desperate move, he offers Louise up to the
troll to take his place, but the troll declines on the basis that
she is an innocent, implying that Jack somehow is not. But the
troll again reluctantly agrees to wait and disappears, Louise
unfreezes, and Jack walks her home.
Flash-forward again to Jack at around thirty, now married
(though not to Louise) and with a toddler. He lives in a house that
was once a railway station and works at a major record company in
London; consequently, he has to keep a flat there in order to hear
the various bands who don't even start playing until midnight. This
affords him the opportunity to cheat on his wife if he wants to,
which he does. One winter's day, after getting back from a trip to
New York, he finds the house cold and empty, a letter from his wife
on the table explaining all the reasons she left, principal among
them the fact that he never really loved her. Despondent and unsure
of what to do next, he goes outside for a walk. He finds an
unfamiliar path through the wood and takes it.
He soon comes to the troll bridge and realizes he has taken the
same path as before, only approached from the other side. He nears
the bridge and calls out for the troll, and after several moments
of silence, he collapses into a sobbing heap, the combined hurt
from all his lost chances flooding out in a torrent. He realizes he
ruined any chance with Louise when he offered her up to the troll,
though she never knew it; he ruined his chance at a normal life
with a wife and a child by sleeping with other women; and he ruined
his chance at a relationship with the troll, albeit a strange and
perverse one, by constantly evading the troll's advances. But then
the troll appears, touches his face, and quietly says, "Fol rol de
ol rol." The troll trembles lightly, seeming tentative that the
moment of truth is finally here, perhaps scared that thirty-odd
years will be too much to eat. But Jack tells him it's okay, it's
what he wants. So the troll gently lowers him to the ground like a
lover—on top of a used condom, no less—and eats Jack's
life with his big strong teeth.
What we don't realize until the very end of the story is that by
"eating" Jack's life, the troll steals it from him, and the two end
up switching bodies. The troll stands up in Jack's body and, after
some parting words, walks back down the path through the wood,
whistling away. Jack, who has now become the troll under the
bridge, has resigned himself to his fate, never wishing to interact
with humanity again, observing from under his bridge but never
coming out.
"Hey, get away from my horde!"
THE CACHE:
This is a large, painted peanut butter container with enough
room for a log and several small- to medium-sized trade items. It
is intended as a convenient, out-of-the-way trackable hotel, so
bring on the travelers! There's a pen already in the cache, but you
know the drill. Be careful when crossing the road, and bring gloves
-- just in case.
