Our childhood memories of trolls are simple. A troll, a bridge and three goats, often read about in a Ladybird book.
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In Scandinavian mythology, trolls dwelled on the edges of society, in menacing forests, castles and underneath bridges. They harassed and kidnapped women, demanded tolls, and sometimes possessed magical powers.
In the 1960s, toy trolls, ugly but endearing little dolls with long hair, designed in Denmark by Thomas Dam, became popular.
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The Trolls movie, based on the dolls, was released in 2016. These trolls are small, colourful creatures who live in an almost perpetual state of happiness, singing, dancing, hugging, and having fun all day. However, they are discovered by the Bergens, large, ugly, mean and miserable creatures who can only feel happy by consuming a Troll. They eat them every year on "Trollstice". Of course, the film has a happy ending as they are ultimately saved by Princess Poppy. |
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In 2019, the short story Troll Bridge, set in Disc World, written by Terry Pratchett, was released on film. The story stars Cohen the Barbarian who plans to prove himself by killing a troll in single combat. Instead, he and the troll find themselves reminiscing about how the Discworld used to be, when trolls all hid under bridges to be killed by heroes.
Trolls on the Discworld are, essentially, living, mobile rocks. Trolls have grown to overcome those vicious stereotypes of yore and have lived very prosperous lives in heavily populated cities with (relatively) little killing and have held jobs as diverse as police officer and concert promoter.
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What kind of troll will you find here? Will it look like a classic toy, or maybe the very pink Princess Poppy or glittery Guy Diamond, or something that appears to be little more than a lump of rock? Or will the Bergens, or even the Manx Bugganes, have eaten the troll before you arrive?
Don’t tell others what type you find but please do tell us if you can’t find it and think it may have been consumed!