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What this episode is about
In Part 1 of the Norway special I only told the stories. In Part 2 I go through the same legends again and ask of each one: where does this come from? Why does a troll turn to stone in the sun, why does it run from church bells, what was really lying in the cradle, and why does this overpowering creature almost always lose?
The stone that missed the church
In many Norwegian valleys people tell how a troll threw a boulder at the new church and missed. The boulder still lies in the field today. In reality, an Ice Age glacier pushed it there. This one legend holds almost everything: the stone that explains a landscape, the troll who hates the bell, and the church he has to give way to.
What a troll actually is
The Old Norse trǫll was never one specific creature. Ármann Jakobsson has shown how widely the word was used: giant, witch, revenant, demon, an unusually ugly person. Behind it stand the jötnar, the giants of the mythology. In later folk tradition the troll takes over their role, and the cosmic enemy of the gods turns into the brute under the bridge.
Who wrote the trolls down
Almost everything we call “Norwegian troll legends” was collected by Andreas Faye from 1833 and by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe from 1841. This happened shortly after 1814, when Norway, after centuries under Denmark, was looking for its own identity. Oscar Falnes described these collections as a founding act of the nation. A key distinction is the one between eventyr, the fairy tale told for enjoyment, and sagn, the legend people believed to be true.
Turning to stone and church bells
Turning to stone explains the landscape, as Reidar Th. Christiansen showed in his catalog of migratory legends. But it also shows that the sun belongs to people, to order and to the farmed field, and that the wild freezes in it. The church bell legends all tell the same thing: Christianity arrives, and the trolls retreat. The troll is the unbaptized, pre-Christian past in the shape of a monster.
The changeling
The darkest and most honest legend is the one about the troll child swapped into the cradle. Folklorists like D. L. Ashliman see it as a way of explaining children who were sick or developed differently, at a time with no medicine and no words for it. The belief could take the blame off mothers. But it could also justify neglecting weak children. I talk openly about this darker side in the episode.
Why the troll always loses
These stories were told by cottagers, farmhands and farmers, people who were small next to the mountains, the weather, their landlords and death. The hero is almost always Askeladden, the Ash Lad, who beats the troll not with strength but with wit, patience and a good heart. Today’s souvenir-shop troll, by contrast, is young. Theodor Kittelsen and Erik Werenskiold gave him his face at the end of the 19th century.
Frequently asked questions
Why do trolls turn to stone in sunlight?
The legends use it to explain striking rocks and mountains. At the same time, the sun stands for the world of people and order, where the wildness of the night has no place.
Why are trolls afraid of church bells?
The troll embodies the pre-Christian world. The bell is the sound of the new order, and the troll retreats deeper into the mountain to get away from it.
What is a changeling in Norwegian folklore?
A troll child that was supposedly swapped for a human child. The belief served as an explanation for children who were sick or developed differently.
More in the lexicon: Troll.
About this episode
Last time, I only told the stories. This time, we open our eyes. Part 2 of our Norway special asks the why behind the troll legends: where does the troll come from? Why does the sun kill him? Why does he flee the church bell? What really stood at that cradle – and why does this overwhelming creature lose in almost every story? A journey through etymology, National Romanticism, and the most honest, darkest folk belief in Norway.
📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING– Ármann Jakobsson, work on the meaning of the word “troll” in the Middle Ages (incl. The Troll Inside You, 2017) – on the breadth of the Old Norse term.– Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology (2003) – on the origin of trǫll and its relation to jötunn and þurs.– Andreas Faye, Norske Folke-Sagn (1833/1844) – the early foundational collection of place-legends.– Peter Christen Asbjørnsen & Jørgen Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr (from 1841); Asbjørnsen, Norske Huldreeventyr og Folkesagn (1845–48) – the origin of the distinction between eventyr and sagn/huldreeventyr.– Oscar J. Falnes, National Romanticism in Norway (1933) – on the link between folklore and national identity after 1814.– Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends (1958) – the standard catalogue of Norwegian migratory legends (petrification, church legends, the changeling).– D. L. Ashliman, studies and text collection on the changeling – on reading the belief as an explanatory model for failure-to-thrive and disabled children.– On the visual tradition: Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914) and Erik Werenskiold (1855–1938).
🎧 Grey Tales is also available as a podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
#Trolls #NorwegianLegends #Folklore #Mythology #Norway #Changeling #GreyTales