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Mara999 — Different types of Troll
#fantasy #monster #troll #folklore #huldra
Published: 2020-01-12 20:09:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 1913; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 0
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Description
Another variant of a group-picture featuring many different entities that carry the label of "troll" in folklore. At work I often end up drawing variations of the same themes (mainly dinosaurs, vikings, Norse mythology and various supernatural creatures), because that is what the kids often want me to talk about and want to see me draw. I like to think of it as contributing to their broader knowledge of the world, especially as history and related subjects are pretty much going extinct in favour of coding and other things deemed more useful for gradeschoolers. I know I'm heavily biased due to my own upbringing and interests, but I see knowledge of history, mythology and folklore as essential parts of understanding the humanity of others and oneself. Which is an excellent excuse for me to draw vikings and hairy monsters.
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Comments: 18
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There is plenty of variation within the different categories, which generally are made up by researchers to create clearer distinctions between the entities. At least more distinct than what regular folk felt was necessary. The stories get muddled together and there is seldom a clear difference between a tomte or a troll, which sometimes become a creature very reminiscent of an English Redcap. Though I have to admit I took some liberties with his size, since they are described as shorter than average humans, or even as freakishly small.
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It's also interesting to note that many small magical beings were apparently originally closer to human-size, mostly before the introduction of Christianity (or other mainstream religions) but at the latest when industry started to become a thing. Many creatures that started out as local gods or equivalent entities turned into increasingly lesser bogeymen, going from seriously frightening adults to scaring children. It would be symbolically appropriate if their physical size diminished over time as an intentional statement on the diminishing role of pagan beliefs, but to my understanding there are more practical reasons for why at least some became smaller. For instance, leprechauns and other small beings were believed to live in ancient grave mounds, whose actual function was forgotten. How would a creature be able to live inside a mound of earth, unless it was small enough to go as it pleases?
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The Jotnar of Norse mythology are one of the few exceptions I can think of where the effect is reversed, with them becoming giant-sized in later folklore. Same applies to many other monstrous humanoids from various pre-Christian beliefs, when they become generic giants and ogres. To my understanding this is at least partly due to influence from Greek-derived stories of the Gigantes, who as a rule were impossibly large while the Jotnar varied in size. The Gigantes give us the word "giant", even though Jotun and Ettin share the same etymology.
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I don't remember the name, but it's essentially the same as a Redcap, except bigger. It's the same concept: It likes to use fresh blood to make its hat red.
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Ah, from where are this troll then? Irland? 😮
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The Redcap is mostly associated with folklore in northern England and Scotland, where it is more or less like a modern view of a goblin. It also has similarities to the different ghost-creatures that are caused when something is buried alive as a sacrifice to keep a building standing, or to create a bloodthirsty guardian-spirit for the newly built place. While the name "Redcap" is English, the different stories about the nature of Redcaps do have ecquivalents everywhere. People in the olden days didn't really care about making goblins, ghosts, faeries, brownies or trolls properly distinct entities, which is the way we would do it now. I think it's nowadays partly because of D&D, with its distinct ordering of monsters and with stats for everything. Although, it's also probably because academics have always wanted everything to fit into neat categories. An ordinary Scandinavian farmer from before the 20th century would probably have used "troll" for anything supernatural, if that was the local custom.
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