If we think we know what a troll is because we read some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books (especially the Ankh-Morpork City Guard series), watched (or read) The Lord of the Rings, got into the world of Harry Potter (especially Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), watched Artemis Fowl (Disney) or read something by Melissa de la Cruz, (the Blue Blood series or the Beauchamp Family series) we are very wrong.
Not even the Norwegian film Troll, and they know that, shows us all its complexity because it imitates the style of Hollywood disaster cinema and turns them into a kind of King Kong.
The series about Vikings have been popularizing Nordic beliefs and legends: the four seasons of The Last Kingdom, the six of Vikings, the three of the Norwegian Norsemen, the three of the avoidable The Witcher, the two of Vikings Valhalla ... to which are added all that there are for boys.
At the end of 2020, due to what had increased its use, the Royal Spanish Academy had to incorporate the word trol (written with a single ele) into official Spanish, and made it one of the most inclusive of the language because it clarifies that it is a masculine and feminine noun, so it applies to all sexes and existing self-perceptions and for existing in the LGBTQIAK self-classification. And following the rules of formation of the plural of Spanish, troll becomes trolls when they troll in patota.
The two definitions given by the RAE of the troll are "In Norse mythology, an evil being that lives in forests or caves" and, diplomatically, "In internet forums and social networks, user who publishes provocative, offensive or out of place messages in order to annoy, attract attention or boycott the conversation".
About trolls there are two truths that seem to contradict each other, but they are not. The first is that they are despicable fantastic beings. The second is that they do not exist, or they would have us believe that mythology deniers do not exist. Or reality.
In an organization like Norse mythology, in which there are many gods, minor deities, such as Norns and Valkyries, and a lot of fantastic creatures, such as fairies, dwarves, elves, dragurs... Trolls rank last on the social ladder. The last ear of the jar, let's say.
It is not easy to recognize them because, although their functions are the same and they can have a human figure, they can also be very different: very tall or very short, wear long and messy hair or be bald, have green or grayish skin, the latter perhaps because they flee from the sun and hide in the dark (real and virtual) because of their weakness in the light (real and virtual) and live in caves or hidden in small communities of single and basic or dependent thought, isolated from the rest of society.
At night, they come out of their caves, or holes in which they hide, to go hunting: kidnap adults, physically or mentally, to make them their slaves, or babies and leave in their place another newborn of a troll to destroy humans or their freedom of thought. Babies are called bort (changed child) and this seems to explain why, in some families that are not, a troll appears from time to time.
They have in common that they do not stand out for their intelligence, but this seems an advantage for society, it is not because the power used with brutality is much more destructive.
The Viking gods, unlike the Greeks, are not immortal, but, as in all religions, their adherents have no doubt that there is an afterlife. The best warriors killed in some battle go to Valhala, where they spend their days as they like, fighting to death with honor, but their wounds heal quickly and at night they are feted at the banquets of the gods.
According to Viking mythology, only half go to Valhala, the other fifty percent have a consolation prize, the Fólkvangr, where they also fight during the day and celebrate at night, but without the gods.
Those who die of natural causes go to the Kingdom of Hel, a dark and gloomy place where souls go to and fro with nothing to do.
The trolls have a much worse fate, that of those who sow tares, that toxic wheat-like plant that contaminates the flour of our daily bread. With liars, and bad people in general, they disembark at the Beach of Corpses, a place full of poisonous snakes and noxious vapors, where, as if that were not enough, the dragon Níohöggr chews them.
If you are a troll, or chose to belong to this type of specimen so far removed from what honor means in Norse mythology (and in life), either as a member of one of the virtual mercenary armies or as a sniper who tries to impose his ideas with falsehoods, you know what fate befalls him. Unless all this is not the true truth about trolls, but a real troll.
Writer and journalist
See also