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Writer's pictureFATE Magazine

Trolls - The European Bigfoot




Legends of Neanderthal-style "wildmen" are common in cultures around the world. The New World Dictionary tells us that sasquatch, the North American version (and the original name for bigfoot) comes from British Columbia's Saiish Indians' word saskehavas, meaning just that--"wild men." To the average American/ a troll is likely to be regarded as less of a sasquatch like wildman than a dwarf-like fairy-tale creature. Yet into the 1800s, trolls were widely believed by Germanic countryfolk to actually exist, and far from their present-day troll-doll image in America, "the troll is both monster and giant giant," recorded German folklorist Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Teutonic Mythology. They were, more or less, the European cousin of North America's bigfoot or sasquatch--the "wildmen" of the local evergreen woods. But where did they--or beliefs in them-come from?


Troll Habitat and Troll Habits

Trolls were reputed to live in wooded regions of the Germanic countries--Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and, especially, Norway. As with North America's bigfoot, this was often northern, overcast, evergreen habitat. Many place-names in these regions attest to their long-standing belief as the haunt of trolls: In Sweden a waterfall called Trollhota was believed to have been troll-haunted, while along a

Norwegian inlet called Trollsfjord there exist boulders which were once believed to have been the remains of nocturnal trolls turned to stone when caught out