Includes bibliographical references and index. New Book -- June -- 2015
Contents:
The earliest trolls -- Medieval trolls -- Folklore trolls -- Fairy-tale trolls and trolls illustrated -- Trolls in literature -- Trolls, children, marketing and whimsy.
Summary:
Trolls lurk under bridges waiting to eat children, threaten hobbits in Middle-Earth, and invade the dungeons of Hogwarts. Often they are depicted as stupid, slow, and ugly creatures, but they also appear as comforting characters in some children' s stories or as plastic dolls with bright, fuzzy hair. Today, the name of this fantastic being from Scandinavia has found a wider reach: it is the word for the homeless in California and slang for the antagonizing and sometimes cruel people on the Internet. But how did trolls go from folktales to the World Wide Web? To explain why trolls still hold our interest, John Lindow goes back to their first appearances in Scandinavian folklore, where they were beings in nature living beside a preindustrial society of small-scale farming and fishing. He explores reports of actual encounters with trolls - meetings others found plausible in spite of their better judgment - and follows trolls' natural transition from folktales to other domains in popular culture.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.