The Genre of Trolls - Doria

woods until her companion informs her of it, she then provokes a confrontation
by almost subconsciously failing to heed the injunction not to touch
anything in the forest (Nyland 1887, 19). In another tale, the queen vows to
sacrifice all her twelve sons for a daughter as red as blood and as white as
snow, a morally depraved act which summons the troll in its most terrible
aspect. A female troll promises the queen her heart’s desire in exchange for
her boys, whom she gladly consigns to a miserable existence as wild ducks
(SLS 202 Sagor II, 66). Here the taboo perspective comes into its own, for
the queen has neglected a fundamental responsibility as a parent, i.e., not
to deliver her offspring into the hands of the enemy, so to speak. The place
of encounter is once again the forest.
The troll assumes the position of traverser of boundaries when the scene
of encounter is a woman’s home. The visit is always intentional and may
have aggressive as well as peaceful motives. Abduction is a recurrent objective
(R II 11; SLS 31, 146; SLS 137 II, 1; SLS 226: 150), occasionally preceded
by the violation of a prohibition which surrenders the woman into the troll’s
power. The old, bent woman in one record, for instance, warns the king
not to allow his daughter to walk capless under the open sky, and when she
does, she is immediately carried away (SLS 31, 146; cf. SLS 137 II, 1). Theft
may be another reason for encroaching on human territory (SLS 333: 220–
221), and a desire to rob humans of their rightful home is a third; in this
case the trolls covet the house of some princesses, and bury them to their
necks in the earth to be rid of them (SLS 202 Sagor II, 8). A female troll
who has forbidden her fosterling to enter a specific room in her house
banishes the girl when she suspects that she has failed to obey her command.
The girl refuses to confess her transgression. She marries a king and
gives birth to several children, but after each delivery the troll returns to induce
her to confess; when she does not, the troll takes her children away
(SLS 22, 21). A more endearing motive is to fetch a midwife for the troll’s
wife (Hembygden 1911: 114; Hembygden 1913: 105; R II 336; R II 339; SLS 28,
12). One troll appears in order to court a human woman, who is constantly
plagued by its attentions no matter where she is (SLS 215, 280).
The troll in the shop may have been there to steal under cover of its invisibility,
but its main function in the narrative is to act as a gatekeeper.
The midwife, having assisted at the birth of its child, has acquired second
sight by applying a magical ointment to her eyes despite the express prohibition
of the troll, and it deprives her of her ability by blinding her (SLS
The Conditions of Encounter 89