The Genre of Trolls - Doria

when he was allowed to go to church, he crept under the parson’s cloak and
was thereby liberated from the troll (SLS 280: 136).
Another young man was harassed by a troll girl wishing to marry him,
and he could not rid himself of the troll except by allowing his father to
manhandle it. The troll, which suddenly turned into an old woman, exacts
its revenge by making the boy bald (R II 70). In this case the conception of
trolls intermingles with that of witches, a phenomenon partly explained by
the influence of the Finnish word trulli which denotes a witch (Nirkko
1997: 35).
Animals may be taken by the troll as well, cows in particular. Other animal
victims mentioned in the records are hens, roosters and he-goats (SLS
37, 6: 23). The animals are rooted to the ground (SLS 299: 33), and their
owners are unable to see them despite hearing the cow-bells testifying to
their presence (SLS 59: 49).
Several supranormal beings have a reputation for changing babies; in addition
to trolls, the Devil, the earthdwellers and the brownies are associated
with this practice. The troll takes its chance when the mother is working
outdoors, leaving the unbaptized infant unattended. The abnormal physique
of the changeling is often emphasized, as in the following story narrated
by Olga Nummelin to V. E. V. Wessman in 1917:
102
I skogen nära Heiden bodde ett torparfolk, som hade en okristnad flicka. Modern var i
nötset eller var hon på arbete, och så kom bergtrollet in och bytte bort on, och gav sitt i
stället. Hon växte inte alls på längden utan bara på bredden. (SLS 280:379; cf. SLS 280:
357; SLS 220: 67–69)
A crofter family that had an unbaptized girl was living in the forest close to Heiden.
The mother was in the cow-shed, or she was doing work, and the hill troll came and
changed her, and gave its own [child] instead. She did not grow at all in length, only in
weight.
There are examples of more moderate differences between the human and
the supernatural child. On those occasions when the mother gets to keep
both her own child and the changeling—by unwittingly blessing the latter,
for example—the human child is slightly taller than the troll child, but
otherwise the two of them are impossible to differentiate. Both are baptized,
and consequently brought within the sphere of Christianity (R II 76).
The abduction may also function as a prelude to another course of events;
Description of the Troll Tradition