The Genre of Trolls - Doria

1887, 19), and a lion must dance the troll to death to help his human friend
to save a princess from captivity (Nyland 1896, 141).
3.4.3 Trolls Dissociate
Trolls may act as dissociators either when they have traversed the boundary
to the human world themselves, or when humans have trespassed into otherworldly
territory, consciously or unconsciously. A troll functioning as a
creditor, for example, begins the separation of the two spheres by cancelling
the debt of the human protagonist, a poor peasant. As the repayment
of the loan is the only reason for continued interaction, further contact becomes
superfluous; hereafter the peasant and the troll may each live in their
own world without interference from the other. The initial contact was
intentionally established by the peasant, who had been denied a loan by his
miserly brothers-in-law, and turned to the troll in his desperation (Nyland
1887, 26).
In narratives of women acting as midwives to the trolls, the troll both initiates
and ends the interaction. The human and the supranormal realm are
disjoined as the troll brings the woman and her husband back to the road
(R II 336) or returns her to her home (R II 339). A troll appearing during
the festival of St. Thomas is also responsible for the association and dissociation
of the two spheres: the encounter is part of a pilfering spree, and
the connection between the human and the supernatural world is severed
when the troll slinks back to its haunt beneath a bridge (SLS 333: 220–221).
A separation in a double sense is accomplished by those trolls deserting
the human woman they have been courting. One abandons his wife (SLS
215, 248), another his lover, with whom he has enjoyed trysts in the forest
(SLS 215, 249). In the former instance, the conditions of the first encounter
is not mentioned, while the initial meeting seems to have been unintentional,
with the woman acting as traverser of boundaries, in the latter.
The tale of the imprisoned troll is another example of a disengagement
performed by a troll. The relations in this text are rather complicated (see
chapter 3.1.4), but as long as the troll has not discharged its moral debt to
the boy, it entwines their respective worlds. When the troll has done everything
in its power to assist the boy, the contact can finally be broken, and
the dissociation is achieved through the departure of the troll (SLS 1, 3).
In another variant of the legend of the stolen drinking vessel, a priest
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Description of the Troll Tradition