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Pimpernel_Took
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Post What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 11, 2012 01:47
Feel free to repost the thread somewhere else if it doesn't fit in here Couldn't figure out were to put it. The Hobbit coming up, trolls begin to get really interesting, as Bilbo and the dwarves nearly get eaten by some.

So how should the trolls look? Tolkien was inspired by norse mythology, wasn't he? A traditional norwegian troll looks like this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tutzaYVNz3s/TZ64PTqPrII/AAAAAAAAFJc/PmHh-w87gLU/s1600/Trollet_som_grunner_p%25C3%25A5_hvor_gammelt_det_er.jpg

Really funny XD
What do you think?
Erucenindë
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Post Re: What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 11, 2012 01:59
Well there were trolls in LOTR too. I like PJ's adaptation of them, though I think Tolkien had something a bit different in mind, at least gathering that from the descriptions.
tarcolan
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Post Re: What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 11, 2012 04:03
Our first introduction to trolls is in The Hobbit, where they are described as 'very large persons' and having 'great heavy faces'. Apparently the shape of their legs gives them away too but we're not told how. Tolkien's comment that these had only one head each is probably just a joke, not implying that others might have more. I hope so anyway. They wore clothes and used items such as keys and purses. They also had 'stony boots'. In The Fellowship Of The Ring they seem to have got a bit larger, as the travellers have a picnic under the shadow of their legs. Sam's song would have us believe that they are harder than stone.

Cave-trolls are a different matter, seeming much larger and with dark, greenish scales. Their feet are toeless and their blood is black. Boromir's sword broke on the troll so these ones are harder than stone; a different breed it would seem. The mountain-trolls at the seige of Gondor are not described. The hill-trolls at the Morannon were 'taller and broader than men', clad in a mesh of horny scales or it could have been their 'hideous hide'. Pippin's sword manages to pierce the hide of one, but then it has spells against the Enemy woven into it.

Appendix F has a short passage on trolls but without much further description. It does seem that the trolls east of the mountains were a different breed and were harder than stone.
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Pimpernel_Took
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Post Re: What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 11, 2012 07:22
In norwegian fairy tales trolls may very well have more than one head :/ Overall I do have the feeling that the Tolkien trolls should look a little like them. But that may well be because at school we only learn about the north-european stuff.
The cave-troll in PJ's film is nice though As you say there are many kinds of trolls.
tarcolan
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Post Re: What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 12, 2012 04:23
Trolls are Nordic in origin so you're closer to the real ones than anyone. The meaning is vague and may simply be a way of referring to the 'Other', supernatural or not, just those that are different. It could even be an ancient reference to the prehistoric leftovers of the neanderthals. So I think any representation is valid, maybe even pretty trolls. The one in that picture looks quite sad and loveable.
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Elthir
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Post Re: What should proper Tolkien troll look like?
on: December 12, 2012 09:04
Tolkien himself drew some pictures of his three trolls. I don't know if there are any legal versions on the web at the moment. Some might say that these depictions are [possibly] not exactly as even Tolkien envisioned them, as JRRT himself implies that his own pictures of Hobbits, for example, could be better.

That said, one gets a general idea I guess. Again these pictures only depict the famed Three Trolls. In Morgoth's Ring Tolkien once noted:

The Elves would have classed the creatures called 'trolls' (in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as Orcs - in character and origin - but they were larger and slower. It would seem evident that they were corruptions of primitive human types.


And concerning the Olog-hai:

That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size and power. Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder than stone. Unlike the older race of the Twilight they could endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over them.


Hmm.
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