Troll

Origin and myth

The word troll first appears in Old Norse poetry, where it is a loose term for anything monstrous - a giant, a witch, a shape-changer. The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (c. 1220) preserves a verse in which a troll-woman, meeting the 9th-century poet Bragi in a forest at dusk, describes herself with riddling names such as "giant's wealth-sucker", "storm-sun's bale" and "swallower of heaven-wheel". In the Icelandic sagas trolls are often huge, ugly beings of the mountains, close cousins of the jotnar, the giants who war with Thor. Snorri lists "adversary and slayer of giants and troll-women" among the poetic names for Thor, and in later folk belief thunder was said to frighten trolls away.

Later Scandinavian folklore, collected in the 19th century in Norway (most famously by Asbjørnsen and Moe) and in Sweden, is where most familiar troll lore comes from: they live inside mountains, hate church bells, can smell Christian blood, steal children and turn to stone when caught by sunlight. The tale of the three billy goats and the troll under the bridge belongs to Asbjørnsen and Moe's collection. Stone formations across Norway are still explained as trolls who stayed out too late. Trolls could be enormous giants or, especially in Swedish tradition, small or roughly human-sized - the folklore was never consistent about size.

Appearance

The classic Norwegian fairy-tale troll, as fixed by 19th-century illustrators, is a hulking, stooped figure with a long crooked nose, small deep-set eyes, large ears and a wide mouth; some folk descriptions add a tail. The body is thick-limbed and pot-bellied, covered in coarse grey or brown hair, with moss, lichen and even small trees growing from the head and shoulders of the oldest individuals. Skin is grey and rough, close to weathered rock, and stony textures on the back and knuckles fit the sunlight-to-stone legend.

Some trolls in Norwegian fairy tales have several heads - three, six, nine or even twelve. Hands are large with thick black nails; feet are broad and flat. Clothing, when present, is a rough tunic or animal skin. Props: an uprooted tree as a club, a sack of stolen goods, a bridge plank.

In modern fantasy

Trolls are everywhere in modern fantasy, with wildly different readings. Tolkien's stone trolls that petrify at dawn follow the Norse original; Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder made the troll a lanky regenerating beast weak to fire; Warhammer and Warcraft each have their own take; the Norwegian film Trollhunter and the rock trolls of Disney's Frozen draw on Scandinavian imagery of the mossy mountain giant. Tabletop players will usually expect either the "stone giant" or the "regenerating hunter" reading, so decide which you are sculpting.

3D printing notes

A troll is a big humanoid with a stooped posture, which makes it forgiving to print. At 28–32 mm scale the figure stands 50–70 mm and resin gives you the rocky skin texture and moss detail; tilt 25° back with supports under the belly, the jaw and the arms. If you add a tail, model it pressed against the leg or resting on the ground.

At 75 mm the troll is a good FDM model: print upright, split arms at the shoulder with 4–5 mm pegs, and print the head separately if it has a long nose or multiple heads. For 150 mm and larger, hollow the torso to 3 mm walls, add drain holes under the feet and reinforce the wrist of any raised arm. Stooped poses keep the centre of gravity low and rarely need extra weight in the base.

Pose ideas: crouched under a bridge, mid-step with a tree-club, or turning toward the rising sun with one arm already turned to stone - a wonderful excuse to blend organic and rock textures on one figure.

Painting and display

Grey-green or grey-brown skin with a heavy dark wash and a chalky dry-brush gives the rock-like look. Add lichen with stippled pale green and yellow, and moss with a flock or a thick paint stipple in mid-green. Hair takes a dark brown base and a light grey dry-brush. Eyes are small and bright - a tiny warm yellow dot with a black pupil reads as menacing from tabletop distance.

For a base, a stone bridge with a stream, a pine-forest floor or a rocky slope all suit the myth. A petrification diorama can use pale grey on the stone arm and a cold blue LED as the dawn light; a warm LED inside a mountain cave doorway is the alternative.

Related creatures

The troll's nearest relatives are the other giants of world folklore: the European Ogre, the Greek Cyclops and the mountain-dwelling Yeti. The small, mischievous Goblin is its diminutive cousin in wider European folklore, another dweller in the dark places under hill and stone.

Sources

• Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál (trans. Brodeur), https://www.voluspa.org/skaldskaparmal11-20.htm
• Wikipedia, Troll, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll

Want a mossy mountain troll or a bridge diorama, printed and painted to your brief? Ask Fantasy Lab 3D for a custom print.