4 ms·

I thought the trolls were perfect. Big, unkempt, medium drunk. They should be a great deal bigger than Bilbo.

• rightbyte 1y ago
  Ye reading some background it is the classical view of trolls as like big humans? I mean orcs are wretched elfs so it makes sense to draw them very human in some sense. I think my view was very much inspired by DnD. It is interesting to note how different this stuff were viewed at the time.
  • sevensor 1y ago
    Just from reading the text itself. I’m well familiar with the D&D troll, but Tolkien’s trolls are just big ruffians covered in mutton grease.
  • tokai 1y ago
    Trolls, like Jotun, can be both monstrous or humanlike. In Scandinavian folklore a troll is more of a broad category than a specific 'species'. The main thing is that they are malevolent and supernatural. Some trolls are grotesque creatures with a dozen heads, while others are so human like that they can exchange their children for human children without the human parents ever realizing. Following is from a Danish historic dictionary: «1) according to folk belief: a supernatural being hostile to humans (dangerous) (of a more or less human-like form), especially of supernatural size and strength, ugly (creepy) appearance, thought to live in hills (mountains), forests, etc. (cf. Hill, Mountain, Sea, Forest troll and underground); also of smaller beings such as dwarfs or gnomes (Junge.308. NPWiwel.NS.22. Feilb. cf. Small troll)»