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| John Bauer illustrator 1915 - Look at my beautiful sons |
We think of them today as people who come to our blogs or forums and trash what we say, though of course legitimate argument should be seen for what it is. They belong to a Scandinavian folklore/mythical creature that usually live in caves or on mountains. The Tolkien films show terrifying creatures, working below underground.
Like most things calling somebody a troll and it will invoke a feeling of aggression on both sides, the argument will suddenly skid sideways and become personal. Actually I think trolls should stay in the mythical realms, and I remembered the troll dolls of the 1960s, brightly coloured hair, they sat on desks a gentle poking of fun.
It reminds me that I have always loved all things mythical, the so-called Celtic age of spirits, fairies, goblins and dwarfs. The need to create another world, not necessarily fairy tale like but peopled with imaginative creatures that represent our own personalities, or at least our emotions.
Tolkien, who after all created the biggest mythical fantasy and who wrote poetry with such ease, wrote a long poem The Stone Troll, though I am not really enamoured of his poetry....
Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone
No, when we call someone a troll we not only bring down the provocateur but the mythological creature that haunts the cave as well. Which brings me to another thought, in Bath's hot springs during the time of the Roman invasion, curse tablets were thrown into the waters indicting the felon who had stolen. The same emotions work their way down through time.
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- "Whether pagan or Christian, whether man or woman, whether boy or girl, whether slave or free whoever has stolen from me, Annianus [son of] Matutina , six silver coins from my purse, you, Lady Goddess, are to exact [them] from him. If through some deceit he has given me...and do not give thus to him but reckon as the blood of him who has invoked his upon me.
We saw lots of trolls in Oslo. I love them.
ReplyDeleteArilx
They are like lumps of clay you can fashion into any design. Hopefully they were not real trolls in Oslo.
DeleteSuch an interesting post Thelma for early on a Sunday morning. And such a change from us all complaining about things (B*****. B**** etc) over which we have no control. Have a gentle day. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Pat, perhaps I shall return to the Celtic age for a while, though it was very bloody at the time...And of course there is the whole argument that the word Celtic is a misnomer.
ReplyDeleteI had almost the same thought about trolls. I had a small white one with purple hair when I was a schoolboy. He sat on the end of my pencil and he never thought about leaving nasty messages on people's blogs because in those days there were of course no blogs, no internet, not even any electricity... and the world was filled with mythical beings like goblins, fairies and ogres. Speaking of ogres, I wonder if Johnson is a mythical being.
ReplyDeleteI have often wondered about the nasty messages, do the people think that by writing it absolves them from common decency. Also, perhaps we are too sensitive to what one would call ill favoured comments we only like the 'nice' ones.... Anyway the troll as an actual fictional creature should be put in his rightful place.
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