The Little Book of Trolls

Covering the earliest legends of trolls, through to blockbuster movies and the internet troll, The Little Book of Trolls explores the fascinating history of one of folklore’s most complicated creatures.

An authoritative guide, written by a leading scholar in Old Norse literature and mythology.

Retellings of beloved and lesser-known troll tales are presented alongside beautiful historic illustrations and artwork.

Trolls have escaped from the black lava wastes of Iceland and the dense pine forests of Scandinavia to take on a new life in the collective global imagination. They may not steal goats and eat people quite so much, but they remain disruptive and dangerous, even if their limited imaginations sometimes make them comic and even quite likeable.

Emerging from Scandinavian mythology, trolls are contradictory creatures: fleshy in their desires but turning to stone in sunlight, as large as slumbering mountains or small enough to help you with your washing, charmingly charmless or genuine threat. They lurk in pine forests and peat bogs, overrunning homesteads, abducting princesses and generally nagging society with their troublesome presence.

Immortalised in the artworks of Theodor Kittelsen, John Bauer and Erik Werenskiold, this beautiful little book follows their journey from the dense forests of Norway to Middle-earth.

Carolyne Larrington is emerita professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford. She writes on Old Norse-Icelandic literature, myths and legends, folklore and popular medievalism. Her most recent books include All Men Must Die: Power and Passion in Game of Thrones and The Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think.