A Share For a Poor Old Troll

[page 8] _A SHARE FOR A POOR OLD TROLL_ "He can spare a share for a poor old troll. For he don't need his shinbone.'" - from _The Fellowship of the Ring_ by J.R.R. Tolkien. The first trolls to come into Mr. Tolkien's epic are the three in _The Hobbit_ with the rather unlikely names of William Huggins, Bert, and Tom. They are described as having rather heavy faces, peculiar legs, and no couth whatsoever. Mr. Tolkien draws them as rather square-headed and definitely scaly. This trio are stone-trolls, who are @charecterized@ by being turned to stone by the action of sunlight. Even in life, they are practically as hard as stone. Cave-trolls appear in _The Fellowship of the Ring_. They also are hard....enough so to notch a sword-blade. They are dark green and scaly. They have no toes (stone-trolls do.) They have black blood which smokes in the open. Among their other @usefull@ functions, they do heavy lifting for Orcs. In _The Return of the King_ mountain-trolls are mentioned briefly, cheerfully wielding a ram for Sauron, against the gates of Minas Tirith. A little later in the story, hill- trolls appear, scaled so heavily that it appears like an armor of mesh. They also are black-blooded. They are noted for administering the _coup de grace_ by biting out their @enemies@ throats. These are probably the _Olog-hai_, in the Black Speech, as they walk abroad in the sunlight. Another race of trolls is described by Poul Anderson in _The Broken Sword_. These are short, shorter than a man, but very broad (Mr. Tolkien's trolls are tall.) They are green and cold and slippery to the touch, evidently they have no scales. In face and form they are hideous and their blood is green. Not only are the male trolls described by Mr. Anderson, but even one troll-woman; Gora, daughter to Illrede Troll-King. She, like most of her race is hairless. Her face is left best undescribed, and her green form, in addition to being squat, is said to be well-muscled. Anderson's trolls, like Mr. Tolkien's, do not like the sunlight, but they do not seem bothered by instant calcification. And so we end our visit wi th the pleasant peoples of Trollheim. I am sure that all of you are @dissapointed@ that no more details of their customs can be given here, but the sensibilities of the readership must be considered. Equal time anyone? /#######/