The Little Book of Trolls is a collection of stories gathered by Carolyne Larrington which adds up to a sort of directory of trolls, from the medieval to the modern, taking in kindly trolls, dangerous trolls and stupid trolls along the way.
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 as much, but they remain disruptive and dangerous, even if their limited imaginations sometimes make them comic and even quite likeable.
Emerging from the earliest annals of Scandinavian mythology, trolls are contradictory creatures. They can be monstrous and large as mountains, or humble and humanoid in appearance. The accounts written in Scandinavia and Iceland in the 19th century paint trolls as creatures who kidnap, overrun farms, lurk in the dark corners of landscapes, demand human marriages, eat unsuspecting travellers, and occasionally help the people who encounter them.
Thoroughly researched and entertainingly written, The Little Book of Trolls is essential reading for the fantasy fan and a perfect introduction to the charmingly charmless world of trolls.
University of Toronto Press, 96pp, 15cm x 23cm, illustrated hardcover, 2025
