You have probably watched the interesting movie entitled, ‘Troll Hunter’. It’s actually a good movie which come in the form of a documentary film where the history’s best kept secret in the region of Norway has been revealed. Anyway, if you have already watched this movie then there’s this only one question that's playing inside your own mind. This question is:
"Are trolls real? Or do they exist?"
Before we conclude an answer into the question above, let’s first discuss more about trolls.
So what are trolls?
In the movies as well as on children stories, they are often depicted as monsters that are unfriendly to all humans. Some of their kinds even crave for human flesh as their most favorite type of food for their meal.
There are actually several kinds of trolls which vary on sizes and appearances. The most common type of trolls are those with human figures but quite ugly and possess slow-witted characteristics. There are also those that are gigantic in size that they can easily crush a human being with their own bare foot.
Moreover, the oldest source of information that tells about trolls are the Norse Mythology and the Scandinavian Folklore. Both of these sources claim that they inhabit places such as the deep-forest, isolated mountains, rocks and caves.
Scandinavian Folklore actually have a more detailed description about trolls. It claims that trolls are also considered human beings but they choose to live on their own-right far away from human habitations. Thus, they are not civilized so as Christianize which makes them dangerous to humans. Other than their aggressive brute behavior, some of their kind are known to practice powerful evil magics or sorcery.
Since they were not Christianize, this maybe the reason why they were afraid of the light that when they got exposed under sunlight, it will cause them to turn into stones. In short, it kills them.
The most interesting fact about trolls is that, they are known to have a life-span that ranges from 1000 to 2000 years of age.
Conclusion
So do they still exist or had existed before?
Since there are no solid proofs that they still exist up to this current date, we do not have an answer for this question yet. As for the question if they had existed before, we can conclude that as ‘yes’ and here’s the possible explanation.
In the long old days, there were actually several hominid species that had existed which includes human-giants. Trolls used to be one among these hominid species but unlike the human-giants, they had terrible ugly-looks and maybe they were really unfriendly especially to the humans (which is according to the Norse Mythology and Scandinavian Folklore).
Well, we do not exactly know the truth or the reason about why they were unfriendly and preferred to live on their own. Maybe they prefer to live far away and on their own because they were chased out by the humans. Or, they were just purely evil and cursed.
As an opinion, humans had grown more population where they had the power to easily obliterate the remaining numbers of trolls into their extinction. These soldiers responsible for the killings of these hominid species were now treated as heroes pertained from various folklore stories.
Those added awful characteristics about the trolls were perhaps just to simply make them more of an evil creatures for the purpose of making the story a lot more interesting to tell.
Trolls Only Exist on Children’s Stories
At this current date of our time, trolls only exist on children’s stories as well as on movies. But during the old age, you maybe surprised to know that people used to make stories based on their own actual experience and events but with a few tweaks for the purpose of making it more interesting to hear. The reason why they had to turn it into a fantasy or something unbelievable but interesting enough to listen was for the listener to remember it for the rest of his or her entire life. Thus, such stories has been passed down from generations into the next generation but they got probably revised several times.
Here's a book that I recommend for further reading about trolls.
"Are trolls real? Or do they exist?"
Before we conclude an answer into the question above, let’s first discuss more about trolls.
So what are trolls?
In the movies as well as on children stories, they are often depicted as monsters that are unfriendly to all humans. Some of their kinds even crave for human flesh as their most favorite type of food for their meal.
There are actually several kinds of trolls which vary on sizes and appearances. The most common type of trolls are those with human figures but quite ugly and possess slow-witted characteristics. There are also those that are gigantic in size that they can easily crush a human being with their own bare foot.
Moreover, the oldest source of information that tells about trolls are the Norse Mythology and the Scandinavian Folklore. Both of these sources claim that they inhabit places such as the deep-forest, isolated mountains, rocks and caves.
Scandinavian Folklore actually have a more detailed description about trolls. It claims that trolls are also considered human beings but they choose to live on their own-right far away from human habitations. Thus, they are not civilized so as Christianize which makes them dangerous to humans. Other than their aggressive brute behavior, some of their kind are known to practice powerful evil magics or sorcery.
Since they were not Christianize, this maybe the reason why they were afraid of the light that when they got exposed under sunlight, it will cause them to turn into stones. In short, it kills them.
The most interesting fact about trolls is that, they are known to have a life-span that ranges from 1000 to 2000 years of age.
Conclusion
So do they still exist or had existed before?
Since there are no solid proofs that they still exist up to this current date, we do not have an answer for this question yet. As for the question if they had existed before, we can conclude that as ‘yes’ and here’s the possible explanation.
In the long old days, there were actually several hominid species that had existed which includes human-giants. Trolls used to be one among these hominid species but unlike the human-giants, they had terrible ugly-looks and maybe they were really unfriendly especially to the humans (which is according to the Norse Mythology and Scandinavian Folklore).
Well, we do not exactly know the truth or the reason about why they were unfriendly and preferred to live on their own. Maybe they prefer to live far away and on their own because they were chased out by the humans. Or, they were just purely evil and cursed.
As an opinion, humans had grown more population where they had the power to easily obliterate the remaining numbers of trolls into their extinction. These soldiers responsible for the killings of these hominid species were now treated as heroes pertained from various folklore stories.
Those added awful characteristics about the trolls were perhaps just to simply make them more of an evil creatures for the purpose of making the story a lot more interesting to tell.
Trolls Only Exist on Children’s Stories
At this current date of our time, trolls only exist on children’s stories as well as on movies. But during the old age, you maybe surprised to know that people used to make stories based on their own actual experience and events but with a few tweaks for the purpose of making it more interesting to hear. The reason why they had to turn it into a fantasy or something unbelievable but interesting enough to listen was for the listener to remember it for the rest of his or her entire life. Thus, such stories has been passed down from generations into the next generation but they got probably revised several times.
Here's a book that I recommend for further reading about trolls.