HOME | DD

Description
Another Troll, I imagine this one as possibly the better half of the rather less gentle looking fellow with the axe[link] . Once again drawing from the portrayal of trolls in nordic fairy tales (this one owes a substantial debt to the work of swedish artist John Baur)
there's a lot of contention that the myths of trolls, giants, ents ect. which are so prevalent in northern europe may have had their origin in received stories about early modern man's interactions with the then-dwindling race of neanderthals at the end of the last ice age (William Golding wrote a wonderful little book about it called "The Inheritors") Like all big fish stories, trolls like the ones we know from The Hobbit or the three Billy Goats Gruff are the result of thousands of years of exaggeration (i very much doubt neanderthals could smell the blood of christians, or would turn to stone in sunlight) but the folktales do paint a fairly consistent picture of big, lumbering, primitive sort-of alternate beings, human but not so, usually gentle in nature, more intuitive than intellectual, and living in a close, intimate relationship with the natural world around them. I dont think any of this really comes through in this drawing in any big way, just fun stuff to have kicking around in my head while doodling.

Description
Another Troll, I imagine this one as possibly the better half of the rather less gentle looking fellow with the axe[link] . Once again drawing from the portrayal of trolls in nordic fairy tales (this one owes a substantial debt to the work of swedish artist John Baur)
there's a lot of contention that the myths of trolls, giants, ents ect. which are so prevalent in northern europe may have had their origin in received stories about early modern man's interactions with the then-dwindling race of neanderthals at the end of the last ice age (William Golding wrote a wonderful little book about it called "The Inheritors") Like all big fish stories, trolls like the ones we know from The Hobbit or the three Billy Goats Gruff are the result of thousands of years of exaggeration (i very much doubt neanderthals could smell the blood of christians, or would turn to stone in sunlight) but the folktales do paint a fairly consistent picture of big, lumbering, primitive sort-of alternate beings, human but not so, usually gentle in nature, more intuitive than intellectual, and living in a close, intimate relationship with the natural world around them. I dont think any of this really comes through in this drawing in any big way, just fun stuff to have kicking around in my head while doodling.