scandinavian trolls

[nathe]

ive been living in norway for past 2 years now and explored much of there wilderness, it is a mysterious place. one thing that srikes my mind is there old legends of trolls , in the sagas beowulf fought the grendal which seem to have have been exact description to the bigfella, many locals up north still believe in the forest spirit,and fear it.i wonder if it could possibly be related to bigfoot , sasquatch , yowie and etc etc.
excuse my english guys been awhile since i wrote in english

[Shar*Chi]

I'm understand I'm going to go out on a limb with this.

I travelled Norway from top to bottom nearly 10 years ago. Way up north, from Lillehammer, the geography is an incredibly complicated stretch of coastal fjords walled off glacial mountains, and many of the frozen communities up there were fairly isolated over millennia. Only a hundred years ago it was still easier to get from Bergen to London than Bergen to Oslo! I have to say some of the locals up there exhibited strong signs of genetic inbreeding, which gave them distinctive facial features similar to what is attributed to trolls. Ironically the troll icon is ubiquitous up there. It became increasingly obvious to myself and my travelling buddy, that a plausible source for the troll legends was extreme cases of inbreeding - probably socially outcast members of society forced to live away from the villages and further stigmatised by superstitious pagan beliefs.

I also have to add I've seen similar features in Tasmania, and some Southern states of USA (Virginia especially).