While each of the Nordic countries has its own distinct flavour, there is something we can all agree on: trolls. Mythical, mischievous creatures who dwell in the forest, in the mountains and even underground. We know they aren’t real, of course – or are they? Writer Elin Unnes goes hunting for the answer
The phone has been ringing for so long that I’m close to hanging up. But I’m desperate. I am calling the landline of a highly respected researcher at one of Sweden’s most venerated historical museums, trying to get a hold of the one person who might be able to help me confirm a piece of obscure Norse herbal lore. Finally, a woman answers. I explain my business: that I need to fact-check a spell for a book that is going to print, like, right now. “It’s a good thing you caught me today,” she tells me, “one more day and I would have been gone.” She sounds about my age, and about as sane – though I use the term loosely. “Gone where?” I ask. “Off on a one year sabbatical. I’m going to Finland to study trolls.”
Today, ten years later, Tora Wall is a published (and award-winning) author and one of the foremost troll experts in Sweden. This blurring of historical myth and present day animism courses through the troll infested subconscious of all the Nordic countries. It’s like the eternal IP of the north. If Japan has Hello Kitty and the US has Barbie, Scandinavia has trolls. It’s a concept that is currently being explored by the people of Trollheim – a Stockholm-based production studio dedicated to the sprawling storytelling world that is Norse folklore. Their output includes books, music and film, as well as the sandbox survival game Trollheim: Gnomes, along with collectibles.