The True Mythology Behind Troll (2022) + Easter Eggs, References, Folklore & Ending Explained

Did you know that in Netflix's 2022 Norwegian kaiju movie called Troll, the filmmakers placed an easter egg during the end credits that only people familiar with classical music would get? In this video I will cover that, as well as all or most of the mythology and folklore references in the 2022 film Troll. Also I'm going to do a bit of an ending explained as I think there was a detail that a lot of people missed in regards to the ending. But there will be spoilers in this video, so if you haven't seen Troll yet, go watch it on Netflix before you watch this video. And if you'd like to see more content like this, be sure to give the video a like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell. Also apologies to the Norwegians, I will try my best, but undoubtedly I will mispronounce some Norwegian in this video. To start out with, I have to say that I was anticipating this movie because I'm a big fan of the 2010 film Trollhunter, another Norwegian film about trolls. Troll 2022 seemed like kind of a follow-up or sequel to that, which it is in a way, although stylistically it's completely different. While I didn't like Troll 2022 as much as Trollhunter, I still really enjoyed this new film, especially in the first half. I thought it got a bit more formulaic in the second half, but still overall I really enjoyed it and I really recommend you go watch it on Netflix. As the title of this movie would imply, this film really delves into troll folklore, some of which is specifically Norwegian. So in this video I will attempt to decipher those sources, starting out with the word troll itself. In the old Norse sources, the term troll is fairly vague. In some sources it's used to refer to Jotun, or could be thought of as a veitir, basically a Norse spirit or supernatural being, or really just a kind of vague monster. It isn't until the later Scandinavian folklore that trolls really start to take on unique characteristics that formed what people in Scandinavia think of as trolls today. This is the type of troll that was recorded by a duo you could call the Norwegian brothers Grimm, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jorgen Engebretsen Moe, in their classic 1841 Norwegian folktales book. In fact, their tales, as well as Benjamin Thorpe's 1851 book on northern mythology, records basically all of the characteristics that the troll has in this film. Aside from the more sympathetic side that we see of the troll, that's more of a modern take on the troll lore. For the most part, this film adheres to the lore that, for example, Tolkien would have drawn from, that have all the popular characteristics found in fairy tales. They're often large, ugly, very old, very strong, and not very bright creatures who lived in isolated mountains, caves, or near rocks. There are different types of trolls, and some are actually thought to be smaller in size. However, at one point in this film, Tobias tells us that the troll they're dealing with is a Badug troll, or mountain troll, which is, as you guessed, the large variety. A very common characteristic of trolls in folklore, in fact, you could say a defining characteristic, is the fact that they are not Christian, and often represent an opposition to Christianity. Characteristics like the troll's aversion to churches and church bells are recorded in Thorpe's book on northern mythology. He states that the trolls were solitary creatures who had a horrible aversion to the sound of church bells, and would often throw large stones at churches that encroached on their traditional troll lands. He also records that trolls' orjotl had a taste for Christian blood, and this is another characteristic that you hear in Scandinavian folklore, that trolls could smell the blood of Christians and would often eat them. In Carlsberg, Denmark, there's even a well-known statue made by Niels Hansen Jacobsen in the 19th century, titled Troll That Smells Christian Blood, in English. As Tobias Teidman points out in this film, the conflict between trolls and humans really came to a head during the Christianization of Norway, and specifically with a real historical king, Olof II Haraldsson, aka Olof the Holy, or Saint Olof. But I will get into his role in this film a little bit later. First, I'm going to go over some of the scenes in the film that reference real folklore, or troll culture, in Norway. In the opening sequence of the film, which takes place 20 years before the modern setting that most of the film is set in, Tobias Teidman and his daughter Nora are rock climbing in Romsdalen Valley in the western part of Norway, and Tobias references a real legend regarding several of the peaks there known as the Troll Wall, or Trollveggen in Norwegian, and this is actually the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, with about 1,100 meters between its base and summit. Tobias says that long ago there was a big troll wedding, 13 trolls became inebriated, lost track of time, and as a result the sun rose, which turned the trolls into stone, creating these peaks. This is actually a local legend regarding the origin of these peaks. For example, the peaks have names like the Bride, the Bridegroom, or the Maids of Honor, in reference to this story. I don't think you can actually see troll faces in the peaks as clearly as you can in this film, but still, it's pretty cool they included a local legend here. This also brings up another characteristic of troll folklore which is referenced in the movie, and that is that sunlight turns trolls to stone. Most people probably know this from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, in which trolls do the same thing, but this lore actually does predate Tolkien. For example, it's mentioned in Benjamin Thorpe's 1851 Northern Mythology, although it's applied to Jotun. Often characteristics of those two can go hand-in-hand. In other tales, it's applied to trolls, although it doesn't seem to be a hard rule. In the film, we see the troll in daylight, although Nora later realizes that it was overcast when they saw it, and actually exposure to direct sunlight does turn it to stone. Another characteristic that is more common is that trolls live in mountains or among stones in nature, and this is the case with this movie. The main troll featured is awoken when humans attempt to build a railway tunnel through Doverfell, or the Dover Mountains. The choice of the Dover Mountain range is not random, as Dover is a very famous mountain associated with trolls, perhaps most famously in the Henrik Ibsen play, Peer Gynt. Peer Gynt is one of the most famous Norwegian plays, and in the second act, Peer, who's a bit of a scoundrel and a woman chaser, follows a woman in green into the Dover Mountains. There he meets the mountain king, Doverguben, or the Dover Troll, who is king of the trolls and other otherworldly creatures. After the king tries to force Peer to marry his daughter for impregnating her with his mind, Peer eventually tries to escape, however it turns out the whole thing was probably only a dream anyway. The play of Peer Gynt is based on a folktale of the same name, however while the hero of the folktale does save milkmaids from trolls, Ibsen's play is quite different from it. Going back to the Doverfell Mountains, the mountains are featured in a number of other stories as the home of trolls. For example, ask Bjornsson and Moes, The Cat on the Doverfell, in which a man encounters trolls on the Dover Mountain on Christmas Eve. Even Hans Christian Andersen, despite being a Dane, mentions the Dover Mountains in his tale The Elf Mound, in which he mentions what is translated as an old goblin chief who lives in the mountains. I'm not sure what the original Danish is, but it's close enough to a troll. As Henrik Ibsen is probably Norway's most famous playwright and one of its most famous writers in general, Peer Gynt is definitely the most famous reference to the Dover Mountains, and what might be Norway's greatest composer, Edvard Grieg, composed music for this play called The Peer Gynt Suite. As I referenced earlier, one of Grieg's pieces for the play plays at the end of this film, and that piece is called In the Hall of the Mountain King, or in Norwegian, Dovergubens Hall. Basically, the Dover Trolls' Hall. Even if you're not much of a classical music fan, you've probably heard this tune as it's quite famous, and I don't think it's an accident that they played this piece during the end credits of the film, but I'll get to that later. Later, as Nora and Tobias are tracking down the troll, Tobias mentions Asbjørnsen and Moe, as well as Theodor Kittelsen, a Norwegian artist and illustrator from the late 19th, early 20th century, who is really responsible for the Norwegian image of what a troll is. In fact, the troll statue that we see later is inspired by one of Kittelsen's illustrations, and as we can see in this shot, it's not too far off from the reality, it's just a lot smaller. Incidentally, this is a real park called Hunderfossen Family Park near Lillehammer. Tobias, however, says that the fairy tales of Asbjørnsen and Moe, as well as Kittelsen's illustrations, were purposeful lies to cover up the truth, and the truth being that trolls are actually very intelligent, complicated creatures, unlike how they are often portrayed in folklore. In most folktales, trolls are usually portrayed as simple and backward. For example, Asbjørnsen and Moe's stories involving the fairy tale hero Ebsen Asklad, which is sometimes translated as Ash Lad, he often tricks and outwits trolls. And in fact, this character was adapted into two Norwegian films in 2017 and 2019, the first of which features the Dover Mountain Troll, like this film does. In contrast to the lore, this film seems to be taking a modern approach, portraying the trolls as intelligent, complex beings who are really representatives of the forces of nature, and physical warnings that humans should not take nature for granted or treat it poorly. In the final act of the film, it is revealed that under the royal palace in Oslo, the Norwegian royal family has been hiding evidence of trolls for many years. Chief Justice Richard Sinding explains that the Oslo royal palace was actually built on top of the former home of the troll king, and Olaf II, also called Olaf the Holy or Saint Olaf, was responsible for a massacre of troll children, the troll king's family, which we see the skeletons of in a cave beneath the palace. Olaf II wasn't the first Christian king of Norway, that was Olaf I, however, Olaf II was traditionally thought to play a big role in the Christianization of Norway. Modern historians do agree that he was not above using violence and brutality to accomplish his goals, so the fact that he would slaughter troll children in this film is not completely out of character. Sinding explains that while most of the troll king's family were killed, Olaf let one of the children go in order to lure the troll king into the Dovera Mountains, where it was imprisoned. So it's assumed by Nora and everyone else that the giant troll wreaking havoc on Norway is the troll king, Doverguben, come back to reclaim his former kingdom. What I think some people missed is that the post-credits sequence may say otherwise. In the final sequence, Nora and Andreas, as well as Captain Christopher, are able to use UV lights on the troll in order to hold it off. Nora has a change of heart in terms of killing it, but in the end, the sun rises and turns the giant troll to stone. That should be the end, however, in the post-credits sequence, we see that back in the Dovera Mountains, in the Hall of the Mountain King, there is still another troll breaking free of the mountains, and the fact that they play Griggs in the Hall of the Mountain King hints to me that perhaps the troll that is still in the Dover Mountain is, in fact, not the child that was sent to bait the troll king, but is the troll king itself, which of course would make the troll who wreaked havoc on Norway throughout the film the child rather than the king. This is just my theory anyway. I know that in one scene we see the troll picking up one of the skulls of the troll children, and he is clearly much bigger than the troll child would have been, but keep in mind he's had a lot of time, basically a thousand years, to grow up, so that could explain his difference in size. And if he is that big, then the troll king would have to be much bigger. We won't know for sure that the troll still in Dover Mountain is the troll king unless there's a sequel, so hopefully there will be, and if they're still going in the direction of a kaiju film structure, perhaps it would be interesting if the troll king in the sequel goes somewhere else, like Britain, or who knows. That is all the folklore and mythology I'm going to talk about in regards to Netflix's 2022 film Troll in this video, but I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Did I miss anything? What did you think of Troll 2022? Did you enjoy it as much as Trollhunter, and are you hoping for a sequel? Please let me know all this and more in the comments below. If you enjoyed the video, please give it a like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell. Also, check out my other breakdowns of the mythology behind TV and film, linked on the screen. Thanks for watching, and until next time.