About this episode
This episode explores the unique characteristics of trolls in Scandinavian folklore, particularly focusing on Norway's rich troll lore and its cultural representations in literature and music.
Trolls in Scandinavian folklore can be a little different from what’s imagined in the rest of the world. We begin our show with a montage of clips from recent movies, Trollhunter (2010) , Troll (2022) , and Troll 2 (2025) — the latter two being Netflix productions that have rekindled interest in the subject while reimagining trollsin a way that does not always conform to the folklore. While all Scandinavian countries have their share of troll lore, this episode focuses specifically on Norway, the country with the most compelling collection of troll folklore. The first portion of our show looks at the Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen’s play along with incidental music composed for the play by his associate Edvard Grieg. Introducing this topic is a clip from the 1970 musical Song of Norway , a fanciful Edvard Grieg biopic that garnered particularly bad reviews. We learn a bit about why Grieg hated his well-known “Hall of the Mountain King,” a composition which accompanies Peer Gynt’s encounter with trolls inside a mountain in the Dovre mountain chain. We also learn what Ibsen hoped to achieve in telling the story of his antihero Peer Gynt, and how he…
People in this episode
Host: Al Ridenour
Topics covered
- Scandinavian folklore
- trolls
- Henrik Ibsen
- Edvard Grieg
- Norwegian folklore
- Romantic Nationalism
- folktale collectors
Keywords
- trolls
- Scandinavian folklore
- Henrik Ibsen
- Edvard Grieg
- Norwegian Folk-Tales
- Romantic Nationalism
- Peer Gynt
- Dovre mountain chain
- folktale collectors
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Trollhunter, Troll, Troll 2, Song of Norway, Norwegian Folk-Tales
Places: Norway, Dovre mountain chain
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