Fee-fi-fo-fum. Of course, trolls are real.

Of course, trolls are real. Everyone knows that.

For those who need a quick brush-up, here are the basics: Trolls are figures that come out at night, don’t like humans, especially Christians, are dangerous, have an acute sense of smell—more on that in a second—and are as dumb as a post.

They lurk everywhere according to Norwegian mythology. But because we humans are primarily creatures of light, we only see what they look like in the daytime—stones—the more misshapen, the better. And the only things that a troll cannot stand is daylight and the sound of church bells.

They also have relatable problems, and may be misunderstood. Who knew?

In my upcoming novel, Brothers by Honor, the protagonist, Kory Mowat, and his friends explore a sea stack nicknamed Smuggler’s Rock. The rock, covered with kelp, pockmarked and forbidding, brings to the overactive imaginations of the four young boys, the work of Norwegian artist Theodor Severin Kittelsen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Kittelsen. More specifically, this playful work of art: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/N%C3%B8kken_at_Nasjonalgalleriet.jpg

But back to their having an acute sense of smell. Trolls were not religious creatures, but they could smell a Christian.

I grew up reading about the three Billy Goats Gruff. But in Norwegian fairy tales, the creatures underneath the bridge were not goats, but trolls, with the original verse being Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a Christian Man.