Of course Seattle has trolls. How could a city with such a large Scandinavian population manage to escape the trolls' notice?
The best, or at least the most visible, troll in Seattle lives underneath the Aurora Bridge. Of course he was inspired by the bridge trolls in the Norwegian folktale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, ``The Three Billy Goats Gruff'' (De Tre Bukkene Bruse). In the folk tale, the biggest Billy Goat Gruff uses his big horns to butt the troll down into the river, but in Seattle he survives to be the delight of children visiting the city's Fremont neighborhood.
When I was in Seattle for my dad's memorial in June, after the picnic we took some of the grands and great grands up under the Aurora Bridge to meet the Fremont Troll who lives there. As you can see from the photos, he's quite large, big enough to hold a Volkswagen Beetle under one hand. Of course the kids can't resist climbing on him and hiding in his various crevices. In the second photo you can see Poppy, the oldest of Dad's great-grands peeking out from under a troll hand.
When my kids were little, they got to hear Art ``Grandpa'' Stavig tell his troll tales in Seattle and show us his hand-carved trolls. He also created Trolls of Norway a self-published book with photos of his trolls and his stories, all of which had some sort of cautionary moral. His book is now out of print and rare, but occasionally a copy pops up at one of the BookFind sites or even on eBay Inc.'s eBay.com auction site. Here's a photo Grandpa Stavig -- although he was Norwegian, he wasn't a relative. ``Grandpa'' was just a courtesy title.
Wonderful as Stavig's trolls and stories were, the best trolls I've ever seen were those drawn by Ingrid and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, for their D'Aulaire's Book of Trolls and The Terrible Troll Bird. Both are long out of print, but are highly valued by book collectors. I've bought every used copy I've ever come across, to make sure that all the great grands have a chance to see these wonderful illustrations with which I grew up.
Do I believe in trolls? What a question! Let's just say sometimes I act like I do, and I always keep a little pewter figure of a Nokken (water troll) sitting next to the sink in the bathroom. Just in case. . . . .
trolls bridge Seattle bridge-troll Norway Norwegian-American folklore folklife Fremont family
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