On where trolls roam

My hometown, though small, has throughout history been the home of several artists, writers and musicians. One of the sons Kongsvinger is the most proud of is the famous painter and illustrator, Erik Werenskiold. He grew up here, due to his father's job as the commander at the fortress. Werenskiold is mostly known, today, for his illustrations in the Norwegian folk tale collection by Peder Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

Kittelsen's creepy one-eyed troll almost
looks real, don't you think?

One of the other illustrators for this collection is Theodor Kittelsen. I cannot vouch for the truth to the following anecdote, but supposedly Kittelsen criticized Werenskiold for being too bound by conventional restraints in his folk tale illustrations. "How can he, who has never seen a troll, draw one?" Kittelsen wondered.

I don't know if Kittelsen actually believed in trolls, but having spent some time in the Norwegian forests during my life, I think I know what he was talking about. And local patriotism set aside, I have to agree with him. His work seem to reflect a much more "realistic" mythos, where the trolls and other supernatural creatures blend in with their surroundings in ways that *almost* make you believe they could exist, out there, off our radar.

Werenskiold, on the other hand, has chosen what I'd like to call a "Shrek-like" approach, where the trolls basically look like ugly, overgrown humans. 

I have to say I prefer Kittelsen's version. After all, it looks so much more like the many "trolls" you can see with your own two eyes in any given forest:

"Try to look like a stump! Look like a stump!"