Trolls
Quite a number of villains that appear in stories are trolls. They are often huge and compared with giants, although sometimes confused with ogres. Traditional legend has it that trolls turn to stone in sunlight, which means that they live only at night. It conflicts with a number of different tales featuring trolls, who seem active in the day. Unless the versions are from other sources and have different outlooks on trolls as a fairy tale creature.
One of the most famous fairy tales with a troll is from the story "Three Billy Goats Gruff". This is a story from Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe in their collections of Norwegian fairy tales. The story is about three brother goats who need to cross over a bridge with a troll living underneath it. The smallest is too frightened, so is the middle goat, but the biggest goat is unafraid. He slams his horns into the troll, making the bridge free to walk across.
Trolls feature in Scandinavian folklore and myths. There seems to be the giant brutish troll with horns and tusks, who dwell in forests and mountains. Another kind of troll are smaller, dirtier and magical beings who live underground. However though, these different trolls tend to fear iron so much. People used to wear amulets and carry objects made from iron to protect against trolls.
There are a number of other collected stories about trolls by Asbjornsen and Moe, including "Tatterhood," "Three Princesses of Whiteland," "Dapplegrim," "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," "Boots and the Troll", and "The Twelve Wild Ducks". Most popular of all is a hero character named Ash-lad who battles with trolls.
Link: Ash-lad (or Askeladden) at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askeladden
More fairy tale villain posts to follow soon..
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