Hurstwic: Trolls in the Viking Age

[@godsaveme]

"Trolldom" in Swedish is another word for magic, "Att trolla" literally means to cast magic, "Trolleri" is usually what we call people doing card tricks and such today. While Magic is translated to Magi. "Trolldom" is just an old name for magic. Someone who did "Trolldom" was someone who did a certain kind of magic or trickery. Interesting takes and ideas on a lot of things from you Americans, I enjoy these videos a lot, keep up the good work exploring and understanding the old ways ;).

[@godsaveme]

​@God of the Eternal light. If you know anything about folklore you would know that a Troll is actually considered being a person who is doing evil magic on you, this was usually used during Iron age to target certain people whom a family were in feud with, say a neighbour or someone who treated you or your family badly, also targeted against people someone might not have liked to begin with. To cast Trolldom(evil magic often associated with corrupted women but some men as well). Trolls in folklore were shapeshifters and therefore it would be somewhat used to accuse someone of being a troll, now there were people back then who actually practiced Seidr or Curse magic/blood magic on to people often women who were Völvas or Goethi/Godi males(male priests/shamans). Since trolls were evil magical beings living in the mountains or dark parts of the forests it was believed that trolls that were not shapeshifted into any other form would turn to stone if hit by the sunlight, therefore strange rockformations such in Iceland or Raukstones/Rökstones could be thought to be trolls turned to stone. If someone who did practice magic or were a shaman or even someone fucking with you during nighttime could be accused and targeted as a troll, although usually it was something people used against their foes/hated neighbours or outcasts who did others harm, trolls or people accused for being a troll were usually killed in a brutal way and where they were killed are believed to be haunted places where their evil Hugr(spirit) remains if they happened to be a human shaman/mage who did evil Trolldom, it was often thought that their evil Hugr remained and they walked around as Draugr(living dead) and sought to harm people from the spirit world. Being a troll is being a fucking asshole who are doing others harm by casting Trolldom. however people believed Mountain trolls and Forest trolls existed as well who were just dangerous monsters who lurked in the dark damp areas and killed/ate people. A vätte or nisse/tomte on the other hand is what some would call a certain type of fairy/goblin were vättar/goblins were evil small creatures who tried to harm your house or livestock and kidnap your kids, while fairies and tomtar(Hustomtar, Houseguardians) usually were given sacrifices such as putting plates with porridge outside your door to keep them close protecting and taking care of your home and not kidnap your kids. Santa Claus is called Tomten in Scandinavia because Santa is based on the mythical being that is a Tomte. Fairies could be evil or good depending on how you treated their land or the nature they resided in. It was commonly believed that a child born with the placenta covering the face on a newborn where it almost was stuck to the skin(rare occasions this happened) that they were changelings, fairies or elves children who had been brought into the world of humans by the fairies so the humans would take care of them and let them grow up as humans, often very blond and blue eyed kids were considered to be of the fairy or elven race in certain occasions. Later when christianity took over these children born and believed to be changelings were often dumped at a tree were the folk believed the fairies to reside close by in the spirit world hoping that they would take back their child and give back the human child that were raised instead in the spirit world by the fairies/elves. Some people think that this is bullshit and ofcourse by todays standard its seen as insanity, but blonde blue eyed people and red haired green eyed people have been under harms way and sometimes killed/burnt on stake since christianity swept over the dark ages into the 1700th century during the inquisition and rooting out of all pagan and folklore practices. Still today blonde blue eyed people are about 6% of the worlds population and have been killed and exterminated for 1000 of years since they were seen as being from the spirit world or fairy/elven world, while red haired people often accused for witchcraft and devilworship even though satan or the devil is a roman/chatolic invention and continuation of the God Saturnus and Hel is the underworld, not Hell or purgatory. Nordic people are still being targeted today as being evil and the cause of the worlds problem though most Scandinavians have nothing to do with the worlds worse problems, the majority of Scandinavians came to USA in 1870, after slavery had ended, yet the whitest people with 6% of the world as a minority as accused by people who are the equivalent of what a fucking Troll is, someone who with words and Medea worship / Media spread of trolldom with news and fake science accuse the most giving and helpful minority of foreigners to be some evil group behind the patriarchy or why african americans are shot in the US. Anyhow, knowledge is power, dont deny a peoples whole cultural heritage as something to joke about as something untrue, our ancestors believed in spirits, trolls, elves, tomtar and other worldy beings, animistic belief in that the world and everything is connected and alive in symbios with nature. Yet having a folklore that inspired modern day fantasy in games and movies we still had people that sailed the world before columbus and went to America way before that Idiot thought he were in India.

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

Thank you for the talk "Mímir"....

[@thevikinghermit7151]

In modern fantasy troll is a race, but I think an interesting parallel to how they might have used the term troll then to how it is used now is the internet troll. It’s not a physical description, they could be male, female, adult, a kid, but are someone who purposely lacks empathy in order to provoke, or is generally unwanted by the online community. They invoke a response of either disgust, anger, or dark humor, and there is no good way to deal with them other than ignore them and hope they will get bored and go away.

[@sgtgensamer8693]

Thank you for sharinng your hard-won research with us. I couldnt help thinking over and over again, as i watched, that these "classifications" (troll, elf, dwarf, ghost, etc.) really WOULD make more sense, if thought of like an adjective, rather than a noun. I scrolled a bit through the comments and found that at least one other viewer (TheLordUrban) shared this same thought. It really drastically changes the way u think about these stories and im extremely grateful for the insight that youve brought to our attention. Please continue this fine work. Those who care about it.. REALLY care about it! :)

[@MrCmon113]

Also the Norse didn't seem to have a good grasp on genetics or consistent genetics in their myths anyways. Anything can fuck anything and produce something completely different.

[@tohe0000]

Thank you for talking about this, very nice indeed

[@TheLordUrban]

Would it be fair to say that troll could be considered more of an adjective than a noun?

[@lukashuettner]

I often find that people nowadays underestimate the old ages. In terms of science and "understanding the world", modern people like to draw a picture of our ancestors like they were naive, stupid and superstitious. Well, they were superstitious - but that truly might be linked to their understanding of magic and "the other side". They experienced truth through those things. The same as we experience truth through science. I am 100% certain, that we've lost more on our headway than we gained. I mean, yea sure - running water, electricity, warm and comfortable houses, steal-horses (hehe) - all great. But those tens of thousands of witches and sorcerers which were hunted down and burned at the stake.......they were hunted for a reason. When it was only religion, fine. But then, their religion was truly powerful and dangerous to the christian force. When nothing of the concept of magic would be true, than it wouldn't have been so central, so significant, so common in the ancient world. I don't portrait those men and women as illiterate, unenlightened fore-humans. I think our history books are talking in a reversed tongue on purpose. They say "the new era of the enlightenment" - but they mean "they eradicated the old ways" - they un-enlightened the people Medieval times are often portrayed as an age on the same straight timeline like the ancient Greeks or the Babylonians were on. Like the Medieval time were just the next thing on the same timeline. But this is actually not the case. And no one really talks about this. I think, yes, it has something to do with our "telling of time" starting with AD. So we arranged some hundred years around that Jesus Christ event, yes - but really, "our" time starts with AD. And in historical sense, Medieval times started around 600 AD. Now, here is the thing: How come, that aqueducts and drinking water channel systems and advanced medical treatments were known and put into place in antiquity - and were "forgotten" in the medieval ages? For example, in medieval times the people somehow forgot how to use aqueducts. The roman empire imploded and many of those things were transformed into city walls and forts. It's common sense that people in the medieval times suffered from polluted water, generally ignoring the hygiene progress of antiquity. Why? Why this break? It's called the "dark ages" for a reason right. Something changed. And we cannot ignore, that our timeline is not straight at all.

[@MrCmon113]

Most people in the past were certainly more evidence oriented and rational than you are. They were ignorant, but not through active self deception. If you payed any attention to scholarship, you'd see that the superstitions of the past weren't even self consistent, let alone true.

[@MrAllanstevns]

Although we do have a word for witch in danish (Heks) another danish word for witch is "troldkvind" meaning "troll woman". And for the word wizard/warlock, we have to my knowledge, no other word but "troldmand" meaning "troll man". And the word for wizardry is "trolddom" which can be liteally translated to something like "troll judgement".

[@Skelldr]

Allan Stevns «dom» in the ending of nordic sentences doesn’t have anything to do with judgement. It’s from old Norse “domr” meaning property or condition. As in danish words sygdom, ungdom and so on doesn’t have anything to do with judgement.

[@leeandrew4776]

Are you a pagan

[@ceyhunalp1576]

very very informative, interesting & well presented! Not to mention engaging!

[@noahwig500]

Thank you to William Short and the Hurstwic crew! Amazing content!

[@Hamsterizer]

A fantastic & well thought-out talk!

[@burntmarshwigglestudio597]

This was outstanding!

[@MrThedirtyduo]

Troll= bigfoot=neanderthal. I had a troll walk up on me in a creek. It was soul sucking dread and fear, nightmares for months.

[@stalkingafemcreep5114]

Where did the incident happen?

[@Kangsteri]

Interesting perspectives. I have been studying this matter for some years now. Im very much in to Finnish etymology, history and folklore, and i can hear some echoes about this from Russia, Sweden and Norway too.. "Troolata" in finnish language is not adjective, its a verb. It means "to drag", "fishing", "to pull something to your self". So it might just mean something that drags you down, or is trying to use your force. Seems like here in north we had no concept for "good and evil" before the bible people. There was only preserving, or change, and mental issues. So non of the spirits or gods were good or evil, it depended how you act against them or respect them. After the religion got involved and the inquisition started, our holy places and ancestors were claimed as evil and false gods. This confused the language and meaning of the words and places very much. For example, giant means most likely just old respected human or warrior who had a lot of political influence but was not a ruler. Stoned "trolls" are most likely just a resting place or a symbol / sacrificing place for a important person or spirit that lived around. Also it was more easy to say for children that dont go to forest cause there is trolls in there ;D Here in Finland the word troll has become a synonym for devil, satan, and all other history that you are not supposed to be talking about. I also suspect that the word berserk means the old northern clans that still had their power animals (bear-, wolf-, cow-, goat-, pig-, eagle-, snake-, fish-, owl-, etc. clans). Seems like the animal spirits was helping a lot of people in battles, specially if it was helped with some right herbal medicines. Thanks for all the lectures. Keep up the good work!

[@Kangsteri]

Thanks for the recommendations, i need to check those.. And i was not aware of those old names. The Saami word for giant is "Jatuli", "Jotuli" or "Meteli" and in finnish it can be "Jättiläinen", "Jätti", "Peikko", "Perkele", "Saatana", "Piru", "Horna", and many other curse words, specially in the names of places. According to our folklore all finnish ancestors were giants. They all are sons of Kaleva / Kalervo, or Kalevi in Estonian. Kaleva had 12 giant sons that were the "kings" of Finland, and ancestors of the king of Norway according to some stories of Snorri. The names of the sons are: Väinämöinen, Kullervo, Lemminkäinen, Hiisi, Ilmarinen, Liekiöinen, Soini, Kihavanskoinen, Torro, Tilka, Äijä and Vorna. And there was also 3 Saami giants called Oulas, Hijo and Limas. All these giants were originally just fighting against the family of "Untamoinen" (that means people who live in a dream) that wanted to take their hunting lands for farming. I try hard to stay away from the religion side of these stories. I personally believe that the nature of people dont change in different clothes, or skin, and only eternal thing in this world is that time goes forward.

[@Kangsteri]

Sorry, i was way too tired when i was watching this and had some major brainfart..:D I didnt even mention the biggest and most known side of finnish troll traditions, "Trullit" of the eastern days and our version of "trick or tread" called "virpominen". I can roughly translate some of the finnish wikipedia and add some well known explanations for it. Seems like its not available in english, and there is some different views where it all originates: The Eastern witch: In current time it means in Finland that kids dress as witches and they are called as "trulli" or "rulli", and they trade ornamented willow branches that bring luck, to candy. But originally only eastern days witchcraft is specially defined as "evil" magic and it has been the day when every witch tried to ruin your livestock, luck, or happiness. These trulls were known of gathering in eastern to mountain of "Kyöpeli" where they would make their flying potions and dance naked around bonfire. It was believed that specially on these times they could shift their shape to animal or object if surprised. It was known that animals were in big danger in eastern Friday and Saturday. It was common to try to steal hair or peace of skin from neighbors cattle to take its life force for your own. It was also the time when jealous lonely women would express their wrath against those who had more than them. According to our folklore it was believed that if Trull got in to your cowshed, then all your cows would die in strange diseases in next winter. But there was also many ways to protect against them, like bells, blades, hymn books, quicksilver, pentagram and cross. It was also believed that between eastern Friday and Sunday the protecting forces of gods were at weakest in this time of the year. So the witches could do what ever they wanted then. It was tradition to burn bonfires for protection against them in this time too. So the Trulls are known as a curse, but the tradition of "virpominen" (trading ornamented willow branches to candy) is known as blessing. There are many different short rhymes that kids are supposed to be saying when they do the trade. Usually something like "Virvon varvon tuoreeks terveeks, tulevaks vuodeks. Sulle vitsa, mulle palkka". (Roughly translated: I whip and i hash to fresh and healthy, for the upcoming year. Have my branch, i get the candy). In Russia is a different variation of "virpominen" that is more connected to orthodoxy. In that tradition the priest gives his blessing for the willow branches and they are given for the people after the church. On the next day kids do the ornamenting for the brances and they are supposed to do the first "virpominen" to their godparents, then rest of the family, and then to neighbors. In this tradition the price for the branch is usually jut a egg that is painted to red, or some chocolate. The branches are kept above the house icons till next Thursday and after that they are burned. Some claim that the tradition is connected to Jesus and the palm leafs. But "virpominen" in Finland is still a reality and very well known everyday tradition too in a form of a "vihtominen". "Vihtominen" means that we take a cluster of birch branches and soak them in water. Then its used in sauna for beating / whipping our self, or other people. That might sound weird and obscure but its really refreshing and it brings very good aroma to the sauna experience. Its also good for soft peeling of the skin, i think the coarse side of the sponge is worse than that. "Vihtominen" has also been very common cure for different diseases in here. But then the plants for the cluster need to be from right trees too, like juniper for example. This branch cluster is in finnish "vihta" or "vasta", depending if you live in east or west. In Sweden this tradition is called "påskris"? and kids dress as women? And in Norway and Denmark its "fastelavnsris"? When kids whip their parents awake in the morning? Its common in Ugrian cultures that whipping or swinging with branches exile bad spirits.

[@hankalahko8511]

@@Kangsteri Kiitos

[@neopict5872]

Many of us in the west veiw trolls as another name for sasquach, bigfoot, yeti, or grassman.

[@MrThedirtyduo]

Definitely bigfoot, they seem pretty evil around here too.

[@MrCmon113]

No, they don't.

[@joeblow1748]

The sound of a giant bolder rolling down a hill is terrafying i encurage you to watch a clip and close your eyes, what do you see?

[@Sorenzo]

In modern Danish, the words "troldmand" ("troll man") or "troldkvinde" ("troll woman") refers to a wizard or witch, and never refers to trolls as mythological creatures. It's never been clear to me that there's a connection between the troll as a mythological creature and the terms "troll man" or "troll woman." It's all fairly confusing but in my personal, modern Danish understanding, references to a "troll man" wouldn't seem to mean and "actual" troll, but some kind of wizard person.

[@tomwolfe6063]

It’s remarkable how completely Tolkien’s works have shaped our understanding of these fantastic creatures.

[@godsaveme]

You mean how our history and beliefsystem shaped tolkiens work and even the bible today.

[@MrCmon113]

Nah, he build on medieval and romantic interpretations that were already departed from the original Germanic believes.

[@RuneChaosMarine]

I am interested in learning about the origin of european trolls and their connection to psychedelics in history. Searching for this information is quite difficult, due to key words alone. Quite hidden knowledge. Similar to the stuff joe rogan graham handcock and the brian guy who wrote the 'immortality key' book.

[@godsaveme]

Eat toppslätsskivling, grows on pastures during autumn, psilocybe mushrom that will send you closer to the natural world and how alive the spiritual world is, however get ready to face your demons aswell. ;) Dont ever eat Amanita Muscaria.

[@albertito77]

What do you think of the theory that Elf’s are humans who’s attained semi divine status ?

[@Christo123ize]

Maybe trolls were their version of bigfoot. Maybe they were actual cryptids that walked the earth.

[@MrThedirtyduo]

Bigfoot is definitely real, so they would know about them, they left food offerings to them...

[@andrewpenley6605]

This was my thought as well! Maybe trolls were just what they called sasquatch...

[@leeandrew4776]

Hello from England is their a website i can buy t shirts hoodies hats books about paganism and viking history Nordic Celtic Saxon Slavic ancestors books on this website

[@lisetteolsson2441]

The pointy ears is brittish, never mentioned in swedish folklore

[@sarahhouston6560]

Could I connect with your education? Based in the United Kingdom. I am a troll

[@sarahhouston6560]

Well need to speak with the lecturer

[@scottfergusson8411]

This is part of my ancestry.... back to Rollo.....however we really don’t know . None of us were there. It’s fun to think about .

[@listoriamemeosia2126]

is this trolling?

[@vanivanov9571]

It's fairly obvious. In the early days, berserkers (bear-sarkers) were esteemed as elite warriors who served the king. But as time went on, and the Norse started to settle down and Christianize... they were getting sick of these guys who could suddenly go mad and kill someone or cause trouble. So, in proper skald fashion, they started portraying them as villains. That's why you get this weird dichotomy.

[@MrCmon113]

That's not "obvious", that's your baseless speculation. Berserkers are probably just as fictional as shield maidens and dragons.

[@vanivanov9571]

​@@MrCmon113 ? That "shield maidens" are fictional is just your speculation, and wrong at that. Beyond the fact that the idea no woman ever fought seems a long bet, the Eastern Romans record female warriors among the slain Varangians in the 10th century, Saxo reports them, and of course the Sagas have plausible references to some (even if exaggerated in the manner of a saga), and there are numerous cases of women buried with battle-worn weapons which seem to vindicate the historical record. Now, if you mean women fighting in war was very rare, that's likely quite true; but that's different from calling the whole concept a fiction. But the bearsarkers being fictional...? I don't think I've heard any historian suggest something as far as that. So I guess that's your own idea without any basis in academia. I'm not even sure why someone would object to the idea of an elite donning bearskins except to be contrary--as would someone picking fights years later on a video about trolls.

[@tyreegibb3582]

I recon trolls and ogres might of been scandinavias version of bigfoot perhaps