Troll
The unnamed troll in “The Three Billy-Goats Gruff”
A threatening presence beneath a bridge who lets two small goats pass in anticipation of a larger meal, then meets a goat strong enough to defeat him.
Quick answer
In Dasent’s “The Three Billy-Goats Gruff,” the troll lives under a bridge and threatens to eat the goats crossing it. Two persuade him to wait for a bigger goat; the largest kills him and throws him into the stream.[1]
Quick facts
| Record type | Unnamed individual in a collected folktale |
|---|---|
| Tradition | Norwegian folklore, read through Dasent’s English translation |
| Source marker | “The Three Billy-Goats Gruff,” pp. 284–286 [1] |
| Source realm | An unnamed bridge and stream on the way to a hillside |
| Appearance | Large and ugly, with saucer-sized eyes and a poker-length nose |
| Conduct | Roars at crossing goats and threatens to eat them |
| Outcome | Defeated and killed by the largest goat |
What the source says
Three goats, all called Gruff in this translation, must cross a bridge to reach a hillside where they can grow fat. The troll beneath it hears the youngest crossing and threatens to eat him. The goat argues that he is too small and that a larger one will follow. The troll lets him go. The second goat obtains passage with the same appeal to a still larger meal.[1]
The heaviest goat makes the bridge creak. When the troll repeats his threat, this goat challenges him, attacks with his horns, destroys his eyes, crushes his body, and throws him into the water. All three goats reach the hillside. The ending describes a lethal defeat, not simply a fall followed by an escape.[1]
Description and conduct
The opening compares the troll’s eyes with saucers and his nose with a poker. It provides no measurements, skin colour, or complete anatomy. He speaks, roars, hears movement above him, and can be persuaded to postpone an attack. The tale shows his vulnerability to the largest goat rather than demonstrating a magical defence.[1]
No spell, transformation, regeneration, or reaction to sunlight is described. The plate’s clothing and bodily details belong to the illustrator’s reading and do not add facts to the prose account.
Source realm: the bridge and burn
The troll lives beneath the crossing between the goats and their grazing hillside. Dasent calls the water a burn, meaning a stream; that English wording does not locate the tale in Scotland. Neither bridge nor stream receives a geographical name. “Folklore places” here identifies the landscape within a collected Norwegian tale, not a mapped habitat.[1]
Themes in this telling
Appetite and misjudgement: read as a narrative pattern, the troll’s willingness to wait for more food lets two intended victims pass and brings him an opponent he cannot overcome. Repetition and reversal: the third crossing repeats the encounter but replaces negotiation with resistance. These are readings of the tale’s action, not an explanation supplied by its narrator.[1]
Book and references
- 1A Selection from the Norse Tales for the Use of Children
Norwegian tales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe; English translation and selection by George Webbe Dasent. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1862. “The Three Billy-Goats Gruff,” pp. 284–286; accompanying plate listed on p. vii. Project Gutenberg eBook 64189 reproduces this edition.
Read pp. 284–286 ↗ - 2Dasent’s “Notice” to the selection
Same edition, pp. iii–iv; dated 6 December 1861. Dasent explains that stories were omitted to meet objections to the earlier collection’s suitability for children. The profile therefore identifies this selected English witness explicitly; it does not claim to reproduce an unedited oral performance.
Read the editorial notice ↗