Asbjornsen and Moe: The Ur-Troll Tale

Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff — A Norwegian folk tale collected by Asbjornsen and Moe. Three goats set off for a pasture. They have to cross a bridge, beneath which lives a troll.

Source: Disinfolklore (5)

Norway’s folklore collection movement, contemporary with the Grimms’, produced Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe’s Norske Folkeeventyr (1841-1844). Their Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff is the ur-troll tale in European culture — the story that defines what a troll is and what a troll does: guard a crossing point and extract a toll from those who would pass.

Sir George Dasent, who translated the story into English in Popular Tales from the Norse (1859), pointed out that the goat was sacred to the Norse god Thor — and Thor was a great foe of all trolls.

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