The Ur-Troll Tale: Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff

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. Their feet go ‘Trip, trap! trip, trap!’ and the troll calls out: ‘Who’s that tripping over my bridge?’ The youngest goat tells the troll not to eat him, but to wait for the next goat, who is fatter. The second goat says the same, and when the third goat crosses the bridge it announces: ‘It is I! The Big Billy-Goat Gruff!’ It kills the troll.

Source: Disinfolklore (5)

That fable is itself a reflex of a much older Indo-European legend:

In ancient Iranian religion, at the time of death, we approach Chinvat bridge. Chinvat is guarded by Daena. If Daena appears as a beautiful woman, we will pass into the eternal heavenly House of Songs. Yet, if the bridge narrows as we approach it to the width of a sword blade and Daena is a witch, we shall spend eternity in the hellish House of Lies.

I was a living character in the daily re-enactment of one or other of these stories.

Source: Bridge to the House of Lies

And the Three Billy-Goats are still at work today:

This archetypal tale was immanent in the first moments of Druidey Don Disinfolklore the Shaman Trickster Trump’s campaign in 2016 when he talks about the migrants, the criminals, the rapists coming from Mexico, which is this idea of threatening the sovereignty, the security and the fertility. So these are the three billy goats coming from Mexico into the inner realm of America. And Donald is situating, is archetyping himself as protecting it.

Source: Video Podcast: In the Faery Tale

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