Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff and the House of Lies

The folkloric resonances of the situation were glaring. Most famous troll tales in our culture derive from “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. That fable is itself a folkloric reflex of a much older legend in Indo-European culture. 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.

Source: Bridge to the House of Lies

The bridge between Inner and Outer Realms is one of the oldest structures in Indo-European imagination. The Chinvat bridge of Iranian religion, the troll’s bridge in Three Billy-Goats’ Gruff, the Donets River bridge at Stanitsia Luhanska where the author crossed daily into Russia’s occupation — all are the same archetype. Disinfolklore lives under the bridge.

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