Trolls

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There are several different types of trolls.

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Tolkien's Trolls
They are very large, strong and stupid. They turn to stone in sunlight. There are several kinds of trolls: hill, mountain, stone, cave, snow, etc... Only Olog-hair, or black trolls are able to move under sunlight.

Lumbering evil creatures originated by Melkor, and said to have been made by him 'in mockery of the Ents'.
- http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/

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Scandinavian trolls
In Finnish fairytales, the troll is a creature slightly larger than a human (about 7-8 feet?), with body-proportions of a child (short limbs, huge head), and messy hair in its head and at the end of its longish tail (looks like a tail of a lion). He usually wears raggedy clothes like torn shirt and trousers: never shoes. It is quite a selfish, intelligent creature, and often very rich: it lives in a mansion, has great storages full of gold and grain and large herds of livestock. Many of the tales tell of it competing with a clever human boy (called Matti) in both matters of wit and strenght. Matti usually wins these contests with his cleverness. The troll isn't particularly liked by people (many are even afraid of it) but it is tolerated.

The forest troll is a child-size version of the troll. They are wild, living in the forest and preying on children who might have gotten lost in there.

The fairytale Three Billy Goats Gruff of Norweigan origin tells of a frightening troll who lives under the bridge and threatens to eat the goats as they cross the bridge.

Rölli troll
(Sidenote: Rölli will refer to an individual, rölli to the race as a whole.)
Rölli is a kind-hearted but timid human-sized troll who lives in a hut in the forest all by himself. He likes to talk to himself and can be quite childish, and tends to be quite foolish when he gets excited. Rölli usually acts before he thinks. He tends to be very different from the rölli-community, an eccentric, questioning the laws of the community.

Rölli was created by Allu Tuppurainen, who also acts him in the tv-series and movie, of which you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6lli

Moomin trolls
Moomins are roughly hippopotamus-looking creatures, covered in short white fur. They have a tail like other Finnish trolls ending in a tuft of white hair. Moomin are very gentle, emotional and friendly, and in their home, the Moomindale, there are very few creatures that they don't get along with. When the Moomin are young, they are quite adventorous at heart, but generally settle down as they age (usually due to falling in love with another Moomin). The Moomin-family lives in a blue, round tower-like house.
                 The Moomin were created by a Finnish author Tove Jansson, appearing first as books and comics, then as an animated cartoon, and then in merchandice. More about the published world of the moomin in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin

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