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Dec 2, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—T

Trolls

Dwarfs of Northern mythology, living in hills or mounds; they are represented as stumpy, misshapen, and humpbacked, inclined to thieving, and fond of carrying off children or substituting one of their own offspring for that of a human mother. They are called hill-people, and are especially averse to noise, from a recollection of the time when Thor used to be for ever flinging his hammer after them. (Icelandic, troll.)' (See Fairy.)

Out then spake the tiny Troll,
No bigger than an emmet he.

Danish ballad, Eline of Villenskov.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Trolly
Trojan War
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