April 28, 2003

Troll Trouble (Help Me!)
Lilly

Help! Lately trolls have been giving me more trouble than every orc question ever known! In "The Hobbit", Bilbo meets a bunch of trolls that apparently wear clothes, speak, and have (to some small extent) a bit of common sense and even mercy (didn't one troll want to let poor Bilbo go?). But in the movie LOTR, the 'cave troll' was depicted as a great, beastish, slobbering, mindless sort of animal-thing (who wore no clothes but a ratings-saving loin cloth). Also, the trolls in "The Hobbit" turn to stone in the sunlight whereas in the TT we see fully armored Cave trolls opening the Black Gates in what appears to be full daylight. What gives? I seem to remember reading something about different kinds of trolls...could that be the answer? Are cave trolls different from...um...regular trolls? Does anyone have answers for me?