Page Sec1:10 - Labyrint 2013 - English Edition

The return­
of folklore
Why are gnomes and trolls
suddenly back in the limelight?
“History becomes legend, legend becomes
myth,” said Galadriel in the film version
of The Lord of the Rings from 2001. And
during that first decade of the newmillen-
nium, the interest in fantasy, legends and
myths exploded in the western world. Harry
Potter, The Lord of the Rings, True Blood,
andmost recently Game of ­Thrones, are
all largely based on old folklore. Surpris-
ingly much of it includes elements from our
own Norse mythology and Scandinavian
folklore.
Yet, it wasn’t until last year that ­Norwegian
filmmakers started to catch up with the
trend, when no less than two films based
on our own traditions were released:
Troll Hunter and Thale (the latter about a
­Norwegian wood nymph – the hulder).
Marit Anne Hauan, folklorist and director
of TromsøMuseum, thinks it is great to
bring the old folktales back to life.
“The global interest among young people in
the oldmythical creatures is a clear reaction
to their parents’ generation’s lack of interest.
In the ‘70s and ‘80s it became fashionable to
have a very rational worldview. There was
no room for inexplicable or supernatural
phenomena,” she says.
“They demanded scientific answers to
questions, and were sceptical about the
‘big stories’. What we see now is a clear
backlash against this world view. Today, the
very rational way of being is seen as rather
uncreative,” she says.
Takingback the trolls
Both Troll Hunter and Thale were, perhaps
surprisingly, relatively successful outside
of Norway. Troll Hunter even topped the
DVD bestseller lists in the UKwhen it came
out.
“These films are Norwegian filmmakers’
reaction to the international trend. They
feel that they have something to contribute
It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that trolls were
presented in their current visual form, after Th. Kittelsen
and his colleagues drew them for Asbjørnsen and Moe’s
very popular collections of folktales. The illustrations cor-
related so well with trolls as people imagined them that
few people now envision them in any other way. Photo:
SF Norge AS
10 ••• Labyrint E/13 – University of Tromsø