March of the Trolls

When Edvard Grieg wrote his pieces on trolls, he had no idea how relevant his music would be over 100 years later on message boards. Of course, Grieg was inspired by Norse mythology, but the same concept lives on here at the knot.

What is a troll? In the traditional sense, trolls are ogre-like creatures. They're not cute things. They are ugly and have typically been illustrated as having abnormally large ears and/or noses. Folklore depicts them as devious, violent, and brutish, but having rather poor intellect.

Funny how much and how little things change with the passage of time.

According to Urban Dictionary, a "troll" is "one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument." Similarly, in old Scandinavian tales, trolls would disrupt households by stealing food, cattle, and even newborn babies, leaving their own offspring (called "changelings") in return.

And now my local board has been attacked by trolls. Yuck.

The Scandinavians would ward off trolls by ringing church bells or asking Thor to throw his lightning bolts to kill the trolls. What's a modern girl to do about these pesky creatures?

Apparently, we are lucky enough to have our own Thor on the knot who monitors things so carefully that we don't even have to invoke his (or, more likely, her) power.

Thanks for those lightning bolts, oh mighty Knot Thor.