Hello Norway!
When you were small children did you hear lots of stories about trolls?
Were the stories scary ? Are there good trolls and bad trolls ? Did you
think that trolls really did exist ?

Hello Newfoundland!
We have been thinking about the troll questions and we'll try to answer your questions. We have
different experiences when it comes to trolls. Hanne doesn't remember believing in them, but Cecilie,
Katrin and Hilde believed in them. We all heard many different and scary stories about trolls when we
were kids, and it's still common to tell troll stories in Norway. It's an important part of our culture and
tradition. In many of the Norwegian folk tales troll are some of the main characters. We heard stories
about trolls living in the forest. If they didn't hide before sunrise, they turned into stone or stone
formations.
 
The trolls are basically stupid and easy to fool (luckily). Normally they are enormous, ugly looking and
bad. We haven't heard of good trolls. Have you ? What kind of stories are common in Newfoundland ?
 
Hello Norway!
Many thanks for your thoughts on the trolls.  It reminds me very much of
the old beliefs in Newfoundland about "Fairies".  You can see some fairy
stories if you look at this link. http://www3.nf.sympatico.ca/mayad/fairies/
Many of these beliefs & fears & stories came to Newfoundland with the
settlers who came from  Ireland, Endland, Scotland & Wales.

Here is the idea I had about the trolls: Could each member of your group
please WRITE us a complete description of a troll - size, shape, colour of
clothing, description of face, height, background and other things ?
We will then have a group of children here draw a picture of your troll by
closely following your description ? This would be good English practice for
you and an great art activity for our children - they would have to follow your
written description to complete their troll. Then, on our school webpage we could
post your written description surrounded by the pictures that the children
illustrated.  If the 3 of you do one troll each, then we could have 8 children
illustrate each of your writings for a total of 24.  That way ALL of the children
could be involved.

Does this make any sense to you ?  Perhaps each one of you could pretend to
be describing a troll that you see in your mind.  Or perhaps you have a
picture of a troll that you could write about ? For example, you might write
something like this:

Mystery Troll #1
This troll is standing on a brown dilipadated bridge.  In the background
you can see green mountains with snowcaps on the top.  This troll is not
happy. He has yellow hair that sticks straight out from all over his head.  He
has big, round eyes that are the colour of the blue sky.  He has pink cheeks
and big, fat green lips.  His beard is very thin and scruffy looking.  He is wearing
red pants with coloured patches on each knee.  He wears nothing on his feet and
his toes are VERY large.

Let me know if this is something you would like to do ?

Hello Newfoundland,
Here are our descriptions of three different trolls:
Giant troll: He has three heads and only one eye in the middle of his wrinkled foreheads.
He has got shaggy and rough hair. The different heads have got black, red and blond hair.
The noses are big, one with a tree growing on it! He is dressed in blue jeans with coloured
patches, brown sweater that is almost falling apart. The troll has a tail that is long and
bushy. He has only four fingers and toes on each limb. This troll will transform into a huge rock-formation if it is out when the sun is rising.

"Hulder": This is a female troll which got the size of a human being. The nose is long
because then she is able to stir with it when cooking broth and porridge. She has long,
blond and bushy hair. Four toes and fingers on each limb. She is barefoot. She has a
long and bushy tail. She wears a red dress with green patches. She can transform into
an incredible attractive young lady when meets hunters and farmers sons. She lives in
the woods.

Very, very old troll: This is a male troll that is mostly seen on bright moonlit nights.
This troll can frighten about anyone who happens to be outdoor at that time. This troll
only has one head. The hair is black and curly. His nose is large and it grows a pine tree
on it. He has got crooked teeth and a big mouth. His face is dirty, and he has got red
cheeks. His sweater is large and yellow with green and black patches. His trousers is very
old and worn out. His tail sticks out from a hole in his trousers. He uses black cloggs. He
has four fingers and toes on each limb, like every other trolls. He uses a stick made out
of wood to get around.

Images of trolls made by pupils at Topsail Elementary School:
http://www.topsail.k12.nf.ca/trolls/index.html

Have a look at it. It's very nice!

Hanne, Hilde, Benedikte, Katrin, Cecilie