Atavistic Trolls and Christian Immorality in Nordic Ecogothic

The opening sequence of Roar Uthaug’s Troll (2022) depicts the Norwegian scenery as a sublime, mountainous space that overwhelms the two, tiny human characters climbing over it. Trolls are introduced as part of the landscape: according to local folklore, they are frozen in stone on the mountain face. This representation draws on both Yvonne Leffler’s early characterization of Nordic Gothic as defined by wilderness, and trolls as creatures of that wilderness. Both land and trolls are shown to pre-date civilization – and concomitantly the arrival of Christianity. Following the Christianization of Nordic nations, the folklore surrounding trolls adapted to increase their malignancy, in particular, portraying them as anti-Christian. Trolls were said to be able to smell the blood of Christian men and threw boulders at churches as the sound of bells pained them. These ideas re-emerge in Troll when a Christian soldier is killed by the troll and bells are used to suppress it. Troll’s early scenes announce the tension between these creatures and Christianity which builds to the eponymous troll enacting revenge upon contemporary Norwegian society for historic crimes against its species. In doing so, it engages with other Nordic, trollish texts including the films Rare Exports (2010) and Troll Hunter (2010), and novels like Stefan Spjut’s Stallo (2012), Johanna Sinisalo’s Troll. A Love Story (2000), and Kerstin Ekman’s The Forest of Hours (1988). This chapter will explore how the Ecogothic is aligned with religious horror through the figure of the troll. The emergence of trolls from the wilderness and the ensuing horror of annihilation confirms it as a demonic space – apparently confirming the necessity of religion to cleanse it. However, like other recent re-engagements with this creature, Troll is ambivalent, if not openly critical, of the role of Christianity in the shaping of Nordic nations. The loss of the troll is aligned with industrialization, colonialism and conservative forces which appear to be the consequence of Christianization. Re-appropriating and adapting the folklore of trolls, the narrative seeks to challenge the absolute alterity of trolls and the acceptance of their destruction. Throughout the film, there are repeated moments of intertextuality in which folklore, fairy tales and art featuring trolls – particularly the work of Theodor Kittelsen – is repeatedly invoked as a source of information in the face of the denial of these creatures’ existence. Faith in Christianity is countered with belief in the supernatural. Despite the threat to human life that they engender, their death suggests the end of a natural world in which mysteries can still exist, even if only in humanity’s collective imagination.