Also trold, trolle. See also TROW sb.4 [a. ONorse and Swed. troll, Da. trold (whence Da. trylla, trylde, Sw. trolla to charm, bewitch, ON. trolldómr witchcraft).
(Adopted in English from Scandinavian in the middle of the 19th c.; but in Shetland and Orkney, where the form is now TROW (in 1616 troll), it has survived from the Norse dialect formerly spoken there.)]
In Scandinavian mythology, One of a race of supernatural beings formerly conceived as giants, now, in Denmark and Sweden, as dwarfs or imps, supposed to inhabit caves or subterranean dwellings: see quotations, and cf. TROW sb.4
1616. Dittay Sheriff Court Shetland, 2 Oct. (Jam. s.v. Trow). The said Catherine for airt and pairt of witchcraft and sorcerie, in hanting and seeing the Trollis ryse out of the kyrk yeard of Hildiswick.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, xxx. (1911), 188. A laidly Trold has dragged it there.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Ability, Wks. (Bohn), II. 34. The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls—a kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and skilful production.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, iv. 40. In the Hrolfs Saga Kraka, we meet with a troll in a boar’s shape, to whom divine honours are paid.
1865. Whittier, Tent on Beach, Kallundborg Church, 14. But the sly Dwarf said, ‘No work is wrought By Trolls of the Hills, O man, for naught.’
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., s.v., These Trolls are superior to man in strength and stature, but far beneath him in mind.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 273. A boy’s escape from a Troll or an enchanted horse.
b. attrib. That is a troll, as troll-maiden, -wife, -woman; belonging to or inhabited by trolls, as troll-garden, land, -marsh; also troll-bull, a supernatural being in the form of a bull; troll-drum, a drum used in Lappish magical rites; trollman, a magician or wizard.
1902. Folk-Lore, June, 185. On ‘Old Holy Kings’ Night’ black *troll-bulls come up from the sea and visit the byres.
1894. Jrnl. Hellenic Stud., XIV. 270. In Lapland … designs of this character ornamented the *troll-drums of the magicians till within a recent period.
1864. Kingsley, Rom. & Teut., i. (1875), 1. Fancy to yourself a great *Troll-garden.
1886. J. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, I. 65. This is no *Troll-land, but a fair place that Thor has kept for you. Ibid., 36. They had wanted to drive her away for a *troll-maiden.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, viii. 108. Property … imparted to them by the *Trollmen.
1886. J. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, I. 59. Over the lake … and over the *Troll marsh to the valley.
1851. Thorpe, Northern Mythol., I. 113. Hedin met in the forest a *Troll-wife riding on a wolf, with a rein formed of serpents.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 390. Herve Ulf, on his way to matin-song, was accosted by a *Trolle woman.
