Trolls in Middle-earth

In J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, Trolls are very large (twelve feet tall or more) humanoids of great strength and poor intellect. While in Norse mythology, the Troll was a magical creature with special skills, and are so accepted to this day in Sweden, in Tolkien's writings they are portrayed as evil, with crude habits, although still intelligent enough to communicate with a known language.

In the books

In The Hobbit they speak with thick Cockney accents. They turn to stone when exposed to sunlight and they enjoy eating meat (such as mutton, travellers, hobbits and Dwarves) and drinking alcohol. While threatening, the trolls in The Hobbit serve as a comic element. They even have normal names: Tom, Bert and Bill Huggins (the only one with a given surname).

The fallen Vala and first Dark Lord, Morgoth, created the first Trolls before the First Age. They were strong and vicious, but stupid creatures. The major weakness of at least some Trolls was that they turned to stone in sunlight. Nobody knows how he managed to breed them, though it is stated by Treebeard of the Ents that Trolls were "made in mockery of" them, as Orcs were of Elves, though not necessarily from Entish stock.

During the wars of Beleriand, Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs, had a bodyguard of Trolls. While leading his men in a final stand to protect the retreat of Turgon and the continued secrecy of the Kingdom of Gondolin, the great warrior Húrin faced them, and due to Morgoth's emphatic orders to have Húrin captured alive, he managed to wipe them out. Their apparently caustic blood, however, melted his axe, allowing orcs to swarm over him and bind him, his capture ending the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, where Morgoth seemingly triumphed over the united armies of Elves, Men and Dwarves.

Many Trolls died in the War of Wrath, but some survived and joined the forces of Sauron, the greatest surviving servant of Morgoth. In the Second Age and Third Age, Trolls were among Sauron's most dangerous warriors.

Troll types

Tolkien used several different terms for types of trolls, though there seems to have been some overlap in meanings;

• Stone-trolls were Trolls who turned into stone during daylight, like the Trolls in The Hobbit. They could speak, and used a debased form of Westron (presumably rendered into Cockney English in Tolkien's "translation" of Bilbo's diary).
• Hill-trolls are described as having killed Arador, Chieftain of the Rangers of the North, and grandfather to Aragorn. Tolkien described the trolls of that region, including the three from The Hobbit, as stone-trolls, suggesting that hill-trolls might be a sub-class or alternate term for such. However, the Army of the West fought "hill-trolls" of Gorgoroth that could move in sunlight at the Black Gate, inferring that these hill-trolls, at least, were Olog-hai rather than stone-trolls. They were described as being taller and wider than men, and their hide or armour was described as a mesh of horny scales. They had black blood. Peregrin Took slew one of these trolls at the Battle of the Morannon and after the destruction of the One Ring and the fall of Sauron the surviving trolls scattered as if mindless.
• Cave-trolls were seen in Moria. One was described as having dark greenish scales and black blood. Their hide was thick enough that when Boromir struck one in the arm his sword was notched and did no damage. However, Frodo Baggins was able to impale the "toeless" foot of the same troll with the enchanted sword Sting.
• Mountain-trolls were mentioned once, wielding the great battering ram Grond in shattering the gates of Minas Tirith. From the name they are generally assumed to live in the mountains, and their choice as the creatures to wield Grond is sometimes taken to suggest that they were particularly strong even for trolls.
• Snow-trolls are mentioned only in comparison to Helm Hammerhand. When Helm went out clad in white during the Long Winter to stalk and slay his enemies he was described as being like a snow-troll. It thus seems implied that these trolls were white in colour and lived in cold climates, but otherwise nothing is known of them.
• River-trolls were mentioned only once in The Hobbit in passing; the guards at the bridge to Lake-town were keeping a lax guard when Thorin & co. snuck up on them because "except for occasional squabbles about river-trolls they were friends with the Wood-elves" and felt no need to keep careful watch. (In the Ballantine paperback edition, the squabbles concerned "river-tolls". References to "river-trolls" may be a typographical error.)
• Olog-hai were "strong, agile, fierce, and cunning" trolls created by Sauron, not unlike the Uruk-hai, and were able to withstand sunlight while under the sway of Sauron's will. They seldom spoke and were said to know no language other than the Black Speech, in which 'Olog-hai' means 'troll-folk'. Because of their cunningness, they were thought by some to be giant Orcs, rather than trolls. It is possible that they were Orc-troll crossbreeds. They appeared towards the end of the Third Age and could be found near Dol Guldur and in the mountains around Mordor.

During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields there is a reference to "men like half-trolls", also called troll-men, but it is unclear whether these men actually had some trollish ancestry or were simply compared to trolls (for some readers, the first interpretation is supported by the similar and interchangeable terms "orc-men" and "half-orcs").

In adaptations

Bakshi's animated film

Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version follows the book very faithfully in its depiction of the encounter with the troll in the Chamber; however, the troll does have toes here. There are no other trolls.

Jackson's trilogy

A cave-troll in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

In Peter Jackson's 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, there is also only one cave-troll. Boromir first sights it; it later barges through the open doors, and smashes much of the Chamber, including Balin's tomb, in the ensuing fight. It stabs Frodo, who is saved by his mithril shirt (in the book it is an Uruk captain who spears him). It is killed by the members of the Fellowship, who spear and hack at it until Legolas dispatches it with an arrow. It enters the soft palate of its mouth and goes straight through its brain, emerging from the top of its head after becoming stuck in the thick skull.

Olog-hai were shown as the shock troops in the motion picture The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, sporting armour and war hammers alluded to in the appendices. They were used in the Siege of Gondor as primary shock troops after the gates of Minas Tirith were broken, and an Olog actually steps on Aragorn at the Black Gate.

Beyond the screen

One of the Olog-hai approaches Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Various movie-only sources, like The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare and the spin-off games by Electronic Arts, greatly expand on what Tolkien wrote about trolls.

In the world of the films, mountain-trolls are about 17 feet (5 m) tall, with massive limbs, potbellies, and dark scales on its back and shoulders. They come in stony colours, with the most common being gray. They have 22 teeth, including two fangs on the lower canines. As in the book, their blood is black, and is so hot that when spilt, it sizzles on the floor. They are mainly carnivorous, but can digest plant matter if need be. The eyes are either gray or blue. They wear loincloths of leather that they find in the Mines or are given by the Goblins. They sometimes roar when in a battle rage, but are incapable of forming words or language. They often wield either a great club or a hammer. Cave-trolls are usually found with small groups of Orcs. They are too unintelligent to catch food for themselves, often consuming whatever hapless creature they come across, so food is an advantage they get from working with the Orcs.

The Olog-hai differ from the other Trolls depicted in the movies in that they have more forward-facing eyes as well as hair on their bodies, suggesting that they are a more advanced form of Troll. They are usually gray to black in colour. Mountain trolls and Olog-hai have much in common, they are both much larger and more intelligent than most trolls and more resistant to light. However Olog-hai are certainly far superior to Mountain trolls in all these aspects.

Forest trolls were invented for the EA game version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. They have hard grey skin, are resistant to arrow fire, and carry a large quiver of wood logs (to use as firewood and projectiles), as well as a mace like a cave troll.

For the game version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, trolls also returned as enemy units. Trolls also appear as controllable units in The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.