Trolls

Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire gathered the trolls of Norwegian folklore into this illustrated collection, first published in 1972. Its pages are crowded with every sort of troll the old tales describe, from hulking giants of the mountains and forests to creatures that live under water and the ones that lurk beneath bridges, along with the farmers, boys and girls who happen across them. Short tales, scraps of lore and playful troll histories explain how these clumsy, ugly and sometimes dangerous beings live, and how quick-witted people manage to outsmart them. The couple's richly colored lithographs fill nearly every page, making the book a natural companion to their Greek and Norse myth collections for young readers drawn to folklore.