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Things of Middle-earth

Bilbo's Stone Trolls

Type: Miscellaneous

Description:

Three large trolls that had been turned into stone by sunlight; located in the Trollshaws.
[Said] Gandalf.... 'I met two of Elrond's people.... It was they who told me that three [trolls] had come down from the mountains and settled in the woods not far from the road....'

The Hobbit, Ch 2, Roast Mutton

The Three Trolls are Turned to Stone.
The Three Trolls are Turned to Stone, by JRR Tolkien.
'Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!'.... For just at that moment the light came over the hill.... William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for trolls... must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again....

'Excellent!' said Gandalf, as he stepped from behind a tree, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of a thorn-bush.... It was the wizard's voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling, until the light came and made an end of them.

The Hobbit, Ch 2, Roast Mutton

The sun was now high, and it shone down through the half-stripped branches of the trees, and lit the clearing.... They halted suddenly on the edge, and peered through the tree-trunks, holding their breath. There stood the trolls: three large trolls. One was stooping, and the other two stood staring at him.

Strider walked forward unconcernedly. 'Get up, old stone!' he said, and broke his stick upon the stooping troll.

Nothing happened. There was a gasp of astonishment from the hobbits, and then even Frodo laughed. 'Well!' he said. 'We are forgetting our family history! These must be the very three that were caught by Gandalf, quarrelling over the right way to cook thirteen dwarves and one hobbit.'

'I had no idea we were anywhere near the place!' said Pippin. He knew the story well. Bilbo and Frodo had told it often; but... he had never more than half believed it. Even now he looked at the stone trolls with suspicion, wondering if some magic might not suddenly bring them to life again....

They rested for some time in the glade, and took their mid-day meal right under the shadow of the trolls' large legs.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 12, Flight to the Ford

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 20Jul06, 5Oct07, 1Oct11

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