What was the origin of Trolls?
[This updates question V.G.2 of the Tolkien LessFAQ.] It is not at all clear. One piece of information comes from Treebeard’s statement (in the chapter “Treebeard”) that Trolls were made “in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves”. However, this probably only means that Ents gave Morgoth the idea for Trolls, not that the two races are actually related: the two races have almost nothing in common except great strength. Also, in Letter #153, Tolkien discusses this very quote and says that “Treebeard is a character in my story, not me… and there is quite a lot he does not know or understand.” One of Tolkien’s more direct comments on the origin of Trolls comes a few lines later in that letter. He says of the Trolls in The Hobbit that I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere ‘counterfeits’, and hence … they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But there are other sorts of Trolls, beside these rather ridiculous, if brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are s
[This updates question V.G.2 of the Tolkien LessFAQ.] It is not at all clear. One piece of information comes from Treebeard’s statement (in the chapter “Treebeard”) that Trolls were made “in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves”. However, this probably only means that Ents gave Morgoth the idea for Trolls, not that the two races are actually related: the two races have almost nothing in common except great strength. Also, in Letter #153, Tolkien discusses this very quote and says that “Treebeard is a character in my story, not me… and there is quite a lot he does not know or understand.” One of Tolkien’s more direct comments on the origin of Trolls comes a few lines later in that letter. He says of the Trolls in The Hobbit that I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere ‘counterfeits’, and hence … they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But there are other sorts of Trolls, beside these rather ridiculous, if brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are s
