Trolls' Cast Stones
Large scattered boulders that Norwegian legend says trolls hurled in anger, or dropped while fleeing from the sound of church bells at dawn. Almost every valley names its stray blocks, and many show the supposed imprint of a giant hand, heel, or thumb; the same stones also mark the ends of the old paths the trolls were said to follow. Geologists read the boulders as glacial erratics carried by ice thousands of years ago, yet the trolls' version and the geologists' explanation long coexisted in popular speech. The names linger on maps, and the stones still anchor place-lore from Telemark to the