Trolls

I really felt that my trolls had to be something both like and unlike humans. They have an earthy, stony quality, but they are not made of stone. They look quite human in their body proportions and many of them are either much taller or much smaller the human average. I use the name Orcneas for them, using a word used once to describe Grendel in Beowulf. English did not have a word cognate with troll, it seems to have come into mainstream English usage in the 19th century, although it is recorded in the 17th century in a witch trial from the Shetlands.

I hint that trolls eventually leave Britain in order to find lands less densely inhabited by men; that they now live in Iceland and Scandinavia.During the 7th century they live in areas which are sparsely populated, but the human population is already on the increase and new lands are being cleared for human settlement and agriculture. In Northumberland, the spine of hills that we now call the Pennines meets the Cheviot Hills and the Southern Uplands of Scotland. This area is perfect for the trolls, and this is the area referred to as Trolldom in the book. There are other trolls living outside of Trolldom; one lived near Yeavering under a bridge over the River Glen. Communications with trolls living south of Hadrian's Wall have been lost, so there is no news of any who may have been alive further south.

Trolls and humans can have children together, although it is clear from what Alfreda says that trolls consider humans to be ugly - and most humans similarly consider the trolls to be ugly. Fortunately this is not always the case! Half-trolls may exist, and over time their descendants merge fully into the human population.

Introduction

Hello world, this is the blog for the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff, a novel by Kevin Futers (that's me!) about the Three Billy Goats Gruff, available from Eloquent Books in the near future.

I'm not certain at this stage what you can expect from this blog but I will try to keep things nice and simple, tell you a few things about the book and other things that are going on connected to the book, such as promotions and book signings.

For now I can tell you that the story takes the traditional story as a starting point and then takes the three protagonists (or antagonists if you take the trolls' viewpoint) on a quest to undo a curse. The action takes place against the background of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, England and The Borders Region of Scotland during the seventh century AD. It is a world still in touch with other realms of reality, a world where trolls walk freely in the waking world (so long as you are awake at night) and a walk in the mists can transport you to the delights and horrors of Elfland. It is a world on the cusp of change, a change that is fragile and could easily be halted.

The brothers Gruff are in Trolldom against their will because they have been turned into goats and only the trolls have the solution to their predicament. As we all know, things get off to a bad start over a simple bridge crossing. Can they turn the situation around and dispel the curse?