It’s been a busy few weeks for “trolls”. But then it always is. They’ve been hounding campaigners and rape victims; and they’ve been threatened with a clampdown by the Government. No wonder they have so little time to sit under a bridge and intimidate billy goats.Are these two types of “troll” related? Not in origin, but they seem to have become so as the word has become more widespread. The internet troublemaker has acquired, in the popular imagination, the malevolent characteristics of the monster from Scandinavian legend. This “troll” is Old Norse or Swedish in origin. It originally meant a supernatural being who dwelt in isolated mountains and caves, was probably a giant and had magical powers.In later use, they tended to be &ldquo
13 November 2014, The Tablet
Trawling for trolls
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