A Story of three Trolls

Tomba and Bilba were brothers. Their parents joined the great journey over the mountains, and Tomba the eldest was born near Fantarsie – the elven valley by the foothills. Bilba was born in a camp near the Ford of Bruinen; they grew up amongst the hunters of the tribe and became skilled in tracking game. They brought home many a deer to their always-hungry kin.

One autumn two dozen and eleven years after the crossing of the mountains, the two brothers were hunting in the hills far to the north of the road. Following the tracks of a pack of boars they came to a clearing in the pine-forest covered by tall grass.

"In the middle the grass is trampled," Tomba whispered and lowered his spear.

Carefully they went closer. "Tomba, there is blood here." Bilba pointed at a dark spot in the middle of the clearing. In a pool of blood a couple of flattened striped piglets lay by a broken club the size of the hobbits themselves, and a broad track with some large footprints led away from the clearing.

"What in the world can have made this?" Tomba whispered.

"Trolls, Kuduk!" sounded from a nearby bush. The hobbits were startled and put their hands on their knives, when a slim figure sled out between the twigs. In front of them an almost four feet tall hobbit now stood, he was fair of hair, yes even the hair on his feet was fair. He wore a bow taller than himself and a long knife in his belt. "You must be Kuduks from the Harfoot-tribe." They nodded. "I'm Bere from the tribe of Faelrif, Fallohides you call us, I guess. I saw you entering the clearing, and I must say, that you are the most silent I've ever met this side of the mountains."

"We recognize you as a Fallohide," Tomba replied. "Our great-grandmother and other elders at home come from your tribe, but we didn't know that you too had traversed the Cloud-covered Mountains."

"Which we didn't. My tribe still lives in the forested valleys of the Wild east of the Mountains, but my father the Thain sent me to explore the Lone Lands and maybe find the Harfoots – and that just happened – to gather information of the Kings' Lands, which the old stories tell us lies far to the west; if it's safe there, for our land now often is ravaged by orcs and other evil creatures."

"You said 'trolls'," Bilba interrupted. "We should rather go into hiding before more of them show up. The sun is westering, and there are no places to hide in amongst these pines. I suggest we go to the thickening forest half a mile to the east."

Bere and Tomba agreed, and they went off while telling each other of the life in their tribes and followed family-relations a dozen generations back (actually it was revealed, that they had some great-great-great-great-grandparents in common).

Before sundown the three hobbits had gone into hiding in the thickets under the eaves. Together they ate their supper cold, for they didn't dare make a fire; but the spice of having someone new to converse did, that they didn't complain. They hardly had their blankets unrolled to sleep in, when they heard loud noise from the north. It sounded like toppling trees, interrupted by loud tones as from a mighty horn. These sounds were answered from the east, here also it sounded like horns but in deeper tones. "Do you think it's the trolls…?" Tomba asked anxiously.

"No!" Bere answered. "Listen to the music in these calls. No troll would make such sounds or even use horns."

"Whatever can it be, then?" Tomba asked, and they were silent for a time, whilst the sounds both from the north and the east closed in on each other. It didn't sound as if they would go near the hiding-place. Curious as they were the hobbits kept to themselves, though, and started to tuck in.

But once again they heard noises, this time from the southeast, and they rose quickly while the sounds came closer, they hurried in packing their kit and caboodle to go farther into the forest. After a time of walking silently amongst the trees while the noise grew steadily behind them, Bere softly remarked: "I think there is a clearing in front of us, I saw starlight…" Then the noise exploded around them: Drums sounded, screams and yelling, more toppling trees and signal-horns, which were answered from the south. Terrified Tomba and Bilba jumped into some bushes, a moment later followed by Bere.

Now something came crashing forward between the trees, where they had just been walking, and in the dim light from torches appearing farther into the forest and in the clearing, they saw a bunch of giant figures struggling along. One, the greatest of them was bound with chains and rope that the others with difficulty held tight, apparently it was held prisoner. They were moving past the hobbits' hiding-place hardly a hundred feet away and disappeared towards the clearing followed by a horde of smaller shapes, some of which carried the torches.

The sounds of trampling and horns faded, but the drumbeats got louder, and now the clearing could be seen clearly lighted by many torches. "Did you see the big one?" Bere whispered, "That was no troll."

"No, it looked somewhat tree-ish…" Tomba answered.

"It was the one sounding like horn-signals." Bilba finished.

Now that the worst panic had subsided, the hobbits' curiosity awoke. The thicket in which they hid stretched towards the clearing and became denser where the trees started to thin out. They left their pack and crept as slowly and quietly as only their kind could do, forward under the thicket until they reached a spot, where they had a clear view over the entire clearing, which was lying in a hollow perhaps a thousand feet across. Open to the east it was but otherwise surrounded by the forest, and teeming with orcs, many of which were carrying torches.

In the middle of the clearing three great trolls were standing immovable in a triangle. After a moment the three hobbits understood why: They were statues of stone; light from the many torches revealed that they were hewed in stone. On each statue something moving was bound, and when one of the torch-bearing orcs passed by, one saw that it also was an orc.

In front of each statue three giant shapes were standing in a circle of trees and surrounded by trolls, who were chaining them to thick iron-pillars. The hobbits recognized one of them as the forest-giant, who had been passing them earlier in bondage. Once in a while a giant arm or foot with many toes shot out and knocked over some trolls or even hurled them through the air; but quickly they rose again and continued. At last the three giants were bound solidly to the pillars, and though they struggled in the chains, so that the pillars and the surrounding soil shook, they couldn't get loose.

At the same time all the orcs in the clearing were busy hauling branches and logs to the middle, where a great pile already were lying between the three statues. Eventually it grew until it reached them and covered them so that only their heads were visible.

Now the drums fell silent, and both orcs and trolls withdrew from the circle to the north, west and south. Silently they waited, until a trembling passed through the horde. From the opening to the east what they were waiting for came: A tall dark figure came slowly riding on a big black horse. The Hobbits felt the hair on their heads and feet rise, and the fear that had got hold of them the entire evening grew to horror, when the rider dismounted and entered the circle.

The black figure stretched out one long arm and pointed towards the nearest torch-bearing orc uttering a harsh command: "Ghash!" The orc rushed to the woodpile throwing the torch to the middle, where its light disappeared for a moment.

Now the black figure started singing, in the beginning so subdued, that he Hobbits only heard it as a low wheezing; but the song soon rose in volume while the fire started to light up. The singer began circling between the fire and the trees, where the giants were chained. The song was sombre and sounded as if filled with evil, they didn't understand the language, but the three friends felt, that it was more than just a song: It was sorcery.

When the shape passed between the first giant and statue, it stood still for a moment singing very intensely, while the fire lighted the branches around the statues head. Then the bound orc screamed, and the giant struggled, so that one of the chains burst; but the rest held. This was repeated in front of the two other giants, and the singer continued his round, soon the fire was burning all over, the flames were licking many feet into the air and the smoke rose towards the nightly sky. Nine times the dark singer circled the fire. The giants were quiet now and the bound orcs had long ago fallen silent, when the singer ended on a loud and prolonged: "Durga Tharak-Haï!"

The flames now started to subside, and the three statues stood as grotesque black-singed pillars amongst the embers. The singer lifted his hand, and the Hobbits disbelievingly watched one of the statues slowly beginning to move. A couple of testing steps it made bringing it out from the embers, and a pair of trolls looking somewhat like it lumbered forward and held its arms; willingly it followed them.

Tomba, Bilba and Bere were stupifyed – they had witnessed the creation of a troll.

Now a roar sounded from the pile of embers, and the next statue curled up. Then in a mighty leap it left the fire, running out through the circle of threes where it trashed madly about. A couple of orcs perished before half a dozen trolls got it stopped and led away. Now Bilba noticed the three giants were missing: By each of the three pillars a tree was standing.

Then the third statue was moving, it lifted its ugly face and uttered a plaintive sound. Then it fell like a piece of lumber with its head and upper torso outside the fire. Yet two trolls came forward and hauled their new companion away. At once the drums sounded again, orcs and trolls started crowding away from the clearing towards the east and north. The black singer was gone, likewise his horse, and soon the clearing was empty except for the large pile of embers and the circle of trees.

The hobbits stayed in their hiding-place until sunrise, then they crept back to their packs, where they ate and slept until noon. None of them uttered a word for the rest of the day.