Scandinavian Trolls: How John Bauer and Theodor Kittelsen Shaped the Trolls We Imagine Today

Ask someone to picture a Scandinavian troll and the image is surprisingly specific: a heavy body, an oversized nose, a face that seems half human and half landscape, somewhere under dark fir trees or beside a mountain lake. Yet old Nordic folklore never supplied one fixed model. Trolls could be huge or small, hideous or almost human, dangerous, comic, rich, stupid, beautiful, ancient or simply strange.

Much of the troll we picture today was shaped later, in images. Two artists matter more than most: the Swedish illustrator John Bauer (1882–1918) and the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914). They worked in neighboring countries at roughly the same time, drew on related Nordic traditions and forests, and still arrived at remarkably different creatures.

Bauer built a fairy-tale society beneath the trees. Kittelsen often made the landscape itself seem alive.

Before Bauer and Kittelsen: there was no single Scandinavian troll

The trolls of Scandinavian folklore were never one species with an agreed appearance. Stories changed from region to region and from storyteller to storyteller. Some trolls lived in mountains. Others inhabited forests, caves or remote farms. They might be giants, families, solitary monsters or beings difficult to distinguish from people until a tail or some other feature gave them away.

This matters because Bauer and Kittelsen were not simply recording an established visual tradition. They were interpreting it. Their pictures became so familiar that later generations could easily mistake the artists' inventions for folklore itself.

Sweden's Nationalmuseum makes this point directly in its discussion of Bauer: older folklore could describe trolls as looking much like ordinary people, while Bauer helped establish the now-familiar image of the ugly troll with a prominent nose. Nationalmuseum's entry for A Forest Troll is particularly useful here.

John Bauer: trolls with families, personalities and a world of their own

John Bauer's great arena was the Swedish forest. From 1907 he became closely associated with the annual fairy-tale collection Bland tomtar och troll (“Among Gnomes and Trolls”), and his illustrations gradually escaped the stories they were made for. Nationalmuseum notes that they came to symbolize Sweden's ancient forests populated by trolls and forest beings. The museum also points to an international influence that is sometimes overlooked: Bauer admired contemporary British book illustration, especially Arthur Rackham. Nationalmuseum describes this background in its entry for Brother St. Martin and the Three Trolls.

Bauer's forests are enormous. Tree trunks rise like columns and humans can look tiny inside them. But his trolls are rarely just anonymous monsters. They gather, stare, argue, accompany one another and form families. Their clothes, gestures and faces suggest a society continuing somewhere beyond the edge of the picture.

The Princess and the Trolls: light entering the dark forest

In The Princess and the Trolls (1913), Bauer places the luminous Bianca Maria among dark, curious troll figures. The contrast is almost theatrical. Her pale figure appears fragile against the dense forest and the trolls' heavy bodies, but the scene is not a simple image of a victim surrounded by beasts. The trolls peer at her with personalities of their own.

The original watercolor was made for Bland tomtar och troll in 1913. Nationalmuseum records the work and its connection to the story of Bianca Maria. It is a perfect example of Bauer's ability to make the forest feel ancient while keeping the drama intimate.

Brother St. Martin and the Three Trolls: the troll as character

Brother St. Martin and the Three Trolls (1913) is even more revealing. Three troll figures face the human protagonist as recognisable individuals rather than a single mass of menace. Their bodies are strange, but their stance and expressions invite us to read them almost as actors in a scene.

The watercolor illustrated Emil Eliason's story “Brother Martin” in the seventh volume of Bland tomtar och troll. Nationalmuseum acquired the work in 1914. Its later fame shows how Bauer's pictures came to survive independently of the texts they originally served.

Two Trolls and Bauer's quieter side

Not every Bauer troll scene depends on a princess or hero. Two Trolls (1909) strips the world down to the creatures themselves. Their closeness, heavy forms and restrained setting make the image feel almost observational, as though we have encountered inhabitants of the forest when no fairy-tale protagonist is present.

That is one reason Bauer's trolls endure. They do not feel like props waiting for a human story to begin. They seem to have been there before us.

Poor Little Bear!: the gentler fairy-tale world around the trolls

Poor Little Bear! (1912), originally Stackars lilla Basse!, contains no troll at all. It belongs here because it shows the wider fairy-tale world that made Bauer's trolls convincing. A young princess encounters a bear in Helena Nyblom's story Oskuldens vandring. The meeting is tender rather than threatening.

Bauer's world therefore has room for fear, comedy, curiosity and affection. Trolls live within an ecosystem of princesses, animals, children and enchanted forests. That narrative richness distinguishes him from Kittelsen.

Theodor Kittelsen: when the troll becomes the landscape

Where Bauer often gives trolls a social world, Theodor Kittelsen repeatedly blurs the boundary between creature and terrain. A hill can acquire a face. A mass of trees can become a body. Dark water can conceal a being whose shape is difficult to separate from weeds, reflections and shadow.

The Norwegian National Museum describes Kittelsen's fascination with “the mysterious” in nature and notes how, in works such as his Troldskab series, he personified nature and natural forces. His drawings of trolls, Askeladden, princesses and animals helped shape generations of Norwegian fairy-tale imagery. The museum's account of Kittelsen's art gives an unusually clear sense of how closely folklore and observed landscape were connected in his work.

Forest Troll: a creature made from Norway itself

Forest Troll (Skogtroll), probably 1906, is perhaps the clearest example. The creature does not merely stand in the forest. It seems assembled from it: shaggy contours, stone-like mass and vegetation merge until troll and landscape become difficult to separate.

The drawing was made as a cover design for P. Chr. Asbjørnsen's Illustrerede Eventyr. Ny samling, published in 1907. The National Museum dates it to probably 1906 and identifies the materials as black chalk, pencil, watercolor and gouache on paper. The museum's educational archive documents the work and its original context.

Nøkken: folklore hidden in water

Nøkken is not technically a troll. The water spirit belongs to another branch of Scandinavian folklore, but Kittelsen treats it according to the same visual principle: supernatural life emerges from nature rather than being placed on top of it.

At first glance the image can appear to be a dark patch of water, reeds and reflections. Then eyes and a face begin to emerge. The uncertainty is the point. Kittelsen makes the viewer experience the old fear that an apparently ordinary landscape might be watching back.

Soria Moria Palace: the troll can remain offstage

Kittelsen's Soria Moria Palace (1900) takes the opposite approach. The famous scene shows the traveler looking toward the distant golden castle. The troll is not visible, yet the fairy-tale danger remains part of the story: a princess is held at the castle by a troll.

The National Museum describes the painting as part of a twelve-image series created for a fairy tale written by Kittelsen himself, and notes how the image later acquired an independent cultural life. Its account of Soria Moria slott shows that Kittelsen did not need to put the monster in the foreground to make an enchanted landscape feel charged with folklore.

Bauer versus Kittelsen: two ways of seeing the Scandinavian troll

The difference is easiest to see side by side.

• Bauer's trolls are often characters. They have faces, relationships, clothing, gestures and a sense of community.
• Kittelsen's supernatural beings often grow out of nature. Rock, forest, water and mist become part of the creature.
• Bauer frequently stages encounters. Princesses, children and travelers enter the trolls' world.
• Kittelsen often creates recognition. The viewer looks at a landscape and suddenly realizes that something is there.

This is a tendency, not a strict rule. Bauer could make trolls monumental and landscape-like; Kittelsen could be funny, narrative and character-driven. But the contrast helps explain why their work feels so different even when both artists draw from related Nordic folklore.

Why these images became more powerful than the old descriptions

Folklore survives through repetition, and images can repeat faster than oral descriptions. Bauer's work circulated through popular illustrated books. Kittelsen's fairy-tale illustrations became closely connected with the Norwegian stories collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. Children encountered these pictures before they had formed their own idea of what a troll should look like.

Over time, the relationship reversed. Instead of asking whether Bauer and Kittelsen had accurately pictured trolls from folklore, people began to imagine folklore through Bauer and Kittelsen.

That influence is still visible in fantasy illustration, children's books, tourism, animation and popular conceptions of Nordic nature. The long noses, the massive bodies and the notion that a mountain or tree might secretly be a creature all owe something to the visual vocabulary these artists helped establish.

Seven works that show the world around Scandinavian trolls

If you want to compare the two artists directly, these seven works form a useful small collection:

• John Bauer – The Princess and the Trolls (1913)
• John Bauer – Poor Little Bear! (1912)
• John Bauer – Brother St. Martin and the Three Trolls (1913)
• John Bauer – Two Trolls (1909)
• Theodor Kittelsen – Forest Troll (c. 1906)
• Theodor Kittelsen – Nøkken
• Theodor Kittelsen – Soria Moria Palace (1900)

You can also explore more works inspired by Nordic folklore in our Scandinavian Fairytale Art Prints collection and see our John Bauer collection.

Frequently asked questions about Scandinavian trolls

Are Scandinavian trolls originally Swedish or Norwegian?

Neither country can claim trolls as a single national invention. Troll-like beings appear across Scandinavian and wider Nordic traditions, with considerable regional variation. Sweden and Norway developed especially influential modern visual traditions through artists such as John Bauer and Theodor Kittelsen.

Did John Bauer invent the modern image of the troll?

He did not invent trolls, but his illustrations strongly influenced their modern appearance. Nationalmuseum specifically notes that Bauer helped establish the image of trolls as ugly beings with prominent noses, even though older folklore could describe trolls as looking much more human.

What is the difference between John Bauer's and Theodor Kittelsen's trolls?

Bauer often treats trolls as fairy-tale characters with personalities, families and social relationships. Kittelsen frequently merges supernatural creatures with the landscape, making forests, mountains and water feel alive. Both artists are more varied than this simple distinction, but it is a useful way to compare them.

Is Nøkken a troll?

No. Nøkken is a supernatural water being from Scandinavian folklore. Kittelsen's famous image is included here because it demonstrates the same idea that defines much of his troll art: the supernatural creature is almost inseparable from the natural environment.

What was Bland tomtar och troll?

It was a Swedish annual collection of fairy tales and stories first published in the early twentieth century. John Bauer illustrated several volumes, and many of the images now considered his most famous troll pictures were created for the series.

Sources and further reading

• Nationalmuseum, Stockholm – John Bauer
• Nationalmuseum – The Princess and the Trolls
• Nationalmuseum – Brother St. Martin and the Three Trolls
• Nationalmuseum – A Forest Troll and the visual history of Bauer's trolls
• Nasjonalmuseet – Theodor Kittelsen: biography and artistic context
• Nasjonalmuseet – Skogtroll and Norwegian fairy-tale illustration
• Nasjonalmuseet – Soria Moria slott