The Origin of Trolls

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

Bilbo, all Trolls, while there are several varying types, are basically the same. There is (or was) a non-successful theory on human evolution around somewhere that proposes humans all evolved seperately in their respective locations around the world, explaining the largeish differences in appearance and bodily build in our species. However, this is clearly not the case. Humans are the same species, and have a very narrow genetic variation from one race to the next; coming from different sources would render us incompatible.
It is much the same with Trolls. There are different breeds or races, but they are all the same basic thing. Given this, it is hard to imagine that they were created independantly from one another. A single species can be developed into different types.

What you say about the differences in 'substance' between Ents and Trolls is true. While this does not negate the possibility of their having come from Ents originally, it does raise an interesting new prospect; did they come from Dwarves? Dwarves, it would appear, share this aspect with Trolls, that they are created from stone.

Aftertime it was held among the Elves in Middle-Earth that dying the Dwarves returned to the earth and the stone of which they were made, but that is not thier own belief.

Could Trolls have come from dwarves, perhaps? That may explain why they were not around much, or not at all, in the First Age while Orcs had been bred already. Dwarves did not appear until during the First Age, so Morgoth did not have oppurtunity to capture and change them until then, and after, when he had more chance to. Hmm interesting thought... I think it probable that Trolls were created, or at least developed by Morgoth, with 'mockery of Ents' in mind, although they did not neccesarily have to have come from this source. Any medium would have done that was suitable, and Dwarves may concievably have been this.

[ July 10, 2003: Message edited by: Gwaihir the Windlord ]