Just how hard is it to kill a Troll?

[doug*platypus]

I don't think that Hurin actually killed seventy trolls.

Thank you, Timloth the Guest: exactly what I searched for this topic to say. Many of us have long thought "70 trolls... hmm, impressive... too impressive!" Well, it took me until my sixth reading of The Silmarillion but I too finally realise that Húrin did not kill 70 trolls. Operative bit of the passage is:

... each time that he slew Húrin cried: "Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!" Seventy times he uttered that cry...

Húrin killed 70 times. If he killed 70 trolls, that means he did not kill any orcs. We know that he hewed the arms off orcs who grappled him; it is very likely that he did kill some. How many orcs and how many trolls we may never know. Personally, I might guess at about a dozen trolls, which is still phenomenal! That way I get to keep my image of trolls as being pretty bad-@ss customers, for anybody; also that keeps it in the realm of believability.