In today’s parlance the meaning of the word “troll” has become something very different to what it was originally intended for. As many people here might know traditionally speaking a “troll” was prominently a sort of creature, typically featured in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore, who dwelt in isolated mountains and dark caves, lived together in close family units, and was “rarely helpful to human beings, if not dangerous to them” in most cases. Depending on the source “trolls” could be described in different ways but always the image of the hairy, shabbylooking, strong but slowwitted, grotesque being from the dark forest comes to mind.

Taking into account that the traditional image of a troll is one of an aloof creature who prefers to stay away from humans (or at least that has always been my notion of a “troll” up until recent times) it comes as a bit strange to me that such term should have been used to define certain “entities” who “indulge in quarrels on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive messages in online communities”. I suppose the relationship between the word “tröll” and “fiend” in Old Norse must have somewhat played a role in all this issue. I personally would have found the word “Internet Gremlin” much more fitting, but I suppose that’s just me.

”I notice more and more, that it is from the oldest and most primitive artists that one must learn to become an artist oneself” – John Bauer.

Whatever the case might be, John Bauer is one of those artists I have been unfortunately neglecting for quite some time. The fact is that I had in mind publishing an article on Bauer last Christmas/Yule but I finally decided to postpone it. It has been a strange coincidence that I have decided to publish Bauer’s article this month, (almost) exactly 100 years since Bauer’s tragic death on Lake Vättern in Sweden which took the lives of, not only himself, but also of his entire family. Bauer was only 36 when he died. His death was surrounded with all sorts of fateful events which, for some weird reason, seemed to be pointing in that very fatalistic direction:

”Bauer, Ester and their twoyearold son, Bengt, were on their way to their new home in Stockholm, where Bauer hoped for spiritual renewal and a new life for himself and his family. A recent, wellpublicized train accident at Getå caused Bauer to book their return to Stockholm by boat, the Per Brahe steamer. On the night of 19 November 1918, when the steamer left Gränna it was loaded with iron stoves, plowshares, sewing machines and barrels of produce. All the cargo did not fit into the hold and a significant portion was stored unsecured on deck, making the ship topheavy. The weather was bad and by the time the steamer was at sea a full storm was raging; the wind caused the cargo on deck to shift, some of it falling overboard, further destabilizing the ship. The ship capsized and went down, stern first, just 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the next port, Hästholmen, killing all 24 people on board, including the Bauers. Most of the passengers had been trapped in their cabins.” – from Wikipedia

To make matters even more strange the newspapers at the time fed people’s superstitions that “the mythical creatures of the forest had claimed Bauer by sinking the ship”, probably in connection to the famous tale Agneta och Sjökungen (Agneta and the Sea King) from 1910, in which the Sea King lures a maiden into the depths. Reading some of the articles on Bauer it seems to me some people tend to indirectly “blame” Ester for what happened to the Bauers. In my opinion neither any “black magic” nor “mythical creatures”, let alone Ester’s desire for a new life in Stockholm, were to blame for this tragic event. It was all about illfate and sheer human incompetence what put an end to Bauer’s beautiful family.

John Bauer among Elves and Trolls

John Bauer is a very well known artist in his native Sweden these days. One only has to check his long Wikipedia entry to find out about it. In spite of this fact for some people Bauer is still a dramatically underappreciated fantasy artist. Bauer achieved prominence in Sweden with his illustrations for Bland Tomtar och Troll (Among Elves and Trolls) which was an annual book of Nordic fairy tales. He also illustrated other books dedicated to similar stories related to Sweden’s folklore.

#JohnBauer #folklore #fairytales