A Playground for Trolls Troll Forest of Mount Floyen, Bergen, Norway

By CA Eccles

A Playground for Trolls Troll Forest of Mount Floyen, Bergen, Norway

Words and Photography

by CA Eccles

© 2014

All rights reserved.

IT WAS AN EERIE SETTING….

….for a children’s playground. The sky was gray and gloomy, and the mist in Bergen’s Mount Floyen was still lingering when we stumbled upon the “Activitetsloype” park for children.

But, the weather didn’t dampen our enthusiasm! We were all ready for an adventure, and embarked on a jour-ney of discovery coming face-to-face (and sometimes face-to-foot) with one of Norway’s beloved fairytale playgrounds full of trolls, giants, and everything in between. It was time to meet some new friends!

This hidden corner of the forest did not contain bouncy castles.

There was no state-of-the-art rope climbing jungle gym.

There were no springy turtles or twisty slippery slides.

There were no tire swings!

But, there WAS a great, big, giant of a wooden-sculpted, gray-haired man with sky-blue eyes and a very big grin, frozen on his face!

He wore a deep maroon jacket, and green slacks, and

BIG —- BIG —- BIG —- brown boots!

The giant man was SO tall, that his gazed carried out over the tops of our heads. We wondered if he really saw us at all?

We decided he had not, so we quietly tip-toed away lest we disturb him!

“IT’S THE EYES, MUMMY...they’re following me!”

Winding along the pine-needle covered path, our merry little party came upon three wooden heads precariously perched on three tree stumps!

The white eyes stared at us at eye-level, giving the perception as we moved that we were being watched!

LEFT CENTER RIGHT

It did not matter which way we moved—the eyes were always there!

Each head was different, too. Mouths opened or closed; grinning or smiling. Still others were….well...you couldn't really tell what they were doing!

And that meant it was time to move down the path.

….AND AROUND THE CORNER...

...to the man-bird-piglet...things!

A human-looking face with rose-colored cheeks,

ruby-red lips, and long white hair atop an owl body!

And

A piglet-shaped face with neon-blue eyes, a white coat, and hands quietly folded in a human-looking lap!

What was this crazy magic?

We pretended the owl was the teacher and the piglet was the student and this was class time, so we waved good-by and returned to the path.

The path led to a clearing. And in that clearing, we found hatch– crossed stumps!

Some were short,

and some were tall.

Some were slanted,

and some were flat!

The troll’s challenge? Walk across an imaginary river stepping on the stumps without falling off. But, it was much more fun to hop-off and crawl back on pretending to swim in the troll’s river!

We went UP and DOWN and UP again and DOWN again when some-thing in the distance...

Caught

Our

Eyes!

TITLE

GIANT WOODEN HEADS!

with

GIANT WAVING HANDS!

with

GIANT NEON-BLUE FINGERNAILS!!

But these giants were friendly! They smiled and waved as we approached the famous “Three Billy Goats Gruff Bridge”.

We each took turns pretending to be the troll and demand-ing an answer to our riddles.

We scampered UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN and then… do you know what we did??

We went UP and DOWN—again!—crossing the wooden trusses that stretched over a pretend ravine.

We must have satisfied the trolls’ demands as the giant hands waved and the giant faces smiled!

Now safely across, we continued on our merry way going back UP...UP...UP the mountain side.

AS WE HIKED up the mountain path, we realized we were surrounded by faces. But these were no ordinary faces, with

LONG noses

and

BIG ears

and

teeny-tiny black, beady eyes

and

wide smiles (with only a few teeth)!

How happy they looked!

And then we saw THE OLD WISE MAN’s face...

He had been on the tree so long, that he was becoming part of the tree!

“SSshhhhhhh….” we whispered. We did not want to wake OLD WISE MAN’s sleeping face.

We tip-toed quietly around the tree, only to discover a MOTHER TROLL HOUND with two pups!

The pups were so cute! We wanted to touch, but she growled at us, as a warning to not come any closer.

So...away we went down the trail.

OUR FAIRY-TALE JOURNEY had come to an end, and we were bid “Farewell!” by a giant lady with sad, blue eyes.

Was this the lonely Queen from Norse folklore,

“The Three Princesses of Whiteland”?

A sign pointed the way out of the Troll forest, with a saying of :

“TVI, TVI, HER LUKTER RISTENMANNSBLOD”

(I smell Christian Blood!)

While “TVI! TVI!” is said to ward off evil spirts and free us from any troll curses, perhaps the Queen smelled our ham and cheese sandwiches?

Or maybe, it was the trollkrems or sandbakkels from the shops below!!!

We decided to leave that mystery for another day, as our magical coach—the Floibanen funicular—was waiting to take us back down the mountain.

“ALLLLLLLL ABOARD!!”

The conductor yelled.

And,

Down!

Down!

Down!

the mountain we went!

AS WE WADDLED HOME...

….we thought about our new friends.

Some were scary at first, because they looked different.

But once we got to know them, we realized they were just like us! They liked to jump and laugh and sing and play just like us!

We will listen to warnings that are there to protect us, but when we meet new friends who look different, we won’t be afraid or mean!

After all, we probably look just as different and as scary to them!