For The Record

The blogs have gone on a brief hiatus while I have entered a countersuit against the person who claimed I was infringing on their copyright in the original Billikens blog posting. Since the blog has been reposted without the material, nothing is at risk but my reputation: I just happen to think that is worth fighting for.

BTW, in case somebody feels that they came in late on my discussion, the original statement I had made on Karl Shuker's blog was that the little troll dolls were actually meant to look like small (presumably young) traditional Trolls of Scandinavia and their faces were caricatures of Neanderthal faces.

Furthermore it could be documented historically that the similar figurines called Koboldes and Goblins (Gobbos) were similarly placatory images of good luck and originally carved images with pointed feet that were stuck in the ground like carrots, ancestors of the later garden gnomes. (Noted in A Field Guide to the Little People)All of them are traditional and traditionally carved from wood to turn aside the pranks of the "Little People" or Imps that lived in the Woods. The Troll Doll variation were a personalized version created by Thomas Dam of Denmark, but the little wooden carvings were traditional there, too. And it seems the same sort of "Troll Dolls were also made traditionally in Japan. Now in all of these areas the big ones (Adults)were said to be dangerous, carnivorous and cannibalistic (meaning they ate people) whether they were called Orcs or Ogres, Trolls or Onis, but there is some implication that showing such creatures images of their young ones was supposed to make the adults feel protective towards the people that showed the images around their dwellings.

And the Billikens were really only one local expression of the same idea (or actually a couple of different traditions that combined along similar lines)

There is more to this but I shall have to discuss it later when I have more free time.
Best Wishes, Dale D.