Hi there. My old daycare used to show films every month or so. One of these films scarred me for years. It was about trolls. It listed categories of trolls. Some dug cavities in your teeth with pickaxes. Some walked around with their head under their arm. The scariest for me was the one who snuck into your room while you slept and twist your fingers. No matter how much you hurt, the troll would keep twisting, and you wouldn't wake up. That film had me sleeping with my hands under the covers for years. What the heck was my daycare showing us? Any idea? This was in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, if that helps.
The Trolls sneaking in while you sleep thing reminds me of King's Cat's Eye, but the rest doesn't seem to fit that. 🙁
Urg, I seem to remember posting a youtube video once in the comments of a post and it had marionettes with jackhammers screwing up teeth. I can't find it now for the life of me.
I don't remember those specifics, but there used to be a cartoon they would play every christmas about gnomes, with very dark animation and not that appropriate for children. It was simply called GNOMES, came out in 1980, and has a plot about gnomes preparing for a wedding, all the while on the look-out for lurking trolls. I think it delved into the history of trolls.
Oh dear god. Fossegrimen! That damn troll scared me incredibly. Draugen, Huldra, Tobi-Tre-fot.
I'm not sure what they were showing, but growing up in a heavily Scandinavian area, I heard the tales constantly and ran into many things.
I know there was a book put out around the time period you're mentioning that had all sorts of dolls of the various trolls.
Not sure if it helps, but maybe giving the names of some of the trolls might help someone else.
When I googled "Fossegrimen" this happened…
Im having a fuzzy flashback about my oldest sister having a book about TROLLS and GNOMES in her room and whenever she was out I would sneak in there and treat that book like forbidden contraband! I was mesmerized by it. The trolls scared me but I just couldnt tear myself away.
As far as I remember the gnomes were in the style of the later cartoon DAVID THE GNOME (which was a cartoon with HAPPY DAYS father Tom Bosley voicing David) so maybe that can be a clue to who wrote these books?
* Wil Huygen wrote the GNOME books Im thinking of.
I probably thought the gnomes were cute and then I turned the page unsuspectingly and there would be a huge snot-dripping troll scareing the bejesus outta me!