Great Troll Hunt of 2020

October 10, 2020 PT

In a post two weeks ago, I introduced you to the Troll Hole Museum in Alliance, Ohio. With that introduction, I promised that I would take the troll adventure one step further. So, my wife and I traveled deep into the remote woods of Kentucky. We were following reports of a mama troll and her two troll offspring that had taken residence in a forest south of Louisville. We would attempt to capture some footage of these trolls in the wild. And, its with great pride that I proclaim our adventure was successful. Without further ado, I give you the Great Troll Hunt of 2020.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful fall day when we set out on the hunt. I would like to say that it took all of my superior tracking skills to find the trolls. But, as you can see from the picture above, trolls crush vegetation as they move about. Hence, their trail is not difficult to follow. In less than an hour, we spotted some movement near the edge of a lake…we cautiously approached. And, we were not disappointed. Our first encounter was a young male troll that went by the name, Little Nis.

Yes, Little Nis liked to look at himself

It was an educating encounter. First, Little Nis did not seem threatening. In fact, he seemed more leery of us. Its difficult to understand the guttural language of trolls. But, I believe the only thing Little Nis said while we were there was…”Mama says no talk to humans.” Beyond that, Nis did not seem to want to interact with us. He just sat there admiring his own reflection. And, as you have probably noticed, Little Nis was taking Covid precautions. I learned later from a local expert that the trolls can not catch Covid. But, the mama troll is aware of the disease and wants to take no chances when near humans. It was incredible to find our first troll. But, as he would not interact with us, we decided to hunt on….

After departing Little Nis, it was not long before we spotted his older sister. She was sitting on the forest edge, playing with her rocks in a open field. The locals told us that her name is Elina. At perhaps more than 15′ tall, Elina was much bigger than her younger brother. But, she seemed even less inclined to interact with us than Little Nis. She would look right at us, but never spoke a word and never stopped playing with her rocks. As she always had a large rock in her hand, I did not push any further social interaction. So, we were off to find mama…

Good picture to appreciate the size of Mama Loumari

Well, like a good mama, Mama Loumari was not far from her kids. She was relaxing in her troll camp…apparently she is expecting another child. As trolls go, she seemed much more willing to talk to us than did her kids. I asked her about the masks that they all wore, as well as the fence that surrounded her and her camp. I did not catch everything that she said. But, the basic message was…”keep stinky Covid infested humans away.” So, apparently Mama Loumari is avoiding direct human contact and is taking no chances with the health of her family. Be that as it may, she did not seem to mind if my wife and I wandered the edge of her camp, outside of the fence.

On a final note to my conversations with Mama Loumari, I asked her several questions about her pregnancy. I did not get much. Yeah, I got the distinct feeling that she was not joyful about the whole occurrence. The only answer that I ever got regarding her pregnancy was…”I will kill Leo.” So, from what I gathered from this conversation, as well as what I learned from the locals, Leo is the father of her coming child. Apparently, Leo was not keen on settling down with Mama Loumari. So, he has skipped town and is hiding from Mama. While his whereabouts remain unknown to Mama, trolls tend to stand out in the human world. My Great Troll Hunt of 2020 did not involve traveling the 240 miles to the mountains of Tennessee. But, courtesy of my automated drone, see the current photo of “Leo the Enlightened” below…

Now, living as a hermit, deep in the Blackberry Mountains of Tennessee…”Leo the Enlightened” hopes that Mama Loumari never finds him

I would be remiss if I did not give credit where credit is due. These trolls are the ongoing, life work of Danish artist, Tom Dambo. Mr. Dambo uses all recycled and recovered material to create his troll magic. There are many trolls. He typically puts the trolls in remote locations all over the world. Dambo’s trolls are in Europe, Asia, and North America. There are 8 sites in the USA alone. Mama Loumari and her kids are located in the Bernheim Arboretum near Clermont, Kentucky. He also has back stories for the trolls. The all encompassing fairytale is called…”The Great Story of the little people and the Giant Trolls.” The trolls move about a bit and the sites are not permanent. So, I have attached a link below that maps all current troll sites. I recommend at Troll Hunt for everyone. PT

Thank you for reading “Great Troll Hunt of 2020” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks

If you enjoyed these trolls, you may also enjoy https://travelingwithpt.com/troll-museum-of-course

If you want to see Tom Dambo’s trolls and have your own hunt, here’s a link with a map… https://trollmap.com/