Was Santa a troll?
Museum dedicated to all things trolls explores often grim holiday lore
Santa is the stuff of legend.
And a museum in downtown Alliance, Ohio, is taking this notion to a whole new level by posing the intriguing question: “Is Santa Claus really a troll?”
Tucked inside a couple of storefronts, the Troll Hole Museum and Grumpy Troll Coffee shop is home to all things troll, from themed candy to life-size trolls that call the place home.
The museum that traces the history of trolls — from folklore to kitschy dolls in the 1960s to modern toys from the recent animated movie of the same name — is all decked out for the holidays.
Trolls of all shapes and sizes occupy room after room, and each has a story to tell.
And this is where the Christmas-inspired tour takes a holly-jolly turn.
From special lights to 20 holiday-dressed trolls hidden among the displays, visitors catch a seasonal glimpse of trolls and their roles in Christmas legends.
Aside from the notion Santa might have been a troll, evidence is offered up that Yeti and even Bigfoot for that matter might actually be trolls.
As the tales fly by, so does the collection of troll dolls gathered over the years by collector Sherry Groom, a Cuyahoga Falls resident and art therapist, numbering way past 20,000 with some 7,000 unique in design, shape and type.
Groom’s assortment, amassed over the years — from the first one she received as a kid at Christmas to whole collections acquired numbering in the thousands — has even been recognized by Guinness World Records three times.
The story of the troll is traced from its more sinister days of old, as moral tales for adults and kids alike, to its resurgence as fuzzy-haired mischievous guys and gals in the 1950s and ’60s, to its modern fun-loving movie characters today that even were subjects of a Christmas TV special recently.
But it is that early folklore where Santa troll rears his slightly naughty head.
Groom and her fellow tour guides share stories of days long gone by, when let’s just say not everyone had a Merry Christmas. These chestnuts were left a little too long over a roaring fire.
One legend shared is of the Noisee or Tottem, small child-like trolls of Nordic folklore.
This bearded troll with a colorful knit cap — think a garden gnome — is said to have showed up around Christmastime to play pranks on misbehaving children and was even said to whack the worst ones upside of the head.
These kids were the lucky ones.
Poor little Icelandic children in the 1600s were told of a witch named Gryla who would come down from the mountains at Christmas. She was a giant half ogre, half troll with hooves, horns and 15 tails.
The legend went that she roamed the countryside snatching bad children from their beds and putting them in a sack. She’d take them back to her cave and boil them to make a stew to feed her equally hideous husband and 13 odd sons.
If that wasn’t horrible enough, Groom says, the legend included the tale of Gryla’s Yule Cat.
It seems the cat named Christmas ate just once a year and would wander down from the mountain too and watch through the windows as children opened their gifts on Christmas mornings.
The cat would eat any child who did not receive clothing as gifts. So children were eager to ask for and grateful to get socks and underwear at Christmas.
“In all the countries the trolls were not left out at Christmastime,” she says.
If these stories seem pretty grim, Groom says, that was point: “All the legends and folklores were intended to teach a lesson.”
The stories were so terrifying, Groom says, the Danish government ordered in the 1700s that they be retooled because children were afraid to venture from their homes at Christmas.
The story goes now that the 13 lads are delightful little trolls who spread joy and leave small gifts for children in their shoes and boots left on window sills.
And the bad kids are no longer eaten for dinner, but are left a rotten potato to gnaw on instead.
This is all kind of like the evolution of most of the trolls found inside of the museum that are now considered fun toys and firmly ensconced in popular culture. Drake Bell of the Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh” strolled through the door recently to check out the museum that is popular among those seeking
The stories were so terrifying, the Danish government ordered in the 1700s that they be retooled because children were afraid to venture from their homes at Christmas.
quirky attractions.
Most of the modern trolls in the collection are friendly, smiling types wearing funky clothing and sporting the obligatory fuzzy hair.
Groom says most visitors are like her and discovered trolls as toys as a child. Then there’s a whole new generation of fans from the “Trolls” movie and a planned sequel.
And that means a whole new generation of toy trolls that will likely have to find a home in the museum.
Groom tries to avoid shopping online because of the wide range of trolls for sale there. A lot of times, she says, the trolls find her.
Many kind keepers of trolls have brought their beloved toys to donate to the museum so future generations can also enjoy their whimsical magic.
Once Christmas is packed up for the season on Jan. 6, Groom and her helpers will get to work on a new display that celebrates the Pro Football Hall of Fame down the road in Canton.
Groom’s collection includes many that are NFL-themed and wear uniforms like the Browns so she wants to give visitors from the hall of fame who make the trek east to check out the museum a special treat.
“The husbands want to see football, and the wives want to see the trolls.”