ENVISIONING A SNOW TROLL

The snow troll makes its Middle-earth debut after six or seven varied sketches

“I do not know exactly where my idea of trolls comes from, possibly partly from the Swedish illustrator John Bauer. Partly from other sources that have mentioned trolls in different legends and stories. A good deal obviously from Peter Jackson’s films where we had time to get to know trolls quite well. When a snow troll cropped up in the script, it clearly needed to be identifiable as a troll but something a little different. I know that those tusks are based on the tusks of a wild boar. I do have a skull of a wild boar in my basement so that may have been part of the inspiration. More likely though, it was the chance stroke of a pencil and I thought, ‘That looks like a boar’s tusk,’ and went on from there. This three-way dialogue between creator, theme and the drawing itself is essential.”