Troll

Troll
Name	Troll
Originated	Scandinavia
Locations found	Northern Europe including Britain and Ireland
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast (XXXX) Being (formerly)
Book information
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Last appearance	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

"Notable for its equally prodigious strength and stupidity, the troll is often violent and unpredictable."

— Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A troll is a creature in the Harry Potter book series.

It is found throughout the wizarding world. It is known for being very strong and possessing a huge size but having very little intelligence. They have a basic language but are still able to serve a few purposes in wizarding society. Even though they once had the Being classification, it was changed to Beast due to their lack of intelligence.

Appearance

Trolls have a humanoid appearance, a height of about twelve feet when are fully-grown and weigh at least a ton. The appearance of a troll will vary depending on their sub-species. They possess incredible strength.

Personal character

Known for being strong but unintelligent, they have a very dangerous and violent nature like giants. They have a very basic language where they just point and grunt. However, trolls do have some limited intelligence because they are capable of understanding words when they have been taught. They are able to communicate to a reasonable degree but many witches and wizards speak troll language anyway. They are less intelligent than even the dullest of other species including unicorns, and don't have any powers of their own. However, they do have prodigious strength.

Trolls are unpredictable and "fearsome". They enjoy eating raw human flesh but aren't fussy about what they eat and even enjoy eating fish. They provide a certain value to society if they are trained to be security trolls or guardians. These trolls have a higher than average intelligence to other trolls. Trolls tend to have clubs and judge each other by the sizes of these clubs.

Sub-species

• The river troll has hairy purple skin and short horns and lurks under bridges or in the middle of rivers.
• The forest troll has pale green skin and straggely hair, and are found in the woods.
• The mountain troll is larger than any other troll and has a higher level of violence. Their skin is a dull, granite gray. They have a lumpy boulder body and a small bald head containing a very small brain. Their legs are small and thick and they have horny flat feet. They have very long arms which they use to drag a wooden club.

History

Trolls originated a very long time ago in Scandinavia but are now found throughout northern Europe including Britain and Ireland. In medieval times, Bonaccord of the International Confederation of Wizards considered giving them rights and banning troll-hunting. However, the country of Liechtenstein opposed this because they had been having problems with trolls at the time. For this reason, they decided not to join the Confederation.

At the very first summit held by Burdock Muldoon of the Wizards' Council to discuss wizarding law with creatures that fit his definition of a "being", trolls attended because they reached the criteria of walking on two legs. However, they did not possess the intelligence necessary and spent the summit ripping apart the chamber with their clubs. At the second gathering, they were taught simple sentences by goblins so they could reach the new defintion of being able to talk and be understood. However, this also failed when they proceeded to use their clubs to destroy the chamber. They attended the third gathering without goblin representatives and could not communicate effectively to prove they understood wizarding law and could shape those laws. For that reason, they were finally given the classification of "beast".

Artemius Lawson was an outspoken advocate in favour of the strictly controlling trolls because he thought it was wrong to let such dangerous, violent animals roam about when they also weigh a ton and have a very small brain.

In 1942, Tom Riddle lied that Rubeus Hagrid liked to go into the Forbidden Forest to fight trolls. The Black family had an object in the front hall of 12 Grimmauld Place crafted out of a troll's leg.

The troll fought by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley

In October 1991, Quirinus Quirrell obtained a troll and let it loose in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in an effort to distract the school and find the Philosopher's Stone. It found it's way to the girl's bathroom where Hermione Granger was crying. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley saved her by using a Levitation Charm to lift up it's club and knock it on the head. The troll was knocked out and fell to the ground.

By the summer of 1992, Gilderoy Lockhart had published a book named Travels with Trolls which contained information taken from another witch or wizard who had in fact, spent time travelling with trolls.

In February to June 1994, security trolls guarded the portrait of the Fat Lady at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when Sirius Black broke into the school and was found brandishing a knife at a student. They spent their time glaring at everyone who went by, pacing and debating the size of their wooden clubs.