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Study 024 - Troll Bridge (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-29 15:00:02
Imported:
2026-06
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We're closing out the year with Terry Pratchett's short story Troll Bridge!

Special thanks to reader Greig Johnson - check out his Etsy shop!

Here's the excellent short film adaptation of Troll Bridge by Snowgum Films.

Next up: Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

Comments

Dennis blackwell

Maybe the 3 addresses was that of 3 other trolls. Fun story. I am glad you guys are still going. Been with you guys since ep 20. Have a happy new year!

It's a Ghost.

I loved all the earthy names for the trolls: Mica, Beryl, Scree, Pyrites, Chert, Clay.

CarcharodonMegs

Please make "Dracula made the chicken' merch, I beg of thee

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

When you announced in the last episode what story you were covering somebody posted a link to an audiobook of Troll Bridge. I have to say I love comparing the reading in this episode with that audiobook, in the section where Mica is saying, “what’s it all about?” Your guy made it sound very forceful and confident, while the reader for the audiobook drew it out, and made it sound like this horrible dawning realization that civilization has passed this time honored tradition by… Very fun to hear different choices in the material.

Hayden Orr

That troll had his year made, got to meet his hero, got some gold, and got his brother-in-laws off his back!

Erik Gordon

When possible I read the story before I listen to your show. I started this one and was like, wtf is this a talking horse? A Conan knockoff? It's gonna be super silly. When I finished it I was shocked to find myself thinking about a lot of the things you said. I'm new to the author outside of Good Omens, but I think I'll have to read more. Thanks for making my pile of books bigger ya jerks.

Харитонский Виталий

This episode was so lonely and sad to hear at the end of the year. But looking at what this world has come to, I also miss good old times.

Victor Badger

Perhaps it's bad form to mention another podcast here, but given Chris's affection for Star Trek, maybe it gets a pass; Levar Burton Reads did Troll Bridge a while back. It's pretty good, but a fine way to enjoy the story. A nice companion piece to this episode.

Drix

I've really enjoyed the Pratchett coverage this month, and I feel it would be remiss of me as a die hard Pratchett fan not to provide a copy of one of his most famous quotes, which has at least some pseudoacademic mentions and merits to this day; the Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness: "'The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness.'"

RachelC

I haven't read this story myself (yet - I'm just starting to discover the wonders of Pratchett), but my immediate assumption while listening to the show was that the addresses were those of the other trolls mentioned by Mica and Beryl.

Ben Moule

Thank you both for mentioning me, as sad as this might sound, you made my day.

Elisheba

How is the mysterious artifact forcing you to study anything? Does it give you pop quizzes and essay assignments with sanity blasting consequences for failure? I look forward to finding the answers in your new backstory.

Darth Pseudonym

The three addresses were the three brothers in law -- one running a toll bridge booth that made a strong income, one clearcutting the darksome forest, and the merchant that's almost indistinguishable from a human who was pushing the others into those lines of work.

Beanz

Can we give it up for Greig Johnson? His reading was :: chef's kiss:: Great voices and reading/acting.

Carter Stepper

I think the lesson of the three billy goats gruff is to not fuck with billy goats 🤣

Steve

If you like trolls and bells, check out the animated series Hilda on Netflix. It's full on Nordic folklore but modern day. It's for kids but it's really very good.

Jim Cannon

Trolls are maybe my second favorite monster type (the first, as previously established, is werewolves). The husband and wife team the D'Aulaires did a Troll book that I read over and over and over as a wee lad, and according to them trolls do have families and are pretty ugly and dumb but really strong and they're afraid of church bells too. I think there's a bit about bridges, but they mostly live in caves in the mountains, from which they occasionally come out to give humanity a hard time. Presumably Cohen fought in the wars to curb that kind of behavior but in so doing accidentally made himself obsolete.

Thomas Paynter

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is also a very early memory of mine. For me I think the meaning has to do with the first billy goats being small and vulnerable, like me hearing the story as a little child. Then the biggest billy goat comes along and makes it better. Not sure if that symbolizes the protection of a father or mother or older brother, or the promise that I myself would grow up and be better able to protect myself. But I think that's what I took from it: the vulnerability of the little goat at the beginning, then the reassurance of big brother goat coming along and knocking that scary troll into the river.

Andrew M. Reichart

One of my earliest memories is the Three Billy Goats Gruff book with beautiful woodcut illustrations by Una Woodruff. I still have the book and I have the third goat in mid-charge tattooed down my forearm.

Andrew M. Reichart

My hypothesis about the goats is that the biggest one represents Thor: — the folktale is Norwegian — Thor has two goats — Thor protects the vulnerable — specifically from trolls — specifically by bashing them

Richard Horsman

Thank you so much for spending some time with Pratchett. There was a period in my life when his writing meant the world to me, and I'd read the Discworld books over and over. As phases do it ended a while ago. It's nice to come back to him, via two terrific pieces I hadn't read before, and your fresh eyes.

Andrew M. Reichart

I also miss the darksomeness of olde Times Square. In that case, though (and I suspect many others), what happened was not “improvement” but the replacement of organic and local culture with massive brands and corporate-flavored consumer culture. (Also keep in mind that the herald of this change was Rudy f’n Giuliani LMAO… the seed of awfulness was in full bloom with him already)

Ethan Cordray

Hurray, I finally got my backer shoutout, after all these years!

Jason Thompson

Roald Dahl, wooooooo! You should also read his story about AI writing. Very prescient and funny. I forget the name but it’s one of his early 60s-70s ones.

Josephine, Who Lurks

Hey, first time commenting but I've been listening to you guys since Cool Air. Your discussions kept me company more than once driving through the Appalachians in the dead of night, and without another car for miles they laid over the towering black mountain-shapes an utterly bewitching atmosphere. I got curious and looked up the Billy Goats Gruff in the Thompson Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (e.g. the original TVTropes). It classifies the story under motif K553, "Wait till I get fat", alongside such classics as "Wolf is requested by horse to start eating from the rear; kicked to death" & "Hero to be eaten by cannibals when he is fattened enough to beat them in a race. He runs away." As for a moral, I'm not sure there really is one - the smart thing for the goats would be to send the biggest one first and yet they win out anyway, and even if the troll ate the first two the third would ruin his day either way. MC Frontalot's rap-adaptation "Much Chubbier" includes the detail that the bridge will shatter if the largest one goes first or second, turning it into a sort of puzzle and a story about trickery, but that's not present in every version. On top of that, the Indian equivalent of this story uses a dwarf instead of a troll, and the sequence runs "lamb, ewe, ram" rather than "small, medium, large", so maybe this is more a narratively-satisfying rule-of-three thing than an Aesop? Or maybe there are two versions in circulation and in one there's more rationale given for the order. Completely aside, I think bridge trolls might have started as funhouse-mirror images of highwaymen, since unguarded bridges were often easy pickings and they work so well as symbols of travel, liminality and necessary but unsafe paths. I've only read a couple Discworld books, but I like how Pratchett humanizes and plays with different fantasy-races instead of having them be 'uncivilized' or symbols of human ugliness.

Leigh Candalino

I also have the Three Billy Goats Gruff book. Mine had woodcut illustrations that I loved to look at. My impression of the story is to not overestimate your ability. The troll let the two smaller ones pass because he believed he could take the third goat not knowing anything about the third goat really. He finds out the third goat is larger than he can fight and quickly loses. Thank you for going off on tangents and tangents of tangents, Chad! I always love these moments AND wonder when Chris is going to reign it in.

Vourdalak

I don't know what normal people get out of The Three Billy Goats Gruff but in my family it was quite literal. When I was a young teen, we lived across the street from a creek with a small foot bridge that led to a park and a forest. Pretty rad setup, but there was a catch: our youngest brother was pre-K, semi-verbal, and given to running off alone and being unable to find his way back. Unfortunately this was before the days of hiding airtags in autistic children's pockets. So, every time we crossed the bridge together, we'd do a full re-enactment of the story of the smallest goat and his brothers, complete with a lot of loud trip-trap trip-trapping and simulated goat-on-troll violence. The meaning of the story was: stay off the bridge, little kid, unless you have your bigger siblings with you. Totally worked, thank you Norway for keeping my baby brother safe from trolls.

Jason Rainbird

Hace any of you seen this short of Troll Bridge? I love it. https://youtu.be/V7v_TdLviUE Sorry. I commented before I heard you both recommend this towards the end of the show. Back under my bridge I go...

Cheshire Rogue

My local zoo has a goat pen with a bridge going across the walking path and they have a plaque with the story of billy goat gruff, I think there used to be a troll statue reaching over the bridge but that might just be my imagination planting false memories

Incaptivity

The Pratchett coverage recently has actually gotten me to go check out his work, love the humor and perspectives in these a lot. Can’t believe I went my whole life so far skipping them

Cacodaemoniacal

Like most fables, the story is in a code, a cultural lesson about cleverness. The troll is someone with strength and power that just sets up shop demanding something he has no right to. The goat is a trickster that needs to elude him (was people falsely demanding tolls a thing?). Nostalgia for when things were actually worse. I was blessed to see Pratchett at a Worldcon. He was so funny. an explosion of wit and charisma.