Apologizes if this has been said already, but is it worth thinking
about "trolling" as an early modern literary device? Was Nashe a
master troll? Or perhaps more discretely, Spenser and Sidney?
(Where/how do they do it?) Or does this just apply a trendy new name
to things we already know about the workings of polemic, satire, etc.?
Back under my bridge,
Brad
**********
Bradley J. Irish
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Arizona State University
http://asu.academia.edu/BradleyJIrish
On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Ethan Guagliardo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> All Braggadocchio does is troll.
>
> Ethan G
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 10:17 AM, Hannibal Hamlin
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> For two excellent, and weird, indie films about trolls, check out
>>
>> 1. Troll Hunter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/), a Norwegian film
>> from 2010. A group of teens investigating a spate of bear killings come
>> across an actual troll hunter secretly employed by the Norwegian government.
>> 2. Rare Exports (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401143/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1) a
>> Finnish film from 2010. The title is unfortunately bland and arbitrary, but
>> it's a darkly brilliant Christmas story, positing that Santa is actually a
>> creature called Joulupukki and his elves a bunch of child murderers that
>> look like naked old men. Dark, dark, dark, but very funny.
>>
>> Not very Spenserian, but I've nothing to add re. trolls in FQ!
>>
>> Hannibal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 6:03 PM, Herron, Thomas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello -- there's a pretty good Icelandic film version of *Beowulf* where
>>> Grendel is played more as a human than a monster and is called a "troll" (in
>>> the translation). Funny how the poem highlights the door and threshold that
>>> Grendel magically opens and crosses over, "like he's opening the
>>> refrigerator" as my Old English prof Nick Doane used to say.
>>>
>>> In Mut Cantos, Faunus is something like a troll insofar as he's a
>>> wood-god associated with rivers and his violation of Cynthia's space
>>> involves that comical folksy simile on the breaking into a "dairy" house.
>>> More puck than troll however. --Tom
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] on
>>> behalf of James C. Nohrnberg [[log in to unmask]]
>>> Sent: Friday, June 20, 2014 1:07 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: Are there trolls in the FQ?
>>>
>>> "The three Billy Goats Gruff seem to be missing...": but
>>> see _Analogy of The FQ_, p. 772, on the alleged
>>> demonization of allegorical agents:
>>>
>>> A telling example in Spenser is Talus, who stands for
>>> "marital law," but acts like a medieval suit of armor that
>>> has been possessed by a demon. The figure belongs to
>>> gothic romance, though one may also compare the robots of
>>> science fiction, or the character known as the Incredible
>>> Hulk, who is found in the current [ca. 1965?] Superman
>>> comic books. Another example from the same legend in
>>> Spenser is Pollente. Pollente stands for "power," and he
>>> monopolizes a river-crossing; his is specifically the
>>> power localized in that juncture of the romance topography
>>> that we have elsewhere described by means of words like
>>> _threshold_ and _impasse_, and the associated concept of
>>> trespass. We might compare the limitary river-god
>>> Scamander in the _Iliad_, since the hero wrestles with him
>>> in the water; but Pollente and sons of Guizor are equally
>>> kin of the folktale bridge-troll in the story of Bill Goat
>>> Gruff. Like the bridge-troll, Pollente is a
>>> threshold-demon.
>>>
>>> See, in the Prose Edda's Skaldskaparmal, Old Norse vorth
>>> nafjarthar, "guardian of the [corpse?]-fiord," as an
>>> epithet or term for a troll, as provided by a
>>> self-describing one.
>>>
>>> -- Jim N.
>>>
>>> On Fri, 20 Jun 2014 10:47:00 +0100
>>> Penny McCarthy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> > The three Billy Goats Gruff also seem to be missing -
>>> >but there is Grill. Penny
>>> > On 20 Jun 2014, at 08:24, Roger Kuin wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> It's pleasing to see that the "Irregardless" school of
>>> >>criticism is alive and well. It reminds me of Brigid
>>> >>Brophy and "Fifty Works of English Literature We Can Do
>>> >>Without". Bite-size stanza nuggets about people and the
>>> >>sincerity of their feelings: das ist unser Spenser!
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> On 20 June 2014 00:04, Quitslund, Beth
>>> >><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> >> I hope I’m not breaking a tacit consensus decision by
>>> >>the list to ignore this, but if not then it seemed worth
>>> >>knowing that The Faerie Queene is suffering what may well
>>> >>be a form of academic trolling in the Chronicle of Higher
>>> >>Education this week. Allan Metcalf, originally an
>>> >>Anglo-Saxonist but now a dialectician, is writing a
>>> >>series of blog posts about the poem which offer all of us
>>> >>some advice about editing and teaching it.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Cheers,
>>> >>
>>> >> Beth
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> P.S. In a possibly related note, there may be no trolls
>>> >>in the FQ, but it is in (sort of) the movie “Troll.”
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> OHIO UNIVERSITY
>>> >> Department of English
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Beth Quitslund
>>> >> Associate Professor & Faculty Senate Chair
>>> >>
>>> >> Ellis 381
>>> >> 1 Ohio University
>>> >> Athens OH 45701-2979
>>> >> T: 740.593.2829
>>> >> F: 740.593.2832
>>> >> [log in to unmask]
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >
>>>
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> James Nohrnberg
>>> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
>>> Univ. of Virginia
>>> P.O Box 400121
>>> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Hannibal Hamlin
>> Associate Professor of English
>> Author of The Bible in Shakespeare, now available through all good
>> bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at
>> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199677610.do
>> Editor, Reformation
>> The Ohio State University
>> 164 West 17th Ave., 421 Denney Hall
>> Columbus, OH 43210-1340
>> [log in to unmask]
>> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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