The View From Kalamazoo

Finland Receives First Ph.D. in Trolls:
Finland has received what appears to be the first doctoral dissertation on traditional forest trolls.

Master of Philosophy Camilla Asplund Ingemark, 30, has researched the subject for six years. She will defend her doctoral dissertation, which is classified as a work on folklore, at the Ã…bo Akademi University in Turku on Friday.

The study describes the world of trolls according to the beliefs in the folklore of Swedish-speaking Finns.

Both Christian and pagan stories described the relationship between man and supernatural forces. Folklore and Christian tales and sermons influenced each other.

“I chose trolls as the subject of my research because I suspected that troll tales could reveal something about the relation between folk beliefs and Christianity. I am interested in that relationship.”