Trolltunga, Norway

Hidden deep in the craggy fjords of Vestland, Trolltunga looms above the glacier-fed lake Ringedalsvatnet. To the early Norse, landforms this bizarre were never mere products of erosion; they were the scars of cosmic battles and the fossilized remains of monstrous beings.

The legend tells of a troll unlike the rest of his brooding kin—mischievous, cocky, and reckless. Every troll knows sunlight is instant death, turning their flesh to stone. But this one thought himself untouchable. At daybreak he climbed Skjeggedal Mountain and, taunting the rising sun, stuck his colossal tongue out of a cave mouth. Punishment was swift: the first ray of dawn froze him where he stood, fusing him to the cliff face forever. His outstretched tongue became the overhanging rock we see today—a monument to shattered hubris and a warning carved in granite.

Trolls, so the sagas say, live anywhere from one to twelve millennia and can reproduce only once in that span. Hideous beyond measure, they sport huge noses, bovine tails, and sometimes a single eye or multiple heads that sprout purely to terrify foes. Their diet runs the gamut from human flesh and goats to stones and charcoal. Gifted in dark magic, they can change shape, spread disease, and serve as brutal wardens of the natural order, punishing those who disrespect forest or mountain.

From 100 Cursed Places · Fern Flower Press