Troll (Middle-earth) - Literature

Literature

In The Hobbit they speak with very thick Cockney accents. They turn to stone when exposed to sunlight and they enjoy eating meat (such as mutton, hobbits and Dwarves) and drinking beer. While threatening, the trolls in The Hobbit serve as a comic element. They even have normal names: Tom, Bert, and Bill Huggins (the only case in which a surname is given).

Morgoth, the evil Vala, created the first Trolls before the First Age. They were strong and vicious, but stupid creatures. Their major weakness was that they turned to stone in sunlight. Nobody knows how he managed to breed them, though it is stated by Treebeard of the Ents that Trolls were "made in mockery of" them, as Orcs were of Elves, though not necessarily from Entish stock. However, they are likely a corrupted form of some other race of Middle-earth, as both Morgoth and Sauron could only corrupt creatures that already existed, not create any anew. There is reference that sunlight will return them to the stone from which they were made in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

During the wars of Beleriand, Gothmog (the Lord of Balrogs) had a bodyguard of Trolls. During the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, in which Morgoth triumphed over the united armies of Elves, Men, and Dwarves, the great human warrior Húrin faced Gothmog's Trolls when trying to protect the retreat of the Elven king Turgon. As Morgoth had ordered to capture Húrin alive, the warrior managed to wipe out the Trolls before being captured by Orcs.

Many Trolls died in the War of Wrath, but some survived and joined the forces of Sauron, the greatest surviving servant of Morgoth. In the Second Age and Third Age, Trolls were among Sauron's most dangerous warriors.