Let's Get Nerdy

    What are Cave Trolls? – Let’s Get Nerdy!

    Ashley Victoria RobinsonBy 6 Mins Read

    Free Range Games recently released brand new Lord of the Rings video game – Return to Moria! Since the SAG-AFTRA strike is still in place and struck work is still struck I want to dive in and explore some of the characters and important features of gameplay for you in the new game. We want all Spoilerites to have the best playing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!

    Anyone else struggling to fight the cave troll?

    It’s reminiscent of the 2002 The Lord of the Rings game when I was screaming and throwing a controller in one of the many childhood basements I whiled away hours of my youth in.

    No, I haven’t thrown any pieces of technology playing The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, but the frustration rises anew 21 years later. It’s always me vs. The Cave Trolls!

    Cave Troll by: Leandro Bristot on ArtStation

    This has gotten me to wonder a little more about the Cave Trolls than I perhaps ever had in my history with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

    There isn’t very much known or written about the Cave Trolls of Middle-Earth. The most well-noted encounter with them is by The Fellowship of the Ring in the book The Fellowship of the Ring during a conflict, The Battle of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Many readers and fans mistakenly assumed Cave Trolls are also present during the events of The Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins saves Thorin’s company from three trolls. These, it is worth noting, are not Cave Trolls, but Stone Trolls.

    Stone Trolls are creations of Morgoth – the First Dark Lord in Tolkien’s canon – more similar to golems and intended as a mockery of Ents. I can explain more on them at a later date, but we’re here today to get into the world of The Cave Troll.

    Cave Trolls inhabit a pretty specific piece of geography in Middle-Earth – The Misty Mountains. The Misty Mountains stretch from the northern Mount Gundabad to the southern Methedras. We can presume, as there is no writing to the contrary, that Cave Trolls can be found throughout the 1280 kilometres in between the two previously mentioned peeks.

    Although the Cave Trolls aren’t given a full and complete description by Tolkien they are notably armed and armoured when it forced its way into The Chamber of Mazarbul. Describe as:

    a dark skin of greenish scales

    … by Tolkien.

    My most favourite, and honestly one of the most frightening aspects of the Cave Trolls is that they bleed black blood. Not only is it black – which would be creepy enough, alone! – but the blood smokes when it makes contact with the stone ground. This implies a corrosive nature which could only put a cave dwelling race such as Trolls, Orcs, Dwarves, or Goblins at a distinct disadvantage in close-quarters combat. 

    We might not know very much about Cave Trolls, but in all incarnations across all media itis clear Tolkein knows how to create a formidable monster. 

    In past articles I have answered the question: 

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    She/her. Canadian actress. Bi Queen. Canadian co-host of Geek History Lesson. Canadian comic book writer: Witchblade, Apollo IX, Jupiter Jet series, Science! The Elements of Dark Energy, Aurora and The Eagle. Award-losing: actor, writer, podcaster. https://linktr.ee/AshleyVRobinson

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