Troll Culture

Hello, friends!

Not stopping by much, taking care of my Trollmate.  Thank you for bringing up this topic.

To be honest, I have not read any current Elfquest publications.  I read the first few issues of Final Quest, up to about the part when Ember escaped from the humans, Windkin showed up at Sorrow's End, and Ruffel got hit by lightning.

For this reason, my perspective may be dated.

I do remember the grown-up Trinket flirting agressively with Mender.  I didn't realize that she would continue her obsession with Elf partners.

There was a Hidden Years (?} story about Two-Edge and Winnowill, in which Two-Edge dreamt of being intimate with Leetah, who changed him into a full-blooded Elf.

Neither of these situations appealed to me.  I don't mind that members of two different intelligent species to be mutually attracted to each other.

I just don't like the implication that being an Elf, or being with an Elf, is somehow preferable to being a Troll, or taking a Troll as a life-mate.

Your point about Trinket being a member of royalty didn't occur to me.  We see how members of the British royal family, for example, live in a goldfish bowl, in which they aren't allowed to poop outisde the little ceramic castle.

In the succession of Greymung-Guttlekraw-Picknose-Drub, passing the torch to one's own offspring doesn't seem to be as important as it is among Wolfriders.

(While Guttlekraw either had a private harem, or kept everybody's wives in a protected area, I never noticed either Greymung or Guttlekraw grooming a son or daughter for the throne.  Maybe they just didn't think that far ahead.)

Should Trinket take a female partner, an Elf partner, or both, and produced no offspring, the fate of the kingdom would not be in jeopardy.

As creatures of intelligence over instinct, with multiple communities, Trolls are likely to have diverse cultures.

Suppose, during "Hidden Years", a Troll got tired of living under one particular authority, such as whoever won the Northern throne from Picknose.

We Trolls are able to travel long distances in the dark, under cover of night as well as underground.  (“I knew I should have made that left turn at Albuquerque!”)  The Troll would have the option of joining the new Picknose kingdom, or some other group.

As a result, we have diverse cultures throughout the World of Two Moons.  We share a common language, but our organizations and customs vary.

My fictional character Cowl fell in with a community of Trolls who tried so hard to protect themselves from Greymung, Guttlekraw, the Gliders, the Go-Backs and humans in general that they kept their community's existence a secret from Cowl until they really felt they could trust her.

Would Guttlekraw have tolerated Trinket's affections, had he been her father?  What about Greymung?

Smelt had no qualms with interspecies intimacy, although he probably didn't expect an Elf to produce a half-Troll son.  So he wouldn't likely object to unions between Trolls of the same gender.

As with all other relationships, Trolls either consciously or unconsciously assume traits and responsibilities that are traditionally assigned to one gender or the other.