The Troll Inside You [Book Review]

Hello hello! Happy New Year! Argh, it's 2025 already.
Seeing as I tend to read a lot of books anyway as research for my various endeavours, I figured it might be a good idea to start doing quick reviews of books that I read. It's also important to me to try and boost the accessibility of academic materials, so I can help guide you, potentially, to what might be worth the expense, and what can be found elsewhere.
This time, I've briefly summarised The Troll Inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North by Ármann Jakobsson. TLDW: I enjoyed it! It was a really good primer for tackling the image and characterisation of the Troll in the period, and helped address some of the misconceptions around the Troll in modern scholarly works. For Heathens, there's some important reframing of the Gods - primarily Odin - as 'trollish' in behaviours, with discussion of the role of societal status (and Godly status) working to diminish the stigma around behaviours that would otherwise be seen as uncivilised and other.
Naturally, there's also discussion on the mirroring narrative of the wild vs the civilised in relation to Pagan religious practices and Christian beliefs - which is a rich subject that I will likely dig into further down the road.
Want to buy me a coffee? I now have a ko-fi account: ko-fi.com/valsif