Trolls, from Scandinavia to Seattle
Learn about recycling activist and artist Thomas Dambo’s clumsy, lovable troll installations in Seattle and beyond, and what they are telling us.
During the past year, Danish sculptor Thomas Dambo has installed large, amiable trolls all around the Seattle area. In this program, you’ll visit the troll outside the National Nordic Museum in Ballard, then move inside for an enlightening talk by UWRA member Lotta Gavel Adams, professor emerita in Scandinavian Studies. There is no museum admission fee for this event.
Lotta Gavel Adams knows A LOT about trolls. She grew up with them, in the forest around her Swedish family’s summer cabin and in the books she read as a child. And 30 years ago, when she started designing a course in Scandinavian children’s literature at the UW, she really began to explore the history of trolls in Nordic culture.
Lotta will invite you to follow along on a journey into the world of trolls in literature, film, and art. Along the way you’ll learn why the Dambo trolls are taking over the world today.