Posted by jmcdevitt on Oct 26, 2021
Unearthing David Drake’s “The Barrow Troll”
Unearthing David Drake’s “The Barrow Troll”by Brian MurphyTwelve years ago I wrote a piece on David Drake’s The Barrow Troll for the late, lamented The Cimmerian website. My own interest re-piqued in this tale after mentioning it among ten recommended sword-and-sorcery tales for the haunting season, I have taken the opportunity to unearth that piece, and update and revise with the latest news on it and its author.“You Northerners believe in trolls, so my brother tells me,” said the priest.“Aye, long before the gold I’d heard of the Parma troll,” the berserker agreed. “Ox broad and stronger than ten men, shaggy as a denned bear.”–David Drake, “The Barrow Troll”David Drake’s “The Barrow Troll” was originally published in December 1975 in Whispers magazine, a former periodical specializing in dark fantasy and horror. Beginning in 1977 editor Stuart David Schiff released the first of six best-of anthologies in a series also entitled Whispers. “The Barrow Troll” appeared in the first of these, which is where I first discovered this wonderful fusion of horror and sword-and-sorcery.In his introduction to the story, Schiff describes “The Barrow Troll” as “a brutal and shocking piece.” That about sums it up. It’s probably my favorite entry in what is an almost-uniformly excellent collection (though Karl Edward Wagner’s “Sticks” is an absolute gem), and was one of only four short stories to be nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 1976.The basic details of the story are as follows: Barbarian warrior Ulf Womanslayer seeks out a rumored great treasure housed within a barrow, guarded by the notorious Parma Troll. Ulf received his evocative surname after cutting a woman named Thora to pieces with a four-foot axe during a hall burning. He’s a berserker, the kind so feared by the English whose coasts they raided as it was rumored they were invulnerable to the bite of weapons while in their frenzied state.In order to kill the troll, Ulf requires the services of a priest, according to Thora’s final words: “And she told me of the Parma lord and the treasure he brought back from Ireland, gold and gems,” Ulf says. “And she said it was cursed that a troll should guard it, and that I must have a mass priest, for the troll could not cross a Christian’s fire and I should slay him then.” And so as...
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