I start the year with a nostalgic post about my visit to Sweden in July to cheer up those brave Scandinavians in the far north that don’t have much daylight at the moment.

There is this one valley in Lapland where trolls are still living. It is allowed for tourists to visit the area, but great care should be taken not to disturb them. They have their forts on top of the mountains, from where they trow large rocks at each others’ head over the valley.  The valley itself is a total chaos of fallen rocks without any structure or organization, which results in an impressive landscape.

If you walk there, between the huge rocks and with the towering mountains everywhere around you, it is easy to believe trolls are wandering through the cold mountains of Lapland. No wonder the mythology is still so alive in Scandinavia. Especially in the dark winter nights, the impressive power of the valley of Kärkevagge could easily result in stories about monstrous men.

A lot of the more strangely shaped rocks are not thrown by the trolls, no, they are trolls themselves. If touched by direct sunlight, they immediately petrify, as the lucky hobbit Bilbo Baggings knows everything about. They are everywhere in the Scandinavian mountains, those trolls that were to slow and surprised by the rising of the sun.

They add to the wonderful atmosphere of Scandinavia, a feeling you should definitely go experience yourself.

Enjoy the beauty of Lapland in the image gallery ‘Lapland’ on the right.