Dai troll alle streghe. La condanna della magia nella Scandinavia cristiana medievale

In Old Norse the word troll is inextricably linked to the sphere of magic: in mythology it indicates supernatural creatures almost exclusively of female sex, often associated with giants with whom they embody both the spirits of the dead and the chaotic and uncontrollable natural forces, and it is from them that magic itself originates. Despite this dangerous bond and despite its destructive potential, in the pagan world view magic is still necessary and can also be used for a good purpose. With the introduction of Christianity this conception changes: the new religion, for which magic is idolatry and the work of the devil, not only counts magicians among the opponents of Christian missionaries, but attributes explicitly demonic characteristics to the trolls. At the same time, in above all legal sources the word troll began to be used as synonymous with witch or sorcerer, while a new unequivocally derogatory term, trolldómr (still existing in Scandinavian languages), was coined to indicate the magical arts. The present article therefore intends to illustrate the fundamental stages of the process of demonization of trolls and magic against the more general background of the transition from a polytheistic to a monotheistic religious system, and from the opposition of order / chaos (or culture / nature) to the moral dualism between good and evil.