Irregular Webcomic!

Archive     Blog     Cast     Forum     RSS     Books!     Poll Results     About     Search     Fan Art     Podcast     More Stuff     Random     Support on Patreon
New comics Mon-Fri; reruns Sat-Sun
<   No. 4170   2020-01-17   >

Comic #4170

1 Lambert: Your turn, Draak. T.
1 Draak: Troll.
2 Kyros: Did you know trolls turn to stone when hit by sunlight?
3 Kyros: And they’re so stupid that you can trick them into arguing and forgetting about the sunrise?
4 Lambert: No believable creature is so stupid it literally forgets about a thing that instantly kills it. Sounds like an old hobbit’s tale to me.

First (1) | Previous (4169) | Next (4171) || Latest Rerun (2569) | Latest New (5165)
First 5 | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Latest 5
Fantasy theme: First | Previous | Next | Latest || First 5 | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Latest 5
This strip's permanent URL: http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/4170.html
Annotations off: turn on
Annotations on: turn off

Having played Dungeons & Dragons well before I ever read The Hobbit, I never really bought into that whole "trolls turn to stone when exposed to sunlight" schtick that Tolkien used. He borrowed it from Scandinavian folklore, while Gary Gygax instead based his D&D trolls on a monster from Poul Anderson's fantasy novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, which depicted them as tall, thin humanoids with rubbery skin and the ability to regenerate from wounds.

Gygax certainly listed Tolkien's work as an influence on the creation of Dungeons & Dragons in the game's bibliography, but why he chose Anderson's depiction of trolls over Tolkien's is a mystery. Maybe he just thought they sounded cooler. Or less stupid.

LEGO® is a registered trademark of the LEGO Group of companies, which does not sponsor, authorise, or endorse this site.
This material is presented in accordance with the LEGO® Fair Play Guidelines.

My comics: Irregular Webcomic! | Darths & Droids | Eavesdropper | Planet of Hats | The Dinosaur Whiteboard | mezzacotta
My blogs: dangermouse.net (daily updates) | 100 Proofs that the Earth is a Globe (science!) | Carpe DMM (long form posts) | Snot Block & Roll (food reviews)
More comics I host: The Prisoner of Monty Hall | Lightning Made of Owls | Square Root of Minus Garfield | iToons | Comments on a Postcard | Awkward Fumbles
© 2002-2024 Creative Commons License
This work is copyright and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Licence by David Morgan-Mar. dmm@irregularwebcomic.net