Words can be trolls

5 comments

1. Wow. That was…something. I don’t want to touch on your pretentious ramblings, but the word “troll” has the sometimes chickeny and eggy link with “trolldom”, or “magic”, “curses”, that sort of thing.

2. Just had time to read the beginning, and I spotted a small error: in the first paragraph you say that “det kan være en troll”. Two things: it’s et troll (very normal mistake for English speakers), and the correct wording is: det kan gå troll i ordene.
   This is because it describes that the trolls get into the words/sentence, because the old superstition was that when shit went wrong, it was because the trolls got in and caused it
   Very interesting, I’ll continue reading afterwards 😊👍

3. Interesting post.

   I want to start by noting that the serpent in Genesis never actually lied — it told Eve the truth. Her eyes were opened, and she did not immediately die. This detail reminds us that the power of words doesn’t always lie in deception, but in effect. And that’s really where *“det går troll i ord”* differs from how it’s described here.

   The idiom doesn’t imply ambiguity or hidden meaning at all — rather, it warns that *saying something out loud may cause it to come true*. A closer English counterpart would be “don’t jinx it.” The “troll” isn’t in the sentence’s semantics; it’s in the consequence of naming something aloud, especially something ominous.

   Also, the post leans heavily into an evangelical framing that links linguistic caution to biblical obedience. But from a secular or interfaith perspective, the same care with language — avoiding slurs, listening deeply, refraining from inflammatory speech — can be grounded in shared human ethics without invoking divine mandates. In fact, history shows that “the Word of God” has also been used to justify horrors, including slavery, colonialism, and the silencing of dissent. 🤷🏻

   So while your interest in words as powerful and even dangerous is deeply felt, I think it’s important not to conflate linguistic precision with spiritual purity — or to overlook the broader ethical frameworks that guide how we speak to one another.

4. Interesting. When you write “saying something out loud may cause it to come true…”. Do you mean that it, for example, if Russian Security official Dmitry Medvedev warns of nuclear war over Ukraine, that his words are being Russian and/or the world closer to war than if he said nothing? Or is there some mysterious cause and effect?

5. Thanks to everyone for their helpful feedback. I will be revising this post later this week to include your suggestions!

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