MEASLE AND THE WRATHMONK
By Ian Ogilvy
Oxford University Press, £8.99; 198pp
ISBN 0 192 71952 1
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I’ve always loved troll stories. The idea of a race of ugly yet magical creatures living underground subverts the inane prettiness of fairies; and then there is their treasure. Being stupid, trolls are there to be outwitted — by the Billy Goats Gruff, Bilbo Baggins or Harry Potter — even if you’re not all that bright yourself. The perfect enemy — or even, in A. S. Byatt’s latest and most fabulous short story collection, ally — trolls speak to our roots in the earth.

Katherine Langrish’s Troll Fell is a joy, from its start with the orphaned Peer watching his father’s funeral pyre, to its climactic ending deep in the hall of a mountain king. The fierce joys and deep glooms of the North run through her splendid debut, and those steeped in Norse legends will delight in the irony of Peer’s wicked thuggish uncle being called Baldur and his faithful dog Loki. The miller and his equally vile brother Grim have plans for poor Peer, and were it not for the friendship of Nis and Hilde the boy’s life would be utterly wretched. Their father has been lured away on a Viking voyage, and though Hilde is more than equal to an infestation of trolls in their farm, she soon discovers that without a father to protect them, their life can be ruined — even with a goblet of troll gold in their possession.

Told in vigorous, vivid prose, Troll Fell is not just a marvellous, magical adventure but one which recreates the Viking way of life with the kind of imaginative touches that will please teachers. Peer’s people live harsh lives in an unforgiving landscape, their food and warmth won by hardiness, yet their jokes, tales, resourcefulness and resilience make them heroic. What seems menacing is actually helpful. By the time Peer and Hilde find the troll king’s palace to rescue kidnapped children you know they will be more than equal to their supernatural adversaries.

Ian Ogilvy’s Measle is another abandoned boy, thin and weedy and living with a sinister guardian, Basil Tramplebone, in a cold, horrible house. When his guardian goes out, Measle wants to play with the fascinating miniature railway set in the attic which is Basil’s obsession. To his horror, Measle finds its tiny people were once real, and soon, shrunk by his guardian’s evil powers, he is fighting for his life and theirs, menaced by giant bats and cockroaches. Tramplebone is a deliciously nasty villain, and the filth and squalor in which he lives is described with a glee worthy of Roald Dahl. The perils of being tiny have fascinated writers from Swift to Mary Norton, and Ogilvy’s description of how a small boy learns to find courage is a terrific tale in every sense, a fable about overcoming depression and feelings of inadequacy that will thrill children of over 8 long before its spectacularly happy ending.

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