Troll Bridge is a Discworld short story, written by Terry Pratchett in 1991 for a collection entitled After The King: Stories in Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Set following the events of The Light Fantastic,[1] the story stars Cohen the Barbarian, who plans to prove himself by killing a troll in single combat. Instead, he and the troll find themselves reminiscing about how the Discworld used to be, when trolls all hid under bridges to be killed by heroes, and the land was not so well settled. In other words, as encroaching civilisation tames the landscape the environment required for "typical" fantasy adventures disappears, until characters such as Cohen become mythical.
Description:
Troll Bridge is a Discworld short story, written by Terry Pratchett in 1991 for a collection entitled After The King: Stories in Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien. Set following the events of The Light Fantastic,[1] the story stars Cohen the Barbarian, who plans to prove himself by killing a troll in single combat. Instead, he and the troll find themselves reminiscing about how the Discworld used to be, when trolls all hid under bridges to be killed by heroes, and the land was not so well settled. In other words, as encroaching civilisation tames the landscape the environment required for "typical" fantasy adventures disappears, until characters such as Cohen become mythical.