I have a strong impression that I have dreamed of gnomes, trolls and forests tonight ... But as is customary, I can't be completely sure about it. So here are a few illustrations by Swedish artist John Albert Bauer (1882–1918) that might help retrace the path...
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I guess Brian Froud might have run into some similar trolls somewhere around Dartmoor in the 1970s.
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There is a series of childrens books that seem to be inspired by this art petermadsen.info/pages/troldeli