A global treasure hunt to find troll-artist Thomas Dambo’s 100th creation was won over the Easter break by Marius Nielsen, 6.
DR reports that the young boy and his father had to crawl through the undergrowth in a wood near Roskilde to glimpse the carefully concealed troll, named ‘Mother Moon’ because she is the “mother of all trolls”.
The whereabouts of Mother Moon had to be deciphered from a riddle and then translated into Danish – luckily Marius’s mother was on hand to solve this puzzle, revealing the troll’s location in Hedeland, which lies roughly halfway between Greve and Roskilde.
The boy then set off on a four-hour hunt with his father, Sune. Apparently the troll was so well hidden that they walked past it several times before they finally found it.
Trolls galore
Dambo has become something of a sensation in Denmark and beyond for his enormous wooden sculptures depicting exclusively – you guessed it – trolls.
He has constructed the mythical beings for locations ranging from South Korea to the West Coast of the USA, emphasising the use of sustainable materials and promoting what he sees as the unmistakably Danish figure of the troll.
“All my trolls have been ones you have had to find yourself, so with number 100, I just wanted to do something extra secret – and huge at the same time. I’ve always loved treasure hunts,” Dambo told TV2 Kosmopol.
You can see the riddle below, with its cryptic alphabet invented specially for the occasion.
