About mankind and the presence of other Hominids..?

Question

I have wondered if the legends of trolls, gnomes, and other such humanoid creatures may not derive from prior knowledge of or interaction with other hominids. Is it possible that mankind, in the ancient times had dealt with other Hominids and later inserted them into their legends?

Answer 1

Good question, but as of right now the answer would probably be no but only because we don't have enough knowledge about which hominids existed at the same time.  I suppose that we'll need to increase our knowledge of the hominid fossil record in order to make speculations about this.

Consider also humans that have conditions that affect them physically, such as Protean syndrome and dwarfism.  It's entirely possible that people with conditions like these were used as the basis for some legends because of the lack of knowledge at the time.  This is how the legend of vampires and werewolves arose, so this sort of leap isn't impossible.

Answer 2

I don't see why not...

The recent discovery of Homo Floriensis (sp?) in the Indonesian region, indicates there may have been a variety of Homonids that were appx. 3' tall...

Answer 3

huh???? all i know is that i think trolls are myths!!! but ur question could be possible!

Answer 4

I would go beyond that.  The legends of trolls living under bridges fit descriptions of relic populations of Neanderthal and Homo erectus.  Both Neanderthal and erectus lived to at least 30,000 years ago.  There are stories of similar creatures/men in  the bible and in ancient text.  The oldest story, Grendel and Beowoulf, is of such a encounter.  Troll stories may have come from real creatures. Stories persist to modern days of Almasty in Asia that might very well be Neanderthal or erectus.  Yeti and bigfoot may also be giant hominids and/or relic gigantopithecus.  Stories from Marco Polo told of hairy dwarfs in Indonesia and stories of Orang Pendek persist to this day.  H. floresiensis lived to at least 12,000 years ago and may be the fossil evidence for Orang Pendak.

Answer 5

Some of our "legends" come from coming across things that we didn't understand.  Bones of woolly mammoths, for example, had one large hole in the top center of the skull, found after any written explanation for their existence, the hole was mistaken for an eye socket and thus the Cyclopes was born.  Many bones of extinct animals mimic the shape of human bones, finding very large ones would give you giants or amazons, finding small ones, trolls.    Finding extinct animals before we had a real concept as to what they were would surely make for interesting chat at the village water-cooler.  I wonder what would have happened if they were never found (the extinct remains) or if they were immediately understood.  Would we have still come of with the legends and stories?  Without lore, would we have grown our imaginations enough to be able to dream the impossible, then strive to make them possible.  Funny how things in the past still have an impact on today.