This past week I was reading a volume of writings by Nobel prize winners. The sample used for Eugene O'Neill was his play "The Emperor Jones," in which background drumming is a prominent theatrical feature, as described in this commentary:
The despot perishes on the flight from his glory, hunted in the dead of night by the troll-drums of his pursuers and by recollections of the past shaping themselves as paralyzing visions.I've never heard of troll-drums, have difficulty adding a drum to my inner vision of trolls, can't quite derive the word from my understanding of "troll," and can't envision trolls in a Caribbean environment.
Can anyone clarify? I may have missed an essential part of the folklore.
Addendum: Answer in reader Bub's comment.
Image credit.
Not sure how it ends up in a West Indies novel, but here's some explanation of the term.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. So perhaps the Scandinavian "trolldom" ("witchcraft") morphed into "troll drum" in O'Neill's mind? He wasn't Scandinavian, but his style is often compared to Ibsen (Norwegian) and Strindberg (Swedish). Maybe he heard/read the word and appropriated it. ??
DeleteWho knows? Perhaps also some influence of the (distinctly more Caribbean) doldrums?
DeleteTweets.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting here that the article refers to the word "Trolltrumma" (literal translation: Trolldrum) as an old derogatory term that describe the drums used by Sami schaman to accompany their stories of myth and remembrance. As to the term "troll", "trolleri" is similar to referring to magic as an illusion or trick in early 20th century swedish, so in this context I think it is used more to deride the Sami rites and instruments than to evoke a connection with the mythical creature.
ReplyDeleteThe drums in the play are tom-toms (apparently the play is about colonization of Haiti) but the quote (troll drums) is from Per Hallström, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy. He probably just conflated the two.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite correct, Bub. I had to go out to the garage and retrieve my book from the "donate" pile and check, and it's true that when I jotted down "troll-drum" on my bookmark, I must have been reading the presentation address, not the play itself.
DeleteInteresting. I just looked up "tom-tom," expecting it to be an American word, but it's not:
Delete"The name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala. The tom-tom drum was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century."
My OED cites a first usage in 1693, and says the word is (not surprisingly) onomatopoeic.