Trow (folklore)

A trow () or drow (also trowe, or dtrow) is a malignant or mischievous fairy or spirit in the folkloric traditions of the Orkney and Shetland islands. Trows may be regarded as monstrous giants at times, or quite the opposite, short-statured fairies dressed in grey.

Trows are nocturnal creatures, like the troll of Scandinavian legend with which the trow shares many similarities. They venture out of their 'trowie knowes' (earthen mound dwellings) solely in the evening, and often enter households as the inhabitants sleep. Trows traditionally have a fondness for music, and folktales tell of their habit of kidnapping musicians or luring them to their dens.

Etymology

Insular Scots trow and drow are inherited words from Norn, the Old Norse dialect spoken in the Northern Isles before being driven out by Scots.

The form drow derives from an unrecorded Norn: *drau (or thereof), from Old Norse: draugr, an old word for revenant, devil, troll, and thereof. Similar development also appear in Norwegian: drau (1729) → drauv, drøv, drov, as well as in Scanian: dråe, drå, dro.

The form trow is thought to stem from L-vocalization of troll ("troll"), and then intermixing with drow via linguistic and figurative convergence.

Draugr and troll have historically been used synonymously to some degree, along with related terms, like "mound dweller" (Old Norse: haugbúi), "the dead living within its mound (tomb)", which subsequently became a word for wight, nisse, brownie, and thereof, in descendant forms: Norwegian: haugbonde; Shetlandic: hjogfinni ("mound-found"); Orcadian: hogboon, hogboy; Lincolnshire: shag-boy.