Is there any description in Tolkien's letters or in the History of Middle Earth of how The Hobbit's trolls became The Lord of the Ring's Olog-hai? Īnd indeed the once or twice that we see trolls (once in the Chamber of Mazarbul-and again near the bridge of Khazad-dûm and once near the end of the War of the Ring, in the Battle of the Morannon-or is that the name?), they are fearsome opponents, though perhaps we don't see them long enough to decide that they are indeed 'cunning'. Trolls were abroad, no longer dull-witted, but cunning.
Then in Chapter 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring, 'The Shadow of the Past', we are told: Yes, I am afraid trolls do behave like that, even those with only one head each. Even Bilbo, in spite of his sheltered life, could see that: from the great heavy faces of them, and their size, and the shape of their legs, not to mention their language, which was not drawing-room fashion at all, at all. In The Hobbit, Tolkien presents three trolls (Bert, Tom, and Bill Huggins) who are decidedly comic figures:
