Trolls in Denmark – Visiting Thomas Dambo’s creations in and around Copenhagen

by Larry · September 1, 2025

On our last two days in Scandinavia among other adventures we went troll hunting with our cameras. We learned of Thomas Dambo and his trolls made of recycled wood and other pieces of the circular economy when Malin was placed in Pease Park near our home in Austin. We visited a set of trolls know as Alexa’s Elixir on a trip to North Dakota and Minnesota. And now we were able to see some of the oldest trolls in Thomas Dambo’s home country. This included the Six Forgotten Giants!

Thomas Dambo and his teams build trolls out of recycled materials as an example of a circular economy. Furthermore, he places them in park, in nature, so that hunting and finding the trolls includes some very nice hikes.

There are 13 (excluding the one that was removed) trolls in and around Copenhagen in the part of Denmark called Zealand. We hunted and visited nine of these, bringing our troll total to 16…so far.

Trolls North of Copenhagen

On our drive to Kronburg Castle and then over to Sweden, we took two slight detours to visit two trolls.

Kaptajn Nalle (61, built in 2020)

This troll took some hunting. He is out in a field near the cruise ship terminal, behind an area of construction. We parked (apparently illegally, but no harm!) in a low populated office complex, and hiked following the troll map. We’d almost given up when we spotted him.

From the angle in the photo below, a cruise ship can be seen in the background.

In some of the original pictures on the troll map website, the boat is painted a nice white and blue. A few years on and now it is covered with graffiti. We did not venture in!

We both lended out strength to Nalle’s to pull the boat.

Hannah Helerød (94, built in 2022)

A slight 15 minute detour from the road to Kronborg Castle took us to a beautiful forest near the town of Alerød, where we found Hannah and her incredibly long tail.

Long video below of Hanna’s very long tail, starting with the red-tipped end of it.

The Six Forgotten Giants

On our last day in Copenhagen (also our last in Scandanavia) we went on a tour to see the Six Forgotten Giants. We highly recommend this tour. Malid, our tour guide, was gracious and informative, driving us to each location. The tour took about four hours, and included some great hikes out to the trolls and some beautiful scenery.

Below is a map that was at one of the locations that shows where each of the six forgotten giants can be found. The order we visited them on this tour was location 2 (Hilltop Trine), 3 (Oscar under the bridge), 4 and 5 (Tilde and Thomas), 6 (Teddy Friendly) and finally back to 1 (Sleeping Louis).

Thomas Dambo has an excellent video that talks about the six forgotten giants, and his placement of them as a way to get people to get off the beaten paths and explore. We enjoyed doing this with the Golden Rabbit and the trolls in Minnesota, and we certainly enjoyed it with this tour group.

Hilltop Trine / Bakketop Trine (17, built in 2016)

Trine was our first troll of the six forgotten giants tour, found in a field behind a school and a complex that held movie studios and tech start ups. This was about a 15-20 minute drive from mid-Copenhagen.

Oscar under the Bridge / Oscar Under Broen (13, built in 2016)

We walked back to the car and drove to a beach where we could see offshore wind turbines. After a nice walk along the beach, we turned inland, and found this large bridge…that had a hand over it.

We’d been led to Oscar Under the Bridge. Our favorite trolls are the ones that feel built into the environment. And Oscar was definitely attached to his bridge.

Parts of Oscar are actually in the water under the bridge, which is cool. We had to balance precariously to get a photo of the sign that is present at each troll.

Walking back to the car after seeing Oscar, we ran into these non-troll creatures.

Little Tilde / Lille Tilde (16, built in 2016)

Another ride to a nice park named Valensbæk where we had snacks and coffee (thanks, Milad). This was a retirement community around a lake, and there were two trolls here. We hiked to the first one named Tilde.

Tilde’s hands are not nailed into the trees, just wrapped around them. Simply marvelous craftsmanship.

Right by Tilde there is a human-powered water bridge. We could have walked back the way we came, but we all opted to try the water bridge and walk over to the next giant.

When we got across, we could look back and see Tilde watching us across the water.

Thomas on the Mountain / Thomas Pa Bjerget (15, built in 2016)

A short hike from the human-powered water bridge brought us to the reclined figure of Thomas.

Thomas had a great vantage point from his hill as can be seen in the video below.

Most of these trolls had really amazing hands and feet.

Teddy Friendly / Teddy Venlig (14, built in 2016)

Another drive took us to another lovely park. Copenhagen was surrounded by them, and they were all beautiful.

And this one had the tell-tale bird houses at the beginning of the trail, similar to what we had seen hunting the trolls around the golden rabbit!

A short walk and we found Teddy Friendly, a very popular troll!

Like many of the others, Teddy had a nice view of the water and the park.

I’m not sure if it was intentional or vandalism, but Teddy had a hole in the back so that we could see his interior construction.

Sleeping Louis / Sovende Louis (12, built in 2016)

Last, but certainly not least, we ventured to a park with lots of football/soccer fields and an ice hockey rink to find

Milad told us that at one point someone had been sleeping inside Louis’ mouth, and they temporarily made it an AirBnB! So one of the young ladies on the tour and I had to crawl inside.

Green George in Christiania, Copenhagen (50, built in 2019)

Milad dropped us off back in downtown Copenhagen. After a quick drink and snack, we wandered over to the community of Christiania, home of Green George.