Modern science accepts the fact that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived in Europe at the same time for several thousands of years.

Growing up reading ancient Myths from different cultures around the world, it struck me recently that the Norse had quite a few stories about "trolls and giants" and I have been wondering if it could be possible that these myths contain some grain of truth.

Certain myths, such as the "flood myth" occur in so many very widespread cultures, from the Middle East all the way to North America. This made me start to wonder if it were possible not that a world wide flood occurred, (which we should be able to find some evidence for) but rather that these stories had actually been passed verbally for thousands of years and that they actually traced back to one local event when the human population was very small and before the great migrations began.

In fact, there are lots of common elements in the myths, but "trolls" seems pretty localized. (I could be wrong, but as far as I can tell) These tales seem to be most highly concentrated in the geographical areas where Neanderthals COULD have been seen/interacted with by Cro-Magnons, and this makes me wonder if it is possible that these myths could have been passed down for some 30,000 years. That would put a whole new spin on the ancient myths if it were possible. They might hold historical information instead of just "stories."

Thoughts anyone?

I think you right, a lot of myths and legends are based on real events. Over the centuries the tales become more and more grand due to the re-telling of the stories from generation to generation.
Embellishing true life events to make them better "camp fire tales" is only human, it makes the stories more interesting.
So yes I believe "trolls" were Neandertals.
The stories just got changed over time and now the only place you find trolls is in story books, but 12,000 years ago we could have ran into each other while hunting and gathering.
Imagine that! It would be us like seeing a caveman in the grocery store today, and if we have had only limited contact with these cavemen it would be quite a shock!

Hmmmmm........ bigfoot could be a neandertal? I have often wondered about bigfoot and what they might actually be, it's a plausable theory.
In this day and age I can't wholely dismiss ANY theory on bigfoot, due to the lack of real evidence, the troll idea included of course.

Hmmm. I never though of the bigfoot possibility, but I guess it certainly could be the case that they are surviving Neanderthals. (If they really exist at all) I sure wish we could find some hard evidence of them, bones, hair, teeth, etc. Now that we have the Neanderthal DNA sequenced it would be possible to find out.

There are several interesting threads on ATS about Giants. And my favorite thread of all time The Rainbow Serpents is all about searching for truth in myth. We could sure use your help over there Illusions, and anyone else, if you are studied in myths.
As for trolls, I never really thought about them being actual creatures, but it wouldn't surprise me really. They found the small pigmy people. I am not sure what they are called, but I find that facinating.

You know what? You may have something there...legends are based on something, sometimes we know what, sometimes we don't.

Sasquatch, though? I don't think so, but I've been known to be wrong, sometimes on a fairly frequent basis...

Originally posted by BroonStone
Hmmmmm........ bigfoot could be a neandertal? I have often wondered about bigfoot and what they might actually be, it's a plausable theory.
In this day and age I can't wholely dismiss ANY theory on bigfoot, due to the lack of real evidence, the troll idea included of course.

Actually I thought Bigfoot was the Gigantipithicus Blacki. The ONLY Primate to go extinct in the modern era. Originally from China(Yeti!) but could have come across the land bridge into America. The GB is big enough to be Bigfoot and really the only explanation that seems plausible. Well, and this one. Beats the aliens theory or interdimensional travellers.

its possible that bigfoot might be a neanderthal. After all, from my knowledge all we have found were skeletons of them. Why must the appearance of them be so human? We know their skeleton structure, but we dont know what they truly look like.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
Hmmm. I never though of the bigfoot possibility, but I guess it certainly could be the case that they are surviving Neanderthals. (If they really exist at all) I sure wish we could find some hard evidence of them, bones, hair, teeth, etc. Now that we have the Neanderthal DNA sequenced it would be possible to find out.

Havn't several people found bigfoot hair ??

Makes a lot of sense.

Man back then was hairy and quite large in a lot of cases. Perhaps this is where the Bigfoot mystery originated from as well?

there was a period when neanderthals and cromagnon coexisted but this was not in europe. The evidence now points that when cromagnon entered a new area in europe permanently neanderthals were already gone for a thousand years or so. However before neanderthals started getting extinct there was a period of about 10k years where they could have met in the middle east and central asia afaik.

I can't believe I have never made the connection! I think that's a very good guess!

Originally posted by Krieger

Originally posted by BroonStone
Hmmmmm........ bigfoot could be a neandertal? I have often wondered about bigfoot and what they might actually be, it's a plausable theory.
In this day and age I can't wholely dismiss ANY theory on bigfoot, due to the lack of real evidence, the troll idea included of course.

Actually I thought Bigfoot was the Gigantipithicus Blacki. The ONLY Primate to go extinct in the modern era. Originally from China(Yeti!) but could have come across the land bridge into America. The GB is big enough to be Bigfoot and really the only explanation that seems plausible. Well, and this one. Beats the aliens theory or interdimensional travellers.

Neanderthals were also said to be wiped out by modern man, maybe they learned how to avoid us and if theyre related to Bigfoot, maybe this would explain Bigfoot's elusiveness.