
If there’s one thing Seattle loves, it’s trolls. The Fremont Troll is a tourist hot spot and we even celebrate its birthday every year on Halloween. Now we have five new giant trolls that have recently arrived in the Seattle area! Five larger-than-life troll sculptures were erected around Seattle in the late summer of 2023 and will stay for at least three years.
Read on to know where to find each troll!
The sculpture project Northwest Trolls: Way of the Bird King is the work of Danish environmental artist Thomas Dambo. He uses recycled materials to create giant troll sculptures around the world. Each troll is meant to represent an “underlying environmental story.” According to Dambo, “In nature, there is no landfill. Nature is circular, everything has a meaning and everything is recycled.” Thus the troll sculptures themselves are temporary and not meant to last.
Dambo didn’t work on the Northwest Trolls project alone. The project is managed by Scan Design Foundation and partnered with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Dambo also worked with a team of 200 volunteers to install the troll sculptures.
Moreover, since the Northwest Troll sculptures will be located on Coast Salish territories, the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie tribes also collaborated on the project. “The project celebrates the human experience of art by amplifying the connections of cultural heritage between Coast Salish tribal communities and Danish and Scandinavian traditions,” explains the project website.
Wondering where you’ll be able to find the trolls? The exact location of each troll was announced as their construction was completed. The five locations in the Puget Sound region are as follows:
- Ballard
- West Seattle
- Issaquah
- Bainbridge Island
- Vashon Island
As of late September, all five of the Seattle-area Northwest Trolls have been constructed and their exact locations revealed! You can now head to Lincoln Park in West Seattle to meet Bruun Idun (pictured below), or north to Ballard to see Frankie Feetspliners outside of the National Nordic Museum. A short 20-30 minute drive east of Seattle will bring you to Jakob Two Trees in Issaquah. You could also take a ferry ride to Vashon Island to see Oscar the Bird King or to Sakai Park on Bainbridge Island to meet Pia the Peacekeeper.
Dambo has also installed one troll sculpture in Portland for a total of six in the Northwest Trolls project. We can’t wait to visit each one of Seattle’s new trolls. You’ll most likely have to break your visits up into more than one day, especially if you plan to visit the Portland troll as well.
It’s up to you whether you’d like to do a little exploring to find the giant trolls yourself or plan ahead with the help of a map. The Northwest Trolls website includes more information about each troll as well as a free geocaching app to aid you in your adventure.
Dambo and his team began construction on August 1st, 2023 and finished by September 17, 2023. The troll sculptures will remain for a minimum of three years, “with the hope and goal of maintaining the trolls for as long as possible” according to the project website. After the first three years of maintenance the trolls will either disintegrate or be removed.
Visitors can touch the trolls but should treat them with care (and do not climb on them) to ensure they last for as long as possible. We can only imagine they’ll be very happy here in the PNW!
You can read more about the project on here.