★★★★☆ A downtrodden hero and troll

Troll Bridge

Terry Pratchett

Cohen the Barbarian's father told him, he told him, "Son, when you can face down a troll in single combat, then you can do anything." Cohen wants to defeat a troll in single combat before he dies. But the task is beginning to look urgent. First, Cohen is no longer a young hero. As Cohen's horse tells him, "One day you're going to die. It might be today." That's the first problem. The second is that troll bridges are in short supply. As Cohen tells his horse,

When did you last see a bridge with a troll under it? There were hundreds of 'em when I was a lad. Now there's more trolls in the cities than there are in the mountains.

So, he's found an old stone bridge that still has a troll. The troll's name is Mica. Like Cohen, Mica is himself a relic of the old days. He is still proud to uphold the old trollish tradition of defending a bridge. What's more, he's chuffed at the prospect of being killed by a hero as famous as Cohen the Barbarian.

The story proceeds from there.

Troll Bridge is a short story that was first published in the anthology After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien. It can now be found free on the net, for instance here.

I'm not exactly sure where this story fits in the Discworld. Wikipedia claims it is "Set following the events of The Light Fantastic," the second Discworld novel. Goodreads places it at 16.5, that is between Soul Music and Interesting Times. According to the L-space Discworld chronology Troll Bridge takes place in Discworld year 1969. The Light Fantastic is dated as 1964, and both Soul Music and Interesting Times in 1986. If we take that as authoritative (and why not?), then Troll Bridge is just a loose story floating around in the Discworld, not really attached to any of the novels.

It's a fun story. You can read it in ten minutes, and if you're a Discworld fan or scholar, you probably want to.

"Troll Bridge" free full text

Goodreads review

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