What would be a good explanation for why Trolls eat Elves?

Question

In my story trolls are a large humanoids (8-9ft tall) and are about as intelligent as humans. Elves are similar sizes to humans and are also as intelligent. If trolls are about smart as humans, then why would so many practice this inhumane tradition? I was thinking of a few ways, perhaps trolls were hunted in the past by elves and they simply were defending themselves. Maybe food was scarce and they simply began to eat the numerous elves which then became a tradition. Maybe trolls don't interact with them enough, and because they have been killed by elves, they simply believe elves are too evil and soulless to feel bad about killing. And lets say I go with the idea trolls simply didn't know they are capable more than harm, would a troll feel bad about killing elves even despite the massacres they've committed on them?

Note: Im okay with any answer, it won't break any rules I have for my world because as you can tell its quite early in development.

Edit: Trolls do eat other things, such as fruit and deers but if given the choice to eat elf instead they would definitely chose.

Answer 1

Because it's the right thing to do:

Your trolls may think that the rationale for their behavior is perfectly justified.

• It's not cannibalism - right? Your trolls are doing it because they really DON'T see elves as intelligent OR think cannibalism applies to species other than trolls. Different cultural views mean elves are simply meat of really tricky prey.
• You are what you eat: The trolls take this maxim seriously, and eating superior food means the troll is superior. Why do the elves get so excited? after all, being eaten is a compliment. A troll that eats an elf believes themselves to be more elf-like, and perhaps this is seen as desirable. If elf-like behavior (kindness to females, etc.) increases reproductive success, that is a powerful reinforcement.
• WHO ELSE will eat them? Trolls believe that life is passed on to those who eat the flesh. Troll logic says they are SAVING those poor elves from the dissolution of being consumed by lesser beings or (ugh) rot.
• God wills it: A misunderstood religious passage now means the trolls eat elves because their god wills them to do it. An encouragement to eat the once-sacred but now-extinct forest elk (the child of the forest) has been mistranslated to eating the children of the forest (forest elf). No one wants to offend their god, right?
• nutritional degeneration: This is similar to the answer from Drew, but based on a question previously asked. Trolls used to be human-kin, and have long fed on other hominids. They can no longer produce critical proteins and amino acids on their own and must obtain them from fellow hominids. Elves are just handy.
• Right of Passage/snipe: Elves are hard to find, hard to track, hard to kill, and their relatives track you and try to kill you for a tiny bit of scrawny meat. BUT killing and eating an elf proves you are a worthy troll. No troll who wants females, leadership, or just bragging rights can face down the communal fires if they don't have an elf-bone necklace to prove their feat of skill.

Answer 2

You don't need a reason, you need a frame challenge!

If trolls are about smart as humans, then why would so many practice this inhumane tradition?

This assumption is - not to be rude - somewhat ridiculous. Humans are good contenders for the title of most inhumane animals on the planet (just take a look at history), and the a good reason against cannibalism was not moral or ethical.

This reason against it, (why even human-sacrificing civilisations didn't often eat humans) is purely medical: flesh from the same species carries not only a decent chance of fully compatible diseases, but also the chance that malicious prions are ingested from the victim a form of disease that has no other vector of spreading. And even with this risk there were some cannibalistic societies. Now imagine the food source not just having a different skin color, belonging to a neighboring tribe, or nose form, but being an entirely different species alltogether.

Even with modern ethics I'm not absolutely sure there wouldn't be some people nowadays trying to eat gnomes or so, and modern ethics are, well, modern. In medieval times I have little doubt that a tasty enough but sapient species would've ended on the grill, doubly so if you throw in ANY of the other reasons mentioned in other answers here.

As @Leitix put it so well in their comment: "Sapient races don't eat other sapient races" is a completely untested theory, and the ease with which we humans slaughter and eat other feeling animals makes me severely doubt its veracity.

Answer 3

Tastiness is not to be underrated, but most dietary quirks are about access to adequate nutrition. Example: sailors used to consume citrus infused grog to counter the Vitamin c deficiency that causes scurvy. Trolls could lack some nutrient that Elves uniquely possess. This does not have to be a mundane element. Trolls are closely related to rock, correct? Perhaps Elves contain some vital "vim" that Trolls require to remain animated. Without occasional ingestion this "vim", they could eventually revert to rock form or fall apart. This kind of analogy to reality feels "realistic" to me.

Answer 4

Aphrodisiac.

Yes the meat is sweet and the long (mostly) blond hair makes the most beautiful cloth, fit for nobility (and those that aspire to the pretence of it), but the main point is the sweetbreads. Wedding ceremonies - they are obligatory for the groom and by extension the best-troll, and you just try and stop the bride's widowed-father from chatting-up the maids of honour after a bite of the "good stuff".

Rites of passage for adolescents.

"Now get out of this house you lazy good-for-nothing, and don't set foot over this threshold until you grow-up and hunt down your first elf." Mothers can seem so cold when all you want to do is bring your girlfriend back for a sleep-over. Of course, the sleepover's on when they get back and can turbo-charge their er.. urgent interest in the encounter with a tasty bite of power-up juice.

Nobility. (The ones wearing the silky clothing.)

No doubt a must for the lord of the manor to demand of his peons they bring him tribute regularly, particularly when there's a "firstborn male heir" to produce. Obligatory for entertaining foreign nobles and favoured business acquaintances, considered rude not to seal a business-deal of any worth with a good roast.

Answer 5

Cannibalism and the consumption of closely related animals is just as high in intelligent animals as it is in less intelligent ones. Apart from many human civilizations that have practiced cannibalism, lets look at the other intelligent creatures we share this world with.

Chimpanzees: Monkeys are a chimpanzee's preferred source of meat. It is also common for chimpanzees to try to eat human children. They are also known to eat the children of rivals and thier enemies killed in inner-tribal wars.

Squid: Possibly one of the most intelligent species we share this world with, but also one of the most cannibalistic. The gonatus onyx for example is estimated to get about 42% of all prey from cannibalism.

Killer Whales: Diet consists heavily of other whales and dolphins. While actual cannibalism is rare among Killer Whales, the consumption of all of thier closest cousins is thier main food source.

In fact, it is possible that near species predatory behaviors may help contribute to the evolution of intelligence. Imagine two populations of trolls, one group decides to avoid elves, the other decides to eat them. The group that eats the elves gets culled so that only the strongest and/or smartest trolls survive the backlash of thier actions. While this leads to a temporary reduction in population, when the troll populations returns to normal they will be stronger and smarter than the not-elf eating trolls. After enough generations, the elf eaters could be much stronger and or smarter than the more peaceful elf avoiders; so, when the elf eaters compete over territory and resources with other trolls, they will be more likely to win.

Answer 6

Intelligence is not the same as empathy

The need for empathy evolved as a way to work better as a group and keep babies alive. If you don't care at all about your tribe mates and they don't care about you, when your tribe gets attacked everyone just tries to save their own skin and collectively get slaughter by predator/enemy tribes. By design, empathy is stronger the more you can identify with the person/animal/thing (and how baby-like it looks), even humans don't see a problem with slaughter other humans and eat them as long as there's a strong us vs them dynamic between the groups, or at least a strong in-group cohesion. Plus, you know, if you need your group to survive, it's not a good idea to think of your buddies (or their kids) as emergency snacks.

Intelligence is simply the ability to solve problems and how to manipulate the environment to your advantage. Since knowledge can be passed down, intelligence will always benefit social animals more, as it is easier to share a breakthrough than it is to everyone to come up with the same idea. Nevertheless intelligence will benefit less social creatures just fine, parents will likely raise their kids and pass down their knowledge to them and, as long as they are not too territorial, they will still have plenty of opportunities to learn from other adults.

If your trolls live solitary lives, then I would expect their empathy towards things that don't look like babies to be reduced since cooperation and caring for your neighbor is not as crucial for survival. And besides...

Eating elves is a good idea all around

Assuming the troll and elves are both humanoids, I would expect that the two species have a great overlap of resources that they both need. Effectively, elves are competition, and competition is bad as you have to waste resource to win the competition and get the stuff you need/want. Now, there is a thing you can do that will both shrink the competition and get you resources. You guessed it, eat them!

You want them dead anyway, why not get a snack while you are at it? Once you remove the empathy barrier, living things that stop moving is just free food, assuming it hasn't die of disease, in that case it might be dangerous food. Serious, the list of things animals will eat include their own children has that just died, and if you think of it rationally it makes perfect sense! Intelligence is not the problem here.

They would not eat just elves...

The only problem with this framework is that pretty much any humanoid is food in potential, so what applies to elves probably applies to humans, dwarves, etc... Maybe the trolls prefer only eating elves because they are smaller than humans and their meat is not as hard as the dwarves, but I doubt they would pass away some human children lost in the woods. Maybe elves just happen to live closer to the trolls and thus are more attacked. Or maybe the elves are too afraid of getting eating to talk to them, so the trolls through diplomacy out of the window and start their fight or fight harder response, while other races are not as afraid and just stick by to a chat with the troll (as established they are not mindless beast).

For this kind of troll, I would look up the trolls of the witcher universe. They are more on the funny side when they are not murdering since they are not as intelligent, but I get a similar feeling out of them.

Answer 7

• Desire: When boys see beautiful girls, their heart beat and blood movement increases and certain desires flare up. Similarly some desires flare up in trolls when they see elves.
• Spell: The trolls are under a magical spell and they cannot control themselves when they see an elf.
• Powers: When a troll eats an elf, he absorbs elf's magical powers and he can do things which he cannot otherwise.

Answer 8

It's an important part of traditional Trollish courtship practice

Elves are dangerous prey. They're smart and quick, and know how to use weapons to defend themselves. They often band in groups to protect each other and are hard to get alone. You need to be very brave and an expert hunter to catch one.

Any troll with the hunting prowess to bring home fresh elf meat (or the money to pay off a hunter to do it for them, in secret of course) would be considered an excellent provider for any Trollish household, making them highly desirable as a potential mate. The Elf Hunt is considered the capstone event of the Trollish courtship ritual, with the presentation of a gift of elf flesh being the traditional way to propose a life-bond. It is also a romantic gesture for a troll to reaffirm their commitment to the relationship even after the life-bond is established, such as on an anniversary.

It is hard to turn down the proposal of any troll who went to the dangerous trouble of bringing you a lump of sweet elven meat. And if they died in the attempt, well, that just proves how much they loved you. How romantic!

Answer 9

Trolls eat elves because elves eat fruits.

Although it seems stupid, it is just mammal biology. In mammals, carnivorous can kill other carnivorous, but they generally do that to protect their territory, more than to eat them. Simply because carnivorous flesh contains too much organic waste like urea, so it is not as good to eat than herbivorous flesh.

Except for fishes, human beings mostly eat herbivorous flesh. We do eat bats, but only fruit bats, and the better the fruits, the better the bats. As elves eat delicate food,their flesh is just delicious.

Answer 10

Same reason we be after Smurfs...

BECAUSE THEY ARE DELICIOUS

Answer 11

Because trolls are given over to evil.

In (good) literature, trolls/orcs/goblins represent fallen humanity, influenced by the devil and given over to sin. In the real world, some human societies praise and reward virtue (although they don't entirely achieve it, because we are flawed) but there are some human societies that reject virtue, and praise and reward vice instead. Trolls/orcs/goblins are a metaphor for human groups that call evil good. They grind elves' bones to make their bread because it's the next step along the road to total depravity.

Sometimes an amateur author tries to write a story in which the trolls/orcs/goblins are "just people like you and me", and they try to make a different point about the real world (usually implying that elves are racists and orcs are unjustly discriminated against). This generally fails because the metaphor/allegory doesn't work. If they're mean and ugly and do evil things, obviously (to your readers) they are an allegory for real-world evil.

Answer 12

In case the range of answers didn't already give it away, this is a really broad question. This is often the case for "Why does <X> do <Y>"-type questions, since we generally don't have a lot else to go on.

In this case the waters are further muddied by the fact that 'troll' is poorly defined, both in literature and mythology. Are we talking about human-ish creatures with a disconcerting propensity to turn into statuary in sunlight, hulking goblinoid (like humanoid but from the same evolutionary line that produced goblins) brutes with magical regeneration that don't like fire, hairy little critters with a proprietary attitude towards bridges, mysteriously animate rock piles, elves/humans/whatever twisted by evil sorcery... there are just so many variants, it's hard to narrow this down.

As to why they eat elves... the options are equally varied, as shown by the other answers. Could be ancient feuding between trolls and elves, pure malevolent desire to strike fear into the heart of elves everywhere, religious obligation (because religion can explain just about anything), or it could be as simple as dietary preference: elves just happen to taste heavenly to trolls. And it's not like they're cannibals or anything, elves aren't even remotely related to trolls. Probably.

Do trolls hunt elves? Or do they just eat the ones they kill in battle? Is there a trollish cook book on how to properly prepare elf for different occasions? Is there a trade - open or black market - in elf meat? And perhaps more important: will trolls pay good coin for human-elf cross-breeds or do they taste terrible? (Asking for a friend.)

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Or - stay with me here - perhaps trolls don't actually eat elves. I mean, sure, everyone knows that a troll will eat an elf if he gets a chance, but have you ever seen it happen? What if this is just a scary story elf parents use to make their unruly children behave?

Perhaps it used to happen a long time ago, when trolls were a lot less civilized than they are now, but species animus has a way of lasting for a very long time. Of course the elves won't ever let the trolls live it down. They have long memories, and it doesn't really matter that no troll has been caught eating eaten an elf in generations, elves hold really, really long grudges.