Inventions
The Airship was invented and built by the MacRington brothers of the northern region of Stroon. They had succeeded in their first flying trial when a foreign gentleman by the name of Her Zeppelin visited them in their work shop. After a week or so he left and the brothers never saw him or their plans for the airship again.
Initially the government feared that the invention would cause the general public to fall off their bicycles, but this was shown not to be the case and once the legislation requiring a troll with a red warning flag to walk ten yards in front was repealed the Airship proved to be a great success.
The Calendar
The Trollsylvanian calendar was developed by Almanark (commonly called "the Unready"). He worked out the twelve moth system and, with the aid of a quantity of dice, allocated the days to the months in a suitably random manner.
It was Almanark who designed the clock tower in the centre of the town square. The tower has a clock facing towards each of the four compass points. On completion he set the time on each face himself, but as it took five minuets to move his ladders and adjust the hands, it was afterwards discovered that there was twenty minutes difference between the southern and western faces.
Some years later the King arraigned for the mistake to be corrected but the burgers of the town would not permit this, they had lived with the vagueness of time provided by the clock and did not want to give this up.
"Meet me under the clock at 12.30", leaves your with a considerable amount of leeway if you happened to be late.
Feet
Feet are feet and shoes are shoes, apart they are generally inoffensive, but together they conspire to create a stink that reaches to the roof tops.
Troll feet (and shoes) being larger that that of the human consequently smell so much more.
Whelldon, a cordwainer from Appleton-under-Water, observed this sad fact and spent many years developing scented inserts for the footwear he produced.
He tried soaking them in blackberries, marinating them in rose water, even, in the spirit of two wrongs making a right, he left them in the cat's litter tray for a week or two.
One experiment, with bicarbonate of soda and apple peelings held together with flour paste, was reasonably successful, until the shoes in question became hot and damp. The the unfortunate wearer found his feet immersed in a partially cooked apple dumpling. The cooking was completed in the washing machine but the results were not edible. The concept, however, was later developed and perfected, becoming a profitable easy cook desert.
Trolls, generally, like to buy something which they know at heart will not work in the hope that it will, a philosophy that seldom disappoints. |
