Troll ‘beauty’ contest, parade
By WHITNEY PANDIL-EATON, Staff Writer wpandileaton@minotdailynews.comArticle Photos
A troll 'beauty' contest, is there a more perfect oxymoron?
That was the name of the game Saturday evening at Norsk Hstfest, where a dozen local elementary and middle-school students donned grotesque masks, scary wigs and trashy threads as each vyed for such titles as "Longest nose", "Best horn", "Biggest wart", "Best eyebrows" and several other characteristics atypical of a traditional beauty contest.
"We wanted to do the contest to recognize the efforts these kids put toward creating their costumes," said Tracey Lawson, who helped coordinate the event.
The troll costumes were made at the Scandinavian youth camps, held the weekend prior to Hstfest.
Spanning elementary to high school, nearly 50 students participated in one of four camps where they learned about Scandinavian song and dance as well as the heritage and folklore of Norway and Sweden.
During the weekend-long camp, the Viking patrols, which consisted of fourth- through sixth-graders, made pouches, shields, chainmail and other crafts while the Troll camp, those in grades five through seven, created their troll costumes that they used in the Troll Beauty Contest and learned about troll folklore.
The Swedish song and dance group, made up of second- and third-grade children, learned native songs and dances that they later performed during Hstfest. The Norwegian dance group, made up of children in fourth grade and up, learned classic Norwegian dances and the cultural aspects of the country's past and present.
Following the troll parade around Hstfest, the trolls and their controllers convened on Skien Mezzanine at 5 p.m. where each child was awarded a certificate for their best feature.
At the completion of the beauty contest, the trolls were then joined on stage by their camp counterparts and together the four groups put on a stage production of a classic Scandinavian fairy tale.
