Apollo lures the troll away from the cave

Apollo lures the Troll away from the cave by turning a sheep’s head and its serving lid into a decoy. The action begins as he escapes the cave carrying the smell of spiced gasoline and Brennivín, which may have concealed his scent from the creature. With the Troll close behind, he uses the head to draw it into the forest and positions the lid to obstruct it, buying himself time through quick decisions and the cover of the trees.

The escape and the available decoy

Apollo scrambles up the hill of bones and reaches the open air, where he becomes aware of the smell clinging to him: spiced gasoline, together with the lingering effect of the Brennivín he had taken from the old man. He considers that the alcohol may have helped him survive in the cave by preventing the Troll from smelling his flesh. But the protection seems temporary. The Troll will soon be up the hill, so Apollo has only a brief opportunity to act before it can pursue him again.

A glint of silver in the moonlight gives him a practical resource. The serving lid remains where Apollo and Emma left it; from that, he reasons that the sheep’s head should still be nearby as well. When he retrieves it, the head’s remaining eye is turned toward him. He holds the head in one open palm and the lid in the other. The Brennivín may continue to mask his scent, but the boiled flesh could attract the Troll. Apollo’s improvised plan therefore uses two different effects: his own smell may be hidden, while the food offers the creature a scent to follow.

Drawing the Troll into pursuit

The Troll thrusts its head forward and sniffs. After a brief pause it croaks, then appears to recover from gagging; it sniffs again, shuts its eyes, and tilts its head as if listening. Apollo answers this uncertainty by calling out to it and challenging its ability to catch him. Rather than stand his ground, he immediately runs, carrying the sheep’s head aloft and the lid in his other hand. The shout makes his position clear, while his movement converts that disclosure into a chase away from the cave.

The narration compares Apollo’s flight to Askeladden sprinting farther into the Northern Forest, with the Troll tearing after him through the trees. Apollo does not simply try to outrun it in open ground. He weaves into the densest stands, where the Troll cannot follow through the branches. From within that cover he watches the creature circle, bellow, and batter at the trees. At intervals, it stoops to paw at its throat and then straightens again. The contrast is tactical: Apollo can move through spaces that obstruct the larger pursuer, while the Troll’s frustration keeps its attention fixed on finding a way through.

The clearing and the lid

Apollo recognizes a large clearing he had encountered the previous day while following Emma. It lies less than twenty yards away. He rises and bolts for the open ground, then sets down both the head and the lid. He arranges the sheep’s head face-up in the lid, exposed and easy to scent. This placement turns the object he had been carrying into a stationary lure: the food is left in the Troll’s path, while Apollo continues moving and disappears into the trees on the opposite side.

He climbs a scarlet oak whose low branches make it possible to ascend, and hides among its remaining leaves. The choice of concealment completes the trap’s arrangement. The open clearing makes the decoy accessible to the Troll, while the tree line gives Apollo a place to watch without remaining beside the bait. His route thus draws the pursuer into a space where Apollo is no longer the most obvious target and the sheep’s head is exposed.

The decoy’s effect and the action’s significance

At the far edge of the clearing, the Troll bursts through the trees, sweeping them aside and entering with such speed that it seems to fly. It lowers its head, opens its jaws, and moves across the dirt and snow while inhaling toward the sheep’s head. Its appetite carries it directly to the bait. The serving lid, however, is still beneath the food: when the Troll clamps down, the metal produces a sharp clank. The Troll recoils and spits out what it cannot swallow; the lid, now cracked and bent, strikes a tree trunk, and its clang carries through the clearing.

The maneuver succeeds in redirecting the Troll’s attention, but the scene does not present the lure as a final solution. Apollo remains hidden in the scarlet oak while the creature reaches the decoy, and the lid’s damage records the force of its encounter with the bait. The objects have distinct functions: the sheep’s head attracts the pursuer, the lid accompanies and then obstructs its attempt to take the food, and the trees provide Apollo with routes and concealment. His escape depends less on strength than on arranging these features of the forest and the abandoned serving tray into a temporary advantage.