It's a fine tale for sure, but of a different order to the more (dare I say?) realistic / every day stories in which the trolls feature as a more immediate device for various levels of vernacular cunning & humour. This is one of features of the Norwegian tales I've liked since childhood - things like The Boy & the Devil sit well alongside such dysfunctional sit-coms as The Man Who Kept House and (my favourite of them all) Axe Handle, which have no supernatural element to them at all. The Devil is more obvious, though I've long suspected he was (at heart) a troll. Trolls aren't so much super-nature, as a personification of nature in all its harshness, hence the decided lack of respect which marks them out from other 'elementals' in other traditions. You would never, for example, treat the Little People of Irish folk tale the way trolls are dealt with in the eventyr.