Giant Trolls (Thomas Dambo, I-65 exit 112)

Three trolls are hiding in the woods of Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Clermont, Kentucky, and finding them is the point. Bernheim welcomed Danish artist Thomas Dambo in 2019, its 90th anniversary year, to build three giant sculptures from recycled wood from the region. The Courier Journal reported that he used pallets, fallen trees, bourbon barrel staves and scraps from Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.

Dambo wrote a poem for the trolls, “While the Weather Got Better,” that makes them a family. According to Bernheim, the “mother giant,” Mama Loumari, rests against a tree, expecting a baby, while her two children, Little Nis and Little Elina, explore the forest. The Courier Journal described Little Nis gazing at his reflection in Holly Pond and Little Elina arranging rocks into the shape of a giant feather, and bourbon barrel staves forming the round belly of Mama Loumari. Bernheim says the children’s father, Isak Heartstone, is another Dambo sculpture.