Editing Trow (folklore) (section)

== Terminology ==
The trow {{IPA|[trʌu]}}, in the [[Scots language]], is defined as a ‘sprite or [[fairy]]’ of mischievous nature in dictionaries of Scots, particularly [[Orcadian dialect|Orcadian]] and [[Shetland dialect|Shetland]] dialects.<ref name="snd-trow"/><ref name="edmonston"/>

=== Etymology ===
The standard etymology derives the term trow from ''[[troll]]'' ({{langx|no|trold}}; {{langx|non|troll}}) of Scandinavian folklore.<ref name="snd-trow"/> Norwegian ''trold'' (''troll'') can signify not just a 'giant', but a 'specter, ghost' ({{lang|no|spøkelse}}) as well.<ref name="kvam"/><ref name="UIB-troll"/>

As an alternate etymology, [[John Jamieson]]'s Scottish dictionary conjectured that the word ''trow'' may be a corruption of Scandinavian ''draug''.<ref name="jamieson-dict-trow"/>{{efn|1=Australian female writer [[Henry Handel Richardson]] (aka Ethel F. L. Robertson) in her uncredited 1896 translation of [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]]'s ''Fiskerjenten'' (tr. ''The Fisher Lass'') rendered the Norwegian ''draug'' as "bogies", and defended this to her critical reviewer by noting ON ''draugr'' and Scots "drow" as the word's cognates.<ref name=richardsons-letters/> In her letter (writing as Miss Robertson) to ''Athenaeum'', she gives herself credit, as translator of the ''Fisher Lass''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=H1lDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA314 "Siren Voices"] ''Athenaeum'' No. 3619, March 6, 1897, p. 314.</ref> Cf. her chronology of year 1896.{{sfnp|Probyn|Steele|2000|p=xv}}}} It may be worth noting that the Norwegian "sea-''draug''" ({{langx|no|draug}}; {{langx|da|søe-drau}},<ref name="egede"/> {{lang|da|søe-draul}}<ref name="pontoppidan-eng"/>) was either a sub-type or equivalent to the sea-troll/sea-trold, according to 18th century tracts by [[Dano-Norwegian]]s.<ref name="egede"/><ref name="pontoppidan-eng"/>{{efn|Pontoppidan wrote {{langx|da|"..Søe-Folke ogsaa kalde Søe-Draulen, det er Søe-Trolden"}}, so 'Sea-mischief' was the English translator's insertion. The form ''Draulen'' contains the definite article suffix ''-en'' but this may be dropped.}}

=== drow ===
The trow is also called '''drow''' under its variant spelling in the [[Insular Scots|Insular dialects]] of Scots;<ref name="snd-drow"/> the "drow" being mentioned by [[Walter Scott]].{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Scott (1835) ''Demonology'', p. 122: "Possession of supernatural wisdom is still imputed by the natives of [[Orkney]] and [[Shetland Islands|Zetland Islands]], to the people called Drows, who may, in most other respects, be identified with the [[Caledonia]]n fairies".<ref name="snd-drow"/>}}<ref name="scott"/> However, the term "drow" could also be used in the sense of ‘the [[devil]]’ in Orkney.<ref name="snd-drow"/>{{Refn|name=jakobsen-trow|{{Cite wikisource|last=Jakobsen |first=Jakob |author-link=Jakob Jakobsen |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland |publisher=David Nutt (A. G. Berry) |year=1928 |wslink=An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland/D|volume=I |wspage=129 |page=129 }} Cf. Jakobsen (1921) in orig. Danish.<ref name="jakobsen-drow"/>}}

The word ''drow'' also occurs in the Shetland [[Norn language]], where it means ‘''huldrefolk''’("the hidden people", fairies), ‘troll-folk’,<ref name="jakobsen-drow"/> or ‘ghost’.<ref name="korobzow"/> As ''drow'' is not a Norse language spelling, linguist [[Jakob Jakobsen]] proposed it was taken from the common (Scots) term "trow" altered to ''drow'' by assimilation with [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|{{linktext|draugr}}}} or Norwegian {{lang|no|draug}}.<ref name="jakobsen-drow"/> The reconstructed Shetland word would be *drog if it did descend from Old Norse ''draugr'', but this is unattested, nor was it adopted into the [[Nynorn]] vocabulary to supersede the known form.<ref name="korobzow"/>