Ole Bolle is a 19-foot-tall troll made of reclaimed wood, hiding in the woods behind Nordia House at Nordic Northwest in Southwest Portland. Built in 2023 by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, he’s crouched over a little red cottage, lifting its roof like a car hood as he peers inside for a snack. Seeing him is free, and he’s the only troll in Dambo’s Pacific Northwest series that lives in Oregon.
Who Is Ole Bolle, Exactly?
Ole Bolle isn’t some old piece of regional folklore that a tourism board dusted off. He’s brand new, and he was built on purpose to feel like he’s always been there. Artist Dambo describes the troll on his website: “His name is Ole-Bolle and it originates from an old Danish troll song.” Dambo grew up hearing it. He remembers his mother singing a song about a troll when he was a kid in his native Denmark, when there was a troll living on a little Danish island and he would rent cassette tapes with trolls.
The pose itself tells a story. Ole Bolle stands some 19 feet tall, though he actually crouches on his haunches with one enormous foot tucked under him as he lifts the roof of a small cottage, apparently curious — and perhaps a little hungry — about what’s inside. Dambo put it more bluntly in an interview: the troll is in the garden behind Nordia House, lifting up the roof kind of like you’d lift the hood of a car, looking into the “big human cookie jar” to see if there’s anything to snack on.
Why Is There a Troll Behind a Nordic Cultural Center?
Ole Bolle didn’t show up randomly. He’s part of a bigger project. The 19-foot Ole Bolle is one of six trolls installed in natural areas around the Pacific Northwest as part of Dambo’s exhibit, Northwest Trolls: Way of the Bird King. The other statues went up on Bainbridge Island, in Issaquah, and on Vashon Island in Washington, plus two in Seattle — one in Ballard and one in West Seattle. Ole Bolle is the lone Oregonian of the bunch, and Dambo confirmed it himself when he called the Portland piece “the fifth of my ten sculpture road trip that I’m doing.”
Nordic Northwest was a natural host. Nordic Northwest is a nonprofit founded in 1986 to support the Nordic language programs at Portland State University, which has since expanded to be a home for all things Nordic in Oregon and Southwest Washington, hosting festivals, cultural programming, lectures and performances year-round. Trolls are woven straight through Nordic mythology, so putting one in the literal backyard of a Scandinavian cultural center makes more sense than it might sound at first.
Building Him Took a Village — Literally
Ole Bolle isn’t a factory statue trucked in on a flatbed. He was hand-built on-site out of salvaged material by a mix of professionals and volunteers. A combination of Dambo’s artist team and Portland volunteers made the troll sculpture from scratch using recycled wood, nails and metal. The little cottage he’s peeking into got the same treatment. A volunteer team at Nordic Northwest constructed the “stua,” Norwegian for miniature house, with the project split into three teams focused on house construction, troll assembly, and material preparation.
Even a longtime Dambo team member found this build tricky. Laufs, who had worked for Dambo for three years after starting as an intern living in his workshop, said the trickiest part of this sculpture was working out how the limbs interlocked and stuck together. One of the volunteers had a simpler read on the whole scene: “The troll is a curious one and he smells either pies or cakes coming from the house,” says Thurman Miller, a volunteer for Nordic Northwest.
The Nordic Northwest team leaned into the fiction that Ole Bolle needed to be lured out of the forest. They describe how Nordia House built a traditional Fogelbo — meaning “bird’s nest” — house specifically to lure Ole Bolle out. The whole thing came together fast. The organization’s own website notes the troll and its surrounding exhibit pieces were completed in about 10 days after a few short months of planning and prep. He was officially unveiled in early August 2023, and by that summer’s end, was already drawing curious visitors out to the far edge of the campus.
How Do You Actually Find Him?
Ole Bolle doesn’t announce himself from the parking lot, which is sort of the point. You won’t be able to see the troll from the road or the parking lot. You have to go looking. Park in front of Nordia House or in the overflow lot to its right, then follow the signs for the Troll Path. It’s a short walk — the paths are wide, flat, mostly unpaved trails, and the walk itself is less than the length of a city block, with places to sit once you arrive.
One visitor described the buildup nicely: they parked on a cool, gray, drizzly morning under towering Douglas firs dripping with moisture, followed the Troll Path sign past some small red cottages, and only then got their first glimpse of just how large he really was. That slow reveal is very much intentional — Dambo’s trolls are almost always tucked just out of sight until the last turn in the trail.
Practical details, if you’re planning the trip:
- Address: 8800 SW Oleson Rd, Portland, OR 97223. Admission is free and available during daylight hours.
- Cost: It’s free to see the giant troll, though donations are welcome.
- Accessibility: Paths to the troll are wide, but the rocky terrain might challenge wheelchairs, scooters and strollers.
- Hours: Nordia House hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Worth noting: Nordic Northwest occasionally closes the exhibit early for private events or festivals, so it’s worth a quick check of their site before you drive out.
What Else Is on the Nordia House Grounds?
Don’t just snap a photo of the troll and bail — the rest of the campus earns a slow wander too. Past the troll you’ll find Fogelbo, a Swedish-style log house built in 1938 by celebrated carpenter Henry Steiner, which is still an active residence with tours offered throughout the year. Nordia House itself is home to Nordic Northwest’s cultural center, this Steiner log home listed on the National Register of Historic Places, unique artwork, and its partners Broder Söder and Nordic Finn Ware.
If you get hungry after the walk, don’t skip Broder Söder. Inside you’ll find Broder Söder, a restaurant serving Nordic cuisine for breakfast and lunch, with a menu heavy on seasonal vegetables and what’s said to be some of the best potato salad in town — plus the largest selection of aquavit on the West Coast. Just budget some patience; the restaurant is popular enough that a weekday wait can run about 30 minutes, and weekends stretch closer to 45.
Is Ole Bolle Worth the Detour?
If you’re already collecting Dambo trolls around the Pacific Northwest, Portland’s is an easy add and the only one south of the Columbia. If you’ve never seen one of his sculptures before, Ole Bolle is a genuinely good introduction — free, easy to reach, and paired with an actual reason to linger afterward at the cultural center. The troll is expected to stay in place for at least three years after its 2023 installation, and as of a 2026 visit it was still holding up well, with only a little weathering. He’s not going anywhere soon, but he’s also not the kind of landmark you want to keep putting off — go find him while the paint’s still fresh and the roof’s still hinged open, waiting for someone to peek back.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
