Many of Thomas Dambo’s large-scale trolls are named after his old friends from Odense. Back then, he was a graffiti artist and musician, and the trolls often inherit the nicknames his friends had when Thomas Dambo spent time with them. Some trolls are also named after the dedicated volunteers who have helped build trolls around the world.

In this way, the people Thomas Dambo has met throughout his life continue to live on through the trolls. Thomas Dambo often writes a poem for his trolls as well. His love of playing with words stems from his years as a songwriter.

In The Garbage Man, the eight trolls form a collective, working together towards a common goal. For this reason, Thomas Dambo has written a shared poem for all of them:

Legend of the Garbageman

They were eight great trolls, the humans came there later.
They were there from the beginning, sworn by faith as nature’s saviors.
They were there as humans walked from equator to the glaciers,
Saw them herd and hunt the grazers, become traders and creators.

Tank the oldest, born at dawn, the wisest in the klan
Dyna, Dulfi, Damp and Farlig – workers like the ants
Mitjet moved in darkness, with his marks left in the sand
While Kai and Burns were thunder, strong and always in demand

Mitjet said: humans are possessed with making things.
Just to hold them for a blink, and toss them out into the winds.
They don’t see the bigger picture; all their goods just made them sicker.
Cause the mixture will grow thicker as it flows down through the river.

Then Tank spoke up – enough! We have to take a stand
Make a plan to wake them up and make them understand
Let’s gather trash like artisans, break in and build a Garbageman
And so the trolls all rose their hands and sealed it with a chant

That night they sweaped the city streets, the forest and the beach
scrap wood, concrete and plastics, sheets, they brought it in in heaps
They filled the house of humans up, with all the things left wasted
A giant human made of trash, that night they had created

And right when the horizon let the first small beams of light in
The trolls went back in hiding where the humans could not find them
Some humans saw the sighting of the garbageman as frightening
Some saw it as enlightening as a sign to do the right thing

So the ending in the legend hints a time for a reflection
When you think you know it all, the answer is a question.
What is a possession? Is it garbage, or a blessing?
Who possesses whom - that is the essence of the lesson.

^{Thomas Dambo – The Garbage Man. Tank Toke}

‍

The Eight Trolls in The Garbage Man

To the trolls, rubbish is gold — and they want to show humans exactly that. That is why it belongs in the museum.

Burns Lobba is a hard worker. He hauls the rubbish to the place where the giant human figure – The Garbage Man — is being built. Altogether, the trolls have dragged 2.5 tonnes of waste into the exhibition.

Burns Lobba gets plenty of help from Delfi Osten, who has spent the night collecting the humans’ discarded waste from around the city. Now he is emptying the containers, turning their contents into a mountain of rubbish.

Snafyr is hard at work creating the giant human figure, The Garbage Man. He carefully selects and assembles all the clothes that people have thrown away to create the skin of the sculpture.

Damp Boomban hates routines — and being told what to do. He would much rather greet visitors and give them a little fright than help carry rubbish into the museum.

Dyna Dee is taking a well-earned break on top of the rubbish mountain.

Kai Heart is enjoying the fruits of everyone else's labour. He sits and watches as the human sculpture gradually takes shape.

Tank Toke points out where something is still missing.

And Munter — well, where is he?
He is the eighth troll. Have you found him yet?