History Literature / ThreeBillyGoatsGruff

* TrollBridge: Possibly the TropeCodifier. A troll guarding a bridge is the antagonist here, and thanks to this tale, many depictions of trolls later to its publication and translation portray them as sleping or living under bridges and attacking passersby.

!!This story is referenced in:
[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''Film/TheTrollHunter'', Hans ties three increasingly large billy goats to the top of a bridge as bait for a troll.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the Gruffs are [[FaunsAndSatyrs Satyr-like]] beings that are the Summer Court's, more specifically Titania's, elite wetworks assets, and nearly always operate in teams of three. Their primary duty is killing [[SmashMook trolls]] and in the [[TheVerse Dresdenverse]], trolls are ''tough'', even by the standards of the supernatural. The Gruffs are not only powerful, but also intelligent, pragmatic and fearless, to the point where they are more than happy to use firearms and explosives when the situation calls for it. And there's a confirmed total of nine of them, and it's reasonable to assume that there are actually more.
** It's worth noting that the Gruffs, as per the tale, get progressively bigger, up to the second eldest "Tiny" Gruff, who's twelve feet tall and has knuckles the size of cantaloupes. Eldest Gruff, the most powerful by a landslide and a half, is [[spoiler: five feet tall and capable of destroying Fallen angels and killing Senior Council members in fair combat]].
** One of the earliest works (it's in the first collection of short stories) does in fact involve a troll hiding under a bridge.
* Literature/{{Discworld}}'s trolls have [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten a longstanding rivalry with goats]].
** In ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', the Bursar unwisely makes a point of telling the Lancre bridge troll (acting as customs officer) that they didn't have any billy goats with them. Modest hilarity ensues.
** In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', a bridge troll will charge you ''10,000'' gold more if you have billy goats with you.
** In the short story "Troll Bridge", Mica the troll [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial has no knowledge of any billy goats]], and doesn't know why his wife keeps bringing them up.
* "Troll Bridge", a short story by Creator/NeilGaiman, is a variation in which, instead of a succession of goats, there's a single human who twice manages to persuade the troll that if it lets him go, there'll be more of him to eat next time he crosses the bridge. The third encounter, of course, goes rather differently.
* Used, very appropriately, in John Barth's ''Giles Goat Boy''. The protagonist, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin who has been raised from childhood among a herd of goats]], is visited by an old lady who reads him the story as an opening gambit in her attempts to reacculturate him to humanity.
* The story is actually the inspiration behind Creator/StephenKing's novel '''Literature/{{It}}'''. There are two scenes that stand out in this regard, Georgie was Bill's baby brother who was killed when he came across IT in a storm drain, causing Bill to start looking for Georgie's killer. This parallels the relationship between the eldest goat and the youngest goat, as the eldest goat was the protector of his siblings. The death of Adrian Mellon is a more blatant example, as he is killed by IT after being thrown off of a bridge.

[[AC:{{MMORPG}}]]
* Mountain goats in ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'' drop an item called "Goat Gruff".

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestI'', where you have to lead a billy goat along to a Troll guarding a bridge.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'': An EasterEgg to be found is that one of the bridges in the game has a dead troll under it, with a rather pathetic note on its corpse, referencing this story.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' also has its own EasterEgg on the tale [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p95ESJG0Sr8 here.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer'', you can find a troll blocking a bridge with a picket line while engaged in negotiations with the goats, who happen to be his employers.
* In ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'', the "Trip Trap" bar was named after the fairy tale and it belongs to a troll named Holly, who inherited it from her mother. The lore reveals that the bar was lost in a bet and the mountain trolls were the ones who gave it the name "Trip Trap".
* One of the regions in ''VideoGame/NiNoKuni'' is called Billy Goat's Bluff, as part of the in-universe theme of locations having names that reference fairy tales.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' has its own version with the Warners as the goats.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The troll in the story is a great ugly monster living under a bridge described as having "eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker". This folkloric portrayal of trolls solidified foreign perception of such beings when the story got popular in nineteenth century Britain after being translated to English, and the image of trolls as gullible large long-nosed monsters dwelling under bridges, in comparison to the more varied takes in Scandinavian folklore, [[TropeCodifier influenced many later depictions around the world]].

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The troll in the story is a great ugly monster living under a bridge described as having "eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker". This folkloric portrayal of trolls solidified foreign perception of such beings when the story got popular in nineteenth century Britain, and the image of trolls as gullible large long-nosed monsters who like to live under bridges, in comparison to the more varied takes in Scandinavian folklore, [[TropeCodifier influenced many later depictions]].

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The troll in the story is a great ugly monster living under a bridge described as having "eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker". This folkloric portrayal of trolls had a big influence on the foreign perception of such beings when the story got popular in nineteenth century Britain, and the image of trolls as large long-nosed monsters who like to live under bridges, in comparison to the more varied takes on Scandinavian folklore, was the base of many later depictions.

* RuleOfThree: Three goat brothers.

* TrollBridge: A troll guarding a bridge is the antagonist here.

* Mountain goats in ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'' drop an [[VendorTrash item]] called "Goat Gruff".

The goat pleads with the troll to let him go because he's only small and skinny, but his brother is much bigger and meatier. The troll agrees to this, because fairytale trolls are stupid, and lets the little goat go on his way.

The third goat, unfortunately for the troll, turns out to be a badass among goats, and when the troll pops up to say his catch phrase, trounces the troll and throws him off the bridge. The goats all then live happily on the other side of the bridge. TheEnd.

* GenderFlip: Versions that [[ArtisticLicense may not have looked up the meaning of the word "Billy"]] sometimes make one of the goats(often the middle one) a female.