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In The Return of the King, the chapter "The Black Gate Opens" where Gandalf, the King of Gondor, and their allies make a final war against Sauron before the Morannon we are told:

...the sun now climbing towards the south was veiled in the reeks of Mordor, and through a threatening haze it gleamed remote, a sullen red, as if it were the ending of the day...

But then, moments later (when the sun must be even higher in the sky, farther west, thus farther out of the "reeks of Mordor" and thus stronger), we learn:

...there came striding a great company of hill-trolls out of Gorgoroth.

However, from The Hobbit we see three hill-trolls turned to stone at the first touch of dawn light. Because the sun above the battle before the gates of Mordor was as strong as "the ending of the day," it must also be at least as strong as the last moment of sunlight which we know is enough to literally petrify hill-trolls.

How to explain?

Lexible
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  • Let me know if you feel this is significantly different - I realise I'm the answerer on the other Q...which makes me feel dirty for closing this.... – AncientSwordRage Jun 08 '15 at 11:25

2 Answers2

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Those trolls could endure the Sun.

But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of Mordor. Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech. That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size and power. Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder than stone. Unlike the older race of the Twilight they could endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over them.

Lord of the Rings, Appendix F.

Shamshiel
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  • Huh... I guess I am just used to seeing the olog-hai referred to consistently as such. If he had written "a great company of olog-hai" it would not occur to me to ask the question. – Lexible Jun 07 '15 at 14:29
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    @Lexible: It isn't explicit, but being hill-trolls out of Gorgoroth resistant to sunlight are what confirms it. :) The term Olog-hai actually doesn't appear within the text of LotR itself - only the appendices. I guess Tolkien meant to catch up us careful readers who would wonder how the heck they could be in the sun! – Shamshiel Jun 07 '15 at 14:35
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    @Lexible: Actually a quick skip through Letters, HoME, the Silmarillion, and Lord of the Rings appears to show that the only reference to Olog-hai is the appendix passage or references to it! Interestingly the Olog-hai are foreshadowed as early as the 'Shadows of the Past' chapter though, which mentions trolls 'cunning' and 'armed with dreadful weapons.' – Shamshiel Jun 07 '15 at 14:38
  • You beat me to it, Shamshiel. – Wad Cheber Jun 07 '15 at 19:12
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Hill-trolls were adapted to life in the hills and moorlands, and could endure the Sun. Aragorn's grandfather Arador was slain by hill-trolls in the Coldfells, north of Rivendell. http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Hill-trolls

Trolls encountered by Bilbo & Co were stone-trolls, different from hill-trolls. It's possible that stone-trolls were not living beings at all, but rather "counterfeits" created by Melkor from stone, which is why they would turn to stone when exposed to the Sun. http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Stone-trolls

Maksim
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  • This answer is correct. Contrary to the accepted one, the trolls Thorin & Co. encountered were Stone-trolls. The LotR ones were Hill-trolls, whether Troll-folk -- Olog-hai -- or otherwise, and have different characteristics. The question is flawed and the accepted answerer failed to notice. – Lesser son Jan 04 '22 at 23:57