Same here, mate! I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this topic. Much more could be argued on my end, but I'll choose instead to leave my points where they are. I will however add a couple brief thoughts worth mentioning.
I think a lot of misunderstandings have taken part in this discussion, for which I don't have the time to clarify at this moment. Of course the passage about Hammerhand being like a snow-troll doesn't make him one! Etc. I can only say I wasn't trying to say such comparisons make something into the thing they're being compared to, and I'll leave it at that.
Also, I guess my point hasn't been to convince, but to explore possibilities by looking at evidences in the text. Using one's imagination based off brief passages without much detail is something the folks at Edain seem to have done amazingly well, and is in a long tradition of doing so. They inspire such work in others, such as you and myself, so I hope that this discussion bears some fruit towards that end!
As such, I will reemphasize that it bears mentioning that sorcery and magic still clearly play a part in transforming biology if a man can change into an animal and back again! Who's to say this didn't happen with trolls at some point in the past? We've only ever seen trolls a handful of times many thousands of years after their creation. Anything could have happened with such a strain.
Trolls could easily be some offshoot of men, long since corrupted. Not necessarily beasts having bred with men in the distant past, but they could be strictly men gone horribly wrong, but with countless generations' worth of them roaming and multiplying. All the various breeds mentioned in the text indicate they have quite the genetic strain, indeed. Who knows, maybe they started to devolve down the line to become more like men again in various areas no one in the West knows much about, such as Far Harad.
Or it's possible some men even learned sorcery to "skin-change" and become something like trolls. They'd still be men, much like Beorn, but having this ability. This may be a very viable possibility, indeed.
Even just looking at the two passages about half-trolls and troll-men, strictly, if these men of Far Harad are like half-trolls, but themselves are just brutish-looking men, the text seems plain that such things as half-trolls likely must exist to have such a comparison made in the first place, whatever they may actually be. Much like "he's like a roaring lion" or some such: There has to be a lion in existence to make such a comparison, obviously. That they're later not even restated to be "like half-trolls" but are instead called "troll-men" only seems to emphasize the comparison, not take away from it. That they're mentioned in a list of men seems to be leaning towards how different they are to men, not how similar they are. That these guys get not one but two mentions in this way seems to indicate they're something quite different, indeed, worthy of mention in the annals of the War of the Ring in which many different kinds of men played a part--but none of which, so far as I know, are described in terms "like half-trolls" or "troll-men."
I'd like to shift gears here a little, as I think I can see where this conversation could inevitably lead, so I'd prefer to be a little more productive. I can concede that you could be correct about these men of Far Harad. I don't agree, but I also see more than one possibility as being viable at the same time, too. I don't think many are mutually exclusive.
That being said, what do you think half-trolls are, irrespective of the men of Far Harad that are being compared to them?
I want to open this discussion up to more ideas from other folks, too! Anyone else have some thoughts on these particular passages? What do you guys think half-trolls and troll-men might be? Do you think they were actual creatures in Middle-earth or something else?
Also, what's your position about them being included in Edain? Do you think Edain would be a great place to explore such things a bit? Is there precedent for Edain already having explored the more obscure in really cool, creative ways? If so, what are some of your favorites and how could Edain incorporate half-trolls and troll-men in similar fashion? Stats and abilities could be cool to explore too!
Another cool idea I have. Maybe Sauron used sorcery on some men to try to make them more like trolls in some way? Not breeding them with beasts or anything, but to try to "beef them up," so to speak, while still being men but more and more like trolls. Do things to their physique, harden their skins, corrupt their minds to be more brutish, etc.
Do you guys know of any examples similar to this that were ever described in the books? The only thing I can think of right off hand would be the contrast to this, Gollum, in which he was greatly diminished in stature but his physique was transformed by the power of the sorcery of the One Ring; his eyes changed; he had long life; etc.
Could sorcery go the other way to increase the stature of people and make them more like beasts?