Portal:Scandinavian folklore
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Introduction
Scandinavian folklore or Nordic folklore is the folklore of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Collecting folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of the priests in all of the parishes to collect the folklore of their area in the 1630s. They collected customs, beliefs that were not sanctioned by the church, and other traditional material.
Selected general articles
Illustration from Johannes Messenius's play Disa
Disa is the heroine of a Swedish legendary saga, which was documented by Olaus Magnus, in 1555. It is believed to be from the Middle Ages, but includes Old Norse themes.
It was elaborated by Johannes Messenius in his drama Disa, which was the first historic play in the Swedish language, and was played at the Disting of 1611. It was also presented in an exaggerated version by Olaus Rudbeck in his Atlantica (1685–89) Read more...
Askeladden by Theodor Kittelsen (1900) Original painting owned by the National Museum, Oslo
Ashlad (Norwegian "Askeladden") is the main character in many Norwegian folktales. In some ways, he represents the small man who succeeds where all others fail. He always wins in the end, often winning the princess and half the kingdom. The origin of this character was compared by scholars to the old Norse god Loki as a fire Vættir. In some retellings, Askeladden is renamed Boots. Read more...
The kraken (/ˈkrɑːkən/) is a legendary cephalopod-like sea monster of giant size that is said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. Authors over the years have postulated that the legend originated from sightings of giant squids that may grow to 13–15 meters (40–50 feet) in length. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the kraken have made it a common ocean-dwelling monster in various fictional works. Read more...- The Vættir (Old Norse; singular Vættr) of Norse myth are spirits. The term can be used to refer to the full Norse cosmos of supernatural beings, including the Álfar (elves), Dvergar (dwarves), Jötnar (giants), and gods (the Æsir and Vanir). Vættir can also refer more specifically to to Landvættir (nature spirits), Sjóvættir (sea spirits), vatnavættir (guardians of the specific waters), or Húsvættir (house spirits.) Read more...
- In Norwegian folklore, a deildegast is a type of ghost connected with the sanctity of border-stones, and what happened to those who dared to move them. The deildegast-tradition was most prevalent in the southern parts of Norway and is also connected to the gjenganger phenomenon. A deildegast, it was said, does not receive peace in the afterlife as a result of enlarging his own territory while alive by moving the border-stone dividing his own and his neighbours territory. After dying, the deildegast was forced to haunt the area near the border-stone until he was able to lift it back to its correct place. This feat proved impossible, however, as the stone would always slip, causing the deildegast to emit a sorrowful scream before trying again to no avail.
In Norwegian, "gast" approximately means "ghost", but ghosts in Norwegian and Scandinavian folklore differ greatly from the modern perception of ghosts, often having a corporeal body and being violent in nature. "Deild" is an archaic word for "border-stone". The approximate translation of deildegast then, is "border-stone ghost". The first mention of a deildegast in literature comes from Draumkvedet, written near the end of the Middle Ages. The belief itself quite likely predates this (and is documented by the Draumkvedet), though no proof exists. Read more...
Look at them, troll mother said. Look at my sons! You won't find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon. (1915) by John Bauer
A troll is a class of being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.
Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them. Read more...
A hulder is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. (Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret".) In Norwegian folklore, she is known as huldra ("the [archetypal] hulder", though folklore presupposes that there is an entire Hulder race and not just a single individual). She is known as the skogsrå "forest spirit" or Tallemaja "pine tree Mary" in Swedish folklore, and ulda in Sámi folklore. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva divine figure Huld and the German Holda.
The word hulder is only used of a female; a "male hulder" is called a huldrekall and also appears in Norwegian folklore. This being is closely related to other underground dwellers, usually called tusser (sg., tusse). Whereas the female hulder is almost invariably described as incredible, seductive and beautiful, the males of the same race are often said to be hideous, with grotesquely long noses. Read more...
In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus (/ˈfa.tu.us/; Medieval Latin for "foolish fire") is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. It resembles a flickering lamp and is said to recede if approached, drawing travellers from the safe paths. The phenomenon is known by a variety of names, including jack-o'-lantern, friar's lantern, hinkypunk and hobby lantern in English folk belief and is well attested in English folklore and in much of European folklore. In literature, will-o'-the-wisp sometimes has a metaphorical meaning, describing a hope or goal that leads one on but is impossible to reach, or something one finds sinister and confounding.
Will-o'-the-wisp appear in folk tales and traditional legends of numerous countries, Notable will-o'-the-wisp include St. Louis Light in Saskatchewan, Marfa lights of Texas, the Naga fireballs on the Mekong in Thailand, and the Hessdalen light in Norway. While urban legends, folkore, and superstition typically attribute will-o'-the-wisps to ghosts, fairies, or elemental spirits, modern science explains them as a natural phenomena such as bioluminescence or chemiluminescence caused by the oxidation of phosphine (PH3), diphosphane (P2H4), and methane (CH4) produced by organic decay. Read more...- Engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost in Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in 1804
In folklore, a ghost (sometimes known as an apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, and wraith) is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.
The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Read more... - A troll cat (also milk rabbit, troll ball) is the familiar of a witch in Scandinavian folklore. Either in the shape of a cat or a ball, troll cats sucked milk from cows and spat it out in the witches' milk pails, and went into homes to lick up cream. Related creatures are milk hares and milk rabbits. Read more...
The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken (German: Nixe; Dutch: nikker, nekker; Danish: nøkke; Norwegian: nøkk; Swedish: näck; Finnish: näkki; Estonian: näkk) are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures.
Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples, although they are perhaps best known from Scandinavian folklore. The related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically. The German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were males. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid. Read more...
Der Wechselbalg by Henry Fuseli, 1781
A changeling is a creature found in folklore and folk religion. A changeling child was believed to be a fairy child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies. The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and modernly reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. Read more...
A tomtenisse made of salty dough. A common Scandinavian Christmas decoration.
A nisse (Danish: [ˈnesə] and Norwegian: [²nɪsːɛ]), tomte (Swedish: [²tɔmːtɛ]), tomtenisse or 'tonttu' (Finnish: [tontːu]) is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. It is generally described as being no taller than 90 cm (35 in), having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a garden gnome (which are also called trädgårdstomte in Swedish, havenisse in Danish, hagenisse in Norwegian and puutarhatonttu in Finnish).
The nisse is one of the most familiar creatures of Scandinavian folklore, and he has appeared in many works of Scandinavian literature. With the romanticisation and collection of folklore during the 19th century, the nisse would gain popularity. In the English editions of the fairy tales of H. C. Andersen the word nisse has been inaccurately translated as goblin (a more accurate translation is brownie or hob). Read more...
In Norse mythology, a vargr (pl. vargar; often anglicised as warg or varg) is a wolf and in particular refers to the wolf Fenrir and his sons Sköll and Hati. Based on this, J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction used the Old English form warg (other O.E. forms being wearg and wearh) to refer to a particularly large and evil kind of wolf. Read more...
A völva, a Scandinavian seeress, tells the spear-wielding god Odin of what has been and what will be in Odin and the Völva by Lorenz Frølich (1895)
Norse mythology is the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples stemming from Norse paganism and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia and into the Scandinavian folklore of the modern period. The northernmost extension of Germanic mythology, Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition.
Numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts such as the hammer-wielding, humanity-protecting thunder-god Thor, who relentlessly fights his foes; the one-eyed, raven-flanked god Odin, who craftily pursues knowledge throughout the worlds and bestowed among humanity the runic alphabet; the beautiful, seiðr-working, feathered cloak-clad goddess Freya who rides to battle to choose among the slain; the vengeful, skiing goddess Skaði, who prefers the wolf howls of the winter mountains to the seashore; the powerful god Njörð, who may calm both sea and fire and grant wealth and land; the god Frey, whose weather and farming associations bring peace and pleasure to humanity; the goddess Iðunn, who keeps apples that grant eternal youthfulness; the mysterious god Heimdall, who is born of nine mothers, can hear grass grow, has gold teeth, and possesses a resounding horn; the jötunn Loki, who brings tragedy to the gods by engineering the death of the goddess Frigg's beautiful son Baldr; and numerous other deities. Read more...
Two dwarfs as depicted in a 19th-century edition of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.
In Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a human-shaped entity that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are sometimes described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings. Dwarfs continue to be depicted in modern popular culture in a variety of media. Read more...
A Mare (Old English: mære, Old Dutch: mare; mara in Old High German and Old Norse) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams (or "nightmares"). Read more...
Three figures on the 12th-century Skog tapestry; they have been interpreted as the Norse Gods, Odin, Thor and Freyja
Old Norse religion is the most common name for a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peoples. It was displaced by Christianity during the Christianization of Scandinavia. Scholars reconstruct aspects of North Germanic religion by historical linguistics, archaeology, toponymy, and records left by North Germanic peoples, such as runic inscriptions in the Younger Futhark, a distinctly North Germanic extension of the runic alphabet. Numerous Old Norse works dated to the 13th century record Norse mythology, a component of North Germanic religion.
Old Norse religion was polytheistic, entailing a belief in various gods and goddesses. Norse mythology divided these deities into two groups, the Æsir and the Vanir, who engaged in an ancient war until realising that they were equally powerful. Among the most widespread deities were the gods Odin and Thor. This world was inhabited also by various other mythological races, including giants, dwarfs, elves, and land-spirits. Norse cosmology revolved around a world tree known as Yggdrasil, with various realms existing alongside that of humans, named Midgard. These include multiple afterlife realms, several of which are controlled by a particular deity. Read more...
Statue depicting the Erlking in the ancient graveyard of Dietenhausen, in Keltern, Germany.
"Erlking" (German: Erlkönig, lit. 'alder-king') is a name used in German Romanticism for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies". It is usually assumed that the name is a derivation from the ellekonge (older elverkonge, i.e. "Elf-king") in Danish folklore. The name is first used by Johann Gottfried Herder in his ballad "Erlkönigs Tochter" (1778), an adaptation of the Danish Hr. Oluf han rider (1739), and was notably taken up by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his poem "Erlkönig" (1782), which was set in music by Schubert, among others. In English translations of Goethe's poem, the name is sometimes rendered as Erl-king. Read more...
Blenda by August Malmström (1829-1901)
Blenda is the heroine of a Swedish legend (Blendasägnen) from Småland. Blenda led the rural women of Värend in an attack on a pillaging Danish army and annihilated the invaders. Read more...
The bäckahäst or bækhest (translated as the brook horse) is a mythological horse in Scandinavian folklore. It has a close parallel in the Scottish kelpie, and the Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr.
It was often described as a majestic white horse that would appear near rivers, particularly during foggy weather. Anyone who climbed onto its back would not be able to get off again. The horse would then jump into the river, drowning the rider. The brook horse could also be harnessed and made to plough, either because it was trying to trick a person or because the person had tricked the horse into it. The following tale is a good illustration of the brook horse: Read more...- In Scandinavian folklore, the mylingar are the phantasmal incarnations of the souls of unbaptized children that had been forced to roam the earth until they could persuade someone (or otherwise cause enough of a ruckus to make their wishes known) to bury them properly. Read more...
- The draugr or draug (Old Norse: draugr, plural draugar; modern Icelandic: draugur, Faroese: dreygur and Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian: draug) is an undead creature from Norse mythology, also called aptrganga or aptrgangr, literally "again-walker" (Icelandic: afturganga).
The word draugr can be traced to a Proto-Indo European stem *dʰrowgʰos "phantom", from *dʰrewgʰ- "deceive".
The Old Norse meaning of the word is a revenant. In Swedish, draug is a modern loan word from West Norse, as the native Swedish form drög has acquired the meaning of "a pale, ineffectual, and slow-minded person that drags himself along". Read more... - In Danish folklore, a valravn (Danish "raven of the slain") is a supernatural raven. The ravens appear in traditional Danish folksongs, where they are described as originating from ravens who eat the bodies of the dead on the battlefield, as capable of turning into the form of a knight after eating the entire heart of a child, and, alternately, as half-wolf and half-raven creatures. Read more...
- Ysätters-Kajsa was a wind-troll that people in the Swedish province of Närke used to believe in; probably the only one of her kind in Scandinavia. The Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf immortalised Ysätters-Kajsa in the first part of Chapter 24 of her famous novel The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906–1907).
She wrote that in the Swedish province of Närke, in the old days, there lived a troll named Ysätters-Kajsa. She was named Kajsa because wind-trolls used to be called by that name. Her cognomen Ysätter came from the swamp Ysätter () in Asker parish where she was born. She appeared to have lived in Asker parish, but she played jokes on people all over Närke and was unique to that region. Read more... - A Gjenganger (Norwegian: Gjenganger, Attergangar or Gjenferd; Danish: Genganger or Genfærd; Swedish: Gengångare) is the term for a revenant, the spirit or ghost of a deceased from the grave, in Scandinavian folklore. Gjenganger has two parts, the prefix is related to "again" or "against", "towards" (compare German: gegenüber, gegen) and í gegn ('against'), from í ('in, on') and gegn ('straight, direct') and ganger which comes from a word meaning 'foot' or 'walker', thus it means "walking again" as in "walking after death". The form attergangar comes from atter meaning 'after' and originating from *afteraz meaning "of, away from" but adding the contrastive suffix *-teros, in essence meaning "after walking", "walking away from in contrast with close by", again implying walking after death. Read more...
- In Danish folklore, a helhest (Danish "Hel horse") is a three-legged horse associated with Hel. Various Danish phrases are recorded that refer to the horse. The Helhest is associated with death and illness, and it is mentioned in folklore as having been spotted in various locations in Denmark. Read more...
- In Norse mythology, a vǫrðr (pl. varðir or verðir — "warden," "watcher" or "caretaker") is a warden spirit, believed to follow from birth to death the soul (hugr) of every person. In Old Swedish, the corresponding word is varþer; in modern Swedish vård, and the belief in them remained strong in Scandinavian folklore up until the last centuries. The English word '"wraith" is derived from vǫrðr, while "ward" and "warden" are cognates.
At times, the warden could reveal itself as a small light or as the shape (hamr) of the person. The perception of another person's warden could cause a physical sensation such as an itching hand or nose, as a foreboding or an apparition. The warden could arrive before the actual person, which someone endowed with fine senses might perceive. The warden of a dead person could also become a revenant, haunting particular spots or individuals. In this case, the revenant warden was always distinct from more conscious undeads, such as the draugar. Read more...
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Selected images
An illustration made by Gudmund Stenersen of an angry nisse stealing hay from a farmer
Ängsälvor, "meadow elves", (1850), painting by Nils Blommér
Mother Troll and Her Sons by Swedish painter John Bauer, 1915.
Theodor Kittelsen's Nøkken from 1904
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