Scandinavian Folklore Creatures

It helps to separate two things that often get mixed together. Norse mythology is the gods — Odin, Thor, the nine realms, Ragnarok. Scandinavian folklore is what stayed behind after the gods went quiet: the beings people believed shared their farms and forests, well into living memory. The hulder lived in the woodlot. The nisse lived in the barn. You left him porridge because it was sensible, not because it was mythology. That is why this material feels different from the Eddas — it was never about worship, it was about neighbors.

Scandinavian folklore is something not a lot of people know about. Unlike Greek and Norse mythology, it gets lost in the fold, which is understandable since it’s not as romanticized as other traditions. Due to our own love of Scandinavia, we’re going to dive into the folklore you may never have heard of. If you’d like to purchase one of the many Scandinavian products we offer as a gift for a loved one, then check out the wide variety of options we have.

Scandinavian Folklore To Know

We chose a few characters you may or may not have heard of. If you love folklore, we have many Scandinavian products that draw on it directly. Check out our heritage section as well as what’s new in the store to get a feel for what you can give.

The Huldra

The first is the Huldra, or Tallemaja in Swedish. She lives in the woods and is related to the troll — but where you might expect something ugly, the Huldra is strikingly beautiful. The giveaway is a long cow’s tail, which she hides behind her back when she meets a human. She is young, wild and flirtatious, and she is neither good nor evil.

Her origin story goes like this. Eve was washing her and Adam’s children when God came to visit. She had not finished bathing all of them, so she hid the dirty ones. When God asked whether there were more children and Eve said no, God answered: “Then let all that is hidden, remain hidden.” The hidden children became the huldrefolk, living beneath the surface of the earth.

The Nisse

The nisse — nisser in the plural — is still very much alive in modern Scandinavia. Christmas in Scandinavia has no fat, bearded Santa at the North Pole. Instead there is the nisse: a small guardian who lives in the barn and looks after the farm and everyone on it. He is a prankster, and he is friendly so long as he is treated properly, which traditionally means a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve. Forget the porridge and things start going wrong around the farm.

You’ll find him all over our tomtar, nisser and tonttu collection.

Dwarves and Elves

Everyone has heard of dwarves and elves, whether from Tolkien or Harry Potter, and both originate in Norse mythology — but not where people usually assume. Midgard is the human world. The dwarves live in Svartálfheim, small and long-bearded, and it was they who forged the weapons and treasures of the gods, including Thor’s hammer. The elves live in Álfheim, a realm the gods gave to Freyr. They are described as fair, luminous beings, closer to minor gods than to the creatures of later fantasy.

Fossegrimmen

Another figure from Norwegian folklore is the Fossegrim, sometimes just called Grim. The name comes from foss, the Norwegian word for waterfall, because that is where he lives. He is young, handsome and sits naked beneath the falls playing the fiddle, treating the sound of the water as music in itself.

He will teach a human to play, but the price is specific: a stolen cured leg of mutton, brought to him in secret, four Thursdays in a row. Get it wrong and he teaches you only enough to tune the instrument.

Find Scandinavian Gifts Dedicated To Folklore

We have a wide selection of pieces drawn from Scandinavian folklore. If you’d like to give one as a gift, we strongly encourage checking out our Scandinavian heritage products. You can read more in our posts on trolls in Scandinavian culture and Viking lore and Norse mythology. And don’t forget our Christmas selection so you can get ready to enjoy the holidays with your family.