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"Huldra" - Theodor Kittelsen, 1892

By far the most prominent folklore creature in my gallery, I figured I would talk a bit about huldra, and go much more in depth than I've previously done. I've looked through many different stories and supposed "true" anecdotes from back when people still believed in this creature to get as accurate information about her as possible.

The word "huldra"

The word "huldra" most likely stems from the old Norse verb "hylja", which means "to hide" or "to cover", although some speculate that the word may also be related to the sorceress and seer Huld from Norse mytology. It's difficult to know for sure, as stories about the huldrefolk have been around since at least the Viking Age, but were first written down in the 1840's, and a lot of information gets changed, added and omitted when stories are passed around by word of mouth. Huldra is primarily the Norwegian word for the creature, although the word is also used along the Norwegian border in Sweden. In southern Sweden she is called "Skogsrå" and is typically depicted with a fox tail instead of the cow tail she's most commonly associated with in Norway, and in northern Sweden she is known as "Vittra".

In English the word "huldra" is often used as the name of the species, but this is grammatically incorrect. "Huldra" already means "the hulder" in Norwegian. The grammar rules for "huldra" go as follows:

a hulder - (the) huldra - many huldre - those huldre

What is huldra?

Huldra is a malevolent creature from Norwegian and Swedish folklore, though since I'm Norwegian, I'm mostly going to be focusing on Norwegian stories in this profile. Her exact affiliations vary a bit through the stories. In some stories she's more of a solitary creature who lives in the mountains and is more associated with trolls, while in others she lives in groups of huldre in underground caves and is more associated with tusser, the subterranean dwarf/elf like creatures that also live underground. In some stories both tusser and huldre are just two subspecies of trolls. Fairytales don't have as concrete rules as modern stories, as fairytales have many writers, not just one.

One thing is clear, and that is that huldra is always portrayed as a superhuman woman with extraordinary abilities and looks. In one story she's strong enough to lift an entire fully grown fir tree on her own, in another she threatens her abusive human husband by picking up a glowing hot horseshoe with her bare hands and bending it, showing him how powerful she truly is. Other stories tell of her magical powers, where she has the power to both curse and bless humans depending on how they treat her.

Huldra is said to live in deep and dense forests, and inside mountains with hidden entrances. She is the embodiment of everything that makes nature both dangerous and enticing at the same time.

In summary, huldra is a dangerous forest and mountain creature with superhuman strength and magic powers, and fire does not hurt her.

"Huldra ved Matbrunnen" (Huldra at Matbrunnen) - Theodor Kittelsen, 1892

What does huldra look like?

These days, huldra is most commonly depicted as a naked woman with a cow's tail, a hollow back and long, flowing hair, but it wasn't always like that. In fact, most stories I found described her as wearing normal farm clothes, usually in red or green. Red is possibly because it's a sensual colour and was associated with wedding dresses back in the old days in Norway, and green because it symbolises nature.

In terms of her actual appearance, the female huldra is always described as extraordinarily beautiful, with long flowing hair, typically blonde. However, in some stories, this beauty is only a facade, and once you realise that she isn't human, she becomes ugly and old. At least one story describes a huldra taking on the appearance of a man's wife, indicating that she can change her appearance, which would explain the spell breaking part, but this isn't a common thing.

The male huldrekall is a very different story. In many stories, the male members of huldra's species are described as fat, ugly, grey-haired and troll-like creatures with abnormally large noses, but there are also several stories of women being lured away into the mountains by beautiful "mountain men", which are almost never specified as a creature. Mountain men are sometimes implied to be elves, sometimes tusser, but they bear the most in common with huldra, and so it's only logical to assume that they might be the same species. Perhaps huldra of both genders are beautiful when they're young, but turn ugly and troll-like when they get old, but the old ones can still use magic to make themselves look beautiful momentarily.

Most stories feature a man meeting a huldra and thinking she's a normal farm girl, until he notices something off. Usually this is him seeing that she has a cow tail, or a hollow back like a rotten tree trunk, but a few stories also describe her as having a horse tail, or lynx ears, or goat legs. The cow tail never appears alongside the hollow back, but as these two are the most common supernatural features she's described as having, the two merged and created the popular image of huldra we see today.

What does huldra do?

Huldra is primarily a cow herder, but some stories say her cows look different from the cows humans use, being all grey and black with no spots. Milkmaids back in the days were warned not to stay in the pastures with their cows past a certain date, as after that date, the field belonged to huldra, and one should never attract the attention of huldra. One story tells of a woman who decided to stay in the mountains for few days with her cows after all the other townswomen left, and she ended up getting kidnapped by hulder women and almost forcibly married off to an ugly old huldrekall until her boyfriend saved her.

Beyond her usual cow herding, huldra enjoys toying with humans, particularly human men, though if a human woman is left alone in the wilderness, she shouldn't consider herself safe from huldra either. A hulder can be incredibly charming, but can also come off as very clingy and not respecting personal space. Some stories has her starting affairs with farmers just outside the farm, but she wants to sleep with them so many times every day that the farmer becomes exhausted and can't get any work done and needs magic help just to get rid of her. More often she uses her beauty and sex appeal to lure young men away, often into her home in the mountains, forests and caves, but sometimes just into danger too, like leading them off a cliff or into dangerous rivers, just for fun. What she does with her victims after she's lured them into the mountains is a bit of a mystery, as the rare few who have escaped her clutches are found years later with amnesia, not remembering anything but her and her irresistible beauty. It's been speculated that she keeps men as sex slaves, as thralls to do physical labour for her, as her husband, or maybe she just eats them. It's impossible to know, but whatever she does, it's probably quite sinister. Men who escape from huldra, and women who escape from the huldrekall, are forever cursed with the temptation to return to the huldrefolk. In some stories, they do return, and are never seen or heard from again.

In addition to this malevolent behaviour, huldra can also be kind and helpful if you treat her with respect and don't attack her. Stories of men who disrespect or attack her usually end poorly for the men, while stories of men who are polite to her despite seeing her tail always end with her providing a bit of helpful magic that gives them incredible luck in fishing, hunting, whatever they were doing before they met her.

Many stories about huldrefolk in general, which may or may not include huldra, also tell of her stealing beautiful human children and replacing them with her own, strange, ugly and misbehaving troll children.

"Huldra forsvant" (Huldra disappeared) - Theodor Kittelsen, 1908

What is the difference between huldra and the huldrefolk?

The two terms are used interchangably, but are also described differently. One can probably consider huldra and the huldrekall to be a subspecies of huldrefolk, as they seem to be described somewhat differently. Huldra seems to be more of a commoner in most stories, a simple farmer and working woman, while the huldrefolk are often kings, lords, princesses, or just incredibly wealthy in general. She's clearly related to trolls; her cow tail proves that, but she isn't described with the same words as the huldrefolk.

Tusser (comes from the Norse word "thurs", which means troll in old Norse, so tusser are definitely part of the troll family), also known as huldrefolk, subterraneans and the invisibles, are portrayed as something in between the classical elves and dwarves. They're sometimes said to be very beautiful, sometimes said to be small, ugly and hairy. Tusser also have magical powers, and they're incredibly talented silver and goldsmiths. Some of the most beautiful jewelry created back in the days had mysterious origins, and were said to have been made by the huldrefolk. One story supports huldra and huldrefolk being the same species, as it tells of the huldre putting their own beautiful wedding crown on a human bride, and this crown was definitely made by their people, so most likely the huldrefolk.

These creatures are called "the subterraneans" (de underjordiske) because they live undeground in large cave systems beneath the mountains, and in grand cave palaces covered with gold and silver, and they have kings and queens. They are also called "the invisibles" (de usynlige) because they can turn themselves invisible, or sometimes blend in with plants and trees, though certain magical items and potions will allow humans to see them even when they're invisible. Tusser are nocturnal beings, and this was why people were told to never leave their home after dark, as that was when tusser were out and about. In fact, one Norwegian word for twilight is "tussmørke" (tusse darkness). This was especially true for December, and in particular "Lussi night", 12th of December, as this was believed to be the time when supernatural creatures were the most active.

Tusser are also very protective of nature. If a human cuts down a tree protected by them, the human had better be very careful so he doesn't get attacked. Tusser also steal from humans, which is easy for them when they're invisible.

Huldra is never described as invisible or being able to blend in with nature, but it's safe to say they probably come from the same origin. Whether they are the same species or not is up for debate.

How do you protect yourself against a hulder?

Despite her incredible strength and magical powers, there is one thing that huldra and all other creatures related to trolls are weak against: steel. Throw steel over or at a huldra, and she will become dizzy and weak. The story of that woman who was almost forcibly married to a huldrekall had her boyfriend saving her by throwing steel pots and pans into the room she was trapped in, and all the huldre crawled and rolled out because the presense of steel made them too weak to even stand. Another thing that is occasionally but less commonly used to repel huldra is to call the name of Jesus or show her a cross, as huldra is related to trolls, and all trolls hate Christianity and are disgusted by the sight of a cross.

Some less violent ways to repel huldra and the huldrefolk in general is to be polite and kind to them, but to always refuse anything they offer you. It doesn't matter if they try to give you a drink, gold, jewelry, food, you must say no to all of it, otherwise they will have power over you and you won't be able to resist their charms.

Peculiarly, there are also stories in which human men manage to marry huldra in a church, and when she enters the church, her tail falls off and she becomes human.

The origin of the huldrefolk:

It's unclear what huldra's former origin story was, but during the 1600's it became very common in Norway and other countries to explain away all local folklore creatures as demons, even though most of these myths had been around long before Scandinavia was converted to Christianity.

One origin story that was first told in Germany, but was later imported to Norway and applied to the huldrefolk say that when God wandered the earth, he met a woman. He wanted to see her children, but she only showed him the ones who were neatly dressed and those she had the time to wash. Then God said that those she hid from him would remain hidden, and so they became the subterraneans.
Their Norse origin story was likely the same as that of the jotnar, as the jotnar seem to be the origin of the troll myths. This origin story tells that before the world was created, there was an enormous giant called Ymir, and he was so large and so monstrous that when he slept, his body parts would move on their own. His toes mated with each other and created other monsters, known as jotnar. They could be huge, they could have animal features, they could have several heads. They became so numerous that Odin and his brothers decided that the only way to protect themselves would be to kill Ymir, and so they did. Ymir's flesh became the earth, his blood the oceans, his skull the sky, and as he died, he bled so much that most of the jotnar were washed away into the empty void, but some survived. The maggots devouring Ymir's rotting flesh became the dwarves, greedy but cowardly creatures living underground and mining for gold and jewels.

It seems that the huldrefolk are kind of a merging of the dwarves and the jotnar, and possibly the elves, which have no known origin story in Norse mythology, so it's all speculation where the huldrefolk were originally believed to come from.

Another origin that has been suggested for the huldrefolk, but which is largely speculation, is that the beliefs of invisible creatures stalking in the night and luring others away could have come from the ancient Bronze Age beliefs that those who died continued to live on underground as different and very dangerous creatures.

Some stories and anecdotes about huldre:

Most stories about huldra in Norway come from the mountainous and heavily forested regions of southeastern Norway, particularly Telemark and Hedmark, though there are stories about them in other parts of Norway too.

Old Ola Helldal was burning tar one time at Ostebakkje near Åsebru. Then huldra came to him disguised as his wife. "My dear, why are you here?" he said. "I just wanted to see you," she replied. She slept with him that night, but when she got out of bed the next morning, he saw her tail. He told me himself that she kissed him at night too, and she licked him across the chin. That spot on his chin has never been able to grow a beard again.

A man meets some huldre when out herding, and one of the hulder girls is incredibly beautiful. He throws steel over her and captures her. At that point her beauty fades, and she looks rather plain, but the huldrefolk demand that he marries her. He brings her with him down to the village, and when they stand before the altar in the church, her cow tail falls off. He is ever displeased with this marriage and is not at all kind to her. One day she calls him in for dinner while he's out in the smithy. He replies that he refuses to come in until he's bent the horseshoe properly into shape. Then she comes out into the smithy to him, grabs the glowing hot iron with her hands and bends the horseshoe properly. "I could do that to you too, hadn't I been so fond of you," she says. After that he's kind to her.

A young woman stayed behind at the herding shacks after everyone else had left for the village in autumn. The reason might've been that she wanted to finish weaving, or something like that. One day a big pack of huldrefolk came to the herding shacks. They go to her and start dressing her up as a bride. She realises that they intend to marry her off to some crooked-nosed huldrekall, but she can't do anything other than let out her small dog through the door. He runs down to the village, finds her boyfriend, and barks and whines so much that the boyfriend knows that something must've gone wrong at the herding shacks. He grabs his rifle and heads to the mountains. When he arrives, he's surprised to see so many horses around the shack. He looks into a window and sees the girl dressed up as a bride in there. The huldre then put a wedding crown on her head. The boyfriend throws his steel knife over the roof. It is said that supernatural creatures are powerless if you throw steel over them. Then the huldrefolk came running, crawling and rolling out of the door. The boyfriend goes in and brings the girl with him down to the village and marries her now that she was already dressed up.

This story is often connected to a real wedding crown that truly exists in the village, thus proving the story as true.

A while north of Børja are two small ponds of water that people call Matbrunnen. Johan Torsrud and Syver Børja were out fishing late at night, and they stayed til the early hours of the morning. A stone fell into the water just then, and their gaze followed the waves as they reached the shore on the other side of the pond, and there sat a naked hulder, washing herself in the water.

In the old days one time, at the farmstead Møringsnes, Enes, Kvindherred, eight huldrefolk came at the door and asked for bread. The home owners thought they were poor beggars, and asked if they needed anything other than bread.

"No," huldra said, "we have all we need except bread."

"If you're proper folk, you'll have bread for us," another hulder said; "give us some bread, and we'll pay you with wheat, hay and potatoes."

"Oh really?" The disbelieving housewife asked. "Well, then come back in autumn, and I'll give it to you."

The huldrefolk became angry and said that the homestead would want for both milk and wheat in the future. The housewife became suspicious and asked "Are you huldrefolk?"

"Yes, we are," they replied, and disappeared. The farmers regretted not having given the huldrefolk anything, and ever since, the people of Møringsnes have always been generous towards the poor.

More stories coming later.

Sources: no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldra

heimskringla.no/wiki/Mytiske_s…

www.nb.no/nbsok/nb/0ae4d5ab578…