Hulder

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Hulder
Huldra's Nymphs.jpg
Huldra's Nymphs (1909) by Bernard Evans Ward
Creature information
Grouping Legendary creature
Sub grouping Humanoid
Similar entities Huldufólk "hidden folk", skogsrå
baobhan sith, glaistig
siren, succubus
Origin
Country Norway
Region Scandinavia
Habitat Forests

A hulder (or huldra) is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret". [1] 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, [2] [3] [4] 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. [5]

Contents

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).

Though described as beautiful, the huldra is noted for having a distinctive inhuman feature — an animal's hairy legs and tail, (usually a cow's or a fox's), and/or a back resembling a hollowed-out tree — carefully disguised under a long clothing.

Folklore

The hulder is one of several rå (keeper, warden), including the aquatic sjörå or havsfru, later identified with a mermaid, and the bergsrå in caves and mines who made life tough for the poor miners.

More information can be found in the collected Norwegian folktales of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

Relations with humans

A hulder is talking with a charcoal burner. She looks like a young farmer woman, but her tail is peeking out under her skirt. From Svenska folksagner (1882). Troll woman.gif
A hulder is talking with a charcoal burner. She looks like a young farmer woman, but her tail is peeking out under her skirt. From Svenska folksägner (1882).

The hulders were held to be kind to charcoal burners, watching their charcoal kilns while they rested. Knowing that she would wake them if there were any problems, they were able to sleep, and in exchange they left provisions for her in a special place. A tale from Närke illustrates further how kind a hulder could be, especially if treated with respect (Hellström 1985:15).

Toponyms

A multitude of places in Scandinavia are named after the Hulders, often places by legend associated with the presence of the "hidden folk". Here are some examples showing the wide distribution of Hulder-related toponyms between the northern and southern reaches of Scandinavia, and the terms usage in different language groups' toponyms.

Danish

Norwegian

Sámi

In the mobile game Year Walk, one of the Watchers is a Huldra.

They are mentioned in Seanan MacGuire's October Daye series in the book "A red-rose chain".

Neil Gaiman's novella The Monarch of the Glen, published in the collection Fragile Things , includes references to Hulder legends.

In the subsequent Year Walk: Bedtime Stories for Awful Children, the first chapter is devoted to the Huldra. [6]

In chapter 40 (chapter XL: "A day in Hälsingland", section: "The Animals' New Year's Eve") of the novel Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey through Sweden, a narrated legend mentions the Huldra.

In the video game "Bramble: The Mountain King," developed by Dimfrost Studios in 2023, the boss Skogsrå is a Huldra.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hellström, AnneMarie. Jag vill så gärna berätta (in Norwegian). ISBN   9179080022.
  2. ↑ Granberg, Gunnar (1935). Skogsrået i yngre nordisk folktradition. Skrifter / utg. av Kungl. Gustav Adolfs akademien för folklivsforskning, 99-0440828-9; 3 (in Swedish). Uppsala: Lundequistska bokh. SELIBR   321677.
  3. ↑ Hultkrantz, Åke, ed. (1961). The supernatural owners of nature: Nordic symposion on the religious conceptions of ruling spirits (genii loci, genii speciei) and allied concepts. Stockholm studies in comparative religion, 0562-1070; 1. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. SELIBR   541848.
  4. ↑ Häll, Mikael (2013). Skogsrået, näcken och djävulen: erotiska naturväsen och demonisk sexualitet i 1600- och 1700-talens Sverige (in Swedish). Stockholm: Malört. ISBN   978-91-978751-2-7. SELIBR   13887591.
  5. ↑ "Nordisk familjebok". runeberg.org (in Swedish). 1 January 1909.
  6. ↑ "Year Walk Bedtime Stories for Awful Children". Simogo. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2022.[ dead link ]
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