1

Norwegian Troll
20th Century
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Norwegian Laft Hus Society

2

Trolls - Characteristics of trolls as outlined in Scandanavian folklore
historical and present day
Norway

All About NorwegianTrolls!

Common Characteristics of Trolls:

Dirty

Ugly

Nasty

Mean

Selfish

Smelly

Other Interesting Facts About Trolls:

Trolls serve as a good example to children of what not to be.

Come in all sizes and shapes - can be huge giants or small dwarfs

Often thought of as a giant or monster, often represented with a very long nose or even with two or more heads (often 3, 6 or 12 heads!) Some fairytales in Norway depict 3 trolls who share 1 eye!

Trolls have tails looking like a cow tail.

They can be brutal but are stupid and easy to fool.

Can be good or bad; male or female

Very often live far out in the wild nature, in mountains, forests or the ocean

Vicious trouble-makers

Cannot exist in the sunlight, therefore their activity is limited to the night or dark places where the sun cannot reach.

They can 'explode' if they are in bright sunshine!

Trolls hate people and see them as trespassers, so, everything in nature has a troll - the rocks, lakes, trees, hills caves, manmade structures.

The troll is said to guard all of these places and bring harm to those who enter. However, the next time something unpleasant happens to you - think about it....can you really blame a troll or where you just careless about what you were doing or where you were going?

Trolls can do good things even thought their intent may be bad.

Fossergrimen Troll - the troll of music. Fossergrimen will pull and twist the fingers of a sleeping child to try and hurt him. He pulls hard and the child tries to wake up, but he can't. If you wake from a night of very restless sleep to find that piano practice is now easy and that you play very well, Fossergrimen probably paid you a visit that night.

Tan-Verk-Trollet - the toothache troll - If you have forgotten to brush your teeth, Tan-Verk-Trollet will come and chisel a hole in your tooth and make his home there.

Har-Lugg-Trollet - this troll will tie knots in hair of children who don't like to wash their hair or keep it neat.

Bridge Troll - this troll takes control of a bridge just so he can live under it. Although he may never walk over it he doesn't want anyone else to use it.

Nokken - these trolls live in ponds, lakes and rivers. They steal bait from fisherman's hooks and pull children into deep water to drown them.

Draugen - this is the sea troll who through his teasing, causes many sailors to take chances and therefore meet their doom.

Huldra - a lady troll who has a long tail and is very ugly. She tricks handsome young men by putting on her magic cap, which makes her look like a beautiful woman. Although she appears beautiful on the outside, inside she is still a mean, nasty troll. If the man looks only at the pretty face and pays no attention to the girl's character he can be fooled into marrying her. If she marries in a Christian church it is said that her tail will drop off and she will remain beautiful. However, she will undoubtedly make her huspand miserable; which he deserves for marrying just a pretty face.

Tomte-Gubben - this troll never takes a bath, never combs his hair or beardk, and never brushes his teeth. His clothes come from a garbage dump so he is ugly and smells terrible. He wants to dance with the girls but sometimes he can't tell the difference between a girl and a scarecrow and he dances the scarecrow around until it falls to pieces. Imagine how a girl would feel if she gets tricked into dancing with him. Any girl so unfortunate is also the target of nasty comments from other people because she danced with the Tomte-Gubben.

There is a famous painting of a troll, painted by Theodore Kittelsen, entitled "The troll who is pondering on how old he is"

Credits:
Scandinavian Gnomes and Trolls Coloring Book, Bev Barbo, Carlsons' 1983
Brit Langkaas; Heidi Lervold; Ingrid Salensminde; Oivind Madssen - contributed interesting facts about trolls

3

Norwegian Trolls - Statues
20th Century
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Norwegian Laft Hus Society

4

Artifacts at Laft Hus - Troll Statue donated by Eileen Scheitzsch
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Norwegian Laft Hus Society

5

Gnomes - Characteristics of gnomes in Scandanavian traditional folklore

Gnomes

Kind

Helpful

Benevolent

Are a blessing to the family with whom they dwell.

Tiny people who always appear to be happy.

Their joyful outlook on life is reflected by many laugh wrinkles around their eyes.

They have the ability to see things as they really are.

Very kind to animals and so animals love gnomes.

Gnome Family consists of mother, father, and 2 children. The children are always twins and can be 2 boys, 2 girls or a 1 boy & 1 girl.

The girls' upbringing is left to the mother while the father teaches his sons.

Both parents will spend time with the children playing games or telling them stories.

Gnomes tend to avoid contact with elves, goblins, ghosts, dwarfs, witches, and other beings; however, the trolls give them a lot of trouble.

A gnome is much more clever than a troll, but if he is caught by a troll very bad things can happen to him. The gnomes hide from the trolls and usually escape because the troll is powerless over the gnome outside of his cave.

Father gnome is good at carpentry and so is good at building a house as well as carving things that are useful and decorative.

Mother gnome is busy with cooking, cleaning and spinning cloth and dying it to make garments for her family.

The gnome's house is usually located in the roots of a tree, a rabbit hole, or a mole hole. Gnome dwellings are usually around farms and old houses and sometimes a family will take up residence in a tiny section of a human house.

Credits:
Scandinavian Gnomes and Trolls Coloring Book, Bev Barbo, Carlsons' 1983 copyright

6

Nisse Figures Made by Laft Hus Society Members, For Sale
?
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Norwegian Laft Hus Society

7

Nisse - Kaare Olson in Costume as Norwegian Nisse
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Kaare Olson

8

Nisse - Who are these creatures?
2007
Norway

Who/What are Nisse?

A "Nisse" is the name for a small humanlike creature who resembles "Santa Claus" in appearance (and in recent years, takes on the similarity of the modern American Santa Claus). He is not exactly an elf nor a dwarf, but something in between. Nisser can be gnome, ghost or shadow. Nisser are cute little creatures who, according to the Norwegian folklore, are often seen wearing a red knitted cap, usually red, and short grey or brown trousers (like bunad trousers), a knit sweater or busserull and with a long beard. He is the best known creature in Norwegian folklore. Even today, some people believe that he exists.

From Norwegian rural areas there are lots of legends about Nisse's life and duties. The farmers believe that having a Nisse living in their barns will bring them luck and good harvests. If they are so lucky to have a Nisse present, they prepare food for him, especially at Christmas time, and place this in the barns. The food is always eaten up by the next morning! If the farmers take good care of their "personal" Nisse, he will jump in the moving carriage to continue living with the farmer should a farmer purchase a new farm.

The word Nisse is not originally a Norwegian word.Originally nisse was "Fjosnissen" who was a little fellow living somewhere inthe barn with the cows (fjos). The farm Nisse is kind and helpful. He takes care of people and animals all year round. It is very important to be on good terms with the farm Nisse, otherwise strange incidents can occur on the farm. It is wise to remember the Nisse during Christmas and to put a bowl of porridge for him and his family. There is even a Norwegian Christmas song about the rats that are trying to steal his Christmas porridge called "Pa laven sitter Nissen med sin Julegrot" (In the barn the Nisse is sitting with his Christmas porridge).

The Jule-Nisse (Christmas Nisse) is said to come out of the mountains for a twelve-day period during the Christmas season. He will come to a certain farm at that time. If he is treated kindly by the people on the farm, he will remain there for that full-time and then disappear as suddenly as he arrived. The Jule-Nisse sems to love all the animals and is said that he has the power to bring good luck to people and good health to the animals, unless he is treated badly by his "hosts".

If lucky you can see Nisse all year round.

Credits:
Thor and Joan Dahl, www.trollshop.net
Norwegian Laft Hus Society
Ingrid Salensminde; Brit Langkaas; Heidi Lervold; Oivind Madssen - contributed facts about Nisse