The Danish Nisse
Numerous Danish folktales contain mythical figures such as trolls, elves, goblins, and wights as well as figures borrowed from Nordic mythology. The nisse is a particularly well-known legendary figure in Danish folklore, apparently dating back to pre-Christian times when it was believed they were a kind of household gods.
Other Scandinavian countries also have similar figures and there are similarities to the English brownies and hobs. Just Mathias Thiele collected legends about the nisse in his Danske Folkesagn (Danish Folktales) (1819–1823), which encouraged artists such as Johan Thomas Lundbye to depict the julenisse (Christmas nisse) later in the 19th century. The nisse is dressed in grey with a pointed red cap, he was no taller than a 10-year-old boy.
Traditionally each farm had its own nisse living on the loft or in a stable, and they act as the house’s guardian. They protect children and animals from evil and misfortune. They also help with chores and farm work. They are known to have a temper especially when they are offended. If they are ever insulted, they usually play tricks and kill livestock, it is custom to leave a bowl of porridge with cinnamon and butter for the nisse up in the attic, some stories tell that if you forget to leave porridge for the nisse they may burn down your farm/house! However no one really believes this, it is just something you hear in stories about the old days :)
In Swedish the nisse is called tomte, this name is derived from a place of residence and area of influence: the house lot or tomt. Nisse is the common name in Norwegian, Danish and the Scanian dialect in southernmost Sweden; it is a nickname for Nils, and its usage in folklore comes from expressions such as Nisse god dräng ("Nisse good lad", cf. Robin Goodfellow). Other names are tuftekall, tomtegubbe or haugebonde ("mound farmer"), all names connecting the being to the origins of the farm (the building ground), or a burial mound. Those names are remembrances of the being's origins in an ancestral cult.
The tomte/nisse was often imagined as a small, elderly man (size varies from a few inches to about half the height of an adult man), often with a full beard; dressed in the everyday clothing of a farmer.
In modern Denmark, nisses are also often seen as beardless, wearing grey and red woolens with a red cap. Since nisses are thought to be skilled in illusions and sometimes able to make themselves invisible, one was unlikely to get more than brief glimpses of him no matter what he looked like.
During the month of December if anything goes missing in the house it is proably the nisse playing tricks on you!
