Huldra

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Huldra is also the name of a witch in Sheri S. Tepper's The True Game series of novels.

In Scandinavian folklore, the huldra (Norwegian, derived from a root meaning "covered" or "secret") is a seductive forest creature. Other names include the Swedish skogsrå or skogsfru (meaning "lady (ruler) of the forest") and Tallemaja (pine tree Mary). A male hulder is called a huldu, or in Norway a huldrekall. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva Huld and the German Holda.[1]

The word huldra is the definite form in Norwegian ("the hulder") - the indefinite form is ei hulder ("a hulder"). The plural indefinite form is huldrer ("hulders"), and the plural definite form is huldrene ("the hulders"). In the plural it is also common to use the collective form huldrefolk (indefinite) and huldrefolket (definite).

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[edit] Features

The huldra is a stunningly beautiful, sometimes naked woman with long hair; though from behind she is hollow like an old tree trunk, and has an animal's tail. In Norway, she has a cow's tail, and in Sweden she may have that of a cow or a fox.

In Norway, the huldra has often been described as a typical dairymaid, wearing the clothes of a regular farm girl, although somewhat more dazzling than most girls.

[edit] Folklore

The huldra 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 Peder Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

[edit] Human relations

The huldras were held to be kind to colliers, 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 huldra could be, especially if treated with respect (Hellström 1985:15).

A boy in Tiveden went fishing, but he had no luck. Then he met a beautiful lady, and she was so stunning that he felt he had to catch his breath. But, then he realized who she was, because he could see a fox's tail sticking out below the skirt. As he knew that it was forbidden to comment on the tail to the lady of the forest, if it were not done in the most polite manner, he bowed deeply and said with his softest voice, "Milady, I see that your petticoat shows below your skirt". The lady thanked him gracefully and hid her tail under her skirt, telling the boy to fish on the other side of the lake. That day, the boy had great luck with his fishing and he caught a fish every time he threw out the line. This was the huldra's recognition of his politeness.

In some traditions, the huldra lures men into the forest to have sexual intercourse with her, rewarding those who satisfy her and often killing those who do not. The Norwegian huldra is a lot less bloodthirsty and may simply kidnap a man or lure him into the underworld. She sometimes steals human infants and replaces them with her own ugly huldrebarn (changeling huldre children).

Sometimes she marries a local farm boy, but when this happens, the glamour leaves her when the priest lays his hand on her, or when she enters the church. Some legends tell of husbands who subsequently treat her badly. Some fairy tales leave out this feature, and only relate how a marriage to a Christian man will cause her to lose her tail, but not her looks, and let the couple live happily ever after. However if she is treated badly, she will remind him that she is far from weak, often by straightening out a horseshoe with her bare hands, sometimes while it is still glowing hot from the forge.

If betrayed, the huldra can punish the man severely, as in one case from Sigdal, when she avenged her pride on a young braggart she had sworn to marry, on the promise that he would not tell anybody of her. The boy instead bragged about his bride for a year, and when they met again, she beat him around the ears with her cow's tail. He lost his hearing and his wits for the rest of his life.

[edit] Hunting

The hulder has long been associated with hunting; she might blow down the barrel of a huntsman's rifle, causing it never thereafter to miss a shot. Some men are not so lucky, or perhaps skilled, and escape her only after surrendering their sanity.

After the Christianization of Scandinavia, the chief deity of the Norse pantheon, Odin, came to be associated with the Wild Hunt. The hunt is often for a woman, who is captured or killed. The rationale behind this antipathy is never clearly explained in the accounts. Odin's Wild Hunt connoted a violent storm where much lightning struck the wild forests where huldra lived. This storm suggested Odin's berserker rage against his rivals, the trolls or Jotun, which is sometimes seen as akin to huldra. (Before the process of Christianization, the deity Thor was credited with lightning strikes against the giant trolls, in the form of his hammer.)

[edit] Origins

Associated with Christianity, a tale recounts how a mother had washed only half of her children when God came to her cottage; ashamed of the dirty ones, she hid them. God decreed that those she had hidden from him would be hidden from mankind; they became the huldrer.[2]

[edit] Toponyms

Huldremose (Huldra Bog) is a bog located on Djursland, Denmark famous for the discovery of the Huldremose Woman, a bog body from 55 BC.

[edit] Parallels

The huldra may be connected with the German holda. The huldra is also known in Finnish folklore.

[edit] Modern culture

The Norwegian municipality Lardal has a hulder in its coat of arms.

In modern day Iceland, stories still abound of the huldufólk. It is said that work crews building new roads will sometimes divert the road around particular boulders which are known to be the homes of the huldufólk.

Neil Gaiman's short story "Monarch of the Glen: An American Gods Novella" features a huldra as a main character.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The article Huldra in Nordisk familjebok (1909).
  2. ^ K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 147 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967