Scandinavian Mythology

Since it is Halloween I thought I’d make a fun post (not a super fact) about Scandinavian Mythology or folklore. I live in Texas, but I am originally from Sweden so the various beings I’ll describe or mention below are beings that I grew up hearing about. When I was a kid, we kids used to scare each other with stories about these beings.

I should also point out that it is not ancient Viking mythology but more recent folklore that some people still believe in. I am focusing on Swedish folklore and Norwegian folklore since it is similar to Swedish folklore. Danish folklore is a little bit different, but it has many similarities to Swedish and Norwegian folklore. Denmark is a Scandinavian country, but the post would be too long if I included folklore that is specifically Danish.

I am providing one or more pictures for each being. These pictures are either in the public domain, for example via Wikipedia, or shutter-stock pictures (I have a subscription), or pictures I generated with the help of ChatGPT with varying success. The beings covered are Tomte, Vittra (Vitter folk), Elf, Skogsrå/ /Tallemaja/Huldra, Näcken/Fossegrim, Troll, Myling, Storsjö odjuret (the north Swedish equivalent of the Loch Ness monster), Kraken, and Skvader. Finally, Blodstämmare is not a being but a north Swedish magical practice that you use to remotely stop the blood flow in a person.

Tomte

Tomtar (plural of Tomte) or Nisse in Norwegian is a type of small magical people, or gnomes, related to Vitter folk (described below). They are friendly and is the inspiration behind the Swedish version of Santa Claus, which is therefore a bit different from the Disney version of Santa Claus that has become so popular.

For one thing, the Disney version of Santa Claus works alone while delivering presents and therefore needs to move faster than the speed of light to cover all the good children. A Tomte may help you with your projects and duties if you are nice to them. They may help you with your farm and your animals, warn you of danger, and bring you gifts for Christmas if you in return put out food for them, such as porridge. As mentioned, there are many Tomtar, often one Tomte per house.

A Tomte wearing a red hat in a snowy winter forest. | Scandinavian Mythology
An illustration of a Tomte. Shutterstock ID: 2060057882 by PLIMPLUM.
An old illustration of a Tomte conversing with a sitting cat.
A Tomte or a Nisse, about as big as a cat, Erik Werenskiold, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Tomte with a beard wearing a red pointed hat | Scandinavian Mythology
Tomte generated by ChatGPT

Vittra

Vittra or Vitterfolk are supernatural spirits or small invisible people who have a lot in common with people as well as Tomtar. They own cattle and they sometimes interact with people. Usually, they stay out of your way, but if you hurt them, for example by throwing hot water out the window without warning them first, they may take revenge on you and burn down your house. Vittra are not evil but not friendly either.

The belief in Vittra is especially prevalent in northern Sweden. On the Swedish island of Gotland, they are often referred to as “Di små undar jordi” in the Got/Goth dialect, or “De små under jorden” in proper Swedish, or “the small ones below ground” in English. They are sometimes depicted as looking similar to Tomtar, gnomes or elves, and sometimes as invisible, or near invisible little spirits. Below are some depictions of Vitter folk.

A Vitter is sitting on a log in the forest and baby cow is standing in front of him.
A Vitter and his mini calf. Generated with the help of ChatGPT

Elf

An elf, or elves in plural, is a type of human like supernatural being in Germanic folklore and especially Nordic/Scandinavian folklore. Since elves have been popularized around the world it is a well known being. In Scandinavian mythology they were initially often considered bad news but because of popular culture, such as Tolkien’s books, they have been redeemed into something positive. The first picture below is from a Swedish children’s book written in 1910. I read this book when I was a child. The wispy creatures are elves and the small kids with mushroom hats are Tomte children. In this book the elves are depicted in a Nordic pre-modern fashion, but they are nice.

Wispy spirit like elves are sitting on a log. The Tomte children are standing next to them and talking to them. The Tomte children are wearing red mushroom hats. | Scandinavian Mythology
Little älvor, playing with Tomtebobarnen. From Children of the Forest (1910) by Swedish author and illustrator Elsa Beskow. Elsa Beskow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Around 20 white dressed female elves are dancing on a meadow.
Ängsälvor (Swedish “Meadow Elves”) by Nils Blommér (1850). Nils Blommér, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
A female elf in the forest. She is holding a lantern. | Scandinavian Mythology
A female elf that I generated with the help of ChatGPT
One male elf and three female elves standing in a clearing.
Four elves (one male, three females) standing in a forest glade. I generated this picture with the help of ChatGPT.

Skogsrå,  Tallemaja, Huldra

Skogsrå or Tallemaja in Swedish folklore is a seductive female creature who lures men with her beauty or beautiful singing and then kills the men. The Skogsrå / Tallemaja typically has a tail and a hollowed out back, which you can’t see if you are facing each other. In Norwegian this creature is called Huldra (Hulder in plural).

It should be noted that I read that if you meet a Huldra in the forest and you treat her with respect she will not kill you. She would just enjoy your company for a while, talk to you, sing to you, show you the beauty of the forest, and then she would let you go. It is only the rude and selfish men who don’t respect her boundaries whom she kills.

An image AI-illustration of a Huldra
Imagining how a Huldra would look like. Stock AI-generated image ID: 2400845203 by Shutterstock AI Generator.
Two lightly dressed huldras / nymphs resting by a creek in the forest. | Scandinavian Mythology
Huldra’s Nymphs (1909) by Bernard Evans Ward, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A Tallemaja with pointed ears and red hair. She is wearing a green dress, and she is standing in the forest.
A Skogsrå, Tallemaja or Huldra that I generated with the help of ChatGPT
A Skogsrå with pointed ears and red hair. She is wearing a green leafy dress, a crown of leaves, and she is standing in the forest. | Scandinavian Mythology
Another picture of a Skogsrå, Tallemaja or Huldra that I generated with the help of ChatGPT.
A Tallemaja with long hair. She is wearing a brown dress, a pointy hat, and she is standing in the forest.
A Tallemaja that I generated with the help of ChatGPT.

Last summer (a bit more than one year ago) we visited Sweden and Norway. One day we took a tour into the Norwegian mountains and fjords. We took a two-hour cruise on Sognefjord and after the cruise we took a train to the top of the surrounding mountains. Along the way we encountered a Huldra by a waterfall. She sang to us in her beautiful voice, and she seduced us all, both men and women, to take photos of her with our phones and posting them on social media. It was a tourist ploy of course. You can read more about our trip here .

A waterfall in the mountains. A woman in a red dress is standing to the right of the waterfall.
My photo of the Huldra (in red) by the waterfall in the Norwegian mountains. She seduced us all into taking photos of her for Facebook. Her seductiveness was feared in medieval times, but in modern times we refer to the seductiveness of the Huldra as a “tourist trap”.
Blurry image of a Huldra dressed in red standing on a mountain side. | Scandinavian Mythology
A close up of the Huldra we encountered. Sorry, my phone camera is the best and it was at a distance.

Näcken, Fossegrim

Näcken, Strömkarlen, or Fossegrim in Norwegian is a male creature who lives by the water, creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes. He plays a harp or a violin He lures children and others to their death. In southern Sweden (Scania) he seduces people by skillfully playing a violin thus creating irresistible music.

Greenish statue of Fossegrim standing in a small waterfall playing a harp. | Scandinavian Mythology
Bjørn som tegner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons
Näcken or Strömkarlen is sitting on a rock in a creek playing a harp. | Scandinavian Mythology
A picture of Näcken that I generated with the help of ChatGPT

Troll

Troll, or Trolls in plural, are large ugly creatures with magical powers. They typically live in caves and sunlight is dangerous to them. They are typically hostile to humans and may kidnap people, including children, to work in their mines. Trolls are called Trolls in both Swedish and Norwegian.

Four big Trolls sitting next a shiny white female elf.
Look at them, troll mother said to the elf girl. Look at my sons! You won’t find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon. (1915) by John Bauer. John Albert Bauer (4 June 1882 – 20 November 1918) was a Swedish painter and illustrator. wikipedia public domain.
A troll standing in the forest
A picture of a troll that I generated with the help of ChatGPT
A troll standing in the forest | Scandinavian Mythology
Another picture of a troll that I generated with the help of ChatGPT
A very ugly troll standing in the forest
A picture of a troll, a slightly different style, that I generated with the help of ChatGPT

Myling

Before modern contraception, infanticide was one way for parents to limit the number of children they had. Unwanted and out of wedlock children were often killed. It is part of our human dark history. These babies were not baptized and in old Scandinavian mythology they became restless spirits seeking revenge on the mother or both parents. Alternatively, they caused mischief until they could convince someone to at least bury them properly. These restless baby spirits are referred to as myling or mylingar in plural.

A myling in the middle of a room of a cottage. The myling looks like a small shiny ghost. It is dark in the cottage and there is a window and a candle. | Scandinavian Mythology
A picture of a myling that I generated with the help of ChatGPT

Storsjö odjuret

Storsjöodjuret is a large sea serpent like Swedish lake monster like the Loch Ness monster. It resides in a lake in northern Sweden. The English translation of Storsjö odjuret is the monster of the Great Lake. Storsjö / Great Lake is not far from where I grew up. I should say this monster has been hundreds of times since 1635 and seems to have been depicted on a rune stone from the 11th century.

A runestone with runes and a picture of snake like creature.
The Frösö Runestone from the mid-11th century. Frösö is an island located in the middle of Storsjö. In the legend from 1635 Storsjöodjuret is said to be the serpent depicted on the stone. Andreaze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Depicted is a large sea serpent like creature with a horse like head and a fish tail. | Scandinavian Mythology
A picture of storsjoodjuret that I generated with the help of ChatGPT

Kraken

Kraken is a gigantic octopus that can bring down entire ships. It is more of a Norwegian creature but also Swedish.

An old illustration of a giant octopus climbing all over a ship.
Pierre Denys de Montfort (1766–1820) / Étienne Claude Voysard (1746–1812.), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Skvader

The skvader is a Swedish fictional creature that looks like a mix of a wood grouse and a hare. It started with a taxidermist creating a mixture of the two animals, taking a photo, and a rumor spread that it was real. I am remember watching debates on Swedish TV on whether the creature was real or not. People love to believe strange things. Yet another reason we scientifically valid evidence.

A photo of animal that looks like a mix of a wood grouse and a hare.
Unknown photographer, Copyrighted free use, via Wikimedia Commons

Blodstämmare

This is not a creature but a very common superstition in northern Sweden. There are people, blodstämmare, who can stop the flow of blood by uttering magical phrases while focusing their minds on the person in question. This power is usually used for helping people who are bleeding. It can also be used for evil, like black magic, to stop the blood flow in someone’s heart. This superstition is based on Sami (indigenous north Scandinavian people) Shamanism and north Swedish Christian fundamentalism (Laestadians). It is respected enough that some north Swedish hospitals have used blodstämmare in emergency situations.

The father of a close friend of mine called a blodstämmare when he had a bad nosebleed, and it worked. I know anecdotes are not valid scientific evidence. It is just a good story.

Happy Halloween

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

51 thoughts on “Scandinavian Mythology”

  2. What a great recap of Swedish folklore. I’ve heard of some of the, but not the details. I also didin’t know there were similar but different gnome type characters like Tomte, vittra and elves. I thought they were all one-in-the-same. Happy Halloween. Maggie

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  3. Hi Thomas, thanks for this synopsis of Swedish and Norwegian folklore, particularly all the detail. I am fairly familiar with some of it since I have spent considerable time in Norway – a country I really like – and while there learned a bit about it. (No offence intended; I have only been to Sweden once for five days so I don’t know it very well. I suspect it’s a country I would also like a lot, though.) An interesting and enjoyable Halloween post. 🎃

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    1. Thank you so much Lynette. Norway has a lot mountains and fjords while Sweden is a lot flatter. However, in the north there are big forest and mountains, and where I am from the high coast, there are fjords, called fjärds in Swedish.

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    1. Thank you very much for your very kind words Glowith. Yes the Tomte and the Huldra are beings that are very important folklore in Scandinavia. There are a lot of stories and poems about them. An example is a very long winter poem about a Tomte. It is difficult to translate but it goes like this:

      The cold of the midwinter night is hard,
      the stars sparkle and twinkle.
      Everyone sleeps in their houses
      deep in the midnight hour.
      The moon walks its silent course,
      the snow shines white on pine and fir,
      the snow shines white on the roofs.
      Only the Tomte is awake.

      Standing there so gray by the barn door,
      gray against the white drift,
      watching, like many winters before,
      up against the disk of the moon,
      looking towards the forest, where spruce and fir
      draws its dark wall around the yard,
      ponders, although it doesn’t teach boating,
      over a strange riddle.

      The poem continues but it will be revealed that the strange riddle is that people are born, they go through childhood, they become adults, they get old and then they disappear, and the Tomte does not know where. He is an immortal creature so he does not understand what makes people disappear.

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  8. Really interesting, I love reading about the different folklores that origniate from different areas. Other than trolls, I hadn’t heard of any of these. Skogsrå sounds a little similar to Succubi’s.

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    1. Scandinavia folkore isn’t very well known outside of Scandinavia. About succubi, as I understand that a female demon that would come when you are sleeping, in your dreams, a skogsrå is a flesh and blood creature that you meet while walking in the forest, and they are different folklore. But I think there are also similarities that a lot of people will think about. Thank you Pooja.

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      1. Yeah that’s true, I think the main similarity if that they’re both attractive females that use that to lure men. My pleasure, thanks for sharing these they really were very interesting to read about.

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  10. Hi Thomas, this is a great post. I enjoyed all these mythological creatures. I am familiar with many of them through my extensive reading including the Danish, Hans Christian Andersen. He features else with hollow backs in his story The Elven Mound.

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    1. Thank you so much Robbie. That is interesting. I’ve always considered Danish mythology as a little bit different from Swedish and Norwegian but the elf with a hollow back that you describe sounds very much like a skogsrå.

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  12. Happy Halloween, Thomas! This was a fun post. I knew about a few of these creatures but several were new to me. I found the Myling interesting and a bit sad. The Huldra was also new to me, but I liked that encounters with her don’t always end in tragedy. Thanks for this informative post!

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  14. In elementary school I read a book called The Hero from Otherwhere which drew heavily on Norse mythology (Fenris, Ragnarok, etc.) That was probably my intro to Scandinavian folklore. Then years later playing D&D, all our characters wanted to choose the Finnish god Ukko as their patron because there was a small chance he would send Air Maidens to help you out if you were in trouble, and an even smaller chance he would turn up himself. Obviously that’s all much more cosmic than these creatures.

    The ancient runestone in the park there is fascinating. I love things like that. The Scandinavian places at the Hospitality Houses in Balboa Park where you can read up on this kind of folklore and I remember flipping through one about trolls the last time we were down there.

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    1. Thank you so much James. That is very interesting. I should say that I focused on more recent folklore and not the older viking mythology. It would have made the post too long. However, back in school we learned about the viking mythology and we also learned how to read runes. I did not include Finnish mythology even though it is somewhat similar to Norwegian and Swedish mythology not only because it is a bit different, but also the names are totoally different because Finnish is a completely different language from Swedish and Norwegian. It is not even a European language. Swedish and Norwegian are simular enough that I can speak with a Norwegian without problem, imitate Norwegian well enough to fool AI, and read Norwegian, without having taken a single class of Norwegian.

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  18. Thomas, your post is more than folklore — it’s a bridge between memory and myth. You bring these old Scandinavian spirits to life not as distant legends, but as familiar whispers from your homeland. It’s touching how your childhood stories now travel across cultures and generations.

    One thought that struck me is how these beings reflect moral lessons — kindness, respect, humility, and harmony with nature. Even the darker ones, like Myling or Näcken, seem to echo human fears and guilt. Perhaps folklore endures not because of magic, but because it reveals what we most need to remember about being human.

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    1. Thank you so much for your very kind words Livora. You are right, they are both myth and memory. I believed some of this when I was a kid and we used to scare each other with stories about vitter folk, and there were old people who claimed to have seen them. I think your are right the mythology expresses feelings and fears, and with the Myling and Näcken guilt and fears like you say.

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      1. That’s such a fascinating memory — how stories we once feared as children later reveal so much truth about human emotions. You’ve captured that beautifully. Myth and memory really do intertwine, shaping how we understand ourselves.

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  19. Such fun to read about the mythical creatures of Sweden and Norway! 😀 The Hulder share several characteristic with mermaids. And who doesn’t love Trolls? They are a world-wide phenomenon, and I had a bunch of little troll figurines as a child. And the Kraken is also world-famous. The Seattle NHL hockey team adopted the name, and chants of “Bring on the Kraken” abound. 🐙 Also featured in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

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    1. Thank you so much Debbie. You are right. Many of these are well known outside of Scandinavia. I did not know that NHL Seattle had a “Bring on the Kraken” chant. That is funny. Now that you say it, I remember the Kraken in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

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  20. That was fun, Thomas. I love folklore, as you know, and am fascinated by the stories. I was somewhat familiar with about half of these. The mylingar were rather sad and have a dark origin it seems. They remind me a little of Celtic changelings and how that mythology was often used to rid families of disabled babies. I remember your post about the singing Huldra. How fun. 🙂

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