Scandinavian folklore

Danish writer and poet (1805–1875)

Icelandic historian, poet and politician (AD 1179–1241)

thumb|upright=1.3|''Look at them, troll mother said. Look at my sons! You won't find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon.'' (1915) by John Bauer (illustrator)|John Bauer A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

13th-century Norse work of literature written in Iceland

Norwegian forester, writer, children's writer, and collector of fairy tales (1812–1885)

thumb|The goddess Sif holds her long, golden hair while grain grows behind her in an illustration from 1897 In Norse mythology, Sif is a golden-haired goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, she is known for her golden hair and is married to the thunder god Thor.

natural trace of the circular growth front of mushroom mycelium

right|thumb|upright=1.3|Bersi Skáldtorfuson, in chains, composing poetry after he was captured by King Óláfr Haraldsson (illustration by [[Christian Krohg for an 1899 edition of Heimskringla)]]

thumb|350px|right|Hervor dying after the Hlǫðskviða by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]]

runestone

water sprite from European mythology

A hulder (or huldra) is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret". 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, and '''''' in Sámi folklore. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva divine figure Huld and the German Holda.

thumb|upright=1.2|Bjarmaland (Biarmia) as illustrated in the Carta marina (1539) by [[Olaus Magnus]]

Scandanavian decorative Christmas straw goat

malicious entity in folklore

right|thumb|200px|Page recording a charm against a dwarf, from the Lacnunga collection, in which the dwarf is referred to as a .

thumb|Kim Diaz Holm's contemporary art depicting a draugr haunting in enormous Hamr (folklore)|hamr ("magical shape") thumb|Kim Diaz Holm's contemporary art depicting a #Sea draugr|sea draugr in Norwegian folklore

The lindworm (worm meaning snake), also spelled lindwyrm or lindwurm, is a mythical creature in Northern, Western and Central European folklore that traditionally has the shape of a giant serpent monster which lives deep in the forest. It can be seen as a sort of dragon.

Icelandic writer and lawspeaker (1214-1284)

Norse fairy tale

Scandinavian-Scottish literary work

thumb|Amblett in a 17th-century Danish manuscript illustration Amleth (; Latinized as Amlethus) is a figure in a medieval Scandinavian legend, the direct inspiration of the character of Prince Hamlet, the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The chief authority for the legend of Amleth is Saxo Grammaticus, who devotes to it parts of the third and fourth books of his Gesta Danorum, completed at the beginning of the 13th century. Saxo's version is supplemented by Latin and vernacular compilations from a much later date. In all versions, prince Amleth (Amblothæ) is the

Norse fairy tale

thumb|Ättestupa in Västergötland as depicted by [[Willem Swidde in Erik Dahlbergh, Suecia antiqua et hodierna (1705)]]

series of Viking-era tapestries

In Danish folklore, a helhest (Danish "Hel horse") is a three-legged horse associated with Hel. Various Danish phrases are recorded that refer to the horse. The Helhest is associated with death and illness, and it is mentioned in folklore as having been spotted in various locations in Denmark.

Onela was, according to Beowulf, a Swedish king, the son of Ongentheow and the brother of Ohthere. He usurped the Swedish throne, but was killed by his nephew Eadgils, who won by hiring foreign assistance.

"Waldere" or "Waldhere" is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments, of around 32 and 31 lines, from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an Elizabethan prayer book, which had presumably come to Europe following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England in the 16th century.

Norwegian fairy tale

heavy natural stone which people are challenged to lift to prove their strength

thumb|right|This published Cyprianus from 1916 calls itself a "dream and fortunetelling book", and it also promises an astrology|astrological [[almanac from Tycho Brahe.]] Cyprianus is a name given in Scandinavian traditions of folk magic to the "black book" ("Svarteboken"): a grimoire or manuscript collection of spells; and by extension to the magical tradition that these spells form a part of. There is no standard text called "Cyprianus"; it was a general label given to a collection of spells.

Norse fairy tale

Norwegian fairy tale

witches' familiar and milk thief in Scandinavian folklore

mythical churchyard-guardian spirit-animal

Dapplegrim (Norwegian: Grimsborken) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book (1890).

"Elveskud" or "Elverskud" (; Danish for "Elf-shot") is the Danish, and most widely used, name for one of the most popular ballads in Scandinavia.

Norwegian fairy tale

thumb|Coat of arms of the [[Ulfeldt family, featuring a heraldic valravn]] A valravn is a supernatural raven in Danish renaissance folklore. It principally appears in the folk ballad "Valravnen" () where it is depicted as a knight, who was transformed into a raven, and whose curse can only be broken by consuming the blood of a boy.

1852 Norse fairy tale

Scandinavian tradition

Norse fairy tale

medieval ballad

Tatterhood (Norwegian: Lurvehette) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

Icelandic fairy tale

thumb|Fossegrim playing a harp in a waterfall under the statue to the violinist Ole Bull in [[Bergen]] thumb| ("The Stream Man") by Swedish painter Ernst Josephson, 1884 Fossegrim, also known simply as the grim (Norwegian) or Strömkarlen (Swedish), is a water spirit or troll in Scandinavian folklore. He is often depicted as a handsome, nude man playing the fiddle in and . Fossegrim has been associated with a mill spirit (kvernknurr) and is related to the water spirit (nokken) and is sometimes also called näcken in Sweden.

In Norse mythology, a ' (Old Norse: , pl. or ' — "warden," "watcher" or "caretaker") is a warden spirit, believed to follow from birth to death the soul (, see Hug (folklore)) of every person.

creature in Germanic mythology and folklore

the mind in Nordic folk belief

English fairy tale

Norwegian folktale

Norwegian fairy story

Shortshanks is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.

Norse fairy tale

Norse fairy tale

thumb|Gjenganger tries to claim a new victim for the sea, Thorvald Niss (1932)

folklore of Sweden and Norway

Norwegian fairy tale