Scandinavian legendary creatures

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.

thumb|Jörmungandr in the sea during Ragnarök, drawn by the Norwegian illustrator [[Louis Moe in 1898.]] In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr (, see Etymology), also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent (, "worm of Midgard"), is an unfathomably large and monstrous sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth (Midgard) and biting his own tail, an example of an ouroboros. As a result of him surrounding Midgard, the beast is referred to as the World Serpent. Jörmungandr releasing his tail is one of the signs of the beginning of Ragnarök.

thumb|A "colossal octopus" attacking ship, Wash (visual arts)|pen and wash by Pierre Denys-Montfort, engraved by Étienne Claude Voysard, 1801

water sprite from European mythology

humanoid mythical creature of Nordic folklore

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.

Scandanavian decorative Christmas straw goat

malicious entity in folklore

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

huge cat in Icelandic folklore

thumb|Goddess Hel (being)|Hel and the hellhound [[Garmr by Johannes Gehrts, 1889]] A hellhound is a mythological hound that embodies a guardian or a servant of hell, the devil, or the underworld. Hellhounds occur in mythologies around the world, with the best-known examples being Cerberus from Greek mythology, Garmr from Norse mythology, the black dogs of English folklore, and the fairy hounds of Celtic mythology. Physical characteristics vary, but they are commonly black, anomalously overgrown, supernaturally strong, and often have red eyes or are accompanied by flames. The behaviors of a He

thumb | Mascot costumes of Grýla (left) and Leppaluði (right) In Icelandic folklore, Grýla is a monstrous entity who lives in the wilderness of Iceland. The name Grýla is first attested in medieval sources. The earliest unambiguous references to Grýla's gender and her association with Christmas, though, date only from the 17th century. In 17th-century poems about Grýla, she is generally represented as a hideous and greedy troll-like crone, who wanders between human settlements and demands charity from those she encounters, often asking for naughty children. Modern depictions of Grýla tend to f

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.

In Swedish folklore, the Storsjöodjuret (, literally "The Great-Lake Monster") is a lake monster said to live in the lake Storsjön in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden.

In Nordic folklore and mythology, a fylgja (Old Norse: , Old Swedish: fylghia, older Dalecarlian: fylgja) is a supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune. They can appear to people in their sleep as dream-women, or appear to them while awake, often in the disembodied spiritual form of an enemy.

Icelandic lake monster cryptid

thumb|300px|Rudolf Granberg's prepared skvader The skvader () is a Swedish fictional creature that was constructed in 1918 by the taxidermist Rudolf Granberg and is permanently displayed at the museum at Norra Berget in Sundsvall. It has the head, forequarters and hindlegs of a European hare (Lepus europaeus), and the back, wings and tail of a female wood grouse (Tetrao urogallus). It was later jokingly given the Latin name Tetrao lepus pseudo-hybridus rarissimus L.

mythical creature

' ( "sea" + "steam"; "sea-reek"; "sea-steamer'") is a sea creature, purported to inhabit Iceland's waters (Greenland Sea) and southward toward Helluland. Although it was thought to be a sea monster, research suggests that the stories originated from a specialized feeding technique among whales known as trap-feeding.

In Scandinavian folklore, the mylingar were the phantasmal incarnations of the souls of children that had been forced to roam the earth until they could persuade someone (or otherwise cause enough of a ruckus to make their wishes known) to bury them properly.

The hamingja was a type of female guardian spirit in Norse mythology. It was believed that she accompanied a person and decided their luck and happiness. Consequently, the name was also used to indicate happiness, and that is what it means in modern Icelandic. When a person died, the hamingja passed to a beloved family member and thus accompanied a family for several generations, continuing to influence their fortunes. It was even possible to lend one's own hamingja to a friend, as happened when Hjalti Skeggiason was about to leave on a perilous voyage and asked Olaf II of Norway to lend him h

witches' familiar and milk thief in Scandinavian folklore

Norwegian lake monster

mythical churchyard-guardian spirit-animal

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.

thumb|A Skogsrå meeting a man, as portrayed by artist Per Daniel Holm in the 1882 book Svenska folksägner The ' (Swedish definite form: ; ), ' (definite: , 'the mistress of the forest'), '''''' (definite: , 'the maiden of the forest'), ', , or ' (definite: , , 'the forest nymph'), is a mythical female creature (or ) of the forest in Swedish folklore.

REDIRECT Wight

Vardøger, also known as vardyvle or vardyger, is a spirit predecessor in Scandinavian folklore.

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.

creatures of European folklore

In Scandinavian folklore, a rå ( ), short for rådare ("ruler") from råda (to rule, to advise) from old Norse ráða, is a spirit who is the keeper or warden of a particular location or landform. The rå is known both in Nordic culture and in the Sami culture, where it is called radie.

The Askafroa (), also known as the Danish Askefrue is a type of legendary creature in Scandinavian folklore, similar to the Greek Hamadryads. The Askafroa is the guardian (tutelary deity) of the ash tree. The Askafroa was thought to be a malicious creature that did much damage, and to appease her, it was necessary to make a sacrifice to her on Ash Wednesday.