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96-521: The nisse is one of the most familiar creatures of Scandinavian folklore, and he has appeared in many works of Scandinavian literature . With the romanticisation and collection of folklore during the 19th century, the nisse gained popularity. The word nisse is a pan-Scandinavian term. Its current use in Norway into the 19th century is evidenced in Asbjørnsen's collection. The Norwegian tufte

192-599: A loanword from the North Germanic languages ; " Skaði " is the jötunn stepmother of Freyr and Freyja in Norse mythology . It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modelled on a Sámi woman. The name for Skaði's father Þjazi is known in Sámi as Čáhci , "the waterman"; and her son with Odin, Sæmingr , can be interpreted as a descendant of Saam , the Sámi population. Older joik texts give evidence of

288-666: A brief but disastrous war between Denmark and Prussia (supported by Austria). Schleswig-Holstein was conquered by Prussia and after Prussia's success in the Franco-Prussian War a Prussian-led German Empire was created and a new power -balance in the Baltic region was established. The Scandinavian Monetary Union , established in 1873, lasted until World War I . The term Scandinavia (sometimes specified in English as Continental Scandinavia or mainland Scandinavia )

384-578: A gray wadmal (coarse woolen) jacket, short breeches , and ordinary shoes such as a peasant would wear. The tonttu of Finland was said to be one-eyed, and likewise in Swedish-speaking areas of Finland, hence the stock phrase " Enögd som tomten (one-eyed like the tomten)". There are also folktales where he is believed to be a shapeshifter able to take a shape far larger than an adult man, Since nisser are thought to be skilled in illusions and sometimes able to make themselves invisible, one

480-405: A man who scoffed at the modest gain lost his tomte and his fortune foundered; a poor novice farmer valued each ear tomte brought, and prospered. The Norwegian nisse will gather hay, even stealing from neighbors to benefit the farmer he favors, often causing quarrels. He will also take the hay from the manger ( Danish : krybbe ) of other horses to feed his favorite. One of his pranks played on

576-483: A modern and more inclusive demonym . In the ethnic or cultural sense the term Scandinavian traditionally refers to speakers of Scandinavian languages , who are mainly descendants of the peoples historically known as Norsemen , but also to some extent of immigrants and others who have been assimilated into that culture and language. In this sense the term refers primarily to native Danes , Norwegians and Swedes as well as descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as

672-424: A pat of butter on the top. In a tale that is often retold, a farmer put the butter underneath the porridge. When the nisse of his farmstead found that the butter was missing, he was filled with rage and killed the cow resting in the barn. But, as he thus became hungry, he went back to his porridge ( rice pudding ) and ate it, and so found the butter at the bottom of the bowl. Full of grief, he then hurried to search

768-412: A plank on the barn's ridge while she was sleeping. Even in the mid 19th century, there were still Christian men who made offerings to the tomtar spirit on Christmas day. The offering (called gifwa dem lön or "give them a reward") consisted of pieces of wadmal (coarse wool), tobacco , and a shovelful of dirt. One is also expected to please nisse with gifts (see Blót ) a traditional gift

864-486: A shabby gray outfit sifting over the meal-tub ( mjölkaret ). So she made a new gray kirtle ( kjortel ) for him and left it hanging on the tub. The tomte wore it and was delighted, but then sang a ditty proclaiming he will do no more sifting as it may dirty his new clothes. A similar tale about a nisse grinding grain at the mill is localized at the farmstead of Vaker  [ no ] in Ringerike , Norway. It

960-608: A variant of " nixie " or nix but a detractor notes this is a water sprite and the proper Dano-Norwegian cognate would be nøkk , not nisse . Thus the term nisse may be derived from Old Norse niðsi , meaning "dear little relative". The common explanation in Denmark is that it is the diminutive form of Niels, as Danes in 19th century used to refer to a Nisse as 'Lille Niels' or 'Niels Gårdbo'. The tomte ("homestead man"), gardvord ("farm guardian"), and tunkall ("yard fellow") bear names that associated them with

1056-583: A visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. In a letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood how related the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians are, and with this feeling I wrote the poem immediately after my return: 'We are one people, we are called Scandinavians! ' ". The influence of Scandinavism as a Scandinavist political movement peaked in

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1152-760: Is 38.0 °C in Målilla (Sweden). The coldest temperature ever recorded is −52.6 °C in Vuoggatjålme , Arjeplog (Sweden). The coldest month was February 1985 in Vittangi (Sweden) with a mean of −27.2 °C. Southwesterly winds further warmed by foehn wind can give warm temperatures in narrow Norwegian fjords in winter. Tafjord has recorded 17.9 °C in January and Sunndal 18.9 °C in February. The words Scandinavia and Scania ( Skåne ,

1248-584: Is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), while for Finnish-speakers it is Swedish (usually from the 3rd, 5th or 7th grade). Finnish speakers constitute a language minority in Sweden and Norway. Meänkieli and Kven are Finnish dialects spoken in Swedish Lapland and Norwegian Lapland . The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia. They belong to their own branch of

1344-522: Is a phonotactic structure of alien origin. Although the term Scandinavia used by Pliny the Elder probably originated in the ancient Germanic languages, the modern form Scandinavia does not descend directly from the ancient Germanic term. Rather the word was brought into use in Europe by scholars borrowing the term from ancient sources like Pliny, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of

1440-509: Is a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve . The Norwegian household, in order to gain favor of the nisse , sets out under the catwalks sweet porridge, cake, beer, etc. on Christmas eve or each Thursday evening. But he is very picky about the taste. Some (later) authorities specified that it is the rømmegrøt (var. rømmegraut , " sour cream porridge") that the Norwegian nisse should be treated with. The nisse likes his porridge with

1536-495: Is already mention of "Nisse pugen" in a Norwegian legal tract c. 1600 or earlier, and Emil Birkeli  [ no ] (1938) believed the introduction to be as early as 13 to 14c. The Norsk Allkunnebok encyclopedia was of the view that nisse was introduced from Denmark relatively late, and that native names found in Norway such as tomte , tomtegubbe , tufte , tuftekall , gardvord , etc., date much older. It has repeatedly been conjectured that nisse might be

1632-407: Is also due to the fact that that Swedish was the dominant language when Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions. Swedish spoken in today's Finland includes a lot of words that are borrowed from Finnish, whereas the written language remains closer to that of Sweden. Finland is officially bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish having mostly

1728-637: Is also equated to nisse or tomte . Other variants include the Swedish names tomtenisse and tomtekarl , the Swedish and Norwegian tomtegubbe and tomtebonde ("tomte farmer"), Danish husnisse ("house nisse"), the Norwegian haugkall ("mound man"), and the Finnish tonttu-ukko (lit. "house lot man"). While the term nisse in the native Norwegian is retained in Pat Shaw Iversen's English translation (1960), appended with

1824-585: Is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches. The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with common Scandinavian roots in language, can—at least with some training—understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. The reason Danish, Swedish and the two official written versions of Norwegian ( Nynorsk and Bokmål ) are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one common language,

1920-554: Is because they have two official written standards, in addition to the habit of strongly holding on to local dialects. The people of Stockholm , Sweden and Copenhagen , Denmark have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Scandinavian languages. In the Faroe Islands and Iceland, learning Danish is mandatory. This causes Faroese people as well as Icelandic people to become bilingual in two very distinct North Germanic languages, making it relatively easy for them to understand

2016-559: Is different from usage in the Scandinavian languages themselves (which use Scandinavia in the narrow meaning), and by the fact that the question of whether a country belongs to Scandinavia is politicised. People from the Nordic world beyond Norway, Denmark and Sweden may be offended at being either included in or excluded from the category of "Scandinavia". Nordic countries is used unambiguously for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, including their associated territories Greenland,

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2112-458: Is just ordinary porridge or flour porridge that is requested. In certain areas of Sweden and Finland, the Christmas gift consisted of a set of clothing, a pair of mittens or a pair of shoes at a minimum. In Uppland ( Skokloster parish  [ sv ] ), the folk generously offered a fur coat and a red cap such as was suitable for winter attire. Conversely, the commonplace motif where

2208-405: Is more a Swedish term than Norwegian. In Scania , Halland and Blekinge within Sweden, the tomte or nisse is also known as goanisse (Godnisse, Goenisse≈the good Nisse). Reidar Thoralf Christiansen remarked that the "belief in the nisse is confined to the south and east" of Norway, and theorized the nisse was introduced to Norway (from Denmark ) in the 17th century, but there

2304-414: Is ordinarily used locally for Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a subset of the Nordic countries (known in Norwegian, Danish , and Swedish as Norden ; Finnish : Pohjoismaat , Icelandic : Norðurlöndin , Faroese : Norðurlond ). However, in English usage, the term Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym or near-synonym for what are known locally as Nordic countries . Usage in English

2400-663: Is still a hotly debated issue, both in scholarly discussions and in the nationalistic discourse of various European countries. The form Scadinavia as the original home of the Langobards appears in Paul the Deacon ' Historia Langobardorum , but in other versions of Historia Langobardorum appear the forms Scadan , Scandanan , Scadanan and Scatenauge . Frankish sources used Sconaowe and Aethelweard , an Anglo-Saxon historian, used Scani . In Beowulf ,

2496-674: Is that each is a well-established standard language in its respective country. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have since medieval times been influenced to varying degrees by Middle Low German and standard German. That influence was due not only to proximity, but also to the rule of Denmark—and later Denmark-Norway—over the German-speaking region of Holstein, and to Sweden's close trade with the Hanseatic League . Norwegians are accustomed to variation and may perceive Danish and Swedish only as slightly more distant dialects. This

2592-405: Is thought to be important to the nisse, as they do not like changes in the way things are done at their farms. They are also easily offended by rudeness; farm workers swearing, urinating in the barns, or not treating the creatures well can frequently lead to a sound thrashing by the tomte/nisse. If anyone spills something on the floor in the nisse's house, it is considered proper to shout a warning to

2688-557: Is widespread and has been assigned Migratory Legend index ML 7015. According to tradition, the nisse lives in the houses and barns of the farmstead, and secretly acts as their guardian. If treated well, they protect the family and animals from evil and misfortune, and may also aid the chores and farm work. However, they are known to be short tempered, especially when offended. Once insulted, they will usually play tricks, steal items and even maim or kill livestock . In one anecdote, two Swedish neighboring farmers owned similar plots of land,

2784-518: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . A key ancient description of Scandinavia was provided by Pliny the Elder , though his mentions of Scatinavia and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher. Writing in the capacity of a Roman admiral, he introduces the northern region by declaring to his Roman readers that there are 23 islands "Romanis armis cognitae" ("known to Roman arms") in this area. According to Pliny,

2880-639: The Icelanders and the Faroese . The term is also used in this ethnic sense, to refer to the modern descendants of the Norse, in studies of linguistics and culture. Additionally the term Scandinavian is used demonymically to refer to all modern inhabitants or citizens of Scandinavian countries. Within Scandinavia the demonymic term primarily refers to inhabitants or citizens of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In English usage inhabitants or citizens of Iceland,

2976-630: The Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes a part of northern Finland ). In English usage, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries . Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While Finland differs from other Nordic countries in this respect, some authors call it Scandinavian due to its economic and cultural similarities. The geography of

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3072-578: The Scandinavian Peninsula since prehistory—the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian languages) and the Uralic languages , Sámi and Finnish . Most people in Scandinavia today speak Scandinavian languages that evolved from Old Norse , originally spoken by ancient Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia. The Continental Scandinavian languages— Danish , Norwegian and Swedish —form a dialect continuum and are considered mutually intelligible. The Insular Scandinavian languages— Faroese and Icelandic —on

3168-705: The Sámi people in northern Scandinavia. The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) and a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese), but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600 the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian ( ö-nordisk / øy-nordisk ) featuring Icelandic and Faroese and Continental Scandinavian ( Skandinavisk ), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The modern division

3264-431: The Uralic language family and are unrelated to the North Germanic languages other than by limited grammatical (particularly lexical) characteristics resulting from prolonged contact. Sámi is divided into several languages or dialects. Consonant gradation is a feature in both Finnish and northern Sámi dialects, but it is not present in southern Sámi, which is considered to have a different language history. According to

3360-450: The farmstead . The Finnish tonttu is also derived from the term for a place of residence and area of influence: the house lot, tontti (Finnish). Norwegian gardvord is a synonym for nisse , or has become conflated with it. Likewise turvord is a synonym. Other synonyms for nisse are Danish gaardbuk ("farm buck") and husbuk ("housebuck") where buck could mean billygoat or ram. According to Oddrun Grønvik,

3456-463: The nisse has a distinct connotation and is not synonymous with the haugkall or haugebonde (from the Old Norse haugr 'mound'), although the latter has become indistinguishable with tuss , as evident from the form haugtuss . There are two 14th century Old Swedish attestations to the tomta gudhane "the gods of the building site". In the "Själinna thröst" ("Comfort of

3552-440: The puge (cog. Old Norse puki , German puk cf. Nis Puk ; English puck ) was the common name for the ancient pagan deities, regarded as devils or fallen angels. Whereas Feilberg here only drew a vague parallel between puge and nisse as nocturnally active, this puge or puk in medieval writings may be counted as the oldest documentation of nisse , by another name, according to Henning Eichberg . The Norwegian nisse

3648-636: The sauna has a saunatonttu . Also related is the Nis Puk , which is widespread in the area of Southern Jutland / Schleswig , in the Danish-German border area. Scandinavia Nordic territories that are not part of Scandinavia: Chronological history Scandinavia is a subregion of Northern Europe , with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. Scandinavia most commonly refers to Denmark , Norway , and Sweden . It can sometimes also refer to

3744-413: The tithe ( Revelationes , book VI, ch. 78). There is not enough here to precisely narrow down the nature of the deity, whether it was land spirit ( tomta rå ) or a household spirit ( gårdsrå ). Later folklore says that a tomte is the soul of a slave during heathen times , placed in charge of the maintenance of the household's farmland and fields while the master was away on viking raids , and

3840-498: The tomte to devils . Consequently, the stories about their expulsions are recounted as " exorcisms ". The nisse shares many aspects with other Scandinavian wights such as the Swedish vättar (from the Old Norse vættr ), Danish vætter , Norwegian vetter or tusser . These beings are social, however, whereas the nisse is always solitary (though he is now often pictured with other nisser). Often comparable to

3936-459: The " House spirit leaves when gift of clothing is left for it" might be exhibited: According to one Swedish tale, a certain Danish woman ( danneqwinna ) noticed that her supply of meal she sifted seemed to last unusually long, although she kept consuming large amounts of it. But once when she happened to go to the shed, she spied through the keyhole or narrow crack in the door and saw the tomte in

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4032-466: The "clarissima" ("most famous") of the region's islands is Scatinavia , of unknown size. There live the Hilleviones . The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the 1st century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed. Pliny begins his description of the route to Scatinavia by referring to

4128-456: The Christmas porridge or gruel ( jul gröt ) was traditionally placed on the corner of the cottage-house, or the grain-barn ( lode ), the barn, or stable; and in Finland the porridge was also put out on the grain-kiln ( rin ) or sauna. This gruel is preferably offered with butter or honey . This is basically the annual salary to the spirit who is being hired as "the broom for

4224-686: The Far-Travelled" ( Þorvalds þættur víðförla ) and the Kristni saga where the 10th century figure attended to his father Koðrán giving up worship of the heathen idol (called ármaðr in the saga) embodied in stone; this has been suggested as a precursor to the nisse by Feilberg, though there are different opinions on what label or category should be applied to this spirit (e.g., alternatively as Old Norse landvættr "land spirit"). Feilberg remarks that in Christianized medieval Denmark

4320-523: The Faroe Islands and Finland are sometimes included as well. English general dictionaries often define the noun Scandinavian demonymically as meaning any inhabitant of Scandinavia (which might be narrowly conceived or broadly conceived). There is a certain ambiguity and political contestation as to which peoples should be referred to as Scandinavian in this broader sense. Sámi people who live in Norway and Sweden are generally included as Scandinavians in

4416-693: The Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands. The geological term Fennoscandia (sometimes Fennoscandinavia ) refers to the Fennoscandian Shield (or Baltic Shield ), which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland and Karelia , and excludes Denmark and other parts of the wider Nordic world. The terms Fennoscandia and Fennoscandinavia are sometimes used in a political sense to refer to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. The term Scandinavian may be used with two principal meanings, in an ethnic or cultural sense and as

4512-475: The Finnish population. The coastal province of Ostrobothnia has a Swedish-speaking majority, whereas plenty of areas on this coastline are nearly unilingually Finnish, like the region of Satakunta . Åland, an autonomous province of Finland situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, are entirely Swedish-speaking. Children are taught the other official language at school: for Swedish-speakers this

4608-537: The Latin American "Duende". Synonyms of nisse includes gårdbo ("farmyard-dweller"), gardvord ("yard-warden", see vörðr ) in all Scandinavian languages, and god bonde ("good farmer"), gårdsrå ("yard-spirit") in Swedish and Norwegian and fjøsnisse ("barn gnome") in Norwegian. The nisse could also take a ship for his home, and be called skibsnisse , equivalent to German klabautermann", and Swedish skeppstomte . In Finland ,

4704-569: The Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 and Norway ( de jure in union with Denmark since 1387, although de facto treated as a province) becoming independent in 1814, but thereafter swiftly forced to accept a personal union with Sweden. The dependent territories Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, historically part of Norway, remained with Denmark in accordance with the Treaty of Kiel . Sweden and Norway were thus united under

4800-526: The Soul"), a woman sets the table after her meal for the deities, and if the offering is consumed, she is certain her livestock will be taken care of. In the Revelations of Saint Birgitta ( Birgittas uppenbarelser ), it is recorded that the priests forbade their congregation from providing offerings to the tompta gudhi or "tomte gods", apparently perceiving this to be competition to their entitlement to

4896-447: The Swedish king Gustav I led Sweden to independence. It also saw numerous wars between the nations, which shaped the modern borders. The most recent union was the union between Sweden and Norway , which ended in 1905. In modern times the region has prospered, with the economies of the countries being amongst the strongest in Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland all maintain welfare systems considered to be generous, with

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4992-548: The Swedish monarch, but Finland's inclusion in the Russian Empire excluded any possibility for a political union between Finland and any of the other Nordic countries. The end of the Scandinavian political movement came when Denmark was denied the military support promised from Sweden and Norway to annex the (Danish) Duchy of Schleswig , which together with the (German) Duchy of Holstein had been in personal union with Denmark. The Second war of Schleswig followed in 1864,

5088-420: The Swedish writer Olaus Magnus 's 1555 work, including the center figure of a spiritual being laboring at a stable by night.(cf. fig. right). It reprints the same stable-worker picture found on the map Carta Marina , B, k. The prose annotation to the map, Ain kurze Auslegung und Verklerung (1539) writes that these unnamed beings in the stables and mine-works were more prevalent in the pre-Christian period than

5184-673: The Sámi Information Centre of the Sámi Parliament of Sweden , southern Sámi may have originated in an earlier migration from the south into the Scandinavian Peninsula. German is a recognized minority language in Denmark. Recent migrations has added even more languages. Apart from the Sámi languages and the languages of minority groups speaking a variant of the majority language of a neighboring state, Yiddish , Romani Chib/Romanes, Scandoromani and Karelian are amongst those protected in parts of Scandinavia under

5280-426: The ability to transform into animals such as the buck-goat. In one tale localized at Oxholm  [ da ] , the nisse (here called the gaardbuk ) falsely announces a cow birthing to the girl assigned to care for it, then tricks her by changing into the shape of a calf. She stuck him with a pitchfork which the sprite counted as three blows (per each prong), and avenged the girl by making her lie precarious on

5376-475: The current time. The sector "B" of this map where the drawing occurs spanned Finnmark (under Norway) and West Lappland (under Sweden). While Olaus does not explicitly give the local vernacular (Scandinavian) names, the woodcuts probably represent the tomte or nisse according to modern commentators. The story of propitiating a household deity for boons in Iceland occurs in the "Story of Þorvaldr Koðránsson

5472-408: The demonymic sense; the Sámi of Finland may be included in English usage, but usually not in local usage; the Sámi of Russia are not included. However, the use of the term "Scandinavian" with reference to the Sámi is complicated by the historical attempts by Scandinavian majority peoples and governments in Norway and Sweden to assimilate the Sámi people into the Scandinavian culture and languages, making

5568-635: The economic and social policies of the countries being dubbed the " Nordic model ". The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the Norwegian fjords , the Scandinavian Mountains covering much of Norway and parts of Sweden, the flat, low areas in Denmark and the archipelagos of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have many lakes and moraines , legacies of the ice age , which ended about ten thousand years ago. The southern regions of Scandinavia, which are also

5664-432: The farm's fortune. The nisse is connected to farm animals in general, but his most treasured animal is the horse. The stable-hand needed to remain punctual and feed the horse (or cattle) both at 4 in the morning and 10 at night, or risk being thrashed by the tomte upon entering the stable. Belief has it that one could see which horse was the tomte's favourite as it will be especially healthy and well taken care of. Sometimes

5760-546: The first Europeans to reach North America. These exploits saw the establishment of the North Sea Empire which comprised large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain, though it was relatively short-lived. Scandinavia was eventually Christianized , and the coming centuries saw various unions of Scandinavian nations, most notably the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which lasted for over 100 years until

5856-644: The forms Scedenige and Scedeland are used while the Alfredian translation of Orosius and Wulfstan 's travel accounts used the Old English Sconeg . The earliest Sámi joik texts written down refer to the world as Skadesi-suolu in Northern Sámi and Skađsuâl in Skolt Sámi , meaning " Skaði 's island". Svennung considers the Sámi name to have been introduced as

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5952-401: The goddess Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld. Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the pre-Germanic Mesolithic people inhabiting the region. In modernity, Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300 and 9,500 years ago the southern part of Scandinavia

6048-470: The inclusion of the Sámi as "Scandinavians" controversial among many Sámi. Modern Sámi politicians and organizations often stress the status of the Sámi as a people separate from and equal to the Scandinavians, with their own language and culture, and are apprehensive about being included as "Scandinavians" in light of earlier Scandinavian assimilation policies. Two language groups have coexisted on

6144-486: The lands to find another farmer with an identical cow, and replaced the former with the latter. In another tale localized in Hallingdal , Norway, a maid decided to eat the porridge herself, and ended up severely beaten by the nisse . It sang the words: "Since you have eaten up the porridge for the tomte (nisse), you shall with the tomte have to dance!" The farmer found her nearly lifeless the morning after. In Sweden,

6240-428: The language of the church and law courts remained Icelandic. The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) unrelated to Finnish and the Sámi languages , which as Uralic languages are distantly related each other. Owing to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in Finnish and the Sámi. The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish

6336-627: The middle of the 19th century, between the First Schleswig War (1848–1850) and the Second Schleswig War (1864). The Swedish king also proposed a unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic Wars in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming

6432-446: The milkmaid is to hold down the hay so firmly the girl is not able to extract it, and abruptly let go so she falls flat on her back; the pleased nisse then explodes into laughter. Another prank is to set the cows loose. As the protector of the farm and caretaker of livestock, the tomte ’s retributions for bad practices range from small pranks like a hard strike to the ear to more severe punishment like killing of livestock or ruining of

6528-520: The most populous regions, have a temperate climate . Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle , but has relatively mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream . Many of the Scandinavian mountains have an alpine tundra climate. The climate varies from north to south and from west to east: a marine west coast climate ( Cfb ) typical of western Europe dominates in Denmark,

6624-522: The mound dwellers of lore (Cf. § Near synonyms ). The haugbonde is said to be the ghost of the first inhabitant of the farmstead, he who cleared the tomt (house lot), who subsequently becomes its guardian. This haugbonde has also connected with the Danish/Norwegian tuntræt (modern spelling: tuntre , "farm tree") or in Swedish vårdträd  [ sv ] ("ward tree") cult. Several helper-demons were illustrated in

6720-604: The mountain of Saevo ( mons Saevo ibi ), the Codanus Bay ("Codanus sinus") and the Cimbrian promontory. The geographical features have been identified in various ways. By some scholars, Saevo is thought to be the mountainous Norwegian coast at the entrance to Skagerrak and the Cimbrian peninsula is thought to be Skagen , the north tip of Jutland , Denmark. As described, Saevo and Scatinavia can also be

6816-598: The northwestern coast. A small area along the northern coast east of the North Cape has tundra climate (Et) as a result of a lack of summer warmth. The Scandinavian Mountains block the mild and moist air coming from the southwest, thus northern Sweden and the Finnmarksvidda plateau in Norway receive little precipitation and have cold winters. Large areas in the Scandinavian mountains have alpine tundra climate. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Scandinavia

6912-415: The old Sámi belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as suolu gievra , meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sámi place name Sulliidčielbma means "the island's threshold" and Suoločielgi means "the island's back". In recent substrate studies, Sámi linguists have examined the initial cluster sk - in words used in the Sámi languages and concluded that sk -

7008-453: The origins of the nisse was that there were various nature spirits―i.e., tomtevætte ("site wights"), haugbue ("howe/mound dwellers"), "underground wights" ( undervætte, underjordiske vætte ), or dwarves, or vætte of the forests―always moved around Nature and occasionally staying for short or long periods at people's homes, and these transitioned into house-wights ( husvætte ) that took up permanent residence at homes. In one tale,

7104-490: The other are only partially intelligible to speakers of the continental Scandinavian languages. The Uralic languages are linguistically unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Finnish is the majority language in Finland, and a recognized minority language in Sweden. Meänkieli and Kven , sometimes considered as dialects of Finnish, are recognized minority languages in Sweden and Norway, respectively. The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia, spoken by

7200-474: The other two Mainland Scandinavian languages. Although Iceland was under the political control of Denmark until a much later date (1918), very little influence and borrowing from Danish has occurred in the Icelandic language. Icelandic remained the preferred language among the ruling classes in Iceland. Danish was not used for official communications, most of the royal officials were of Icelandic descent and

7296-531: The parenthetical remark that it is a household spirit , H. L. Braekstad  [ no ] (1881) chose to substitute nisse with " brownie ". Brynildsen  [ no ] 's dictionary (1927) glossed nisse as ' goblin ' or ' hobgoblin '. In the English editions of the Hans Christian Andersen 's fairy tales the Danish word nisse has been translated as 'goblin', for example, in

7392-428: The peninsula. The term was popularised by the linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement , which asserted the common heritage and cultural unity of the Scandinavian countries and rose to prominence in the 1830s. The popular usage of the term in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the 19th century through poems such as Hans Christian Andersen 's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After

7488-422: The priest but also a carpenter present, and he will work on the newlyweds' abode. Everyone then listens for the noises that the tomtegubbe helping out with the construction, which is a sign that the new household has been blessed with its presence. Despite his small size, nisse possess immense strength . They are easily offended by carelessness, lack of proper respect, and lazy farmers. Observance of traditions

7584-578: The region can also be found in Pytheas , Pomponius Mela , Tacitus , Ptolemy , Procopius and Jordanes , usually in the form of Scandza . It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of West Germanic origin, originally denoting Scania. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as * skaðan- , meaning "danger" or "damage". The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as * awjō , meaning "land on

7680-648: The region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold winters. The region became notable during the Viking Age , when Scandinavian peoples participated in large-scale raiding, conquest, colonization and trading mostly throughout Europe. They also used their longships for exploration, becoming

7776-456: The same place. Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called achlis (given in the accusative, achlin , which is not Latin) was born on the island of Scandinavia. The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes. Farmstead A farmstead refers to the buildings and service areas associated with a farm. It consists of

7872-434: The same quality of meadow and woodland, but one living in a red-colored, tarred house with well-kept walls and sturdy turf roof grew richer by the year, while the other living in a moss-covered house, whose bare walls rotted, and the roof leaked, grew poorer each year. Many would give opinion that the successful man had a tomte in his house. The tomte may be seen heaving just a single straw or ear of corn with great effort, but

7968-570: The same status at national level. Finland's majority population are Finns , whose mother tongue is either Finnish (approximately 95%), Swedish or both. The Swedish-speakers live mainly on the coastline starting from approximately the city of Porvoo (Sw: Borgå) (in the Gulf of Finland) up to the city of Kokkola (Sw: Karleby) (in the Bay of Bothnia). The Swedish-speaking population is spread out in pockets in this coastal stretch and constitutes approximately 5% of

8064-406: The southernmost part of Sweden and along the west coast of Norway reaching north to 65°N, with orographic lift giving more mm/year precipitation (<5000 mm) in some areas in western Norway. The central part – from Oslo to Stockholm – has a humid continental climate (Dfb), which gradually gives way to subarctic climate (Dfc) further north and cool marine west coast climate (Cfc) along

8160-595: The southernmost province of Sweden) are both thought to go back to the Proto-Germanic compound * Skaðin-awjō (the ð represented in Latin by t or d ), which appears later in Old English as Scedenig and in Old Norse as Skáney . The earliest identified source for the name Scandinavia is Pliny the Elder 's Natural History , dated to the 1st century AD. Various references to

8256-417: The sprite is called nisse but is encountered but by a tree stump (not in the house like a bona fide nisse ), and this is given as an example of the folk-belief at its transitional stage. Some commentators have equated or closely connected the tomte/nisse to the haugbonde (< Old Norse : haubúi "mound dweller"). However there is caution served against completely equating the tomte/nissse with

8352-951: The tale " The Goblin at the Grocer's ". Forms such as tufte have been seen as dialect . Aasen noted the variant form tuftekall to be prevalent in the Nordland and Trondheim areas of Norway, and the tale "Tuftefolket på Sandflesa" published by Asbjørnsen is localized in Træna Municipality in Nordland. Another synonym is tunkall ("yard fellow") also found in the north and west. Faye also gives Dano-Norwegian forms toft-vætte or tomte-vætte . Thus ostensibly tomte prevails in eastern Norway (and adjoining Sweden), although there are caveats attached to such over-generalizations by linguist Oddrun Grønvik  [ no ] . It might also be conceded that tomte

8448-422: The tomte below. Some stories tell how the nisse could drive people mad or bite them. The bite from a nisse is poisonous, and otherworldly healing is usually required. As the story goes, a girl who was bitten withered and died before help arrived. Although the tomte (def. pl. tomtarna ) were generally regarded as benevolent (compared to the rå or troll), some of the tales show church influence in likening

8544-401: The tomte will even braid its hair and tail. Undoing these braids without permission can mean misfortune or angering the tomte. The tomte is also closely associated with carpentry. It is said that when the carpenters have taken their break from their work for a meal, the tomte could be seen working on the house with their little axes. It was also customary in Swedish weddings to have not just

8640-579: The water" or "island". The name Scandinavia would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania. Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem ( skan ) combined with - ör , which means "sandbanks". Alternatively, Sca(n)dinavia and Skáney , along with the Old Norse goddess name Skaði , may be related to Proto-Germanic * skaðwa- (meaning "shadow"). John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests that

8736-407: The whole year". If the household neglects the gift, the contract is broken, and the tomte may very well leave the farm or house. According to one anecdote, a peasant used to put out food on the stove for the tomtar or nissar . When the priest inquired as to the fate of the food, the peasant replied that Satan collects it all in a kettle in hell, used to boil the souls for all eternity. The practice

8832-621: Was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the Baltic Sea through the area where Stockholm is now located. The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the Goths (AD 551), the form Scandza is the name used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4). Where Jordanes meant to locate this quasi-legendary island

8928-408: Was duty-bound to continue until doomsday . Henning Frederik Feilberg makes the fine point of distinction that tomte actually meant a planned building site (where as tun was the plot with a house already built on it), so that the Swedish tomtegubbe , Norwegian tuftekall , tomtevætte , etc. originally denoted the jordvætten ("earth wights"). The thrust of Feilberg's argument considering

9024-434: Was halted. The bribe could also be bread, cheese, leftovers from the Christmas meal, or even clothing (cf. below). A piece of bread or cheese, placed under the turf, may suffice as the bribe to the tomtar/nissar ("good nisse") according to the folklore of Blekinge . In Denmark, it is said that the nisse or nis puge ( nis pug ) particularly favors sweet buckwheat porridge ( boghvedegrød ), though in some telling it

9120-430: Was no bigger than a child, dressed in gray, wearing a red, pointy hat ( pikhue = pikkelhue ; a hue is a soft brimless hat) according to Faye . In Denmark also, nisser are often seen as beardless, wearing grey and red woolens with a red cap. The tomte , according to Afzelius 's description was about the size of a one year-old child, but with an elderly wizened face, wearing a little red cap on his head and

9216-592: Was unlikely to get more than brief glimpses of him no matter what he looked like. Norwegian folklore states that he has four fingers, and sometimes with pointed ears and eyes reflecting light in the dark, like those of a cat . The Tomte ' s height is anywhere from 60 cm (2 ft) to no taller than 90 cm (3 ft) according to one Swedish-American source, whereas the tomte (pl. tomtarna ) were just 1 aln tall (an aln or Swedish ell being just shy of 60 cm or 2 ft), according to one local Swedish tradition. The nisse may be held to have

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