Garden gnomes share a resemblance to the Scandinavian tomte and nisse, and the Swedish term " tomte " can be translated to " gnome " in English.

The tomte or nisse was believed to take care of a farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when the housefolk were asleep.

The tomte / nisse was often imagined as a small, elderly man ( size varies from a few inches to about half the height of an adult man ), often with a full beard ; dressed in the everyday clothing of a farmer.

However, there are also folktales where he is believed to be a shapeshifter able to take a shape far larger than an adult man, and other tales where the tomte / nisse is believed to have a single, cyclopean eye.

Despite his smallness, the tomte / nisse possessed an immense strength.

The tomte / nisse was a traditionalist who did not like changes in the way things were done at the farm.

The tomte / nisse shares many aspects with other Scandinavian wights such as the Swedish vättar ( from the Old Norse landvættir ) or the Norwegian tusser.

Shortly afterwards, and obviously influenced by the emerging Father Christmas traditions as well as the new Danish tradition, a variant of the tomte / nisse, called the jultomte in Sweden and julenisse in Norway, started bringing the Christmas presents in Sweden and Norway, instead of the traditional julbock ( Yule Goat ).

Sources equate the domestic kobold with creatures such as the English boggart, hobgoblin and pixy, the Scottish brownie, and the Scandinavian nisse or tomte ; while they align the subterranean variety with the Norse dwarf and the Cornish knocker.

Even the helpful tomte, nisse, gårdbo or gårdbuk could turn into a fearsome adversary if not treated with caution and respect.

The tomte or nisse ( in the southern Sweden and Norway and Denmark ) is a good wight who takes care of the house and barn when the farmer is asleep, but only if the farmer reciprocates by setting out food for the Tomte and he himself also takes care of his family, farm and animals.

The tomte or nisse is a solitary vätte, living on the farmstead.

He had his dwellings in the burial mounds on the farm, hence the now somewhat archaic Swedish names tomtenisse and tomtekarl, the Swedish and Norwegian tomtegubbe and tomtebonde (" tomte farmer "), the Norwegian haugkall (" mound man "), and the Finnish tonttu-ukko ( lit.

An angry tomte is featured in the popular children's book by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ( Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey Through Sweden ).

The tomte turns the naughty boy Nils into a tomte in the beginning of the book, and Nils then travels across Sweden on the back of a goose.

In tales told in the north of Sweden, Vittra often take the place that trolls, tomte and vättar hold in the same stories told in other parts of the country.

Both tonttu and tomte are related to the words tontti ( Finnish ) and tomt ( Swedish ).

They mean a lot and building site, and later protected by a local spirit, a tonttu ( tomte is also known as tomtegubbe, " lot old man " in Swedish ).

Joulupukki's assistants are called tonttu, or more precisely joulutonttu ( from Swedish tomte ); they are not elves, but essentially human, often dwarflike in character.

The Swedish name tomte is derived from a place of residence and area of influence: the house lot or tomt.

The tomte is connected to farm animals in general, but his most treasured animal was the horse.

Thus, the tradition of giving porridge to the tomte at Christmas is a remainder of ancestral worship.

These beings are social, however, whereas the tomte is always solitary ( though he is now often pictured with other tomtar ).

The tomte is one of the most familiar creatures of Scandinavian folklore, and he has appeared in many works of Scandinavian literature.

In 1881, the Swedish magazine Ny Illustrerad Tidning published Viktor Rydberg's poem " Tomten ", where the tomte is alone awake in the cold Christmas night, pondering the mysteries of life and death.

He is still often pictured on Christmas cards and house and garden decorations as the little man of Jenny Nyström's imagination, often with a horse or cat, or riding on a goat or in a sled pulled by a goat, and for many people the idea of the farm tomte still lives on, if only in the imagination and literature.

The use of the word tomte in Swedish is now somewhat ambiguous, but often when one speaks of jultomten ( definite article ) or tomten ( definite article ) one is referring to the more modern version, while if one speaks of tomtar ( plural ) or tomtarna ( plural, definite article ) one could also likely be referring to the more traditional tomtar.

Nils captures a tomte in a net while his family is at church and have left him home to memorize chapters from the Bible.

tomte ), or he may threaten to stifle people in their beds ( this myth is likely to be based on sleep paralysis ).

* Another name for the tomte, a mythical creature in Scandinavian mythology

In other European folklore, there are many beings similar to the tomte, such as the Scots and English brownie, Northumbrian English hob, the German Heinzelmännchen or the Russian domovoi.

With the romanticisation and collection of folklore during the 19th century, the tomte would gain popularity.

An illustration made by Gudmund Stenersen of an angry tomte stealing hay from a farmer.

If anyone spilled something on the floor in the house it was wise to shout a warning to the tomte below.

The tomte liked his porridge with a pat of butter on the top.

When the tomte of his farmstead found that the butter was missing, he was filled with rage and killed the cow resting in the barn.

Sometimes the tomte would even braid its hair and tail.

( These tomte braids were in fact most likely caused by insufficient brushing.

) Sometimes actually undoing these braids could mean misfortune or angering the tomte.

The tomte was not always a popular figure, particularly during and after the Christianization of Scandinavia.

Farmers believing in the house tomte could be seen as worshipping false gods or demons ; in a famous 14th century decree Saint Birgitta warns against the worship of tompta gudhi, " tomte gods " ( Revelationes, book VI, ch.

Folklore added other negative beliefs about the tomte, such as that having a tomte on the farm meant you put the fate of your soul at risk, or that you had to perform various non-Christian rites to lure a tomte to your farm.