[permalink] [id link]
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.
from
Wikipedia
Some Related Sentences
tomte and nisse
Garden gnomes share a resemblance to the Scandinavian tomte and nisse, and the Swedish term " tomte " can be translated to " gnome " in English.
A tomte, nisse or tomtenisse ( Sweden ) (), nisse ( Norway and Denmark ) () or tonttu ( Finland ) is a humanoid mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore.
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 is a solitary vätte, living on the farmstead.
tomte and Sweden
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.
tomte and is
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.
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 ).
tomte ), or he may threaten to stifle people in their beds ( this myth is likely to be based on sleep paralysis ).
tomte and good
Some synonyms of tomte in Swedish and Norwegian include gårdbo ("( farm ) yard-dweller "), gardvord (" yard-warden ", see vörðr ), god bonde (" good farmer "), fjøsnisse (" barn gnome ") or gårdsrå (" yard-spirit ").
tomte and who
The tomte was in ancient times believed to be the " soul " of the first inhabitor of the farm ; he who cleared the tomt ( house lot ).
The traditional word tomte lives on in an idiom, referring to the human caretaker of a property ( hustomten ), as well as referring to someone in one's building who mysteriously does someone a favour, such as hanging up ones laundry.
Nils rejects the offer and the tomte turns Nils into a tomte, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge.
tomte and house
If anyone spilled something on the floor in the house it was wise to shout a warning to the tomte below.
If the tomte was not given his payment, he would leave the farm or house, or engage in mischief such as tying the cows ' tails together in the barn, turning objects upside-down, and breaking things ( like a troll ).
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.
tomte and barn
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.
tomte and farmer
An illustration made by Gudmund Stenersen of an angry tomte stealing hay from a farmer.
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.
If one farmer was doing far better for himself than the others, someone might say that it was because of him having a tomte on the farm, doing " ungodly " work and stealing from the neighbours.
An illustration made by Gudmund Stenersen of an angry tomte stealing hay from a farmer.
tomte and only
the " tomte children ") are trying to play seesaw with them, but the elves are so light and tender that even though they are eight and the children only two, they don't weight even.
tomte and if
The tomte proposes to Nils that if Nils frees him, the tomte will give him a huge gold coin.
During the trip, Nils learns that if he proves he has changed for the better, the tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.
0.471 seconds.