Scandinavian creatures in tales of old.

So i have now started a Redbubble in case anyone would like to have my work on stuff!

Stickers, mugs, prints, shirts. I've got it all!

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Bäckahästen.

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Studies of the old legend about Queen Omma.

The Strömkarlen, a water spirit and an exceptionally talented fiddler: the sounds of forest, wind and water play over his fiddle strings. It is said to be willing to teach his skills in exchange for a minor sacrifice.

Scandinavian Folklore – The Power of Names

A focal point of pagan magic is that names have power, to the point where speaking the name of an enemy may give him strength. People would instead make up nicknames for particularly dangerous things (‘’noanamn’’ in Old Norse), which basically translates to ‘’taboo name’’. Thunder, for example, was nicknamed Godfather whilst the Devil was often called Hin Håle. The use of ‘’noanamn’’ is still prevalent amongst Scandinavian hunters and sailors

The old Scandinavian pagan religion was inherently connected to nature. Nature was power, life and magic to the point where many animals were considered to be supernatural creatures with magical abilities. The two biggest predators in Scandinavia, namely the bear and the wolf, were considered particularly powerful and dangerous. And speaking their true name makes them even more powerful.

The bear would be referred to as Bigfather, Sweetfoot, The Great One, Mister or Basse amongst others. As you may have noticed, many of these names are quite flattering. People believed that the bear, whilst powerful, was also very vain, and by complementing him you could get into his good graces.

The wolf would have nicknames such as Padfoot, Greylegs, Greyshanks or Longfoot.  To refer to the wolf by his true name was incredibly dangerous as the belief was that this served as an invitation. And the wolf was a dangerous enemy, as it was not only physically strong, but also possessed great magic and a considerable intellect.

Scandinavian Folklore

Irrbloss/ Lyktgubbe  

Will o’wisp or ghost lights

These are bright, flickering lights seen by travelers at night that are said to recede if approached, trying to draw the travelers from their safe path.

They appear without an apparent source and tend to move around erratically, much too quick for a human holding a torch. There are numerous explanations for these ghost lights in folklore, and I will describe the most common ones to you here.

Some call these ghost lights ‘’the latern man’’ , they believed the light came from a restless soul, doomed to wander the land.

In some stories he is a farmer who laid down crops on land that wasn’t his(this was serious shit in rural Scandinavia considering most people lived of their farms) and was thus doomed to walk on that particular piece of land for eternity.

Like most other creatures in Scandinavian folklore, the lantern man could be a trickster or a great help depending on how you treated him. If your lost and gave him a coin he might show you the way home, but don’t try to trick him. A farmer in Scania tried to get out of his promise and claimed that he wouldn’t pay, but when he tried to go inside the door had disappeared, and he had to spend the rest of the night searching for a way to get inside his own house.

Some lantern men were trickier than others and would just try to make people lose their way. Never follow the lights, not unless it made you a promise, because most supernatural creatures will try to trick you any way they can, but they are unable to go back on their word.

In southern Sweden it was said that the will o’wisps guarded treasure. A man once fooled a will o’wisp by collecting a big pile of iron scrap metal in his yard. When darkness came he wandered around it with a lantern, pretending to guard it. A will o’wisp appears and looks disdainfully at the scrap metal, it tells the man that it will show him a real treasure. They wander into the forest, and when the treasure hoard appears the man is quick to throw a knife blade made of iron amongst the gold and gems. Iron is kryptonite to all things supernatural, and the will o’wisp goes up in smoke immediately.

Other stories tell you that the lights are the souls of people who were too good for hell and to evil for heaven, and thus got stuck in our world. They wander along the ancient roads that existed when they were alive, roads and trails that are long gone, but the souls remember.

Norse mythology from A to Z: