One of Jenny Nyström's Christmas-themed tomte paintings, a popular image of the modern tomte A tomte ['tɔ`m:tɛ] or nisse ['nìs:ɛ] is a mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore, believed to take care of a farmer's home and barn and protect it from misfortune, in particular at night, when the housefolk were asleep. Tomte is the common Swedish name, derived from his place of residence and area of influence: the house lot or tomt. Nisse is the common name in Norwegian, Danish and the Scanian dialect in southernmost Sweden; it is a nickname for Nils, and its usage in folklore comes from expressions such as Nisse god dreng ("Nisse good lad," cf. Robin Goodfellow). ImageMetadata File history File links Tomte_by_Jenny_Nyström. ...
ImageMetadata File history File links Tomte_by_Jenny_Nyström. ...
Jenny Nyström (born 1854, Kalmar, Sweden; died 1946, Stockholm) was an artist and illustrator of childrens books. ...
A legendary creature is a mythical or fantastic creature (often known as fabulous creatures in historical literature). ...
Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. ...
Skåne in southern Sweden Scanian ( (help· info)) is a closely related group of dialects spoken in Skåne (Scania). ...
A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Tom is short for Thomas). ...
Robin Goodfellow in English folklore is a euphemistic personification of a half-tamed, troublesome elf or hob-goblin, a prankster who is the domesticated aspect of Puck. ...
Appearance
The tomte/nisse was often imagined as a small, elderly man (exact 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. As he was thought to be skilled in illusions and able to make himself invisible, one was unlikely to get more than brief glimpses of him no matter what he looked like, though. Shapeshifting, transformation , transmogrification or morphing is a change in the form or shape of a person, especially: a change from human form to animal form and vice versa a change in appearance from one person to another Shapeshifting is not considered scientifically or medically possible for humans (and animal shapeshifting...
Polyphemus the Cyclops. ...
Temperament Despite his smallness, the tomte/nisse possessed an immense strength. Even though he was protective and caring he was easy to offend, and his retributions ranged from a stout box on the ears to the killing of livestock or ruining of the farm's fortune. The tomte/nisse was a traditionalist who did not like changes in the way things were done at the farm. Another easy way to offend him was rudeness: farm workers swearing, urinating in the barns, or not treating the creatures well would be soundly thrashed. If anyone spilled something on the floor in the house it was wise to shout a warning to the tomte below. 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. Selma Lagerlöf, painted by Carl Larsson, 1908 Selma Lagerlöf receives the Nobel Prize in Literature The Swedish 20-krona bill, with Selma Lagerlöf (help· info) (November 20, 1858 – March 16, 1940) was a Swedish author. ...
Like many other mythical creatures, one was also required to please him with gifts – a particular gift was a bowl of porridge on Christmas night. If he wasn't 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). The tomte liked his porridge with a pat of butter on the top. In an often retold story, a farmer put the butter underneath the porridge. 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. But, as he thus became hungry, he went back to his porridge and ate it, and so found the butter at the bottom of the bowl. Full of grief, he then hurried to search the lands to find another farmer with an identical cow, and replaced the former with the latter.
The tomte is connected to farm animals in general, but his most treasured animal was the horse. Belief had it that you could see which horse was the tomte's favourite as it would be especially well taken care of and healthy. Sometimes the tomte would even braid its hair and tail. (These "tomte braids" were in fact most likely caused by insufficient brushing.)
The heathen tomte The tomte was in ancient times believed to be the "soul" of the first inhabitor of the farm. He who cleared the tomt. He had his dwellings in the burial mounds on the farm, hence the now somewhat archaic Swedish names tomtebisse and tomtekarl, Swedish and Norwegian names tomtegubbe (litt. House lot man) tomtebonde (bond=farmer) and the Norwegian Haugkall (Mound man). Thus can the tradition of giving porrige to the tomte at Christmas be a reminescence of ancestrial worship. Alternate meanings of barrow: see Barrow_in_Furness for the town of Barrow in Cumbria, England; also Barrow, Alaska in the U.S.; also River Barrow in Ireland. ...
The tomte was not always a popular figure: Like most creatures of folklore he would be seen as heathen and become connected to the Devil. Farmers believing in the house tomte could be seen as worshipping false gods; in a famous 14th century decree Saint Birgitta warns against the worship of tompta gudhi, "tomte gods". 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. The Devil is the name given to a supernatural entity, who, in most Western religions, is the central embodiment of evil. ...
Italic textSaint Birgitta, also known as St. ...
The belief in a tomte's tendency to bring riches to the farm by his unseen work could also be dragged into the conflicts between neighbours. If one farmer was doing far better for himself than the others, someone might say that it was because of him having tomtar on the farm, doing ungodly work and stealing from the neighbours. These rumours could be very damaging for the farmer who found himself accused.
Similar folklore The tomte/nisse shares many aspects with other Scandinavian wights such as the Swedish vättar (from the Old Norse "landvættir") or the Norwegian tusser. These beings are social, however, whereas the tomte is always solitary (though he is now often pictured with other tomtar). Some synonyms of tomte in Swedish and Norwegian include gårdbo ((farm)yard-dweller) gardvord (yard-warden, see vörðr) god bonde (good farmer) or gårdsrå (yard-spirit). The tomte could also take a ship for his home, and was then known as a skeppstomte/skibsnisse. In other European folklore, there are many beings similar to the tomte, such as the Scots brownie, the German Wichtelmann or the Russian domovoi. The Finnish word tonttu has been borrowed from Swedish. Wight is an obsolete word for a human or other intelligent being (cognate to modern German Wicht, meaning small person, dwarf, and also unpleasant person). It is used only comparatively recently to give an impression of archaism and mystery, for example in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. ...
In Norse mythology, a vörðr (warden, watcher or caretaker) is a warden spirit, believed to follow from birth to death the soul (hugr) of every person. ...
A signature Cox Brownie A brownie, brounie/Urisk (Lowland Scots) or ùruisg/brùnaidh (Scottish Gaelic) is a legendary kind of elf popular in folklore around Scotland and England (especially the north). ...
Domovoi (literally, one of the house) are house spirits found in Slavic folklore. ...
Tonttu or haltija is a Finnish version of the Swedish Tomte. ...
The tomte 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 tomte would gain popularity. In the English editions of the fairy tales of H. C. Andersen the word nisse has been inaccurately translated as "goblin" (a more accurate translation is "brownie"). Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Hans Christian Andersen, (April 2, 1805 - August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet famous for his fairy tales. ...
A goblin is an evil or merely mischievous creature of folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or elf-like phantom. ...
The modern tomte In the 1840's the farm's "nisse" became the bearer of Christmas presents in Denmark, and was then called "julenisse". 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. This poem featured the first painting by Jenny Nyström of this traditional Swedish mythical character which she turned into the white-bearded, red-capped friendly figure associated with Christmas ever since. 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. Image File history File links Nisse1. ...
Image File history File links Nisse1. ...
Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a traditional Christian holiday meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus with both religious and secular aspects, commonly observed on 25 December. ...
Abraham Viktor Rydberg (Jönköping, December 18, 1828 - September 22, 1895) was a Swedish author, publicist and poet. ...
Jenny Nyström (born 1854, Kalmar, Sweden; died 1946, Stockholm) was an artist and illustrator of childrens books. ...
Father Christmas is a name used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and several other Commonwealth Countries, as well as Ireland, for the gift bringing figure of Christmas or yuletide. ...
A Yule Goat from Uppland, Sweden. ...
Gradually, commercialism has made him look more and more like the American Santa Claus, but the Swedish "jultomte", the Norwegian "julenisse", the Danish "julemand" (as he is more often called today) and the Finnish "joulupukki" (in Finland he is still called the "Yule Goat", although his animal features have disappeared) still has features and traditions that are rooted in the local culture: he doesn't live on the North Pole, but perhaps in a forest nearby, or in Denmark he lives on Greenland, and in Finland he lives in Lapland; he doesn’t come down the chimney at night, but through the front door, delivering the presents directly to the children, just like the Yule Goat did; he is not overweight; and even if he nowadays he sometimes rides in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, instead of just walking around with his sack, his reindeer don’t fly - and many in Sweden still put out a bowl of porridge for him on Christmas Eve. 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" or "tomten" one is refering to the more modern version, while if one speaks of "tomtarna" (plural) one could also likely be refering to the more traditional tomtar. The traditional word tomte as lives on in an idiom, refering to the human caretaker of a property (hustomten), as well as refering to someone in one's building who mysteriously does someone a favour, such as hanging up ones laundry. A person might also wish for a little hustomte to tidy up for them. A common portrayal of Santa Claus. ...
See also A signature Cox Brownie A brownie, brounie/Urisk (Lowland Scots) or ùruisg/brùnaidh (Scottish Gaelic) is a legendary kind of elf popular in folklore around Scotland and England (especially the north). ...
Domovoi (literally, one of the house) are house spirits found in Slavic folklore. ...
Tonttu or haltija is a Finnish version of the Swedish Tomte. ...
A small forest elf (älva) rescuing an egg, from Solägget (1932), by Elsa Beskow An elf is a creature of Norse mythology which survived in northern European folklore. ...
A gnome hiding behind a toadstool. ...
A dwarf (modern plural dwarfs, older variant is dwarves -- see under Tolkien below) is a short humanoid creature in Norse mythology as well as other Germanic mythologies, fairy tales, fantasy fiction and role-playing games. ...
Kobolds are spirits of German folklore. ...
The term sprite is a general term referring to a number of legendary creatures. ...
Wight is an obsolete word for a human or other intelligent being (cognate to modern German Wicht, meaning small person, dwarf, and also unpleasant guy). It is used now only to give an impression of archaism and mystery, for example in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. ...
For creatures that are wholly fictional creations, see Category:Fictional species. ...
A common portrayal of Santa Claus. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Lares (pl. ...
Austėja Aitvaras Baubis Beržulis Bubilas Dimstipatis Dirvolira Dvargantis Gabija Gabjauja Ganiklis Jagaubis Javinė Jievaras Karvaitis Kirnis Kerpyčius Krugis Krūminė Laukpatis Lauksargis Pagirnis Patrimpas Pergrubrijus Ragutis Raugupatis Šilinytis Vaižgantas Žaltys Žemėpatis ...
References - Vår svenska tomte, Ebbe Schön (1996), ISBN 91-27-05573-6
Ebbe Schön (1929 -) is a Swedish author and folklorist. ...
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