Viking Magazine - December 2012 - 13

IMAGES COURTESY OF (LEFT) © MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY / ALAMY (RIGHT) NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION (NAHA)
through generations of farmers
and peasants. Then came a
period of national romanticism
that thrust the nisse center stage.
" During the union with
Sweden and in the years before
and after the dissolution of that
union in 1905, Norway, and in
particular Norwegian intellectuals,
deliberately tried to develop
a Norwegian national identity, "
says Knut Djupedal, director
of the Norwegian Emigrant
Museum in Hedmark County.
" They wanted Norwegians to
forget 400 years of union with
Denmark and to keep a sort
of national distance from the
union with Sweden. To achieve
this goal, they openly played on
symbols such as the medieval
Norwegian Vikings, the old
folktales, and so on. "
As part of this cultural
resurgence, Peter Asbjørnsen,
a teacher, and Jørgen Moe, a
minister, began to collect the
folktales of Norway's farmers.
They distributed these stories,
including those of the nisse, in
small pamphlets, eventually
leading to a collection called
" Norwegian Folktales, " published
in 1845.
" These tales became important...because
that would be the
image of Norway, " says Stokker.
" The original image of the independent
Norway, the idealistic
image, became the nisse. "
It was during this time of
national romanticism, too, that
illustrators gave the nisse his distinctive
look: a child-sized old
man, white beard, red stocking
cap and gray clothing.
" In Norway, our mental
picture of the nisse will always
" Are There Any
Good Children Here? "
I
n the mid-1800s, about the time Norwegians
were using the nisse to rally support
for nationalism, Christmas traditions from
surrounding countries such as Denmark and
Germany were making their way to Norway.
" Scandinavians were converting their
Christmas into a more child-centered,
family-oriented celebration. The nisse fit
right in, " writes Kathleen Stokker in " Keeping
Christmas. " " Meanwhile, the coincidence
that the Scandinavian name Nisse is a form of
the name Nicholas associated the nisse with
the gift-giving St. Nicholas, long popular in
Germany and Holland. "
Today's julenisse (Christmas nisse) bears
only a passing resemblance to the nisse of
folklore. The elderly, average-sized man is
good-natured, sports a long white beard
and a red hat. Instead of demanding gifts in
return for favors, the julenisse visits children
on Christmas Eve, always asking " Er det noen
snille barn her? " (Are there any good children
here?) before presenting them with gifts.
" Legends of the domestic nisse meet
the modern day version of the julenisse in
the tradition of leaving a bowl of julegrøt
[porridge] with butter out in the barn or in
the house for them on Christmas Eve, " according
to the article " Legend of Nisse and
Tomte " found at ingebretsens.com.

http://www.ingebretsens.com

Viking Magazine - December 2012

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