From what I have heard, santa was a Nisse that was starving, and was hiding out in a barn. A child foind it and gave it a bowl of porridge to help it. The nisse was so thankful that it decided to give presents to all the good children every year on this day forward.
That's an interesting origin story for Santa. Finland has this one beautiful movie called Joulutarina, I watched this when I was a kid. It's about the origin story of the Santa-Claus: *(Spoiler Warning)* He grew up in Finland 1800s (possibly in Lapland). His name in this movie is Nikolas, which is also the name of the real life Santa-Claus Saint Nicholas. His sister died drowning in this lake where Nikolas makes visits throughout the movie. Growing up Nikolas did not have parents so he was raised by the village. Every year he would get new caretakers. Everything changes one year when the final caretaker of Nikolas (since he's ~16 and soon to be adult) is this cruel Iisakki who doesn't like Nikolas when Nikolas is making toys. Iisakki starts calling Nikolas by a nickname called "Julli". Eventually Iisakki learns to appreciate Julli and he even helps him with his passion of making toys and leaving them next to houses for children to play with during Christmas. I don't remember all of the movie since I was a boy when I watched the movie. That's just a brief look on the origin story of Finnish Santa-Claus from the movie "Joulutarina" (Christmas Story). It of course has other characters and more to the plot. I really recommend watching it by yourself, I think it probably has subtitles so no need to take a Finnish studying course :D
@@dyrepoliti During christianization, many folktales and legends were changed to be more Christian. Many of the Christian Saints are actually just altered versions of “pagan” legends and gods. The depiction of Santa comes from the original depiction of Father Yule (Odin). Many of the Christmas traditions are also altered versions of “pagan” traditions: trees in the house, stockings over the fireplace, etc. and aside from Rudolph (who was invented in 1939) there are 8 reindeer pulling Santa’s sled (which represent the 8 legs of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir).
Yes they've become popular in recent years outside of Scandinavia, but unfortunately no one really knows that they're a very old part of folklore and traditions!
Silvermoon Reiki Healing ever heard of a soul switch? I'm pretty sure I'm becoming a nisser. I say this sincerely as weird as it is. I do love who I am becoming though he's awesome but a lil scary crazy in relation to who I was.
😱 OMG !!! Just checked out your fantastic Yt site. I could spend days on end watching your videos. Love that you share your knowledge on everything Myth, folklore & fairy tales. You just got a new subscreiber 👍
In Finland it's called "Tonttu" I prefer more these gnome looking ones than these elves, there's something more Christmasy with these Nordic elves than there is with those American ones. These American elves don't really have that warm and happy look on them. They don't really belong to Christmas that much, unlike the Nordic elves that look like smaller versions of Santa-Claus.
@@HonnePerkele I never liked Santa's elves. They always just seemed creepy, ugly, and weird. Tomte's seem so much more warm and friendly. Come to think of it, I don't care for the modern Santa all that much either. I refer to him as Klaus, and keep in mind the more realistic story.
Finland has this one beautiful movie called Joulutarina, I watched this when I was a kid. It's about the origin story of the Santa-Claus: *(Spoiler Warning)* He grew up in Finland 1800s (possibly in Lapland). His name in this movie is Nikolas, which is also the name of the real life Santa-Claus Saint Nicholas. His sister died drowning in this lake where Nikolas makes visits throughout the movie. Growing up Nikolas did not have parents so he was raised by the village. Every year he would get new caretakers. Everything changes one year when the final caretaker of Nikolas (since he's ~16 and soon to be adult) is this cruel Iisakki who doesn't like Nikolas when Nikolas is making toys. Iisakki starts calling Nikolas by a nickname called "Julli". Eventually Iisakki learns to appreciate Julli and he even helps him with his passion of making toys and leaving them next to houses for children to play with during Christmas. I don't remember all of the movie since I was a boy when I watched the movie. That's just a brief look on the origin story of Finnish Santa-Claus from the movie "Joulutarina" (Christmas Story). It of course has other characters and more to the plot. I really recommend watching it by yourself, I think it probably has subtitles so no need to take a Finnish studying course :D
In Norway the nisse is portrayd as a local verson of santa claus. In fact, santa claus in Norwegian is Julenisse wich is basicly a mix betwen a elf and a santa claus.
My daughter's swedish husband told her how his mother would greet the tomte before she stepped over the threshold of their summer house. And every year at the beginning of december would put little tomte figures all over her house every day up until christmas. All i ever learned about the tomte was that you should be respectful and every christmas eve put out a bowl of oatmeal (not sure if it was oatmeal or gruel or whatever) with some milk and a bit of butter in it. Or you would have bad luck the rest of the year. They would keep your animals from getting lost, but if you angered them a little they would tangle the manes and tails of the horses. But anger them a lot and disrespect them...well, things got lost , broken and all that.
So that's what they are called I had one in one of apt I rented it was a two family house alot small hammering in the walls we ask our fist floor neighbors they said they heard it too until more than once I thought I was going crazy when by side of my eye saw this what I thought mouse with a red triangle hat walking super fast and upright things went missing and alot of other situations never experienced anything like it🤔🙄
I would argue you could translate nisse as gnome, but there are differences. They are similar in apperance, with big noses and pointy hats. However, gnomes live underground, while a nisse typically lives in a house or barn. There are some other differences too, but the gnome actually originated from the nisse.
What great timing - I actually have one coming out later today that looks a bit into Thor and his magical items and I do plan to make more videos about the gods in the near future!
@@AnnaBridgland I have been a Norse mythology enthusiast since 2004. I love the Norse gods. I believe in them. I love hearing about Odin' Thor and Loki. In that mythology Loki is not evil. He's the mover of the stories. He actually helps the Aesis a lot. Thor is half Jotun like Loki. I think Thor and Loki are the same God with a split personality. Like Two-Face in the Batman universe. They're always together and they both have red hair. I think Thor is Loki when he's angry and Loki is Thor when he's smart. I'm interested in your opinion. What do you think? Do you play Skyrim. I love that game. I want to use it to reenact all the Norse myths. Thor's a badass.😁
I think personally I see Thor and Loki as brothers and separate people, but that's an interesting take on it. I did play through Skyrim when it came out, it's a fun game!
I mean, every time I see garden gnomes I tend to ask if they're nisser. edit: More seriously, though: I think Garden Gnomes are based on the German dwarf, but it might just be a regional thing of North-Western Germanic folklore vs down south.
Heidenstam nämner inte tomtenissar här, men jag tycker den passar in: litteraturbanken.se/#!/forfattare/HeidenstamV/titlar/Dikter/sida/53/etext (3 s fram)
@@cathleenmoyle1476 Because Christianity, as well as the two other Abrahamic religions, are vehemently polytheistic and anti-magic. Any supernatural power that is not God himself is viewed as evil and going against his will. Older gods of older religions are viewed as false gods and/or demons etc.
@@cathleenmoyle1476.. Because Christianity doesn't accept magic, dark creatures and other God or God-like beings. In my opinion Christianity is more "evil" and bad, than good. So much bad has been done in the name of Christianity.
Rice pudding is baked in the oven and eaten as a dessert whereas rice porridge is cooked on the stovetop and typically eaten as a main meal, sometimes with dried meats or salami and rye crackers on the side. "Grøt" or "grød" translates better to "porridge" or "gruel" as it isn't really a dessert or pudding :)
@@AnnaBridgland thanks for your response, I'm Danish but moved to England when I was 10 and always thought it was rice pudding. You learn something new everyday 😂
@@AnnaBridgland I'm not saying you're wrong but I honestly don't remember anyone eating it as a savoury meal and neither can my mum, she also doesn't know of anyone who makes it in the oven. Maybe they did way back when 😅
My mom is native mexican, she was born and raised on a ranch in the Evergreen Forests on the outskirts of La Estancia, Jalisco, Mexico. My mom tells me that when she was a little kid on her Farm she had neighbors that lived quite a distance but every now and then my mom and her brothers would go to their house and ask where the kids were so they could play, and sometimes the parents didn't know where their kids were, and other times their parents would see their kids in the backyard playing with an imaginary "friend". My mom says that the kids would chase this friend around for hours from morning to night playing, but the parents could never see the "friend" they were playing with. All i know is that eventually the parents figured out that it was a creature called a "duende" which is just the Mexican version of a gnome. I know a few more people from a church in socal, that told me about an uncle of theirs that had an expierince with a duende. These stories are definately real, but these are just demonic manifestations in the spirit realm, they are demons who diguise themselves as innocent looking creatures. Eventually they always turn violent if you don't comply with them, because they are all messangers of satan who have an agenda. I'm not afraid to talk negatively about these "beings", because the Bible says that i "have not been given the spirit of fear". These are fallen angels in cleverly disguised bodys, but i'm covered by the precious blood of Jesus, and these creatures always shake in fear if you mention the name of Jesus. If you ever see one of these "beings" ask them to "Confess that Jesus is lord and that God raised him from the dead", and watch them turn on you. They will show their true colors.
Duende are not evil beings or spirits. They never hurt the children. They're like the nisse; they're only evil if you treat them that way. I have a friend who told me the story of her grandfather who met some duendes when he was a young boy; helped him with his work in the corn field in exchange for food.
I mean, Den Store Nisseboken (directly translated: The Big Book of Nisser) was originally dutch (Leven en werken van de kabouter), great book. Scandinavian version was the original, but I kinda gotta agree with you. They are pretty similar though, with the dutch version not necessarily living in human-made houses or barns being the biggest difference, to my knowledge. Still, they deserve some Risgrøt
From what I have heard, santa was a Nisse that was starving, and was hiding out in a barn. A child foind it and gave it a bowl of porridge to help it. The nisse was so thankful that it decided to give presents to all the good children every year on this day forward.
That's an interesting origin story for Santa.
Finland has this one beautiful movie called Joulutarina, I watched this when I was a kid. It's about the origin story of the Santa-Claus:
*(Spoiler Warning)*
He grew up in Finland 1800s (possibly in Lapland). His name in this movie is Nikolas, which is also the name of the real life Santa-Claus Saint Nicholas. His sister died drowning in this lake where Nikolas makes visits throughout the movie. Growing up Nikolas did not have parents so he was raised by the village. Every year he would get new caretakers. Everything changes one year when the final caretaker of Nikolas (since he's ~16 and soon to be adult) is this cruel Iisakki who doesn't like Nikolas when Nikolas is making toys. Iisakki starts calling Nikolas by a nickname called "Julli". Eventually Iisakki learns to appreciate Julli and he even helps him with his passion of making toys and leaving them next to houses for children to play with during Christmas.
I don't remember all of the movie since I was a boy when I watched the movie. That's just a brief look on the origin story of Finnish Santa-Claus from the movie "Joulutarina" (Christmas Story). It of course has other characters and more to the plot. I really recommend watching it by yourself, I think it probably has subtitles so no need to take a Finnish studying course :D
isn't Santa Claus more based on St. Nicholas which is not Nordic, but it's called folklore of a reason
@@HonnePerkele that's a neat story, but how did he find the elves?
@@dyrepoliti During christianization, many folktales and legends were changed to be more Christian. Many of the Christian Saints are actually just altered versions of “pagan” legends and gods. The depiction of Santa comes from the original depiction of Father Yule (Odin). Many of the Christmas traditions are also altered versions of “pagan” traditions: trees in the house, stockings over the fireplace, etc. and aside from Rudolph (who was invented in 1939) there are 8 reindeer pulling Santa’s sled (which represent the 8 legs of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir).
@shirleymaemattthews4862 A much later addition to Santa.
I'm from Denmark, and I remember as a child, we would leave porridge (Risengrød), in the attic for the gnomes (nisserne), every december!
Samme her i Norge, bare ikke på loftet
the association of the nisse with the christmas is a rather modern construct
I keep seeing these gnomes sold alongside christmas decorations and I never thought of them as farm helpers thanks for the informative video
Yes they've become popular in recent years outside of Scandinavia, but unfortunately no one really knows that they're a very old part of folklore and traditions!
@@AnnaBridgland many people actually know they come from Scandinavian paganism
im danish so I like knowing all this
Skål, brother (or sister haha)! I'm Norwegian/Danish!
A coworker told me of the Tomte, I told him that I would look it up on UA-cam. Glad I did.
nice job on the folklore series videos. I love learning about these mysterious creatures, which I believe are magicall interdimensional beings.
Silvermoon Reiki Healing ever heard of a soul switch? I'm pretty sure I'm becoming a nisser. I say this sincerely as weird as it is. I do love who I am becoming though he's awesome but a lil scary crazy in relation to who I was.
@@MonkeyKing3333 Why do you believe you're becoming a Nisser/soul witch?
😱 OMG !!! Just checked out your fantastic Yt site. I could spend days on end watching your videos. Love that you share your knowledge on everything Myth, folklore & fairy tales. You just got a new subscreiber 👍
I love this stuff.
Instead of elves, we have gnomes/dwarves.
Anyone translating Nisse to Goblin is a heretic.
In Finland it's called "Tonttu"
I prefer more these gnome looking ones than these elves, there's something more Christmasy with these Nordic elves than there is with those American ones. These American elves don't really have that warm and happy look on them. They don't really belong to Christmas that much, unlike the Nordic elves that look like smaller versions of Santa-Claus.
Also Santa-Claus lives in Lapland, Finland. Not in North Pole. That's a fact!
@@HonnePerkele I never liked Santa's elves. They always just seemed creepy, ugly, and weird. Tomte's seem so much more warm and friendly. Come to think of it, I don't care for the modern Santa all that much either. I refer to him as Klaus, and keep in mind the more realistic story.
Good work ☺️
Finland has this one beautiful movie called Joulutarina, I watched this when I was a kid. It's about the origin story of the Santa-Claus:
*(Spoiler Warning)*
He grew up in Finland 1800s (possibly in Lapland). His name in this movie is Nikolas, which is also the name of the real life Santa-Claus Saint Nicholas. His sister died drowning in this lake where Nikolas makes visits throughout the movie. Growing up Nikolas did not have parents so he was raised by the village. Every year he would get new caretakers. Everything changes one year when the final caretaker of Nikolas (since he's ~16 and soon to be adult) is this cruel Iisakki who doesn't like Nikolas when Nikolas is making toys. Iisakki starts calling Nikolas by a nickname called "Julli". Eventually Iisakki learns to appreciate Julli and he even helps him with his passion of making toys and leaving them next to houses for children to play with during Christmas.
I don't remember all of the movie since I was a boy when I watched the movie. That's just a brief look on the origin story of Finnish Santa-Claus from the movie "Joulutarina" (Christmas Story). It of course has other characters and more to the plot. I really recommend watching it by yourself, I think it probably has subtitles so no need to take a Finnish studying course :D
I'm so glad I just found your channel! New subb.🐥🌼
Thank You!!
Love the video, I just subbed
In Norway the nisse is portrayd as a local verson of santa claus. In fact, santa claus in Norwegian is Julenisse wich is basicly a mix betwen a elf and a santa claus.
The nisse has always been a jultime creature in norse mythology, the american verson is a copy.
@@bjrnfalch3288 are nisse and gnomes the same thing and are garden gnomes based off of nisse
My daughter's swedish husband told her how his mother would greet the tomte before she stepped over the threshold of their summer house. And every year at the beginning of december would put little tomte figures all over her house every day up until christmas. All i ever learned about the tomte was that you should be respectful and every christmas eve put out a bowl of oatmeal (not sure if it was oatmeal or gruel or whatever) with some milk and a bit of butter in it. Or you would have bad luck the rest of the year. They would keep your animals from getting lost, but if you angered them a little they would tangle the manes and tails of the horses. But anger them a lot and disrespect them...well, things got lost , broken and all that.
Awesome story! I'm going to pass this story along to my students.
Love rediscovering our Pagan and animist pre christen past keep up the good work.
I plan to, thank you!
The Nisse is very interesting mythical creature from the Nordic mythology. Thanks for the story.
Your voice is like the voice of the narrator of Magic the Gathering Battlemage. I like.
Nisser are so cool! I love them, and want to feed them so they don't hide my stuff and bite me.
im swedish and my grandpa had a mooning tommte nisse under the qhist mas tree 0_0
Oh yeah mooning nisse is common in gardens here in Denmark :D
I'm Swedish but live in the USA now. Instead of Santa, we have a jultomte who brings gifts.
So that's what they are called I had one in one of apt I rented it was a two family house alot small hammering in the walls we ask our fist floor neighbors they said they heard it too until more than once I thought I was going crazy when by side of my eye saw this what I thought mouse with a red triangle hat walking super fast and upright things went missing and alot of other situations never experienced anything like it🤔🙄
So cool.
Boggan Alseryd I know right!!!
Did you really have a Nisse in your house?
Domovoi or Domovoy in Slavic tales.
Loving this series. I've heard of gnomes is the Nisse similar?
Gnomes are similar but a bit different, in my Underground Folk episode of this series I talk about them!
I would argue you could translate nisse as gnome, but there are differences. They are similar in apperance, with big noses and pointy hats. However, gnomes live underground, while a nisse typically lives in a house or barn. There are some other differences too, but the gnome actually originated from the nisse.
@@SpiderSplash_ Interesting information, thank you for sharing.
Brilliant x
dude, this is cool
Beware the Judderman my dear, when the moon is fat
A nisse can be used as a psenonym for short person.
The Borrowers. Good Book.
Midsummer Nights Dream comes to mind too.
La Chouffe!
🔥♥️🔥
Cute
Anna Bridgland. I love Norse mythology. Do you have any videos on the gods?
What great timing - I actually have one coming out later today that looks a bit into Thor and his magical items and I do plan to make more videos about the gods in the near future!
@@AnnaBridgland I have been a Norse mythology enthusiast since 2004. I love the Norse gods. I believe in them.
I love hearing about Odin' Thor and Loki. In that mythology Loki is not evil. He's the mover of the stories.
He actually helps the Aesis a lot. Thor is half Jotun like Loki. I think Thor and Loki are the same God with a split personality.
Like Two-Face in the Batman universe. They're always together and they both have red hair.
I think Thor is Loki when he's angry and Loki is Thor when he's smart. I'm interested in your opinion. What do you think?
Do you play Skyrim. I love that game. I want to use it to reenact all the Norse myths. Thor's a badass.😁
I think personally I see Thor and Loki as brothers and separate people, but that's an interesting take on it. I did play through Skyrim when it came out, it's a fun game!
Question: Is Santa Claus a nisse?
You have a great speaking voice do you do audio books 📖
I haven't before, but I'd definitely love to!
Are... are they Garden Gnomes?
I mean, every time I see garden gnomes I tend to ask if they're nisser.
edit: More seriously, though: I think Garden Gnomes are based on the German dwarf, but it might just be a regional thing of North-Western Germanic folklore vs down south.
Vätte or is that the same thing? As nisse?
They are usually thought of as different beings 🙂
nissegrus
Heidenstam nämner inte tomtenissar här, men jag tycker den passar in:
litteraturbanken.se/#!/forfattare/HeidenstamV/titlar/Dikter/sida/53/etext
(3 s fram)
of course religion would make it sound like they're evil.
you mean christianity
pagan religions are religions too
Why must Christianity make them sound evil?
@@cathleenmoyle1476 Because Christianity, as well as the two other Abrahamic religions, are vehemently polytheistic and anti-magic. Any supernatural power that is not God himself is viewed as evil and going against his will. Older gods of older religions are viewed as false gods and/or demons etc.
@@Luka1180 I see... I guess magic would prove that you can be strong without the one god and that's not what's desired.
@@cathleenmoyle1476.. Because Christianity doesn't accept magic, dark creatures and other God or God-like beings.
In my opinion Christianity is more "evil" and bad, than good. So much bad has been done in the name of Christianity.
Did I hear Enderal music?
The songs used are in the description! Not sure if any are in the mod though :)
@@AnnaBridgland it looked very similar for me. It is a very beatuful song.
We call them gnomes
Det hedder altså en nisse i Danmark og ikke en mister 🙄
Why does everyone say porridge? It's risengrød which is literally rice pudding
Rice pudding is baked in the oven and eaten as a dessert whereas rice porridge is cooked on the stovetop and typically eaten as a main meal, sometimes with dried meats or salami and rye crackers on the side. "Grøt" or "grød" translates better to "porridge" or "gruel" as it isn't really a dessert or pudding :)
@@AnnaBridgland thanks for your response, I'm Danish but moved to England when I was 10 and always thought it was rice pudding. You learn something new everyday 😂
@@AnnaBridgland I'm not saying you're wrong but I honestly don't remember anyone eating it as a savoury meal and neither can my mum, she also doesn't know of anyone who makes it in the oven. Maybe they did way back when 😅
@@Vinnie5223.. I believe pudding is more like "budding" in danish. A more gelly like substance for dessert.
Grøt is definitely porridge, not pudding. Pudding is more gelatinous. Oat porridge and havregrøt are the exact same too
My mom is native mexican, she was born and raised on a ranch in the Evergreen Forests on the outskirts of La Estancia, Jalisco, Mexico. My mom tells me that when she was a little kid on her Farm she had neighbors that lived quite a distance but every now and then my mom and her brothers would go to their house and ask where the kids were so they could play, and sometimes the parents didn't know where their kids were, and other times their parents would see their kids in the backyard playing with an imaginary "friend". My mom says that the kids would chase this friend around for hours from morning to night playing, but the parents could never see the "friend" they were playing with. All i know is that eventually the parents figured out that it was a creature called a "duende" which is just the Mexican version of a gnome. I know a few more people from a church in socal, that told me about an uncle of theirs that had an expierince with a duende. These stories are definately real, but these are just demonic manifestations in the spirit realm, they are demons who diguise themselves as innocent looking creatures. Eventually they always turn violent if you don't comply with them, because they are all messangers of satan who have an agenda. I'm not afraid to talk negatively about these "beings", because the Bible says that i "have not been given the spirit of fear". These are fallen angels in cleverly disguised bodys, but i'm covered by the precious blood of Jesus, and these creatures always shake in fear if you mention the name of Jesus. If you ever see one of these "beings" ask them to "Confess that Jesus is lord and that God raised him from the dead", and watch them turn on you. They will show their true colors.
Duende are not evil beings or spirits. They never hurt the children. They're like the nisse; they're only evil if you treat them that way. I have a friend who told me the story of her grandfather who met some duendes when he was a young boy; helped him with his work in the corn field in exchange for food.
holland did it better.
I mean, Den Store Nisseboken (directly translated: The Big Book of Nisser) was originally dutch (Leven en werken van de kabouter), great book. Scandinavian version was the original, but I kinda gotta agree with you.
They are pretty similar though, with the dutch version not necessarily living in human-made houses or barns being the biggest difference, to my knowledge.
Still, they deserve some Risgrøt