Theodor: «Neither before nor since have I got such beating».
In Oslo there I awa glimpse of a thin layer of snow in the morning, but then it was gone. Outside the Christmas spirit shows its absence, and it is the same indoor. I had to have stories about winter and Christmas at #folkloreThursday, so I make a leap in the alphabetical order about characters from Norwegian folklore and continues with nissen.
Each farm had its own little elf or nisse. A little fellow who happily laughed but could also burst into tears, and additionally had a terrible temper and quickly became angry as you will se by the story below. He was brazed with long white beard and three fingers and toes or some folk legends say 4. He was a man dressed in gray with red hat.
The little gentleman was awfully strong, this strength could mean death for those who were exposed to his anger. Several folk legends tells about people who were danced to death by nissen. Did you or your horse get the hair braided by nissen, one should never undo it. Nissen could be unreasonably old and had to be treated nicely. Every Christmas, he had to have porridge and beer. If treated nicely he could be helpful and took care of the animals on the farm.
There are also folk legends about nisse who lived on ships. This meant good luck for the ships.
Nissen had a love for animals, not all, but some specially selected. In this story a horse, a horse which he had marked with a braid. Nissen took extra care of this horse. The horse was named Brownie and belonged to a famer called Teodor Torp.
Then there was a winter Teodor was out with the horse. They had been on the winter market and Teodor was riding the horse a little hard because he wanted to get home before darkness fell. The horse was quite sweaty when he was placed in the stable.
Teodor went into his house to eat food. He had hardly sat down when he heard something walking with small steps outside. He could hear how the front door was opened. Then the kitchen door was opened violently. In the doorway stood a small man with his arms folded under his long beard. Under the red hat Teodor could see that nissen had an angry expression. Then he walked heavily across the floor toward where Teodor was sitting, the upper body bent forward, arms moving from one side to the other and hands… fists. And before Teodor managed to react, nissen slapped him so hard that he fell off his chair and was thrown against the wall. This was a punishment because he had treated the horse so badly.
Teodor says in the story: «Neither before nor since have I got such a beating».