The girl was so beautiful that the boy was sure he had never seen anyone prettier. But he could not remember seeing her before. (…) However, as they stood there talking, it was like she was trying to kick something to the side with one foot. When the boy looked closer, he saw the hulder tail hanging behind her. Then he understood what people she was from.

(From For noen troll. Page 173.)

A stranger to most of the world, unlike her brethren, Draugen and the Troll, Huldra is a nature born femme fatale. A beautiful woman whose sole role in most stories is to lead poor boys and men astray with lust. If you fell to her lure, your life would change in one way or another, mostly for the worse.

But what is a Hulder? What people do they belong to? And why do they so desperately want a human as their significant other?

The name hulder comes from the old Norse word huld, that means hidden, as in invisible. A fitting name as they are among what we in Norway lore called Tusser, underground dwellers that hid from humans and the sun.

There are different origin stories for these mischievous and sometimes dangerous people, some think they stem from the Norse myths of creation and the dwarves that lived underground until humans were created. Some stories say they are the children of Adam and his first wife, Asmava, that he only wanted to meet during the night in hiding. Which God ended up punishing her for and making her and her children invisible. Afterwards Adam was given a wife he liked a lot more and he seemed quite happy, while his first children ended up as all the creatures of Norway. Draugen, trolls, Tusser, Nøkken and more.

In another story they are Adam and Eve’s children, but when God was going to visit them one day, she was unable to clean all the kids, and in a hurry, she hid away half of the kids she was too ashamed to show the lord. He asked her if this was all her children, and as she answered yes. He told her that those she had tried to hide from God, would be hidden for humans as well.

Small funny creatures, and among them the tall and fair huldra. While no old Norse story tell of this stunning creature by name, there are some likeness with Gygra. The women of the Jotuns. The trolls of old and often the enemies of the Gods in Norse Mythology. While a lot of them were giant creatures, some of them were described as stunning beautiful women. One was even so beautiful the God Freyr, that had seen her when watching the world from Odin’s high seat, gave away his most prized possessions just to make her meet him, and in the end promise him marriage. Some stories also said his family line with the Jotun-woman gave birth to some of the lines of brave kings from Norway.

But enough about that, let us go to what we are sure about huldra. A fair woman. At a first glance nothing will strike you beside her over earthly beauty. In old drawings she is often drawn in national dress like a bunad, and with long blonde hair. In a lot of stories she is said to be dressed in green, which also made its way into the popular play by Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt (Google “hall of the mountain king”, or “Dovregubbens hall” and you will probably get the one thing the world have gotten from that.) Saying she was dressed in green also fits a lot with the stories from people that claimed to see her. They saw her just for a moment, from the crook of their eyes, or just in a moment in the darkness. Something green moving between the trees. There one second, then as they wondered if they had seen anything at all, they would be sure it had been huldra that had been out again.

However, as the opening text tells, there are a few tell-tale signs the woman is more than she seems. Huldra has a cow tail. Which hangs down under her dress. And if you can see her from behind, she is as hollow as an old rotted tree stump. And you can look in at how empty a creature she really is. Some stories say that if someone just saw her from behind, you would just see right through her.

A young man finding himself alone in the mountain. Usually at a cabin or a shieling for the season. Hunting or tending to animals, and as he climbs into bed for the night, he might find an unknown woman try sneaking into his bed to seduce him. Sometimes huldra would even go so far as to change into a woman the boy would not deny into his bed, like a girl from home he likes, a wife or a fiancé. Sometimes it would just be one night of passion, and the confused man would come home and find his significant other had never been there with him. Then he might never hear from the hulder again, or she could return later to wish for any sort of help with their child that had been conceived that night. A good warning to not fuck around outside of your marriage, because you do not want a bastard to appear some years later. It is best to just avoid temptation.

‘A man from Lalm in Gudbrandsdalen was supposed to collect moss around Høvringen a summer. Since he was supposed to be there a few days, he brought enough clothes and food, and settle into a mountain cabin he could use.

It was damp in the cabin when he got there. Even if he put fire on, it didn’t get much better. So instead he took his clothes and put them over himself in the bed. Now he was about to fall asleep, the door opened, and a beautiful girl came in.

“Do you want me to warm you, poor you?” She asked and crept into his bed. The morning after she was gone, and he didn’t see more of her.

The next summer he got a visit from a woman with a baby on her arm. “You are the father.” She said. “And now I need clothes for the kid!”’

(Translated from For noen troll. Page 168)

Another and longer story tell of a man that is lost one day, and end up with an old woman and her fair daughter with a horrible limp. Confused as to why the woman is so familiar with him, and why she claims the girl is his daughter, he gets the answer that they conceived their daughter together on his wedding night, when she had pretended to be his wife. Her limp was from him tossing an axe at a storm once, not knowing it was just his daughter dancing inside it. He is overcome with guilt over having hurt her, and the day after he woke up again and there was no sign of the house or the old woman and his daughter. Sometime later he comes to the same place and can kill a big elk with the voice of the old woman telling him that what is hers is also his. Afterwards he took all he had at his farm and settle down at the spot where he had met his daughter. Naming the new farm Gråtlien. This was the first farm at Kvikne. Another similar story also tells of a man that found out he had an adult daughter with a hulder, but the hulder wants him to take the girl with him and raise her as she had done all the work so far. He takes his daughter and becomes a good father to her, as she is a good and fair daughter, and eventually she marries and goes on to have a good and long life.

So all in all, getting a sudden daughter didn’t seem all that bad for the men, as long as their wives didn’t seem to care all that much about suddenly moving closer to daughter and mistress, or minding getting a bonus daughter out of nowhere.

However, these are some of the luckier encounters with the hulders. Both female and male ones, as the usual method is not to just seduce and then hope they would give some handouts to care for their kids in the future.

No, usually the hulders wanted marriage, and if you were not well versed in hulder knowledge, you could find yourself spirited away to their kingdom, to never be seen or heard from again. For better or for worse.

But that is for next time.

Sources:

For noen troll – vesener og uvesener i folketroen, Birger Sivertsen. 2000

Trollmakter og godvetter – overnaturlige vesner i norsk folketru, Olav Bø. 1987

Picture used: Theodor Kittelsen. ‘Huldra’ Illustration for “troldskab”, Kristiania 1892. Free use from nasjonalmuseet.