"when they heard the trows playing. One example is ""Winyadepla"", which may be found in the playing of Tom Anderson on his album with Aly Bain, ""The Silver Bow"". Bibliography Trow (folklore) A trow (also trowe or drow or dtrow) is a malignant or mischievous fairy or spirit in the folkloric traditions of the Orkney and Shetland islands. Trows are generally inclined to be short of stature, ugly, and shy in nature. Trows are nocturnal creatures, like the troll of Scandinavian legend with which the trow shares many similarities. They venture out of their 'trowie knowes' (earthen mound dwellings) solely"
"to join them and to never be heard of again. They are beautiful but their backs are hollow. One of the most notable, and evil, creatures from folklore is the Devil himself, called """" in Scandinavian folklore. He is depicted with horns, a goatee, and a hoof instead of a left foot. He is also tall and lean and wears a top-hat. The Norwegian devil has no wife, but his great-grandmother keeps house for him. While he tends to be very cunning, it is hard for him to outwit a human, as he is extremely gullible and prideful. For example,"
"and other legendary mischievous creatures. Scandinavian folklore often depicts gnomes and nisser in grey clothing. This is partly because of their association with dusk, as well as because these creatures were said to be outside traditional moral standards of black and white. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien made use of this folkloric symbolism of grey in his works, which often draw upon Scandinavian folkloric names and themes. Gandalf is called the Grey Pilgrim; settings include the Grey Havens and Ered Mithrin, the grey mountains; and characters include the Grey Elves. Believers in parapsychology say that those who are suffering"
"and the same (""bäckahästen""). In Scandinavian folklore, dragons are commonly known as ""lindworms"", monstrous serpents with or without hind legs. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark, they typically live in the ocean, and here, tales of marine monsters appear to have the widest dissemination, although a famous specimen is also said to reside in the Swedish lake ""Storsjön"". The Norwegian lake ""Seljordsvatnet"" is also famous for its claimed inhabitant, a serpent known as ""Selma"". The coasts of Scandinavia are reportedly also haunted by the terrifying ""Kraken"". Sea serpents, with their glowing eyes and long manes, are also prevalent in Scandinavian folklore,"
"folklore shows a large correspondence with folklores elsewhere, such as England and Germany, among others. Most of what has survived there might be found, of a similar nature, in Finland, Sapmi and Estonia and to a lesser extent in other Baltic countries. A large number of different mythological creatures from Norse mythology continue to live on in Scandinavian folklore, little affected by Christian beliefs, though the wicked ones at times find an ally in the Devil or have problems with Christian symbols. These beings could be scared by a piece of iron or steel, such as a strategically placed pair"
"In Sweden, ravens are known as the ghosts of murdered people, and in Germany as the souls of the damned. In Danish folklore, valravne that ate a king's heart gained human knowledge, could perform great malicious acts, could lead people astray, had superhuman powers, and were ""terrible animals"". As in traditional mythology and folklore, the common raven features frequently in more modern writings such as the works of William Shakespeare, and, perhaps most famously, in the poem ""The Raven"" by Edgar Allan Poe. Ravens have appeared in the works of Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, George R."
"Níðhöggr In Norse mythology, Níðhöggr (""Malice Striker"", traditionally also spelled Níðhǫggr, often anglicized Nidhogg) is a dragon/serpent who gnaws at a root of the world tree, Yggdrasil. In historical Viking society, níð was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. Thus, its name might refer to its role as a horrific monster or in its action of chewing the corpses of the inhabitants of Náströnd: those guilty of murder, adultery, and oath-breaking, which Norse society considered among the worst possible crimes. In the standardized Old Norse orthography, the name is"
"in the hunt, but should he be unfaithful to the skogsrå, he will be punished with numerous accidents. He may put an end to a stormy night caused by her vengeance by firing a shot against her. Skogsrå The skogsrå , ('Forest Rå'), Skogsfrun ('Mistress of the Forest'), Skogssnuvan, Skogsnymfen ('Forest Nymph'), Råndan ('the Rå') or huldra, was a mythical female creature (or ""Rå"") of the forest, in Swedish folklore. It appears in the form of a small, beautiful woman with a seemingly friendly temperament. However, those who are enticed into following her into the forest are never seen again."
"Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales. The Christian symbolism where the wolf represents the devil, or evil, being after the ""sheep"" who are the living faithful, is found frequently in western literature. In Milton's ""Lycidas"" the theological metaphor is made explicit: The wolf in the Scandinavian tradition as either representing the warrior or as a symbol of Odin, sometimes combined with the Christian symbolism as the wolf representing evil or the devil, came to be a popular attribute in the heavy metal music subculture, used by bands such as Sonata Arctica, Marduk, Watain, Wintersun, and Wolf. Wolves in folklore, religion"
"blending of traditional Celtic stories, so the nuckelavee may have its roots in a mythical creature imported by the Norsemen fused with a traditional Celtic water horse. Nuckelavee The nuckelavee () or nuckalavee is a horse-like demon from Orcadian mythology that combines equine and human elements. It has its origins in Norse mythology, and is the most horrible of all the demons of Scotland's Northern Isles. The ""nuck"" component of its name may be cognate with ""Nick"" in Old Nick, a name for the Christian Devil. The nuckelavee's breath was thought to wilt crops and sicken livestock, and the creature"
"Hulder A hulder is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. (Her name derives from a root meaning ""covered"" or ""secret"".) In Norwegian folklore, she is known as huldra (""the [archetypal] hulder"", though folklore presupposes that there is an entire Hulder race and not just a single individual). She is known as the skogsrå ""forest spirit"" or Tallemaja ""pine tree Mary"" in Swedish folklore, and ulda in Sámi folklore. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva divine figure Huld and the German Holda. The word hulder is only used of a female; a"
"or the Scandinavian ""Harpans kraft"". In ""The Queen of Elfland's Nourice"", a woman is abducted to be a wet-nurse to the elf-queen's baby, but promised that she may return home once the child is weaned. In folk-stories, Scandinavian elves often play the role of disease-spirits. The most common, though also most harmless case was various irritating skin rashes, which were called ""älvablåst"" (elven puff) and could be cured by a forceful counter-blow (a handy pair of bellows was most useful for this purpose). ""Skålgropar"", a particular kind of petroglyph (pictogram on a rock) found in Scandinavia, were known in older"
"during a time when people let their cattle graze on mountains or in the forest for long periods of the year. Vittra (folklore) A Vittra (plural: Vittror) is a type of Vættr (wight) from northern Sweden. A Vættr is a nature spirit, a type of mythological creature very common in Scandinavian mythology. Elves, Dwarves and Jötnar are Vættir. Experts are not certain if Vittra, Huldra and Näcken can be grouped together or not because all three of them support nature against humans and dangers. The Vittra is part of Scandinavian folklore in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and"
"had turned within the howe to look upwards at the moon. They thought that they saw four lights within the howe, but not a shadow to be seen. Then they saw that Gunnar was merry, with a joyful face."" In the ""Eyrbyggja saga"", a shepherd is assaulted by a blue-black draugr. The shepherd's neck is broken during the ensuing scuffle. The shepherd rises the next night as a draugr. In more recent Scandinavian folklore, the draug (the modern spelling used in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) is often identified with the spirits of mariners drowned at sea. The creature is said"
"""nisse"" is a solitary vätte, living on the farmstead. He is usually benevolent and helpful, which can not be said about an innately mischievous ""illvätte"". However, a ""nisse"" can cause a lot of damage if he is displeased or angry, including killing of livestock or causing serious accidents. Scandinavian folklore features a class of beings similar to the Old Norse ""landvættir"". They are known by many names, although the most common are ""vättar"" in southern Sweden (singular: vätte), ""vittra"" in northern Sweden and ""huldrefolk"" in Norway (although the singular ""vittra"" and ""huldra"", respectively, refer to a solitary and quite different"
"Askefruer/Askafroa. Askafroa The Askafroa () also known as the Danish Askefrue and German Eschenfrau, is a type of legendary creature in Scandinavian and German folklore, similar to the Greek Hamadryads. The Askafroa is the guardian of the ash tree. The Askafroa was thought be a malicious creature which did much damage, and to propriate her it was necessary to make a sacrifice to her on Ash Wednesday. The Swedish scholar Hyltén-Cavallius recorded in his ethnographic work ""Wärend och Wirdarne"" a belief of a female creature living in the ash tree, in Ljunit Hundred. The elders used to sacrifice to the"
"as ""Alptraum-Kiefer"" (""nightmare pine""). According to Paul Devereux, mares included witches who took on the form of animals when their spirits went out and about while they were in trance (see the Icelandic example of Geirrid, below). These included animals such as frogs, cats, horses, hares, dogs, oxen, birds and often bees and wasps. The mare is attested as early as in the Norse ""Ynglinga saga"" from the 13th century. Here, King Vanlandi Sveigðisson of Uppsala lost his life to a nightmare (""mara"") conjured by the Finnish sorceress Huld or Hulda, hired by the king's abandoned wife Drífa. The king"
"Ajatar In Finnish folklore, Ajatar or Ajattara (also spelled Aiätär or Aijotar) is an evil female spirit. In finnish folklore ""Ajatar"" is an evil female spirit. She lives in the woods located at the mountains of Pohjola; she is described as having """"hair-plait reached to her heels and whose breasts hung down to her knees"""" similar to the swedish Skogsnufva, danish 'sea-woman', or the wildfraulein of the eifel. Ajatar is the granddaughter of Hiisi (the master of the woods and spreader of disease) and is the master of Lempo and Gnomes. Through her connections with Hiisi and Lempo, she is"
"the source texts. As evidenced by records of personal names and place names, the most popular god among the Scandinavians during the Viking Age was Thor, who is portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, his mountain-crushing, thunderous hammer Mjölnir in hand. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, and is wed to the beautiful, golden-haired goddess Sif. The god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds. In an act of self-sacrifice, Odin is described as"
"Troll A troll is a class of being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings. Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them. Trolls"
"of the dead, spattering the heavens with blood. In contrast the Eddic poem ""Vafþrúðnismál"" states that Fenrir himself will destroy the sun. Snorri also names a wolf named Mánagarmr (""Moon-Hound"", or ""Moon's Dog"") as the most powerful of the giantess's progeny, and goes on to say that he will swallow the moon and gorge on the dead. This is presumably an alternate name for Hati that Snorri took from folklore. It can be anglicized as ""Managarm"", ""Manegarm"", ""Mánagarm"" or ""Managarmr"". Hati Hróðvitnisson In Norse mythology, Hati Hróðvitnisson (first name meaning ""He Who Hates"", or ""Enemy"") is a warg; a wolf"
"men of Dunharrow. Tolkien's Barrow-Wights bear obvious similarity to, and were inspired by the haugbui. The term ""draug"" has come to be used to describe any type of revenant in Nordic folklore. Draugr The draugr or draug (, plural ; modern , and Danish, Swedish, and ) is an undead creature from Norse mythology, also called , literally ""again-walker"" (). The word ""draugr"" can be traced to a Proto-Indo European stem ""*"" ""phantom"", from ""*"" ""deceive"" (see also Avestan ""druj""). The Old Norse meaning of the word is a revenant. In Swedish, ""draug"" is a modern loan word from West"
"Askafroa The Askafroa () also known as the Danish Askefrue and German Eschenfrau, is a type of legendary creature in Scandinavian and German folklore, similar to the Greek Hamadryads. The Askafroa is the guardian of the ash tree. The Askafroa was thought be a malicious creature which did much damage, and to propriate her it was necessary to make a sacrifice to her on Ash Wednesday. The Swedish scholar Hyltén-Cavallius recorded in his ethnographic work ""Wärend och Wirdarne"" a belief of a female creature living in the ash tree, in Ljunit Hundred. The elders used to sacrifice to the Askafroa"
"and knotted into a ponytail, sometimes bearing drinking horns, have been discovered throughout Scandinavia. These figures are commonly considered to represent valkyries or dísir. According to Mindy MacLeod and Bernard Mees, the amulets appear in Viking Age graves, and were presumably placed there because ""they were thought to have protective powers"". The Tjängvide image stone from the Baltic island of Gotland, Sweden features a rider on an eight-legged horse, which may be Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir, being greeted by a female, which may be a valkyrie at Valhalla. The 11th century runestone U 1163 features a carving of a female"
"of scissors or a knife, or with salt and fire. The stories about the livings and doings of these beings, and their interaction with humans, constitute the major part of Scandinavian folklore. Even the helpful tomte, nisse, gårdbo or gårdbuk could turn into a fearsome adversary if not treated with caution and respect. Many of them blend into each other when their morals and/or place of residence are similar, and equally when one moves from one region in Scandinavia to another. When the folktales were collected and printed, the illustrators started to give shape to the creatures that had hitherto"
"convincing evidence"". Ármann highlights that the term is used to denote various beings, such as a jötunn or mountain-dweller, a witch, an abnormally strong or large or ugly person, an evil spirit, a ghost, a ""blámaðr"", a magical boar, a heathen demi-god, a demon, a brunnmigi, or a berserker. Later in Scandinavian folklore, trolls become defined as a particular type of being. Numerous tales are recorded about trolls in which they are frequently described as being extremely old, very strong, but slow and dim-witted, and are at times described as man-eaters and as turning to stone upon contact with sunlight."
"may have originated from the female deities called ""Dís"" (singular) and ""Díser"" (plural) found in pre-Christian Scandinavian religion. They were very powerful spirits closely linked to the ""seid"" magic. Even today the word ""dis"" is a synonym for mist or very light rain in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Particularly in Denmark, the female elves have merged with the dangerous and seductive ""huldra"", ""skogsfrun"" or ""keeper of the forest"", often called ""hylde"". In some parts of Sweden the elves also got some features from ""Skogsfrun"", ""Huldra"", or ""Hylda"", and can seduce and bewitch careless men and suck the life out of"
"Mjölnir In Norse mythology, Mjölnir (; , ) is the hammer of Thor, the Norse god associated with thunder. Mjölnir is depicted in Norse mythology as one of the most fearsome and powerful weapons in existence, capable of leveling mountains. In its account of Norse mythology, the ""Prose Edda"" relates how the hammers characteristically short handle was due to a mistake during its manufacture. Similar hammers (Ukonvasara) were a common symbol of the god of thunder in other North European mythologies. Modern depictions of Mjolnir are most prevalent amongst practitioners of Heathenry (a modern Pagan religious movement) and white supremacist"
"and Fable, the yeth hound is a headless dog, said to be the spirit of an unbaptised child, which rambles through the woods at night making wailing noises. The yeth hound is also mentioned in The Denham Tracts. The Church Grim, Kirk Grim, Kyrkogrim (Swedish) or Kirkonväki (Finnish) is a figure from English and Scandinavian folklore. They are said to be the attendant spirits of churches, overseeing the welfare of their particular church. English Church Grims are said to enjoy loudly ringing the bells. They may appear as black dogs or as small, misshapen, dark-skinned people. The Swedish Kyrkogrim are"
"the character captive for years (Danish: bjergtagen, Norwegian: bergtatt/bergteken, Swedish: bergtagen). (See the similarities with Irish ""elven/faery hills."") In older tales, the word troll/trold (trolla as a verb) may simply mean ""to badly harm/hurt someone""; someone who is a troll is someone who may eat human flesh or engage in other socially-unacceptable acts, such as rape. Luckily, trolls are said to turn into stone when exposed to sunlight. The ""Huldra"", Hylda, Skogsrå or Skogfru (Forest wife/woman) is a dangerous seductress who lives in the forest. The Huldra is said to lure men down into endless cavesystems, that they would not"
"Goblin A goblin is a monstrous creature from European folklore, first attested in stories from the Middle Ages. They are ascribed various and conflicting abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. They are almost always small and grotesque, mischievous or outright malicious, and greedy, especially for gold and jewelry. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon. Similar creatures include brownies, dwarfs, duendes, gnomes, imps, and kobolds. Alternative spellings include ""gobblin"", ""gobeline"", ""gobling"", ""goblyn"", ""goblino"", and ""gobbelin"" English ""goblin"" is first recorded in the 14th century and is probably from unattested Anglo-Norman"
"in northern Europe, and a creature of the devil in early Christianity; the fox is sly, greedy, and cunning in fables from Aesop onwards. The big bad wolf is known to children in tales such as ""Little Red Riding Hood"", but is a demonic figure in the Icelandic Edda sagas, where the wolf Fenrir appears in the apocalyptic ending of the world. In the middle ages, belief spread in werewolves, men transformed into wolves. In ancient Rome, and in ancient Egypt, the wolf was worshipped, the she-wolf appearing in the founding myth of Rome, suckling Romulus and Remus. More recently,"
"of the legends relates that a Viking warrior named Ramunder the Evil owned a homestead at lake Unden nearby. His daughter Skaga was so weak when she was born that he decided to leave her in the forest to be devoured by wild beasts, which was an old Scandinavian custom when children were not desired. However, one of Ramunder's dogs discovered her and carried her back home. The mother thought this to be a sign from the Norse gods and let her live. Some time later, Ramunder departed on a Viking expedition and one of the spoils he brought back"