This is an illustration from a publication called “The great big Nisse-book”, which is the only known work that gives a complete account of the life and history of the Norwegian Nisse.
As you can see from the above, he’s quite different from your run-of-the-mill Santa Claus.
He’s quite small – measures about 15 cm (6 inches) without the hat. This specimen is 275 years old, which means he’s at the peak of his nisse-hood.
He looks grumpy, but that’s just because he’s squinting in the sharp sunlight. He’s got a leather toolbelt, as you can see, and deerskin boots (reminiscent of Australian UGG boots, but it’s almost certain that some nisses emigrated to Australia by mistake, getting stuck in “their” people’s luggage).
His toes are bent slightly inwards, to facilitate running in deep foliage and brush.
The nisses would have had their own little communities in the forests and mountains, but their man task was to make sure that beasts were well cared for, so many of them would live in stables and barns. There, they combed horses’ manes and made sure everything was all right with the animals, and to thank them for this, humans would put out a great big bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve.
If there was no porridge, anything could happen, as these little guys were quite vindictive. Many a Christmas Day has been spent chasing after cows and sheep in the bitter cold, because the nisse didn’t get his porridge.
To this day, if you put a bowl of porridge out in the barn on Christmas Eve, it will be empty in the morning.
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