The barn troll needs his rice, or he’ll fold your cow into a barrel – an introduction to Norwegian Christmas

Nothing gets a Norwegian fired up quite like Christmas season; it’s dark, it’s snowy, the streets are icy, and there’s nothing for it but a beer, a fire, and some Christmas spirit. Without the holiday buffer of Thanksgiving, Norwegians start decorating early, and while American often complain about Christmas creeping earlier and earlier, no one out here seems to mind. There’s also relatively little religious or cultural diversity, so the whole community is all-in.

Being three, this is Annalise’s first Christmas where she can really understand the Christmas mythology of Santa and gifts. However, she’s really learning it all from day care, so she’s learning Norwegian Christmas, which has its own quirks that are going to make her the weird kid in her American class next year.

Lore has it that Norwegian farms are inhabited by nisser (singular: nisse), little magical gnomish-elfish guys in pointy hats, not unlike your weird aunt’s garden gnomes. These mischeivious creatures are neither good nor bad, but a superstitious farmer might ascribe his luck or misfortune to the nisse’s actions – a happy nisse might look after the crops at night, while an unhappy one might cause sickness. In an extreme example, one might even break the best milk cow’s back and stuff it into a barrel with its tail and feet sticking out[1] (though that sounds more like a Troll than a nisse).

Clearly, it was important that a farmer look after the mental well-being of his local nisser! This was especially true at Christmas time, as you wouldn’t want a nisse to feel left out of the celebration, lest he play some tricks in revenge. On Christmas Eve then, the responsible farmer would leave out a bowl of rice porridge and some beer to placate the nisse.

In a timeline not entirely agreed upon by online resources, this folktale began to be influenced by the European St. Nicholas, and then the American Santa Claus. The pointy nisse hat easily became a Santa hat, and the many local nisse who needed to receive gifts have merged into a single nisse who gives them (though while American children leave milk and cookies, Norwegian children still leave bowls of buttery rice porridge). Jul being the Norwegian word for “Christmas,” we’re left with a situation where Annalise is not so confident in who this Santa guy is, but is very excited to hear about the Julenissen.

This weekend we went with friends to the first of several julebords, or Christmas dinners, that we’ll go to this season. We ate all the Norwegian Christmas hits – pork belly called ribbe, lamb called pinekjøtt, potatoes, red cabbage, and the sides like salmon, pickles, scrambled eggs, and mayonaisse-based salads. The dessert table had donuts, cakes, and of course, rice pudding. We went outside, lit the lights on the tree, danced while singing songs, and listed to the local school choir sing carols. May your holiday be similarly joyful.

[1] https://www.universitetsmuseet.no/nb/artikkel/110/nissen-i-tro-og-tradisjon (or the Google translated version here)