What Is a Huldra in Norse Folklore?
Explore the Huldra, a beautiful but hollow-backed forest woman of Scandinavian folklore, her seductive lure, and her place in Norse legend.
The Huldra (in Old Norse huldur, “the hidden one”) is a beautiful female forest being of Scandinavian folklore, often described as having long hair, a tail (sometimes that of a cow or a fox), and a hollow back like a tree trunk. She is associated with the wilderness, with seduction, with cattle, and with the weather, and her male counterpart is the Huldrekall. The Huldra is one of the most important figures of medieval and post-medieval Scandinavian folklore, attested in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish tradition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The figure is related to the wider Scandinavian tradition of “the hidden folk” — huldrefolk — beings who live just out of sight of humans and who interact with them in a complex web of gifts, seductions, and threats.
The Name and the Concept of the Hidden
The name Huldra comes from the Old Norse adjective hulðr, meaning “hidden” or “secret.” The same root appears in the modern Scandinavian words huldre (Norwegian), huldra (Swedish), and huldre or huld (Danish), all meaning the same figure. The name is the same as that of the huldrefolk — the “hidden folk” of Scandinavian folklore — a category of beings who are said to live in hills, forests, and underground places, and who are usually understood to be the same as the Norse elves of the medieval sources.
The Huldra is, in many respects, the most vivid figure of the hidden folk. She is beautiful to look at, but her back is hollow like a tree trunk, and her tail is sometimes that of a cow or a fox. The image of a beautiful woman with a hollow back is one of the most distinctive in Scandinavian folklore, and it has been widely discussed in scholarship since the 19th century. The hollow back, according to one common reading, is a sign that the Huldra is not quite human — that she is an otherworldly being, an “outside” being, and that her beauty conceals an essential difference. According to another reading, the hollow back is a sign that the Huldra is, in fact, a kind of tree-being, a forest spirit, and that the back is the place where her connection to the tree is most visible.
The Huldra in the Medieval Sources
The earliest attestations of the Huldra figure are in medieval Scandinavian folklore, including the Þiðreks saga (c. 13th century) and the Hervarar saga. The figure is described in the Þiðreks saga as a “fair woman of the forest” who is, in fact, a troll. The 19th-century folklore collector Asbjørnsen and Moe collected many tales of the Huldra in the 1840s and 1850s, and their collection is the most thorough in the surviving Scandinavian folklore.
The Huldra’s role in the medieval sources is twofold. On the one hand, she is a seductress, luring men into the forest and into her realm. On the other, she is a helpmeet, sometimes a bringer of good fortune, sometimes a protector of the people of the forest. The two roles are not always easy to reconcile, and the surviving tales often present the Huldra as an ambiguous figure, dangerous and beautiful, both.
The most common narrative pattern in the surviving tales is the encounter between a man and a Huldra in the forest. The man is sometimes a young hunter, sometimes a young farmer, sometimes a young king. The Huldra appears, beautiful and alluring, and the man is drawn to her. The encounter ends in one of three ways: the man is seduced and spends years in the Huldra’s realm (only to return to find that the world has changed); the man is seduced and rescued, often by a Christian symbol, a piece of iron, or a counter-spell; or the Huldra is, in the end, a benevolent being who gives the man a gift and lets him go.
The Hollow Back and the Tail
The two most distinctive physical features of the Huldra are her hollow back and her tail. The hollow back is sometimes described as a hole in the back, sometimes as a “tree-like” appearance, sometimes as a “back like a tree trunk.” The tail is sometimes that of a cow, sometimes that of a fox, sometimes that of a squirrel. The two features, taken together, are the most common signs of the Huldra’s otherness.
The hollow back is, in some readings, a sign that the Huldra is a kind of tree-spirit — a being of the forest whose true form is that of a tree, and whose beautiful human appearance conceals her true nature. The reading matches with the Huldra’s association with the forest and with the trees, and it has been widely discussed in scholarship since the 19th century.
The tail is, in some readings, a sign that the Huldra is a kind of cattle-spirit — a being of the herds, a bringer of milk, a friend of the farmer. The reading matches with the Huldra’s association with cattle and with the protection of the farm, and it is one of the more common interpretations in the Scandinavian folklore.
The two features together, the hollow back and the tail, are signs of the Huldra’s otherness. The beautiful woman is, in fact, a being of a different kind. The image is a powerful one in the Scandinavian imagination, and it has inspired many works of modern Scandinavian art and literature.
The Huldra and the Huldrekall
The male counterpart of the Huldra is the Huldrekall — the “man of the hidden folk.” The Huldrekall is, in the surviving folklore, similar to the Huldra in many respects: he is handsome, he has a tail, his back may be hollow, and he is associated with the forest, with the cattle, and with the weather. The Huldrekall is sometimes described as a kind of troll-king, ruling over the hidden folk, and sometimes as an ordinary man of the forest who has been blessed with the favor of the hidden folk.
The pairing of the Huldra and the Huldrekall is structurally similar to the pairing of other figures in the Scandinavian folklore: the troll-man and the troll-woman, the nisse and his wife, the nisse’s daughter and son. The pair is part of a larger pattern of the Scandinavian folklore in which the hidden folk are a society of beings, with a king and queen, a people and a court.
The Huldra and the Other Hidden Folk
The Huldra is part of a larger category of “hidden folk” in Scandinavian folklore, including the alver (elves), the huldrefolk (the hidden people), the nisse or tomte (the household spirit), the tusser (mountain spirits), and the vittra (water spirits). The category is, in many respects, the Scandinavian equivalent of the “fairy folk” of the British Isles, and the figure of the Huldra is the most important female in the category.
The Huldra is also related to the trolls of Scandinavian folklore. The two are sometimes confused in the surviving sources, and the line between the Huldra and the troll is not always clear. In the 19th-century folklore of Norway and Sweden, the Huldra is sometimes a beautiful woman, sometimes a troll, sometimes a mixture of the two. The figure is, in this sense, part of a larger Scandinavian tradition of female otherworldly beings.
The Huldra in Norwegian Folklore
The Norwegian folklore of the Huldra is the most thoroughly documented in the surviving Scandinavian tradition. The most important tales are those collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in the 1840s and 1850s, and published in their Norske Folkeeventyr (“Norwegian Folktales”). The tales are a major source for the figure of the Huldra in modern Scandinavian imagination.
The most famous Norwegian tale of the Huldra is “Huldra’s Son” (“Huldreungen”), a tale in which a man encounters a Huldra in the forest, spends years with her, and is eventually rescued by a Christian priest. The tale has inspired many adaptations, including modern plays, films, and novels.
The Norwegian Huldra is also associated with cattle. She is sometimes described as a bringer of milk, a protector of the herds, a friend of the farmer. The association is one of the most enduring in the Norwegian folklore, and it has been widely discussed in scholarship. The reading is that the Huldra is, in part, a fertility figure, a bringer of abundance, and that her association with the forest is a secondary one.
The Huldra in Swedish Folklore
The Swedish folklore of the Huldra is similar to the Norwegian, but with some differences. The Swedish Huldra is sometimes called Skogsrå (“forest spirit”) or Talisman (a name of uncertain meaning), and the figure is associated with the forest, with cattle, and with the weather. The Swedish Huldra is sometimes described as a kind of weather-witch, a bringer of storms, a friend of the wolf and the bear.
The most famous Swedish tale of the Huldra is “Skogsrået” (“The Forest Spirit”), a tale in which a man encounters a Huldra in the forest and is told the secret of her true name. The tale has inspired many modern adaptations, and the image of the Skogsrå — the beautiful forest woman with the hollow back — is one of the most famous in Swedish folklore.
The Huldra in Modern Scandinavian Culture
The Huldra has had a significant impact on modern Scandinavian culture. The figure is invoked in modern literature, in modern art, in modern music, and in modern film. The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen invoked the Huldra in his play Peer Gynt (1867), in which the title character encounters a Huldra in the forest. The 20th-century Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf invoked the figure in her novel The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, in which the main character encounters a number of folkloric figures, including the Huldra.
The figure has also been a focus of modern Scandinavian music. The Norwegian band Gåte has a song called “Huldra,” and the Swedish band Huldra is named after the figure. The image of the beautiful forest woman with the hollow back is one of the most famous in Scandinavian popular culture, and it has inspired many modern works of fiction.
The Huldra and Christianity
The Huldra, in the surviving Scandinavian folklore, is often presented as a figure who is hostile to Christianity. The most common pattern is that the Huldra is encountered in the forest, that the man is seduced, and that the rescue is performed by a Christian symbol — a cross, a Bible, a piece of iron, a priest’s blessing. The pattern matches the medieval Christianization of Scandinavia, in which the older folkloric figures were gradually recast as anti-Christian or sub-Christian, and in which the act of resistance to them was associated with Christian piety.
The pattern is, however, more complex than it appears. The Huldra is not always hostile to Christianity, and she is sometimes a benevolent figure who helps the man in the forest. The pattern of Christian-vs-Huldra is, in many respects, a literary one, the product of the medieval Christian imagination, and it is not always consistent with the older folkloric sources.
The Huldra and the Modern Reader
The Huldra, for the modern reader, is a figure of paradox: beautiful and dangerous, helpful and harmful, in the forest and outside it. The image of the beautiful woman with the hollow back is one of the most vivid in Scandinavian folklore, and it has been widely discussed in scholarship since the 19th century. The figure is, in many respects, the most important female figure in Scandinavian folklore, and it continues to draw scholarly and popular interest in the modern era.