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Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures,

ideas, and monsters in time.

I love to cover at least one holiday creature or monster this time of year.

The season is rife with them, after all, from Crampus and the Yule Lads to the child eating ogres grilla.

The last two have benefited from some more recent pop culture love on the excellent animated family series Hilda,

based on the Luke Pearson graphic novel series.

It makes great use of Nordic folkloric creatures, including the

house spirit known as a Nissa in Danish tradition, and the Tomtar in Swedish tradition.

The Nissa, according to folklorist Carol Rose and spirits, fairies, leprechauns, and goblins,

tends to household chores and accepts only a bowl of porridge as a reward.

If slighted at all, however, they can prove quite mischievous and even cruel.

The Tomtah, Rose explains, seems to reveal darker shades of the tradition.

She shares that they were believed to be the remnants of a previous race of people displaced by invading Vikings,

who were then forced to occupy ancient forts, ruins, and other lonely places of the country,

and maliciously harassed the victorious humans who now ruled over their former kingdom.

But eventually humans learn to appease these spirits and make use of their talents, getting

them to do farm and domestic work during the night.

The trick, once more, was a gift of porridge on Christmas morning, accompanied by bread and

maybe a little tobacco.

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