[Woodcarver] Nisse chat

[sally nye]

HI Loren,

Thanks for posting the history of the Nisse.  We have seen them often  
but didn't know the legends.  The Old World folk art legends are quite  
often buried in archival files.  It takes perseverance to ferret them  
out.  We found that with our research on fan-carving.  When a person  
understands the meaning of it, it gives them a passion to do it.

The most often comment we hear about our book, FAN-CARVING, is how much  
people enjoy the history chapter.  Actually, the history was a brief  
introduction to what fan-carving is all about because we had to get on  
with the step-by-step instruction on how to do it.  We didn't want to  
belabor the history/legends/customs of it in our first book.  We could  
have written a lot more about various countries legends and customs.   
We felt it wasn't the proper time.

I have to believe wood carvers do enjoy knowing a deeper meaning of the  
item they are carving.  It gives them a passion to release the little  
carving out of the block, if you know what I mean.

For people who are wood carvers and enjoy research, I can think of  
various things such as the Nisse, that a book could be written about.   
You'd  be surprised on how many things are NOT written about.  It is  
easy to lose an Old World folk art

Thanks, Loren.  I really enjoyed your post.
Sally
http://www.geocities.com/fancarving/home.html

On Jun 3, 2004, at 5:03 PM, Loren Woodard wrote:

Mike:

My apologies.  I mistook the carving for a small Santa.  Not knowing  
what a
Nisse really was - I always thought it was a Scandinavian Santa :o) - I
looked it up on the Internet. For those interested, I found this  
explanation
of a Nisse.

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Nisse
by Jason Clarke

       In Scandinavian folklore, a "household spirit" responsible for the
care and prosperity of a farm. A nisse was usually described as a short  
man
(under four feet tall) wearing a red cap with a tassel.



       While belief in guardian spirits is a very old tradition in
Scandinavia, belief in nisser was prominent in the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries in Denmark, southern Norway and southern Sweden.  
Many
farms claimed to have their own nisse. The nisse took an active  
interest in
the farm by performing chores such as grooming horses, carrying bales of
hay, and other farm-related tasks. These chores were usually done much  
more
efficiently and effectively than by their human counterparts.

       However, nisser were very temperamental, to say the least. If the
household was not careful to keep its nisse satisfied (usually in the  
form
of a single bowl of porridge with butter in it left out on Christmas  
eve)
the spirit could turn against its masters. In one story, a girl is
instructed by her family to give the nisse his porridge, but decides to  
eat
it herself. The nisse responds by forcing her to dance until she nearly
dies. Sometimes the offering themselves could backfire: in another  
tale, a
grateful farmer gives his nisse a pair of nice white boots, and  
afterward
the nisse refuses to go out into the rain to stable the horses for fear  
of
getting his new boots dirty.

       The folklore roots of the nisser extend to Germany, where they  
grew
out of the legends of St. Nicholas. Thus the nisser are related to the
modern conception of Santa Claus.

        
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       I hope others find this as interesting as I did.



       Loren




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