The farm nisse and the bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve
An original tale about the nisse, the small spirit who, in Scandinavian folklore, protects the farm and expects, on Christmas Eve, a bowl of porridge with butter.
This is an original tale from Boreal Saga Play, written from the popular tradition of the nisse, and not an old tale. In the Scandinavian countries, the nisse is a small farm spirit who watches over the house and the animals. In Norway and Denmark he is called nisse, in Sweden tomte, and the tradition of leaving porridge for him on Christmas Eve is still remembered.
The farm at the end of the valley
In a narrow valley there was a farm with a turf roof, where a family lived who worked from sunrise to sunset. In the barn, behind the bales of hay, lived a nisse with a grey beard and a red cap whom no one had ever seen.
He saw to it that the milk did not sour, that the cow calved without trouble and that the snow did not bring down the roof of the stable. In return he asked for only one thing a year: a bowl of oat porridge with a piece of golden butter in the middle, left in the barn on Christmas Eve.
The year of forgetting
That winter, the farmer was ill and the house was sad. On Christmas Eve, the family ate their porridge at the table and forgot to take the bowl to the barn.
The nisse waited until midnight. Then, on an empty stomach, he slowly crossed the yard and looked through the window of the house. He saw the family asleep and, on the stove, the scraped pot.
He made no noise and spoiled nothing. He only went back to the barn, sat down on a bale of hay and thought that, next year, it might not be worth watching over the cow or the roof.
The bowl that appeared
On Christmas morning, the youngest girl in the house went to the barn to fetch milk. She saw, beside the pail, the bowl untouched in its usual place, empty and clean. She understood at once.
She ran to the kitchen, warmed what was left of the oats, added the butter and carried it to the barn. She set the bowl on the floor and said, softly:
“Sorry I’m late. Thank you for looking after us.”
No one saw the nisse. But when the girl came back at the end of the afternoon, the bowl was empty, and beside it lay a smooth little stone, the size of a sparrow’s egg, shining as if it had been polished all night.
They say the family kept the stone on the kitchen shelf and that, from that year on, the bowl of porridge was never forgotten again.
To look after the barn until dawn, play The barn nisse.