2026  ·  MMXXVI Scandinavian stories and tales NorskPortuguêsEnglish Subscribe

Boreal Saga Play

by The Boreal Times · Duna Press Editions

26 stories · 26 games

Tales & Folklore

When the light goes early, the tales grow.

Trolls under the bridge, nisser in the barn, huldrefolk in the forest. Scandinavian folklore was gathered by people like Asbjørnsen and Moe, and here it sits beside original stories, always flagged as invented.

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Illustration of a huge black cat with yellow eyes prowling a snowy turf farm at night, with a lit window where a family wears new woollen sweaters, and a child with no new clothes standing outside, under a greenish aurora Myth or legend · 20 Nov 2026 Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat of Iceland: whoever got no new clothes might become its dinner In Icelandic folklore, the Yule Cat threatened to eat anyone who got no new clothes before Christmas. Many scholars link it to wool work. Here is what the sources say. Read

Stories of this realm

Illustration of a young woman in a red skirt and headscarf walking alone at dusk along a rocky Norwegian hillside, with the opening of a cave lit by golden light behind a stone, and hazy figures of tailed creatures peering between the rocks Myth or legend Bergtatt: the Norwegian belief in those taken into the mountain In Norwegian folk tradition, someone who was "bergtatt" had been taken into the mountain by the hidden people. Here is what accounts collected in the 19th century say, and how the idea reached Peer Gynt. Read Illustration of a woman in a blue dress with loose hair at the edge of a Danish beach at dusk, looking at the waves, with a blue-green-skinned merman rising from the water to the waist, reaching out a hand, and a small church with a tower in the background Myth or legend Agnete and the merman: the Danish ballad of the woman who lived at the bottom of the sea In the Danish ballad "Agnete og Havmanden", a young woman follows a merman to the sea floor and lives there for years, until she hears the bells of a church. Here is the ballad and its long life. Read Illustration of an enormous figure in rusty chain mail and a white beard stooped under a hide tent in a tundra landscape at dusk, with snow, reindeer in the distance, a small clever figure in colourful clothes sitting by the fire and a steaming pot Myth or legend Stállo: the foolish giant of the Sámi tales, who always loses to the cunning of those he wants to devour In Sámi tales, Stállo is a being of iron and hunger who chases people but is almost always tricked by someone cleverer. See what the tradition tells and how scholars read it. Read Illustration of a slender woman with long hair in a moss-green dress standing among spruces on a misty evening, beautiful from the front and from behind with a trunk hollow like an old tree, while a hooded hunter with a rifle and a dog looks at her from afar Myth or legend Skogsrå: the lady of the Swedish forest, who gives luck to hunters and leads charcoal burners into the woods In Swedish folklore, the skogsrå is a female forest spirit who lures hunters and charcoal burners. See how she was described in 19th-century collections and which rules men followed. Read Illustration of a man in a snow-soaked cloak before the closed wooden door of a low house in a forest at dusk, with warm light in the cracks, while a woman in a headscarf speaks from behind the door and small pale lights float among the trees Saga or medieval source Álfablót: the sacrifice to the elves, the door closed to a Christian skald and what the sources say about the rite A Christian poet knocking on Swedish doors in the 11th century was told he could not enter because an álfablót was under way. See what the sources say about this rite for the elves. Read Illustration of a long night procession of men with lit torches and Norse costumes, with shields and axes, crossing a stone street of a small harbour town, while in the middle a wooden ship with a dragon head waits to be burned Documented history Up Helly Aa: the fire festival in which Shetland burns a Viking ship, and what is old and what is modern in it Every January, hundreds of men with torches march through Lerwick and burn a replica Viking ship. The festival dates from the 19th century, but recalls a real Norse past. Read Illustration of a Sámi man in a blue cap and a tunic with red borders, sitting in a canvas tent before a small fire, striking an oval skin drum covered with painted figures with a bone hammer while a brass ring leaps across them Documented history The Sámi noaidi and the drum: what missionaries recorded and what museums still keep The reindeer-skin drum was used by the noaidi, the Sámi ritual specialists. Most of what is known comes from missionary accounts and from confiscated drums. Read Illustration of a wooden stable at dawn, with two horses whose manes are tangled in knots, an overturned bucket on the floor, the door ajar and a thin, long shadow slipping out through the gap, under a bluish light Myth or legend The mara: the spirit that rides sleepers and gave its name to the nightmare In Nordic tradition, the mara is a being that treads on the chest of sleepers. The Ynglinga saga tells how one killed a king, and the word “nightmare” keeps her name. Read Illustration of a girl in a white nightgown crossing a snowy yard at night with a single candle in her hand, while a row of tall shadows rides in the background among gusts of wind and snowflakes Myth or legend Lussinatta: the longest night and the legend of Lussi riding with the shadows In Norwegian and Swedish folk tradition, the night of 13 December was the longest of the year and the most dangerous. It was time to light candles and finish work before dark. Read Illustration of a woman with long dark hair on the beach of a Faroese bay at dusk, holding a grey sealskin in her arms, with green cliffs behind and several seal heads surfacing in the water Myth or legend Kópakonan: the seal woman of Mikladalur, a legend from the Faroe Islands In Faroese tradition, a man from Kalsoy steals the skin of a seal that was dancing in the shape of a woman. She lives for years on land, until she finds the skin and returns to the sea. Read Illustration of three large trolls with long noses and moss hair running across a mountain at dawn, with the first rays of sun touching one of them, whose leg already looks like stone Myth or legend Why trolls turn to stone in the sun: the Nordic belief that teaches how to read the landscape In Scandinavian folk tales, trolls live by night and, if the sun reaches them, turn to rock. The idea explains oddly shaped stones and has been used in many stories. Read Illustration of a dark figure in a wet oilskin coat in a boat broken in half, amid thick fog over a dark sea, with a faint lantern and a small fishing boat in the background Myth or legend Draugen: the sea ghost Norwegian fishermen feared to see In the tradition of the Norwegian coast, the draug is the spirit of a drowned man without a grave who appears in the fog and foretells deaths. The accounts were collected by folklorists in the 19th century. Read Illustration of a young woman in a red cloak riding on the back of a great wind shaped like a blowing face, crossing a night sky of stars and moon, with an ice castle in the distance Myth or legend East of the Sun and West of the Moon: the Norwegian tale of the white bear and the North Wind A poor girl agrees to live with a white bear, breaks a promise and crosses the world to undo the mistake. The tale was published in Norway in the 19th century. Read Illustration of a golden castle shining on a hilltop among pines at sunset, with a cloaked lad and a small ship in a bay far off Myth or legend Soria Moria: the castle every Norwegian seeks without ever having seen it In a tale by Asbjørnsen and Moe, the lad Halvor sails to a golden castle, beats trolls and marries a princess. The name became a synonym for perfect happiness and longing. Read Illustration of a long grey Icelandic lake in mist, and a serpent body with several humps rising from the water, while a small figure on the shore watches Myth or legend The Lagarfljót worm: the Icelandic lake monster that was filmed in 2012 For centuries Icelanders have told of a golden worm living at the bottom of a lake in the east. In 2012, a public-television video reignited the debate, and a panel voted 7 to 6 that it was authentic. Read Illustration of a large moss-covered lava rock in an Icelandic field, with a small glowing door at its base and an asphalt road curving to go around it Myth or legend Huldufólk: the hidden people who divert roads in modern Iceland In the 21st century, works in Iceland have been argued over because of rocks where the hidden people are said to live. What the surveys say about how many Icelanders believe in elves is subtler than it seems. Read Illustration of a dark lake at dusk, with water lilies and a pale man with green hair playing a fiddle at the water's edge, and a white horse with a wet mane in the background Myth or legend The Nøkken: the lake spirit who plays the fiddle and drowns those who come near In Scandinavian folklore, the nøkken lives in lakes and rivers and changes shape to lure victims. The stories, collected mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries, show how people explained the dangers of water. Read Illustration of a small fishing boat on a calm sea, surrounded by silvery fish, while enormous dark tentacles begin to rise from the water beside the hull Myth or legend The Kraken: from the sea monster of Norwegian fishermen to the giant squid science eventually confirmed In 1752, Bishop Erik Pontoppidan described a creature that looked like an island and attracted fish. The giant squid, which does exist, was only well documented in the 19th century. Read Illustration of a woman with long hair and a long dress, seen from behind in a spruce forest at dusk, with the tip of a cow's tail showing beneath the hem Myth or legend Huldra: the beautiful forest woman who hides a cow's tail In the folklore of Norway and Sweden, the huldra seduces men in the woods, but her tail and hollow back give her away. She can also be generous to those who treat her with respect. Read Illustration of a hunchbacked troll with a big nose at the mouth of a snowy cave, surrounded by thirteen red-capped figures peeking at an Icelandic turf-roofed house with a lit window Myth or legend Grýla and the thirteen Yule Lads: Icelandic Christmas has an ogress and thirteen naughty sons In Iceland, Christmas is announced by thirteen Yule Lads, one a night, sons of the troll Grýla. Their names describe each one's mischief, and the tradition has moved from fright to play. Read Illustration of a magic stone mill turning at the bottom of a dark sea, releasing shining white salt, with the hull of a Viking ship sinking behind Myth or legend The mill that still grinds salt at the bottom of the sea: the Norwegian tale and its relative in the Edda A magic mill grinds whatever it is asked, but no one knows the word to stop it. The Norwegian tale explains why the sea is salty. Read Illustration of a pale spirit with flowing white water hair sitting on a mossy rock beside a waterfall at dusk, playing a fiddle, with a farm boy kneeling and listening Myth or legend Fossegrim: the waterfall spirit who teaches the fiddle to those who bring a gift In Norwegian folklore, an unseen musician lives in waterfalls. Whoever gives him meat on the right night learns to play in a way that makes trees dance. Read Illustration of a smiling boy in simple clothes holding a round stone before a huge troll in an autumn Norwegian forest Myth or legend Askeladden and the troll: the Norwegian tale of the boy who squeezed the stone Askeladden is the clever youngest son of Norwegian tales. In the contest with the troll, he wins by cunning, from a stone that turns into cheese to a hidden bag. Read Storybook-style illustration of three goats of different sizes crossing a wooden bridge, with a big-eyed troll peeking out from underneath. Myth or legend The Three Billy Goats Bruse: the Norwegian tale of the bridge and the troll Collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe in the 19th century, the tale of three goats crossing a bridge guarded by a troll is one of the best-known in Norwegian folklore. Read Illustration of a small grey-bearded gnome in a red cap sitting on hay in a barn at night, in front of a bowl of porridge with butter. Original tale 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. Read

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New The mill that grinds salt Turn the magic mill to fill the ship with salt, but let go in time: it is slow to stop and the ship can sink. Play Askeladden and the troll Hide porridge in a bag without the troll noticing, like Askeladden in the eating contest. Play The Three Billy Goats Bruse Run across the bridge with the three goats, jump the gaps and the troll's hands, and reach the pasture. Play The barn nisse Be the barn nisse and look after the animals through the winter night, until the girl brings the porridge at dawn. Play New The waterfall fiddle Tap the strings of Fossegrim's fiddle when the golden notes reach the line, and make the forest trees dance. Play New Who has a tail? Find the huldra among the forest girls by the tail that shows under her dress. Play New Fishing over the Kraken Fish as much as you can before the kraken rises, and keep your catch in time. Play New The Nøkken's name Tap the letters of the Nøkken's name, in order, before it reaches the child. Play New The thirteen Yule Lads Protect the pantry from the mischief of Grýla's thirteen sons, one night at a time. Play New To Soria Moria Cross three maze forests to the golden castle of Soria Moria. Play New The Lagarfljót worm Steer the lake serpent, collect the gold and grow without hitting the shores. Play New Reroute the road Draw a road from the green dot to the red dot without touching the rocks of the hidden people. Play New The North Wind Fly through the gaps in the storm clouds carrying the girl to the castle. Play New The fog of the Draug Gather the buoys in the fog without being caught by the Draug. Play New Before the sun rises Send the trolls to their caves before the sunlight turns them to stone. Play New Lussi's flame Protect the candle flame on the longest night of the year. Play New The sealskin Swim like the seal woman, gathering pearls and dodging hooks. Play New The noaidi's drum Listen to the noaidi's drum rhythm and repeat it in the same tempo. Play New The Up Helly Aa galley Assemble the parts of the Viking galley for the Shetland fire festival. Play New The mara's stable Find the five differences between two drawings of the stable after the mara's visit. Play New Stállo's trail Move along the trail while the giant looks the other way. Play New The lady of the forest Answer eight questions about beings of Nordic folklore. Play New The Álfablót Connect each offering to its altar without crossing the paths. Play New Wool before the cat Collect the balls of wool without letting the thread tangle on itself. Play New The mountain hall Dodge the falling stones and cross the mountain hall. Play New Treasures of the sea floor Swap neighbouring pieces until three alike line up and gather the treasures. Play

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