Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form

Nisse

I was standing at the till of our neighborhood Scandinavian store. (I live in Minneapolis, where we have such things.) The cashier was ringing up my purchase when the cash register ran out of receipt tape.

“This will take just a second,” she said, and began to put a new roll in.

It didn't take just a second. She fiddled and fiddled with it, and the tape just would not go in.

“What's wrong with me today?” she said. “I've done this hundreds of t—“

She stopped. Her squinched features relaxed into understanding. In an undertone, more to herself than to me, she said: “The nisse.”

Nisser. Tomter. Domovíye. Brownies. House-wights. We may name them differently, but nearly everyone knows them. Whatever they are.

 

Before he died, Sparky T. Rabbit and I had a series of conversations about the term “witch.” He argued that, given the falsity of Murray's claims, the word has lost its utility and might as well be scrapped.

My contention was that, historicity notwithstanding, it's a way of talking about the pagan survivals that did, indisputably, occur. Where did the notion of the house-wight come from? Certainly not from the church.

Finally the clerk got the tape threaded through and rang me up. I paid her and left, thinking about nisser.

Ingrebretsen's opened in 1921. 84 years carry a lot of tradition. I don't know whether or not they still set out the traditional bowl of risengröt for the nisse, the shop elf, before they lock up for the night on Julafton every year.

But it wouldn't surprise me if they do.

 

http://www.ingebretsens.com/

  

 

 

Last modified on
Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

Comments

Additional information