Huldre Eventyr - Tales of the Nordic Earth Folk

Huldre, I imagine, spent many long hours crafting stories as the churned butter, or kneaded dough, or stitched their cloth. I imagine that Huldre had as many stories about the "Over-landers" as the Scandinavian people did about the "Fair-Folk in the Mountainside". Unfortunately I have not found a true Huldre tale, but rather I have unearthed many human tales - stories about the Huldre.

So here it is mid-November, and all of my neices and nephews will shortly be recieving the newest installments of my interpretations of scandinavian fairy tales... Oh wait, I have yet to finish writting them! I've got three complete, out of twelve which I comitted to retelling in this chap book style. (You can see them at http://www.karitauring.com/HuldreEventyr.htm ) They will make fine gifts for my neices and nephews this Holiday.

Christmas presents are always a wonder for me. It has become so material, so needlessly complicated, this winter giftgiving holiday. What happened to brown paper packages tied up with string? Now we have purple and gold foil paper printed with images of other packages tied up with shimmering rafia! Very fancy, and yet it still winds up in the same place - a large (often black) garbage bag. I much prefer home made gifts to store bought ones... Something about the gift of the givers time, energy, creativity and love seems much more fulfilling. And this season, in particular, is one where I'm finding it to be more financially prudent to create gifts rather than purchase them! I'm sure my four neices and two nephews will enjoy reading stories retold by their very own Auntie Maren, perhaps even as much as the new video game or fashion doll they receive from someone else.

I wonder how the "Fair folk under the Mountainside" would have dealt with Holiday marketing... Perhaps that is another reason we see them so rarely these days... Maybe I'll have further insights next time. For now...

~Maren