huldre

See also: Huldre

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Norwegian hulder, with the same meaning.

Noun

huldre (plural huldres)

1. (Norwegian folklore) A type of supernatural being in the shape of a beautiful woman with a cow's tail.
   • 1851, Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology, volume II, page xiii:

     All these things, it was said, must have a cause, and from ignorance of nature, joined to superstition and a lively imagination, the idea suggested itself of conjuring up beings, to whom all these phenomena might be ascribed, and who, according to the places of sojourn assigned them, were called Forest-trolls, Huldres, Mountain-trolls, Vættir, Elves, Dwarfs, Nisser, Mares, etc.

   • 1896, William A. Craigie, Scandinavian Folk-lore, page 167:

     One time a huldre was present at a gathering, where everyone wanted to dance with the pretty stranger, but in the midst of the merriment, the young fellow who was dancing with her, caught sight of her long tail.

2. Such beings collectively.
   • 1828, T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, volume 3, page 138:

     In Norway, the Huldre drive cattle before them, which are as blue as they are themselves.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 27:

     "Well, the first time I came across the huldre, I was about eight or nine years old, and it was somewhere up on the main road between Bjerke and Mo."

   • 1978, Katherine M. Briggs, The Vanishing People, page 76:

     The mention of the tail relates the wood-fairy to the Huldre who were very beautiful except for a long tail which they always tried to hide, as the Wood Elves hid their hollow back.

Anagrams

• hurled, Hudler, hurdle, Hurdle