Fossegrim

The tale

The fossegrim is a young man who sits under waterfalls and mill races playing the fiddle so wonderfully that trees dance and waters stop to listen. A fiddler who wants to learn from him must bring a white kid goat, or smoked meat, on a Thursday evening, throw it into the falls with his face turned away, and ask for teaching. If the offering is fat and generous, the grim takes the player's hand and moves it along the strings until the fingers bleed, and afterwards he can play like the grim himself. If the gift is thin, the fiddler learns only to tune his instrument and never to play it.

Their day

Thursday. Norwegian tradition says the gift to the fossegrim should be made on a Thursday evening.

When they are met

• Thursday evenings
• Midsummer
• when beginning to learn an instrument

Staying on their good side

• a generous gift of meat, traditionally a white kid or smoked mutton
• music played by the water
• practice and dedication
• never a stingy gift

Honouring them, or keeping safe

1. Play or sing by running water, or put on fiddle music on a Thursday evening.
2. Commit to regular practice of an instrument or craft, as a gift to the spirit of music.
3. Leave a little food by a stream as a thank you, making sure it is harmless to wildlife.
4. Listen closely to a waterfall or river and let its rhythm teach you.

What their tales teach

• learning music
• mastering a craft
• inspiration
• the lesson that half-hearted gifts bring half-hearted results

Symbols

• a fiddle
• a waterfall
• a white billy goat
• a young man playing in the spray

More Norse folklore

• Huldra The hidden woman of the forest
• Nisse The little old man of the farm
• Draugr The restless dead of the sagas
• Trolls The old dwellers in mountain and stone
• Valkyries The choosers of the slain
• Nøkken The fiddler in the still water
• Mara The spirit who rides sleepers
• Myling The spirit of the unburied child