Also called Tusser, Tussefolk, Tuss.
The tale
Tusser are Norwegian beings of the hills and mounds, sometimes giant-like and sometimes like the huldrefolk. They keep cattle, hold weddings and could steal human babies and leave changelings. At Christmas they travel and may visit farms, so people would leave food and take care not to be caught out after dark.
When they are met
- Christmas Eve, when they move house
- at dusk near mounds
Staying on their good side
- folk tradition: porridge or food left out at Christmas
- quietness near mounds
- steel or a cross over a baby's cradle in old custom
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Do not build on, dig into or disturb mounds; the old stories say they belong to someone.
- Leave a small bowl of porridge out on Christmas Eve as the old custom did.
What their tales teach
- respect for place
- folk custom
- the lore of the hidden folk
Symbols
- a mound or hill
- a tail
- cattle grazing the hills
Tusse overlaps heavily with trolls and huldrefolk; usage varies by region.
Sources
- Kvideland and Sehmsdorf, Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend
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
- Fossegrim The fiddler beneath the waterfall
- Nøkken The fiddler in the still water
- Mara The spirit who rides sleepers