[200] Nisse, Grimm thinks (Deut. Mythol. p. 472) is Niels, Nielsen, i. e. Nicolaus, Niclas, a common name in Germany and the North, which is also contracted to Klas, Claas.
[201] Wilse ap Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 479, who thinks he may have confounded the Nis with the Nöck.
[202] The places mentioned in the following stories are all in Jutland. It is remarkable that we seem to have scarcely any Nis stories from Sweden.
[203] This story is current in Germany, England, and Ireland. In the German story the farmer set fire to his barn to burn the Kobold in it. As he was driving off, he turned round to look at the blaze, and, to his no small mortification, saw the Kobold behind him in the cart, crying "It was time for us to come out—it was time for us to come out!"
[204] Afzelius, Sago Häfdar., ii. 169. On Christmas-morning, he says, the peasantry gives the Tomte, his wages, i. e. a piece of grey cloth, tobacco, and a shovelful of clay.
[205] Berg signifies a larger eminence, mountain, hill; Hög, a height, hillock. The Hög-folk are Elves and musicians.
[206] The Danish peasantry in Wormius' time described the Nökke (Nikke) as a monster with a human head, that dwells both in fresh and salt water. When any one was drowned, they said, Nökken tog ham bort (the Nökke took him away); and when any drowned person was found with the nose red, they said the Nikke has sucked him: Nikken har suet ham.—Magnusen, Eddalære. Denmark being a country without any streams of magnitude, we meet in the Danske Folkesagn no legends of the Nökke; and in ballads, such as "The Power of the Harp," what in Sweden is ascribed to the Neck, is in Denmark imputed to the Havmand or Merman.
[207] The Neck is also believed to appear in the form of a complete horse, and can be made to work at the plough, if a bridle of a particular description be employed.—Kalm's Vestgötha Resa.
[208] Afzelius, Sago-häfdar, ii. 156.