[QUOTE=Septima]
Asbjørnsen and Moe are the definitive authority on Norwegian Folktales, and yes, there are stories of the huldra in there.
While any individual huldra one encounters is most often female, the word hulder-folk is used to describe an entire seperate people, who live in the ground or in the mountain. Sometimes reffered to as the grey folk, or simply the others.
One very rarely hears of encounters between hulder-women and human men that end well, or of descendants on “our side”. I’d be very interested in hearing that story. Lets see if any of this rings a bell.
A huldra woman can be beatiful to look at, and charming, but Beware! Her back is hollow and she has a tail. Don’t go with her, or you’ll be locked in the mountain for ever.
But she can be bound to do your will if you touch her with iron, in wich case she is burned as if the iron was red hot. Then she must obey until the one who bound her frees her. Mostly, they are freed by some trickery not to long after, but sometimes they do leave children behind. These are human, but will have a conection to the hulder, and the mother can sometimes be heard outside the windows at night, pitifully crying and calling for her child. However, such children can never be touched by the others.
Did something like this happen? Common variations include the hulda bound through christian prayer, or by being tricked into accepting a bible, or speaking a verse from it. A hulder can never enter a church, or stand the sound of church-bells.
[/QUOTE]
I remember being told of the tail & hollow back. And my Great-Grandfather kidded me about “you were born with a troll tail, too! But your Grandmother cut it off!” (Keep all remarks to yourselves, you goddam flying monkeys, you!)
But I was too small, & do not recall the rest.