{"id":1609,"date":"2017-09-29T22:28:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T22:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2017-09-29T22:47:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T22:47:32","slug":"top-6-danish-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2017\/09\/29\/top-6-danish-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 6 Danish Monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mosekonen brygger\u2026<\/strong> (The bog wife is brewing\u2026) (Photo courtesy of Lisa Risager at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

There really are two Denmarks: There\u2019s the urban country most tourists see, with street art and vegan restaurants. Then there\u2019s an ancient land of moser <\/b>(bogs), dybe skove<\/b> (deep woods) and \u00f8de strande<\/b> (empty shores). Trolde <\/b><\/a>(trolls), nisser<\/a><\/b> and hekse <\/b><\/a>(witches) <\/b>you\u2019ve already met. Now say hello to these 6 creatures from Danish traditional folklore<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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  1. Helhesten<\/b> (the horse from Hel, land of the dead). You can hear it before you see it. Since one of Helhesten<\/b>\u2019s front legs is missing, this ghostly horse really makes some noise as it drags its 3 ill-shod legs across the village brosten<\/b> (paving stones). Let\u2019s hope you don\u2019t meet it on its nightly church crawl \u2013 seeing it is a varsel<\/b> (omen) of death or disaster.<\/li>\n
  2. Mosekonen<\/b> (the bog wife). When t\u00e5gen<\/b> (the fog) is so thick that people come back telling \u201djeg kunne ikke se en h\u00e5nd for mig<\/b>\u201d (I could not see my hand in front of me), you know the old saying is true: Mosekonen brygger<\/b> (the bog wife is brewing). What exactly she is brewing, nobody knows, but it certainly fills Denmark with a lot of dense and damp smoke! \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n
  3. Lindorm<\/b> (Lind worm). A lindorm<\/b> [LENNoarm] is a bit like a drage <\/b>(dragon), except it can\u2019t fly or sprude ild<\/b> (breathe fire \u2013 though it does emit a lot of gift<\/strong>, poison). The lindorm<\/strong>\u00a0resembles a huge snake that grows fatter all the time from all the mennesker<\/b> (people) it swallows. Lindorme<\/b> like to coil around kirker<\/b> (churches) to prevent people from going to gudstjeneste<\/b> (church sermon).<\/li>\n
  4. Mare<\/b>. A mare<\/b> is a kind of heks <\/b>(witch). At night she enters the places where folk <\/b>(people) are sleeping. She then sits down on their chest so they can hardly breathe, giving them mareridt<\/b> (literally mare\u2019s ride) \u2013 the Danish word for nightmare.<\/li>\n
  5. \n
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    A Nordic merman. (Image courtesy of Faroese artist Anker Eli Petersen at Wikimedia<\/a> Commons, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

    Ellefolk <\/b>(Elven people). Unlike their English cousins, Danish Elves are not immortal. Ellefolk<\/b> live in bogs, forests, h\u00f8je<\/b> (mounds) and enge <\/b>(meadows). Their job is to guard the wilderness, so don\u2019t get too close \u2013 they might take you captive! People who escape from an elverh\u00f8j <\/b>(elf hill) usually don\u2019t remember anything. They\u2019ve become ellevilde<\/b> (wild, literally \u201delf wild\u201d). Danish elves are sometimes male, but very often female:<\/p>\n

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    1. ellepiger<\/b> (Elven girls). They usually dance in circles in skumringen <\/b>(twilight), wearing white clothes and sl\u00f8r<\/b> (veils). They are very beautiful and make human males fall in love with them \u2013 until the men catch a glimpse of their backs, which are hollow and rotten like old tree trunks\u2026<\/li>\n
    2. ellekoner<\/b> (Elven wives). Some are described as ugly, old \u201dhags\u201d who run across the country with their long breasts thrown over their shoulders. (The old tales are very colourful and not so PC!)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    3. Havfolk<\/b> (sea people). Have you seen Den lille havfrue<\/a><\/b> (the little mermaid) yet? A land of shores and islands, Denmark has a lot of sea people \u2013 including havm\u00e6nd<\/b> (mermen). A famous tale, Agnete og havmanden<\/b>, tells the story of a girl who is abducted by a havmand<\/b> (merman) to be his wife and live under havet<\/b> (below the sea).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

      There really are two Denmarks: There\u2019s the urban country most tourists see, with street art and vegan restaurants. Then there\u2019s an ancient land of moser (bogs), dybe skove (deep woods) and \u00f8de strande (empty shores). Trolde (trolls), nisser and hekse (witches) you\u2019ve already met. Now say hello to these 6 creatures from Danish traditional folklore…<\/p>\n

      Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[913],"tags":[505208,505202,4673,304769,912,505206,168739,505203,507861,293301,468389,13015,218827],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traditions","tag-agnete-og-havmanden","tag-anker-eli-petersen","tag-church","tag-elves","tag-folklore","tag-helhesten","tag-landscape","tag-mosekone","tag-mosekonen","tag-nisse","tag-nisser","tag-trolls","tag-witch"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}