it is also a yule album, and I have included my favourite traditional song that me and my family sing when walking around the tree on christmas eve (track 4, written by Mogens Lorentzen in 1939).
during yule, in denmark, you must also take care of the nisser (track 5); the nordic nature spirits who became household spirits, survived into the modern period, appearing as a small man. they were very helpful - so long as you shared with them some food and drink, and didn’t reprove them.
Johan Thomas Lundbye (1842)
in today’s english, nordic nisser are commonly translated as gnomes, even though scotland and england have their own folklore of “brownies” and “hobs”.
are nisser the result of lilliputian hallucinations known across asia? why did german miners of the 1800’s see little men ahead of them, with also bohemians and hungarians reporting knocking sounds guiding them in the mines? is such knowledge reserved for someone with a “bicameral mind”? why have these deities made themselves invisible to so many humans?
may be we are most likely to understand our experience with nisser through animism, a perspective on the world that, while not the currently dominant one, is probably the most geographically and historically widespread one.
more on nisser (in english!):
nordicanimism.com/blog/who-are-the-christmas-gnomes
more on animism: alteria.dk
album credits:
Rats Gnawing, Scratching, Squeaking and Scuttling by iainmccurdy -- freesound.org/s/640245/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Lighting the Fire.wav by mikehirst -- freesound.org/s/29539/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Wind Howling with Door Opening Interruption by qubodup -- freesound.org/s/210732/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
vinyl noise.wav by tim.kahn -- freesound.org/s/571373/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
album cover photo: Lars K Christensen
license: Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual Bandcamp track pages for license info