It was the
fall of 2017, one storm after the other. The whole family of nisses was looking
forward to the Yule party, the celebrating of the light.
Old grandad
nisse was busy brewing beer. The younger wanted to help him, but old grandpa
was not ready to leave such an important job to the younger ones, everybody
knows that should the Sun turn again at Winter solstice, the Yule-beer has to
be brewed strong and dark.
“Where do
we go for Yule?”, one of the younger ones asked. “Up North, to Sapmi”, was the
answer. “Stallo is our host”. Everybody just stared at granddad.
“Stallo?!?”, the younger one said, “You know
his favorite food is human flesh, especially from the younger ones?”
“You worry too
much”, the older one answered, “Stallo is a great hunter, that is right. He will
serve a lot of different kinds of venison. You won’t leave his hut hungry. Actually,
I think the only humans he wants to hunt down these days, are too old and too tough
to eat anyway”.
And so it
was, all the nisses from everywhere; the Swedish tomte, the little troll girl
(who actually is a distant relative of the Stallo, on their mother’s side), and
the Irish leprechauns all gathered. They put their gifts and all their beer,
and some porridge (in case someone did not dare taste the Stallo’s meat), in
their sledges and their cars, and they left for Sapmi.
After all
the storms this Advent, with closed roads and closed airports, I was very glad
they sent me a snap, so I would know they got there safely. They also promised
to wait for better weather before their return.
