Huldra: Ain't your Hollow Back girl

It's been a drizzly overcast day and I woke up this morning thinking about these elf women I'd once read about that had hollow backs.  In a dreamy haze I thought of women that I've met and heard of that leave men I know feeling sad and hollow...and it made me wonder if those women were hiding hollow backs.

So once I was a little more awake I began my research.  I found that I don't have anything in my limited little library of folklore about elves with hollow backs and JStor didn't relinquish anything very helpful.  But I did find a few blogs and a Wikipedia page about the Scandinavian Huldra, "in Norwegian folklore, she is known as the skogsfru or skovfrue (meaning 'Lady (read, counterpart of a Lord) of the forest'). She is known as the skogsrå (forest spirit) or Tallemaja (pine tree Mary) in Swedish folklore, and Ulda in Sámi folklore" (Wikipedia).

'Svenska folksägner', Herman Hofberg (1882) Artist: Per Daniel Holm.

Huldra are a lesser form of troll women, known as Lady Forest Spirits.  They are ravishingly beautiful and often appear naked, covered only by their long hair or dressed as dairy maids.  But their backs are hollow like old trees, sometimes they have bark growing on their skin and they also have a tail, either of a cow (Norway) or a fox (Sweden).  The Huldra is said to lure men away into the woods, releasing only those that can satisfy her in bed and killing those lovers that weren't up to par.  I'm not sure why they prefer to seduce human men since there is a male counterpart to the huldra, known as huldu.  A huldra might try to marry a man of a village but as soon as she enters the church or the priest puts his hand upon her to bless the union her glamour (faery's magic) will fall apart, giving her true form away or, some accounts say, her tail will just fall off.  The huldra were also reported to steal away human babies leaving their own huldrebarn in their place.The huldra were sometimes reported to be helpful creatures to charcoal burners and other laborers, allowing them to rest by watching over them and their work in exchange for food and drink.

Apparently in 2012 the movie Thale came out in Norway and the main character is a huldra.  Needless to say It's been added to my Netflix list and I can't wait to see it!



Resources:

"Huldra"  thedemoniacal.blogspot.com. 23 December 2009.  Web. 10 September 2013.  http://thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2009/12/huldra.html

"Huldra"  Wikipedia.com. 26 August 2013. Web. 10 September 2013.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldra

Walsh, T.F. "Huldra - Norse Forest Lady" tfwalsh.wordpress.com.  6 June 2011.  Web. 10 September 2013.  http://tfwalsh.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/huldra-%E2%80%93-norse-forest-lady/