Hej, Tomtegubbar

Tomtegubbar are not any special type of tomte (tomter, tomtar), it's just a poetic phrase for tomte-men. The gubbar part may be related to the Old English work guma, meaning person or man. It may also be related to gudar, from which we get our word "god" and referring to someone/thing that is invoked which also came to refer to a spirit which inhabited a burial mound.

David Foster over at Chicago Boyz puts us on to Virginia Postrel's history of Christmas stockings, as related to their manufacture , and it's fine as far as it goes. But it misses the deeper, pagan history, so I start with what I posted in commentary there.

Boots, shoes and stockings are an ancient tradition in Northern Europe.  Their purpose, especially at Yule or the birth of a child, was to distract spirits from an actual human being to a fake one. As they could only come through a clear opening such as a door or a window, a chimney was usually all they could find.  Following the clothing as if it were a human being they might get caught inside it and you might succeed in catching one, in which case they had to give you a present.  When Christian times came, quite late and unevenly (maybe even still not yet, I say), the custom gradually moved to it being good spirits that came down the chimney, the dangerous ones (tomtar) up out of the earth, or present since the first construction of the building and near-impossible to get rid of.  They were not regarded as mischievous or humorous, but quite deadly, including to children, especially on the sly when farmers had a lot of work or an emergency and their attention was elsewhere. For these reason the tomte favored barns, where the humans did not liveor keep as vigilant a watch. A building on a hill, even a slight rise, was also prime real estate for tomte, almost certainly related to the connection with burial mounds as noted in the first paragraph. 

"Hej, Tomtegubbar" was a children's dance, now a drinking song in Sweden and Norway - maybe elsewhere for all I know.  When I first saw the title and the lyrics I hoped against hope that the tune would somehow be reminiscent of the last line "Hey, Macarena" of the song popular in the 90s, because it would be immensely cool to spring that one on anyone I could corner at a wedding where that dance is being played. But alas, it is not in any way close.

Nonetheless it did provide an opportunity to talk about tomte. Please understand that all information here is general by necessity, and related to the Scandinavian understandings of gnomes, nisse, or more distantly, the dwarves and elves of Germanic, Celtic, and British lore. The legends could vary from valley to valley and were not regarded as nursery tales but very serious stuff. We live so far from the world where the death of a single goat or cow could be catastrophic to a family and unexplained disease would cause whole tribes to change which god they would worship.

The Scandinavians clean it up and make it cute quite a bit these days, especially in souvenir shops. But they are an honest people, and even though they are susceptible to convenient beliefs, they feel obliged to point out what else they know. Scandinavian-Americans, not so much.  We are addicted to cuteness. Geographic gods attached to hills and buildings don't make ocean crossings, it seems, so the dangers are forgotten. When we would have Luciafest at our various vestigially-Swedish churches, the tomte would be played by 3-5 year-olds in bright costumes with the script describing them as "mischievous little creatures who could be bribed with food." Always drew a laugh. But the original custom was not so much bribing as propitiating, and the small creatures were not children but misshapen old ones. A human's relation to them was the typical human one: stark fear. They also became associated with Thor's goats, still used as Christmas ornaments or burned in village ceremonies. Let's get it straight about things that pagans are lighting on fire as well. Open fire was dangerous, and you used it ceremonially not just to have celebration as today, when we have portable hoses and even fire departments backing us up, but in great seriousness. You took that yearly risk because the spirit needed to be consumed, or properly memorialised, or put to rest - or bad things would happen. Sometimes you burned a person or two as well, just to be sure, or if it was a big special event like a battle. The Yule goats are there to watch you, to make sure you make you Christmas preparations properly. Which is not that different from spirits having to be propitiated in very specific and correct ceremonial ways or they punish you, is it?

Seriousness could also mean celebration, another aspect we have gradually removed from our understanding of worship these days, but we aren't lighting 20-ft tall straw effigies right after the last of the dead leaves have hit the ground unless we've got a reason. Eating and especially drinking is likely to be involved, but even that will be as ceremonial as it is recreational. 

You can see the echoes of this in all the stories about leprechauns and pots of gold - darn cute in America, still worrisome in some corners of Ireland. Or all the Rumplestiltskins, elves fixing the cobbler's shoes, or other manifestations that had the old spirits straddling pagan and Christian times. The oldest sources, the unexplained customs and processions and dressing up healthy young virgins (male or female) for ceremonies of weddings mixed with death, paint a darker picture. 

So make sure you not only leave out some cookies for Santa, but some carrots for those reindeer, or I won't be answerable for the consequences.

Well, hear I am lecturing you all to get that fun and charm knocked right out of your head, but we've got strings of cute tomte all over the house here right now.