In the distant past here in Norway the young girls would take the sheep and goats up to the mountains for the summer. There they would stay on the “sæter” all summer. A distant matriarch in our family, we think her name was Kanutta, she may have been my grandmother's great grandmother was out walking in the evening watching the cows, as hands were never to be idle, her hands were busy knitting as she walked. Under her arm she had a pail of sour cream. She met upon a beautiful lady dressed in blue who started to talk to her. As they were taking, our great grandmother offered her flatbread spread with sour cream. As she was preparing this she noticed that the blue lady had a bit of a tail sticking out below the hem of her dress. This was the mark of the Hulder. Our brave matriarch took her knitting needle and drew the mark of a cross in the sour cream on the flatbread she'd prepared for the stranger. But when the Hulder saw the cross, she vanished in the mist. Kanutta told this story and maintained it was true.
Onkel Amund Brænde, my grandmother's older brother was maybe no more than three years old when the family had bought a beautiful used sofa at an auction. Our great uncle came in from the living room to tell his mother, “lady hit me”, “lady hit me”. At this our venerable great-grandmother went into the living room to see what was going on. As he looked over at the couch, little great-uncle Amund said, “lady gone!”. The couch was instantly removed from the household!
Our great-grandmother, Ingeborg Brænde, nee Flote, didn't live to see her children grow up, she passed away of unknown causes in her late 40's. Our grandmother, Ingrid, who was 4 years old at the time of her mother's death, was raised by her sisters. She would tell stories later about them that had been unkind to her. One night when Ingrid was still very young she was in bed crying and afraid because of a storm outside. I remember her telling us that she “saw” her mother came to her and smiled at her. At this point Ingrid poked her sister, and said, “Svanhild, it's Mother!” When she looked back the apparition was gone. Even though none of her 6 siblings believed this story, Ingrid maintained it was true all her life.
