Hulder

A hulder is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore. (Her name derives from a root meaning "covered" or "secret".) In Norwegian folklore, she is known as Huldra. She is known as the skogsrå (forest spirit) or Tallemaja (pine tree Mary) in Swedish folklore, and Ulda in Sámi folklore. Her name suggests that she is originally the same being as the völva Huld and the German Holda.

Males, called Huldrekall, also appear in Norwegian folklore. This being is closely related to other underground dwellers, usually called tusser.

A huldra appears in the David Bowie video, "Blackstar".

Grammatical Declension

The word hulder is the indefinite form in Norwegian.

The feminine form is ei (or en) hulder (indefinite singular, "a hulder"), huldre or huldrer (indefinite plural, "hulders"), huldra (definite singular, "the hulder"), and huldrene (definite plural, "the hulders"). Since the definite form huldra ("the hulder") is by far the commonest form of the word in actual usage, huldra is sometimes borrowed into English as the basic form. However, constructions like "a huldra" or "the huldra" are nonsensical to a Norwegian (since they would actually mean "a the hulder" and "the the hulder", respectively).