Folklore of Zealandia

Zealandia has a rich history of folklore, especially tales based on stories prior to Christianization. As Christianity was introduced by itinerant English missionaries, many of these folktales remained even as worship of the old Gods died out. Rather than being replaced, indigenous folklore incorporated bits and pieces of Christian elements into the already established stories of old, similar to how English, Scandinavian, Polynesian and Chinese folklore survived the onslaught of other religious traditions.

Below is a list of various creatures and characters found in Zealandian folklore. Afterwards, a few gathered folktales are written.

Characters and Creatures of Zealandian Lore
Abheirtacht

Abheirtacht are a supernatural race of creatures comprable to tiny elves, fairies, and animals that formed an integral part of ancient Zealandian religion. Abheirtacht were some of the primary ways Zealandians believed the Gods played a role in their lives before the arrival of Christianity. Abheirtacht took many forms, sometimes as elves or fairies and sometimes as supernatural animals like kangaroos, kakapo, owls or kiwi. The Abheirtacht lived in the forests and trees, and thus the trees and forests were considered holy places in Zealandian religion. As a result, even in large cities, churches to this day are always surrounded by trees to simulate a forest. As a result of this view of forests, Zealandians have held forests to be one of the most important pieces of their culture, which explains the survival of so many old-growth forests today while so many other forests in other countries have been cut down. To cut a forest for agriculture, even to this day, people often ask their priest permission from God (or in ancient times, the Gods) so as not to disturb the Abheirtacht that lived there. Permission to do so was not always granted, and people were forced to comply or risk upsetting their God/Gods and ruining their afterlife. Forests continue to be an important piece of Zealandian life for the spiritual and non-spiritual alike, and the importance of the forest has been ingrained in Axipaal society.

Tomte

Tomte are said to be a people, described as small dwarfs with long, white beards. They live in the mountains of Zealandia’s two islands. The Tomte live deep in the forests and most isolated valleys of the country, far from human eyes, and are said to live in the trunks of massive pines and cedars. Tomte are neither good nor evil, and are extremely rare to see, as they are very reclusive. Lone travelers who are lost in the forests or mountains are said to be visited by the Tomte, and can either be led out by the tiny people, or robbed of their goods when they sleep. Tomte are also known to steal sheep or goats from pastoralists. (Brownies, Menehune, dwarves)

Trollde

Trollde are the mythical stone trolls that roam Zealandia’s mountains. Trollde are generally regarded as brutish, stupid, and wicked, and all are exceedingly large creatures made of stones. Most Trollde live in caves, where they cultivate the famous glow-worms of Zealandia’s caves, or on the crags on the sides of mountains. Trollde are wicked creatures, and though they fear the coast, church bells, and crosses, travelers in the mountains must be weary of Trollde. Humans can often bribe or outwit Trollde, but more clever individuals are said to eat lost and disoriented people. Trollde also prey on domestic animals, especially sheep.

Draakens

Draakens are the dragons of Zealandian folklore. Draakens are said to posess long, snakelike bodies with small limbs, similar to Chinese dragons. Draakens are symbols of good luck and prosperity. With sightings of these creatures flying through the sky, good harvests and fishing are said to come soon afterwards. Draakens are said to live high in the clouds, and thunderstorms are said to be the result of Draakens fighting. (Chinese Dragons)

Revtyv

Revtyv is the thief of the forests, and takes the form of a leopard. Revtyv lives deep in the forests and lurks along the roads that traverse these woodlands. When a traveler comes upon Revtyv, the leopard-spirit plays repeated, harmless tricks on the person, each time stealing something valuable. These thieved items are taken back to the spirit’s den, which is filled with trinkets. Though Revtyv is a trickster and a thief, the spirit is also known to defend people from Trollde. If you catch Revtyv playing tricks, he is obligated to guide you the correct way to your destination as long as the forest cover allows.

Gulønye

Gulønye is a spirit of good fortune for people, and takes the form of the Morepork Owl. Though Gulønye may seem eerie, especially when seen at night, where its yellow eyes glow in the dark, the owl is the lookout for people who are out at night. When the spirit is seen, it means that people are safe.

Näcken

Näcken is an evil creature that resembles a small, diminutive man with a hunch and gaunt body with unkempt hair. Näcken is said to prey upon children who misbehave and go places they are not allowed to go to. Näcken is clever, and lures wayward, misbehaving children with games to their untimely demise. Näcken never appears to children who are home before dark, those who explore safe areas, and is afraid of crosses and bells. Zealandian parents often use the tale to keep their children from wandering out at night and getting lost, or misbehaving outdoors.

Skogsrå

Skogsrå is a dangerous woman who lives in the forests and mountains in caves. She lures hunters, trappers, and herdsmen into her caves, where they become lost and die. Skogsrå appears as a beautiful maiden in a dress, but underneath the dress she has the tail of a lizard.

Gefilte

Known as the fiddler spirit, Gefilte lives in bogs and marshes. Gefilte is an excellent fiddler, and will teach people how to play in exchange for trinkets, which he collects. Gefilte takes the shape of a man, though his eyes have only pupils and no colored area. Gefilte is known for his high voice and eerie, cackling laugh. Gefilte is not a kind spirit, but not a malevolent one. If someone tries to trick Gefilte, or gives him a fake trinket, the spirit will kill the person and eat them.

Hinkepokk

Hinkepokk is a light held by a diminutive tuatara-person, Taag. Hinkepokk appears in the fog only, especially over bogs, lakes, and dark forests. The light produced is said to attract many who see it, and induce many to follow it. As the person follows the light, it is extinguished, leaving them lost in the dark. Hinkepokk is the Zealandian form of the similar “Will-o-the-Wisp.”

Lømme

Lømme is the hunter spirit, and takes the form of a man with a naginata. Lømme rides a black horse. Lømme appears when danger may be near, and warns hunters of leopards. Lømme is generally a bad omen when he appears.

Piköt

Piköt is a spirit who is said to guard farms and shops. It usually takes the form of a Parakeet or a Kakapo. Piköt wards off bandits, leopards, and evil spirits who come to steal sheep, donkeys or horses. Piköt is often seen as a carryover from earlier indigenous religion before Christianity. Every solstice and equinox it is tradition to leave a small bag of rice out as thanks for Piköt. Piköt is a cheerful spirit, and many families leave a small cage out for the spirit to rest in.

Kaninda

This spirit lives in the mountains, caves, ravines, and empty areas, and is utilized by ancient people to explain echoes. Taking the form of a small, furry animal, the Kaninda resembles a cross between a sheep and a monkey with the horns of an elk. When echoes are heard, it is said to be the voice of the Kaninda spirit answering back.

The Tale of Solveig and the Sea-Demon
Long ago there lived a beautiful young girl named Solveig who lived with her old father by the sea. Through his entire life, her father had worked the fields to feed her and her late mother, and he cared about Solveig deeply. Since he was now old, Solveig’s father could not walk well any more, and rarely left the family property. Loving her father, Solveig did many of the chores her father could no longer do. From the time she was young, her parents always told her to be cautious around strangers, never speak to them, and never leave for town without carrying her taki (a short sword). One day, Solveig left for town to buy pheasant, as it was approaching the solstice, and she wanted to make her father a grand meal. She mounted the family horse and rode away. About halfway down the road, she realized she had forgotten her taki at home. Never having encountered any trouble when visiting town, she decided to continue down the road. She soon arrived in the village and bought a fine pheasant for sale at the market. After she was done, she decided to look around and admire the wares many of the vendors had for sale, as she rarely had time to admire the nice things different craftspeople had made. Soon, a handsome young man approached her, wearing a fine cotton tunic under a long black robe. His blonde hair shown brightly in the sunlight, and he approached Solveig with a smile on his face. After talking for some time, he wanted to know if she was interested in going to the beach, only a short walk away and backing up to the village. Solveig remembered her parents’ advice to not talk to strangers, and not to accompany them to other places, especially without her taki. But he was so kind and friendly, she thought. Rather than heeding the advice of her parents, Solveig followed the young man to the beach. There, he waded into the water, a popular pastime for the summer that helped people cool off on warm days. Solveig followed him. Soon, they got further and further offshore, and Solveig started to worry. A second later, the boy was gone, and he had transformed into a penguin, his robe and hair becoming the feathers of the bird. Solveig took another step forward, and fell off the edge into deep water. As she struggled underwater, she saw the penguin swim off into the depths one last time, a reminder to all to never trust strangers without caution or being prepared.

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Dolphin
There once lived a fisherman who came upon three children messing with a beached dolphin. Being a pious man, he hated to see the dolphin suffer at the hands of the mischievous children out of the water. To entice the children to leave, the fisherman gave them each a shell he had collected from the shore to play with instead. Once the children were gone, the fisherman helped the dolphin back into the water, and it happily swam away. The next day, the fisherman was untying his skiff to head out to sea when the dolphin appeared next to him at the docks. To his surprise, the creature spoke, and expressed its deepest gratitude for saving him. In appreciation, the dolphin offered to carry the fisherman to a faraway island where an exquisite palace filled with riches was said to be. After deliberating a little while, the fisherman accepted, and the dolphin took him to the island. The palace was bigger and grander than anything he had ever seen before. The princess who owned the castle came out and greeted him, and thanked him for rescuing the dolphin, who was one of her guardians. After some time enjoying himself at the palace, he asked the princess if he could return home, as he missed his parents and friends. The princess informed him that she was under the captivity of a evil wizard, who sometimes takes the form of a great shark. He refuses to let any visitors to leave the island as they had come, though his curse is not inherently evil, and reflects the goodness of the visitor. The fisherman was distraught, as he wished to return to his home, but as he left the palace, he encountered the wizard. The old man told him, in order to leave, he would have to be transformed into a dolphin, like the one he had rescued. As a dolphin, he was to guard the shoreline of his home and rescue those who are in trouble. The fisherman, being a good man, accepted this fate, as long as he was able to visit his parents as a man for an hour every week. The wizard agreed, and ever since, the fisherman has guarded the waters as a dolphin and saved countless people who may have drowned otherwise.

Einar and the Slaying of the Golden Troll
Long before modern times, there lived a fierce warrior named Einar. Einar was a wealthy Kreiger, one of the wealthiest in all the land. He controlled acres upon acres of farms which produced fine rice, potatoes, cotton and tomatoes, and had many herds of sheep, llamas and goats. Einar’s prized possession was his finest horse, on which he was faster than any other warrior. Einar was a cruel lord to his people, and would kill anyone who disrespected him. If a farmer’s crop failed, he would leave him and his family to wander the countryside, and would burn down their house. People feared him far and wide, and in battle he was said to show no mercy to his opponents. One day, Einar was relaxing at his estate, when a visitor rode to the gate and requested to speak to him. Einar, being a cruel and unfriendly man, refused to see the traveler, even though he was told the visitor was a wise sage. He then went back inside to eat, as his servants were beginning to prepare his evening meal. As he retired to his study after eating a hearty meal of roast lamb over rice with shrimp, peppers and large ripe tomatoes, he was startled to see an old man standing at the doorstep of his reading room. Einar immediately drew his katana and swung at the old man, intending to kill him for trespassing in his private quarters, but the blade simply passed through the old man’s body. Enraged, Einar demanded to know what the old man was doing inside his house. The sage replied that he was a messenger sent from God to warn Einar that if he did not change his malicious ways, he was to be punished, and forced to live the life of a homeless pauper for the rest of his days until he found a way to redeem himself. Einar told the sage that he was a servant to no God or spirit, and sent the sage on his way. The next day, Einar woke and went on a round of his estate. There he came upon a family of serfs herding goats, and after counting the goats, he found that several had gone missing. The head of the family explained that while the goats were at pasture yesterday, a leopard had appeared from the woods and killed two sheep, and drove 8 others over rocks where they were killed. At hearing this news, Einar ordered his men to arrest the farmers and set fire to their house and all of their belongings. After beating the father mercilessly, Einar sent the family off into the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their backs. He then returned to his estate house and retired for the night.

When Einar awoke the next morning, he had an ache in his back, and upon opening his eyes found he had spent the night in a hollow cedar tree in a forest he did not recognize. He wore modest clothes and found not his katana by his side but a simple spear with an obsidian head. After walking down the road for a while, he came upon a modest wooden cottage in the forest. Outside the cottage was the old sage who had visited him 2 nights before. The sage informed Einar that he had been punished for his cruelty and evil spirit, and was doomed to live the rest of his days as he was, every night returning to the same place without retaining anything he had gotten the previous day, until he redeemed himself in the eyes of God. Einar then continued to walk down the road, uncomfortable as he wore no shoes. As he travelled, he came upon another cottage, home to a hunter and his wife and daughter. After the family welcomed him to their home and fed him, Einar stole the family’s donkey after departing. He rode the donkey to the nearest town, where he tied it up and entered the local pub. After drinking rislut for several hours and becoming drunk, Einar was thrown out of the bar and into the streets.

The next morning, he woke up in the same tree hollow, this time without a spear to hunt with. Not remembering his way back to either the cottage or the town, Einar became lost in the forest, and ate berries for dinner as he could not catch food nor start a fire. Seeing berries he knew were poisonous, he ate them, hoping to escape the curse he was under. Awaking the next morning very much alive, Einar decided to retrace his steps, and soon came upon the cottage of the hunter. The daughter of the hunter had fallen seriously ill, and without the donkey, the family could not take her to see a doctor in the village. For the first time in his life, Einar felt ashamed of what he had done, and left the family to find the village he had visited previously. When he arrived, he found the donkey tied to the tree he had left it at in the forest, and took it back to the hunter’s cabin. Though the family offered to feed him for his kindness in retuning the donkey, which allowed them to take their daughter to the village, Einar refused, as he felt he did not deserve their kindness after what he had done. After eating grubs for food and foraging for blackberries, Einar slept for the night, knowing his only way to break the curse was to change his outlook on life.

The next day, he awoke, this time to find the spear at his side. After hunting, Einar ate real food for the first time, though he had only managed to kill a tree kangaroo. He decided to head a different way on the road, and soon came upon a merchant with his wares. Though the merchant grabbed his naginata in fear he would be ambushed, Einar assured him he meant no harm. The merchant told him of a town a half days walk ahead called Ulmheim, which was terrorized by a huge troll made of gold. Each night the troll would come into the town and steal precious belongings, livestock, wagons, pets, children and men’s wives, never to have them seen again. Einar thanked the man, and continued on his way.

That afternoon, he arrived in Ulmheim, and was greeted by several men. Einar offered his services to the town, and that night stood guard with the town’s men. Later, Einar and the men heard loud howls and grunts coming from the hills nearby. In a short time, a large troll appeared, shimmering in the moonlight due to its golden body. The men fired arrows, but they did no harm, in fact, the troll was too stupid to even notice the men even when he smothered their campfire by stepping on it. The troll then ate one farmer’s horse and another’s donkey, the last two pack animals in the entire town, and made off with the iron steeple from the town’s modest wooden pagoda church. Promising the town’s men his return the next day with a plan to solve the troll problem, Einar left to sleep. He returned at dawn the next day, having slept but two hours and traversed the forest at night, a dangerous feat. After telling the men his plan, Einar set out to find the troll’s home. Following the scars on the rock left by the dragging of the iron church steeple, Einar was able to trace the troll’s path back to a cave surrounded by dense ferns in-between two hills where a small stream flowed to some unknown end in the darkness underground. As dawn broke, Einar saw the troll appear over the far hill, coming back from his night wanderings to deposit his spoils in the cave and rest. Einar gained the troll’s attention by throwing a stone at the western hill, and the stone tumbled into a crevasse formed by two large boulders. The troll, thinking the noise was caused by a serow or moa, lumbered quickly over to where the sound had come from. Before he was able to reach the source of the sound, the troll’s leg slipped and became stuck in the crevasse. The troll hit the ground with a great thud, and loosened the log Einar had placed in front of some boulders at the top of the hill. The boulders came tumbling down and crushed the troll. After the last grunts and movements had ceased, Einar went to the troll’s body. Taking the troll’s diamond-edged dagger worn by its side, Einar cut the Troll’s body open. To his amazement, children, women, horses, donkeys, sheep and goats came running out, dragging with them the leather and iron trinkets the troll had eaten. Each person rejoiced at their freedom and thanked Einar. A changed man, Einar was humble in the face of these people he had saved. He then took the troll’s dagger and cut the golden body of the troll into pieces and loaded the golden pieces onto the saddlebags of the horses and donkeys that had sprung forth from the troll’s stomach.

When they arrived back to Ulmheim, the entire town celebrated for the entire day. Families were reunited, and to the old sage, who was at the celebration, took pride in seeing Einar a truly changed man for the better. Before he left Ulmheim, Einar distributed the entire golden body of the troll to the villagers, making each one of them quite rich, keeping only a small portion for himself. After celebrating with the villagers for some time, Einar said goodbye. The people of Ulmheim were sad to see their hero depart, and offered to build him a grand home and make him the mayor of the village. Einar respectfully turned them down, saying he had to find other troubles facing different areas to address. By nightfall, Einar had returned to the Cedar that had become his home. Before turning in for the night, Einar went to the house of the hunter. There he gave the remainder of the gold he had taken to the family in a gesture of thanks for their kindness and generosity and as an apology for his previous actions. The family was overwhelmed by the gift, and said they would never forget him. Einar then left, thinking of where he would go the next day. He then fell asleep in the cedar tree.

Einar awoke to the smell of incense and pheasant eggs cooking. When he opened his eyes, he found himself laying on his bed back at his estate on his moa feather bed. He woke up and told his servants they would be receiving wages for their work from then on, and would receive weekends off, as he wanted to develop his own cooking skills. Einar mounted his horse and called a gathering of all the serf families in his lands. Many were fearful of reprisals that were expected following a period of heavy rain that had flooded many rice fields and ruined potato crops. Instead, Einar told each family he was freeing them of their bondage to the land, and though they could remain under his protection on the lands they tended to, the land was theirs and theirs alone. Additionally, he promised to upgrade each and every one of their houses to make them more livable than the cottages they currently occupy. To those who had their homes destroyed, Einar promised to rebuild their houses to states greater than even his own. To those who wished to stay, he invited each of them to his home for a meal once a week, a sign of the gratitude of the work they had done for him. Einar had learned his lesson, and what had once been an evil man had changed his ways, and though some amends could never be made, Einar lived the life of a good man for the rest of his days.