Nøkken is always said to inhabit quiet freshwater ponds or lakes, especially the particularly dark and murky ones where you can't see the bottom.
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More specifically, back in the days when many people didn't know how to swim and falling into a lake or pond could therefore be very dangerous, parents would tell stories of Nøkken to instill a fear of lakes into their children, so that children wouldn't go near these dangerous waters unattended. Although genuine belief in him among adults was pretty much nonexistent after the 1850's, Nøkken continued to be used as a sort of boogeyman to frighten children into behaving. He also appears occasionally in Danish folklore, but the Danish tales often have more in common with the German Nix than with Nøkken. Nøkken is a malevolent male freshwater spirit from Norwegian and Swedish folklore. "Nøkken fisker" (Nøkken fishing) - Theodor Kittelsen, 1912 This word might possibly be related to Nøkken. The plural form of Nøkken is almost never used, simply because Nøkken is a solitary creature.Īnother thing worth mentioning is the slightly oldfashioned Norwegian verb "nykke", which means "to pull". The grammar rules for Nøkken are as follows:Ī nøkk - (the) nøkken - many nøkker - those nøkkene Much like Huldra, Nøkken and Näcken are words pointing to a specific being and not the general species. It seems that the stories of Nøkken go very far back, and it can be difficult to pin down the exact origin of his name.
It's worth mentioning that Germany and many of its neighbouring countries also have stories of freshwater monsters that lure people into their death by drowning, and these monsters generally go by similar names, such as Nix, Nicker, Nöck, and Nickelmann. Because Nøkken is rarely ever mentioned in Norse mythology, it's a bit unclear what exactly nykr means, but it seems closely related to other Germanic words at the time, such as the Old English word "nicor", which means "hippo" or "aquatic monster", and the Old High German word "nihhus", which means "crocodile". All of these words evolved from the Old Norse word "nykr". In southeastern and northern Norway he's known as Nøkken, in western Norway and parts of Telemark he's known as Nykkjen, and in Sweden he's known as Näcken, sometimes spelled Necken. Nøkken is known by several different names.
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