The Fiddler in the Waterfall
Under Norway's waterfalls lives a spirit who plays the fiddle so well that trees dance. For the right gift, he will teach you.
What was reported
In Norwegian folklore, the fossegrim is a water spirit who lives beneath waterfalls and mill streams, a young man who plays the fiddle day and night. His music is said to be so beautiful that listeners are forced to dance, and even the trees and the water join in.
A fiddler who wanted to learn from him had to bring a gift on a Thursday evening, traditionally a fat white goat, and throw it into the falls with his face turned away. If the gift was too lean, the fossegrim taught him only how to tune. If it was generous, he guided the player's hand until his fingers bled, and from then on he could play like no one else.
Explanations offered
The fossegrim belongs to a family of musical water spirits across Scandinavia, like the Swedish näcken. Folklorists see the tales as a way of explaining extraordinary talent in the rural fiddlers of Norway, whose dance music, played on the ornate Hardanger fiddle, could seem almost supernatural.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Vøringsfossen, Eidfjord, Norway
- Witnesses
- Norwegian folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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