Nisselue

garment · Norway · Nordic

The pointed red wool cap worn by the nisse, the small household spirit of Norwegian farms and barns. The red cap became the nisse's signature in 19th-century folklore and illustration and is worn today as a Christmas hat. In Danish and Norwegian legend the underground folk are likewise described in red caps, as when an underjordisk man wearing a red nissehue runs after a farmer with a message. The nisselue is knitted in the round with a point, and museum collections, such as those of the Norsk Folkemuseum, hold folk caps of just this shape from the 19th century that give the spirit's headgear

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