Goddess Udlra

Uldra, The Little Reindeer People of Lapland

Submitted by: swampy

“On Dancer, On Prancer..
On Donner, On Blitzen…”

Uldra are The Little People of Lapland, and are found in the far north of the Scandinavian countries. Uldras resemble gnomes, but are slightly larger and leaner than a gnome. Most Uldras have pale white or light gray hair, and tend to have pale complexions. They favor drab colorless clothing and most of them wear a long, conic dark colored hat – like a tall somber ‘dunce cap’. The Uldra live together in large families, or tribes, in underground caves or burrows.

The Uldra as a race has authority and guardianship over all large wild forest and tundra animals like bear, elk, wolves and reindeer. Although the Uldra prefer to stay underground as much as possible, they do emerge to come up to the surface during the winter to feed whatever hibernating animals are in their care. When they do come up to the surface, the Uldra come out only at night since they are as blind as bats in the daytime. If an Uldra does have to travel above the surface of the earth, he or she either jumps on the back of a reindeer or sits between the antlers of a moose and allows the animal to do the work, while the Uldra rides along in comfort.

The Uldra tends to be mostly friendly to Big People, but do not like being slighted or mistreated by man. The Lapps that live in Uldra country are a migratory people who wander over the vast snow-covered lands in search of the moss that feeds their reindeer herds. Sometimes, when the Lapps set up their camps and pitch their tents (made of reindeer hide), they hear the Uldra moving around underground. The Lapps take this as an Uldra warning to move on, because their camp is blocking the Little People’s access to the surface. If the campers fail to move on, or do anything at all that might be offensive, the Uldra will happily take revenge.

It is not wise to piss off an Uldra! One of their methods of revenge is to spread a poisonous powder over the reindeer moss. When the Lapps’ herds of reindeer eat the poisoned moss, large numbers of the animal die and this robs the nomadic Lapp herders of their livelihood.

Other times an angry Uldra might steal a Lapp baby and replace it with an Uldra baby. Uldra babies have long sharp teeth and faces covered with black hair – so the Lapp family will soon notice the switch. The methods of retrieving the human baby are similar to those used to retrieve children stolen by other types of the fey. These methods include such drastic measures as beating the Uldra child with a burning tree branch until the screams of the child cause the mother Uldra to return for it. A contrary opinion is that the Uldra child should be treated very well and showered with attention. The theory here is that the mother Uldra will return for her own baby and bring the human child back as well in gratitude for the love shown to the Uldra child.