In Sami folklore, háldi (plural: hálddit) are various guardian spirits that live underground, in mountains and mounds, and also in the sea. If the hálddit were treated with respect, they were helpers, but if they were treated badly, they would punish you. Háldi could also take in both children and adults, and they sometimes took children from their mothers' wombs.
Hálddit is also referred to as underground, but according to Ole Thommasen in The relationship of the patches the term is not correct. The Hálddit are supposed to live on earth, and have their uses and things, like we do, such as farms, churches, cattle and so on, but they cannot be seen with our eyes.
An ancient tradition, which is still practised by some, was to always check for peace and quiet when travelling to new places. If you couldn't sleep or felt any other disturbance in the place, it meant that subterraneans were already living there. This was a common practice if you were re-erecting a new range, tent, house or barn somewhere. If you feel uneasy, you have to find somewhere else, otherwise you won't have peace.
Hálddit takes children
When a woman is carrying a child, the eldritch began to keep an eye on her. There were therefore many things a pregnant woman should not do. Ole Thommasen describes it this way in Lappenes forhold:
For that reason, such a woman should never walk alone in the forest, and in the dark. Never lie down to sleep out in the field, nor sleep alone even in her own house, especially when the time of childbirth began to approach; for then subterraneans could take the opportunity to cut open the woman's abdomen and take the foetus. Under such circumstances the woman is overwhelmed with sleep, and yet this is done, so that when she wakes up, she feels separated from the foetus and on examination of her abdomen she sees only a fine scar, but everything is healed, so that she feels fresh and healthy as before she was fertile.
People taken by hálddit are not allowed to eat the food they offer you. If you endure hunger for 2-3 days, and don't enjoy anything from them, you will be allowed to return.
Stories about hálddit:
A girl serves at the háldekone
Current links
When the underground has the last word, Setnordfra
About the Sea Sami, Anders Larsen, National Library of Norway
Fairy tales and legends about hálddit in Sami stories, National Library of Norway
