December 4, 2001
“Toofta took it”
Our next-door neighbor Agnes, in Forest Knolls, West Marin Co., Ca, was Norwegian-American and in the mid-1950s, when I was a young child, I learned many Norwegian customs from her. Agnes Haugen Vincilione, in her late 40s, was married to a sea captain, Lucien Vincilione, who was away at sea most of the year, and so to occupy herself, she took solace in the afternoon with bourbon on the rocks.
Whenever her drink got low, which it invariably did, she always blamed an invisible Norwegian troll called Toofta, for stealing, or finishing her drink. Of course, this was an excuse to crack open the bourbon jug that was kept under the sink, to pour herself another drink, to raise her glass to Toofta and say, “Skøl pifiskin,” (a salutation that means cheers/ health & fish!). Apparently Toofta had a powerful thirst. Since I was only five years old at the time, I thought Toofta was real, and though I tried to keep my eyes open for this thieving drink-napper, I never spotted him.
Agnes had an elder sister, Borghild, or Borg Haugen, who lived in San Jose; she visited every weekend and she too blamed Toofta for stealing things, not only drinks but food as well—especially Norwegian cookies. I knew Toofta had a sweet tooth and liked his bourbon, but not lutefisk (jellied fish). I imagined he looked like a leprechaun but stockier, because he was a troll; he dressed in Norwegian clothes.
Borg “adopted” me and I remember visiting the family home in Seattle. Borg and Agnes had two sisters, and a brother, Einer; it was a Norwegian-speaking household—their parents and uncle Otto didn’t speak any English. Janet and her mentally retarded sister, Sally lived at the family summer home on Vashon Island, and Einer, in Seattle. They too blamed Toofta for missing things.
Though I was skeptical, Toofta stood a good chance of being more real than Santa Claus—whom I knew was a fraud, because there was a Santa was on every street corner in the City ringing bells at the same time. (Besides, he couldn’t fit down the stovepipe).
Toofta was especially busy during the holidays when there was baking to be done. We made krumkaker, a thin, rolled conical waffle with scrolled designs embedded in the wafer, which he seemed especially fond of; wreath-shaped spritz, and cardamom-flavored fatiman twists—which I hated the flavor of. As far as I was concerned, Toofta could have them all. Naturally, with his sweet tooth, Toofta also took my first tooth, but he didn’t leave me a kroner under the pillow.
When I was 9, Borg gave me a krumkaker iron she brought back from Norway, and some 30 Christmases later, I’m still making krumkakers for my aunts & cousins. Since my family is Irish-American, it’s odd that we’ve picked up a Norwegian custom and adopted it as a family tradition. My cousins insists that eating krumkaker is an integral part of their Christmas experience.
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| An 1842 engraving of an illustration of a nisse by Danish artist Johan Thomas Lundbye. |
When I first collected this story in 2001, there was no information anywhere on Toofta. Nothing in the UC Berkeley archives. But in October, 2015, when I was writing about Marconi Oranges, I stumbled upon some bits that might be related to Toofta.
Toofta is an invisible wight (similar to our leipreachán), who has a fondness for screwdrivers and eggnog—is not in the internet, he's unlisted. Perhaps that's a good thing. He's a thief with a fondness for booze. Perhaps he's a Nisse, a Vittra (but they're plural social beings) or he is more likely to be a variant of a singular entity, Tomte."Other names are tuftekall, tomtegubbe or haugebonde, all names connecting the being to the origins of the farm (the building ground), or a burial mound."
KRUMKAKER RECIPE
(conical wafers that look like ice cream cones)
Melt 2 cubes (1 cup) sweet butter, cool
beat 4 eggs well with
1 cup sugar (vanilla sugar is best,
otherwise add 2 teaspoons vanilla; the alcohol will evaporate off. Don’t use water-based vanilla.)
Add egg/sugar mix to cooled butter
(watch out, because Toofta often sticks his fingers in the batter),
add 1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cups sifted flour, depending on the quality and moisture of the flour. Batter will be thick. You may thin with half and half cream, if necessary, but the addition of water-based liquid will adversely affect the outcome: the liquid turns to steam, and spoils the baking of the cookie, and the cookie won’t roll, nor will it stiffen up.)
Makes 12 to 15 cookies.
Heat krumkaker iron (it’s like a round waffle griddle) on a stove burner and grease the insides. Put 1 heaping teaspoon batter in the center of the sizzling iron (when a drop of water skittles across its inside surface, it’s ready) close iron with batter inside, in about 30 seconds turn iron over so the other sideof the cookie will brown too.
The first krumkaker will usually burn, but it’s for Toofta who doesn’t seem to mind burnt cookies. Throw the first krumkaker away. (Broken krumkaker are for Toofta too, or he breaks them, but they’re fine for us to eat them). When both sides of the krumkaker are browned (about a minute), remove it from the iron, and roll hot wafer around conical wooden rod to make into a cornucopia. Let cookie cool. The sugar will cool and the cookie will harden. (The cookies can also be rolled around a wooden spoon handle for flute shapes.)
Stack cookies in airtight containers, and on Christmas Eve., they can be hung on the tree as decorations but they get soft quickly. Cookies can also be dipped in chocolate or filled with strawberries and/or cherries and topped with whipped cream, or ice cream.
Krumkaker (which means crumbly cakes) are probably an ancestor of the rolled ice cream cone, but they are much more delicate. Unlike most cookies, they’re not baked, but fried on top of the stove. In olden times, they would’ve been made over a wood-burning stove, the griddle, or iron, and its stand, fit nicely over the round burner hole, when the stove lid is removed.
A stand isn’t necessary, but when you’re making dozens of krumkaker, it makes for an easier job as the iron is heavy (about 5 -8 lbs., and your wrist (and legs) get fatigued. The krumkaker irons come with many traditional patterns etched on their insides. I’ve included a rubbing of one design and a drawing of the krumkaker iron and wooded cone on the next page.
UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes
Toofta is an invisible wight (similar to our leipreachán), who has a fondness for screwdrivers and eggnog—is not in the internet, he's unlisted. Perhaps that's a good thing. He's a thief with a fondness for booze. Perhaps he's a Nisse, a Vittra (but they're plural social beings) or he is more likely to be a variant of a singular entity, Tomte."Other names are tuftekall, tomtegubbe or haugebonde, all names connecting the being to the origins of the farm (the building ground), or a burial mound."
Tomt means house, or farm loft.
What excites me is finding the word: tufte-kall. Tufte. Toofta, is that you? He was associated with winter and with Christmas.... And perhaps Toofta was the Haugan family’s own personal wight. Haugkall means mound man... Think Harry Potter's house-elf, Dobbin. (Aasen (1873) Norsk ordbog s.v. "Tufte". 'vætte, nisse, unseen neighbor, in the majority ellefolk (elf-folk) or underjordiske [no] (underground folk) but also (regionally) in the Nordland and Trondheim tuftefolk'. Brynildsen (1927) Norsk-engelsk ordbok s.v. "tuftekall", see tunkall; tuften, see Tomten.)
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| Farmhouse sprite sweeping the barn, A Description of the Northern Peoples, Olaus Magnus, 1555 |
See also the 1881 poem, The Tomten by Viktor Rydberg (English v. here), who is transformed into a Jultomte, a diminutive julvätte-toting deity. (With thanks to my Swedish friend, Pamela Robertson-Pearce for leading me to this source. I now have my folklore references for the long missing jigsaw piece. Sadly, I can’t update the original collected piece in the Kroeber Folklore Library, but I’m sure Dr. Alan Dundes, my papa folklore teacher, would be very proud, indeed. Facebook works in mysterious ways. added 12/2020.) See also the trouble the tomte-nisser get into in Danish circles. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-risengrod
KRUMKAKER RECIPE
(conical wafers that look like ice cream cones)
Melt 2 cubes (1 cup) sweet butter, cool
beat 4 eggs well with
1 cup sugar (vanilla sugar is best,
otherwise add 2 teaspoons vanilla; the alcohol will evaporate off. Don’t use water-based vanilla.)
Add egg/sugar mix to cooled butter
(watch out, because Toofta often sticks his fingers in the batter),
add 1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cups sifted flour, depending on the quality and moisture of the flour. Batter will be thick. You may thin with half and half cream, if necessary, but the addition of water-based liquid will adversely affect the outcome: the liquid turns to steam, and spoils the baking of the cookie, and the cookie won’t roll, nor will it stiffen up.)
Makes 12 to 15 cookies.
Heat krumkaker iron (it’s like a round waffle griddle) on a stove burner and grease the insides. Put 1 heaping teaspoon batter in the center of the sizzling iron (when a drop of water skittles across its inside surface, it’s ready) close iron with batter inside, in about 30 seconds turn iron over so the other sideof the cookie will brown too.
The first krumkaker will usually burn, but it’s for Toofta who doesn’t seem to mind burnt cookies. Throw the first krumkaker away. (Broken krumkaker are for Toofta too, or he breaks them, but they’re fine for us to eat them). When both sides of the krumkaker are browned (about a minute), remove it from the iron, and roll hot wafer around conical wooden rod to make into a cornucopia. Let cookie cool. The sugar will cool and the cookie will harden. (The cookies can also be rolled around a wooden spoon handle for flute shapes.)
Stack cookies in airtight containers, and on Christmas Eve., they can be hung on the tree as decorations but they get soft quickly. Cookies can also be dipped in chocolate or filled with strawberries and/or cherries and topped with whipped cream, or ice cream.
Krumkaker (which means crumbly cakes) are probably an ancestor of the rolled ice cream cone, but they are much more delicate. Unlike most cookies, they’re not baked, but fried on top of the stove. In olden times, they would’ve been made over a wood-burning stove, the griddle, or iron, and its stand, fit nicely over the round burner hole, when the stove lid is removed.
A stand isn’t necessary, but when you’re making dozens of krumkaker, it makes for an easier job as the iron is heavy (about 5 -8 lbs., and your wrist (and legs) get fatigued. The krumkaker irons come with many traditional patterns etched on their insides. I’ve included a rubbing of one design and a drawing of the krumkaker iron and wooded cone on the next page.
UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes
Agnes’ original recipe i. her handwriting.
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