Nixie (folklore)

The Nixie, Nixy,[1] Nix,[1] Näcken, Nicor, Nokk, or Nokken (German: Nixe; Dutch: nikker, nekker; Danish: nøkke; Norwegian Bokmål: nøkk; Nynorsk: nykk; Swedish: näck; Faroese: nykur; Finnish: näkki; Estonian: näkk; Old English: nicor) are humanoid, and often shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and of folklore.

Nøkken by Theodor Kittelsen, 1904

Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples,[2] although they are perhaps best known from Scandinavian folklore. The related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically. The German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were male. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid.[2] Similar creatures are known from other parts of Europe, such as the Melusine in France, and the Slavic water spirits (e.g. the Rusalka) in Slavic countries.

Names and etymology

The names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis(i), derived from PIE *neigʷ ("to wash").[3] They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti, Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, and Irish nigh (all meaning to wash or be washed).[4] The form neck appears in English and Swedish (näck or nek, meaning "nude").[4] The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr (gen. nykrs), and nykk in Norwegian Nynorsk.[4] In Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish and Norwegian Bokmål it is nøkke/nøkk.[4] The Icelandic and Faroese nykur are horselike creatures. In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker (compare also Nickel or Nikkel plus Kobolt).[4] The Old High German form nihhus also meant "crocodile",[2][4] while the Old English nicor[2][4] could mean both a "water monster" like those encountered by Beowulf,[5] and a "hippopotamus".[4] The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature.[4] The southern Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, and is called a Bäckahästen (the "brook horse"), whilst the Welsh version is called the Ceffyl Dŵr (the "water horse").



At Lyminster, near Arundel in the English county of Sussex, there are today said to dwell "water-wyrms" called knuckers, in a pool called the Knucker-hole. The great Victorian authority Skeat had plausibly suggested the pool's name of knucker (a name attested from 1835, Horsfield)[6] was likely derived from the Old English nicor, a creature-name found in Beowulf.[7] Yet the waters at the pool were badly muddied by a local antiquarian named Samuel Evershed, who from 1866 tried assiduously to connect the pool with dragons and thus with the tale of St. George and the Dragon. Any authentic water-sprite folklore the site may originally have had was thus trampled down by Evershed's enthusiastic inculcation of the local people in ideas about water-dragons.


"Näcken och Ägirs döttrar" by Nils Blommér (1850) depicts the Nixie with Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán from Norse mythology.

Näck, Nøkk

Näckens polska by Bror Hjorth


The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim, Swedish strömkarl,[8] is a related figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly "that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music".[9]









Where by the marishes boometh the bittern,
Neckar the soulless one sits with his ghittern.
Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless.
Waiting his destiny, – Neckar the soulless.[11]




In horse form


In Faroese, the word nykur refers specifically to a supernatural horse, described in one Faroese text thus:

The nykur dwells in water; at the bottom, down in the depths, he has his lair; from here he often goes onto land and it is not good to meet him.

Sometimes he is like a beautiful little horse which seems to be good and tame, and thus he lures people to draw near to him to pat him and stroke him along the back. But when they come to touch the tail, they become stuck fast to him and then he releases no-one, but he drags them with him to the bottom of the water.

Sometimes he encounters people in human form, as a handsome youth, to lure young women to himself, and promises them joy and gladness in his hall if they want to go along with him. But if they get a suspicion of who he is, when they are giving themselves away, such that they can call him by his true name — nykur — then he loses the power over them and must release them and go along into his waters.

It is said that the nykur can equally well change itself into the form of all quadrupedal animals, except that he does not know how to create the horn-points of a ram or a male lamb on himself.

But when he hasn't changed his form, he is like a horse, and it has come about that people gain power over him by carving a cross into his back and then they have been able to have him drag great stones by his tail down from the mountains to homesteads or houses. Some are still seen in Húsavík in Sandoy and on Eiði in Eysturoy and the big rocks that are gathered together there bear witness to how strong he is. At Takmýri in Sandoy, lies one huge rock, which they wanted to have him draw to Húsavík, but his tail broke here, and the stone remains there. One part of the nykur's tail, which was attached to the stone, is visible on it still.[13]

The equivalent term in Continental Scandinavian languages is bäckahäst or bækhest ('brook horse'). It has a close parallel in the Scottish kelpie, and the Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr.















In fiction

In the 2019 film Frozen II, Queen Elsa of Arendelle encounters and tames the Nøkk, the Water spirit who guards the sea to the mythical river Ahtohallan.[17]

The 2021 video game Valheim features Neck as a common type of enemy encountered near water. In contrast to their humanoid appearances in folklore, the Neck in Valheim are depicted as small, aggressive lizards.

In the 2021 novel Lone Wolf by Sam Hall, the main character, Paige, is a nix. The mythological version of the nix exists in the world as lore, but a nix is also a special female wolf shifter. She has greater powers and calls to all eligible bachelors, pitting them against each other and then taking the greatest of the fighters as her mates.

See also


  1. "Nix". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  2. The article Näcken, tome 20, p. 317, in Nordisk familjebok (1914)
  7. Dragons & Serpents In Sussex Archived 5 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Or strömkarl (singular), per Grimm 1835:17:11.
  9. "The Fairy Mythology: Scandinavia : The Power of the Harp". Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  12. Karlsson 1970:86
  13. "Nykurin býr í vøtnum, á botninum niðri í dýpinum hevur hann sítt tilhald, men haðan fer hann ofta á land, og honum er ikki gott at møta. Stundum er hann líkur einum vøkrum lítlum hesti, sum tykist at vera góður og spakur, og harvið lokkar hann fólk at nærkast til sín at klappa honum og strúka honum eftir baki. Men tá tey koma at nerta við halan, verða tey áføst við hann, og tá sleppur hann ongum, men dregur tey við sær til botns í vatninum. Stundum møtir hann fólki í manslíki sum ein prúður unglingi at lokka gentur við sær og lovar teimum gleði og gaman í síni høll, um tær vilja fylgja honum eftir. Men fáa tær illgruna um, hvør hann er, sum tær eru við at geva seg burtur til, so at tær fáa nevnt hann við rætta navni: "nykur", missir hann maktina yvir tær og má sleppa teimum og fara einsumallur í vatn sítt. Tað er sagt, at nykurin kann líkaleiðis umskapa seg líkan øllum ferføttum djórum, uttan stikulin av veðra- ella veðurlambshorni skal hann ikki kunna skapa á seg. Men rossi er hann líkur, tá ið hann ikki hevur broytt ham sín, og tað hevur borið monnum til at fáa vald yvir hann við at rista kross á baki á honum, og hava teir tá havt hann til at draga við halanum stórt grót oman úr fjøllum til gerðisgarðar ella hús, sum enn sæst í Húsavík í Sandoy og á Eiði í Eysturoy, og tað stóra grótið, ið har er saman komið, ber vitni um, hvussu sterkur hann er. Á Takmýrum í Sandoy liggur ein stórur klettur, sum teir vildu hava hann at draga til Húsavíkar, men har slitnaði halin, og steinurin stendur har. Ein partur av nykarhalanum, sum var áfastur við steinin, er sjónligur á honum enn." V. U. Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi (Copenhagen, 1891).
  14. Hellström 1985:16
  15. Grimm 1835:17:11.
  16. Grimm 1835:33:2.
  17. Allen, Ben. "Trolls, Nokks and Joik singing: the Nordic cultural artefacts that inspired Frozen 2". Retrieved 9 April 2020.


  • Riordan, Rick (2017). Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead