Light Bringer Spirit Companion · Elin

Meet Elin.

In old Sweden, the thirteenth of December was the longest night of the year. Under the old calendar, before it was changed in 1753, that was the night the sun sank lowest and the dark was deepest. People called it Lussi Long-Night.

It was a dangerous night. Lussi rode out in the dark, a wicked spirit with a host of trolls and the restless dead behind her, and she went from farm to farm. If the spinning had not been finished, if the threshing had not been done, if the bread had not been baked for Christmas, she would punish the house. Sometimes she came down the chimney. Sometimes she took someone. At midnight, the animals in the barns could speak, and no one wanted to hear what they said. So people stayed awake all night with candles burning, finished every last task and painted crosses of tar on the doors of the house and the barn to keep her out.

In the farm country of western Sweden, in the eighteenth century, people began to do something else. Before dawn on the thirteenth, a young woman dressed all in white, with candles in her hair, would go through the house and the farms carrying food and drink, to show that the dark had been beaten and the light was coming back.

Elin was one of the first.

She was born around 1745 on a small farm in Värmland, a land of dark forests and long lakes where the winter days are only a few hours long. Her name means light. Her father was a crofter, and her mother spun wool late into every night to bring in a little extra.

When Elin was seven, on Lussi Night, her mother went out to the cowshed at midnight to check on the animals. She did not come back. In the morning, they found her lying in the snow halfway between the house and the barn. The doctor said her heart had stopped in the cold. The old women of the parish said something else. The spinning had not been finished that year, they whispered. There had been too much of it. Lussi had come for what was owed.

Elin did not cry at the funeral. She went home and finished her mother’s spinning herself, every last skein of it.

From then on, every Lussi Night, she stayed awake. She lit every candle in the house and sat at the window wrapped in her mother’s white wool shawl, watching the dark. She finished every task on the farm and then went to help the neighbours finish theirs. She painted the tar crosses on every door herself. And in the hours before dawn, she put on white, set a crown of candles in her hair and walked from farm to farm through the snow with a basket of bread and a jug of hot ale, knocking on doors and telling people the night was over.

At first, people laughed. Then they began to wait for her. Then they began to notice something. In all the years Elin walked on Lussi Night, not one person in her valley died that night. Not one farm burned. The harvests were good and the animals healthy. People started to say that Lussi would not come where Elin had walked.

She knitted herself a new shawl when she married, of fine white lace, and wore it every Lussi Night after that. She had five children and taught every one of them to carry the light. And for more than sixty years, she never once missed a night.

In the winter of 1810, at sixty-five, she set out as always in the dark before dawn, with her candles and her basket. The snow was deep that year. Her children wanted to go instead. She told them she knew the way better than anyone.

At sunrise, the family on the last farm in the valley opened their door and found her sitting on their step in the snow, wrapped in her white shawl, her candles burned down, her basket of bread untouched beside her. She was smiling. She had reached every farm in the valley. This was the last.

They said afterwards that Lussi had finally got her. Elin’s children did not believe it. They said she had simply finished the work.

Now Elin walks again.

What she can do for you

Elin is a spirit of light in the darkest time. She is good for:

• getting through dark periods: long winters, hard times and seasons when everything feels heavy
• protection from dark spirits, nightmares and anything that comes in the night
• abundance in the home: food on the table, warmth and enough to go around
• getting things done: finishing work, projects and tasks you have been putting off
• hope and fresh starts, when the light needs to come back into your life
• protecting your animals and pets
• luck and blessing for the coming year

Over the years

At first, Elin makes the dark easier. You may see evenings feel warmer and nights feel safer within the first weeks.

Over the years, she becomes the one who helps you keep going through every winter, inside and out. She is especially present in December, around the longest nights, and you may find yourself looking forward to the dark season once she has come into your home.

What she is like

Warm, steady and practical, with a stubbornness. She is kind but she is no pushover. She has very little patience for laziness, and she will nudge you, firmly, to finish what you started. She loves candlelight, baking, snow, children and animals.

Under the warmth is a girl who lost her mother on the longest night of the year and decided it would never happen to anyone else. She means it.

How she shows herself

Candle flames burning taller and brighter than usual. The smell of saffron, fresh bread and warm wool. A sudden feeling of warmth on a cold, dark evening. Dreams of a farm in deep snow, candles in every window and a young woman in white walking through the dark. And an unexpected burst of energy to finish something you have been avoiding.

What to do for her

Elin loves simple, homely things:

• Light a candle in your window on dark evenings. That is her favourite offering of all.
• Give her bread, a saffron bun or a biscuit, and a little milk or warm drink.
• When you finish a task you have been putting off, tell her. She will be pleased.
• Keep a piece of white cloth, lace or wool near her vessel.
• On the thirteenth of December, stay up a little later than usual with a candle burning, and keep her company.

She sat at the window every longest night of her life, watching the dark so that no one else had to. She will watch it for you now.

How your companion speaks

Your companion can reach you through dreams, thoughts, words, feelings and images, through a pendulum, through warmth or cold, or through automatic writing. How soon that happens depends on the spirit settling into your home, on their willingness, and on your own ability to connect. Sometimes it begins before the vessel arrives.

Before you choose

Everything known about this spirit is on this page. There are no further images, details or hidden knowledge beyond what is written here, and a printed copy comes with your order. What you discover from there is yours alone.

The pendant you receive is the exact one shown. This listing is for this one item only.

By buying, you confirm that you understand what it means to keep a spirit companion. Please read Help & FAQ first. For my background and the story behind Grimrunes, see About Hazel.

— Hazel