tomte

noun

1. A small human-like creature in Nordic folklore that lives on farmsteads and watches over their inhabitants.

   “In Sweden the Tomte is sometimes seen at noon, in summer, slowly and stealthily dragging a straw or an ear of corn. [...] Any one who treated the industrious Tomte with respect, and set store by the smallest straw, became rich, and neatness and regularity prevailed in his household.”