Hug (folklore)

In Scandinavian mythology, the hug is an individual's mental life, in some contrast to the soul, a term which carries more spiritual connotations. Scandinavian languages each have a separate word for the soul that is a cognate with "soul" in English. Hug is specifically the Norwegian spelling of the word; it is rendered in Danish as hu and in Swedish as håg.

The hug is no simple concept and shows great variation, with different accounts and characteristics given in the literature from medieval literature to more recent folklore. It is central to the conception of magic, and can influence animate and inanimate objects. The hug manifests itself externally in a variety of possible forms; that of witches, for instance, sometimes took the shape of a cat.