Feilberg made the fine point of distinction that tomte actually meant a planned building site (where as tun was the plot with a house already built on it), so that the Swedish tomtegubbe, Norwegian tuftekall, , etc. originally denoted the ("earth wights"). The thrust of Feilberg's argument considering the origins of the nisse was a combination of a nature spirit and an ancestral ghost (of the pioneer who cleared the land) guarding the family or particular plot. "2. Nisseskikkelsens Udspring [Origins of the nisse figure]", pp. 10–15. The nature spirits―i.e., tomtevætte ("site wights"), ("howe/mound dwellers"), "underground wights" (), or dwarves, or vætte of the forests―originally freely moved around Nature, occasionally staying for short or long periods at people's homes, and these transitioned into house-wights () that took up permanent residence at homes. In one tale, the sprite is called nisse but is encountered but by a tree stump (not in the house like a bona fide nisse), and this is given as an example of the folk-belief at its transitional stage. But there is also the aspect of the ghost of the pioneer who first cleared the land, generally abiding in the woods or heaths he cleared, or seeking a place at the family hearth, eventually thought to outright dwelling in the home, taking interest in the welfare of the homestead, its crops, and the family members.
Feilberg made the fine point of distinction that tomte actually meant a planned building site (where as tun was the plot with a house already built on it), so that the Swedish tomtegubbe, Norwegian tuftekall, , etc. originally denoted the ("earth wights"). The thrust of Feilberg's argument considering the origins of the nisse was a combination of a nature spirit and an ancestral ghost (of the pioneer who cleared the land) guarding the family or particular plot. "2. Nisseskikkelsens Udspring [Origins of the nisse figure]", pp. 10–15. The nature spirits―i.e., tomtevætte ("site wights"), ("howe/mound dwellers"), "underground wights" (), or dwarves, or vætte of the forests―originally freely moved around Nature, occasionally staying for short or long periods at people's homes, and these transitioned into house-wights () that took up permanent residence at homes. In one tale, the sprite is called nisse but is encountered but by a tree stump (not in the house like a bona fide nisse), and this is given as an example of the folk-belief at its transitional stage. But there is also the aspect of the ghost of the pioneer who first cleared the land, generally abiding in the woods or heaths he cleared, or seeking a place at the family hearth, eventually thought to outright dwelling in the home, taking interest in the welfare of the homestead, its crops, and the family members.