
This is Ernie. Ernie was bor in 371 AD. Santa was 91 years old by the time this mischievious elf came into the world.
He was born the 17th out of 22 children. His mother and father lived in what would become known as Lapland(Lappi), Finland which is right around the corner from the North Pole. His father Erno was a carpenter and his mother Elea was a baker. By the time Ernie was a young man there were no more jobs to be had as his 21 brothers and sisters had taken apprenticeship in every career in the village.
It was at this time that Ernie began his journey of finding his place in the world. He first travelled to the East but found that the Mongrols of that area were mean, angry and smelled like rotten fish. He decided to go in the complete opposite direction and travelled towards Scandia. While there he found that the Swedes were a little crazy and so very tall. Although he was told the Swedish girls were very beautiful he never got the chance to see anything other than their knees because he was barely 2 1/2 feet tall at that time. Again he travelled further West. This time he stopped in a fishing village and trade town called Trondheim. This was the perfect place he thought. Plenty of jobs, nice simple people, and beautiful buildings with colors he'd never seen before in his old dark dreary town.
Ernie soon found a job as an altmuligmann (handyman) in the bakeri. He spent most of his days fixing the building and learning to bake at night. The shop keeper loved his smile and the laughter was much needed for business. Over the years he built wooden carts for the eldre folk and small boats that he painted bright colors for the children to hand out as gifts. It was here that Ernie came across a man that came into Trondheim for supplies. He asked the baker about him and he said that his name was Nicholas and he came to town once a year and bought utstyr (supplies). He said that he lived in the North but not sure where exactly, he heard that it was under the Nordlys but probably he lived in Longyearbyen.
The next year when Nicholas came to town Ernie knew he had to speak with him to find out more about this strange man who wore bright red pants and laughed after every sentence he spoke. One day when Ernie was giving one of his boats to a small boy who was crying in the bakeri a deep, large voice asked "AND WHY DO YOU GIVE TOYS AWAY?" Ernie fell backwards, rolled and hopped up....then seeing it was Nicholas, said I like to make the barn (children) smile. Nicholas sat and talked with Ernie late into the next morgen. When he was about to go, he asked Ernie if he would like to come work for him in his workshop. After talking with the baker Ernie left with Nicholas to work in his shop in the Nord......