The jutal were a type of little people recorded by folklorist Thor Helgesson, included on a list of legendary creatures that Norwegian immigrants brought to Wisconsin. However, the description provided for the jutal was limited to saying that they were dwarves found on the tops of mountains, where the gigantic mountain trolls or bergtrolls could also be found. This makes the jutal the most enigmatic of Wisconsin’s gnome legends.

Furthering the mystery of the jutal is the fact that in the folklore of Norway itself, “jutal” or “jötunn” was a term used for the adversaries of the Æsir, or Norse gods. The jutal were typically associated with the winter and cold, and a number of them were gigantic in stature, which has led to many translators to refer to the entire race as being “ice giants.”  This seems to imply that somewhere in the process of coming to Wisconsin, that the legend of the jutal evolved from having a large stature into becoming a mountain dwarf, or perhaps the jutal legends were combined with other Norwegian dwarf legends, hybridizing the two.

The legends of the old Norse jötunn would also evolve into legends of trolls, with eventually many different types of trolls branching out from this further evolution. This makes the mountain-dwelling jutal an interesting counterpart to the mountain-dwelling bergtroll, as both legends can ultimately be traced to the same memetic source. However, over the course of human history, the legend branched, and both versions evolved, one becoming a mountain giant, the other becoming a mountain dwarf. Then, in the process of coming to Wisconsin, the two memetic descendants of the old Norse jötunn coincidentally became neighbors, coming to share the mountain tops with one another within the lore.