Linoge is many characters throughout history
Likely beginning with either Woden or Hold Nickar, depending on which reincarnation story you buy dating all the way back to Saturn.
In more recent lore he is Woden/Odin of the sky and Wild Hunt fame who in Denmark's first history was banished for sorcery and tricking the Scandinavian peoples into believing him and his son Thor were Gods. Popping up againt as Hold Nickar (Old Nick) thought to also be Neptune and Poseidon, who all seem to be associated with control over oceans and flight. Hold Nickar became the largely undocumented "St. Nicholas of Myra", "patron saint of children" who the Catholics converted/remodeled temples in honor of, replacing those of Poseidon and Nickar. Old Europe Krampus postcards depict St. Nicholas with a helper or alter ego. This is artistic commentary on the duality of Nick and Krampus ("claws in High German) and actual suggestion that they are one and the same.
Some believe St. Nick was always Hold Nickar and that the Catholic Church tried to neutralize him (or his veneration) by making him a saint. After this or maybe even earlier on we see Nick in the form of Robin Goodfellow who charmed people with his magic flute, danced them to death or marched them off cliffs on occassion. Shakepeare adapted Robin Goodfellow to Puck perhaps from Joulupukki, who is the old Finnish version of Woden mixed with Santa Claus. Later on yet, we see this character as Nicholas of Cologne aka the Pied Piper of Hamelin who is said to have stolen over 30,000 children marching some to their death, some into slavery and a few escaping to tell similiar tales to that of Hamelin. Seemingly later on even yet, we see our ageless stranger as Knecht Ruprecht or (German: devilservant) and again(?) in Switzerland as The Kindlifresser. Actually some people believe The Kindlifresser is the god Cronos. Who strangely enough is mythologically also Saturn and Nimrod of Old Testament fame.
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