sentences:  Belsnickel is related to other companions of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of German-speaking Europe.He may have been based on an older German myth, Knecht Ruprecht, a servant of Saint Nicholas and a character from northern Germany.Unlike those figures, Belsnickel does not accompany Saint Nicholas but instead visits alone and combines both the threatening and the benign aspects which in other traditions are divided between the Saint Nicholas and the companion figure.