The Ghost of Leirubakki - An Icelandic Ghost Story

The Ghost of Leirubakki is an Icelandic ghost story about the ghosts of some shipwrecked sailors from Denmark haunting the coast of Iceland.

Nothing darker than the depth of the sea, nothing more cold than the north. The northern shores, the coldest, the darkest. This coldness is something so many ships, so many sailors must have experienced as the bottom of the ocean is now littered with the remains of the drowned ones. There is always the fear, even today of the depth of the ocean, especially on these treacherous waters.

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The story begins with a sinking ship near the coast of Iceland, but the haunting travelled with the unfortunate people that disturbed their graves. While the legend of the ghosts and the supernatural are treated just like that, a legend, a myth, the events surrounding it all true.

The Shipwreck on the Shore

sunset-boat-sea-ship-37730.jpeg old ships in a cloudy but still waters

A Danish ship named Gothenborg, sank in the 1700s. Luckily all the 170 people from the shipwreck survived and was rescued by the local people of Iceland. Remember that at this time, Iceland was a colony of Denmark, and there was often bad blood between the people.

And sadly, the problems of the survivors were far from done. Their ship was sunk and their supplies gone. The survivors had no possible way of getting home anytime soon as a whole cold ocean parted them from their home country. They had to rely on the kindness of the local farmers that lived there to keep them alive until they found a way to get back.

However, there was not enough food for them all as the country is weathered and not always so kind to its people. Some of the shipwrecked sailors ended with dying of starvation, among them the cook of the ship. A suffering that takes time.

The Ghosts Travels to Leirubakki

Here the legend mixes with the factual events. Almost a century later, two men came over the grave to the cook. Something must have happened, because the story goes, they rose him from the dead. The men ran over the cemetery, followed by the ghost. He started to haunt the one man and did so until his death. Even then the man moved to the place called Leirubakki the ghost wouldn’t leave him alone, further in to the country, further from his home, away from the coast. That is why today the ghost is called The Ghost of Leirubakki.

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It wasn’t as the ghost hurt the man or his family. But it stalked them wherever they went. This wasn’t a friendly ghost either as he acted out with some poltergeist activity as well. Some of the stories tells that the ghost ripped the roof of a barn one time. It is well known that he scared the horses all the time and claims of the ghost roaming the bare hills of Iceland still stands.

One thing is sure, the ghost never saw his home in Denmark ever again.