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The Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta and the Ghostly Plague

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After a common feud between two men, a ghost was created to torment the people on Hleiðrargarðs farm. Thus, the Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta and her legendary haunting started, some say it even escalated in her starting a plague, killing both cattle and men. 

Around 1740 to 1770 there lived in the northern part of Iceland, at Árgerð a farmer named Sigurður Björnsson. People thought of him as a sensible man, although, it is said that once, in early summer of 1764, he went west under the Glacier to trade fish and got into trouble of the ghostly kind. . 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

He met a certain man, often said to be Reverend Benedikt Pálsson in Miklagarðu, that he disagreed with about business and a quarrel arose between them, escalating into a fight. Sigurður was strong and forceful in his dealings, and he threw the other under him and gave him some blows. When the man stood up, he swore an oath against Sigurður and said he would repay him before the year was out before he left.

The Creation of The Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta

Since then they were great enemies and fought a fight no one was winning. Once Sigurður got the upper hand over the priest, and the priest took it very badly, and therefore once set out west to Hjarðarholt to visit his brother Gunnar. He was known as the most skilled in magic in the country at that time. Benedikt told him everything about his dealings with Sigurður Björnsson and asked for his aid. Gunnar promised him this, and after that Benedikt rode home. 

In the spring Sigurður moved to Hleiðrargarður, for he bore the priest’s oppression badly. That spring someone came to the priests window at Mikligarður and called the priest outside. Gunnar, his brother, had awakened a ghost three nights after she had died. She said he had signed her with the cross and given her the sacrament before she left home. She said she was 25 years old, but that it had been fated for her to live 100 years if all had gone as destined. She immediately asked him what she should do. He said: “Go to Hleiðrargarður and kill Sigurður Björnsson.”

Fylgur/Fylgja: The Old Norse Ghost

There were many different types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. One of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we can find traces back in Iceland since the 12th century. These were originally a ghost of a very physical substance that interacted with the real world as if they were a part of it still. 

Read Also: Check out the Irish Fetch ghost, that has a huge resemblance to the norse Fylgja. 

Fylgja attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. Perhaps because of its origin as a female spirit. 

Icelandic Ghosts and Ghouls: Fylgja or the draugr ghosts attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. // An illustration to the Icelandic legend of the Skeleton in Hólar Church (Beinagrindin í Hólakirkju). From Icelandic Legends : Collected by Jón Arnason, illustrated by Jules Worms.

In the Fylgjur stories from the middle ages, the spirits could be a beneficial one, almost like a messenger to help with the person’s path of life, some sort of totem animal or guiding spirit. But when the folklorist of Iceland started collecting old oral tales from farmers in the 17th century, the Fylgjur ghosts had drastically changed from its pagan old norse roots, throughout time, religious belief and superstition. 

One thing that really changed was the Fylgjur’s purpose of haunting the living, and it was rarely to be of any help. Many stories talk about how they were wronged and it caused their death. They then came back to take revenge and were dangerous, even deadly. 

Female Icelandic Ghosts

One of the popular names for the female ghosts was Skotta that really means to dangle, like hair or a tail. This comes from the traditional Icelandic headwear women wore together with the Faldbúningur dresses worn since the 17th century. Except the ghosts are said to have the headgear on backwards so it streams behind her like a tail. 

The Skotta Ghost: Icelandic woman in the 18th century faldbúningur with the spaðafaldur cap that the Skotta often are described wearing.

Skotta falls under the Old Norse Mythology of a Fylgja, that were supernatural spirits that followed or latched onto people. They could be animals, they could be goddesses or come in dreams. 

But the tales of the Fylga evolved and when we read about Skotta, they were not like totem animals or someone coming with your prophecy like in the old sagas. Icelandic ghosts are often described as being not like apparitions, but in real flesh that interacted with the living. And when we read about Skotta, the female version, she was highly dangerous and also deadly.

The Haunting of The Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta

At this time there lived at Krýnastadir, the next farm to Hleiðrargarður, a man named Hallur, called Hallur the Strong; he was second-sighted and had often seen ghosts and dealt with them. It is said that one evening in the autumn following the summer when Sigurður came back from the dried-fish journey, Hallur was standing outside in his farmyard. Then Hallur saw a ghost in the shape of a girl coming along the road; she was small of stature, in a red bodice and a brown skirt that only reached to her knees, with a tasselless cap and short clothing. When the girl saw Hallur, she meant to turn aside, but he stepped in her way and asked who she was. She said her name had been Sigríður Árnadóttir or Sigga. He asked where she came from and where she was going. She said: “To Hleiðrargarður.” “What are you to do there?” “To kill Sigurður Björnsson,” she said. In some versions Hallur struck her across the cheek so that she tumbled down. She then ran on her way, and sparks flew from her steps.

He was a man of great stature and very skilled in magic, but he was also a great enemy of his neighbor Sigurður. Hallur later said that Skotta would not have gone farther had he been a greater friend of Sigurður.

Hleiðargarður is the nearest farm to Sandhólar. One day, during a winter vigil at Sandhólar, a screen window was placed over the bed of an old woman who was in the bathroom. The old woman vaguely hears what is being said on the window and asks who is outside and she hears it said: “Sigga. Sigga” – and is asked at the same time: “Where is Hleiðargarður?” The old woman says that it is the next farm up the hill and then she takes the screen off so that she can see this Sigga. The moonlight was outside and the old woman saw that she was sitting by the window and was squinting at the moon.

That same evening Sigurður lay in his bed, and it so happened that there was a window above it. The other people in the sleeping-room were awake. Sigurður suddenly sprang to his feet and asked: “Who called me?” He was told that no one had called him. He lay down in his bed again and fell asleep, but sprang up again as soon as he had slept and said that surely someone had now called him. He was told again that it was not so. When he had lain a little while, people saw him look out the window and heard him say: “Ah! So that is how it is?” 

He went then to the door of the sleeping-room, lifted the open door with one hand, and turned himself aside at the doorway, and people heard him say loudly: “If there is anyone here who wishes to find Sigurður Björnsson, there he is,” and at the same time he pointed with his other hand at a foster-boy or shepard, Hjálmar, who was sitting and carding wool on the bench opposite the doorway. 

Immediately the boy was flung off the bench and onto the floor; he rolled about there with commotion and contortions as though he were being strangled. Then Sigurður demanded a whip and flogged the boy all around; then he calmed down a little and was laid up into bed again. His body seemed then swollen and bruised; he suffered such fits three or four times that night, and gradually from then on until early in the winter, when in one such fit the boy died. His corpse seemed greatly swollen and bloated, with plainly visible black finger-marks of the ghost.

After this the ghost followed Sigurður and his children and even all the people of Hleiðrargarður. She liked to walk around Hleiðarður with lighted torches looking for him, but for some years Sigurður avoided her. But he was never with the common people after she came to him. He was often seen in the summers alone walking around the field.

Often second-sighted men saw this girl who was called the Hleiðrargarð-Skotta, named after her cap from which the tail stood up from her head. She was most often seen peering up over some beam, especially in people’s doorways, and a cat was said to flee there at the same time. Sigurður always defended himself against her, but she killed his livestock little by little. Even the sheep at neighboring farms were taken and were so bruised and blue and entirely unfit to eat. She was credited with killing one man, Sigurður of Nes, a good farmer; he fell into epilepsy and died of it.

Binding the Skotta

When her violence began to grow so fierce, a beggar from under the Glacier came into the district, named Pétur and commonly called Glacier-Pétur. He was very skilled in sorcery, but always used his art well. Pétur said he would help him against this devil, and one night he went away, took the ghost with him, and bound it to a great earth-fast stone in a place between Strjúgsá and Vallir in Saurbær parish, which is called Varmhagi. There the ghost could do no harm for a long time, but its wailing was often heard at night, and men could not go near the place; they would then be struck with nausea, dizziness, and confusion, even in bright daylight. This was said to have been the beginning of the plague in Eyjafjörður. 

There is also a version that tells that a certain Jón in Kræklingahlíð promised to bind Skotta if he would marry Sigurður’s daughter. Sigurður promised so, and Skotta was bound in Varmhagi. In Varmhagi there were two grazing houses, one from Saurbær and the other from Háls. While Skotta was bound, cattle were killed in the grazing houses one after the other until everything was dead. 

Men say that Sigurður did not fulfill his promise to Jón, and therefore Jón loosened Skotta again. Others say that her bonds must have come loose of themselves, but some say that she is still bound as at first when Jón or Pétur bound her.

Between the years 1806 and 1810 the priest in Saurbær, named Reverend Sigurður, built a sheep-house not far from this place, for the grazing there was good. The first night sheep were housed in this building, one ewe was killed, and more afterward; people found on the sheep the same appearance and signs as on those that the ghost had previously harmed, and so they began to think that its bonds had begun to loosen. But whatever the case, sickness and death in the sheep began to spread gradually throughout Eyjafjörður, and it was called a plague, but for a long time now it has been instilled in people that it cannot have been caused by the ghost.

It is said that once a shepherd-girl from Háls went searching for sheep. She did not come home as usual. A search was made for her, and she was at last found up in the mountains. She was then all blue and bloody, but still alive. She was asked how she had been treated. She said that a woman had led her there. She described this woman so that all knew it was Skotta. Afterwards she died.

Skotta Catches Sigurður

It is said by some that Sigurður kept a covering over himself so that Skotta did not recognize him. Once he was in the trading town and was on his way home again. Someone then called him by his full name. Skotta was present and heard it. She then leapt onto the horse behind him and broke his back. Some say that Sigurður thus lost his life.

It is said that she follows the family of Hleiðrargarður, and some believe they still see her, but she is said to have greatly faded. Some say that ghosts grow in power during the first third of their lifetime, remain steady in the second, and fade in the third, and then die away when they have reached a hundred or 120 years. So perhaps they are finally free from her now?

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References:

Ísmús | Missagnir og viðaukar um Hleiðrargarðsskottu

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta – Wikiheimild

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Missagnir og viðaukar um Hleiðrargarðs-Skottu – Wikiheimild

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Hleiðargarðs-Sigga – Wikiheimild

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The Ghosts of the Britannia Adelphi Hotel: Shadows in Liverpool

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The current Britannia Adelphi Hotel is the third building here used as a hotel, and filled with ghosts according to rumours. From the dark basement to the haunted suites in the upper floors, this Liverpool hotel is often dubbed Britain’s most haunted one. 

In the center of Liverpool stands a grand and opulent hotel whose luxury hides a darker history. The Britannia Adelphi Hotel, once hailed as the most elegant hotel outside of London, has long been a magnet for both travelers and the supernatural. 

Behind the crystal chandeliers and marble halls lurk whispers of ghostly figures, disembodied voices and strange tapping noises from the walls, and something much more sinister said to dwell on the third floor. Guests have checked in expecting a night of comfort only to find themselves face-to-face with the unknown.

A History of Grandeur and Ghosts

A hotel has occupied this site since 1826, when it first replaced Ranaleigh Gardens, one of Liverpool’s earliest public recreation spaces. The original building gave way to a second hotel fifty years later, which was purchased by Midland Railway in 1892. By 1911, the current Adelphi Hotel replaced the old ones. When it opened its doors, it quickly became a symbol of wealth and sophistication, welcoming guests from across the world.

Famous figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Laurel and Hardy once graced its rooms. Even Roy Rogers brought his beloved horse, Trigger, to stay within its walls. Yet despite its polished surface, the Adelphi has always seemed to carry something restless beneath its grandeur, as though the echoes of its past refuse to fade.

The Haunted Adelphi Hotel

According to the stories, Adelphi is haunted because of the many deaths and suicides that have taken place here since it opened. 

Read More: Check out more haunted hotels around the world

There are plenty of ghosts believed to haunt the hotel. One of them being a bellboy, 15 year old Raymond Brown, who was trapped in the baggage lift and died in 1961. He can now be seen picking up guests’ bags and carrying their luggage before he disappears around a corner or slips into the shadows. 

In the elevators there is a whistler who is breathing down people’s necks and tapping them on the shoulder. A female ghost who is pickpocketing the guests, rifling through their belongings in the early morning, vanishes when she is caught.

In the basement it is said that a lady wearing Victorian clothing is haunting. Among the many tales, one rumor stands out—accounts of a demon that prowls the upper corridors, growling and whispering in a voice not of this world.

The Haunted Third Floor

The most haunted floor in the hotel is said to be the third floor. This is according to the staff. There have been several reports about people getting sick when staying there for too long, and people also claim to have seen shadows and ghostly figures at the end of their beds. 

It is said that this shadow is the ghost of a man known only as George in a tuxedo and a toothbrush mustache. He is said to stand silently by people’s bed, his expression unreadable, before fading away into the shadows. 

Some believe it is the ghost of a man who took his own life inside the hotel in the 1930s. It is said that he died in the elevator in the hotel or fell to his death. He is also said to call out to people from a particular window on the Brownlow Hill side of the hotel.

The Haunting of the Titanic Crew in The Sefton Suite

It is said that The Sefton Suite in the hotel is an exact replica of the first-class smoking room on the ship. It has later been disproven by the hotel itself. But this myth is perhaps the reason people think that Captain Edward Smith, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, is haunting this hotel. 

A paranormal researcher and author Tom Slemen claims to have witnessed three men haunting the room, saying it was Smith together with two other naval officers who also went down with the ship.

“During one talk, there was standing room only, and I and many other people saw three men standing at the far end of the room who were dressed as naval officers with white caps and dark jackets with all the braiding. The middle officer, who looked about sixty, had a white beard and stood about 5 feet 7 or 8, and the trio were there one moment then gone the next, and there were gasps of shock when this trinity of ghosts vanished.” Source

 It is also said that a woman in a grey Victorian dress is haunting it. 

The Living and the Dead

Today, the Adelphi Hotel continues to welcome guests into its 402 rooms, each richly decorated with touches of old-world charm. Visitors can enjoy fine dining beneath sparkling chandeliers, relax in the sauna and marble swimming pool, or sip a quiet drink in the bar. Yet as night falls, and the last lights dim, the grandeur takes on a different tone. The laughter from the dining halls fades, replaced by faint whispers down long corridors and the creak of unseen footsteps.

For some, the Adelphi is a place of elegance and nostalgia. For others, it is a labyrinth of shadows and memories that refuse to die. Whether George’s ghost still stands watch or something far darker prowls the third floor, one thing is certain—those who stay at the Britannia Adelphi Hotel never quite leave as they arrived.

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  • The Ghosts of the Britannia Adelphi Hotel: Shadows in Liverpool
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  • The Haunting of the Frick Stairs: Bern’s Processions of Death and Ghosts of Murderesses
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References:

The Haunted Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool

Cumbrian ghost hunter Louis Dee explores Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel | News and Star

The Eerie Legends of Adelphi Hotel Liverpool – DeadLive Events

Spookiest things to have ever happened at The Adelphi Hotel – Liverpool Echo

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The Skotta of Ábær From the Bone

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Hidden away in a bone for years, the ghost and Skotta of Ábær was sent on a mission to harass a farmer in northern Iceland. However, they lost control of her, and have since been haunting them all. 

On the eastern bank of the glacial river Austari-Jökulsá, north in Iceland an abandoned farm sits with a haunted story that stretches much further back in time and across the northern part of the country. For a long time, the Áabær farm, meaning the farm between rivers, was the location of a Skotta ghost, and because it was a very known ghost story at the time, the origins also have a lot of different versions. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

But to get back to where it all started, we have to travel to Skagafjörður to the time when the ghost was called both The Árbær or Nýibær Skotta, depending on what version of the story you get. 

The Nýibær Skotta Origin

Ólafur was the name of a farmer who lived at Tinnársel in Austurdalur in Skagafjörður; he was considered versed in sorcery. Once he was traveling in Svartárdalur in Húnavatnssýsla and came to Bergsstaðir at night, and as he rode past the churchyard, he happened to look in and saw a man wrestling with a newly-raised ghost. 

The ghost was just about to overpower him. Then Ólafur called out to the man: “Bite her in the left breast, you cursed one.” Ólafur rode on his way, and it is said that the man used this advice and it worked. But the man conceived envious hatred toward Ólafur for knowing better, and it is said he at once raised the ghost and sent it against Ólafur. Ólafur, however, was prepared with his sorcery and forced the ghost down into a horse or sheep bone, put it in a chest, and kept it there for the rest of his life. But just before his death, he asked his daughter Guðbjörg to burn the bone after he had passed away, but to be careful not to remove the stopper unless she was in dire need. 

Fylgur/Fylgja: The Old Norse Ghost

There were many different types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. One of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we can find traces back in Iceland since the 12th century. These were originally a ghost of a very physical substance that interacted with the real world as if they were a part of it still. 

Read Also: Check out the Irish Fetch ghost, that has a huge resemblance to the norse Fylgja. 

Fylgja attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. Perhaps because of its origin as a female spirit. 

Icelandic Ghosts and Ghouls: Fylgja or the draugr ghosts attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. // An illustration to the Icelandic legend of the Skeleton in Hólar Church (Beinagrindin í Hólakirkju). From Icelandic Legends : Collected by Jón Arnason, illustrated by Jules Worms.

In the Fylgjur stories from the middle ages, the spirits could be a beneficial one, almost like a messenger to help with the person’s path of life, some sort of totem animal or guiding spirit. But when the folklorist of Iceland started collecting old oral tales from farmers in the 17th century, the Fylgjur ghosts had drastically changed from its pagan old norse roots, throughout time, religious belief and superstition. 

One thing that really changed was the Fylgjur’s purpose of haunting the living, and it was rarely to be of any help. Many stories talk about how they were wronged and it caused their death. They then came back to take revenge and were dangerous, even deadly. 

Female Icelandic Ghosts

One of the popular names for the female ghosts was Skotta that really means to dangle, like hair or a tail. This comes from the traditional Icelandic headwear women wore together with the Faldbúningur dresses worn since the 17th century. Except the ghosts are said to have the headgear on backwards so it streams behind her like a tail. 

The Skotta Ghost: Icelandic woman in the 18th century faldbúningur with the spaðafaldur cap that the Skotta often are described wearing.

Skotta falls under the Old Norse Mythology of a Fylgja, that were supernatural spirits that followed or latched onto people. They could be animals, they could be goddesses or come in dreams. 

But the tales of the Fylga evolved and when we read about Skotta, they were not like totem animals or someone coming with your prophecy like in the old sagas. Icelandic ghosts are often described as being not like apparitions, but in real flesh that interacted with the living. And when we read about Skotta, the female version, she was highly dangerous and also deadly.

The Different Variations of the Legend

Now, as most legends that are well known and old, there will be different variations on it. In this case, it’s mainly the names and relations that are jumbled up. Someone says that Ólafur was actually a man called Jón who lived at Ábær and had a daughter named Guðbjörg. In other versions, Jón was Guðbjörg’s husband. In some versions, her husband was called Eiríkur.

At that time there was a farmer at Tinnársel or Nýibær named Sigurður or Guðmundur. He was rather harsh and wanted to keep Ábær’s livestock from grazing there. The couple at Ábær wished to drive Sigurður away, but it did not succeed. Then it came into Guðbjörg’s mind that now would be the time to open the bone. She pulled out the plug, and smoke burst forth from it. Then she saw a fly or smoke fly out of it and immediately changed into the form of a woman, who asked what she should do.

The Skotta is described as being the size of a twelve-year-old girl, though sometimes she has appeared troll-like. She wears a brown homespun skirt and a black wool sweater; sometimes she has been seen in a sheepskin jacket or clothes and with a brown peaked cap without a tassel.

The Haunting of The Skotta of Ábær

When Guðbjörg conjured the ghost that her father had left her, she ordered her at once to go and drive Sigurður away from his farm. In some versions she actually tells the ghost to go kill him. 

The ghost-woman went immediately and tormented Sigurður so severely that he had to sleep at other farms, for he said he had no peace to sleep at home because of the devil who pursued him. He managed to defend himself from her killing him, but she left him half-crippled. The following spring Sigurður abandoned the cottage because of this misfortune. 

But when Skotta had finished her mission, she returned home to Guðbjörg and asked where she should now go. Guðbjörg was then at a loss for what to say, and so the Skotta began to torment her, and it ended with Guðbjörg becoming insane. Madness has ever since run strongly in her family, and one woman closely related to her, possibly her daughter, Guðrún who killed herself by cutting her own throat.

Many stories were told about the Skotta and still are, of her mischief; she kills both sheep and cattle at Merkigil and elsewhere. Sometimes she is seen climbing up among the beams of the baðstofa and hanging there at night. Once she was seen sitting on a dung heap, throwing manure clods, while Jón and Guðbjörg’s bull was in the cowshed. Once men went to fetch a breeding bull at Miklabær, but just before they came, a heifer in the cowshed let out a terrible bellow and dropped dead. The priest, Reverend J. J., who was there, refused to let them have the bull, saying they had poor spirit-following since the Skotta was with them.

After Guðmundur the farmer had moved away from Nýibær to Krákugerði, he once rode out on Uppsalamýrar at dusk. Before he realized it, it was as if his horse’s legs were swept from under it, and Guðmundur was thrown off and broke his leg. When he stood up again, he saw the Skotta hopping across the moor and disappearing behind a hill.

Once Páll the shepherd fell asleep in the sheep-house at Merkigil, in the place called Miðhús. As he was drifting off, the Skotta came and tried to strangle him, but he woke up, and then she vanished.

When Hjálmar the farmer lived at Nýibær (some say at Bólu), he once came upon the Skotta as she was killing a sheep. He drove her out beyond the Tinná river, and she has never managed to cross it again, for Hjálmar was considered resolute.

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Ábæjar-Skotta – Wikiheimild

Ábær – Wikipedia

Ísmús | Þorgeir reið frá einvíginu og var sár

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Árbæjar- eða Nýjabæjar-Skotta – Wikiheimild

Ísmús | Rímur af Fertram og Plató

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Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen Haunting the Old Town in Bern

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Said to be unhappy with the fate of the city he once led, the ghost of Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen is said to be haunting the old city in Bern, around the Nydegg Church where his monument is placed. 

On the eastern edge of Bern’s historic Old Town, where the cobblestones whisper with age and the fog from the Aare River creeps through alleys at dusk, stands Nydegg Church, a place of prayer, peace, and if we are to believe the rumours, a paranormal mystery as well. 

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Built on the ruins of the once-mighty Nydegg Castle, which belonged to Bern’s founder, Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen, the church and its surrounding streets are thick with centuries of buried secrets, and the shadows of those who refuse to rest.

Nydegg Area: A panoramic view of Bern, showcasing the Nydegg Church and the Aare River, steeped in history and ghostly legends where the old Nydegg Castle used to be.

A Ghostly Legacy of Power and Loss

Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen, who ruled from 1186 until his death in 1218, was the last of his line. His dynasty, which had shaped the early contours of Bern, vanished with him, and with it came a fracture in the balance of power. After Berchtold’s death, Nydegg Castle was eventually demolished to prevent rival claims. Where the stronghold once stood, Nydegg Church rose in its place, an act that seemed to silence the stones but not the souls once bound to them.

The Zähringen monument: Duke Berthold V. of Zähringen (Berchtold V. of Zähringen), born ~1160, died 1218, as pictured at the Zähringerbrunnen (Zähringer fountain) in Bern, Switzerland. // Source

Today, the Zähringer Monument stands quietly in the Nydegghöfli, just beside the Nydegg Church, honoring the man who once laid Bern’s first stones. But local lore says that the duke is not content to remain a statue. On cold nights, when the air grows thin and the fog presses against the old façades, Berchtold V is said to step down from his pedestal. Clad in medieval finery, his ghost walks solemnly down Kreuzgasse below, the narrow alley connecting Kramgasse with the Cathedral and Town Hall. There he is seen observing the city he founded with a grim, disapproving air, unhappy about how things turned out.

Beneath the Church, Beneath the Streets

The hauntings around this particular church aren’t limited to Berchtold V. Beneath Nydegg Church, tunnels that once connected the castle and various monastic buildings still snake under the city. Local historian Erismann notes that strange noises are sometimes heard echoing up from these ancient corridors like whispers, the clanking of armor, and footsteps pacing when no one is there. 

Read More: The Haunted Underground of Bern

These underground paths, long sealed off to the public, are believed to hold memories too restless to fade.

Ruins of a Castle: Not much remains from the old castle. Landing gate of Nydegg Castle in Bern, around 1300. // Source.

The Dancing Beguines

Another ghost story from this area is the Christmas haunting of the Beguines. At Christmas time those with the sight can see seven tiny lights dancing across the gently flowing waters of the Aare River. They rise and fall, darting around each other, trying to catch each other, and then dance in a circle. This game lasts for some time until the clock tower of Nydegg Church strikes midnight. A twitch runs through the tiny flames. Then a loud, painful sigh. The second strike – and the lights are gone.

Read More: Check out Ghosts of the Holy Season: The Christmas Hauntings of Bern

These are Beguines, according to popular belief, who were placed against their will in the monastery at Klösterlistutz at a young age. If they were really Beguines is uncertain though, as Beguines were unofficial and had a rule that you could leave anytime you wanted. But there were plenty of women sent to convents throughout the years. During the holy season, they are granted a few moments to atone for their stolen youth. And they do this with their dance above the murmuring waves in the moonlight.

So if you find yourself near Nydegg Church after dark, walk softly. And if you catch a glimpse of a tall figure in noble garb watching you from the misty alley, don’t meet his eyes. The duke sees much. And he remembers everything.

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References:

Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch

Kreuzgasse (Bern) – Wikipedia 

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11833/tanzende-beginen

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Munkholmen: Trondheim’s Island of Chains, Prayers, and Restless Dead

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The little island Munkholmen outside of Trondheim in Norway has had many haunted rumors for a long time. From an old Viking execution place to a state prison, who is still lingering there in their afterlife?

Rising quietly from the waters of the Trondheim Fjord, Munkholmen appears peaceful by day. Tour boats glide past its rounded shores, seabirds cry overhead, and the island seems little more than a picturesque landmark. But beneath this calm surface lies one of Norway’s darkest historical sites, a place shaped by execution, imprisonment, and spiritual isolation. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

For centuries, Munkholmen has carried a reputation as a haunted island where the past has never fully loosened its grip.

From Holy Ground to Place of Execution

Munkholmen’s troubled history began long before its stone walls were raised. In the early Middle Ages, the island served as a site of executions. Criminals and enemies of the crown were brought across the water and put to death, their bodies often left exposed as a warning to others on spikes. It is said that Olav Tryggvason had the heads of Earl Håkon and the slave Kark impaled here in the year 995.

Read More: Check out The Most Haunted Places on Mackinac Island in Michigan, Isla de Pedrosa – the Haunted Islandand The Haunting History of Spike Island for more ghost stories from haunted islands around the world.

Later, a Benedictine monastery Nidarholm Mariakloster was established on the island, giving Munkholmen its name as the country’s oldest monastery. The monks came seeking solitude and devotion, but even prayer could not erase the island’s grim legacy. Fires repeatedly destroyed the monastery, and many believed the land itself was cursed, soaked in blood long before the first chapel stone was laid.

The Prison Island

Munkholmen’s darkest chapter began in the 17th century, when it was transformed into a state prison and fortress. Political prisoners and criminals. Some were kept in damp underground cells where daylight never reached. Others were chained in small stone chambers, listening to the waves crash endlessly against the walls.

One of the most infamous prisoners was Count Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld, once the most powerful man in Denmark-Norway. Under Christian V he became the king’s foremost advisor and by far the de facto ruler of Denmark-Norway.

Peder Griffenfeld:Peder Griffenfeld (1635–1699) (original name Peder Schumacher ) was a Danish count and statesman, who was Chancellor of the Crown from 1673. He spent 18 years on the island in solitude and is believed to be haunting it.

Griffenfeld failed in his efforts to prevent war, and in 1675 Denmark-Norway entered into armed conflict with Sweden, the Scanian War . Various negotiations surrounding the beginning of the war and his friendliness to the French contributed to his being accused of treason and lèse-majesté .

After falling from royal favor, he was imprisoned on Munkholmen for nearly two decades. He spent his time reading, teaching children and writing small religious writings. After this, he was moved to Trondheim city, where he lived under guard for the last time, and died the following year.

Victor Hugo published the novel The Prisoner on Munkholmen in 1831 about Griffenfeld’s time in prison. Visitors and guards later claimed that his spirit never left, pacing unseen corridors long after his death.

Many prisoners died on the island from disease, exposure, or despair. Their bodies were buried nearby or cast into the sea. Over time, stories spread of anguished voices heard at night, echoing from empty cells and sealed passageways.

Ghostly Sightings and Unexplained Phenomena

Reports of hauntings on Munkholmen date back hundreds of years. Guards once spoke of shadowy figures moving along the fortress walls after sunset, disappearing when approached. Others described the sound of chains dragging across stone, even though no prisoners remained.

Some report sudden drops in temperature inside the fortress, accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of dread. Doors have been heard slamming shut on calm days, and footsteps echo where no one stands.

The story was popularized once again when the papers started to publish a picture, claiming to show the ghost roaming the island in 2008. 

Source: Tommy Skog

Tommy Skog and his son were visiting the island and was taking pictures of the prison towers where an oval hole in the wall on the first floor caught his attention. When looking at the picture, he was certain he had taken a picture of the ghost of a man, sitting in the opening. 

An Island That Never Truly Sleeps

Today, Munkholmen is a popular destination in summer, but its darker reputation persists. Locals often say the island feels different once the last boat departs and silence returns. As dusk settles, the fortress seems to watch the fjord, its thick walls holding centuries of suffering within.

Whether haunted by monks, prisoners, or those executed long before history was written down, Munkholmen remains a place where the past feels uncomfortably close. The sea may surround it, but it has never truly washed the island clean. 

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References:

Ser du spøkelset? – adressa.no

Peder Griffenfeld

Munkholmen

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The Curse of the Hítardals-Skotta

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After old friends clash after falling out, a curse is put upon the other. For generations, the Hítardals-Skotta is said to have haunted their family and village, sometimes even said to be behind their deaths. 

Once there was a priest in Hítardal called Vigfús Jónsson, the one behind the first Icelandic children’s book in the 18th century. This is a valley west of Iceland and there is a priest residence there with the same name. Hítardalur became a vicarage and was considered one of the best in the country. Many prominent priests served there, some of whom were well-known scholars. The town of Hítardalur is known for being the site of the deadliest fire in Icelandic history on 30 September 1148 where more than 70 people perished. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

One time, one of his closest friends from his schooldays who also worked as a priest somewhere east was accused of a crime and disrobed at the Althing parliament. It isn’t really said what kind of crime it was. 

Source

Vigfús was present in the courtroom and watched his friend be sentenced and in the end he attacked his former friend. Perhaps he was drunk, or just upset about the crimes of the friend he thought he knew. He grabbed his sleeve and the friend also became angry. 

He said: You, who was supposed to be my friend, were the first to grab my robe. You might be regarded just as well as me in the near future. 

With these words, he cursed his old friend and a Skotta was sent on his behalf as a vengeful spirit to haunt him and his family.  

Fylgur/Fylgja: The Old Norse Ghost

There were many different types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. One of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we can find traces back in Iceland since the 12th century. These were originally a ghost of a very physical substance that interacted with the real world as if they were a part of it still. 

Read Also: Check out the Irish Fetch ghost, that has a huge resemblance to the norse Fylgja. 

Fylgja attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. Perhaps because of its origin as a female spirit. 

Icelandic Ghosts and Ghouls: Fylgja or the draugr ghosts attached themselves to people that they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings or even entire towns. Many stories also talk about it being a generational haunting where the ghost decides to haunt all of the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. // An illustration to the Icelandic legend of the Skeleton in Hólar Church (Beinagrindin í Hólakirkju). From Icelandic Legends : Collected by Jón Arnason, illustrated by Jules Worms.

In the Fylgjur stories from the middle ages, the spirits could be a beneficial one, almost like a messenger to help with the person’s path of life, some sort of totem animal or guiding spirit. But when the folklorist of Iceland started collecting old oral tales from farmers in the 17th century, the Fylgjur ghosts had drastically changed from its pagan old norse roots, throughout time, religious belief and superstition. 

One thing that really changed was the Fylgjur’s purpose of haunting the living, and it was rarely to be of any help. Many stories talk about how they were wronged and it caused their death. They then came back to take revenge and were dangerous, even deadly. 

The Haunting Begins

After this it went all downhill for Reverend Vigfúsi who ended up not taking care of his children as they were promised to die young because of the ghost haunting them. Together with his wife,  Katrin Thordardottir, they had at least five sons and a daughter. One by one they died at the hands of the curse, materializing as a female figure with a spear on her head and a hook looking at them as they died.

This caused Reverend Vigfús and his wife a lot of grief, but nothing could be done about it as the ghost they named Skotta harmed both men and beast in Hítardal where she followed the people of the village with bright lights and ill intentions.

Female Icelandic Ghosts

One of the popular names for the female ghosts was Skotta that really means to dangle, like hair or a tail. This comes from the traditional Icelandic headwear women wore together with the Faldbúningur dresses worn since the 17th century. Except the ghosts are said to have the headgear on backwards so it streams behind her like a tail. 

The Skotta Ghost: Icelandic woman in the 18th century faldbúningur with the spaðafaldur cap that the Skotta often are described wearing.

Skotta falls under the Old Norse Mythology of a Fylgja, that were supernatural spirits that followed or latched onto people. They could be animals, they could be goddesses or come in dreams. 

But the tales of the Fylga evolved and when we read about Skotta, they were not like totem animals or someone coming with your prophecy like in the old sagas. Icelandic ghosts are often described as being not like apparitions, but in real flesh that interacted with the living. And when we read about Skotta, the female version, she was highly dangerous and also deadly.

People Chosen to be Haunted

In Reverend Vigfús’s home they had a son named Eiríkur. He grew up and never had Skotta with him and it was never noticed that Skotta followed him or any of his descendants

Eiríkur later became a clergyman at Reykholt and seemed to have been at peace. But Hítardal and the home of the priests seemed to be forever haunted. After Reverend Vigfús Jónsson’s death at 69 on 2. January in 1776, the ghost followed the place throughout time of the next tenants like Reverend Halldór and Reverend Björn, and then Reverend Björn’s sons, Ólafi in Ferjukot and Reverend Benedikt 

Especially the farmer Hannes at Hamrend in Miðdálar seems like he was particularly bothered by the ghost. Hannes was suffering from a terrible illness for a long time, which led to his death, and the Scots were supposed to have played various pranks on him. Then when Hannes died, blaming the ghost, his brothers were invited, but they left immediately and the funeral was outside, mostly at the urging of Ólaf’s wife Sigríða. 

As the funeral procession for Hannes happened, there was a worker in Hamraendi at the time called Þórhalli. He suddenly felt that his hand was being taken, and this was accompanied by such a strangeness that he became very uncomfortable and ill. From then on it seems that Þórhalli didn’t fare well, although when the first written stories about this ghost were collected, he was still alive. It seems that by then, she is starting to fade and that she has almost nothing to wear.

The Ghosts Teams Up

Once both names, Hítardals-Skotta and Hvítárvalla-Skotta, came together at a wedding. One of the invitees who was there saw that they took the food from the plates of the guests during the party without them being aware. But because the man had something with him, he wounded them both outside the door and left them standing there and you could see, but none of the few dishes were finished, and on top of that he made them spit in front of each other for mockery and laughter in front of the guests. to others. In the second time, they fought names for tricks, but it is not mentioned how that game ended.

Read also: Hvítárvellir-Skotta comes to Haunt a Family for over 120 Years

The Last Story from Hítardals-Skotta

Another live witness to this story when it first was written down was from a Margrét in Selárdal. Apparently, when you ride south from Hítardal over the so-called Bjúg, you go right by the meadows in Selárdal. Now it so happens that when one rides south from Hítardalur over the so-called Bjúgur, one passes right by the meadows in Selárdal.

One summer Benedikt, as so often before, was mowing the meadows with his people, while the livestock grazed just in front. Then he says: “Now soon someone will be coming from Hítardalur,”—something he had often been in the habit of predicting, and it had always come to pass. Immediately after he says: “I wish that she, that wretch over there, wouldn’t kill my sheep,” and at that very moment he flings away the scythe, and the sheep are startled, with one ewe leaping into the air. Benedikt runs to the river and drowns her in the stream that flows nearby, and then mutters a little over her. Did he finish the ghost off? Or perhaps she is still roaming the rugged hillsides and wanders along the windy shores?

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    Hidden away in a bone for years, the ghost and Skotta of Ábær was sent on a mission to harass a farmer in northern Iceland. However, they lost control of her, and have since been haunting them all.
  • Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen Haunting the Old Town in Bern
    Said to be unhappy with the fate of the city he once led, the ghost of Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen is said to be haunting the old city in Bern, around the Nydegg Church where his monument is placed.
  • Munkholmen: Trondheim’s Island of Chains, Prayers, and Restless Dead
    The little island Munkholmen outside of Trondheim in Norway has had many haunted rumors for a long time. From an old Viking execution place to a state prison, who is still lingering there in their afterlife?
  • The Curse of the Hítardals-Skotta
    After old friends clash after falling out, a curse is put upon the other. For generations, the Hítardals-Skotta is said to have haunted their family and village, sometimes even said to be behind their deaths.
  • The Haunted Underground of Bern
    Have you ever noticed the underground world of the old town in Bern? Now fancy cafes and shops, there are also tales of secret passageways, hideouts and ghosts beneath the cobbled stoned city.
  • The Ghost From the Mounds of Finnbogastaðir
    Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd came back from the dead as a Draugr or perhaps a Haugbúi ghost to haunt the people living at Finnbogastaðir farm.
  • Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern
    Around the terrifying statue of the Kindlifressenbrunnen devouring children, young ghosts are said to haunt like a misty night. Said to be the unwanted babies taken out of the city through the underground tunnels, they return to the scene of the crime.
  • The Ghost of the Deep: The Legend of Blåmannen at Blaafarveværket
    The haunting of the Blue man, or Blåmannen at the cobalt mine, Blaafarveværket in Norway has been told for ages now. What truly lies inside the darkness of the mines?
  • Móhúsa-Skotta and her Haunting Companions in the Cold Winter Nights
    After dying a cold winter night, a young girl died and rose as the terrifying ghost now known as Móhúsa-Skotta. Together with her companions she was said to be behind terrible accidents, and even deaths.
  • The Haunting of the Frick Stairs: Bern’s Processions of Death and Ghosts of Murderesses
    There is not a single ghost story about the Frick Stairs in Bern, there is a plethora. Tales of women murdering their children and horrible funeral processions that left the spectators in shock is said to have walked up and down the steps for centuries.

References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Hítardals-Skotta – Wikiheimild

Bryan—Icelandic Fylgjur Tales and a Possible Old Norse Context

Rev Vigfus Jonsson (1706–1776) • FamilySearch

Ukategorisert

The Haunted Underground of Bern

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Have you ever noticed the underground world of the old town in Bern? Now fancy cafes and shops, there are also tales of secret passageways, hideouts and ghosts beneath the cobbled stoned city. 

When you stroll through the winding lanes of Bern’s UNESCO-listed Old Town, it’s easy to be enchanted by the medieval charm of the sandstone arcades, glacial-blue Aare, and clock towers whispering of centuries past. But beneath this orderly beauty lies a netherworld of darkness: an ancient network of tunnels, cellars, traditional wine cellars called carnotzets, and hidden passages riddled with tales of murder, sorrow, and spectral unrest.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Most visitors to Bern barely notice these curious doors nestled flush against the cobblestones, or small hatches tucked beside storefronts on Kramgasse and Gerechtigkeitsgasse where every building has one.  Today, many serve as fashionable boutiques and cozy bars. But for every shop that thrives underground, there’s another tunnel sealed shut, padlocked, or lost to memory.

In the 20th century, some of these medieval spaces were reinforced into fallout shelters, reflecting Switzerland’s Cold War-era policy of preparing bunkers for all citizens. Some bunkers, like the massive Sonnenberg facility in Lucerne, could shelter thousands. But in Bern, the older structures hid not only from bombs—but also from the eyes of the living.

And with such hidden depths come stories, and most of them ghost stories. These are some of them penned down mostly by Hedwig Correvon by her collection of ghost stories from 1919 Gespenstergeschichten aus Bern.

Ghosts of the Buried: A House That Breathes the Past

In one Bernese residence, a long-disused underground gallery once served as a macabre burial corridor. The tradition, never officially sanctioned, was whispered only among trusted neighbors: if you had a body—a murder, a shame, or a secret—you took it to that house. Although it mentions the house was in the old town, it never specifies which streets the house was in. 

Over time, the dead grew restless.

Tenants have long complained of phantom footsteps above and below, even when they’re alone. Children whisper of pale faces at the windows. One boy, unable to sleep, claimed he could feel tiny hands pulling the covers from his bed. 

Kornhauskeller Bern: Yves Merckx/Source

A young woman reported being comforted by a blonde-haired girl during a bout of toothache, only to watch her melt away behind a stove. This blonde girl is said to have appeared to more than one tenant of the house over the years. Once, the ghost of this woman was said to have sat down in a chair to listen to a young girl practicing her piano. 

The ghosts are said to walk the galleries and courtyards, creeping through cracks in locked doors and disturbing the peace of even the most rational guests. And when a tenant dares move out because of these hauntings, the spirits rage—doors slam for days, pots fall from shelves, and windows fog with icy breath.

Father Nägeli’s Treasure: A Crypt That Tests the Brave

Many in Bern know of the treasure hidden beneath the Münzgraben, but only a few dare pursue it. To reach it, you must descend into a tight, damp passageway lined with ancient stone underground in the city. Eventually, a faint bluish light glows ahead. That’s when he appears: a snarling, spectral dog, as large as a bear and twice as angry.

Only those who know the sacred password may pass and only the ghost of Father Nägeli is said to could give the key. He is said to haunt the Frick Stairs in the old town. Read More: 

If you survive, you’ll find a gate that opens into a radiant chamber, its light casting eerie shadows over three mysterious sacks. Reach into the sacks and take a handful of earth. Then turn and leave.

But do not look back. 

Read More: The Restless Spirit of Hans Franz Nägeli: The Ghost of the Fricktreppe

Those who hesitate to find their golden treasure have turned to ash. Those who follow instructions return to the surface clutching coins of pure gold—or so they say. Most who go searching for Father Nägeli’s treasure never speak of what they find… if they return at all.

The Locked Away Girls: The Ghost in the Locked Chest

Many of Bern’s old houses once had secret tunnels leading to the Aare River, useful for transporting goods from the river banks into the city, as well as smuggling or darker deeds.

One such tunnel bore witness to an unspeakable tragedy: a young servant girl seduced by her master, then lured into a hidden chest under the kitchen and dropped into the abyss. Her body was carried away by the river. He wanted to cover their affair from his parents. The only witness was the cook who hid in a cupboard, paralyzed by fear, and haunted for life. She had suspected something was going on. She didn’t tell anyone, but waited all day for the girl to return from the tunnels. She never did, and the cook waited all her life. 

Ever since, the house remains tormented and the chest is still there, locked underground. At midnight, groans and moans can be heard throughout the house, like a ghostly wail and a cry for help.

The Children Who Dance in the Mist: The Kindlifresser’s Fountain

Few sights in Bern are more chilling than the Kindlifresserbrunnen—the infamous “Child-Eater Fountain.” Locals call it grotesque, comical, or bizarre. But its true history may be darker than art historians admit.

Legend says the fountain marks the site of a hidden tunnel between two medieval monasteries where one was for monks, one for nuns. Children born in shame, secrecy, or sin were said to be led into this tunnel and lost forever.

The Mysterious Underground Tunnels: All around Bern, it is said underground tunnels down to the Aare river is built, some more hidden and secret than others. This is especially prominent on Kornhausplatz. // Source: Image from 1939:FORTEPAN / Ebner

Some say their cries can still be heard in the fog of Kornhausplatz, especially when the mist wells up between the stones at midnight. And then… they emerge.

Read More: Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern 

Dressed in flowing white, the ghost children dance—flitting between fountains, pausing by shuttered shopfronts, or sitting silently on cellar steps. For an hour, they play and laugh, seeking one another in joy. But when the final bell tolls one, they vanish back beneath the ogre’s feet—to wait for next time.

Witnesses speak of tiny handprints on cellar windows, giggling voices in empty corridors, and chills that have nothing to do with the weather. Are they still haunting the underground though? The Kornhauskeller at Kornhausplatz 18 is Bern’s most magnificent vaulted cellar and a popular restaurant and bar. 

The Françaisbad: The Aare’s Mourning Wind

High above the bends of the Aare, near the former spa and bath house called Françaisbad, the wind howls in a peculiar way. Where this Françaisbad was exactly is a bit uncertain. Those who listen say it cries out the names of men seduced, robbed, and murdered by the enigmatic Frenchwoman who once ran a decadent spa here.

The bathhouse was rumored to be a haven for crime: gambling, trysts, and betrayal flourished behind closed doors. But it ended in blood. The Frenchwoman  disappeared herself in the end, her body pushed through a secret trapdoor into a tunnel that led straight to the river. Her victims, many of them noblemen, now weep in the wind, some say.

At night, shadows move across the river’s surface. Lights appear in rooms that have no electricity. And when the Aare floods, locals say it’s because the dead cannot rest.

Echoes in the Underground Stone

Bern’s tunnels and cellars may now hold boutiques, wine bars, and galleries. But their walls are thick with centuries of silence, punctuated by shame, cruelty, and sorrow.

Some stories serve as warnings. Others linger as memory. All of them remind us that beneath every step on Bern’s clean, cobbled streets, there is a shadow. Beneath every cellar arch, a whisper. As Above, so Below. 

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    Have you ever noticed the underground world of the old town in Bern? Now fancy cafes and shops, there are also tales of secret passageways, hideouts and ghosts beneath the cobbled stoned city.
  • The Ghost From the Mounds of Finnbogastaðir
    Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd came back from the dead as a Draugr or perhaps a Haugbúi ghost to haunt the people living at Finnbogastaðir farm.
  • Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern
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  • The Haunting of the Frick Stairs: Bern’s Processions of Death and Ghosts of Murderesses
    There is not a single ghost story about the Frick Stairs in Bern, there is a plethora. Tales of women murdering their children and horrible funeral processions that left the spectators in shock is said to have walked up and down the steps for centuries.

References:

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11873/vergrabene-gespenster

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11883/der-unterirdische-schatz

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11871/von-unterirdischen-gaengen

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11866/der-kindlifresserbrunnen

https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11847/vom-francaisbad

https://bern.com/en/news/stories-and-recommendations/the-most-beautiful-vaulted-cellars-in-bern?srsltid=AfmBOoqBellWKTWIbHqcg8XIrd6WHyln1yyoe2F9TGm2HH2AhxnOgkAo

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The Ghost From the Mounds of Finnbogastaðir

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Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd came back from the dead as a Draugr or perhaps a Haugbúi ghost to haunt the people living at Finnbogastaðir farm.

The ghost story was published in the book Icelandic Folktales and Adventures (1862) and supposedly it all happened 40 years prior to publishing. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

The author had heard mention of various ridges and mounds here in the district where people say that something “unclean” or haunted lingered in them, and it was thought to show itself most of all in the farm mound at Finnbogastaðir about forty years ago (the mound on which the farm stands). 

Finnbogastaðir is a farm in Árneshreppur, Westfjords, a remote place of rugged coastline, dramatic mountains, and picturesque bays. Finnbogastaðir is a farm of considerable historical importance that traces itself back to the first settlement of Iceland during the Viking Age.

A farmer named Halldór once lived at Finnbogastaðir, but later moved his household to Reykjarfjörður. While he lived at Finnbogastaðir, in a fit of anger he once killed a shepherd boy who was with him, and buried him in the farm mound. Few stories went around about how the boy had died, since people did not press much after such small matters in those days. 

The Nordic Draugr Ghosts and the Haugbúi (mound-dweller)

The Draugr of Icelandic folklore is one of the most feared undead beings in Norse tradition, often described as a malevolent ghost or revenant that clings to its burial mound or roams the living world with violent intent. Unlike the pale, ethereal spirits of later European folklore, the Draugr is corporeal—corpse-like, bloated, and often imbued with supernatural strength. Legends tell of Draugar (plural) crushing their victims, shapeshifting into monstrous animals, or spreading death through pestilence and madness. They were thought to guard treasures buried with them, punishing grave-robbers with terrifying force. Some tales even describe them as growing larger with every breath, an unstoppable presence embodying the fear of restless death and the corruption of the grave. Their origins lie in the belief that those who were greedy, cruel, or unwilling to leave the mortal world could rise again to torment the living.

Closely related, though often portrayed as less aggressive, is the Haugbúi, or “mound-dweller,” a type of ghost bound to its burial site, often mounds in the wild. Unlike the roaming Draugr, the Haugbúi typically remains within or near its grave, emerging only to guard its resting place and treasures. These beings were often seen as the lingering spirits of chieftains or warriors, bound to their burial mounds through strong ties of pride, greed, or unfinished duty. Farmers and villagers avoided disturbing such mounds for fear of awakening the spirit within, which could strike with sudden, spectral fury. The Haugbúi embodies the deep Norse respect for the land of the dead—where burial mounds were not merely graves but thresholds between worlds. Together, the Draugr and the Haugbúi reveal a haunting aspect of Norse belief: that death was not always a peaceful passage, and that the restless dead could remain tethered to the living, their presence a chilling reminder of mortality and vengeance beyond the grave.

The Killed Shepherd Comes Bach to Haunt

Many years later, Magnús Guðmundsson, the district officer who died four years before the publishing of the collection of ghost stories this legend featured in, lived at Finnbogastaðir. Magnús was the son of Guðmundur Bjarnason and did not originally believe in magic and ghost stories but changed his mind after his experiences. 

He built a smithy close by the farm and cut out some sods from that mound in which the boy had been buried. His mother, who was with him then, old and very feeble, was greatly alarmed when she heard of these actions of her son, and said that some evil would come of it, for nowhere could he have cut sods in a worse place.

The very next night a ghost came to Magnús where he lay in his bed, and it seized so firmly on his feet that he was hurt by it and was half-ill the next day. The following night the ghost came again to Magnús and was then still stronger; it seized him by the thighs and elsewhere so that Magnús fell sick afterward. The night after that the ghost came once more to Magnús, seized him by the throat, and was nearly finished strangling him where he lay in bed above his wife. He lay long sick after this and was never the same in voice again, for when he spoke it always sounded as if someone were pressing lightly on his throat.

When these three nights were past and Magnús had fallen sick with fear and dread, people began to think badly of it. But fortunately there was a man in the household named Jón, who was somewhat skilled according to everyone’s report. He was then asked to drive this apparition away, and he was very willing to try it, though he said it would be most difficult. He had the house closed, every door signed with a cross, and planned to seize the ghost and press him so that he would leave the farmer in peace. But the ghost was so quick that Jón could by no means seize him. Then Jón took the plan of opening a window in the living-room and was able to drive the ghost out through it, then ran outside after him and meant to attack him there. But by then the ghost had become so afraid of Jón that he fled before him, and Jón chased him out past the land boundaries of the farm, and there they parted. The ghost has not since been seen at Finnbogastaðir.

But as for the ghost, it went straight to Reykjarfjörður, where the descendants of old Halldór were then living, and that very night went into the cowshed there and killed a cow. After that he has done no great harm, but until recently he has followed people of that family.

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    Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd came back from the dead as a Draugr or perhaps a Haugbúi ghost to haunt the people living at Finnbogastaðir farm.
  • Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern
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  • The Ghost of the Deep: The Legend of Blåmannen at Blaafarveværket
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  • Móhúsa-Skotta and her Haunting Companions in the Cold Winter Nights
    After dying a cold winter night, a young girl died and rose as the terrifying ghost now known as Móhúsa-Skotta. Together with her companions she was said to be behind terrible accidents, and even deaths.
  • The Haunting of the Frick Stairs: Bern’s Processions of Death and Ghosts of Murderesses
    There is not a single ghost story about the Frick Stairs in Bern, there is a plethora. Tales of women murdering their children and horrible funeral processions that left the spectators in shock is said to have walked up and down the steps for centuries.

References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Draugurinn á Finnbogastöðum – Wikiheimild

Family of Magnús GUÐMUNDSSON and Guðrún JÓNSDÓTTIR 

Ukategorisert

Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern

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Around the terrifying statue of the Kindlifressenbrunnen devouring children, young ghosts are said to haunt like a misty night. Said to be the unwanted babies taken out of the city through the underground tunnels, they return to the scene of the crime. 

In Bern’s Old Town, at the bustling Kornhausplatz, looms a fountain so macabre it stops tourists in their tracks. The Kindlifresserbrunnen, or “Child Eater Fountain,” is not a modern shock piece as it was sculpted in 1546 by Hans Gieng and has towered over the city ever since. The grotesque ogre atop the fountain devours a helpless infant, while three more terrified children peer from a sack slung over his shoulder. He is not merely hungry, but also ravenous, mythic, and perhaps, haunted.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

The grotesque statue has long puzzled historians. Was it a cautionary tale, an ancient anti-Semitic symbol, a grim representation of Kronos the child-eating Titan, or even a mad royal brother driven to cannibalistic fury by envy? None of these theories fully explain the disturbing permanence of the Kindlifresser. And the legend doesn’t end at the statue’s base. Beneath this horrifying figure lies a deeper darkness, etched not in stone, but in whisper and shadow.

Ogre Fountain: The Kindlifressenbrunnen literally means the Child Devour Fountain. There are many legends surrounding it, one being that the area around it is haunted, // Source: Andrew Bossi /Wiki

The Underground Tunnels around Kornhausplatz

Long before Bern’s medieval walls rose around it, the site of the Kindlifresserbrunnen was an open meadow, bordered by monasteries. One for men, another for women. There were in fact many places where both nuns and monks lived and worked throughout the city. According to local legend, a hidden tunnel once connected the two. But this passageway around the Kornhausplatz, locals say, was also used for a far grimmer purpose.

Read Also: The Haunted Underground of Bern

In the early days of the city, unwanted children, those born in secret or shame were led or left into the darkness of the tunnel, never to be seen again. It’s said that they were the children of the monks and nuns and those brought to them as well as those that were brought to them. 

The Mysterious Underground Tunnels: All around Bern, it is said underground tunnels down to the Aare river is built, some more hidden and secret than others. This is especially prominent on Kornhausplatz. // Source: Image from 1939:FORTEPAN / Ebner

Over time, the stories grew: that the cries of these forsaken little ones echoed beneath the cobblestones, and that their spirits still lingered, trapped between life and death.

The Children Who Dance in the Mist

As Bern’s mist thickens and the bells chime midnight, these ghost children are said to emerge from the earth. For one fleeting hour, they are no longer shadows. Locals speak in hushed tones of ethereal figures dancing in the swirling fog, their laughter mingling with the creak of old shutters and the murmur of the river and around Kornhausplatz.

A fine, white mist wells up between the stones, spreads gently, quietly over the ground, begins to billow, to undulate, gathers into tiny cloud formations, and dissolves again into a thin veil. And little by little, small human figures in flowing white dresses emerge from it. Like white butterflies, they flutter up and down, landing now on this spot, now on that, seeking in playful play to catch one another, to flee.

Then, as the final bell tolls one, they vanish—drawn back into the cold stone below the ogre’s feet.

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    After a common feud between two men, a ghost was created to torment the people on Hleiðrargarðs farm. Thus, the Hleiðrargarðs-Skotta and her legendary haunting started, some say it even escalated in her starting a plague, killing both cattle and men.
  • The Ghosts of the Britannia Adelphi Hotel: Shadows in Liverpool
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  • Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen Haunting the Old Town in Bern
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  • The Curse of the Hítardals-Skotta
    After old friends clash after falling out, a curse is put upon the other. For generations, the Hítardals-Skotta is said to have haunted their family and village, sometimes even said to be behind their deaths.
  • The Haunted Underground of Bern
    Have you ever noticed the underground world of the old town in Bern? Now fancy cafes and shops, there are also tales of secret passageways, hideouts and ghosts beneath the cobbled stoned city.
  • The Ghost From the Mounds of Finnbogastaðir
    Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd came back from the dead as a Draugr or perhaps a Haugbúi ghost to haunt the people living at Finnbogastaðir farm.
  • Kindlifresserbrunnen and the Ghosts of the Discarded Children Beneath Bern
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  • Móhúsa-Skotta and her Haunting Companions in the Cold Winter Nights
    After dying a cold winter night, a young girl died and rose as the terrifying ghost now known as Móhúsa-Skotta. Together with her companions she was said to be behind terrible accidents, and even deaths.
  • The Haunting of the Frick Stairs: Bern’s Processions of Death and Ghosts of Murderesses
    There is not a single ghost story about the Frick Stairs in Bern, there is a plethora. Tales of women murdering their children and horrible funeral processions that left the spectators in shock is said to have walked up and down the steps for centuries.

References:

Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch 

Der Kindlifresserbrunnen | Märchenstiftung

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The Ghost of the Deep: The Legend of Blåmannen at Blaafarveværket

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The haunting of the Blue man, or Blåmannen at the cobalt mine, Modum Blaafarveværk in Norway has been told for ages now. What truly lies inside the darkness of the mines?

Blaafarveværket was Norway’s largest mine and also Norway’s largest industrial enterprise in the first half of the 19th century and is the largest and best-preserved mining museum in Europe. Could it be that it’s also one of the most haunted ones?

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Far inside the old cobalt mines of Blaafarveværket in Modum, a figure has been reported for nearly two centuries. The tunnels once rang with the strikes of hammers and the clatter of ore carts as workers extracted the cobalt-rich stone used to make the famous deep blue pigment. But beneath the sweat and industry lurked a story every miner knew: the warning spirit called Blåmannen.

Roger Pihl.

A Shadow in Uniform Haunting the Deep Mines

Blåmannen (The Blue Man) was said to appear wearing a miner’s uniform, his lamp burning with an uncanny, bluish glow. He never spoke. He simply showed himself before the disaster. Miners claimed he emerged from the darker shafts just moments before a collapse, his presence a silent signal to get out while there was still time. Those who saw him whispered that he looked more resigned than frightening, as if burdened with a duty he could not escape.

According to Kai Hunstadbråten’s article, “The Blue Man in the Rock at Modum“, the Blue Man is also said to have been called “Hans med knappene” (Hans with the buttons), due to the Blue Man’s uniform. Hunstadbråten also claims that the miners called one of the open pits at Nordgruvene “The Blue Man’s Mine”.

The Miner’s Demon: The element cobalt got its name from a mythical rock demon, a kind of gnome-like creature, who terrorized miners in German mines. German miners traveled to Norway in the 15th and 17th centuries to work in Norwegian mines. Agricala described, among other things, a rock demon from the silver mines of Annaberg in present-day Germany, with “wild eyes and a long neck like a horse.” This demon is said to have killed 12 miners simply by breathing on them. The German mining demons probably joined the crossing, but had difficulty gaining a foothold among the Norwegian workers. Norway had its own traditions of underground mines, plots and pits.

Another miner who claimed to have met the Blue Man was Hans Simen Røtter. He also worked in the cobalt mines in the 19th century. One story goes: 

“Once when Hans Simen Røtter was burning a log at Norsgruva […] a blue man came to him […] and asked him to go out, because the mine was not safe. But Røtter now wanted to set the fire first, and would not go. Then the blue man came back one or two more times and almost threatened him to go, and no sooner had he come out than the log collapsed.”

The Christmas Collapse of 1854

The most chilling encounter came in December 1854. Seven workers entered a narrow tunnel, unaware that the supports had grown dangerously unstable. Deep inside, Blåmannen appeared before them, striding toward them with urgency. Only when he pointed toward the exit and shoved the lead worker backward did they grasp the danger. The men fled in a panic, but the last of them was buried under the collapse. The sole survivor was the one who had been pushed away first.

It was December 13th and Christmas was coming. Miner Ole Torstensen noticed that a fox was following him on his way to the mines. This omen could mean a sudden death, but what was he to do? The boss was not going to give him the day off just because of superstition. Legend has it that several workers saw the Blue Man that day, and that birds pecking ominously at the windows of the sugar house where the workers slept. Ole Bøenstøa was also going to work that day, and perhaps he and Ole Torstensen mentioned the omens to each other as they set off down the mine shaft to work. It was so narrow that the eight workers had to walk in a single file.

When they had gone a little way in, a shadowy man suddenly came towards them. He was dressed in a blue miner’s uniform and held an oil lamp in his hand. The blue man looked at them and pointed towards the exit, which if he wanted them to turn around. But the miners didn’t stop. The blue man disappeared, but it wasn’t long before he reappeared and wanted them out. This time they couldn’t be persuaded either.

The miners were now restless. For the third and final time, the Blue Man appeared in the darkness. This time he went straight for the first worker in line and tried to push him out of the mine. They realized that this was a warning they had to heed, but by then it was too late. The mine began to collapse around them.

People outside heard the terrifying roar. The oldest miners quickly realized what had happened. A landslide! When the masses of rock had settled, they could hear the trapped workers’ desperate cries for help. They managed to pull three men alive from the landslide, but one of them died afterwards. Five men were found dead. One of them was Ole Torstensen. Ole Bøenstøa came out of the incident unharmed, even though the two were standing right next to each other when the landslide came. Was it the Blue Man who saved Bøenstøa, while the encounter with the fox made Torstensen’s fateful day?

From that day on, Blåmannen was no longer seen as a guardian spirit. He became a grim omen, a ghost tied to death and ruin whether he wished it or not.

Where Did Blåmannen Come From?

After the Napoleonic Wars, the enterprise was taken over by the private owners Benjamin Wegner and Baron Benecke with Wegner as director, and their ownership period from 1822–1848 is known as the works’ heyday, and possible when the rumours about Blåmannen emerged. 

One of the oldest written sources though, sets the emergence of Blåmannen to the late 1840s when a man retold a story in a newspaper called Buskeruds Blad from 1903, only signed O:

Mother often told me about an incident that happened at one of the Blaafarveværket’s pits at Modum in the late 1840s, when a man by the name of Røtter, who worked in the so-called Nordpit, was alerted in a miraculous way, so he avoided being crushed by the collapsing pit.

At night he was busy in one of tunnels burning “Stull”. The fire blazed bright and cast its shine through the dark Tunnels. Røtter stands with his back to the fire and warms himself, when a young man comes up to him from one of the side passages of the pits and says: “You must get out quickly”.

Røtter was amazed at the young man’s appearance, when he knew that there was not a human being besides himself in the pit that night.

He replied: “No, I cannot do that.” The figure disappears, but comes back after a few minutes and says to him: “Yes, now you must go”. Røtter then replied again: “No, I can’t; I have to take care of the fire and can’t leave my post”.

The figure disappears, but immediately comes back, goes right up to him, follows him to the ladder and says: “Now get up”.

He ran up the ladder as fast as he could, and then went into a nearby chair room and sat down on a bench. But he had hardly sat down before he heard a huge bang, and the ground shook. Right after there is another bang, more violent than the first, the door bursts open, and he thought the mine was collapsing.

Now it was quiet. He began to wonder what had happened, but did not dare to go out; he wanted to wait until morning. Then he came down to my parents and told them what had happened that night. When people came to the mine in the morning, the whole tunnel where he had been working had collapsed and were the banging sounds he had been hearing.

Who was the mysterious young man who made him leave the pit, so that his life was saved at the last moment? In the mines, as mentioned before, there was no one but himself. The figure was a handsome, young man, wearing blue clothes with a cut, which was not used around there.

When I read some pieces in your magazine about “Visions and Omens” some time ago, I thought of writing down what Mother has told me so many times.

Was it a Warning?

– O.

The Warning Still Stands

Even now, visitors to Blaafarveværket sometimes speak of a dim blue light flickering deep within the closed tunnels or the sound of footsteps pacing in shafts that have been empty for generations. Guides tell the old legend quietly, and with a gravity that suggests they believe every word.

One thing remains constant in the stories. If you ever glimpse Blåmannen standing in the dark with his lamp raised, do not hesitate.

Run.

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References:

Buskeruds Blad, fredag 25. desember 1903

Halloween spesial – Blaafarveværket

DØDENS BUDBRINGER i koboltgruvene på Modum – Issuu

Blaafarveværket – Wikipedia