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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 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. 

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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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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

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The Hörgsland-Móri Haunting Foss á Síðu as a Dog

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By the fantastical waterfall Foss á Síðu, south in Iceland, there are rumours about a ghost in the form of a dog that has been haunting a family for nine generations. Although the haunting of the ghost called Hörgsland-Móri started a long time ago, there are still tales about seeing him in the area. 

Foss á Síðu is а historic farm in Iceland with rich history and folklore dating back to the country’s settlement erа in the 9th century. Behind the farm there is the majestic waterfall that people travel long to see. The water flow can be so thin that Foss á Síðu becomes one of Iceland’s upside-down waterfalls on a windy day. One legend around these parts is about а ghost dog named Móri. Some locals believe thаt Móri has disappeared, while others claim thаt the ghost dog still wanders аround the farm аnd waterfall.

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A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the dead for such a purpose like vengeance, he is not called a ghost, but a Móri. Often the term Fylgja ghost was used interchangeably with the Draug ghost. The female version of this vengeful ghost was called Skotta. Móri means rust brown in Icelandic and the ghosts were named so because of the color of their clothes.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

The ghost in Síða in Skaftafellssýsla southeast of Iceland is called the Hörgsland-Móri or Bergs-Móri. This is not because he was originally sent to Hörgsland, nor because of Reverend Bergur, the person he ended up being linked to, but because he is thought to follow the Berg family. Reverend Bergur was the last of them at Hörgsland and the ghost is said to have followed him from there. The origin of the ghost goes back further and is therefore somewhat unclear.

The Hörgsland-Móri Cursed to Haunt a Family like a Dog

It is said that there was a priest at Arnarbæli (1676–89) named Oddur Árnason. His wife was Katrín, the daughter of Reverend Jón Daðason, who had served there before him. Oddur and Katrín had at least two children, a boy and a girl named Ingibjörg. One winter, the priest had ridden across the ice, and the boy, who was very fond of his father, ran after him, fell into a hole in the ice, and drowned. 

“Reverend Oddur found no joy in being there, besides other things that displeased him,” says Dean Jón Halldórsson. Both rumor and record suggest that the “displeasure” at Arnarbæli was that his wife had previously been betrothed to another man, but had broken her promise to him and chosen another. Because of this, the man she betrayed sent her a curse: a ghost in the form of a dog named Móri, who was to haunt her and her descendants to the ninth generation. 

In some versions it is actually the Reverend Oddur who sends the ghost after Katrín allegedly divorced him after their son’s death where the man was never the same. Was it actually their son they raised from the dead who came back to haunt his own family?

Reverend Oddur later received the parish of Kálfatjörn south-west in the country, where he remained until his death in 1705. 

The Mori Haunting his Descendants

His daughter Ingibjörg married Jón Ísleifsson, sheriff in Skaftafellssýsla (1721–26), a well known scoundrel. 

Their daughter Katrín married Reverend Jón Bergsson the elder of Kálfafell in Síða, dean of the western part of Skaftafellssýsla from 1754 to 1773. It was believed that Móri caused his death, for stories claim that Reverend Jón died suddenly at Eyrarbakki.

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.

Their only son, Bergur, was later minister at Kirkjubæjarklaustur, and he also lived at Prestbakki and Foss, but in the end he was at Hörgsland, where he died and where the ghost got his most well known name. 

It was said that whenever quarrels arose between Reverend Bergur and his wife, Móri was seen at the farm, and people thought he was the cause of their disputes. After the couple’s deaths, he followed their daughters; as soon as the eldest died, the next inherited him, and she soon became half-mad. He had many daughters, and Móri followed all of them, and still follows them, according to local tales. 

The Fading Ghost by Foss á Síðu

The story was first written down as the ghost reached the fifth generation of the family haunting, after attaching himself to their ancestress Katrín, their great-great-great-grandmother although there aren’t many stories told about his time then.

One of the sisters, Þorbjörg, was married to a man known as the hospital-keeper. It is said that she “portioned out” food to Móri. People claimed that at holiday feasts, when she served, she would slip whole sides of mutton down by her thigh; they were never seen again, and it was believed that Móri took them all.

Image: Mathieu Poumeyrol/Wikimedia

Before the ghost reached the ninth generation of haunting, the people of Síða said he had grown so faded that he looks from behind like nothing more than a wisp of steam. Because of this, opinions are divided as to whether he will endure as long as was foretold. There are no remarkable stories of his doing harm outside that family, but he has sometimes been glimpsed when one of their kin was on the road. He is not accused of having killed anyone for a long time, except possibly members of the family itself, and it is widely said that he caused madness among many of them.

So the question is, did he finally reach the ninth generation, or did he simply fade away? 

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Hörgslands-Móri – Wikiheimild

Scholars’ Mine Icelandic Folklore and the Cultural Memory of Religious Change

Explore Foss Á Síðu: Iceland’s Majestic Waterfall аnd Tranquil Farm Right by the Ring Road – Buubble

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

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How long can a ghost linger? Some Icelandic ghost stories claim it is for 120 years. But if we are to believe the legend of Hvítárvellir-Skotta, she has been haunting a particular family for much longer. Perhaps even today?

Hvítárvellir is an old large farm and mansion in Borgarfjörður at the mouth of the Hvítá River west of Iceland. The land was considered one of the most valuable lands in the country and was, among other things, one of the largest salmon fishing grounds in Borgarfjörður.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

The family living there centuries ago was plagued by a ghost said to have been raised from the dead and sent as vengeance after a woman chose to marry someone else. Some say that the descendants of the family are still haunted. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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 Ghost Stormhöttur Haunting Hvítárvellir

At Hvítárvellir in the 18th century, Sigurður Jónson was sheriff in Borgarfjörður county (1704–1738, or perhaps rather until 1741). He had married Ólöf, daughter of Jón Magnússon the elder of Eyri in Seyðisfjörður to the west, and Ingibjörg. The wife of Dean Páll, mother of Ingibjörg, was named Helga and was the daughter of Halldór, the woman from the witchcraft persecutions in 1669. 

Ólöf Jónsdóttir had grown up in the west with her parents. She was a beautiful and popular woman that many men wanted to marry. Sigurður Jónsson was the lucky one though and won her hand after her first husband died in Stórabóla of 1707, a smallpox epidemic that wiped out a quarter to a third of Iceland’s population, only days after their wedding. 

It’s speculated that the rejected suitors grew hateful toward the married couple, Sigurður and Ólöf, although no names are mentioned. According to stories, they raised a ghost and sent it to her, saying that it should follow her. Many Icelandic ghost stories begin when the living raise the undead to do their bidding. 

Hvítárvellir: The Farm in Borgarfjörður around the turn of the century in 1897, which WG Collingwood drew during the summer when he was traveling around the country.// Source

This ghost was male, and it was called Stormhöttur who followed Ólöf for a time and became quite famous. Sigurður hated the ghost and quickly gathered some men to deal with it. Stormhöttur was confined in the Heggstaðir ridges a short distance southeast of Hvítárvellir and never appeared again, though those ridges are always thought to be haunted.

Others tell of Stormhöttur’s fate differently, saying that Ólöf went outside the first time he came to Hvítárvellir and met him in the yard, but when she knew his errand she said to him: “Go to the devil, north to the hayfields,” and that it is the same ghost that lies on the hay there so that it does not break apart. This is also told as a completely different ghost story that had nothing to do with Ólöf, but haunted the farm and is mostly known as The Ghost of the Hay Field. 

Hvítárvellir-Skotta is Sent to Haunt them

When word came west that Stormhöttur had been dealt with, those who had sent him felt themselves badly treated and sent a new spirit against Sigurður himself that would ruin him completely. They raised a woman from her grave, giving her dark powers and sent her to bring misfortune to Sigurður. 

Once Sigurður was traveling with another man west of the Hvítá when they saw a reddish-brown fox running after them. The fox spoke to them and asked where Sigurður of Hvítárvellir was. The sheriff suspected what the fox really was and told her that Sheriff Sigurður was down at Álftanes. The fox then turned aside and hurried off there, while the sheriff continued homeward as quickly as he could. But when he had just come home and was taking off his coat he was violently attacked and thrown to the floor of the main room as the Skotta could not be fooled so easily.

Sigurður was a courageous man, but needed help against this ghost. When she wrestled with Sigurður she had cast off the fox-skin and was then in the form of a woman. Her clothing is described as a black cloak-frock with an old-fashioned head-dress, but the end of the head-dress hung back on her neck like a tail, from which she took her name and was called Skotta. And because she was sent to Hvítárvellir she was called the Hvítárvellir-Skotta, and that name is very common, though later she received other names which will be mentioned still.

Another story is that Skotta caught Sigurður at the ferry across the Hvítá together with one of his farmhands, who was both strong and clairvoyant. He saw and recognized Skotta trying to get onto the boat and he grabbed the sheriff’s saddle and flung it at her. Skotta took the saddle and rode astride it along the western bank of the Hvítá, though it was slow, until she came upon another man who did not see her but recognized the sheriff’s saddle and picked it up. He was then ferried across to the south and brought the saddle to Sigurður, saying it must have been left behind in the west. But Skotta used that opportunity to get across the river without being noticed by anyone in the ferry.

The Danger of a Skotta Haunting

There’s no clear account of Skotta’s malice while she followed Sheriff Sigurður, but it was often said that ill befell wherever he went. Cattle, cows, and horses were found dead or crippled, and people attributed that to Skotta; and Sigurður often had to make compensation because of her.

When Sigurður and his wife were elderly he gave up the office of sheriff. One night after Þorri (1751) the farm at Hvítárvellir burned down, and it is said that it came from the fire of a tobacco pipe. Their son Páll was able to save them from the fire, but he himself burned inside with five other men. 

Some attributed that fire to the ill-will of Guðríðr Hinriksdóttir, sister of the brothers Ólafur and Sigurður Hinriksson, who had been farmhands at Hvítárvellir and died there, because Sheriff Sigurður had refused to grant her inheritance after them, having taken the farm of Hvítárvellir into his own hands. Others attributed the fire to Skotta. After the fire Sigurður went west to Setberg to his relatives.

Skotta Haunting the Decendants

The sons of Sheriff Sigurður and Ólöf were Páll, who burned at Hvítárvellir, and Jón, pastor at Hvammur in Norðurárdal (1752, †1780). He was married to Kristín Guðmundsdóttir, sister of Lady Þórunn and Eggert of Álftanes. Reverend Jón Sigurðsson and his wife Kristín had a daughter named Ragnheiður. She married Jón Jónsson the younger, pastor at Gilsbakki (1771, †1796). Their children were: Reverend Jón at Bergsstaðir (1826, †1838 or 1839), the housewives Kristín of Víðidalstunga, and Halla, first wife of Jón of Leirá. Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir lost her husband and married again, to Einar Guðbrandsson, assistant pastor at Hvammur in 1801, and they lived at Brekka in Norðurárdal. At that time the pastor at Hvammur was Þórður Þorsteinsson.

Hvítárvellir around 1900: Then used as a dairy school in what was called the Baron’s House, which is on the far left in the picture. The building was moved in 1925 to Hvítárbakki, Borgarfjörður.

There are few stories of Skotta from this period, but she did follow the couple at Gilsbakki, and people thought they saw her skipping ahead of Reverend Jón when he rode to the annex at Síðumúli. She was always in the meadow at Síðumúli when the pastor was seen on the Háafell slopes, Háafell being the outermost farm in Síðumúli parish.

After Lady Ragnheiður married Reverend Einar and they moved to Brekka she was called the Brekka-Skotta. Few deeds of hers are recorded there, though she was said to have killed a farmhand at Brekka named Gunnar. He had gone into the cowshed in the evening, either to carry water for the cowshed hand or to see how things were, but in any case he was found dead in the cowshed passage, while the cowshed hand heard, at that very moment, the sound of hide being dragged behind him along the cowshed ridge. 

Once Reverend Þórður of Hvammur was riding through his parish. He had gone down into the valley on his business, and his path lay along the banks between Brekka and Hraunsnef, called Pálsengi. The pastor then saw Skotta come to him. She did nothing but sit up behind him on the horse. The pastor was a resolute man and did not let it shake him. He quickly leapt off, cut the girth, and pulled the saddle back off. Then he mounted again and rode home bareback, while Skotta was seen sitting on the saddle for a long time that day, beating the stirrup-leathers.

After the death of Lady Ragnheiður, Skotta followed her children. Her daughter Kristín married Jón Friðriksson Thorarensen, a student, in Víðidalstunga. He considered Skotta no welcome guest in his family and wanted to be rid of her. Skotta was then grown old and weak in the knees, as was to be expected, since few had been able to harm her. They met when Jón returned from a journey south and was riding north over Arnarvatnsheiði. He asked Skotta what journey she was on, and she said she intended to visit his wife. But since Skotta was sore-footed and Jón wished to be rid of her, they agreed that she should leave his family in peace if he would give her something for her feet. He then took off his strong riding-boots, iron-shod, and threw them to her, and she put them on at once and disappeared.

There are no stories of her following Jón, pastor at Bergsstaðir, but people believed that she followed his son Jónas, who was a farmer at Arnarholt in Stafholtstungur, and he is often thought to bring misfortune wherever he comes. After Jón in Víðidalstunga and Skotta parted, people say that she chiefly stayed with Halla, first wife of Jón of Leirá, and she played him many tricks, killed livestock, and such things. Jón spent the first years of his farming at Kalmanstunga in Hvítársíða. From there he moved to Leirá, and after that Skotta was called the Leirá-Skotta, which name she still bears, and she follows the children of Jón’s first wife at Leirá. There is little to be told of her deeds since, for she is very old and worn, so much so that she herself is reported to have said that she could only drag herself by crawling on her knees, and she has long surpassed the usual age of ghosts, 120 years.

Even so, the people of Leirá are always thought to bring misfortune wherever they go, and men often think they see her at Akranes, since both farmhands from Leirá row there and come on various errands, but always she seems to be noticed before them.

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References:

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

Hvítárvellir – Wikipedia, frjálsa alfræðiritið

Stórabóla – Wikipedia, frjálsa alfræðiritið

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The Half-Dead Írafells-Móri Haunting For Generations

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Although not even completely dead, an unfortunate boy was resurrected as an undead by a sorcerer to avenge an entire family. For generations the Írafells-Móri plagued, harassed and also took care of the family he was sent to destroy. 

There was a man named Kort, the son of Þorvarður Möðruvellir in Kjós. He was a juryman and a well respected farmer. He was also known to be an extremely haunted man. The ghost that ended up haunting him and his family descendants are mostly known by the name Írafells-Móri. Not only did the ghost haunt the family, but their friends, neighbours and just unfortunate people crossing his path. But seeing that including every instance of haunting and haunted, this article will solely focus on Kort, his children and grandchildren. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

Kort was married twice. First to Ingibjörg, and the latter Þórdís Jónsdóttir. Ingibjörg was from the north and many had tried to propose to her before Kort, but she refused them all. The suitors became angry when she chose Kort over them and the men in the north went to a sorcerer to curse both Kurt and Ingibjörg. To do this, the sorcerer resurrected a ghost that would do their bidding called a Móri.

A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the dead for such a purpose like vengeance, he is not called a ghost, but a Móri. Often the term Fylgja ghost was used interchangeably with the Draug ghost. The female version of this vengeful ghost was called Skotta. Móri means rust brown in Icelandic and the ghosts were named so because of the color of their clothes.

Raising the Dead for Vengeance

The sorcerer chose for this a young boy, of whom the story says that he had died of exposure outdoors between the farms. When he rose from the dead, he was warm and not even completely dead before being resurrected, and was sent out, ordered to haunt the couple at Möðruvellir and their descendants for nine generations.

The many men who saw the Írafells-Móri described him so that he wears gray trousers below and a brownish coat on the body, with a black broad-brimmed hat on his head, and there was a notch or large gap in the brim above the left eye. When Móri came south he attached himself to Möðruvellir as instructed and killed livestock and spoiled food. But there are no examples of Móri directly killing people.

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.

One winter, Kurt and his wife had two calves that the Írafells-Móri drove over the cliffs the following summer, and they were found dead below. Another time, Kort had a mare and a foal grazing in the home pastures at Möðruvellir. Late in the summer men saw the foal running as if it had gone mad around a stone, and then it fell down dead. When they came to it the foal lay dead with its behind, caught its rectum on the stone and tore all its guts out. This was attributed to Móri.

Unlike most ghosts, the Móri was thought to have not been completely dead before being turned. Because of this, the ghost needed to eat and was even rationed food at both Möðruvellir and when he went to live at Írafell to haunt their son, Magnús Kortsson.

Móri would sometimes sit on the barn floor and gnaw on the milk troughs with his paws or knock them down, splash curd both on Ingibjörg and all over the rafters, or throw turf and stones into the food wherever it was, spoiling it with it if he wasn’t fed. Once they forgot to feed Móri in the evening and in the morning, they saw him sitting in the barn with his hands down in each cheese barrel, both munching on the cheese and sprinkling it with crumbs. After that, they were careful not to forget to feed him.

After this Kort moved away from Möðruvellir and went to Flekkudal in Eyjafjörður, but Móri followed them there and plagued them no less than before until his death in 1821. 

The Haunting of Magnús Kortsson

After the death of Kortur Heitin (1821), Móri first followed his eldest son Magnús, who lived for a long time on Írafell, as mentioned above, and because Móri was the longest attached to it, he was called Írafells-Móri, and that name has since stuck with him.

It seems that there were fewer evil visits before Kort the Elder than to some of his children and grandchildren from his first wife, whether it is because it has been longer since he was alive and those stories have therefore faded from people’s memory or Mór was more concerned with the visits when he began to follow Kort’s children or the third thing that some think is most likely is that he did not dare to wade as much while Kort was alive as after he died.

Írafell in Kjós//Source

It wasn’t just food that Móri needed; he also felt he needed to rest like anyone else, and it is said that after he started following Magnús Kortsson to Írafell where he got his name, he always had to leave a bed space empty for him opposite his own. No one except the ghost was supposed to lie in it. It also had a separate food supply.

Once people needed a place to stay for the night at Írafell. Later that evening, a boy came to the house and asked to stay there. Magnús said he could stay in the house, but had no place but the floor to sleep unless he dared to sleep in the ghost’s bed. The boy accepted and braved himself to get into the bed, but when he fell asleep, something terrible stirred him in his sleep and woke him up. He was unable to sleep well that night.

The next day the weather was bad so that the guests could not travel and had to stay at Írafell another night. That evening, some boys who lived at Írafell and knew Móri and had often been in a fight with him came and stuck knives all around the bed so that the points stuck out everywhere. That night the boy slept soundly and the men were grateful that Móri had not dared to attack him because of the knives.

Once Magnus went to Seltjarnarnes when there was a lot of fishing there, but since he had no regular place on any of the boats, he sailed with them all and sat in different places every day. For two days, he got a seat at farmer Sigurður’s in Hrólfskáli. They all noticed that Magnus was never alone, and on the third morning and they set sail, they started whispering about seeing something looking like a russet wool or ball of hair coming with Magnus. Because they didn’t want to bring any bad luck with them to the sea, and asked him to leave the boat. 

The Haunting of Björn Kortsson

It said Björn Kortsson had twice suffered grievous affliction like his other brothers. Once a man met Björn traveling north, and when they meant to ride past each other his horses shied, and it was the belief of men that they had seen the ghost and feared him, though the man himself did not see him. 

On another occasion it was that the farm at Mýdal in Mosfellssveit stood open one winter evening in moonlight and fair weather. One of the household came from somewhere, and when he came into the doorway he saw a boy further inside the door whom he did not recognize, but thought to himself that this must be Írafells-Móri, from the description he had heard of him. The man now thought to corner Móri inside to handle him and shut the door. Then he let his hands sweep through the doorway and felt as though something came against him, but when he meant to seize it, it slipped away from him again so that he could not grasp it. But early the next morning Björn Kortsson came to Mýdal.

Björn was, like all that family, a good-natured and well respected man. It is said that he was popular with the ladies and at least three sought after him when he was a young man at Hjálmholt. He used to joke that it was Mori they were after, as everyone knew that he was followed. 

As time went on though, Björn joked less and less as madness afflicted him in the later years of his life, and it wasn’t easy to live with him. It seems that a lot of the family members had this mental illness that often accompanies stories of ghosts haunting families. The illness was not seen as natural though, and was blamed on Móri.

The Haunting of Einar Kortsson

Einar Kortsson, who had been living in Tjarnarhús near Lambastaðir for a long time, once left home and was going up to Kjós to find his relatives there. It was early in the winter and when he arrived there it was getting dark. He continued on foot, and arrived after the vigil at Skrauthólar in Kjalarnes. Although Einar was not entirely unfamiliar with the place, he did not want to cause any trouble or wake people up when they were all just asleep. So he decided to look in the barn to see if he could find a place to stay for the night. 

The next morning he excused himself to the townspeople who welcomed him. They did however think that the Mori had made way for their master, as the night before, a cow had broken its neck and was found dead in the same stall Einar went to sleep in. The Mori was also thought to be behind the death of Einar’s favorite horse. One morning late in Einar’s time, Gráni lay dead in the air so tightly in front of the farm door in Tjarnarhúsi that no one could get in or out of him until the door was taken off its hinges. This was thought to have been caused by Móri.

Móri played various other tricks on Einar while he followed him. One was that Einar sometimes became like a disfigured man in the face or like a leper, with eruptions of scabs and boils and scratches as if a cat had clawed him, but if he was asked how he had gotten them he would say nothing about it. At times these eruptions disappeared again, and this was counted among other strange things that are said to follow the Kort family and be attributed to Móri. 

Men also often saw Móri riding around the houses at Einar’s, both the farmhouses and also a shed that he owned, and it was believed that Móri stayed often down by the sea, for many times the dogs there went mad and broke out in barking and noise around the shed, though no men nor animals were seen moving near it.

The Haunting of Kort Kortsson

Not many stories have gone about of hauntings before Kort Kortsson the elder, but men still believe they can fully say that Móri followed him so that harm came both to others and to himself. In the winter of 1833 it so happened that Þorsteinn, a farmer at Þúfukot in Kjós, rowed the winter fishing season at Kjalarnes and went home at Easter, as is the custom of many fishermen whose homes are not far away. 

On that same day Kort Kortsson in Uppkot in Eyrarhverfi also went home, for he too was rowing that season at Kjalarnes. Since Kort was on foot he asked Þorsteinn to carry a few things for him. One of these was a sheepskin coat which Þorsteinn tied behind him. Þorsteinn then continued his way until the roads divided to Þúfukot and Uppkot. Þorsteinn meant to go straight home without stopping at Uppkot, but when he turned his horse onto the path that led home to Þúfukot it seemed to him, and he even thought he heard, that someone seized the sheepskin coat behind him, and in that same moment the horse fell down dead under him. This was blamed on Móri, that he had crushed or killed the horse because he had wanted Þorsteinn to return the sheepskin coat home to Kort.

Kort was like many of his siblings, half-crazed in mind, so that often care had to be taken that he did not do himself harm, which he often tried when he was in such a state. In one such fit he got hold of a knife and cut himself straight across the neck, but then someone came to him and the knife was taken from him. He was then brought to a doctor who healed him and sewed the wound, but since the stitching had been done badly, there was always something odd in Kort’s throat when he swallowed. People believe he died of this wound, which he was continually reopening when madness came over him.

The Haunting of Solveig Kortsdóttir

Solveig, daughter of Kort, married Magnús, a farmer at Hjallasandur on Kjalarnes, and they have lived there for most of their farming life. People say that Móri follows her, as with the other siblings. 

Magnús and she had kept a maidservant named Sigríður. She was once in the kitchen in the evening doing some household work. Then the maid said to her mistress: “What is crawling there on my back?” and looked back over her shoulder at the same time. The housewife said that nothing was crawling on her. But in that same moment the maid fainted where she stood. Then the household came and carried her to her bed. Afterwards the fainting passed off, but then she was seized with terrible vomiting. And just about when the vomiting eased, there was a knocking at the farmhouse door. A farmhand heard it further inside the house and said: “Be off, whoever you are,” for he thought that it was the one who had attacked Sigríður the maid. Then they went to the door, and there was Solveig Kortsdóttir, asking for that same maid who had fainted, for she had some errand with her. People think this was the ghost of Solveig, Írafells-Móri, who pressed so hard upon Sigríður.

Kort’s Grandchildren and the Continuing Haunting of their Family

Magnús at Írafell had four children: two named Guðrún, Guðríður, and Guðmundur. Once, Guðrún fell ill, and Móri came to her where she lay in a single-room dwelling and knocked down all the sets of cups she owned from a shelf above the window in the same room where she lay, and they went, as one might well imagine, into a thousand pieces. 

The other Guðrún married her father’s workman, named Ólafur, and they have long lived at Reykjakot in Mosfellssveit. She was often ill both in mind, as so many of the Kort family have been prone to, and also in body. She has also lost a number of children, and that may well be in part the cause of her ailments. It is said that Móri, especially after the death of Magnús, took up his lodging with the couple Ólafur and Guðrún and that he keeps to himself above a large floor-vat which is sunk halfway into the pantry floor. When Guðrún is ill so that others must take charge of the cooking, it is said that Móri sets a dog’s head upon himself and is ashamed to take his food from any other than Guðrún.

Magnús of Írafell’s son Guðmundur was haunted by Móri no less than his sister Guðríður. One winter, Ásgeir the farmer at Lambastaðir had sent his son Þorvaldur to Reynivellir for instruction under Reverend Ólafur Pálsson, now provost of Gullbringu- and Kjósar-sýsla. Þorvaldur went home shortly before Christmas to spend the holiday with his parents, and it had been arranged that he would be fetched afterwards if anyone happened to travel from Kjós.

One evening at Lambastaðir, Þorvaldur and his mother Sigríður were the only two sleeping in the house. It was late at night and the lights had been put out, when Sigríður suddenly felt unwell and asked her son to light them again. Þorvaldur did so, and when he was finished she asked him to fetch her some water to drink, and to take the light with him so he would not stumble anywhere, although Þorvaldur, though only twelve years old at the time, was not afraid of the dark and did not need it for that reason.

So he went for the water into the kitchen, leaving the lamp in the parlor and the parlor door open, so that the glow reached into the kitchen. He filled a glass and was about to go back when, as he turned around, he saw a strapping boy come out of the anteroom into the kitchen, though neither of the doors there had been closed the evening before. The boy stood in the glow of the lamp bareheaded, with a broad-brimmed hat in his hand, wearing a brownish coat, raising his eyebrows roguishly and grinning at Þorvaldur. They looked one another in the eyes for a short while, for Þorvaldur said he had not been afraid of him but studied him closely, and he still remembers how it seemed to him that the boy’s whole face was covered with hair. But when Þorvaldur took his eyes off him, he was overcome with dizziness so that the water spilled from the glass.

Then a sheepdog that had been lying in the parlor leapt up with a terrible barking, running through the kitchen and out into the home-field, and several other dogs joined in, keeping it up for a long time. The next day two men came down from Kjós to fetch Þorvaldur, and one of them was Guðmundur Magnússon, who was then living at Káraneskot. People then felt sure that it had been Írafells-Móri whom Þorvaldur had seen that night.

Einar Kortsson had four daughters; two of them are normal, one suffers from a limb-wasting disease, and the fourth is thought not to be quite right in the head. Her name is Guðrún, she is sixteen years old, and until now nothing had been found amiss with her. She often complains that “the wretch Móri” is teasing her, pinching her, or otherwise tormenting her. Recently she developed an ailment in her knee which lasted a long time, and she herself said that it had come about because Móri had shoved her so that she fell on a stone with her knee. And just as she blames Móri for all these mishaps of hers, so there is talk that he is also the cause of the girl’s want of understanding, since she is considered little more than a half-wit, and this is thought to be in keeping with various other assaults of Móri against members of the Kort family.

Descendants of Kort: The picture above shows Kristinn Magnússon, Guðrún Pétursdóttir, his wife, and Pétur Kristinsson, their son. // Source

Kristinn Magnússon (1827-1893) was the son of Solveig Kortsdóttir (1796-1865). Kristinn was a well-known shipowner and shipbuilder. Móri, never did anything horrific when they tjey reached this part of the descendants. He was more of a nuisance to the family according to Kristinn. He told people they had to feed him like they would any other adult and as his ancestors had done before him. He would spill his food and make a big mess as per usual. Kristinn spoke often of the boy, as he called him. He never seemed to bother him, but his presence was often with Kristinn and if we are to believe the legends, perhaps still are, although in a more faded presence in the family members branching out in Iceland like a tree.

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Írafells-Móri – Wikiheimild

Sagnaþættir úr Engey – Heimasíða Benedikts Jóhannessonar

Írafellsmóri – Ferlir 

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The Sels-Móri or Ghost of Þorgarður Haunting for Generations

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A family cursed by a ghost called Sels-Móri was said to be haunted for nine generations in 18th and 19th century Iceland. Targeting the women in the family, it is said that it was the ghost that drove them all mad. 

What sticks out from Icelandic ghost stories, was that often, the ghost was not just a shadow or whisper, creaking in the walls or lurking in the corner of the eyes. The Icelandic ghosts were often like flesh and blood and dangerous. Not only could they hurt you, they could follow you and your family, plaguing them with misfortune, and like the ghost story of Sels-Móri or the ghost of Þorgarður, was behind madness that seemed to be passed down in the families. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

A ghost story spanning over generations as well as travelling over the entire country is the story of Móri of Sel, where the story was said to have started. The story features an Icelandic ghost called a fylgja from 19th century Iceland, that has roots back to the Viking age. And to understand the concept of this rather long family saga, it could be helpful to how the fylgja evolved and operated through time. 

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: 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. 

Sels-Móri or Þorgarður

The story starts with a completely different family than the one that ended up being cursed. It starts with the life and death of the ghost itself. There once was a married couple that lived at a farm near the river Elliðá, not too far from Reykjavik. 

The story was compiled by Jón Árnason from stories circulated in the southwest of Iceland). Valgerður Jónsdóttir (1771–1856) and Hólmfríður Þorvaldsdóttir (1812–1876) are also listed as sources. There are at least 18 people by name, and at least 15 are verified historical people.

The farm had a worker named Þorgarðurand it was rumored that the wife had an affair with him. The farmer often had to go out for trivial tasks while Þorgarður was back home alone with her and this got people talking.

One winter night there was a horrible storm when the farmer was out working and tending to his livestock. He didn’t come home the following night and a search party was put together. The next morning they went to look for him and found him dead in the river and it  looked like a murder.

Elliðaá: The salmon river near Reykjavík from ca 1900 where the whole story about the Sels-Móri started.

Þorgarður was immediately suspected of this because of his reputation, and most believe that he actually did it. Even though he denied that he had killed his master, he was sentenced according to what the story says, either death by hanging or paying up with some fines and he should be allowed to redeem his life with a sheep fee. However, he didn’t have the money. 

At that time there lived a man named Jón at Seli in Seltjarnarnes east of Reykjavik, known as a diplomatic statesman with a kind heart. Þorgarður went to Jón and begged him to save his life and get out of the sentence. 

Jón was reluctant to do so at first, but Þorgarður vowed to serve him and his descendants as long as he had the strength and age. Jón, touched by the man’s plight, agreed to help and began to count the ransom on the table that Þorgarður needed to escape hanging.

When Jón counted the money, his wife Guðrún entered the living room and asked what he was doing with all the money. Jón said he was going to save the life of the man. She asked him not to do that foolish thing and swept up all the money in her apron with one hand.

Jón changed his mind and agreed with his wife. When she walked out of the room with the money in her apron she looked at Þorgard and said: “Let each one suffer for his actions.” 

Þorgard answered: “There will be no parting with us here; therefore it is no more than for me to see that my farewell follows you and your family to the ninth point.”

Then Þorgarður went away and was captured by the authorities, either in Iceland or abroad. It is believed that he was hanged in Kópavogur and that after his death, he immediately went back and sought out the Selsjóns as a fylgja ghost. 

The Hauntings for Nine Generations

As he had promised, he followed them wherever they went, especially the wife. Guðrúna was then both despondent and delirious and haunted for the rest of her life. Because this ghost was attached to Sel for a long time, he was called Sels-Móri. 

A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the dead for such a purpose like vengeance, he is not called a ghost, but a Móri. Often the term Fylgja ghost was used interchangeably with the Draug ghost. The female version of this vengeful ghost was called Skotta. Móri means rust brown in Icelandic and the ghosts were named so because of the color of their clothes.

Sel in Seltjarnarnes: Source

The Selsjóns couple had one daughter named Þorgerður that would be the next victim of Sels-Móri’s haunting. She married Halldór Bjarnason, a prominent farmer in Skildinganes. As well as inheriting her parents’ estates, she also inherited Sels-Móri of her family they called ættarfylgja, meaning something like an ancestral ghost.  

They had a son, Bjarni í Sviðholt, and it looks like the Sels-Móri skipped the male descendant of the family and he lived in peace. He was probably one of the members of the legal court whom the law speaker Magnús Ólafsson appointed later to the Alþing of Öxará, 1798.

He had many children and was known to be friendly and a good guy, thinking perhaps that they were free of the haunting. They still knew about the Sels-Móri, and he was in those days often called Sviðholt’s ghost, but very often he was still associated with the name Þorgarður. But the ghost returned to haunt the female descendants. 

Bjarni’s second daughter, whose name was Úríður, married Benedikt Björnsson, a student from Hítardal, who has been a priest in Fagranes for a long time. She was the greatest clairvoyant, but such adversity came upon her that she became half-crazy and sometimes angry with everything and difficult to live with. Although the ghost of Sels-Móri was almost part of life in Icelandic folklore culture, her insanity was too much for her husband.

As a result, she divorced her husband and her sister Ragnheiður took her in who was married with a school teacher at Bessastaðir called Jón Jónsson. The teachers and families of Bessastaðaskóli often lived in or close to the school. Today this is residence of the President of Iceland and has always been important in the history of the nation and has always been the seat of chieftains and high officials.

Read more: Another famous ghost is said to still linger at Bessastaðir. Check out Apollonia Schwartzkopf the Ghost at Bessastadir

Úríður died there after a time of unstable paranoia. She would claim that a viper was stinging her and that another woman called Ingibjörg was stabbing her with a cobbler’s needle. This was believed to refer to a woman who lived with her and her husband before they separated. This woman actually became his second wife after the divorce, so it begs to question what really happened before she was sent to her sister.  

Bessastaðir, Álftanes.// Source

They all believed that their ancestral ghost Sels-Móri who was the one behind her insanity. Úriði is said to have said during her fits of insanity that she should have said: “My sister, it’s better to stab me,”

It looks like her sister, Ragnheiður, was mostly free of the haunting, although the Sels-Móri was blamed when he caused the destruction of a mail boat that was lost in 1817 because her first husband sailed with it. Sels-Móri was also the cause of the late Þórður Bjarnason’s death, in Sviðholt; it is still said that he had haunted the children of Ragnheiður, especially her son, Björn.

Ragnheiðar’s children, Especially Bjarna Rector

It should be mentioned here at the same time that Bjarni Halldórsson in Sviðholt had a sister named Jórunn who seems to have had almost a parallel haunting in addition to her ancestral one. She was very fair and beautiful and a man in Álftanes asked her to marry him. But she thought that he was beneath her and she rejected him. She would however never be rid of him.

He promised he would cling to her and her family, even if he was unable to get to her as a wife. She married one named Eyjólf, and had a baby girl. They hadn’t been together for long when it became apparent that Jórunn had mental issues, which only increased as time went by, and in the end, she went completely insane. This was believed to be because of the curse of the suitor she rejected as well as the curse their family already was struggling with. 

Her daughter Þorgerðr grew up and married Eggert Bjarnason, who was at that time the priest at Snæfoksstaðir (Klausturhólum) in Grímsnes. She then went east with him and they had children together and it seemed to be fine. Perhaps they had escaped the curse by moving away? 

Time passed until Jórunn, Þorgerðr’s mother, died. There was no evidence of that illness in Þorgerði during her mother’s lifetime, as she had never come south since she went east, and it is said that Reverend Eggert was warned not to let her go south and never come beyond Sog or Álfvattan and would not blame her then. 

But when Jórunn á Skógtjörn died, it is said that Þorgerður begged her husband to go south with her to mourn her mother and he finally agreed. They had come south over Hellisheiði, south into Fóelluvötn above Helliskot when the curse hit her. According to the stories she was struck with a a dizzy spell and that she was never the same again. She had inherited Sels-Móri. They also believed that her mother’s ghost and fylgidraugur, had met her daughter there and followed her from then on as long as she lived

Breaking the Generational Curse and Haunting

She didn’t live very long however, and she died shortly after going south. The children of Reverends Eggerts and Þorgerður didn’t fare well with either, and two of their daughters were also said to have gone crazy, as so many of the women in their family line had done before them. 

But Sels-Móri made a promise all those generations ago, and after the ninth generation, the curse was lifted and the family line, if there still is someone around, is said to be finally free from it. 

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Sels-Móri eða Þorgarður – Wikiheimild 

(PDF) Icelandic Fylgjur Tales and a Possible Old Norse Context 

Chapter 3 The Fylgjur of Iceland: Attendant Spirits and a Distorted Sense of Guardianship

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Ghosts of Tagore House – Jorasanko Thakur Bari

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In the old house of a famed Bengali poet and philosopher, the ghosts of Tagore House or Jorasanko Thakur Bari are said to linger. Throughout the years, the family of Rabindranath Tagore have told about the haunting said to have happened inside of the mansion. 

North in Kolkata lies Tagore House, an anglicized way of saying Jorasanko Thakur Bari, a grand mansion that once served as the residence of the illustrious Tagore family built in 1785. The stately home of high ceilings, black and white marble floor and arched doorways is today a nod to just how powerful the ancestral home of the Tagore family was. They were one of the leading families in Kolkata and key players in the Bengali Renaissance. 

Read more: Check out all of the ghost stories from India

This sprawling palace stands as a testament to the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate poet and polymath who called it home. In 1913 he became the first non European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Now his ancestral home operates as a house museum and has, according to his family, always been haunted. 

Jorasanko Thakur Bari: The Tagore House is the formal house of the nobel prize writer Rabindranath Tagore and his family for generations and also thought to have been or is haunted by his family. // Source

Rabindranath Tagore and his Life of Ghosts and Spirits

Several eerie tales shroud Tagore House in an aura of mystique, adding to its allure as a haunted abode which is said to come to life at night. When he was alive, Rabindranath Tagore had a keen interest in the supernatural as well and had often planchette sessions inside of the building after his father, Debendranath died. 

Source

Even in his writings, like the tale found in Mastermoshai there are haunting tales happening. And one particularly story about a student drive his teacher to suicide is said to have been inspired by something that happened at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, and most ghost stories comes from his era. 

Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর) was born in Jorasanko Thakur Bari in 1861 and his poetry and writing have been called both spiritual and magical. 

Among the most chilling accounts are those of phantom footsteps echoing through empty corridors and the haunting sound of anklets tinkling in deserted rooms and other strange occurrences inside of the Jorasanko Thakur Bari building. 

These spine-tingling tales have been meticulously documented and shared from the Tagore family over the years, finding their way into writings like ‘Thakurbarir Bhooter Golpo’ (Ghost Stories from Thakurbari), a collection that chronicles the chilling legends of Tagore House. 

Hauntings of Jorasanko Thakur Bari

One of the stories you will find written down is from when Rama, who was Tagore’s granddaughter died. The family was distraught by her death and didn’t want to send the body away. Instead they put her downstairs that evening and waited and grieved. 

Rabindranath Tagore: (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj (syncretic Hindu monotheist) philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose avant-garde works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Amita Thakur was one of the women in the family who sat in the room next door that evening and told about what happened next. Suddenly the lanterns in the room went off one by one in the row they hung in. Everyone in the room freaked out, not daring to light the lights again.  And when a cold breeze started coming from nowhere, they knew that there was a spirit with them. 

The Ghost Walking in Tagore House

Another story told from the Tagore House was when Tagore’s nephew, Nitish died. In the period right after his death the family claimed that Nitish was seen almost every evening as he was walking down his favorite corridor. Which also says something about just how big this house was. 

There would also be stories about the relatives living in Jorasanko Thakur Bari waking up and seeing a ghostly figure standing and watching them.

The Dead Wife in the Picture

Mrinalini Devi

From the book detailing the haunting of the mansion they also discuss one of the mysterious pictures taken of the family that sparked a debate that yet again a ghost in the family lingered in the Tagore House. 

Mrinalini Devi, the wife of Rabindranarth Tagore, was also a translator and described as a woman with a great personality as they described her. She died in 1902 after a serious illness the doctors never managed to diagnose. She was only 28 and according to legend, her ghosts have shown up from time to time. 

In 1904, the family gathered for a family picture, and as a shadow behind her husband, it is said she sat in the picture, two years after her death. Was this the final haunting from her side? Some say that she is still haunting the place.

The Haunted Jorasanko Thakur Bari House

As dusk descends and the shadows lengthen, Tagore House takes on a hauntingly beautiful aspect, its majestic facade concealing secrets that defy rational explanation. 

Whether fueled by imagination or rooted in reality, the haunted rumors surrounding this historic palace continue to captivate the imaginations of those who dare to delve into its shadowy depths. A story just as good as the fictional stories that were written in the Tagore House. 

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References:

https://www.boldsky.com/insync/life/2012/ghosts-famous-people-030152.html?story=1

10 haunted places in Kolkata you MUST visit to see what a horror movie really looks like

Jorasanko Thakur Bari – Wikipedia

Transforming the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra into a Technological Marvel | – Times of India  

Rabindranath Tagore – Wikipedia