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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. 

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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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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Móhúsa-Skotta and her Haunting Companions in the Cold Winter Nights

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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.

A ghost said to have plagued Iceland for ages as well as teaming up with other ghosts to create havoc, the legend about the Móhúsa-Skotta has become one of the more well known ghosts in Iceland. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

Móhús is a small farm in the Stokkseyri district of Eyrarbakki on the south coast of Iceland. Jón ríki Þórðarson (Jón the rich) lived close to the small fishing village. He was famous in the South for his wealth in the late 18th century, and also being the target for the haunting said to be going on in the neighborhood. 

When Jón was young, he was very poor, but grew incredibly rich with little money when he managed to buy land at a very low price only a year after coming to Stokkseyri. Because of how quickly he went from rags to riches, people started to think he had made a deal with the devil to get rich and there is a completely separate legend about some magical pants made of human skin that gave him the money.

But let’s focus on the night the haunting started. Jón first lived in Refstokkur near Ferjunes (Óseyrarnes). At the time when the story was written down in the 19th century, it was deserted. 

One night, a young girl came to him and asked for a place to stay the night. No one knows who she was, where she came from or where she was going. The wind was howling, the night was black and she was both hungry and cold. Jón turned her away and she had to spend the night outside in the cold. She died this night, but although her mortal life was ending, another haunted one was just about to start. After her death, she walked back to Jón’s house and followed him for a long time as a ghost haunting him known as Móhúsa-Skotta.

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.

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.

The Ghost that Followed

She was called Móhúsa-Skotta because of the place where she haunted, and spent her time tormenting him and playing tricks on him as revenge. After Jón moved west to Móhús, she spoiled everything for him as much as she could and killed livestock both for him and others right in front of him. 

She was so close to him that she gnawed apart one by one the socks on his hamstrings and the laces of his shoes, and it was to such an extent that even though he put on new socks in the morning, they were in pieces by evening. 

At the same time, Jón only wore short ties or strings around his neck as it was said that he did it so that Móhúsa-Skotta would be less likely to strangle him because she would grab the string, not his throat.

It was also attributed to Móhúsa-Skotta that she had made a man go insane in broad daylight in Ranakoti in Stokkseyri. He was found dead and strangled there in a well nearby. Still, they thought of her as tolerable until she teamed up with Sels-Móri, another local ghost that was sort of said to have been her husband.

The Sels-Móri Teams upp with Skotta

In Eyrarbakki in Árnessýsla there is a ghost 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.

A man named Einar lived in Borg in Hraunshverfi in the late 18th century. He used to give shelter to boys who had come wandering like many other people at that time from the east of Skaftafellsýsla after the Skaftá Fire raged there. This is a multi-year eruption of the volcanic system that began on June 8, 1783. 

It was winter, but when one of the boys asked for lodging, Einar turned him away, just as Jon had once done to the little girl. The boy was both hungry and poorly clothed and stayed outside during the winter night not far from Borg. The next morning he was found dead in a pond or ravine called Skersflóð. 

Although the boy was properly buried, it gradually became clear that he followed Einar and his descendants. It is said in particular that he followed Þuríð and Salgerði, Einar’s sisters’ daughters who lived in Efraseli for a long time. Because he was there the longest, he is called Sels-Móri. 

Read More: Sels-Móri in this story has the same name as another unfortunate soul who ended up haunting for generations. Check out The Sels-Móri or Ghost of Þorgarður Haunting for Generations for the whole story.

Who became a ghost first is uncertain, but when they found each other and teamed up, havoc and unrest ensued. It is not mentioned that he killed any men while he was alone in the heat before he came to the throne of Móhúsa-Skotta as mentioned earlier. 

Sels-Móri and Móhúsa-Skotta Takes Tomas With Them

One winter a man named Tómás in Norðurkot on Eyrarbakki went east to Stokkseyri for Christmas. For the feast he bought smoked meat and by nightfall he was heading home, but stopped somewhere along the way for some reason. 

The next morning he was found dead, dismembered, blue and bloody. He was found in Arnhólma, not far from where Sels-Móri had originally died from exposure. Because he was found ripped to pieces, all blue and bloody, the villagers thought that Sels-Móri and Móhúsa-Skotta had made up their minds to make him like them. 

After that, people saw the three ghosts traveling where before there were only the two, Sels-Móri and Móhúsa-Skotta, and people believed that Tómás had become their third companion. People of Stokkseyri never wanted to go out after twilight in fear of encountering one of the three ghosts that were tormenting the living. Besides, no one wanted to become the fourth ghost. 

Móhúsa-Jón felt the need to intervene in this as far as Móhúsa-Skotta was concerned, who was always considered the worst of the three and was haunting the place because of his actions. He had to get rid of them somehow. 

The Exorcism of the Ghosts

That winter Móhúsa-Jón wrote to Jón Magnússon who worked as a farmer at Þykkvabæjarklaustri, a 10th century cloister. The monastery, which was of the Augustinian order, survived until the Reformation and was long wealthy and influential.

Although the monastery was closed off for centuries already, Jón Magnússon tended the land and knew a thing or two about these kinds of hauntings and how to get rid of them. He was offered thirty government rigsdaler to come from the farm at Eyrarbakki and end the haunting. 

Móhúsa-Jón paid him half of the prize in advance when he arrived and Jón Magnússon set out to vanquish the ghosts. During that trip, it is believed that Cloister-Jón managed to destroy or exorcize Móhúsa-Skotta and Tómási, because they were never seen on Eyrarbakki after that. 

However, some say that Cloister-Jón took Móhúsa-Skotta east with him, and she almost drowned him and all the crew members who at that time were being transported across the Þjórsá on the Sandhóla ferry. But Cloister-Jón claimed that Móhúsa-Skotta really had been eradicated during his mission. 

But he didn’t manage to do anything about Sels-Móri and because of this, Móhúsa-Jón did not initially want to pay him the remaining half of the salary. According to Cloister-Jón, Sels-Móri was nowhere to be found and that his good name should be enough to believe his words. Móhúsa-Jón didn’t care about all of it anymore, or at least wanted it all over and paid him, although they parted with it no more than contentedly and never reconciled.

But what happened with Sels-Móri? There are those that say that he didn’t get cleansed from the earth and people say that he is alone wandering around Bakkann, howling in the cold wind that killed him, knocking on doors, asking if anyone is willing to let him in. .

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References:

Móhúsa-Skotta – An Icelandic Ghost Story | Your Friend in Reykjavik 

https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/word/skotta

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

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

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The Hörghóll-Móri Raised from the Dead to Kill

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A particular violent ghost from Icelandic ghost stories was called The Hörghóll-Móri. Once a drowned man, he was raised from the dead to be sent on a revenge mission to kill a certain farmer. And legend goes, he didn’t stop until he succeeded. 

A man named Jón, son of Símon, lived at Hörghóll in Vesturhóp village. He had a son named Kristján, who was a grown man when this story took place. The hill called Hörghóll can translate into “shrine hillside” and might have been a place of worship for the pagans. In any case it became the location for a violent haunting some centuries ago. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland

One summer Jón the farmer hired a laborer from west of the glacier, named Ívar, and paid him his wages in the autumn. The laborer thought the pay was meager and poorly handled, but there was no changing it. The next winter, Jón’s son Kristján went fishing under the glacier and stayed at the same farm where Ívar was living. One winter’s day, Kristján’s mittens disappeared and could not be found despite much searching. Kristján accused Ívar of causing their disappearance and struck him hard across the face. Ívar took it seemingly calmly and said, “It will be bad for you if I neither repay that blow nor the wages.”

Vesturhópsvatn: Source

In spring Kristján returned home to Hörghóll and stayed with his father the following winter unaware of the plans Ívar had put in motion. Early that winter, many boats were lost under the bay by the glacier and many lost their lives. One day Ívar was walking by the sea where he found a drowned man washed ashore. Some say that the man was only half dead

He cut off one of the man’s arms and raised the dead man back as a revenant, as a Móri. He commanded him to go north to Hörghóll. “What am I to do there?” asked the revenant. “Kill the farmer’s son Kristján and give no one peace at the farm,” said Ívar. Then the ghost vanished and went to follow his new master’s command.

The Undead in Icelandic Folklore

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 fylgja or draugr 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.

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.

That evening the ghost came north to Hörghóll, where the lamps were lit. Kristján sat on a bed opposite the entrance to the living room, eating his evening meal from a wooden bowl. They heard something climbing onto the roof outside. Suddenly, Kristján hurled his bowl away and collapsed onto the floor, and all the lamps went out. They tried to relight them with tinder with a wax candle, and succeeded; this time the light held and they saw the horror before them. 

A brownish boy crouched over Kristján as he lay on the floor, but he had only one arm. The ghost glared at the light with dreadful eyes and drew back when the people approached. Kristján then leapt to his feet in a frenzy. An old woman at the farm, named Vigdís, was able to stop him from going after him. Kristján now told about his quarrel with Ívar the winter before, and said Ívar must have sent this haunting against him.

The Hörghóll-Móri Haunting Kristján

At Böðvarshólar, the next farm over, lived a farmer known as a wise man, as many were in those days. Kristján was sent there to be kept safe from the ghost. While he stayed with that farmer, the ghost could not touch him for some reason. 

But then the ghost began wreaking havoc back at Hörghóll, killing livestock and spoiling food. The vengeful ghost rampaged openly through the farm and grew so malicious that everyone fled except the old woman Vigdís. She said she would not bother fleeing from such “dust” and the ghost didn’t harm her. She tended the cows and they were left alone, but other farmers had to care for the sheep, and the ghost preyed upon them. This lasted until the days grew longer and the nights lighter, at which time the sheep-killing ceased.

Now the people sought advice from the priest at Breiðabólstaður about what to do. The priest advised that everyone return home at Easter; he himself would come then and hold household devotions to see how matters stood. 

Fighting the The Hörghóll-Móri

On Easter Monday the people returned, and the priest came, bringing with him the farmer from Böðvarshólar. The priest began to read, but when he finished the gospel, the ghost attacked the house so furiously that the beams creaked. The priest stopped reading, and he and the farmer from Böðvarshólar went outside. They saw the ghost moving about; he avoided them and drew back. 

They pursued him up to the ridge above the farm, called Kjölur. There they caught him and wrestled with him for a while. They could not subdue him entirely, but after that he was much diminished and did no harm, so that people could live at the farm again.

Kjölur: Source

It is also said that the The Hörghóll-Móri weakened after his encounter with a man called Þórður the Strong at Bjarnastaðir. It is said that they fought all night and tore apart a new bridge. Þórður could not get a hold of The Hörghóll-Móri anywhere because he was most like a tangled woolen fleece. Þórður was never the same after that.

Kristján, the farmer’s son, returned home and lived there many years, married, and took over Hörghóll after his father. He could never be left alone, for the ghost always pursued him. Once he was alone on a journey and was later found dead on Vesturhópsvatn, the lake near Hörghóll. 

People attributed his death to the power of the ghost. Since then, the ghost has harmed no one, though people have often thought they saw him, and those from Hörghóll have often been troubled. 

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References:

Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Hörghóls-Móri (2) – Wikiheimild

https://ismus.is/tjodfraedi/sagnir_aevintyri/1223

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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