After insulting some Dutch fishermen, a ghost was sent to torture the local women in Eyjafjörður in Iceland. For a long time, The Eyjafjörður Skotta was said to have been behind several deaths of both cattle and people.
Along the longest fjord in Iceland, all the way north, there was a ghost that got her named from the place she was roaming. Her name was Eyjafjörður-Skotta.
Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland
It is said that some Dutchmen came ashore at Vöðluþing by the fjord. German, Dutch and French traders became more prominent in the mid-17th century for fishing business. The Dutchmen were, according to the stories, very bold and went after the local women. Something that the women themselves did not care for at all. One of the women then mocked them with gestures and possibly some curses, which angered them greatly and made them want revenge.
When they later returned overseas, they purchased from a sorcerer the sending of a female ghost to Iceland. According to the story this happened in the Netherlands, however, the way it went about in the stories is very quintessentially an Icelandic haunting where they raise someone from the dead to send on a revenge mission. This is where the Skotta ghost comes in.
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.
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.
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 Eyjafjörður Skotta Haunting the Fjords
The ghost the Dutchmen raised was called Eyjafjörður Skotta because of her haunting territory. She was to kill and torment all the women in Vöðluþing. It is said that she first came ashore at Sauðanesi on Upsaströnd, a stretch of coastline west of Eyjafjörður.
Today Sauðanesi is a deserted farm and has been since 1957. But in between 1597-1680 Þorvaldur the poet Rögnvaldsson lived there. He was considered a very learned man and was watching when the Skotta came ashore. Some, however, have heard that it was then Þorvaldur the old Magnússon who lived there, not very long before, and both were called poets of spells and much learned; but more people reckon it was Þorvaldur Rögnvaldsson.
Þorvaldur was down by the sea when he saw this ghost approaching, while the Dutch were fishing out at sea. She appeared as a woman in foreign dress, with a red peaked cap and bare arms up to the elbows. Þorvaldur addressed her in verse and asked who she was and what her errand might be. She said she was Flemish (others say Finnish) and that her task was to torment or else kill all the women in Eyjafjörður.
He managed to stop her from harming the women, but she was so powerfully conjured that Þorvaldur could not prevail entirely against her. He was forced to allow her to kill his best cow, and in addition to kill a cow on every third farm in Eyjafjörður, and to play other tricks upon men and livestock for a long time. She was also said to have been behind the murder of a drowned man in the Eyjafjörður River.
Newest Posts
- The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins. - The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies. - The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English. - Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people. - The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests. - The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster. - The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark? - The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life. - The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area. - Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery? - Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. - The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.
References:
Sauðanes (Upsaströnd) – Wikipedia, frjálsa alfræðiritið
Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Eyjafjarðar-Skotta – Wikiheimild