Ruling her Elingaard Manor house with an iron fist, the noble Birgitte Kaas is said to haunt it in her afterlife as well. But what is the truth of her strange disappearance and whispers about a deal with the devil?
Many people speak of strange sounds and fleeting shadows in old houses. Few expect to be announced by scent alone. At Elingaard Manor in Fredrikstad, visitors have reported a heavy, sweet perfume drifting through empty rooms.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway
It is said to belong to a woman who has been dead for more than three hundred years. And as the house now is often used for parties, weddings and gatherings, it is said you should put an extra plate, as the ghost of the house wants a seat.
The Elindgaard Manor House
Elingaard manor is located in Onsøy outside Fredrikstad city. The site has an unknown age, but has visible cultural monuments from the Bronze Age onwards.
The buildings at Elingaard have burned several times. The first known fire was in 1645. In this great fire, all the buildings on the farm were lost, along with the household goods, movable property and archives.
The current building was built in 1749 after a major fire in 1746. In the middle of the main building is still the original basement from before the great fire in 1645. The main building had a floor area of approx. 1000 square meters and two full floors. The residence was thus among the largest in all of Norway.
Elingaard is currently operated as a museum and is used as a venue for weddings and local associations. During the summer season, Elingaard is open to the public, and many locals remember coming to the manor house and be scared of the tales of the ghost said to be lingering.
The Lady of Elingaard
Birgitte Christine Kaas Huitfeldt was born at Elingaard on 2 October 1682 to parents Stiftamtmann Hans Kaas and Sophie Amalie Bielke. Through her maternal line in the Bjelkeætten, she is a direct descendant of Mrs. Inger of Austrått. We know little about her upbringing, but she was orphaned when she was 18 years old.
She was married to a lieutenant general when she was 31 years, Henrik Jørgen Huitfeldt (1674-1751), and quickly gained a reputation for strict discipline and iron control. Among servants and locals she became known as General Birthe.
Kaas was a representative of the last nobility in Norway, and grew up and lived in an environment characterized by this. Nevertheless, the family struggled with poor finances. Though deeply religious and a writer of hymns, rumors followed her throughout her life. Some whispered that her piety hid darker alliances, even claims that she cooperated with the devil himself.
Whether feared or respected, she ruled Elingaard with authority, and few dared to challenge her will.
The Night She Vanished
On August 14, 1761, Birgitte Christine spent the evening at an inn, where she played a game of cards and drank a lot before taking a horse drawn carriage home in the rain. When the carriage arrived at Elingaard, it was empty. The general’s wife had vanished somewhere along the road.
Speculation spread quickly. Had the driver murdered her and hidden the body? Has something far stranger occurred? Some claimed she had been taken by darker forces, punished or claimed by something beyond human understanding.
The truth appeared more ordinary, though no less unsettling. Her body was later found and kept at the manor for three weeks before burial. When the coffin was finally removed, it was carried out through a small opening in the wall rather than a door. This old custom was meant to prevent the dead from returning to haunt their home.
A Presence That Remains
If the ritual failed, Elingaard still bears the consequence. Guests and staff have felt sudden cold drafts passing through closed rooms. Others have seen the figure of a noblewoman moving silently between the garden pavilion and the great hall. Lights switch themselves on and off during the night, and at times the organ bench is found moved into the old mortuary building without explanation.
Most unsettling of all is the perfume. Sweet, heavy, and unmistakably old fashioned, it appears without warning and lingers long after the rooms stand empty.
Since then, many have felt her presence, including Hans Pettersen, the former manager.
“I was cleaning the main living room when I saw her out of the corner of my eye,” he says. He still doubts it, but tells of rooms on the second floor where door handles have fallen off, guests have felt a cold draft and where the lights have been turned off. A cleaner saw the organ stool being moved in the morgue in 1996. A tenant had the room filled with the smell of perfume in the middle of the night in 1997..”
Birgitte Christine’s earthly remains rest in the burial chapel at Old Onsøy Church, laid to rest with a book in one hand and a switch of twigs in the other, symbols of wisdom and strength. Yet many believe her spirit never left Elingaard.
Generalfrua still walks her estate, enforcing her presence long after death, carried on cold air and the lingering scent of authority.
Paranormal Researchers
Over the years, many ghost stories have attached themselves to the manor house. Legends about a poor girl who were run over by a car when walking home are told about, a woman in white, a scorned bride running through the manor, crying as well as a black cat coming at guests. Many stories are now, often conflated with the story of General Birthe.
There is also a story about a headless man in a black cloak down in the garden. If he comes up to the window, he announces death.
The place has become a popular place for people to visit and try to catch a glimpse of the haunting that is supposedly going on there. One segment of her show, Lilli Bendriss, perhaps one of the country’s most well known psychics, went down to the basement. White there, the images that came to her overwhelmed her so she had to storm out of the room, not wanting to get to the bottom of it all.
But what happened in that basement all those years ago, and what the possible connection to Birgitte was, we will probably never know.
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References:
Her får Lilli Bendriss nok: – Visste bare at jeg måtte komme meg ut
FLERE GJENFERD SOM OGSÅ VILLE VÆRE MED – Issuu
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCQ8WM
Birgitte Christine Kaas (1682–1761) – lokalhistoriewiki.no