The Icelandic Ghost Story of The White Cap

The story about the girl and her meeting with a ghost in the graveyard and the white cap she took from it has been retold for centuries in Iceland.

The story about the White Cap is an Icelandic ghost story from the old times, although how old is uncertain, as it is now turned into a folktale that has gone through many retellings. It tells the story about a nameless boy and girl that took something from a ghost and had to pay dearly for it.

The Ghost story was retold from its oral story in Icelandic Legends by Jón Arnason who traveled the country and collected the folktales and ghost stories in the 1800s inspired by the work the Grimm brothers did in Germany in the same area.

The Ghost and its White Cap

The little boy and girl lived close to a church in a small village in Iceland. The boy was a mischievous boy and had a habit of trying to scare the girl when he had the opportunity. But the more he tried to get a scare out of the girl, the more used she got to it, and in the end, nothing faced her anymore. And everything she saw she thought was strange, she was sure it had to be one of the boy’s tricks.

One day while they were washing clothes, the girl was sent to the churchyard by her mother. The linen they had just washed was hung up there to dry. The girl went unafraid into the graveyard and started to fill her basket with the fresh linen when she looked up and saw someone sitting on a tomb close to her. The figure was dressed in all white and she thought instinctively it had to be the boy that was up to one of his tricks, so she wasn’t afraid and figured she would call his bluff.

The girl ran up to the figure on the tomb and pulled off its cap as she said out loud that he would not be able to frighten her this time.

She then went home with the linen, but when she came back, the boy was the first one that greeted her when she reached her cottage. No way he could have reached home before she did and she started to fear the truth.

This was not the only strange thing though, as when they sorted through the linen, they found the cap that she had pulled off from the figure on the tomb. The White Cap, although white was full of mold and earth. They all then understood that it had been a ghost she had encountered, and now, the whole village was paralyzed with fear.

The Icelandic Ghost on the Tomb

The next day, the ghost was again sitting on the same tombstone like it had done the previous day, although now it was missing its White Cap. Nobody dared to approach it and had no idea as to how to rid themselves from it. Ghosts in icelandic ghost stories were often shown to act as flesh and bone that could interact with living humans, and sometimes, they were very dangerous. So they sent for help from a village close to them.

In that village there was an old man that claimed that they had to replace the white cap that the girl had taken from the girl to avoid any bad repercussions. It had to be done with everyone watching in complete silence, and it had to be the little girl that gave the cap back.

MOONMAUSOLEUM
The story about the girl and her meeting with a ghost in the graveyard and the white cap she took from it has been retold for centuries in Iceland. — **Icelandic Legends**: The ghost story of the “White Cap” comes from Iceland and was retold by Jón Arnason in Icelandic Legends as he was travelling around collecting oral tales around the country.

So the whole village gathered in the churchyard, watching as the little girl approached the ghost sitting on the tombstone, not really moving, not really showing any sign of what the ghost really wanted. She placed the White Cap on its head and asked if it was satisfied now.

The ghost looked up and answered: “Yes, but are you now satisfied?” as it raised its hand and hit her and the little girl fell over and died. The ghost then sank into the grave he was sitting on and was not seen again.