A household cursed by a ghost known as Sels-Móri was mentioned to be haunted for 9 generations in 18th and nineteenth century Iceland. Concentrating on the ladies within the household, it’s mentioned that it was the ghost that drove all of them mad.
What stands out from Icelandic ghost tales, was that always, the ghost was not only a shadow or whisper, creaking within the partitions or lurking within the nook of the eyes. The Icelandic ghosts have been typically like flesh and blood and harmful. Not solely may they harm you, they might observe you and your loved ones, plaguing them with misfortune, and just like the ghost story of Sels-Móri or the ghost of Þorgarður, was behind insanity that gave the impression to be handed down within the households.
Learn Extra: Try all ghost tales from Iceland
A ghost story spanning over generations in addition to travelling over the whole nation is the story of Móri of Sel, the place the story was mentioned to have began. The story options an Icelandic ghost known as a fylgja from nineteenth century Iceland, that has roots again to the Viking age. And to grasp the idea of this fairly lengthy household saga, it might be useful to how the fylgja advanced and operated via time.
Fylgur/Fylgja: The Previous Norse Ghost
There have been many several types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. Certainly one of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we will discover traces again in Iceland because the twelfth century. These have been initially a ghost of a really bodily substance that interacted with the actual world as in the event that they have been part of it nonetheless.
Learn Additionally: Try the Irish Fetch ghost, that has an enormous resemblance to the norse Fylgja.
Fylgja connected themselves to those that they haunted. They may additionally connect themselves to buildings and even whole cities. Many tales additionally discuss it being a generational haunting the place the ghost decides to hang-out all the descendants of the unique particular person it cursed. Most frequently the feminine line of the household. Maybe due to its origin as a feminine spirit.
Within the Fylgjur tales from the center ages, the spirits might be a helpful one, nearly like a messenger to assist with the particular person’s path of life, some kind of totem animal or guiding spirit. However when the folklorist of Iceland began gathering outdated oral tales from farmers within the seventeenth century, the Fylgjur ghosts had drastically modified from its pagan outdated norse roots, all through time, spiritual perception and superstition.
One factor that basically modified was the Fylgjur’s objective of haunting the residing, and it was not often to be of any assist. Many tales discuss how they have been wronged and it induced their dying. They then got here again to take revenge and have been harmful, even lethal.
Sels-Móri or Þorgarður
The story begins with a totally completely different household than the one which ended up being cursed. It begins with the life and dying of the ghost itself. There as soon as was a married couple that lived at a farm close to the river Elliðá, not too removed from Reykjavik.
The story was compiled by Jón Árnason from tales circulated within the southwest of Iceland). Valgerður Jónsdóttir (1771–1856) and Hólmfríður Þorvaldsdóttir (1812–1876) are additionally listed as sources. There are a minimum of 18 individuals by identify, and a minimum of 15 are verified historic individuals.
The farm had a employee named Þorgarðurand it was rumored that the spouse had an affair with him. The farmer typically needed to exit for trivial duties whereas Þorgarður was again residence alone together with her and this acquired individuals speaking.
One winter evening there was a horrible storm when the farmer was out working and tending to his livestock. He didn’t come residence the next evening and a search social gathering was put collectively. The following morning they went to search for him and located him useless within the river and it regarded like a homicide.
Þorgarður was instantly suspected of this due to his status, and most consider that he truly did it. Despite the fact that he denied that he had killed his grasp, he was sentenced in line with what the story says, both dying by hanging or paying up with some fines and he must be allowed to redeem his life with a sheep price. Nevertheless, he didn’t have the cash.
At the moment there lived a person named Jón at Seli in Seltjarnarnes east of Reykjavik, often called a diplomatic statesman with a sort coronary heart. Þorgarður went to Jón and begged him to save lots of his life and get out of the sentence.
Jón was reluctant to take action at first, however Þorgarður vowed to serve him and his descendants so long as he had the power and age. Jón, touched by the person’s plight, agreed to assist and commenced to rely the ransom on the desk that Þorgarður wanted to flee hanging.
When Jón counted the cash, his spouse Guðrún entered the lounge and requested what he was doing with all the cash. Jón mentioned he was going to save lots of the lifetime of the person. She requested him not to do this silly factor and swept up all the cash in her apron with one hand.
Jón modified his thoughts and agreed together with his spouse. When she walked out of the room with the cash in her apron she checked out Þorgard and mentioned: “Let every one undergo for his actions.”
Þorgard answered: “There will likely be no parting with us right here; subsequently it’s not more than for me to see that my farewell follows you and your loved ones to the ninth level.”
Then Þorgarður went away and was captured by the authorities, both in Iceland or overseas. It’s believed that he was hanged in Kópavogur and that after his dying, he instantly went again and sought out the Selsjóns as a fylgja ghost.
The Hauntings for 9 Generations
As he had promised, he adopted them wherever they went, particularly the spouse. Guðrúna was then each despondent and delirious and haunted for the remainder of her life. As a result of this ghost was connected to Sel for a very long time, he was known as Sels-Móri.
A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the useless for such a objective like vengeance, he’s not known as a ghost, however a Móri. Typically the time period Fylgja ghost was used interchangeably with the Draug ghost. The feminine model of this vengeful ghost was known as Skotta. Móri means rust brown in Icelandic and the ghosts have been named so due to the colour of their garments.
The Selsjóns couple had one daughter named Þorgerður that will be the following sufferer of Sels-Móri’s haunting. She married Halldór Bjarnason, a distinguished farmer in Skildinganes. In addition to inheriting her dad and mom’ estates, she additionally inherited Sels-Móri of her household they known as ættarfylgja, which means one thing like an ancestral ghost.
That they had a son, Bjarni í Sviðholt, and it appears to be like just like the Sels-Móri skipped the male descendant of the household and he lived in peace. He was in all probability one of many members of the authorized court docket whom the legislation speaker Magnús Ólafsson appointed later to the Alþing of Öxará, 1798.
He had many kids and was identified to be pleasant and man, considering maybe that they have been freed from the haunting. They nonetheless knew concerning the Sels-Móri, and he was in these days typically known as Sviðholt’s ghost, however fairly often he was nonetheless related to the identify Þorgarður. However the ghost returned to hang-out the feminine descendants.
Bjarni’s second daughter, whose identify was Úríður, married Benedikt Björnsson, a pupil from Hítardal, who has been a priest in Fagranes for a very long time. She was the best clairvoyant, however such adversity came across her that she grew to become half-crazy and typically offended with every little thing and troublesome to reside with. Though the ghost of Sels-Móri was nearly a part of life in Icelandic folklore tradition, her madness was an excessive amount of for her husband.
Consequently, she divorced her husband and her sister Ragnheiður took her in who was married with a faculty trainer at Bessastaðir known as Jón Jónsson. The lecturers and households of Bessastaðaskóli typically lived in or near the varsity. At present that is residence of the President of Iceland and has at all times been necessary within the historical past of the nation and has at all times been the seat of chieftains and excessive officers.
Learn extra: One other well-known ghost is claimed to nonetheless linger at Bessastaðir. Try Apollonia Schwartzkopf the Ghost at Bessastadir
Úríður died there after a time of unstable paranoia. She would declare {that a} viper was stinging her and that one other lady known as Ingibjörg was stabbing her with a cobbler’s needle. This was believed to check with a lady who lived together with her and her husband earlier than they separated. This lady truly grew to become his second spouse after the divorce, so it begs to query what actually occurred earlier than she was despatched to her sister.
All of them believed that their ancestral ghost Sels-Móri who was the one behind her madness. Úriði is claimed to have mentioned throughout her matches of madness that she ought to have mentioned: “My sister, it’s higher to stab me,”
It appears to be like like her sister, Ragnheiður, was largely freed from the haunting, though the Sels-Móri was blamed when he induced the destruction of a mail boat that was misplaced in 1817 as a result of her first husband sailed with it. Sels-Móri was additionally the reason for the late Þórður Bjarnason’s dying, in Sviðholt; it’s nonetheless mentioned that he had haunted the youngsters of Ragnheiður, particularly her son, Björn.
Ragnheiðar’s kids, Particularly Bjarna Rector
It must be talked about right here on the identical time that Bjarni Halldórsson in Sviðholt had a sister named Jórunn who appears to have had nearly a parallel haunting along with her ancestral one. She was very reasonable and delightful and a person in Álftanes requested her to marry him. However she thought that he was beneath her and he or she rejected him. She would nevertheless by no means be rid of him.
He promised he would cling to her and her household, even when he was unable to get to her as a spouse. She married one named Eyjólf, and had a child lady. They hadn’t been collectively for lengthy when it grew to become obvious that Jórunn had psychological points, which solely elevated as time glided by, and ultimately, she went fully insane. This was believed to be due to the curse of the suitor she rejected in addition to the curse their household already was combating.
Her daughter Þorgerðr grew up and married Eggert Bjarnason, who was at the moment the priest at Snæfoksstaðir (Klausturhólum) in Grímsnes. She then went east with him and so they had kids collectively and it gave the impression to be positive. Maybe they’d escaped the curse by shifting away?
Time handed till Jórunn, Þorgerðr’s mom, died. There was no proof of that sickness in Þorgerði throughout her mom’s lifetime, as she had by no means come south since she went east, and it’s mentioned that Reverend Eggert was warned to not let her go south and by no means come past Sog or Álfvattan and wouldn’t blame her then.
However when Jórunn á Skógtjörn died, it’s mentioned that Þorgerður begged her husband to go south together with her to mourn her mom and he lastly agreed. That they had come south over Hellisheiði, south into Fóelluvötn above Helliskot when the curse hit her. In accordance with the tales she was struck with a a dizzy spell and that she was by no means the identical once more. She had inherited Sels-Móri. Additionally they believed that her mom’s ghost and fylgidraugur, had met her daughter there and adopted her from then on so long as she lived
Breaking the Generational Curse and Haunting
She didn’t reside very lengthy nevertheless, and he or she died shortly after going south. The youngsters of Reverends Eggerts and Þorgerður didn’t fare effectively with both, and two of their daughters have been additionally mentioned to have gone loopy, as so lots of the girls of their household line had accomplished earlier than them.
However Sels-Móri made a promise all these generations in the past, and after the ninth technology, the curse was lifted and the household line, if there nonetheless is somebody round, is claimed to be lastly free from it.
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References:
Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Sels-Móri eða Þorgarður – Wikiheimild
(PDF) Icelandic Fylgjur Tales and a Doable Previous Norse Context
Chapter 3 The Fylgjur of Iceland: Attendant Spirits and a Distorted Sense of Guardianship
