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Móhúsa-Skotta and her Haunting Companions within the Chilly Winter Nights


After dying a chilly winter evening, a younger lady died and rose because the terrifying ghost now generally known as Móhúsa-Skotta. Collectively along with her companions she was mentioned to be behind horrible accidents, and even deaths.

A ghost mentioned to have plagued Iceland for ages in addition to teaming up with different ghosts to create havoc, the legend concerning the Móhúsa-Skotta has change into one of many extra well-known ghosts in Iceland. 

Learn extra: Try all ghost tales from Iceland

Móhús is a small farm within the Stokkseyri district of Eyrarbakki on the south coast of Iceland. Jón ríki Þórðarson (Jón the wealthy) lived near the small fishing village. He was well-known within the South for his wealth within the late 18th century, and likewise being the goal for the haunting mentioned to be happening within the neighborhood. 

When Jón was younger, he was very poor, however grew extremely wealthy with little cash when he managed to purchase land at a really low value solely a 12 months after coming to Stokkseyri. Due to how rapidly he went from rags to riches, folks began to suppose he had made a take care of the satan to get wealthy and there’s a utterly separate legend about some magical pants product of human pores and skin that gave him the cash.

However let’s concentrate on the evening the haunting began. Jón first lived in Refstokkur close to Ferjunes (Óseyrarnes). On the time when the story was written down within the nineteenth century, it was abandoned. 

One evening, a younger lady got here to him and requested for a spot to remain the evening. Nobody is aware of who she was, the place she got here from or the place she was going. The wind was howling, the evening was black and she or he was each hungry and chilly. Jón turned her away and she or he needed to spend the evening outdoors within the chilly. She died this evening, however though her mortal life was ending, one other haunted one was nearly to start out. After her loss of life, she walked again to Jón’s home and adopted him for a very long time as a ghost haunting him generally known as Móhúsa-Skotta.

Feminine Icelandic Ghosts

One of many well-liked names for the feminine ghosts was Skotta that basically means to dangle, like hair or a tail. This comes from the normal Icelandic headwear ladies wore along with the Faldbúningur attire worn because the seventeenth century. Besides the ghosts are mentioned to have the headgear on backwards so it streams behind her like a tail. 

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.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.
The Skotta Ghost: Icelandic girl within the 18th century faldbúningur with the spaðafaldur cap that the Skotta usually are described sporting.

Skotta falls below the Outdated Norse Mythology of a Fylgja, that have been supernatural spirits that adopted or latched onto folks. They might be animals, they might be goddesses or are available goals. 

However the tales of the Fylga advanced and after we examine Skotta, they weren’t like totem animals or somebody coming along with your prophecy like within the previous sagas. Icelandic ghosts are sometimes described as being not like apparitions, however in actual flesh that interacted with the dwelling. And after we examine Skotta, the feminine model, she was extremely harmful and likewise lethal.

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.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.
Icelandic Ghosts and Ghouls: Fylgja or the draugr ghosts connected themselves to those who they haunted. They might 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 the entire descendants of the unique individual it cursed. Most frequently the feminine line of the household. // 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 Adopted

She was known as Móhúsa-Skotta due to the place the place she haunted, and spent her time tormenting him and taking part in methods on him as revenge. After Jón moved west to Móhús, she spoiled the whole lot for him as a lot as she might and killed livestock each for him and others proper in entrance of him. 

She was so near him that she gnawed aside one after the other the socks on his hamstrings and the laces of his sneakers, and it was to such an extent that regardless that he placed on new socks within the morning, they have been in items by night. 

On the identical time, Jón solely wore brief ties or strings round his neck because it was mentioned that he did it in order that Móhúsa-Skotta could be much less prone to strangle him as a result of she would seize the string, not his throat.

It was additionally attributed to Móhúsa-Skotta that she had made a person go insane in broad daylight in Ranakoti in Stokkseyri. He was discovered lifeless and strangled there in a effectively close by. Nonetheless, they considered her as tolerable till she teamed up with Sels-Móri, one other native ghost that was type of mentioned to have been her husband.

The Sels-Móri Groups upp with Skotta

In Eyrarbakki in Árnessýsla there’s a ghost known as Sels-Móri.A Móri is a male ghost in Iceland. When a male is raised from the lifeless for such a objective like vengeance, he isn’t known as a ghost, however a Móri. Usually 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.

A person named Einar lived in Borg in Hraunshverfi within the late 18th century. He used to present shelter to boys who had come wandering like many different folks at the moment from the east of Skaftafellsýsla after the Skaftá Fireplace raged there. This can be a multi-year eruption of the volcanic system that started on June 8, 1783. 

It was winter, however when one of many boys requested for lodging, Einar turned him away, simply as Jon had as soon as executed to the little lady. The boy was each hungry and poorly clothed and stayed outdoors throughout the winter evening not removed from Borg. The subsequent morning he was discovered lifeless in a pond or ravine known as Skersflóð. 

Though the boy was correctly buried, it steadily grew to become clear that he adopted Einar and his descendants. It’s mentioned specifically that he adopted Þuríð and Salgerði, Einar’s sisters’ daughters who lived in Efraseli for a very long time. As a result of he was there the longest, he’s known as Sels-Móri. 

Learn Extra: Sels-Móri on this story has the identical title as one other unlucky soul who ended up haunting for generations. Try The Sels-Móri or Ghost of Þorgarður Haunting for Generations for the entire story.

Who grew to become a ghost first is unsure, however once they discovered one another and teamed up, havoc and unrest ensued. It isn’t talked about that he killed any males whereas he was alone within the warmth earlier than he got here to the throne of Móhúsa-Skotta as talked about earlier. 

Sels-Móri and Móhúsa-Skotta Takes Tomas With Them

One winter a person named Tómás in Norðurkot on Eyrarbakki went east to Stokkseyri for Christmas. For the feast he purchased smoked meat and by dusk he was heading residence, however stopped someplace alongside the best way for some purpose. 

The subsequent morning he was discovered lifeless, dismembered, blue and bloody. He was present in Arnhólma, not removed from the place Sels-Móri had initially died from publicity. As a result of he was discovered ripped to items, 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, folks noticed the three ghosts touring the place earlier than there have been solely the 2, Sels-Móri and Móhúsa-Skotta, and other people believed that Tómás had change into their third companion. Individuals of Stokkseyri by no means wished to exit after twilight in concern of encountering one of many three ghosts that have been tormenting the dwelling. In addition to, nobody wished to change into the fourth ghost. 

Móhúsa-Jón felt the necessity to intervene on this so far as Móhúsa-Skotta was involved, who was at all times thought-about the worst of the three and was haunting the place due to his actions. He needed to do away with them someway. 

The Exorcism of the Ghosts

That winter Móhúsa-Jón wrote to Jón Magnússon who labored as a farmer at Þykkvabæjarklaustri, a tenth century cloister. The monastery, which was of the Augustinian order, survived till the Reformation and was lengthy rich and influential.

Though the monastery was closed off for hundreds of years already, Jón Magnússon tended the land and knew a factor or two about these sorts of hauntings and how you can do away with them. He was provided thirty authorities rigsdaler to come back from the farm at Eyrarbakki and finish the haunting. 

Móhúsa-Jón paid him half of the prize prematurely when he arrived and Jón Magnússon got down to vanquish the ghosts. Throughout that journey, it’s believed that Cloister-Jón managed to destroy or exorcize Móhúsa-Skotta and Tómási, as a result of they have been by no means seen on Eyrarbakki after that. 

Nevertheless, some say that Cloister-Jón took Móhúsa-Skotta east with him, and she or he virtually drowned him and all of the crew members who at the moment have been being transported throughout the Þjórsá on the Sandhóla ferry. However Cloister-Jón claimed that Móhúsa-Skotta actually had been eradicated throughout his mission. 

However he didn’t handle to do something about Sels-Móri and due to this, Móhúsa-Jón didn’t initially wish to pay him the remaining half of the wage. Based on Cloister-Jón, Sels-Móri was nowhere to be discovered and that his good title needs to be sufficient to consider his phrases. Móhúsa-Jón didn’t care about all of it anymore, or at the least wished it throughout and paid him, though they parted with it not more than contentedly and by no means reconciled.

However what occurred with Sels-Móri? There are people who say that he didn’t get cleansed from the earth and other people say that he’s alone wandering round Bakkann, howling within the chilly wind that killed him, knocking on doorways, asking if anybody is keen to let him in. .

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References:

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

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

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

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

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