The haunting of the Blue man, or Blåmannen on the cobalt mine, Modum Blaafarveværk in Norway has been advised for ages now. What actually lies contained in the darkness of the mines?
Blaafarveværket was Norway’s largest mine and likewise Norway’s largest industrial enterprise within the first half of the nineteenth century and is the biggest and best-preserved mining museum in Europe. May it’s that it’s additionally one of the haunted ones?
Learn Extra: Try all ghost tales from Norway
Far contained in the previous cobalt mines of Blaafarveværket in Modum, a determine has been reported for almost two centuries. The tunnels as soon as rang with the strikes of hammers and the clatter of ore carts as staff extracted the cobalt-rich stone used to make the well-known deep blue pigment. However beneath the sweat and trade lurked a narrative each miner knew: the warning spirit referred to as Blåmannen.
A Shadow in Uniform Haunting the Deep Mines
Blåmannen (The Blue Man) was mentioned to look carrying a miner’s uniform, his lamp burning with an uncanny, bluish glow. He by no means spoke. He merely confirmed himself earlier than the catastrophe. Miners claimed he emerged from the darker shafts simply moments earlier than a collapse, his presence a silent sign to get out whereas there was nonetheless time. Those that noticed him whispered that he seemed extra resigned than horrifying, as if burdened with an obligation he couldn’t escape.
In keeping with Kai Hunstadbråten’s article, “The Blue Man within the Rock at Modum“, the Blue Man can also be mentioned to have been referred to as “Hans med knappene” (Hans with the buttons), because of the Blue Man’s uniform. Hunstadbråten additionally claims that the miners referred to as one of many open pits at Nordgruvene “The Blue Man’s Mine”.
One other miner who claimed to have met the Blue Man was Hans Simen Røtter. He additionally labored within the cobalt mines within the nineteenth century. One story goes:
“As soon as when Hans Simen Røtter was burning a log at Norsgruva […] a blue man got here to him […] and requested him to exit, as a result of the mine was not secure. However Røtter now needed to set the hearth first, and wouldn’t go. Then the blue man got here again one or two extra instances and virtually threatened him to go, and no sooner had he come out than the log collapsed.”
The Christmas Collapse of 1854
Essentially the most chilling encounter got here in December 1854. Seven staff entered a slim tunnel, unaware that the helps had grown dangerously unstable. Deep inside, Blåmannen appeared earlier than them, striding towards them with urgency. Solely when he pointed towards the exit and shoved the lead employee backward did they grasp the hazard. The lads fled in a panic, however the final of them was buried beneath the collapse. The only survivor was the one who had been pushed away first.
It was December thirteenth and Christmas was coming. Miner Ole Torstensen observed {that a} fox was following him on his option to the mines. This omen may imply a sudden loss of life, however what was he to do? The boss was not going to provide him the break day simply due to superstition. Legend has it that a number of staff noticed the Blue Man that day, and that birds pecking ominously on the home windows of the sugar home the place the employees slept. Ole Bøenstøa was additionally going to work that day, and maybe he and Ole Torstensen talked about the omens to one another as they set off down the mine shaft to work. It was so slim that the eight staff needed to stroll in a single file.
After they had gone slightly means in, a shadowy man out of the blue got here in direction of them. He was wearing a blue miner’s uniform and held an oil lamp in his hand. The blue man checked out them and pointed in direction of the exit, which if he needed them to show round. However the miners didn’t cease. The blue man disappeared, nevertheless it wasn’t lengthy earlier than he reappeared and needed them out. This time they couldn’t be persuaded both.
The miners have been now stressed. For the third and last time, the Blue Man appeared within the darkness. This time he went straight for the primary employee in line and tried to push him out of the mine. They realized that this was a warning they needed to heed, however by then it was too late. The mine started to break down round them.
Folks outdoors heard the terrifying roar. The oldest miners rapidly realized what had occurred. A landslide! When the lots of rock had settled, they might hear the trapped staff’ determined cries for assist. They managed to drag three males alive from the landslide, however one in all them died afterwards. 5 males have been discovered useless. One among them was Ole Torstensen. Ole Bøenstøa got here out of the incident unhurt, despite the fact that the 2 have been standing proper subsequent to one another when the landslide got here. Was it the Blue Man who saved Bøenstøa, whereas the encounter with the fox made Torstensen’s fateful day?
From that day on, Blåmannen was not seen as a guardian spirit. He grew to become a grim omen, a ghost tied to loss of life and destroy whether or not he wished it or not.
The place Did Blåmannen Come From?
After the Napoleonic Wars, the enterprise was taken over by the personal house owners Benjamin Wegner and Baron Benecke with Wegner as director, and their possession interval from 1822–1848 is named the works’ heyday, and attainable when the rumours about Blåmannen emerged.
One of many oldest written sources although, units the emergence of Blåmannen to the late 1840s when a person retold a narrative in a newspaper referred to as Buskeruds Blad from 1903, solely signed O:
Mom usually advised me about an incident that occurred at one of many Blaafarveværket’s pits at Modum within the late 1840s, when a person by the title of Røtter, who labored within the so-called Nordpit, was alerted in a miraculous means, so he prevented being crushed by the collapsing pit.
At evening he was busy in one in all tunnels burning “Stull”. The fireplace blazed brilliant and forged its shine via the darkish Tunnels. Røtter stands along with his again to the hearth and warms himself, when a younger man comes as much as him from one of many aspect passages of the pits and says: “You need to get out rapidly”.
Røtter was amazed on the younger man’s look, when he knew that there was not a human being apart from himself within the pit that evening.
He replied: “No, I can’t try this.” The determine disappears, however comes again after a couple of minutes and says to him: “Sure, now you need to go”. Røtter then replied once more: “No, I can’t; I’ve to maintain the hearth and might’t go away my publish”.
The determine disappears, however instantly comes again, goes proper as much as him, follows him to the ladder and says: “Now rise up”.
He ran up the ladder as quick as he may, after which went into a close-by chair room and sat down on a bench. However he had hardly sat down earlier than he heard an enormous bang, and the bottom shook. Proper after there may be one other bang, extra violent than the primary, the door bursts open, and he thought the mine was collapsing.
Now it was quiet. He started to marvel what had occurred, however didn’t dare to exit; he needed to attend till morning. Then he got here right down to my dad and mom and advised them what had occurred that evening. When folks got here to the mine within the morning, the entire tunnel the place he had been working had collapsed and have been the banging sounds he had been listening to.
Who was the mysterious younger man who made him go away the pit, in order that his life was saved on the final second? Within the mines, as talked about earlier than, there was nobody however himself. The determine was a good-looking, younger man, carrying blue garments with a lower, which was not used round there.
After I learn some items in your journal about “Visions and Omens” a while in the past, I considered writing down what Mom has advised me so many instances.
Was it a Warning?
– O.
The Warning Nonetheless Stands
Even now, guests to Blaafarveværket generally converse of a dim blue gentle flickering deep throughout the closed tunnels or the sound of footsteps pacing in shafts which were empty for generations. Guides inform the previous legend quietly, and with a gravity that means they consider each phrase.
One factor stays fixed within the tales. In the event you ever glimpse Blåmannen standing at the hours of darkness along with his lamp raised, don’t hesitate.
Run.
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References:
Buskeruds Blad, fredag 25. desember 1903
Halloween spesial – Blaafarveværket
DØDENS BUDBRINGER i koboltgruvene på Modum – Issuu
