Hidden away in a bone for years, the ghost and Skotta of Ábær was despatched on a mission to harass a farmer in northern Iceland. Nonetheless, they misplaced management of her, and have since been haunting all of them.
On the japanese financial institution of the glacial river Austari-Jökulsá, north in Iceland an deserted farm sits with a haunted story that stretches a lot additional again in time and throughout the northern a part of the nation. For a very long time, the Áabær farm, which means the farm between rivers, was the placement of a Skotta ghost, and since it was a really recognized ghost story on the time, the origins even have loads of completely different variations.
Learn extra: Take a look at all ghost tales from Iceland
However to get again to the place it began, we’ve got to journey to Skagafjörður to the time when the ghost was known as each The Árbær or Nýibær Skotta, relying on what model of the story you get.
The Nýibær Skotta Origin
Ólafur was the title of a farmer who lived at Tinnársel in Austurdalur in Skagafjörður; he was thought-about versed in sorcery. As soon as he was touring in Svartárdalur in Húnavatnssýsla and got here to Bergsstaðir at night time, and as he rode previous the churchyard, he occurred to look in and noticed a person wrestling with a newly-raised ghost.
The ghost was nearly to overpower him. Then Ólafur known as out to the person: “Chunk her within the left breast, you cursed one.” Ólafur rode on his manner, and it’s mentioned that the person used this recommendation and it labored. However the man conceived envious hatred towards Ólafur for figuring out higher, and it’s mentioned he directly raised the ghost and despatched it in opposition to Ólafur. Ólafur, nonetheless, was ready together with his sorcery and compelled the ghost down right into a horse or sheep bone, put it in a chest, and saved it there for the remainder of his life. However simply earlier than his demise, he requested his daughter Guðbjörg to burn the bone after he had handed away, however to watch out to not take away the stopper until she was in dire want.
Fylgur/Fylgja: The Outdated Norse Ghost
There have been many several types of ghosts in Norse mythology and that the vikings believed in. One among them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja ghost, or Attending Spirits that we will discover traces again in Iceland for the reason that twelfth century. These have been initially a ghost of a really bodily substance that interacted with the true world as in the event that they have been part of it nonetheless.
Learn Additionally: Take a look at the Irish Fetch ghost, that has an enormous resemblance to the norse Fylgja.
Fylgja connected themselves to those that they haunted. They might additionally connect themselves to buildings and even complete 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. Maybe due to its origin as a feminine spirit.
Within the Fylgjur tales from the center ages, the spirits might be a useful one, virtually like a messenger to assist with the individual’s path of life, some kind of totem animal or guiding spirit. However when the folklorist of Iceland began accumulating 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 actually modified was the Fylgjur’s objective of haunting the dwelling, and it was hardly ever to be of any assist. Many tales discuss how they have been wronged and it brought about their demise. They then got here again to take revenge and have been harmful, even lethal.
Feminine Icelandic Ghosts
One of many in style names for the feminine ghosts was Skotta that actually means to dangle, like hair or a tail. This comes from the normal Icelandic headwear ladies wore along with the Faldbúningur clothes worn for the reason that seventeenth century. Besides the ghosts are mentioned to have the headgear on backwards so it streams behind her like a tail.
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 desires.
However the tales of the Fylga developed and once we examine Skotta, they weren’t like totem animals or somebody coming together with your prophecy like within the outdated sagas. Icelandic ghosts are sometimes described as being not like apparitions, however in actual flesh that interacted with the dwelling. And once we examine Skotta, the feminine model, she was extremely harmful and likewise lethal.
The Completely different Variations of the Legend
Now, as most legends which are well-known and outdated, there might be completely different variations on it. On this case, it’s primarily the names and relations which are jumbled up. Somebody says that Ólafur was truly a person known as Jón who lived at Ábær and had a daughter named Guðbjörg. In different variations, Jón was Guðbjörg’s husband. In some variations, her husband was known as Eiríkur.
At the moment there was a farmer at Tinnársel or Nýibær named Sigurður or Guðmundur. He was relatively harsh and wished to maintain Ábær’s livestock from grazing there. The couple at Ábær wished to drive Sigurður away, however it didn’t succeed. Then it got here into Guðbjörg’s thoughts that now can be the time to open the bone. She pulled out the plug, and smoke burst forth from it. Then she noticed a fly or smoke fly out of it and instantly became the type of a lady, who requested what she ought to do.
The Skotta is described as being the scale of a twelve-year-old lady, although generally she has appeared troll-like. She wears a brown homespun skirt and a black wool sweater; generally she has been seen in a sheepskin jacket or garments and with a brown peaked cap with out a tassel.
The Haunting of The Skotta of Ábær
When Guðbjörg conjured the ghost that her father had left her, she ordered her directly to go and drive Sigurður away from his farm. In some variations she truly tells the ghost to go kill him.
The ghost-woman went instantly and tormented Sigurður so severely that he needed to sleep at different farms, for he mentioned he had no peace to sleep at house due to the satan who pursued him. He managed to defend himself from her killing him, however she left him half-crippled. The next spring Sigurður deserted the cottage due to this misfortune.
However when Skotta had completed her mission, she returned house to Guðbjörg and requested the place she ought to now go. Guðbjörg was then at a loss for what to say, and so the Skotta started to torment her, and it ended with Guðbjörg changing into insane. Insanity has ever since run strongly in her household, and one girl carefully associated to her, probably her daughter, Guðrún who killed herself by chopping her personal throat.
Many tales have been advised concerning the Skotta and nonetheless are, of her mischief; she kills each sheep and cattle at Merkigil and elsewhere. Generally she is seen climbing up among the many beams of the baðstofa and hanging there at night time. As soon as she was seen sitting on a dung heap, throwing manure clods, whereas Jón and Guðbjörg’s bull was within the cowshed. As soon as males went to fetch a breeding bull at Miklabær, however simply earlier than they got here, a heifer within the cowshed set free a horrible bellow and dropped useless. The priest, Reverend J. J., who was there, refused to allow them to have the bull, saying they’d poor spirit-following for the reason that Skotta was with them.
After Guðmundur the farmer had moved away from Nýibær to Krákugerði, he as soon as rode out on Uppsalamýrar at nightfall. Earlier than he realized it, it was as if his horse’s legs have been swept from below it, and Guðmundur was thrown off and broke his leg. When he stood up once more, he noticed the Skotta hopping throughout the moor and disappearing behind a hill.
As soon as Páll the shepherd fell asleep within the sheep-house at Merkigil, within the place known as Miðhús. As he was drifting off, the Skotta got here and tried to strangle him, however he awoke, after which she vanished.
When Hjálmar the farmer lived at Nýibær (some say at Bólu), he as soon as stumbled on the Skotta as she was killing a sheep. He drove her out past the Tinná river, and he or she has by no means managed to cross it once more, for Hjálmar was thought-about resolute.
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References:
Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Ábæjar-Skotta – Wikiheimild
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Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri/Draugasögur/Árbæjar- eða Nýjabæjar-Skotta – Wikiheimild
Ísmús | Rímur af Fertram og Plató
