The Girl Who Married a Werewolf, and Other Creepy Folktales From Sweden

He made a deal to trade the ham for a mill that could produce anything and was told by the Devil how to stop the mill and restart it again at will. He returned home and quickly went to work, making any food or other object his heart desired. His brother was furious at this, angry that he had given his brother food, and now he seemed to be richer than him. Once his brother explained the mill, the richer brother offered him a large sum of money to buy it from him, but he never learned how to stop the mill.

He returned it to his brother, who forced him to pay even more money, and then went on to become absurdly rich. Eventually, a visiting merchant learned of the amazing abilities of the mill, and set about trying to find a way to get it from its owner, for he envied its abilities. He captained a ship and traveled the seas carrying a cargo of valuable salt.

After very difficult negotiations, for the man did not want to give up his mill, the captain was eventually able to buy it for a princely sum. He was worried that the man might want to renege on the deal, for it was a very valuable device, and so he immediately set out on his way. Before he had even reached home, his greed got the better of him, and he immediately set the mill to begin churning out salt. Unfortunately, like the rich brother, he had absolutely no clue how to stop the mill once it started.

It quickly sunk his ship, taking him to his death at the bottom of the sea. According to the tale, this is the reason why, today, the sea is full of salt. This tale begins with a bailiff who was infamous among the rest of the townsfolk for swindling people. Essentially nobody liked the man, and they constantly cursed his name, asking for the Devil to take him to hell so they could be done with him forever. The bailiff, being a swindler, immediately set about trying to con the Devil into a deal that would get him out of the trouble he was in.

He felt that if the Devil were going to do what people asked, then he should do what the bailiff asked as well. The Devil likes making deals with mortals for his own amusement, so he agreed to spend some time with the bailiff, and if someone they came across sincerely asked for someone to be taken by the Devil, then the Devil would take that person instead of the evil swindler.

First, they came upon a woman whose pig knocked over the butter she was churning. However, the bailiff still did not have his victory, because the Devil did not believe the mother truly wanted her child taken away. Finally, they came upon some farmers who were talking nearby, and the farmers saw the bailiff and the Devil together. The farmers pointed out the bailiff and cursed his name, asking for the Devil to take him away. True to his word, the Devil knew the farmers were being sincere, and dragged the bailiff down with him to the depths of hell.

A man had three daughters who were all married to trolls. The man went to visit one daughter, and she wished for beef broth for the meal and asked her father to get some. Instead, her troll husband simply rammed his head into a spike in the wall, and soon they had broth enough to eat. The troll even gave him a sack full of money and sent him on his way. The man left the sack lying on the ground, because he wished to hurry home to see if his pregnant cow had yet given birth. His wife told him it had not, and went back with him to get the money, but it was taken by a thief, and she was quite upset with him.

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Next, he went to visit another one of his daughters, and they needed light to see. The troll said candles were unnecessary and simply stuck his hand in the fire, giving them all the light they needed. This troll gave him two bags of money, and he lost them the same way as the first. His wife was frustrated, but once again he said he had learned his lesson. He then went to see his third daughter, and they wished for fish to eat. Her troll husband had them row out to the lake, and once his wife said his eyes looked green, he went into the water and came out with a multitude of fish. He gave his father-in-law three bags of money, which he lost foolishly in the same manner.

Once again, he claimed he had learned a valuable lesson. Not long after, the man was with his wife at home and they needed broth, so he tried to jam his head on a spike. Unfortunately, this failed to produce any broth, and he was miserable for a while afterward due to his self-inflicted injury.

Changeling - Wikipedia

Soon they needed light to see, and instead of candles, he burned himself sticking his hand in the fire, attempting to replicate what the troll had done. Eventually, they needed food, and his wife wished for fresh fish to eat. He wanted to show her he could be a good provider without buying food, and thus asked her to come with him in a boat to get the fish. They rowed out to the lake, and he asked her if his eyes were green, and she said no. Eventually, he simply convinced her to tell him his eyes looked green, although they did not.

Imitating the troll, he went into the water to scoop up the fish, and he never surfaced again. This story tells of a woman who married a pastor and all was well. They were well-respected in the community and wanted for nothing.

However, the woman secretly harbored a deep fear. Our agents will determine if the content reported is inappropriate or not based on the guidelines provided and will then take action where needed. Thank you for notifying us. The page you are attempting to access contains content that is not intended for underage readers. This item has not been rated yet. Did you ever hear about the girl who married a werewolf?

Or the man who was flayed by the Devil? What about the woman who was suckled to death by her own, dead baby? You may have heard them if you were raised in Sweden, but even if you weren't, you're about to have them told to you now. Within the pages of this little book you'll find 17 Swedish folktales that are weird, eerie and downright creepy! You'll learn how to get a snake out of your belly, how to blow up a troll, and why you should avoid men with green beards.

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Changeling

How does this content violate the Lulu Membership Agreement? From our Membership Agreement "Lulu is a place where people of all ages, backgrounds, experience, and professions can publish, sell, or buy creative content such as novels, memoirs, poetry, cookbooks, technical manuals, articles, photography books, children's books, calendars, and a host of other content that defies easy categorization. Address Address is required. Other preventative methods included not washing diapers after sunset and never turning their head away from the baby as it slept.

The mother would take the changeling child to a midden , whip it with a birch stick, and pour water from an eggshell over it, all while shouting "Take yours; give mine back. Since most beings from Scandinavian folklore are said to be afraid of iron, Scandinavian parents often placed an iron item such as a pair of scissors or a knife on top of an unbaptized infant's cradle. It was believed that if a human child was taken in spite of such measures, the parents could force the return of the child by treating the changeling cruelly, using methods such as whipping or even inserting it in a heated oven.

In at least one case, a woman was taken to court for having killed her child in an oven. In one Swedish changeling tale, [29] the human mother is advised to brutalize the changeling so that the trolls will return her son, but she refuses, unable to mistreat an innocent child despite knowing its nature. When her husband demands she abandon the changeling, she refuses, and he leaves her — whereupon he meets their son in the forest, wandering free. The son explains that since his mother had never been cruel to the changeling, so the troll mother had never been cruel to him, and when she sacrificed what was dearest to her, her husband, they had realized they had no power over her and released him.

The tale is notably retold by Helena Nyblom as Bortbytingarna [30] in the book Bland tomtar och troll. The changelings grow up with their new parents, but both find it hard to adapt: Upset with the conditions of their lives, they both go astray in the forest, passing each other without noticing it.

The princess comes to the castle whereupon the queen immediately recognizes her, and the troll girl finds a troll woman who is cursing loudly as she works. The troll girl bursts out that the troll woman is much more fun than any other person she has ever seen, and her mother happily sees that her true daughter has returned. Both the human girl and the troll girl marry happily the very same day. In Asturias North Spain there is a legend about the Xana , a sort of nymph who used to live near rivers, fountains and lakes, sometimes helping travellers on their journeys.

The Xanas were conceived as little female fairies with supernatural beauty. They could deliver babies, "xaninos," that were sometimes swapped with human babies— some legends claim this was in order for them to be baptized, while others claim that it is because the Xana cannot produce milk. In Wales the changeling child plentyn cael sing. It may be of less than usual intelligence, but again is identified by its more than childlike wisdom and cunning.

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The common means employed to identify a changeling is to cook a family meal in an eggshell. The child will exclaim, "I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never saw the likes of this," and vanish, only to be replaced by the original human child. Alternatively, or following this identification, it is supposedly necessary to mistreat the child by placing it in a hot oven, by holding it in a shovel over a hot fire, or by bathing it in a solution of foxglove.

Children identified as changelings by the superstitious were often abused or murdered. Two 19th-century cases reflect the belief in changelings. In , Anne Roche bathed Michael Leahy, a four-year-old boy unable to speak or stand, three times in the Flesk ; he drowned the third time.

10 Disturbing Tales From Scandinavian Folklore

She swore that she was merely attempting to drive the fairy out of him, and the jury acquitted her of murder. Local storyteller Jack Dunne accused Bridget of being a fairy changeling. It is debatable whether her husband Michael actually believed her to be a fairy; many [ who? The killers were convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, as even after the death they claimed to be convinced they had killed a changeling, not Bridget Cleary herself. The Igbo people of eastern Nigeria traditionally believed that a woman who lost numerous children, whether stillborn or early in infancy, was being tormented by an ogbanje , a malicious spirit that reincarnated itself over and over again.

One of the most commonly prescribed methods for ridding oneself of an ogbanje was to find and destroy its iyi-uwa , a buried object tying it to the mortal world.

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Many scholars now believe that ogbanje stories arose as an attempt to explain the loss of children with sickle-cell anemia , a congenital disease endemic to West Africa that afflicts around one-quarter of the population. Even today, infant death is common among children born with severe sickle-cell anemia, especially in areas of Africa lacking adequate medical resources.

The similarity between the European changeling and the Igbo ogbanje is striking enough that Igbos themselves often translate the word into English as "changeling. The reality behind many changeling legends was often the birth of deformed or developmentally disabled children. Among the diseases or disabilities with symptoms that match the description of changelings in various legends are spina bifida , cystic fibrosis , PKU , progeria , Down syndrome , homocystinuria , Williams syndrome , Hurler syndrome , Hunter syndrome , regressive autism , Prader-Willi Syndrome , and cerebral palsy.

The greater incidence of birth defects in boys correlates to the belief that male infants were more likely to be taken. As noted, it has been hypothesized that the changeling legend may have developed, or at least been used, to explain the peculiarities of children who did not develop normally, probably including all sorts of developmental delays and abnormalities. In particular, it has been suggested that autistic children would be likely to be labeled as changelings or elf-children due to their strange, sometimes inexplicable behavior. For example, this association might explain why fairies are often described as having an obsessive impulse to count things like handfuls of spilled seeds.

This has found a place in autistic culture.