After insulting some Dutch fishermen, a ghost was sent to torture local women in Eyjafjörður, Iceland. For a long time, Eyjafjörður Skott was rumored to be responsible for several deaths, both cattle and human.
Along the longest fjord in Iceland, all the way north, lived a spirit who named her after the place where she wandered. Her name was Eyjafjörður-Skotta.
It is said that some Dutchmen landed at Vöðluþing on the fjord. In the mid-17th century, German, Dutch and French traders became essential in the fishing trade. According to legend, the Dutch were very brave and attacked local women. Something that the women themselves didn't care about at all. One of the women then mocked them with gestures and possibly curses, which made them very incensed and made them want revenge.
When they later returned abroad, they bought a sorcerer to send the woman's spirit to Iceland. However, according to the story it happened in the Netherlands, but the way it happened in these stories is the quintessential Icelandic haunting where they raise someone from the dead to send them on a revenge mission. This is where Scott's spirit comes into play.
Accompany(s): The Old Norse Ghost
In Norse mythology, there were many different types of spirits that the Vikings believed in. One of them was the Fylgjur or Fylgja spirit, i.e. accompanying spirits whose traces can be found in Iceland since the 12th century. They were originally spirits of a very physical substance that interacted with the real world as if it were still a part of it.
Fylgja became attached to the people they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings and even entire cities. Many stories also say that it is a generational haunting, where the spirit decides to haunt all the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. Perhaps due to her origins as a female spirit.
Icelandic ghosts and ghosts: Fylgja, or draugr spirits, became attached to the people they haunted. They could also attach themselves to buildings and even entire cities. Many stories also say that it is a generational haunting, where the spirit decides to haunt all the descendants of the original person it cursed. Most often the female line of the family. // Illustration of the Icelandic legend about the skeleton in the Hólar church (Beinagrindin í Hólakirkju). From Icelandic Legends: Collected by Jón Arnason, Illustrated by Jules Worms.
In Fylgjur stories from the Middle Ages, spirits could be beneficial, almost like messengers helping a person on the path of life, some kind of totem animal, or a guiding spirit. But when Icelandic folklorists began collecting aged oral tales from farmers in the 17th century, the Fylgjur spirits drastically changed their pagan, Old Norse roots, religious beliefs and superstitions.
One thing that really changed was Fylgjur's goal of haunting the living, which rarely brought any lend a hand. Many stories tell of how they were wronged and this caused their death. They then came back for revenge and were hazardous, even deadly.
Female Icelandic ghosts
One popular name for female ghosts was Skotta, which actually means hanging like hair or a tail. It comes from customary Icelandic headgear that women wore with Faldbúningur dresses worn since the 17th century. Except that ghosts are said to have their headgear turned backwards, so it falls behind her like a tail.
Scott's ghost: Icelandic woman in an 18th-century faldbúningur wearing a spaðafaldur cap, who is often described as wearing a Skotty.
Skotta belongs to Old Norse mythology about Fylgja, i.e. supernatural spirits that followed people or attached to them. They can be animals, goddesses or appear in dreams.
But the Fylga stories evolved, and when we read about Scott, they didn't look like totem animals or someone coming with your prophecy like in the aged sagas. Icelandic ghosts are often described as not resembling an apparition, but in a real body that interacted with the living. And when we read about Scott, the female version, she was very hazardous and also deadly.
Eyjafjörður Skott haunting the fjords
The ghost who was raised by the Dutch was named Eyjafjörður Skott because of his haunted territory. She was to kill and torment all the women in Vöðluþing. She is said to have first come ashore at Sauðanesi on Upsaströnd, a stretch of coast west of Eyjafjörður.
Today, Sauðanesi is an abandoned farm and has existed since 1957. However, in the years 1597-1680 the poet Rögnvaldsson Þorvaldur lived there. He was considered a very learned man and watched when Skotta reached the shore. But some have heard that Þorvaldur, aged Magnússon, dwelt there recently, and both were called poets of incantations, and were very learned; but more people believe it was Þorvaldur Rögnvaldsson.
Þorvaldur was by the sea when he saw the ghost approaching while the Dutch were fishing in the sea. She appeared as a woman in foreign clothing, with a red baseball cap and bare arms up to the elbows. Þorvaldur addressed her in verse and asked who she was and what her task might be. She said she was Flemish (others say Finnish) and that her job was to torment or kill all the women in Eyjafjörður.
He managed to stop her from harming women, but she was so powerfully conjured that Þorvaldur could not completely defeat her. He was forced to let her kill his best cow, in addition to killing a cow on every third farm in Eyjafjörður and playing other tricks on people and livestock for a long time. He is also said to be behind the murder of a drowned man in the Eyjafjörður River.
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Eyjafjörður Skott sent to torture the women of the fjord
After insulting some Dutch fishermen, a ghost was sent to torture local women in Eyjafjörður, Iceland. For a long time, Eyjafjörður Skott was rumored to be responsible for several deaths, both cattle and human.
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Sauðanes (Upsaströnd) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Icelandic Legends and Fairy Tales/Ghost Stories/Eyjafjörður-Scottish – Wikisource
Image Source: Pixabay.com
