Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd has returned from the dead as a Draugr, or perhaps the ghost of Haugbúi, to haunt the people living on the Finnbogastaðir farm.
The ghost story was published in the book Icelandic Folk Tales and Adventures (1862) and allegedly everything happened 40 years before publication.
The author has heard references to various ridges and mounds here in the district, where people have said that something “unclean” or haunted remains there, and this was thought to have manifested itself most notably in the agricultural mound at Finnbogastaðir some forty years ago (the mound on which the farm stands).
Finnbogastaðir is a farm located in Árneshreppur in the Westfjords, a remote place with rugged coastline, impressive mountains and picturesque bays. Finnbogastaðir is a farm of great historical importance, dating back to the first settlement in Iceland during the Viking Age.
A farmer named Halldór once lived in Finnbogastaðir, but later moved his household to Reykjarfjörður. When he lived in Finnbogastaðir, in a fit of anger he once killed a shepherd who was with him and buried him in a mound on the farm. There weren't many stories about the boy's death because there wasn't much emphasis on such minor matters in those days.
Norse spirits Draugr and Haugbúi (mound-dwellers)
The draugr of Icelandic folklore is one of the most feared undead creatures in Norse tradition, often described as a malevolent spirit or specter that clings to a burial mound or wanders the world of the living with brutal intentions. Unlike the pale, ethereal spirits of later European folklore, the Draugr is corporeal – corpse-like, bloated, and often imbued with supernatural strength. Legends tell of Draugar (plural) crushing its victims, turning into monstrous animals, or spreading death through plague and madness. They were believed to guard the treasures buried with them, punishing robbers with terrifying force. Some stories even describe them as growing with each breath, an unstoppable presence embodying the fear of restless death and the spoiling of the grave. Their roots lie in the belief that those who were greedy, cruel, or unwilling to leave the mortal world could rise again to torment the living.
Closely related, though often depicted as less aggressive, is the Haugbúi, or “mound-dweller”, a type of spirit attached to a burial site, often digging in the wild. Unlike the wandering Draugr, the Haugbúi usually remains in or near its grave, emerging only to guard its resting place and treasures. These beings were often seen as the spirits of chieftains or warriors, tied to grave mounds by mighty bonds of pride, greed, or unfinished duty. Farmers and villagers avoided tearing down such mounds for fear of awakening a spirit within them that could strike with sudden, spectral fury. Haugbúi embodies the deep Norse reverence for the land of the dead – where burial mounds were not just graves, but thresholds between worlds. Together, Draugr and Haugbúi reveal a haunting aspect of Norse faith: that death is not always a peaceful path, and that the troubled dead can remain attached to the living, their presence a chilling reminder of mortality and vengeance beyond the grave.
The slain shepherd comes to haunt Bach
Many years later, in Finnbogastaðir lived Magnús Guðmundsson, a district officer who died four years before the publication of the collection of ghost stories in which the legend appeared. Magnús was the son of Guðmundur Bjarnason and initially did not believe in magic or ghost stories, but after his experiences he changed his mind.
He built a forge near the farm and cut some sod from the mound where the boy was buried. His mother, who was then with him, venerable and very feeble, was greatly troubled when she heard of her son's deeds, and said that something bad would come of it, for he could not have cut the turf anywhere else in a worse place.
The next night the ghost came to Magnús, who was lying in his bed, and grabbed his feet so challenging that he felt pain and the next day he was half unwell. The next night the spirit came to Magnús again and was even stronger; it caught him in the thighs and elsewhere, so that Magnús later fell ill. The next night the ghost came to Magnús again, grabbed him by the throat and almost finished choking him as he lay in bed over his wife. Then he lay unwell for a long time and his voice was never the same again, because when he spoke it always sounded as if someone was pressing lightly on his throat.
When these three nights had passed and Magnús had become unwell with fear and terror, people began to think ill of it. But luckily there was a man in the house named Jón who, by all accounts, was quite talented. He was then asked to banish the phenomenon and he was eager to try it, even though he said it would be the most hard thing. He ordered the house to be locked, to sign each door with a cross, and he planned to capture the ghost and press it to leave the farmer alone. But the ghost was so swift that there was no way Jón could catch it. Then Jón came up with the idea of opening the window in the living room and managed to drive the ghost out through it, then followed him outside and was going to attack him there. But then the ghost was so afraid of Jón that he ran away from him, and Jón chased him outside the farm boundaries and there they parted. The ghost has not been seen in Finnbogastaðir since then.
The ghost, however, went straight to Reykjarfjörður, where the descendants of venerable Halldór lived at that time, and that same night he entered the barn there and killed a cow. After that, he didn't do much damage, but until recently he followed people from this family.
- The ghost of the Finnbogastaðir mounds
Buried in the mounds of the Icelandic landscape, a murdered shepherd has returned from the dead as a Draugr, or perhaps the ghost of Haugbúi, to haunt the people living on the Finnbogastaðir farm.
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Icelandic legends and fairy tales/Ghost stories/Ghost in Finnbogastadir – Wikisource
The family of Magnús GUĐMUNDSSON and Guðrún JÓNSDÓTir
Image Source: Pixabay.com
