Cabinet 1 Nye

1 Lisa and Santa-Gödde
Lisa lived in the poorhouse together with Santa-Gödde and they didn’t enjoy each other.
But Lisa decided to poison Santa-Gödde. She sat on a chest and pounded “macurja”
(probably a garbled word for mercury which was the common name for arsenic) that she
later gave him.
They found out what she had done, and she was sentenced to death by beheading. She
was wild, when she was about to die, and the rumor went, that when they looked down in
the grave, they saw her severed head saying: “You wouldn’t have done that…!”

Freely after notifier Emma Richter f Lagerstedt born in Skirö 1865
Recorder W Richter 1931
Lund University's folk memory archive 4181

2 The bell

Once the trolls had taken down one of the church bells in Nye church and thrown it in a
lake in the forest. Later on, when the rang with the bell that was left in the bell tower, that
bell complained: “My husband is in the Kulla lake, in Kulla lake.”

Reporter: Hilda Ahlinder born 1857, raised in Karsnäs, Nye parish
Recorder Gottfrid Wagnér in 1941
Lund University Folklore Archive 7841

3 Bladekulla scream
Bladekulla is a homestead that lays out of the way. You can hear a scream there in the
nights. They call it Bladekulla scream. It comes from a repentant farmhand who had, when
he was alive, moved the hamlets boundaries for his own gain, when a farm had been split
and sold. After death he couldn’t get any rest but went around and cried out: “Here it was
done right and here it was wrongly done.”
Freely after notifier J. P. Pettersson homeowner, Nyabyaberg, Alseda born 1858 in Nye
Recorder Gottfrid Wagner
Småland Folkminnen 5 p 81

4 The Neck
In Säfsebo, they were going out to harrow and needed the horse. He was released in a
meadow. He allowed himself to be caught, and they harnessed him and started to harrow,
and it went well. But then they started whipping him and that he didn’t like. He started to
walk faster and then he got out of the harness and danced into the lake, and so they had
seen him for the last time. It was the Neck they had accidentally taken instead of the
horse.
Freely after notifier J. P. Pettersson homeowner, Nyabyaberg, Alseda born 1858 in Nye
Recorder Gottfrid Wagner
Småland Folkminnen 5 p 97

Cabinet 2 Trollebo

1 The Ghost Pine
Along the road grows an ancient pine, the Ghost Pine. The say that the needles never stop
moving. From the beginning there were two pines, that had grew together. People used to
go there with their toddlers in olden times, when the safest protection against the rickets
was that they were pulled between the trunks of such an overgrown tree. Whoever takes
down this pine will suffer from all diseases stored there…

From Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book p 278, by Helge Nilsson, Nye

2 The weeping stone
In the 17 th century, there lived two sisters with the surname Horn on Trollebo. They were
always at odds, and it went so far that they could not enter through the same door in the
church of Lemnhult. An extra door had to be built on one longside of the church. When one
sister died she was buried in the churchyard of Lemnhult. The other sister didn’t want to lie
on the same place as the hated sister, so she was buried in the outskirts of the garden of
Trollebo, in unconsecrated land. She won’t get any rest until doomsday. On the night of
Fridays, the White Lady rises from her grave and she waves with a white handkerchief as
she slowly wanders through the park on her way the Weeping stone. Here the sisters meet
to mourn their discord. This stone is always wet with the sisters’ tears.

From Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book p 277, by Helge Nilsson, Nye

3 The house gnome
When Governor Örnfelt had a new main building built at Trollebo, he was visited by the
farm's house elf.

“Your grace,” begged the little elf, “Move the foundation you are laying. Right where you
are knocking and banging, there I have got my nursery, and the children don’t get any
rest.”
But Örnfelt was a harsh gentleman: "Where I decided that the house should stand, there it
shall stand!" The elf then swore that a curse would rest on Trollebo. As soon as the house
was built and it was almost finished, fire would reign in the wings.
One day Örnfelt's wife got to see the house elf. He looked sad and said, “Follow me to my
rooms and lay your hand on the head of my little sick child. It dies away from me if a good
Christian woman doesn't do me that service".
The wife read her "Our Father" and let the elf transform her vision. Once inside the elf's
home, she saw the elf's wife with her sick child in her lap. Mrs. Örnfelt put her hand on the
child's head and said a prayer. The child immediately got better. "As a reward for your
kindness, as long as you live, no accident will happen at Trollebo."
No accident happened there either, but then, almost 200 years later, when the old
dilapidated "castle" was demolished and a new main building was being built, the wings
caught fire. All according to the house elf's curse.

From Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book p 278, by Helge Nilsson, Nye

4 The deck of cards
In 1750, Trollebo was bought by baron Ribbing. He was addicted to gambling and
squandered his assets.
Playing trekort (“three-card” an old card game of Danish origin where you play for money)
one night, he put the yard in the pot and lost! Whether there were fake cards in the game
could not be proven because the deck disappeared. Nor has anyone seriously looked for
it, for whoever found the deck, it would be bad for him.
During a renovation 170 years later, the master builder found an old deck of cards behind
a roof beam. The deck held two cards of diamond nine, a key card in the three-card game
of the time. The cheating was proven! The prediction also came true when, during the
difficult 1920s, the builder lost all his money and his life came to a sad end.
Freely from Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book, "Trollebo in the story and reality" by Helge
Nilsson

5 The treasure in the lake Värnen
A legend claims, that when the rioter Nils Dacke haunted the area in 1542, everything that
was precious in Trollebo was demanded. The household promised them anything they
wanted, only their lives were spared. A delicious meal was laid out for the uninvited
guests, and while they ate, all the gold and silver was poured into a large cauldron and
brought down to a boat. A maid would row this across the lake to Virkesbo, where the
intention was to sink the valuables into the river where the lake has its outlet. However, the
maid rowed too far down the river and happened to drop the cauldron in a deep
depression where it still remains.
It is also said that in 1763 the foreman at Holma and a person from Isingstorp would have
made an attempt to salvage the treasure. They had caught hold of the cauldron and had
raised it above the surface of the water, but just then Nye church bells rang for worship
service, they got startled and lost the grip of the cauldron and after that they couldn’t find it
again.

From Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book p 276, by Helge Nilsson, Nye

Cabinet 3 Lemnhult

1 The giant Finn
When the church that lies here in ruins was to be built, two all-white untamed twin steers
were joined together and was sent out from Borshult to find the most suitable place for

the church building. Where those, exhausted by all the agonizing, laid down to rest, the
church would stand.
In Jättabacken, (giant hill) the mighty giant Finn Fager, also called Vippekull, ruled until the
sound of a church bell rang out over the hill. Finn was seized with anger and led by the
sound, he found a priest in the process of building a church. Cunningly, he made a deal
with the priest. If the priest could guess his name within a certain time, he would help him
to build the church, If he couldn’t guess or guessed wrong, the priest would be sent as a
sacrifice to the giants.
The fateful day drew to a close. In the evening, the priest went to the crest of the hill to say
goodbye to life. Then from the mountain he heard the giantess singing a lullaby to her
child:
“Hush, hush little Kinn
tomorrow comes your father, sun-fair Finn.
Either, to play with, sun and moon from sky,
or from the church, the fat priest to fry.”
Overjoyed, the priest hurried down to the church building where the giant was waiting and
shouted: Your name is Finn!
In anger, the giant then grabbed the west gable of the church and hurled it into the deep
ravine Hell's den. There you can still see ruins of the church wall at the bottom, while the
pulpit is stuck to the rock face.
Freely from Lemnhult's Local Heritage Book "Lemnhult's church history" by Karl J Ödéen.
2 The giants daughter
In the era of the story, a giant lived in Gerekulla hill, whether it was the giant Finn or
someone else, whose daughter had a good eye for a farmer who went and plowed in
Solagård in Nye. She imagined that the farmer with the oxen would make a splendid
breakfast meal.
To get across the lake, she had her father throw out a piece of Gerekulla hill, which is the
current isthmus that juts out into Väringen (Värnen) from Solagård. Then it was just one
step for the daughter from Jättabacken to reach her goal. She then carried the farmer and
the oxen home in her apron.
Freely after "Old and new from Lemnhult" a series of articles from Vetlanda-Posten 1931
by C G Nilsson

3 The man who got spirited away into the mountain
It was said that in the large lands of Folkatorp and Smedjanässja, there could be found
bad things (evil powers). In Folkatorp lived a man called Ville Sten. He got spirited away
into the mountain once. They all went out to look for him, but they couldn’t find him.
Then someone said: "Take an ax and chop at the bed frame where he last lay."
Then they found him. He came and walked in a glade in the forest. It had rained while they
were searching, so they were soaked, but he was dry. They thought that he had been
spritied away into the mountain, otherwise he would not have been dry. He became a bit
strange from that moment on and left for America later.

Reporter Emma Nilsson, Vagnhester Pilagård, Alseda
Recorder Gottfrid Wagnér
Lund University Folklore Archives 2214

Cabinet 4 Näshult

1 Biskopsö in Serarpa lake.
On Biskopsö there are remains of a castle from the 12th century. It has a rectangular
shape, about 15 paces in length and 10 in width. The banks are overgrown with grass and
bushes.

A legend is that some bishop must have, at the beginning of recent times, insisted on
continuing with Catholicism and its many magical ceremonies and that he had his abode
on this island.
There is another legend in Näshult's village about "The hidden path to Biskopsö". From the
Middle Ages until the 17th century, when it was rumored that the Dane, Gustav Vasa's
jackals or other marauders had been seen in the neighborhood, the most important things
were packed up and all the villagers and their livestock hid in the castle on Biskopsö.
There was a secret path under the water so you could wade out to the island. From there
you could keep an eye on enemies on land and the island was fairly easy to defend from
attack. One can imagine that the enemy did not bring boats with them when the raided the
countryside, so you could probably feel safe out there on the island.
Biskopsö is the island you can see straight out in the lake. The secret path goes from
Sågudden, which lies along the lake's edge to the right. Even today, when fishing in the
lake Serarpasjön and you have to pull, the hook wants to stick when you pass "The hidden
path".
Freely from "Forna tiders Näshult" compiled by Bengt Winblad
2 The name Näshult (Näsa = nose, hult=glade)
In the forests towards Höghult, you can see large loose rock blocks along the road. There
the giant in Stenberga dueled with another giant in Näshult by throwing "giant stones",
whereby the giant in Näshult got his nose knocked off. This would be the reason for the
name Näshult.

Freely after "Forna tiders Näshult" compiled by Bengt Winblad

3 Bockahål (=buck cave)
Where the large boulders are squeezed between mountain crevasses, there is a cave in a
rock crevice. According to the legend, a buck have gone down there and emerged more
than half a mile away in an equivalent cave. "Bockehåla" – this natural phenomenon that
the imagination has made more strangely shaped and larger in scope than in reality. This
subterranean passage would extend a quarter of a Swedish mil in length (9,000 feet), later
estimated to be 600 m (2,250 feet).
In the 19th century, this cave was described: "On Höghult's property, a crevasse in the
mountain, whose walls are closer than farther apart, received the name Bockenhåla for the
reason that a he-goat happened to fall into the cave, without being able to get out up
again. He has gone further into the cave, deeper inside the mountain, and after a period of
time a pair of horns were found in Trytsjön, which were thought to have belonged to the
said buck, and for that reason assumed that the cave or crevasse extended all the way to
the said lake". Trytsjön is supposed to be modern Lake Grytsjön.

Freely after "Forna tiders Näshult" compiled by Bengt Winblad

Cabinet 5 Störarp, Stenberga

1 Blacksmith Rundgren
Once upon a time there was a blacksmith named Rundgren. He was a blacksmith first in
Ädelfors, then in Salshult and on Ekholmen. He could make illusions and cast spells and
stuff like that.
Once, when they were picking potatoes at Salshult, Rundgren would play during a dinner
break. He was playing and he had the violin behind the rear end. After he played for a little
while, there was a little old man dancing on the floor in front of him. It tore at the fiddler's
knees and the old man jumped in time with it. No one could see anything else than it was

an old man, but then it was a lady, Greta in Böle, who came there. She wasn't around
when he started playing. When she came in, she said: "What are you laughing at, it's just a
paper man."
He had a string around it, and so he sat and pulled the string. He just made people see
this illusion. Then the fiddler said: "Well, you couldn’t keep quiet!" Then he took hold of his
ears and threw his head before the maiden, and there was a slurring of his tongue.
Rundgren was a big drinker. Once – it was when he was employed at Ekholmen under
Salshult – when he had been careless and unruly, Major Stålhammar would go and
reprimand him. When Stålhammar stood in the door and was about to go into the forge, he
said: "well, you're at work, you old weakling." As Steelhammer looked, the smith's leg was
in his boots next to the staff and just as Steelhammer was about to rebuke him, the smith
grabbed his hair and put his head on the anvil and struck it.
Another time – It was also on Ekholmen – Rundgren crawled through an oak log. There
was a whole crowd of people standing and watching as he crawled through the rough log.
And they watched as he stuck his head in, and at last they saw nothing but the boots.
Then the barn maid came there in the yard and passed by, and then she said to the
people: "You are standing laughing at that fool that is lying floundering on the oak!" – She
hadn't been there from the beginning, and that's why she saw it. – Then the blacksmith
said to her: “Well, you can't keep your mouth shut! But you will get paid for that.” Then he
made her think that there was high water in front of her. She pulled the skirts and the linen
over her shoulders and walked past them all.

Recorder Gottfrid Wagner
Småland Folkminnen1 p 104

2 Elves
When Nils Ludvig was a child and was in his parents' home in Ormliden, at Salshult in
Stenberga parish, they heard how "they" (the elves) opened the front door and went up the
stairs and how "they" put down sacks by the grain bin so it thundered. All autumn "they"
went there carrying grain and the door was opened and closed.
NIls Ludvig's mother sometimes said to her husband: "Go and see who it is. They might be
carrying away the grain.”
"No one is harming us," said the man. Nothing changed in the meantime in the sheaf. The
old people thought that what the elves wore was the same as what was there before.
There would only be more drudgery with it (it lasted longer). Nils Ludvig's father was not
afraid when they heard the above.

Notifier Nils Ludvig Ståhlgren, Ludvigsberg, Alsheda, born 1854.
Rekordår Gottfrid Wagnér
Lund University's folk memory archive 845

3 Will-o’-the-wisp
This happened when Nils Ludvig lived at Ormaliden under Salshult, in Stenberga. Every
autumn, when it began to get dark, a light always came and went from a certain direction
as if it had come from far away and passed the croft. The father used to say: "Now comes
the will-o’-the-wisp." It looked like there was a person walking and carrying a lantern. The
crofters used to say to each other, "Did you see the will-o’-the’wisp last night?" -" Yes, he
went over Lussa", used to be the answer. Lussa is a large meadow between Ormalid and
Störstorp. Every year for as long as Nils-Ludvig remembered, it happened that this light
was visible at some point.

Notifier Nils Ludvig Ståhlgren, Ludvigsberg, Alsheda born 1854
Recorder Gottfrid Wagnér

Lund University's folk memory archive 845

4 Stenfatakäringen (An supernatural woman)
When Nils Ludvig was about ten or eleven years old, his brother Karl Gustav served at
Salshult as a stable boy. Once, Karl Gustav was going to Hagelsrum to get bricks. Then he
came home to his parents and asked if Nils Ludvig could come with him to Hagelsrum, and
the parents allowed it.
Nils Ludwig and Karl Gustav went to Hagelsrum and when they had done their business,
they turned home. The road was long and the horse got tired. At Viserum they stopped
and grazed. It got very dark. They then continued towards Stenberga.
The cart was full of bricks except at the front, so there was a small void. Karl Gustav sat on
the brick and had his feet down in this void. Nils Ludvig sat there between his brother's lap,
and he fell asleep.
Suddleny, the brother squeezed him with his knees.
“Do you see anything?” he said.
Then Nils Ludvig stood up. Then he saw a big black lady with a scarf was sitting there at
the back. Karl Gustav was not afraid, he was used to that sort of thing.
"It's the Stenfatakäringen, for whom I never get to be at peace," he said.
Then there was laughter down in the bog, so it could be heard a long way away. But the
lady stayed.
"We have to drive that troulble until we get to Stenberga church," said Karl Gustav.
When they got to the church, the lady got off and "walked" through the church gate and
down into the sacristy. Then the load became ever so light.

Notifier Nils Ludvig Ståhlgren, Ludvigsberg, Alsheda, born 1854.
Recorder Gottfrid Wagnér
Lund University's folk memory archive 845

Cabinet 6 Vättehult, Stenberga

1 Potorpa heir
Under the farm Smyckan in Stenberga parish, at the end of the 18th century, there was a
small hillside cottage called Potorp. Petter the shoemaker and his wife Maja-Stina lived
there. After many years of waiting, they had a son to their great joy.
After a year, a big accident happened, the son was replaced by a troll. In the child's basket
was a changeling ugly as iron and dressed in a matted wolf skin. But Maja-Stina had heard
that if you handled the exchange well, it could happen that you got your own child back in
due time. There was great sadness in the cabin and when a year had passed and nothing
had happened, the parents went to a wise old woman.
The old woman said: If you want the kid to talk, take a bunch of eggs and chop them, then
you take the 24 shell halves and put them near the fire and fill them with water and wait for
the water to start boiling. Then the kid will probably talk. If you then want to exchange your
own child for the changeling, take water from a spring with 3 outflows that is located on the
north side of a mountain. With that water you shall baptize the child after sunset in the
three holy names and place bright steel over his neck.
The crofters went home and did as the old woman said. The changeling spoke: Ten oak
forests I have seen grow up, ten oak forests I have seen rot down, but never did I see so
many pots boil at once. Then they began to baptize the child, but before all the words were
said the door was thrown open and the troll rushed in, threw Maja-Stina's child on the floor
and grabbed the changeling.

The years passed and the boy grew up and became unnaturally strong. At the age of
seven he was stronger than his father, and at ten his strength surpassed both ox and
horse.
Eventually he became a farm hand at Prästorp, where he showed great strength and
performed many feats. Major Stålhammar at Salshult heard about Potorpa heir and
wanted to put him to a test. You get a keg of salt if you carry it home without stopping on
the way to rest, said the major. Potorpa here measured out the salt in a sack, took it on his
back and began to walk the about 8 km to home. The major crept along to see how things
were going. But when Potorpa heir after half the way went into the forest and picked
lingonberries to eat, without putting down the sack, the major returned home.
But Potorpa heir's strength became his misfortune. Once at Virserum's market, he was
teased when he had been drinking aquavit. He became so wild that he took a carriage in
its shackles and used it as a weapon. Many were injured and some even killed. After that
he fled to the forest and lived the rest of his life as an outlaw. People in the village thought
he had returned to the trolls.

Freely after Notifier Johanna Holst Stenberga
Recorder Josef Högstedt Stenberga
Waldemar Liungman collection, Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg 376
2 Stina in Vetan
In Vetan in Stenberga parish, towards the end of the 19th century, there lived a wise old
woman, Stina. She could both cast spells, heal the sick and get back stolen goods.
Once a farmer had been robbed of a halter. He then went to Stina to find out who took the
halter.
Stina took out a pot, put water in it and poured a few drops from a bottle into the water.
Then she asked the farmer to look down. He then saw his neighbor alive in the pot.
– Shall we tag the thief, asked Stina. The farmer agreed. Then Stina took a pin and stuck it
into the cabin wall, and from that moment the thief was blind on one eye.
One Maundy Thursday evening at dawn, a hunter saw Stina standing naked in all her
frailty outside the cabin, milking the air. She first gave up a loud cry, then she said: "As far
as this cry is heard, so far is the milk mine and the milk thine”
It was said that Stina had found an mandrake (a herb whose root looked like a human and
screamed when it pulled out of the earth) and with its help she could do almost anything.
Sometimes Stina was away for several days with friends and acquaintances within the
same guild. She then took a bundle of straw and stuffed the mandrake into it, after which
she used the bundle as a vehicle and rode it through the air. There was always a whirlwind
around Stina's carriage during such trips.
A farmer who was out harrowing one spring saw such a whirlwind. He then took his knife
and threw it into the wind (it was said that you could bind a whirlwind with steel). Some
time later he met Stina. She then gave him back his knife and asked him never to do that
again, because the knife had stuck in Stina's hip. And since then Stina was lame on one
leg.
One day Stina was found dead in a nearby lake. She had bumped into another
guildmember on one of her trips. Then people came and burned her magic bags, and the
cabin was leveled to the ground.

Freely after notifier Gustav Roth, Skirö
Recorder Josef Högstedt, Stenberga
Waldemar Liungman collection, Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg 376

Cabinet 7 Virserum

1 The Cheap Jack’s cross
In a meadow on Björkmossa's property in Virserum's parish, a wooden cross stands in a
stone cairn, bearing the inscription:
“Here I lie and sleep
and is not dead.
God be gracious to the one,
that put me in here.
Anno 1669
Once upon a time, the Cheap-Jack Grip came on one of his usual walks to Björkmossa.
He usually stayed with the farmer Jonsson there.
This was late one night. The next day, Grip thought of going to Åhnult, which was on the
other side of lake Hjorten. Knallen asked Jonsson, for compensation, to accompany him
through the pastures and row him across the lake to Ånhult. Jonsson promised this
because he was going to chop wood in his paddock that same day.
The Cheap-Jack went ahead. Jonsson came after with the ax on his shoulder. Be that as it
may, a desire for the Cheap-Jack’s money awoke within the farmer. And in that thought, he
hit him on the head with the axehead and took the bag. He hid the body in a stone cairn.
But Jonsson never got any rest after this… His conscience gnawed. And over the years he
set up a cross in the cairn with the aforementioned inscription. And every Christmas Eve,
Jonsson lit a candle in front of the cross and asked for reconciliation.
But no one likes to walk past the path after dark. For it is said that the bloody-headed
rascal goes about looking for his bag.
The original cross has rotted away but has been replaced by a new one, which stands
there quietly under rustling fir trees, testifying to the greed and evil of men.

Reporter Karl Andersson, Björkmossa, Virserum
Recorder Josef Högstedt (I myself have visited the Knallacross)
Waldemar Liungman collection, Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg 376
2 Käringeryggen (woman’s back)
A giant woman was on her way from the coast at Kalmar upland carrying a large sandbag.
When she came to the place where Virserum is today, there was a large lake that
stretched further than the lake does today. She had jumped over many lakes on her way
and took action to jump over this one too. But the bag was old and worn and it so
happened that it burst when she landed and all the sand spilled out. From that sand, a
large plateau was formed that is still called the womans back (Käringeryggen) today.
Announcer: Jacob Hägg, Virserum
Lund University's folk memory archive 1125 and 916

3 The troll woman and the Garter
A troll woman once stood on "Gössa plain" by Misterhult, more than a quarter of a
Swedish mil from Virserum church and heard the church bells ring. Then she became very
angry and swore that she would silence them. So, she took a large stone, tied one of her
garters to it, and hurled it with great force at the church and the belfry. But the stone did
not reach the church, it ended up on a farm, Strömsholmen, just below the church. The
stone is still at the river's edge, and you can see a faint line where the garter was.
Announcer: Jacob Hägg, Virserum
Lund University's folk memory archive 1125 and 916

4 The trolls' gold
My mother told me that when her mother was bringing food to her father in the forest, he
asked her to go to a spring nearby and get water in a pot, but she came back without
water, she said she could not bring anything up water, because someone had been there

cleaning fish, it was full of fish scales. Then her father said: "You should have taken water
anyway, it was the trolls who aired their gold." Then she turned back but then the water
was completely clear.

Reporter: Melba Jonsson, Kaptensgården, Virserum

Cabinet 8 Uhrs vagnsbod, Skirö

Ur in Salje
In the middle of the 19th century, a soldier named Ur lived in Skirö parish. His homestead
Salje, which was located by the stream that flows between the lakes Saljen and
Skärvetesjön, was deep in the then still uncultivated Småland forest.
Ur's occupation, when he was not completing his regimental meetings at Kulltorp, was
hunting and fishing. It is clear that during his stays in the forest and on the sea he gathered
rich experiences. And people still talk about "Ur in Salje" and his strange experiences. It is
said that Ur pledged his soul to the Devil for good hunting luck.
After a failed attempt to contact the Devil, Ur heartened and made another attempt. The
Devil had also learned a lesson and wasn't quite as scary, and so Ur got his book of black
arts.
Ur never married but had, according to statements, "a good relationship with the Mistress
of the Forest". He could also probably see what others didn't. Like when the troll and his
wife came rowing on the water one day when Ur was out on the lake: The troll woman held
a pot under the surface of the water for a while. When she picked it up, it was full of fish.
She then made a fire under it and when it boiled in the pot, she unscrewed the head of the
troll and lowered the pot and fish through his neck. "It was nice to have a little warmth in
my belly," said the troll, after his wife screwed his head back. And the trolls sailed away
beyond islets and headlands. That time, Ur got his boat half full of fish
Ur was a man of many skills and also knew remedies for diseases both for people and
animals. If someone suffered from food poisoning or had a bowel obstruction, Ur could put
together a kit that helped. He took water clover, yarrow, and pine needles and gave the
patient a decoction of them. But people thought he added something more that he didn't
talk about.
When Ur grew old and was about to die, he had a hard time. He then lay weak and
miserable in his cabin and could not walk. Around the cabin on rocks and hedgerows there
sat wood-grouse, blackcock and all the birds of the forest, and hares and foxes ran around
the cabin and right into the front cabin. Everyone was waiting to be shot. Ur then took his
gun and crawled out onto the ground in just his shirt. He loaded and fired until he was
completely finished. At length the priest came there and "called out" the old man, as it is
called, and after much reading and blessing, Ur finally got some rest.

Freely after notifier Gustav Roth Skirö
Recorder Josef Högstedt Stenberga
Waldemar Liungman collection, Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg 376

Cabinet 9 Sundsängen, Skirö

1 The church bell in lake Skirösjön
The old church, that was right by the side of the lake Skirösjön, right next to the vicarage,
had a bell with a very beautiful sound. Once when they rang the bell it fell into the lake and
it was impossible to get it up. But then there was a crofter whose cow had twin calves, and
as everyone knows, twin calves are special. Preferably if they got all the milk from the cow
until they were four years old.

Then one day a woman with a small hungry child came to the crofter's wife. The woman
asked so touchingly for some milk for her hungry child that the landlady gave her a slap,
she thought it couldn't possibly have any meaning.
When the calves were four years old and big and strong, they were harnessed and began
to pull the bell out of the lake. But just as the bell was seen breaking the surface of the
water, it sank with a splash back to the bottom and never came up again.

Announcer: Janne Dahlberg, Skirö
Recorder W. Richter, 1931
Lund University Folklore Archives 3905

2 The giant pike in Saljen
When the pike was pulled up at Wallby's property, it was so large that when the tail was at
the basta (the house for flax preparation) the gap was at the porch of the large building up
at Wallby. They had to take twelve pairs of oxen from Wallby, they were the only ones big
enough to pull up the pike. Those oxen were so big they pulled almost anything. "Yes, they
were so big that if there was a cuckoo sitting on one horn and crowing, it could hardly be
heard across to the other"
The pike meat was enough for the people of seven parishes. The farmers had to use carts
and horses to make it home. The ribs became as hard in the sun so they could be used as
fence posts. So the fence posts were replaced on all fences in both Skirö and Nye. And
that's no small thing at the time.

Narrator Janne Dahlberg (1878-1948)
from "Skirö en liten Smålandssocken" p. 450 by Per Bråkenhielm

3 The werewolf at Wallby
In a croft in Skirö at the beginning of the eighteenth century lived a woman whose
husband, the cavalry corporal Johan Stadberg, had accompanied his regiment on Charles
XII's march against the Russians. Like many others, he was captured and put in a camp
over in Siberia.
Years passed and at home his wife did not receive the slightest sign of life from her
husband, and in time she lost hope of seeing him again.
So one winter she noticed something strange and uncanny, a wolf showed a noticeable
interest in her and her croft. At that time, there were wolves in Småland, so there was
nothing special about it, but this wolf behaved so strangely. The wife saw from the tracks
that the wolf was getting closer every night and finally the wolf sat on her front porch and
howled as he scratched his paws in the crack of the door and tried to get in.
The wife was frightened, and as soon as it was day, she sought out a wise old man in the
neighborhood and asked what this could mean. – Well, answered the old man after
thinking for a while, this is not how an ordinary wolf behaves. It must be a werewolf and
such are far more dangerous than ordinary wolves, especially to women. – But, he
continued, one could imagine that your own Johan has come from Russia in wolf harbor
and is now trying to make himself known.
The soldier's wife was now advised that the next time the wolf came, she shouldn’t show
any fear but calmly talk to the wolf just as if he were her missing husband, and see what
happened.
When night came, she heard the wolf's howl again on the porch step. With trembling
knees, she cautiously opened the door, stuck her head out, stared bravely straight into the
gap at the beast and shouted: – Is it you, Johan, who makes such a noise?
And behold, the moment she mentioned the wolf by the soldier's name, the wolf's cape fell
from him, and before her stood her own husband.
The method was not one hundred percent working, because it is claimed that the man
didn’t get rid of his wolf tail. So, he had a chair made with a hole in the seat for the tail, and

that someone had seen that very chair on a farm in Nye. It was sometime in the 19th
century.
Freely after ”Folktales from the world of the unknown” in selection and translation Jan-
Öjvind Swahn

Cabinet 10 Repperda

1 Götsbo crevice
Ox rein = approx. 12 m Nife lantern = railway lantern
In the areas around Tälläng, towards Målilla, there is a valley surrounded by high
mountains with steep sides. There, in a cave 12 ox reins long, once lived trolls. Later, the
cave became a haunt for thieves and highwaymen. In the time of the trolls, there was a
gold table at the far end of the cave, yes, one or two had even seen the gold table! It
happened when a man got off the train in Tälläng and was on his way home. Then he saw
the golden table outside the cave and the trolls sitting on benches around it having a feast.
Whoever saw it must have been a bit tipsy.
The most notorious thief who stayed there is said to have been called Schultz. He was a
true gentleman thief who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He slaughtered the
small animals inside the cave. When he went to the cave in the winter when there was
snow, he walked backwards so no one would think he was there, it was said.
Far into the cave you could find absolutely incomparable whetstones, yes there was a
whole "firewood pile" of them. The whetstones were made of oilstone of such excellent
quality that they were as if enchanted. Some claim they were made in the cave. There is
said to be such a whetstone in Repperda Drakagård.
In the 19th century, some young people had been 12 ox reins into the crevasse, but the air
ran out and their lantern went out. Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, another
attempt was made. Then the men had a proper lantern, a Nife lantern, with them. But the
cave had collapsed, so you couldn’t be bigger than a cat to get in.

Freely after C.G. Nilsson Vetlanda posten 1924 "Old and new from Skirö part 2"

2 Kettil Runske
On Drakagården in Repperda he was born, Kettil Runske. In Repperda road he met Odin.
Kettil Runske was an ancient sorcerer, who acquired special abilities by stealing three
runescrolls from the norse god Odin. Kettil's powers thus became so great that Odin never
succeeded in taking back the scrolls.
It is said that first Odin sought out Kettil in the company of two wolves to retrieve the stolen
goods, but Kettil then used one of the scrolls to bind the wolves with magic. To get them
free, Odin had to let Kettil keep the scrolls until the next day.
Odin then appeared with a huge bull, whose enormous strength caused all the trees of the
forest to fall to the ground. But neither did the bull prevail against Kettil, who used the next
scroll to bind its legs.
The following day, Odin returned with a lake spirit (sjörå), which Kettil immediately
managed to bind with the help of the third runescroll. Angered, Odin urged him to set the
lake spirit free, but Kettil refused, point out that Odin would then let her hurt him.
Odin therefore had to promise to withdraw and so the runescrolls remained with Kettil. The
name "Runske" means precisely "rune-knowledgeable" and refers to Kettil's ability to use
the runes for magical purposes.
The connection to Repperda can be found in Josef Svennung "Sägner om Kettil Runske"
A book about Småland. 1943
Swedish legends, part 16: Kettil Runske – Cultural memory