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regndoftGuy, guys. I was bored. And I've been meaning to look into this for... A long time. Out of morbid curiousity.
And now I've done it.
My task: compiling a list as long as possible of different words for ghosts in the Swedish language and folklore.
I found 46. Plus two extras.
So behind the cut is a colourful mix of different ghosts and other dead things; the creatures, the different names for them, the majority of them dialectal. Some of them only differ in like, one letter, but they've been USED, and that was the point of this investigation. I have not included modern, spiritual terms, or ghostly phenomenons and places with connections to death in folklore; if I had, the list would probably be double as long.
Actually, I think the list could be a LOT longer; I know very little of Swedish dialects and I am sure there could be more words locally spread.
I'm putting these in alphabetical order, but since there are variations of different creatures, you might have to look through it all to understand. xD
Bullergast: One word. Poltergeist. That is all.
Dagståndare: A gast that had frozen in one spot when the sun rose. Usually it remained in that spot completely quiet and invisible, and those who passed by would not know it until later when they came home, drained or sick.
Dagstö: Shortened version of dagståndare.
Draug: A dead person who walks again with both body and soul, originally an Old Norse creature and mentioned in the Icelandic sagas.
Döing: An approximate translation would be "deady". Can be used about pretty much all creatures of, well, dead nature.
Gast: A ghost that, unlike a gengångare, typically didn't have a soul or purpose for staying on earth, except for causing harm. They are impersonal creatures that can be heard screaming along roads in the wilderness at night, invisible or not, in human shape or something far more terrifying. They are said to be the spirits of those who have been killed before their time (see myling) or not buried in sacred ground; there are however no traits of their humanity in their apparitions except their looks, if even that.
There are lots of stories about gastar, and they have too many traits to present here.
In Svealand, it could also mean myling.
Gengångare: Literally "Re-walker"; the recognizable ghosts, that turned up at their old estates or places where they'd been killed/buried. When they returned to this world, it was called genfärd. They weren't always seen but often heard, and when they were they appeared at night, dawn or sunset. Shortly put, pretty much your archetypical ghost - although an important trait that has been lost in modern Scandinavia is that they needed a hole to come up from the grave, if ever so small.
Gloso: A ghost pig from the province of Småland. The eyes were big and glowed, you could see fire sparkle around it and it had bristle on its back sharp as knives; it appeared at night and could run incredibly fast - it would run between the legs of the poor human it targeted and cut them in two. To protect oneself you had to cross your legs; to keep it from reaching and because the cross sign scared it away.
"Glo" could, in the past, mean both big, or glowing. "So" is a southern Swedish name for sow (female pig, yes).
Gravso: See myling. A word used in Skåne. Not only the child but the child's mother was thought to be able to turn into a great frightening pig after death, not too different from the Gloso: "Grav", need I even mention it, means grave. But, as it happened,it could also appear as a white ball of wool. Huh.
Irrbloss: A mysterious light often seen dancing over meadows or in the woods at night, leading people astray. They were often considered to be the souls of lantmätare(people whose job it was to measure and mark the area of people's land) who had measured wrong, or cheated with the measurement and given themselves or others more land than what was right, doomed to flicker around as lights and redeem themselves by putting the measurements right. An impossible and vain task, since normal people couldn't see their marks.
They were usually friendly and could lead you home of you'd got lost, but you better pay them well, or they might turn your sight so that you'd never find anything again. Sometimes, he guards a great treasure.
(Compare to the Anglo-saxon Will-o-the-Whisp or Jack-o-Lantern. :3)
Joremålnare: Another word for irrbloss, used in Skåne. "Jore" comes from "Jord", earth, and "målnare" is a southern variant of "mätare", measurer. Earth-measurer.
Krångk: A dialectal word for ghost, from Gästrikland. Comes from the verb "krångla"; make difficult or malfunction.
Kära-lik: The name of a male corpse in the Småland dialect. I just had to include it because it's so delightfully weird. |D
Kyrkogrim: According to folklore, when a church was to be built, the first living creature that passed by the foundation - or the first that the head architect met - would be taken (alive according to some stories) and put into the wall or pillar of the church when it was built. The building would therefore receive a soul as well as a body, like a human. Usually the sacrifice was an animal; a ram, rooster, dog or horse seem to have been the most usual, but it's often claimed that humans could be used as well. The sacrificed being would then turn into a ghost that protected the church, cemetary and those who rested there from thieves as well as evil people, supernatural beings and other ghosts.
(The first person to die the year the church was finished was said to become kyrkogrimmens helping hand. This task would later be passed on to the last person to die at the end of every year.)
Lyktgubbe: See Irrbloss.
Myling: The ghost of a murdered child. There are a lot of words for this kind of ghost; myling is one from Småland, but is the most commonly recognized because of Astrid Lindgren's "Emil i Lönneberga", so I'm using it as head article. XD Myling was one of the most usual kinds of ghosts; they would appear as small children, naturally, but could grow in height and change shape. They were often not particularly childlike in behaviour at all, and seeked revenge on their mother - they would kill her by dancing with her or suckling her breasts until she died.
When they weren't haunting the place they'd been buried, they could be found along roads, bothering passer-bys; making them reveal their mother's crime or give them a name. After that, they would find peace. (In some cases, they had to make up the names themselves, and in that case it was often based on how they'd been killed.)
The word comes from the old Norse "Myrþinger", meaning murdered person; compare to myrdhing.
Myrdhing: See Myling.
Myring: See Myling. Duh. XD
Målgast: See Irrbloss.
Mölklack: An unusual word only along the (short) border between Dalarna and Gästrikland, meaning myling. "Möl" comes from "mörd-", the beginning of the word "mördare"; murderer. "Klack" can either come from the dialectal "kläcka/klacka", which simply means "become afraid", or possibly be related to the Norwegian dialectal "klaka/klacka", sound or scream. It is a bit of a mystery, truth be told.
Mörklack: A variation of mölklack.
Möring: Myling, Gästrikland.
Môling: Myling, Gästrikland.
Nattramn: A version of nattravn.
Nattravn: A creature only found in Denmark, Iceland and the southernmost Swedish provinces Halland, Blekinge and Skåne (that used to belong to Denmark). It was a human sould that returned from the grave in the shape of a black bird to scream, sigh and moan in the most terrible manner. According to some, it was only the souls of murdered children not buried in sacred soil (do I even have to MENTION myling?) that turned into nattravner; others claim that it's the souls of evil people chased up from the grave by kyrkogrimmen. By tradition they're thought to search for Christ's grave and won't find peace until they do so.
"Natt" means night, and "ravn" is an old word for raven.
Oppedaing: ... I actually can't remember what this means or where it comes from. I have it on my list, but I'll be damned if I can remember where I found it. *EPIC FAIL* ''OTL I'll look into this when it's not half past three in the morning. D<
Sjögast: See strandvaskare. "Sjö" means lake; gast we know from before.
Självspilling: The name of the ghost of a person who had committed suicide.
Skratte: A word for myling used in Uppland and Västmanland; in the rest of the country it has a loose meaning of anything spooky and mysterious overall.
Skrångk: A version of krångk.
Skråmt: See skrömt. Only used in Älvdalen, Dalarna, as far as I know.
Skrömt: A word for ghost, but can be used about all supernatural creatures as well. Can also be used as a verb: "att skrömta"= To haunt/walk again.
Skälgast: See irrbloss.
Skälvrängare: See irrbloss.
Spöke: The general, most usual word for ghost. Ghost. Simple as that.
Spökryttare: Literally meaning "ghost rider", spökryttare was a word for the spirit of a soldier that walked again. They usually appeared in groups, replaying old battles, and it was said that you could get sick by watching them.
Stranddöing: See strandvaskare.
Strandvaskare: The ghost of a person who had died at sea or buried in a shore, mainly used on the west coast as far as I know. "Strand" means beach or shore, "vaskare" comes from the verb "att vaska"; to trickle. Simple means someone at a beach trickling grains of sand.
Utbyrding: See myling. From Gästrikland and possibly other parts of southern Norrland.
Utbåling: See myling. The word is used in Norrland, the northern part of the country.
Utböling: See myling. Also from Norrland.
Utbörding: See myling. Norrland.
Utkasting: See myling. A word from the province of Dalarna.
Vålne: Another word for vålnad.
Vålnad: Commonly used as a word for ghost, but also for an omen in the shape of a person; a shadow-image, that usually appeared before someone was about to die.
Vårdnad: Another word for vålnad.
Ypping: A word for myling from Dalarna.
Äppar: Myling, once again from Norrland. (I wish my books would specify WHERE in Norrland, Norrland is friggin' huge! D<)
Also, have two extra words for creatures that I'm quite sure don't count as ghosts, but are still kind of spooky. xD
Gastonge: When a woman met a dagståndare and was subjected to it, ("gastkramad") it is said that she could become pregnant. The child born was called gastonge. "Onge" is a dialectal form of "unge", meaning child. (From "ung"; young.)
Glyx: A special word and creature from Älvdalen that basically just... Walked around slamming doors and causing a lot of ruckus. Huh.
... Oh God, what the Hell have I done? .__.; If I find more I'm sure as hell updating this. XDDD
And now I've done it.
My task: compiling a list as long as possible of different words for ghosts in the Swedish language and folklore.
I found 46. Plus two extras.
So behind the cut is a colourful mix of different ghosts and other dead things; the creatures, the different names for them, the majority of them dialectal. Some of them only differ in like, one letter, but they've been USED, and that was the point of this investigation. I have not included modern, spiritual terms, or ghostly phenomenons and places with connections to death in folklore; if I had, the list would probably be double as long.
Actually, I think the list could be a LOT longer; I know very little of Swedish dialects and I am sure there could be more words locally spread.
I'm putting these in alphabetical order, but since there are variations of different creatures, you might have to look through it all to understand. xD
Bullergast: One word. Poltergeist. That is all.
Dagståndare: A gast that had frozen in one spot when the sun rose. Usually it remained in that spot completely quiet and invisible, and those who passed by would not know it until later when they came home, drained or sick.
Dagstö: Shortened version of dagståndare.
Draug: A dead person who walks again with both body and soul, originally an Old Norse creature and mentioned in the Icelandic sagas.
Döing: An approximate translation would be "deady". Can be used about pretty much all creatures of, well, dead nature.
Gast: A ghost that, unlike a gengångare, typically didn't have a soul or purpose for staying on earth, except for causing harm. They are impersonal creatures that can be heard screaming along roads in the wilderness at night, invisible or not, in human shape or something far more terrifying. They are said to be the spirits of those who have been killed before their time (see myling) or not buried in sacred ground; there are however no traits of their humanity in their apparitions except their looks, if even that.
There are lots of stories about gastar, and they have too many traits to present here.
In Svealand, it could also mean myling.
Gengångare: Literally "Re-walker"; the recognizable ghosts, that turned up at their old estates or places where they'd been killed/buried. When they returned to this world, it was called genfärd. They weren't always seen but often heard, and when they were they appeared at night, dawn or sunset. Shortly put, pretty much your archetypical ghost - although an important trait that has been lost in modern Scandinavia is that they needed a hole to come up from the grave, if ever so small.
Gloso: A ghost pig from the province of Småland. The eyes were big and glowed, you could see fire sparkle around it and it had bristle on its back sharp as knives; it appeared at night and could run incredibly fast - it would run between the legs of the poor human it targeted and cut them in two. To protect oneself you had to cross your legs; to keep it from reaching and because the cross sign scared it away.
"Glo" could, in the past, mean both big, or glowing. "So" is a southern Swedish name for sow (female pig, yes).
Gravso: See myling. A word used in Skåne. Not only the child but the child's mother was thought to be able to turn into a great frightening pig after death, not too different from the Gloso: "Grav", need I even mention it, means grave. But, as it happened,it could also appear as a white ball of wool. Huh.
Irrbloss: A mysterious light often seen dancing over meadows or in the woods at night, leading people astray. They were often considered to be the souls of lantmätare(people whose job it was to measure and mark the area of people's land) who had measured wrong, or cheated with the measurement and given themselves or others more land than what was right, doomed to flicker around as lights and redeem themselves by putting the measurements right. An impossible and vain task, since normal people couldn't see their marks.
They were usually friendly and could lead you home of you'd got lost, but you better pay them well, or they might turn your sight so that you'd never find anything again. Sometimes, he guards a great treasure.
(Compare to the Anglo-saxon Will-o-the-Whisp or Jack-o-Lantern. :3)
Joremålnare: Another word for irrbloss, used in Skåne. "Jore" comes from "Jord", earth, and "målnare" is a southern variant of "mätare", measurer. Earth-measurer.
Krångk: A dialectal word for ghost, from Gästrikland. Comes from the verb "krångla"; make difficult or malfunction.
Kära-lik: The name of a male corpse in the Småland dialect. I just had to include it because it's so delightfully weird. |D
Kyrkogrim: According to folklore, when a church was to be built, the first living creature that passed by the foundation - or the first that the head architect met - would be taken (alive according to some stories) and put into the wall or pillar of the church when it was built. The building would therefore receive a soul as well as a body, like a human. Usually the sacrifice was an animal; a ram, rooster, dog or horse seem to have been the most usual, but it's often claimed that humans could be used as well. The sacrificed being would then turn into a ghost that protected the church, cemetary and those who rested there from thieves as well as evil people, supernatural beings and other ghosts.
(The first person to die the year the church was finished was said to become kyrkogrimmens helping hand. This task would later be passed on to the last person to die at the end of every year.)
Lyktgubbe: See Irrbloss.
Myling: The ghost of a murdered child. There are a lot of words for this kind of ghost; myling is one from Småland, but is the most commonly recognized because of Astrid Lindgren's "Emil i Lönneberga", so I'm using it as head article. XD Myling was one of the most usual kinds of ghosts; they would appear as small children, naturally, but could grow in height and change shape. They were often not particularly childlike in behaviour at all, and seeked revenge on their mother - they would kill her by dancing with her or suckling her breasts until she died.
When they weren't haunting the place they'd been buried, they could be found along roads, bothering passer-bys; making them reveal their mother's crime or give them a name. After that, they would find peace. (In some cases, they had to make up the names themselves, and in that case it was often based on how they'd been killed.)
The word comes from the old Norse "Myrþinger", meaning murdered person; compare to myrdhing.
Myrdhing: See Myling.
Myring: See Myling. Duh. XD
Målgast: See Irrbloss.
Mölklack: An unusual word only along the (short) border between Dalarna and Gästrikland, meaning myling. "Möl" comes from "mörd-", the beginning of the word "mördare"; murderer. "Klack" can either come from the dialectal "kläcka/klacka", which simply means "become afraid", or possibly be related to the Norwegian dialectal "klaka/klacka", sound or scream. It is a bit of a mystery, truth be told.
Mörklack: A variation of mölklack.
Möring: Myling, Gästrikland.
Môling: Myling, Gästrikland.
Nattramn: A version of nattravn.
Nattravn: A creature only found in Denmark, Iceland and the southernmost Swedish provinces Halland, Blekinge and Skåne (that used to belong to Denmark). It was a human sould that returned from the grave in the shape of a black bird to scream, sigh and moan in the most terrible manner. According to some, it was only the souls of murdered children not buried in sacred soil (do I even have to MENTION myling?) that turned into nattravner; others claim that it's the souls of evil people chased up from the grave by kyrkogrimmen. By tradition they're thought to search for Christ's grave and won't find peace until they do so.
"Natt" means night, and "ravn" is an old word for raven.
Oppedaing: ... I actually can't remember what this means or where it comes from. I have it on my list, but I'll be damned if I can remember where I found it. *EPIC FAIL* ''OTL I'll look into this when it's not half past three in the morning. D<
Sjögast: See strandvaskare. "Sjö" means lake; gast we know from before.
Självspilling: The name of the ghost of a person who had committed suicide.
Skratte: A word for myling used in Uppland and Västmanland; in the rest of the country it has a loose meaning of anything spooky and mysterious overall.
Skrångk: A version of krångk.
Skråmt: See skrömt. Only used in Älvdalen, Dalarna, as far as I know.
Skrömt: A word for ghost, but can be used about all supernatural creatures as well. Can also be used as a verb: "att skrömta"= To haunt/walk again.
Skälgast: See irrbloss.
Skälvrängare: See irrbloss.
Spöke: The general, most usual word for ghost. Ghost. Simple as that.
Spökryttare: Literally meaning "ghost rider", spökryttare was a word for the spirit of a soldier that walked again. They usually appeared in groups, replaying old battles, and it was said that you could get sick by watching them.
Stranddöing: See strandvaskare.
Strandvaskare: The ghost of a person who had died at sea or buried in a shore, mainly used on the west coast as far as I know. "Strand" means beach or shore, "vaskare" comes from the verb "att vaska"; to trickle. Simple means someone at a beach trickling grains of sand.
Utbyrding: See myling. From Gästrikland and possibly other parts of southern Norrland.
Utbåling: See myling. The word is used in Norrland, the northern part of the country.
Utböling: See myling. Also from Norrland.
Utbörding: See myling. Norrland.
Utkasting: See myling. A word from the province of Dalarna.
Vålne: Another word for vålnad.
Vålnad: Commonly used as a word for ghost, but also for an omen in the shape of a person; a shadow-image, that usually appeared before someone was about to die.
Vårdnad: Another word for vålnad.
Ypping: A word for myling from Dalarna.
Äppar: Myling, once again from Norrland. (I wish my books would specify WHERE in Norrland, Norrland is friggin' huge! D<)
Also, have two extra words for creatures that I'm quite sure don't count as ghosts, but are still kind of spooky. xD
Gastonge: When a woman met a dagståndare and was subjected to it, ("gastkramad") it is said that she could become pregnant. The child born was called gastonge. "Onge" is a dialectal form of "unge", meaning child. (From "ung"; young.)
Glyx: A special word and creature from Älvdalen that basically just... Walked around slamming doors and causing a lot of ruckus. Huh.
... Oh God, what the Hell have I done? .__.; If I find more I'm sure as hell updating this. XDDD
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Date: 2009-07-09 10:29 pm (UTC)I'm here from
It's interesting that 'draug' has kept its more traditional meaning in Sweden. On the Norwegian coast it has become associated with one specific type of ghost - namely a creepy, mystical (http://www.geocities.com/antonvlassov/outros/kittlesen/draugen.jpg) being that lives in the North Sea and that drag people to their doom. He is usually seen in half a boat and smells of seaweed and death.
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Date: 2009-07-09 10:47 pm (UTC)I was talking to a Norwegian friend while writing this actually, she mentioned some that were unknown to me too. >w> (If "utbyrd" is familiar, maybe I could peg that word to Jämtland/Härjedalen? The names often follow much older tradition and etymology, just like the dialects. So maybe it's from the northwest at least. Also depends on how and where it is usual in Norway though... Sorry, I'm still a bit peeved because I got so many words only mentioned as coming from Norrland. That could be anywhere in almost half the country. D:)
I was sceptical at first whether to include draug, actually, because while it exists it's definitely not usual. The meaning of draug has gradually become a different aspect of gast, so the old word wasn't needed much in the 1800s when people started recording these things. But since it exists and I included other unusual varieties like nattravn and mölklack I thought why the hell not...
The Norwegian varity is interesting though. Kittelsen~~ <3 I've never heard of anything like that here. Admittedly I haven't looked into a lot of ghostlore from the coasts, but...
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Date: 2009-08-14 07:53 pm (UTC)As for 'utbyrd' (or 'utburd'), is actually quite common in all of Norway, which doesn't mean that Jämtland/Härjedalen wouldn't be good choice for the prominence of the word in Sweden. As a curiosity Ørnulf Hodne's book "Vetter og Skrømt" informs me that a servant girl was actually brought before trial on infanticide in 1687, after the local vicar had hear the testimony of the utbyrd/ghost. That kind of creeps me out to be honest.
The 'draug' is extremely prominent in Norwegian mythology/troll lore. There are actually sources of people claiming they've met or seen the draug as far down as the 1830's. The draug could also be a prophesy of death - if you saw him/it, there was a good chance he would be waiting for you the next time you were out to sea.
And hooray for a lover of Kittelsen! (and I did a few posts centred on him ages ago) (http://baleanoptera.livejournal.com/tag/kittelsen)
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Date: 2009-08-14 08:28 pm (UTC)That is... Freaky and awesome at the same time. Haven't heard anything like it myself though, in most stories the people who unveils the crimes are usually poor workers; tailors, cobblers or ramblers. Not that I have access to century-old criminal records to look it up. The only one I've actually read was a rather lovely trial of a young man accused of having had intercourse with skogsråa in the 1600s. It was interesting because it was really obvious that the ones who asked him the questions tried to make him believe that he HAD had sex with something inhuman. XP
Never heard of anything similar here. The lore by the sea is surprisingly similar to that further into the land.
Yaay! Grew up with him and his illustrations. I think he's rather popular with ethnologists because his illustrations are so heavily based on folklore and not fairytales; the trolls look like humans most of the time, to begin with... Whoo~~ They're great. I'm especially delighted to see the Plague, I hadn't heard of those illustrations of his until I looked him up online.
(In Sweden, the Plague had a tendency to be portraited as two people though, interestingly enough. One with the rake and one with the broom, a man and a woman, sometimes old and sometimes children.)