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Folk Beliefs: the Absurd Ghost and the Faroese Norns
Issue Date: 3/29/2006
Item No.: PPS010306
Value: 15,00
Folk Beliefs
Through the physical universe and the inscrutable
nooks and corners of the subconscious mind, many a weird creature has emerged
in the course of time. These are the
inhabitants of the world which we nowadays call the folklore.
Today we are astonished by these strange products of the folklore, and have
some difficulties to imagine, that they once were a natural part of life, as
real as the tangible world or our own religious notions.
The Absurd Ghost
One of the most absurd creatures in Norse folklore is the Faroese “Sjódreygil”
or “Sjódreygur”. The name means
“Sea-Ghost”
He often appears on skerries after sunset, and howls and screams. If a boat passes by, he calls upon the crew
and asks them to take him with them.
The Sjódreygil appears in two different shapes.
Sometimes he looks like a man, and sometimes he looks like a dog. He has a brownish hue and if spotted on land,
fire seems to come from him.
Sjódreygil has only one leg or tail, but is capable of jumping on it. People have seen the tracks from it in the
snow.
If Sjódreygil meets a man on land, he will try to push him into the sea. But if the man is accompanied by a dog,
Sjódreygil will leave him alone.
Sometimes fishermen have allowed the Sjódreygil to enter their boat. As long as it is dark, he can row for two
men, and he is also good at finding the right spots for fishing. But when the dawn arrives, he slowly fades
away.
Some fishermen have tried to make the sign of the cross over him, but as the
morning-redness grew stronger, he begged them to let him go.
Once a boat-crew would not let him go, but then he just faded away, and the
only thing left of him was the cross bone.
Norns
We know from the Norse Mythology, that fate played a significant role in
our ancestor’s life. These notions were
personified in the so called Norns – deities of the destiny, who, already at
birth, decided people’s fate from the cradle to the grave.
Besides from the three superior Norns: Urd (the fate of the family and the
past), Verdandi (the present and future fate) and Skuld (the inexorable
fate/death), there were a waste number of less significant Norns. These subordinate Norns were connected to the
single individual or the family.
The Faroese Norns
On the
In the book “Dictionarium Færoense” from late eighteenth century, the
author J. C. Svabo tells, that Norns were small, human-like beings, even
smaller than vaettras.
There are no other direct references to these beings, neither with Svabo or
any other author. But it is clear that
they have had some association with the families and have been present at
childbirth, as we know it from other Norse sources.
The fact that the Norns seem to have been present at childbirth is made
clear in another statement in Svabo’s book.
He tells that on the
Svabo also mentions, that the white spots, which sometimes appear on people’s
nails were called “Nornaspor” (tracks of the Norns). The spots can be an indication for sickness.
For more information about the Sjódreygil and the Norns, you can visit the
thematic databases:
www.topoftheworld.nu
and www.tjatsi.fo